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I think first is make a list of the absolute essential resistrictions. E.g. must have single oven with grill at eye level 5 burner hob etc Then a list of desirable Once you have some constraints and things that can't change you might find it easier

My Zender q350 does this, and i'm addicted to constantly checking the external/supply/extract/exhaust air temperatures with it. It's been really interesting as we've used no other heating so far, so to see how effective mvhr is (beyond expectations) at maintaining fresh but warm air. @pocsterhot return is pipe out of tank bottom right in pic, goes through red lever into brass pump, above that is (i think its called a thermal switch?) white box monitoring pipe temp....when pipe cools to a set temp it triggers pump (except its wired via a timer too so it'll only pump at set times).

http://www.ultrasafe.org.uk/selfbuildsprinklers/ Quick googling showed this DIY sprinkler system, it might be worth a call.

Start sucking you will soon find out, we have 3 on different properties i got one sucked out only to find huge slabs of concrete 1mx2m laying at funny angles in the bottom it turns out when they built the new one the couldn’t be bothered to remove the old one and just pushed it in the middle of the hole. I would suggest getting a man around with tanker and start sucking, you will soon get an idea as one chamber empties it will flow in from another, you will see if it is ground water coming in as it will obviously be a bit cleaner. One of mine will only drop 2 feet and then ground water pours in from the leech field flowing backwards, so we concentrate on sucking the solids from the bottom, get 1000ltres out and give up, if you carried on you would need to empty every lake within a few miles. Get sucking boy. ???believe me it won’t get better by ignoring it.

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We are going to building our new house in our garden. The access to the plot is between the house we live in and a converted stable which we let out. We have normal buildings insurance on our house, and there is buy-to let insurance on the converted stable. We will have site insurance for the building plot, (through the main contractor and we may also need to take a separate additional one out to satisfy the self-build mortgage company). The risk to our house and to the converted stables is probably accidental damage - e.g. a delivery lorry knocking into a wall. The construction work is too far away for there to be any damage caused by other means, save a massive explosion. My question is: Do the house and converted stable need to be specified in the site insurance? Or would accidental damage to them be covered by the insurance of the delivery driver (for example)? I am planning on informing the household insurance companies that the building work is taking place.

Is it so expensive because you started work BEFORE the insurance was in place? We are paying £550 with buildstore. And I thought that was expensive for a 150 square metre build.

SWMBO wants 4 shelves in this cupboard. Towels on one, toiletries on another, cleaning products on one etc. Can't decide whether to make a rolling shelf or "airing cupboard" style, slatted shelves. Just playing with ideas really: Not convinced about having clean towels above a (dirty) linen basket in an enclosed cupboard! I think someone else mentioned the same thing previously. As I'll want access later to the right hand side, to the loo roll holder mechanism etc, maybe I stop the shelves short if I go with battens on the wall and slats? Rolling seems most sensible? Easy to move out to access everything else? SWMBO insistent that the linen bin presents width wise when the door is open: If I put the water softener in the cupboard that'll have to go width wise...not then easy to access itself:

Thanks guys, this is great, real life, information now steering me in the right direction ~ exactly why I chose to join the forum!

Hi Peter- just mulling this blow-in idea which Ive heard the principle of before. My builder says not a good idea as it negates the cavity I think his reasoning was, possible damp etc.. & suggested undo pB's & line with rigid. I understand rigid is the 'best' way, & your suggestion the most cost effective way (why I think you mentioned it).. what's your thinking on the down-side to your blow-in-cavity idea? The pB I have all upstairs, seems super hard, not slightly soft like modern stuff. It also is well braced behind with extra vertical batons & cross- braces (it seems to me). If it is stronger/ harder than a modern pB inner skin.. is it conceivable instead of blowing in xyz into the brick cavity (which is only 50mm), I could blow this stuff into the void between pB & inner brick course instead?

On a hot summer day you would use hessian dunked in water to cover lime pointing as you want the lime to dry out slowly - too fast and it won't set properly. Protection from rain is maybe more important in these months so hessian or some sheeting can help with that. I have found it surprising how much you can get away with lime pointing in the cold and have rarely had it blow because of frost damage. Just make sure the mix is pretty dry. Even cover up a wall you will be working on for a few days before to stop it getting soaked before you point it. Also - if it has set a bit too much before you try to finish up the pointing a wire brush can help - I don't like the lines you sometimes get with them so you can bash away at the pointing with a churn brush afterwards and that can get it where you want it.

Is this the right time of year to be doing lime mortar building ? Iwas ubde the impression it was a summer job building with lime mortar,due to its drying time

I would target 150mm pipe space. As I read your quote, the green, amber and red all use the same spec of pipe just different spacing and I am pretty sure wunda use pex/al/pex Wunda are normal pretty good but I think you can quite easily cut down loops from 14 on 115m2 floor. Possibly the easiest way to do this is use 120m coils instead of 100/80m. Throw your plans out to other suppliers quick rough calculations is £2k for UFH material.

The addition of hydrated lime won't help in that regard as the set is still a chemical set based on the use of portland cement. Having said all that, flint is very inert, I am not sure that you would need a mortar that flex'd around the flint - we used lime as it was in keeping with our property but not sure I can see a reason not to use portland cement based mortar...... looking at @mvincentd post, he seemed to imply his flint walls were made with portland cement based mortar? Cheers, MM

Go with no more than 200mm spacing. It sounds like you want a zoned system so each room has it's own thermostat and can be set to your required temperature. Do you have a floor pipework plan to see what they are proposing? I can't see how to comment on the number of zones without that. If they are proposing a set of pipes under the hallway (right through the middle of the house) then delete that. I can say from experience it is not needed to heat an inner space like that. That will reduce your zones a bit. What are the overall insulation levels of the house? MVHR fitted or not etc?

I use a churn brush to knock the lime mortar back into the stones, this also helps get a nice look to the finished wall, any mortar left on the stones tends to weather off over the next couple of years.

The plate to the wall id say was bakerlite and sort of gave up.once I started to Attack it!

Very Brief one. The Piling Rig arrived. Finally . https://tintabernacle.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-tank-arrived.html Piling next

Here we go, more of @Nickfromwales welsh wizardry

Another comparison. We have had unseasonably cool weather for a MONTH now. I doubt the average temperature has been any higher than 10 degrees, it did get to 20 one day, and below 0 one night. But even with no heating we are still maintaining 20 or a little over inside the house, and for the last few nights have slept with the bedroom window open for a bit of a nigh purge to keep the upstairs cooler. Like others have mentioned before, solar gain via the west facing windows in the evening is the most noticable when the clouds have the grace to depart for a short while. We don't get much solar gain on the south elevation because of the trees.

I disagree with that ... it’s no harder than taper edge boards with a tape and skim finish. In some instances it’s easier as you can create clean edges with a router and bearing bit - especially on corners. Right .... depends is the answer ..! Firstly it is very heavy - it needs two people to manage boards and you also need a board lifter to do ceilings. You can’t do it on your own ..! One of the benefits is that you don’t need to join on a stud - you use JointStik to bond the edges together, this is a cross between D4 glue and Gripfill and comes with a custom nozzle that puts a bead on the edge of the board. These joints are strong, but you need to leave them to dry properly before you do anything else. There are two ways to fit Fermacell to timber, either using the correct screws or by using crown staples. Screws hold better when the timber is uneven but leave a larger hole to fill. Staples are quick and easy and leave a very small gap to fill - very easy to do but if there is stress on a board they may move with only staples. Fermacell is very easy to repair though. If you cut a hole in the wrong place with a hole saw, or even cut an access hole, you can just glue it back in place, filler in the gap, sand and it’s done - you can’t tell it’s been removed. It is also surprisingly easy to cut. Fermacell sell a knife designed for the job and it works on the the score and snap method and is very good. It leaves a slight ragged edge but this takes filler really well so isn’t a problem. When it comes to filling all the screw holes or edges, you will need their filler. It’s much better than anything else and sands to a fine finish too. It’s better put on with a wide spatula or trowel, and it goes a long way. FST - or fine surface treatment - is the oddest product I’ve ever used ..!! Fermacell show it being applied with a squeegee, I use a 12” plastering trowel and you can do a 5m wall in probably 15 minutes. You put the thinnest coat possible on - the boards change from light grey to a slightly darker grey and that’s it ..! A quick sand over with a 120grit sanding board and you can be painting less than an hour after applying. The wall will look like it’s full of filler and screws etc, but a coat of paint and it’s all gone and you have a perfect flat wall. I’ve gone from a stud wall to ready for paint in 24 hours - that’s impossible with board and skim, and pushing it with TE/taping. The downsides are that the dust will destroy any power tool that you use to cut it. Circular saws or jigsaws create a lot of dust, routers are magic for cutting holes for back boxes or making perfect corners but all of them will die in a ditch with the dust. Buy cheap Titan ones and keep going back for the warranty claims ..! Fermacell is very good for perfect square and flat surfaces - anywhere that you want curves or anything that needs blended angles then you possibly need to look at something else or look at how to get skim coats applied to certain sections. I priced a job recently that would have been £4K in Fermacell, and was just less than £2k in plasterboard and skim in terms of materials. When it came down to it, the labour costs were double for the board and skim as there was a lot of curve and detail work but the whole lot came out about the same price in total. If you can DIY and have square rooms etc then you can get a very good finish with Fermacell that is comparable to a skimmed plaster finish with no wet trade delays.

A little up date from last night. I have found this company http://www.ultrasafe.org.uk/selfbuildsprinklers/ who specailse in design and certification and they actually let you install it your self to there specs. Yes i agree when they are demanidng the whole job or nothing i believe its purly down to making money. Im looking at around 2.8 k for mine from a company who will do the lot and the guy said straight away soon as i mentioned self install.. he would have to do it because its a life saving kit.. but as long as your compatant and hes sigining it off surley theres no issue?? .. i wonder how much i can save via these people. they offer you a course, im a compentant fitter as i have served my time as a pipe fitter so i may even be able to aviod the course possibly.

A local icf build to us (scotland) had to install a fire sprinkler system as part of his planning. He done a day course, and done his own install. Worked out pretty good and he reckoned he saved a fortune. If I remember rite it's a rigid plastic pipe with glue fittings (maybe wrong). I think it was somewhere near Newcastle he done his day course.

Is the most popular hobby on here cars. I think we should design a very basic 'formula' boat that runs off electric drills. I know @Jeremy Harris has done this. Then meet up at the Hayle estuary and see who gets to St. Ives first.

I've got 12 crates of flints need knapping! ?