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It's easy with hindsight to say he should have paid someone to do the work, but I bet he never thought for one second things would take as long as they did. I'm definitely guilty of that and I'm sure I'm not the only one lol

What to do on a boiling hot day? I decided I was going to find the cess pit today as SWMBO out shopping. An route to buy a second set of drain rods a rather expensive looking cat ran out in front of me. I recalled the BiL asking if I'd had a note through our door as he had about a missing Burmese. I rang him as he still had the note and the owner drove to meet me. BiL decided to cycle over to lend a hand cat catching! With said moggie safely caught I mentioned the cess pool and BiL offered to lend a hand if I rang him when I got back. Nice having A N Other on hand just in case and I tried to keep him well out of the way whilst I got sh!tty...really sh!tty. So from the top end: Unused manhole No.1 with the piece of 8mm galv chequer plate on which I had knocked up when the digger went through doing the water main. Used to have a clay soil coming in from the left from the old outside wc. Next manhole No.2 down in front of the 110mm soil (temporary off gutter downpipe) is where "everything" goes at the moment. Next manhole No.3, down at the end of the ladder, just after the rods, has a rotted cover that sits over a clay P trap. This was overflowing. Beyond that is the cess pool cover. Lifting that and the "crust" was about 2 or 3 feet below ground level with no sign of it overflowing. A slight detour as a slow worm had fallen in and was lying a bit stunned atop the crust. Hauled him out and hosed down. Seems OK. Blockage appeared to be either in the P trap or between there and the cess pool. I actually lent down into the cess pool to rod back up to the P trap. Also rodded / plunged from the P trap down. Eventually things started moving. Follow the line of the black rods and you'll see the clay "stopper" from manhole No.3's rodding point. Left that out for now. The rotted cover of manhole No.3. In the foreground. As in the steel "cups" below the bars you hook to lift have gone! That vent lying upside down to the right...not sure where that's from... Went to manhole No.2 and with the second set of rods I can reach all the way to No.3. Bit of a back up so I rodded down to No.3 then checked there. On a positive note the cess pit isn't as big as I though. Guessing 8 -10' in diameter. (For some reason I thought it'd be rectangular). Arched brick construction and seeming fairly intact except around the entry / hatch. I could claim a fair bit of garden back should I choose. Downside the crust is only about 1" below the bottom of the inlet pipe so it needs emptying. A bit of breathing space at least now and a pictorial record of where it is. All wcs flushing. All the tools hosed down but not yet disinfected. Two showers later and I'm having a beer!

Now you can check the dodgy stuff your boys have deleted too ? (assuming they haven’t permanently deleted them lol - I bet they’re a step ahead of their dad!)

A little anecdotal addition to this thread (on the original topic rather than kimchi!). My wife had a group of old friends round on Thursday evening, one of whom is an asthmatic. As she arrived she was clearly wheezing and said she was currently on steroids as her asthma was particularly bad at present. Four hours later she left, reluctantly, having not needed to take her inhaler once whilst in our house. As she left, she said to Mrs NSS, I didn't think it possible, but I now see why this place has been so helpful to you.

@Sjk do you have that picture minus it’s lines ..? Just put dots on where the soil stacks are And have they specified an attenuation tank or hydrobrake..?

Paul is a great guy and very into his house build, particularly the eco credentials. He way very persuasive in his use of clay as a render, even though it'd have been far easier to get a traditional plasterer in. He was the first one Laura and I met in fact, us wandering onto the street when it was strictly a private area and still being warm and welcoming despite our ignorance. I think his materials first philosophy isn't as far removed as mine or the rest of you, it is just that he values the natural sources and processes above performance which we tend to favour instead. I am not going to fault him after having seen him spend three months hand making and filling in his walls with hempcrete. That is a dedication to a cause irrespective on philosophy.

Ta. I would aim for a good 2% fall. For the Geberit wall drain they say 1 to 2% so in my case 13 - 26mm. Think it's ended up about 18/19mm so circa 1.5%. Not been tested in anger yet I hasten to add. Just got to do the tile sealer before that happens and run a temp waste pipe outside. Forgot to say I added fibres to my exotic pea shingle mix.

Take a picture of the plaque and use it as your avatar .

That looks a bit of a b'stard. It's the soldered 15-22mm joint that looks to be leaking. To re solder there would be tricky, you would want an aluminium plate or some other heat shield slid between the pipe and the flooring before attempting to re flow. I would be looking at a compression repair. If you cut the 15mm tight to the soldered fitting with a hacksaw, or multitool (but it won't do the blade any favours) and de bur with a file I think there is just enough to get a nut and olive for a compression fitting on. You might also have to cut the existing 22mm back a bit depennding how you do the reduction.

Think I'd cut the 15mm side back and replace it up to the compression fitting. Maybe use another compression fitting if you're worried about the flame with soldering.

….and @PeterW Praise the lord !!!!!!!!! 121 photos in there ? Thanks for that, didn't even know that folder existed .

Change of diet should do it.

Go to your pictures on your phone scroll down and you’ll see a folder marked recently deleted ... should still be in there

Our electrically opening one s is from Lamilux (around 60cms square) and is Passivhaus Certified - as is the house as a whole because the plaque arrived in the post today! We also have a big Lamilux roof-light (4m x 5m) but that is non-opening and has an external blind.

They should be in the ‘recently deleted’ album in iCloud (or on her iPad).

To be fair, he claimed to be a human rights lawyer and presumably not very well paid by legal standards, and she seemed to be a full time parent. Maybe some people aren't entirely focused on climbing a corporate ladder and maximising their wealth; they might actually want to enjoy life and do something more interesting than lawyering. It's their house, why shouldn't they design it to fit what they want, not to maximise resale value. After all, that's what most people seem to claim as the main reason for building themselves. After seeing it after reading a lot of these posts, it was a lot better than I expected it to be. The wall finishes were good, I liked the exterior. I couldn't see much evidence for lots of air leaks. It was quite obvious that the interior wasn't anything like finished, so it looked poor in places. Yes, the thermal store was insane; we've got a very similar Akva 2,500l store with 3 coils, but it's designed to accept 10 hour burns from a log boiler. With the pathetic energy sources they seem to have it's doubtful if it will get more than tepid without the gas boiler going most of the time. The balcony also looked a bit dodgy, the timber looked inadequate and the rail was unsafe, although that could just be temporary. He also claimed to be doing a PHD and teaching at some time during the build. Overall I was quite impressed.

Sorry ..! Read it as foil backed plasterboard .... Toolstation foil tape is very good.

Reckon I might have to do a neighbourly bottle run when I get the cess pool emptied...and maybe some pot pourri...

I do. We are. Keeps the kids away ; grand children are welcome to stay.

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

Ohh I see. If the rest of the neighbours are normal and not bothered then I would just crack on.

And that £1.02 was me, as disclosed previously...

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

I missed that.... Come to think of it 4 tonnes of water has a significant thermal mass dunnit? (I'm off - no apology - too tired)

The builder is a regular contributor to the GBF. Whilst his build may have used materials and techniques that are unusual I don't see why there is so much criticism. Nobody builds their first self build and gets everything right. There are a myriad ways of building a good house, not just one, so I congratulate him on having a go and producing an interesting looking house. I would be very surprised if any of the houses featured have been signed off by building control so are in an unfinished state.

1400x1400 on plan, 100mm at the edges and about 80mm at the wall drain. Great fun too: Wall drain in: 1mm angle iron formers Exotic, very "resinous", SBR heavy mix with 10mm pea shingle as the aggregate: Tamped with two fall lines from corners to drain: You can see the slope here: Mark up the tiles: Dry fit: Etc

We hope to achieve the same end result & it has been bothering me too. My assumption was that we would have to shutter the exact void we want (I will buy the shower trays so they are on site to make sure it all works) and get the siting of the drain pretty accurate. Hopefully @Nickfromwales will sort it all out! A 75mm slab seems thin, our design arrived earlier & looks to have a minimum thickness of 150mm, with areas of reinforcement for areas under high load.

Have you been told 75mm conc ok? Thought 80 was min for structural floor or are you on top of b&b? I've shuttered out before but not with a concfibished floor. I'd try to set a box up level with top ffl so they can polish over then set tray and thinner slab in afterwards if want flush. May need rods?

Guys, can we please tone it down a notch?

We had a condition requiring that all external finishes, materials etc had to be approved before commencement. In our case the condition specified samples of every material used had to be provided to the planning officer. I spent a day driving around collecting samples from suppliers, then drove to the planning office, carrying a large pile of the stuff. I was barred from entering the building, on health and safety grounds, despite me having the decision notice in my hand stating I had to provide samples. I ended up standing outside (in the pouring rain) talking to the planning officer on the 'phone. He chose not to come out in the rain to look at the samples, so asked me to send him photos. When I pointed out that he already had sample photos in our design and access statement he just said he'd sign off the condition based on those. A frustrating day spent driving around 100 miles that was just completely pointless; he could have looked at our D&A statement and told me that I didn't need to provide samples, but I guess that wouldn't have been as satisfying as making me waste my time...