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Just to say thanks for all the help and advice. I finally got the approval. I'm now having to sort out the conditions, which shouldn't be a problem and then I'll get started. Thanks again.

How time passes and some jobs get bumped to the back of the queue! I'd tried to get the mdf to bend and nearly had it but would have required a lot of attention to sort. Until Craig announced he'd bought curved skirting. I confess to having rolled ze eyes a bit. Until the time came to fit it. CT1 and a sharp knife. Easy as can be, tiny bit of filler required to finished the tiny gap. Jobs a good'un! I don't know how much it was and maybe don't want to know... Anyway, for future curved wallers, this is brilliant!

The last entry was back in February when we put down some much needed flooring and we have made some progress on both the interior and exterior of the build. The first job was insulating the first floor. Two layers of 80mm quinn therm was then fitted between the rafters leaving a ventilation gap to the sarking/breathe membrane. A final layer of 25mm quinn therm layer on top with a service void. For the flat ceiling we used a couple of layers of frametherm 35 with an airtightness membrane and Quinn therm 25mm layer. We still have some work to do around the windows. Downstairs was a lot quicker. This already had frametherm fitted between the studs so the Quinn therm 25mm went on top. Now for the outside. We had been waiting for good weather for rendering the blockwork. The first step was rendering beads and mesh. Then a scratch coat coat was added. Then finally the rough casting. The rough casting will now be left and painted in July. The next step is getting the electrician and plumber to do first fix.

@newhome ouch sounds painful hope it fixes it! You can aerate with a garden fork just stab it right down as far as you can and wiggle it a bit.... best done when ground is a bit soft, its hard work!

@newhome wow you have been busy! Can you aerate to aid drainage that will help with moss. I’ve never had rabbits, the odd muntjac but no bunnies, think the ones around here dont like dog. I wouldn't worry about the faster growing stuff just keep it mown and reseed with the seed you looked at and will die down and the nicer stuff will take over. I meant to say sorry to hear crutches soon, hopefully op will be a success.

I am an old stick in the mud. I like my sound quality too much so not sure I would trust ceiling speakers (can you get 3 way bass reflex ceiling speakers?) and there is something about a pair of stereo speakers need to be defined properly as left and right. So the 3 main rooms downstairs each have a pair or "proper" hi fi speakers, floor standing ones in the living room, wall mounted in the kitchen / diner and sun room. This is in addition to surround sound for the 2 main tv's. And I would not be wanting the likes of blue tooth to be interfering with my sound quality. I think this is a case of where I don't want convenience and discrete triumnphing over quality. P.S I uses 2.5mm speaker cable from CPC

For @vivienz I'm fitting 4 x speakers for the open plan kitchen / dining / living space, but only at the dining and kitchen 'two thirds'. Where the room ends as the living space a TV will reside, so I have suggested a decent Sonos Sound bar is fitted there so that entire open plan space can play from one music source. All the amps will be the Sonos as it's just so damn simple and robust, eg plug n play. As far as the 2 speaker or 4 speaker option, that's a no-brainer. It's far better to have 4 lower volumes to flood a section of the space rather than have to turn 2 speakers up much louder IMO as you then don't have the person stood next to the speaker suffering fro the higher volume required by others slightly further away. As far as positioning goes, the further out to the corners the more aggressive the bass will become, and then you'll need a graphic equaliser of some sort to wind that back a bit. If your a dance music lover then thats not so problematic, but if you simply want good vocal clarity, a good dispersion for the high end ( treble ) then do as I'm doing and group the 4 speakers equidistant over the general 'listening area' and you'll not go far wrong. The 4 speakers combined will still run off a single stereo amp, you just parallel two speaker cables which shows the amp a 4 ohm load instead of the 8 ohm load. That will squeeze a bit more performance out of the amplifier, but make sure the amp you choose is happy to see the 4 ohm load. FYI domestic speakers are typically 8 ohm, so the amplifiers are set to deal with that, generally speaking. You can get away with 4 smaller speakers with less visual impact when you group the 4 as you'll be sharing the bottom end ( bass ) between them, instead of relying on 2 much beefier speakers to fill the room with the whole musical spectrum. In the bedrooms I've gone with 2x larger, more fuller sounding speakers, these bad boys, just so as to not clutter the rooms up any more than is necessary. In the downstairs open space I'll go with 5 1/4" most probably so am looking to see whats available with CA, as they're a damn nice speaker. Bathrooms are getting some too, so will require a marine / harsh environment unit to suit.

Had another go with the electric raker. Got another ton of thatch out and a lot more moss this time. I can see the earth in places now but that's better than a ton of moss hiding the earth I guess. Something else I remembered whilst I was pushing the rake up and down. I get rabbits on the lawn (lots of new piles of rabbit dung on the lawn since Friday when I cut it - they must have liked that I mowed it!). Does that influence the type of seed I should buy? And when I leave it uncut for a while it's clear that there is quite a lot of 'annual grass' in the lawn as it grow faster than the other grass and looks like this. The nicer looking grass is slow growing and a richer colour.

Pretty house but agree that the design is quite complicated. My eye was drawn to the first floor terrace above the dining room, I'd be sceptical that you'll ever use it and it will be expensive to have a flat roof that you can walk on plus the safety glazing to the perimeter - that will be thousands in its own right. Our architect specced balconies to the rear of our house for the master and guest bedroom. They look great, break up the back wall. Also cost a small fortune, complicated the frame design and we never use them. Would have rather had the additional space in the bedroom but there you go...

@newhome Ive just looked at green thumb website and fb page now I have reminded myself about them - thank you! They are in Scotland too......might get them out here to diagnose my lawn, I suspected leatherjackets but cant find the grubs. Green thumb do a free lawn diagnosis consultation......

Thanks. I will get the thatch machine out again and aim to get it fed before I am on crutches and then wait until later to reseed it. I think I possibly did it too late last year which is maybe why the seed didn't germinate.

@newhome Looks like mine and mine is not a year old LOL. Give another go with thatch machine and aerator if you have one....it will look like hell for weeks but should be worth it. Feed yes but not until you have de thatched and aerated and left a week or so after that and use the right feed for time of year....will say on packet at garden centre. Do the seeding later in the year while its still warm and risk of summer heat(!) is over.....end August/early September might be good depending on your weather up there, hopefully will get rain then and grass will have good month or 6 week to get growing before colder weather sets in. I wont seed mine July/August here. Do you have lawn companies up there? I used to use one years ago....Green Thumb...a national franchise, came 4 or 5 times a year and did all the treatmentes etc, was not expensive and they did a better job than I ever did........hmmm maybe I should look then up again for here!

@newhome that seed looks fine to me. The miracle gro you have is not the one. The one I mentioned is patch magic and is specifically for doing ‘patches’ (large ones in my case). If you need to re seed whole lawn its not the thing. https://g.co/kgs/kSRexv patch magic link

I agree, ask me how I know!,! If this is turning into top trumps, this is what I did with my 4” angle grinder but with a wood carving blade (think small circular saw blade). The surgery was successful to repair two tendons but it does not flex much anymore.

There's no requirement in the regs to fit 3 pole isolators to bathroom fans for TN-C-S or TN-S installations, it's only a requirement for TT installations, and even then it's questionable, IMHO. There is a requirement (462.2 and 464) to fit isolating switches, and there seems to be an assumption that the fuse or MCB in the board is not OK as the only means of isolation for a bathroom/WC fan. As some 3 pole fan isolators are designed to be able to be locked off, I suspect that the requirement in 464 may be driving the apparent need for these things. All the marked fan isolator switches available seem to be 3 pole, presumably to deal with TT installations where this is a requirement, but a 2 pole switch (switching the L and L1 conductors) would technically be OK in any installation that's either TN-C-S or TN-S.

I'd never rely on setting out using set squares or similar. Best way is to use trigonometry and measuring everything from two initial known points - ideally the two front facing corners of the structure. From there there's very little you can't set out withing a couple mm using survey tapes. It's worth sticking a drawing together and using Excel to calculate all your required hypotenuses, radii etc. Print it off and get going But as a former surveyor, I highly recommend getting a surveyor with a GPS/TS kit to set out all your points. Just give them the CAD drawing in national grid with your required setting out points and leave to it. Half days work and expect you could get a self employed surveyor do it for less than £200. All points will be setout to a couple mm. Also you can get the correct levels sorted at the same time, which is an awful lot harder with tapes and levels! On that subject, it's worth having a couple permanent trig points setout on the site that will allow to measure and level off any time you need to.

@AliG what battery system do you run ..?? Makita LXT bare unit is the same price as that and a better unit.

"In modern competitions the combatants are required to wear soft shoes and stuff their trouser legs with straw for padding " poofs indeed.

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Poofs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin-kicking

NP&K as above. Don't pre germinate it. Just buy the seed (golf courses use fescue - so maybe look for grass seed aimed at them) and sprinkle on. Mixes include ryegrass because its dirt cheap, grows quickly and looks nice and green but its what they use on football pitches! Fescue will give you a fine, delicate looking lawn. Personally I don't stop mowing the lawn - you need to reduce competition from the established grass - and let light and moisture down to the soil level so the new seed has a chance.

@newhome If its just bulk seed by mail order you are after I have used this company several times, good selection of seed and quick delivery. https://www.thegrassseedstore.co.uk/

@newhome it fertiliser...... nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium if I remember correctly. How much have you got to do? If its not huge area try miracle gro patch magic ( can get at garden centre, amazon, b&q etc) The seed is ready mixed in a growing medium, just sprinkle straight from the carton water in and in two weeks the grass will be growing, guaranteed. I used it to sort out the lawn at the rental before we left, dog wee had not been kind to it. Great stuff.

Just an update to this. I had enough left over floorboards to make the 6 upstairs door liners (with a joint at the bottom of each) After a long wait, the joiner came this week to hang all the upstairs doors (he is a busy man) A late edit. this is how they ended up with door stops and architraves No door stops or architrave yet, that will have to wait a bit.

We used zonts and zogs with nudara icf, it worked very well and as we got use of them free it kept the cost down with no pressure on time. We spoke lightly on here about about a group buy but that fell through, I think it actually gave the guys a wee bit of bargaining power on the rental costs as they have another option for bracing.

Project managing a build usually means doing planning / resourcing work in the evenings, chasing people (suppliers & trades) during the day and being able to visit the site to keep an eye on progress each day if possible. Also being available (in person / phone) at short notice to make a quick decision if needs be. You don't need to pick up as much as a brush if you don't want to, but small jobs such as tidying up etc will save time & money and help you keep an eye on whats going on - which is key to success. Leaving trades unattended for days at a time is a guarantee that you will not get things the way you want and at worst will mean shoddy work and cut corners. Some things like MVHR are DIYable (and are something of a rite of passage for the self builder). Decorating is another job that you can do if you have the time. If you really can only entertain a fully managed, completely hands off build then you need to be prepared to pay a significant premium for that. The more 'management' responsibility you can take on, the more you can control the cost, but you need to sacrifice your time to do so.

I think the main problem is the shear volume of work available of the last few years With no signs of things slowing down Im not quoting for anymore work till after Christmas I’m struggling for reliable labour Get the two that have quoted to itemise there quotes ie labour and materials You may find that you can save on the materials The Labour is Something you have to live with for the moment The guy that mentioned Brexit is an idiot I’ve been running a building business for 35 years and it hasn’t made any difference to me

Of course if you show your missus it's your own fault!

Agree ! Then you take the inspiration to get a price and it’s like F me !

Morning! 9 ports on a single manifold will work perfectly well and significantly reduce costs and complexity. This cannot be practised in an install where a lot of the loops will then exceed 100m in length, but if it means one or two are at, or slightly above 100m, you'd be fine. I have done loops in far worse places ( insulation wise ) and had loops of 130m in one zone, and it worked VERY well. The designer / supplier will of course cover their arse and insist on the dual manifold if even one loop creeps over this tipping point, as that'll need to be adhered to in order to offer a warranty. Yes 100%. They are disgustingly inaccurate in conjunction with UFH. DO NOT fit them at any cost. They work well with radiators which are able to make speedy changes to the air temp, but UFH is a long and low output into a very energy dense emitter, so you'll have a stat that misses the room getting to temp ( and then you'll have a big overshoot ), and then it'll miss the room cooling back down ( and then you'll have an even bigger undershoot ). The hysteresis of the heating will be governed by the response times of the stats, so choose those very well. You want a stat with a minimum of 0.5oC hysteresis 0.2 would be better. Why do you seem wedded to NuHeat? Wunda are very good, do free designs after you commit to a purchase, offer good support and I've fitted a mountain of their gear to date without issue. A good few here have used them too. Shop around, buy the kit yourself, but under the beady eye of the designer + supplier. Then it's no more difficult for an installer to fit than any other system as the thought has been removed entirely and the system will be sold as being fit for purpose.

You definitely will need a condensate drain. Our experience with the Genvex is that there is a constant trickle of condensate from the drain when it's in cooling mode.

Why do you want complete disconnection? You will later have to pay for re connection, and you run the slight risk that network capacity may change and when you come to re connect it might be more expensive than you think. Certainly in the case of electricity, I would not get it disconnected, but moved to an electricity kiosk on the site boundary. you will need site power anyway. Then you can choose to leave it there and just run your own cable from the kiosk to the new house, or pay again to have the service moved into the house. with regards gas, you just want that disconnected but a gas pipe left on your site and capped, so re connection is easy. Make it clear this is a temporary disconnection and you don't want them digging up the road to cap it off there. Water, as long as you have a working boundary box or stopcock to enable you to turn off the water, you just do that, turn the water off and route it to a stand pipe for building works, then route it to the new house when ready. No costs involved.

We had the asbestos removed professionally and the electricity disconnected, other than those we did everything ourselves. I detailed the process in my blog.

Hi, We're about to start our project - 250m² 1.5 story house with basement on a sloping site in Holywood, Co. Down. Drawings all done, just waiting for planning to come through. My background is an engineer/project manager in the water industry, so I'm planning on using a lot of innovative, rapid, and non-traditional construction methods - focus on safe, rapid construction and simplicity and reduced dependence on trades. We're also aiming for passive levels of insulation and airtightness - south facing site with lots of glass. So, expect lots of posts about insulated foundations, ICF systems, tanking, shuttering concrete walls, floor deck systems, MVHR, the lot! Thanks.

A mains angle grinder is pretty cheap and quite useful.

1G = 1 gang plate, the square ones used for a light switch or a single socket. 2G = 2 gang plate, the rectangular ones used for a double socket If you buy modular or "grid" plates, typically you can get 2 modules in a 1G plate and 4 modules in a 2G plate. You can get all sorts of modules including switches and a huge variety of coax, AV and networks sockets, as well as blank modules to drill and fit your own sockets into. Shotgun coax is so called because the 2 cores side by side resemble the 2 barrels of a shotgun.