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Time for another blog post as we now have 50 piles completed and a nice shiny ground beam linking them all together. The pilers took 6 days to drive the 50 bottom driven steel cased piled into situ just before Christmas, this was two blokes and a fairly shiny new looking piling rig. The rig, in its simplest form, was a 500Kg weight on a string that was capable of being raised and dropped repeatedly. It had some very fancy hydraulic outriggers and a track that could vary its width, but ultimately it was a weight on a string. The pilers said our required loading on each pile (150kN) was fairly modest and explained how each pile would be driven to set. This involved piling away until either a new 2m section was needed to be welded on or the pile started to move less with each blow. When they felt it was getting there, they sprayed a vertical line on the pile and used a welding rod held at one end, to draw a series of 5 lines on the pile, one after each blow. If the spread of these lines was less than 100mm then the pile would be capable of taking the 150kN load. Interestingly I only ever saw this done when I was on site and watching, not one of the piles done when I wasn't there had the vertical white line and marks - I'm sure that's fine.... From a cost point of view, the piles were £1,200 for mobilisation then £127 per pile down to 4m, anything beyond that was £30 per meter per pile. In the end we had 27 piles at 5m, 2 piles at 5.5m and 21 at 6m, which was a total add-on cost of £2,160. So the total piling cost was £9,710. After Christmas the lads returned and were joined by another crew of 2 and the 4 of them started work on the ground beam. The original plan had been to excavate a trench for the beam and just set the steel reinforcement into the trench. When the pilers first saw the site they said this wasn't going to work due to the water and soft ground and we'd need to dig down to the bottom of the ground beams, so they could shutter the beam. After having a concrete blinding delivered and placed level around the route of the beam, they spent the next week placing and tying the rebar along with positioning the shuttering. By the Friday morning it was ready for our first building control inspection. As we are having a Protek structural warranty, the idea of combining the warranty and building control inspections appealed to me. Protek assigned a private building control firm to oversee the inspections, so our approved inspector, a diminutive Welsh lady duly arrived to look at the work the piling lads had done. Happy with everything we were good to pour the ground beam the following Monday. Monday arrived and the concrete pump and wagons arrived at 9.00am, ready to go. The pour was uneventful, but I was badly unprepared for the splatter so had to pop home and get changed into some clothes I didn't mind getting covered in concrete. In total, I think it was about 35 cube of concrete, so a fair amount went into the piles and beams. The lads returned the following day and took down the shuttering and much to my surprise took away pretty much all of their rubbish. That left us with the ground beam in all of its glory. The ground beam was the most costly aspect of the endeavour. The cost for beam itself was £100 per linear metre, of which our beam was 124LM, for a cost of £12,400. The shuttering was unexpected (well not completely, but you can hope) and an additional £4,000. So the overall cost for the ground beam was £16,400, giving a total spend with the pilers of about £26,000. I'm including the costs in the blog as they might be useful for others as comparison. I'm really pleased with the job that they did, the whole thing is obviously very solid and I know we have a decent foundation for the house. It's so substantial it feels like it should be able to be seen from space.

You need either TimbaLok or these from Screwfix £20 for 50 is about right.

A heavy hammer and a 100mm bolster will be quicker and much cleaner. Should take two hits only for each brick. Just set up a platform and mark a row of 6 then wack away. No dust and a lot cheaper than buying a lot of diamond tipped blades.

I allowed 5 mil either side and used fixing straps

Neither, EPC100 (or SAP100) means zero energy cost The Environmental Impact Rating (or EI rating) measures net carbon emissions and EI100 is net zero.

Smashing blog entry, thanks for sharing

don't allow the se to stagger the beams, put in a block thick wall to carry the ends of both beams it will save cutting a lot of blocks. for all the extra cost of founds and a block wall, i would also not span any more than 3m without a dwarf wall it's surprising how much bounce there is in them and that was with the beams doubled up. even with the concrete pourd on top if you jump there is slight movement.

The builders should build to your spec , I would imagine most builders know about insulated slabs now

The former sits on and is surrounded by a thick layer of insulation, expanded polystyrene in the case of my build. The difference to the building is greatly reduced loss of heat through the floor.

It was a field between a Church and 16C Cottage. Already had PP but we needed more than a year to get it changed. I'm afraid its 12 years ago. As I recall the company we got Site Insurance from was able to delay the start date of the "site" part and give us just the public liability part. Sorry I can't find details of the company in my files.

Hi, thanks for the comments. Yes I was aware it is a hybrid roof. There is no architect involved, I'm coming up with the designs and specs here. As well over 2/3rds of the insulation is above the rafter, as per these links below, then I dont think there will be any issues - http://software.trada.co.uk/techinfo/library/send/3DC53CCF-9477-4190-9287-B4260CDA169D/How to design a flat roof/index.pdf - https://www.partel.ie/news/Flat-roof-construction---an-expert-guide-to-moisture-management/702 I carried a u-value calculation which includes a simple static dew point calc in there and the dew point is not reached until well through the PIR layer so there is no condensation risk to the structural timbers - https://1drv.ms/b/s!AkHh6rqs0aKmnul2ftYxythaIORavQ?e=uZ6cBN

https://www.cladco.co.uk/fixings-and-accessories/screws-to-wood-with-a-19mm-bonded-washer-pack-of-100 take your pick, depends how far you can go in. They are very good but you need to be carful not to over tighten them as you will distort the tin. If you over tighten one then back it of but check the washer as often it will have been distorted and you will need to replace the whole fixing to get a good seal.

Great to see you out of the ground and thanks for a really helpful blog. We exchanged mails last year on piling, I wondered if you used the piling company you were looking at then? I think our situation will be similar and it is unlikely we will be able to have the ground beam in a trench, so we will likely have to shutter. And thanks for including the figures, that is amazingly helpful.

That is because the era of Western culture with its free speech and free thought is over, we now live in a modern tyranny regulated by tribal belief mechanisms and a fear that "hate speech" heretics lurk around every corner. We had a good 250 year sprint of achievement since the Edinburgh Enlightenment, China and India are now in charge of humanity's destiny. We pontificate for decades over a 3rd runway for Heathrow, whereas in 24 hours China can place a city the size of London in isolated medical quarantine.

Yes, if its available gas-over-ASHP was the consensus view that I picked-up from a couple of years of solidly reading this site. There is a gas main is in the access road immediately in front of my plot. And so gas it is for my new planned modern bungalow, which is sufficiently small that I can use just a combi-boiler. From a purely intellectual perspective, I would love to skip gas altogether and go electricity-only. But the economic perspective does not support this (yet). The initial capital cost for an ASHP is much higher than a combi-boiler and the payoff of an ASHP is not sufficient. Furthermore, at least for now, any buyer of my dwelling is more likely to have more confidence in a gas boiler than an ASHP.

I can add a data point that may be useful. It's now exactly a year since I fitted two energy meters to our hot water system, one measuring the energy supplied to the Sunamp from the PV system, one measuring the energy supplied to the Sunamp from off-peak (E7) electricity, for a night time boost if needed. The total DHW energy used was 2,264 kWh. That's for two of us, but we don't really make much effort to reduce our hot water energy usage, other than trying to do some things when the sun is shining and the PV system is generating. Our daily usage works out as an average of about 3.1 kWh per person, which is close to the usual assumption that usage is around 3 kWh/person/day. The PV system provided 1,339 kWh of that, and off-peak electricity provided the additional 925 kWh. We currently pay 8.148p/kWh for off-peak electricity, so our total cost for all our hot water for the year was £75.37 Our off-peak boost is set to turn on at 01:00, which is around the time that the grid demand is at its lowest. Worst case boost would be about three hours, but in reality I doubt we ever boosted for longer than two hours, and the annual average boost time is about 51 minutes, so the boost will pretty much always be within the grid lowest demand period (which also tends to be the lowest emissions period).

Moister boards are fine Hardy backer is outdated gypsum backer out performs both and cuts like plasterboard They are yellow in colour Bit pricey at £16 for a 2,4 x 1.2 sheet Graet to tile onto No need to seal Easy to handle also

Yes I did the circuit design for the house, had it checked by an electrician, and then ran all the cables to the appropriate points. Same with plumbing. Most places it was plasterboard some it was Hardiebacker board. Most wall boxes are plastic but in the kitchen and utility they are metal fitted to noggins.

I assume it's like K-rendering, where you still have to trowel it to a flat finish. The spray aspect is likely just to get the product onto the wall so it's no good without a degree of skill and prior plastering experience, otherwise it's going to be expensive Artex with just as bad a finish. Taping is going to have to be absolutely perfect as with regular skimming you can press any scrim tape back flat as you go, but with this it will not be so simple. @Pete @Alexphd1 do either of you have any experience laying on / trowelling up with normal plaster? If not, I suggest you look long and hard at this before getting in too deep. . Go buy a trowel and a bag of multi finish and have a little go, but it took me over a decade of watching plasterers before I had the balls to get my own plastering tools and have a go. I started off with the cupboard under my neighbours stairs, then some dry lined PB in his lobby, and a few small bathroom ceilings. I'm good now, but wouldn't dream of skimming a whole house or any very big walls, especially where they are subject to a lot of natural light. That said, I've seen a lot of 'plasterers' ( on their mothers side ) who have been at this for years and still couldn't get self levelling compound flat.

Miles away Most people don’t care about energy rating when purchasing a new house Our Daughter is purchasing her second home with her partner I receive messages every evening About bedroom sizes amount of parking Size of garden PRICE Not a thing about solar gain Energy efficiency While both are professionals If I asked either about Sap reports I don’t think they would know what one is Let alone care I would rate her and her partner as pretty typical home buyers Unfortunately any changes or improvements will have to be forced on builders - Sellers By central government

@AnonymousBosch I am indeed preparing for the worst. I manage IT projects for a living - costs can't spiral any more uncontrollably than those surely?!

Welcome I am in Cornwall, so what is this about being friendly.

If you're not proud, a bucket with a lid, a biodegradable bin liner and some cat litter. Then just bury it somewhere discreet.