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I decided to add a dwarf wall where the official foundation plan showed beams spanning a 5.7m x 6.5m square. I marked it up with the digger chap literally 5 minutes before he dug the dwarf wall trench. The motivation for this last minute change of plan was that the evening before my pro self build neighbour strolled over to look at my marking up and he advised against trying to handle 5.7m beams plus he mentioned the bounce issue. I wonder why the pro's who design foundations don't volunteer these options when dealing with self builders.

Have you had a look at standard concrete pipe and rectangular manhole rings?

Same here re: the preheat buffer tank, @TerryE. When I installed it I assumed it would be more useful than it is, but we've stopped using the ASHP to heat the buffer tank solely for hot water preheat now; it only provides preheat if the ASHP has been running the UFH overnight, and that preheat is then only used to shave about 1 kWh or so off the first shower energy use. With hindsight I've have been better to have put the Sunamp in the ground floor cupboard where the buffer sits, as it would have been a lot easier to install downstairs.

keep the noisiest for 8am saturday and really pi$$ them off

Well you need somebody that understands it. For some reason the float valve is not turning off, that is either because it is broken or jammed, or it's adjusted wrong and the water reaches the overflow level before it shuts off. Try pulling the float up as high as it will go. If the water shuts off then, then it needs adjusting. If the water does not shut off when you pull the float up, it is broken.

put the ear defenders on and pretend you can't hear them and keep going! your house is obviously better than theirs, green eyed monster.

If they are having to put up with construction noise in the week, wouldn’t it be nice to give them a break at the weekend. It depends what tool you are using and when, nail gun at 7pm, nope your not being a nice neighbour. Doing some painting at 9pm what’s the problem i think you need to evaluate each job and work out if you would like it, I personaly would have the hump with you.

No, f**k him. (And try to enjoy the passive aggressive non-confrontation)

We went through a lot of hoops over visibility splays, despite being on an unclassified single track lane that gets maybe a dozen vehicle movements a day, if that. I found that the problem was that they seem to do everything by some arcane formula and are incapable of applying common sense. In the end I suggested that I move the entrance to an impossible location (impossible when on the ground looking at it, as it went up a 1:4 slope) and that caused the highways chap to actually come out to the site. He took one look at our initially proposed entrance (right on a sharp bend) declared that it was safer than my new "impossible" proposal and withdrew all requirements for any visibility splay at all. Whilst grateful that the chap applied common sense in the end, I was just a bit peeved at all the hoops I'd had to jump though. I'd explained several times that the traffic level was very low, and, because of the narrowness of the lane traffic was forced to travel at low speed, but because they had the lane listed as being in a 30 mph zone they insisted on applying their standard rules for that speed.

To fit a 22mm copper pipe to 25mm MDPE (both have virtually the same bore) then you need an MDPE to copper adapter, like this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/jg-speedfit-ug602b-mdpe-copper-adaptor-25mm-x-22mm/49708 (not a recommendation, just the first hit on the Screwfix site) MDPE only accepts plastic inserts. If you wish to use HEP2O rather than copper (I thought you wanted to use copper, from the reference to copper compression joints?) then the guidance is the same as for copper, you choose the size based on the expected flow rate. Main supply pipes feeding several other pipes should be in 22mm, pipes only supplying a basin tap, sink, toilet cistern etc can be 15mm (or even smaller for some of them, where a faster warm up time for hot water is required).

Because it’s not in the spec. And a lot of these companies doing this are in it to a price - TW etc don’t double up “because it feels stiffer”, they do it to keep inside the spec which will be Xmm deflection over Ymm span. If you want less deflection than industry tolerance then you have to specify it ... It’s used by mainstream builders as it can be installed by a pair of grunts who share a brain cell on Tuesdays .. Quick and easy when you have gangs doing it all day and the tolerances are “adjusted or hidden” using the brushed in screed.

the cost of the beams, doubled up on one section due to span and then the time to fit the blocks, then all the cuts. had we known, the single leaf mid span walls would have been doubled to allow the beams to run continuously rather than side by side which contributed to a lot of cut blocks to fill the holes. it would have been cheaper to build a double wall. a dwarf wall to cut the span would also have negated the doubling up and would probably been cheaper it bounces slightly, was more apparent on the wide span with doubled beams but has since firmed up since the thin (25mm) screed. it is the smaller section which is still deflecting slightly. BTW specced correctly.

Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on the Isle Of Sheppey. Cheap as chips concrete garden ornaments and they last for years. Heavy though and no mail order. People including garden centres buy from here and paint them up then sell them for silly money. https://whelansgardenornaments.com/factory-outlet/pots/

We are also going to use large planters Have you considered Gabion basket planters

What about CHP for the winter and PV for the summer.

That last place was probably the most poorly finished, load of crap I have seen in a long time. I hope he never has to change that thermal store once the house is finished.

You can easily fit normal MVHR vents through the roof if you wish, there are several roof mounting vent designs available, some of which look quite discreet. You will need to space them apart, though, to make sure the fresh air intake is a couple of metres away from the exhaust.

I use E7 low rate to heat my 2×SunAmp PVs, and to be honest we seem to use so little hot water that there isn't really the cost justification of adding a buffer tank for preheat even when we install our ASHP. So the big pluses for this approach are (1) simplicity; (2) No Part G3 requirements so I could do everything myself. (3) still relatively low running costs for our usecase.

My worst adventure with explosives (wasn't my idea, it was another club member's) was when the septic tank at the caving club filled up. Usually when this happened, the duty officer for that weekend would round up some "volunteers", and dig the thing out (not nice, as it was almost always one giant, smelly, fatberg). Digging it out meant donning wetsuits and wellies, lifting off the concrete railway sleepers that formed the lid, and climbing down into the semi-solid goo to shovel it out into barrows. This particular weekend, the tank overflowed, the truck was called to suck it out and quickly discovered that the contents were too solid, so needed loosening up. Hoses had been tried, to no avail, so an enterprising member (from Wolverhampton, who, by coincidence, was called Roger) came up with the idea of using a bit of bang to loosen up the contents. A small charge (around 4ozs of plastic blasting gel) was poked into the bottom of a pipe, together with an electric det. The pipe was pushed down to the bottom of the morass, everyone moved away and Roger connected his exploder and blew the charge. There was a satisfying bang, followed very quickly with what looked like a geyser, extending upwards for a couple of hundred feet. Needless to say, this was a **it geyser, and what goes up, must come down. Unfortunately, there was a stiff breeze blowing, so the area where it came down was the car park, where there were around 30 or so members cars... Worst of all, the bang hadn't had the desired effect at all, all it did was blow a hole a couple of feet wide in the middle, so members had to spend the rest of the day hand digging out the pit, then hosing down all the cars.

I have 8 fingers left, of which 6 work well: the other two are only good for hooking underneath a pint glass and emptying the dishwasher - I can hang four cups on each - and I can hang unbelievably heavy weights from them - cant feel much. Used to teach: to base 8, not 10. Great fun watching kids count and re-count my fingers .....?

https://www.illbruck.com/en_GB/products/product-finder/product/sp525-frame-and-facade-sealant-adhesive/

Cheapest 3 bed detached in Bicester according to Right Move is currently £295,000 About the price of a BARE PLOT at Graven Hill now. That makes £100K about right for a plot, and if you are careful, your self build house may cost no more than just going and buying one. A £300K plot needs to be a large plot in a stunning location with stunning views and no neighbours (and no fear of new neighbours) not a small plot on what is going to end up a very big housing estate. I am sorry but I think the project has "gone wrong"