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Be aware that UV isn't a true sterilisation method, it acts as a disinfection system but even then it only works reasonably well if the water supply to the UV unit has been filtered to < 5µ. If the supply to the UV unit isn't filtered down to this level then UV treatment won't do much, as bugs will be shielded from UV by the fine particles that haven't been filtered out. A 5µ filter will need pre-filters to take out the larger stuff, or else you'll be replacing filters every couple of weeks. UV treatment also has an annual running cost of around £80 to £100, roughly 50% of that is electricity and 50% the cost of UV tube replacement. To that you need to add the cost of the filtration system expendables, which depends a great deal on how clear the water coming in is. Might be worth considering a backwashable filter vessel 1/3rd filled with Turbidex, as that will filter down to close to 5µ on it's own, and can be backwashed to clean the media, rather than having to replace cartridge filters. Backwashing can be run automatically at night (our main filtration system does this, a backwash every 4 days, at around 02:00). I'd try and avoid over-complicating any rainwater harvesting system if you can, as even a basic system will require a bit of regular looking after and the simpler the system the better, IMHO. If you can restrict rainwater use to non-critical uses, like toilet flushing (and NOT running the washing machine, they don't normally get hot enough to kill any bugs), then you can get away without much in the way of filtering or disinfection. My experience is that any form of water treatment requires maintenance and incurs a significant running cost.

Having got all of the groundwork out of the way, it was time to build the timber frame. We were carrying out a stick build, ie: we purchased the i-beams and glulams and the carpenters cut and assembled everything onsite like a huge jigsaw puzzle. We had looked into using a timber frame manufacturer, but we had a good team of carpenters who had experience of stick building a frame, so it didn't seem to make any sense changing a proven formula. Initial jobs were to get the scaffold up and sole plate down. First i-beams were installed on 3rd Dec and by the end of the day, the main i-beams for both gables were up. The work is not helped by the weather which is cold and wet. You need to be pretty resilient to be work outdoors in this weather, nevertheless good progress is made and by 6th Dec the walls are up and parallam beams and ledgers have been fitted. Big day on Dec 10th as we finally manage to get the electricity switched on. No more generators which should make everyone's life a little easier on site. We now have water and electricity on site and only need to connect to the mains drains at some stage in the future. First floor joists together with the MVHR ducting that needs to pass through these joists is next to be installed and state of play on Dec 12th is as pictured below. The first floor is glued to the joists on December 14th. The view from the top of the scaffold isn't bad either. There is no way the big heavy glulam ridge beam is going to be manually handled up to the top of the roof, so on the 17th Dec a crane is hired to help out with this operation. It is the only time during the build that a crane is required. Everything else has been manually shifted into place. The i-beam roof rafters can now be put into place and on the last day before the teams Christmas break, most of the rafters are in place. Following a couple of weeks break for Christmas, the rafters are quickly finished off and by January 9th the skeleton of the house is in place. Over the next couple of weeks the house is clad with panelvent on the outside and smartply on the inside and then wrapped in membrane so that by the 22nd Jan, the house is looking like this.

pity your in Kent -- i would come and show you how

That looks like my attempts! Did you use the whole tube? Or did you use shaving foam by accident ...?

The Method products are good but maybe a bit more expensive than Ecover https://methodproducts.co.uk/products/toilet-cleaner/

Bit expensive maybe. This stuff is a bit cheaper - but still expensive compared to beach. We're hoping to use it, and Ecover as @PeterW suggests.

We use the Ecover range of products

Ecover products are supposed to be tank safe - check them carefully in the shop though as I think one of them is only use sparingly.

Oxygen bleach aka sodium percarbonate maybe?

Well with just days before we start we have our house block plan. All the bricks have ID's so all we have to do its put them in the right places. The blocks are coming loaded on pallets, each with it's own manifest. The scale of the kit is a bit daunting and having done my bit of Lego with the kids in the past I can't help remembering the fun of looking for that special brick that seems so illusive. Fingers crossed we don't end up with one left over after the last concrete poor. With site works just about to commence some of the details we thought were sorted are coming unravelled. Our rain water harvesting tank (RWH) which was nicely located on the edge of the property has had to be moved as the builder is concerned over the size of the hole next to the public highway. At 2.5M deep and 3.2M long. I can only agree, just a pity it didn't get mentioned until the week before we start digging. The tank is being moved to the rear garden along with all the associated changes to surface water collection drainage. While sorting this out it was spotted that the tank overflow was connected to the sewer, the sewer company takes a dim view of the idea of connecting surface water the sewer system. The fact that the tank capacity is very over specified and the overflow will probably never see any water is irrelevant. One of the main reasons we are an RWH was to take care of surface water as our plot is small and we could not get the 5 metre separation required by the building regs. There is a surface water drain in the road outside the plot but it's very deep which will make connecting to it prohibitively expensive. Just another detail to sort out that we would rather have handled before we started. Still no ones hurt so it's not serious... An 8 ton digger is scheduled for delivery first thing Monday and site setting out scheduled for Tuesday faternoon. Lots of lorries for waste and MOT. With the raft components being delivered the following Monday it's going to be a busy week. Hopefully we'll find no bodies on the site...

A bit nearer & cheaper? https://www.gumtree.com/p/guttering-drainage/soak-away-crates-/1326705345

@Sue Bthese are £20 each - half the price of new.

I just used Aquacell drainage crates (see here: http://aquacell.wavin.co.uk/ ). I used 20 of the blue Aquacell Core crates, tied together with the Aquacell connector tubes and clips into a big rectangular block, with the block being wrapped in terram and buried in a big hole under the drive. Runs of 110mm soil pipe connect from the top of this surge tank to the house and garage drain pipes. The top of the crates was covered with compacted Type 3, so that water run-off from the drive can permeate down into them. The only snag with this system is the cost of the crates, they are not cheap. I was lucky, in that I found a load for sale on eBay, and it's worth keeping an eye on there, as when I was looking I found quite a few surplus crates being offered for sale. Mine came from a ground works chap who had them "left over" from a motorway job (they use these for motorway soakaways). Funny thing is the the seller's name was Dell, and he delivered them to us, for cash...

@ultramods I will put a separate post in the kitchens section so that it's easier for others to find for reference - will post tomorrow morning.

I have circa 155sqm of rc walls containing 47.5cu, and 212sqm of slab containing 63.5cu Sika waterproof concrete. All shuttering was bespoke timber and fair faced ply. Sikaproof-A membrane was placed in the shuttering and is therefore bonded to the rc (external face) by the pour. There's near 1200sqm of A393 mesh and 170sqm of A142 in that lot. 172sqm of slab was powerfloated, concrete was pumped 35 metres, 8 separate days of 40 ton crane hire. Contractor was a respected specialist. £117k Independent quotes to waterproof the structure using external membranes and internal cavity drains (so replacing Sikaproof-A and Sika waterproof additive) were circa £27k...or if I chose to build icf they went up by £15k, for little better reason than them not wanting to have to waterproof subterranean icf. Are you considering a concrete 'top' because the wall/top junction is underground? If you have such a detail then ensure it is impeccably detailed and stick to a single manufacturer system of waterproofing solution...have them detail it. This will force you into a very early commitment which you might not fancy, ...but suck it up, if you value peace of mind.

I would run it through the back of a cupboard if it’s not too much trouble, why make things difficult fir yourself?

Giving up with worrying over what it looks like. Day hasn't been a complete waste of time and mastic. I now know I can't tile OR silicone!

I used a 100mm hole saw to cut my I beams (within the cutting limits ) and up through the stud walls I had no noggins to cut as I left them out ready for the pipe to be installed, like @PeterW said cutting 89mm timber will not leave enough meat IMO.

Yep ! Worked great ! Simply bed the first course then off you go . I had to add rebar in as I went . I shuttered any corners before the pour . Poured the whole lot in 1 go ! ; few minor issues but no real problems I insulated on the outside . Also land drain at base . Internally I will have membraned walls going into an internal drain then out to sump . The main thing is that stepoc is an easy diy approach - Christ ; I did it so it must be ! .

Are you drilling 89mm studs as there won’t be enough meat left of the timber - less than 7mm each side of the hole.

For that detail, Corner Tape is your friend https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corner-Tape-Forming-DIY-Silicone-Sealant-Bathroom-Masking-System-15m-small-4mm/142602357070?epid=1653309477&amp;hash=item2133c3494e:m:m1kuYNdl7w-v1xoEOstzxJA:rk:1:pf:0

If you’re after full loads @Triassic then find a CCF. Part of the TP group and just do board etc. I was surprised at how well they priced a job - was within same ballpark of local merchant but difference was it was all offloaded with a Mounty and put exactly where it was needed rather than having to hand ball lots of board and insulation.

I put together a spreadsheet to calculate UFH heat output that I've posted here a few times: Floor heat loss and UFH calculator.txt (save the file then edit the suffix to .xls - the forum software doesn't allow spreadsheet files as attachments)

I nog all unsupported edges. Might go 15mm board on next project and not bother next time.

I think you'd struggle to get a waterproof join between those. The contractor I used knocked out my 110m2 basement with 42 liner metres of 2.5m high walls in about 3 weeks and not even the slightest sign of a breakout but they were using industrial quality shuttering and were very experienced. Rebar work was impeccable too (all 14t of it) they even spotted a few mistakes in the SE drawings which they sheepishly acknowledged when I called them up about it. The BCO turned up for a pre-pour inspection and left after 10 mins saying he didn't need to see any more Cost was about £1000/m2 - i.e about £100k for the whole basement including excavation, muck away, drainage, the basement itself and backfill with clean stone.

Green Building Store have done a few barn conversions to Enerphit standard. Lots of resources on their website about IWI. Here’s a starting point: https://www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/lower-royd-radical-retrofit-its-a-wrap/

Going back to bracket spacing I always go 600mm, I hate saggy guttering, causes all sorts of problems and looks rubbish, brackets are cheap. I also hate guttering that creaks in the sun when warming up, then creaks when it clouds over, I always shave a little off the back of the guttering where it goes into a bracket so its not too tight and can move to take up expansion.?

I was talking domestic use. We've seen I think @Bitpipe? constuct a 4000L diy system based on second hand IBC tanks for very little money. I'm on a meter here and that would make a fair difference to me in the Summer. Appreciate not all have the land/space/ability to construct such a system and in that specific case a concrete enclosure for the tanks was incorporated in the build. I was just trying to get across that water is and will become more so just another taxable commidity. It'll be fresh air next! I'd I suspect be able to easily do a borehole given I'm in the bottom of a valley and either side about 100m away are capped boreholes

On the Rainwater Harvesting - yes, but we (or at least I) were talking domestic systems, and in particular their use with a second set of plumbing installed. On the US, IMO the biggest issues are 1 - inefficient us of energy in general, 2 - wrt water entrenched interests eg farmers with historic rights. Distorting effect similiar to all our savings on pension costs having to be met from people not yet being paid. The sunk cost cannot be reduced for political reasons. Ferdinand

We currently live in a granite barn. When we moved in it was freezing cold, had condensation running down the walls and cost £10/day in gas (you could still see your breath!). It has multifoil insulation in the roof, underfloor heating on the ground floor, sand & cement render internally was cement pointed and the external window cills were 1cm short on each side everywhere. We ditched the bottled gas boiler for an ASHP, rejigged the slate cills so they wrapped round the reveals, had the walls repointed in lime and the applied Beek BS+. The effect was beyond my hopes - heating bills well down (with a warm house), condensation much reduced. Starting from scratch I would have made the building as vapour open and airtight as possible, replacing the s&c with wood fibre insulation & lime plaster with breathable paint, together with properly insulating the roof & floor as much as I could. Could you not work on improving your floor & roof U-values in order to use breathable wall insulation?

Just about a month of being on E7 now, and it looks like the split is 59% off-peak, 41% peak, which is slightly better than I'd estimated. This ratio will change, I'm sure, but probably not by much, as with the longer days our peak rate usage will drop a lot, because of the PV generation. The off-peak will drop a lot too, and just be the house baseload, at least until I get the battery system installed. When that's up and running I suspect that I'll be able to virtually stop using peak rate electricity all year around.

Could you install an insulated cavity closer and then clad the reveal in something like a cement board, or plastic facia to match the colour of the door.???

Back on the subject of washing...... Consider mounting your washer and dryer higher up if you have the room. Makes it so much easier on the back! You need to design the carcass/units well as it’s subject to a fair amount of vibration if you’ve got your big pants on a 1400 spin Heres mine and I don’t think I could go back to ground mounted.....

Under sliding door sketch.pdf

Dont tell me .... the name of the panel is a secret just between you and the Welsh plumber.... ? PS, just had a thought ... might it be this Impey Graded Screed Floor Former? (Apologies for the error earlier)