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As some of you will know I like to build stuff rather than buy it, with our MVHR I built my own terminals and manifold/silencer, I had to invent flow adjusters fir the distribution pipes and wanted them at the manifold end rather than room terminals (which can cause noise in the room). Well here is the prototype, works well (but looks crap). But what’s not to like, it will never be seen? 10mm dowel, 3mm acrylic sheet, 2” nail.

No it's not, K is multiply by 1000, but to convert N to kg you need to divide by 9.81, earth's acc due to gravity

The UK housing problem is really a consequence of the shift from manufacturing industry to a service industry based economy. That's resulted in a migration from the manufacturing centres of the country, that were mainly in the midlands and north, to the south, particularly the south east. This then resulted in house prices rising in that part of the world, pushing up demand for more housing. Go to any former big industrial/mining area in the UK and there will be empty/cheap houses galore. What's needed is to increase employment in those areas, and reverse migration to south east England. For years various governments have been trying to make this happen, and for around 30 years now any new public sector departmental move has to be away from the area defined as the "greater south east". This hasn't really helped a lot, but if anyone has wondered why departments looking after car registration, income tax, passports etc are in far flung bits of the UK, this is it. It seems that the government is still trying to shift things north, with HS2. Whether they will succeed remains to be seen. I have my doubts, as I don't think this sort of change is something the government, any government, can actually bring about. Governments, of whatever flavour, have been losing the authority to make big changes to society for the past few decades, with that role being increasingly dominated by large corporations and technology companies. Arguably, the biggest influence on UK society are now US-owned social media and internet sales giants. Facebook and Amazon probably have far more real control than any British government.

the times I have come across “professional “ work that was bad is innumerable, at least if you do it Yourself you know you have done your best and not bodged it. When I was self employed as a small time builder I was called “D.I.P. Builders”, when people realised DIP was not my initials they asked what it stood for and I told them “do it properly”.

Off to the store. Time for an epic day.

In the past 18 months I’ve made and built stuff I never thought I’d be capable of. Plumbing is common sense. I have an additional resource to the BuildHub crew in that one of our community members is a retired FRICS, and he came over to offer additional advice. He also recently refitted his bathroom by himself. I agree with Jeremy. I’m not going to empower myself if I just sit back. I’ve already plumbed our washing machine in, which was not difficult, and have changed several taps and modified simple waste pipework. This project will have to be an extension of my knowledge base. I’ll be patient, practice and ask a lot of questions. Thanks to the folks here at BuildHub I changed a motor on our UFH motorized valve. It took me a day to understand the mechanics and process. Now I’m not daunted by that. It’ll have to be same for this. As mentioned above. We’ve been royally messed around. The tradesmen around us are like bees, fluttering from one better pollenated paying project to the next. We’ve been living out of the guest room for months now, and we’re fed up.

I had a similar thing except my mezanie only covers one bedroom with it being open to the other. It had been designed like that taking support from the wall between the bedrooms and the floor. One thing I was aware of was bounce in the floor. the logical implication being if you jumped up and down on the mezanine that too might make the floor below that it was ultimately supported on bounce as well. What I did to "fix" this, was purely my own idea with no input from a SE. I cladded one side of that bedroom wall with OSB sheets well glued and screwed to the studwork frame. My theory was I was turning the whole wall into a dirty great engineered I beam and it could probably support the mezanine just by being fixed at each end to the timber frame without putting any significant load on the floor. It worked and you can jump up and down on the mezanine and you feel nothing on the floor below. These are under construction pictures before the wall it rests on got it's OSB skin.

look up ‘volunteer advocate’ in your area, I think you would be great and like it too...

In term of population I think the world has enough room. However problems are exacerbated by the way the wealth is distributed.

Got a photo? still not interested in black barn paint and be done with it?

So the first crisis isn't a housing one, that is an affordability, employment crisis essentially. The 20-30 year olds I think mainly got/get their priorities wrong. Many of them left home at 18 to go the Uni and live with friends and drink, and they got a car lease or HP for a new Ka for £120.00 a month, they also have the latest iPhone or Galaxy tablet and can go away to the sun with friends and piss away £100's on festivals and booze - now they need a house and have pissed all their money away from day 1. Now possibly in their late 20's early 30's and they are stuffed as they now have an Audi A3 outside mum and dads, spend all their money every weekend and struggle to put away £100 a month. The crisis I see over and over again is stupidity and a lack of planning - perpetual students. I started saving while at uni, not very successfully right enough but I always had some money, I then paid off any debts and started saving in my first real job after uni, I did a degree that was going to almost certainly result in a real world job and probably several at that, I didn't do "French with Sports studies" then cry because, guess what, there are no follow on jobs from that degree. These young adults need to look at themselves I think. I continued to save hard while living with my parents and driving a 15 year old car I owned, I changed the oil on and repaired and kept in goof fettle and bought my first house when I was in my late 20's. I skipped the starter house right enough but I only bought my house because my wife, then girlfriend, and I decided we would move in together and I was happy to move onto the next chapter in my life. I was lucky though, I understand that, but I work hard, I save hard and I enjoy live but don't throw money away and have always had these values. Instil some of the post war values back into people and I think the country would be a better place, better work ethic, pride in their work and country, respect, care and realistic and sustainable plans for their futures. Not sure how unfair this will be viewed as, but this is something I see a lot of so it's accurate from my perception and also from what I hear, read about, see etc. It's even happening on the street I live in - young lad along the road 17-19, left school last year and I assume is at uni or college now, however, a brand new Golf turns up the summer he left school which appears to be his - young girl a few doors up, same situation, has a new Mini and around September after leaving school she moved out as I can only assume to go to uni - still has the Mini - don't think she needs it from what I can see... I also hear about similar stories through colleagues and clients, neighbours talking about older kids who have moved out, my wife sees it in some of the younger admin girls at her work (all 1-2 year old HP/Lease cars), they call into the radio and moan, Jeremy Vine quickly ascertains where they do spend money and oh boy, do they get their priorities wrong!

Would it not just be easier to have less people. The whole world is overpopulated

The following assumes the sweep bend has a push fit socket on it. I looked at part SY405 (87.5 Degree Five Boss Branch - Push-fit Socket - Spigot) on Marley web site.. https://www.marleyplumbinganddrainage.com/products/soil-systems/pushfit-soil/ The 110mm branch is 175mm from the bottom of the branch connector. The male on the bottom goes about 60mm into the socket of the swept bend. So I think the 110mm branch would be at 175-60 = 115mm above the top of the sweep bend. So the 110mm branch would be 35 + 115 = 150mm above the slab or 150 - (50 + 25) = 75mm above FFL. The WC pan connector is about 180mm above FFL so I think it works for the WC. The branch might even be too low if the WC pan is very close to the stack - you might even need to raise the branch a bit. Best check my maths. Aside: 50mm insulation isn't much.

I cannot cope with this!

Are you a sailor? Red, Port, to the left. Green, Starboard to the right. (I bet you have another pair that will be the wrong way round)

Yeah if you're using solid core runs, the patch panel is the place to convert to stranded cables. Ideally the solid cores then will never have to be touched or moved again and can last decades. Analogous to why in a lighting circuit you have a ceiling rose rather than drop T&E to the pendant, say

Surely both are way too high unless you are going to have the shower up on a platform?

Fit the tray Tank the walls if you are going to Tile the walls Grout Seal the joint between the tray and the walls Fit the door. No need to unpack the door, just Google the manufacturer fitting instructions e.g. Mira slider door has 40mm adjustment

@joe90 looks far nicer! Wonder if our stone could be sprayed. I've seen red and blue colour spray ? I Idefinitely don't want red brick though. The best thing currently is here are nails in the bricks from the previous owner and I can hang washing on them to dry. In the absence of heating in any other room, getting out of the shower and yelling for the warm towel is one of the nicest treats in our current situation!

More naff red bricks ????

Oops my bad. Didn't spot the N.

I like the patch panels as they tidy all the cables away. I have mine flush with the plasterboard. You can adapt to phone and poe where needed.

Cheers Dave, i have just been having a read up, think I’m tempted to spec ASHP as seems easier to install plus advantage of being able to work in reverse. guessing the newer systems are fairly quiet now compared to the older ones? Bedrooms and lounge are going to be carpet so not sure if that effects the heat transfer of UFH?

Near Falkirk, in the howling gales and snow!!!

Almost half the cat5 cable in . Pretty colours help !

We used Rockwool RW6 batts for it's good thermal and acoustic qualities, as well being fireproof. https://www.rockwool.co.uk/product-overview/slab-products/rw6-en-gb/?selectedCat=downloads PS Just remembered you're building with concrete so maybe your idea of graphite EPS would be better.

It's just classed as timber frame, whether it's 140mm timber studs or 300mm I-beams. I think having timber cladding on timber frame might affect re-sale more than the frame material itself.

We have a Tata steel roof which has been on for two years and it is fine. Yes the panels are secured through the panel but they are an elongated hole which allows movement and seems to be ok on our roof

Ditto. It's been 4 years of that for us. Truth to be told, I'm exhausted nowadays. But I know every last detail of what's happening, every wrinkle, cockup and success. Without the anchor of BH I'd be lost. It's (for me) back to the 70s... head-down -arse-up-go

Treatment plant wired in and running. Just the air inlet pipe to sort for the pump (I'm extending it so it's little stack is in the hedgeline rather than in thee middle of a lawn) but it's working. Very quiet. The Hiblow pump sits inside a sealed "bucket"- a screw-top vessel as used for storage on boats or that Sigma chemicals are supplied in- and this sits in the middle of the "manhole" atop the airlift pipe. So well isolated from the outside world. At power-on it did a 30-min airlift discharge cycle which does have a distinct trickling water sound and then settled into it's programmed bubble/ settle sequence. The bubble portion is 14mins, not quite sure what the settle is yet. From the manual this means it's set default as 8PE. When bubbling there's no noise whatsoever and the body of water heaves with a remarkable turbulence but no visible bubbles. I darned-near had to rest my ear on the closed manhole lid to hear the hum of the pump. It's double skinned poly which helps too no doubt. I've found a passord online to try on the controller. If it works I'll play with the menus a bit and reset down to about 5PE (there'll generally only be three of us in the house) If it doesn't I'll get the rep to pop in and do it, he lives locally. Piccies to follow.

@Home Farm, well said! Hope it goes well for you. Everyone needs to start somewhere. I wonder, will you be making videos or passing on tips? I'd be keen to learn as you learn.

The first big DIY job I ever did was fit a new bathroom in the first house we bought. I'd never touched plumbing, tiling etc before in my life. The internet didn't exist then, and I didn't know any plumbers. There weren't even any DIY sheds then, so I had to get all the stuff needed from the local plumber's merchant. The chap behind the counter there had the patience to give me some advice, and ensure that the bits I bought all fitted together OK. Fitting the new bath and shower went OK, the bit I screwed up was the tiling. It was functional, but far from elegant. At the time I did this it was out of necessity, we just didn't have the money to pay someone to do it. When I fitted a new bathroom in our second house it turned out a fair bit better. By the time I came to do all the plumbing, bathroom, kitchen fitting etc in this house I'd probably done maybe half a dozen bathrooms and three kitchens before, and I wasn't at all fazed by taking the job on. Everyone has to start somewhere, and anyone starting out now has the massive advantage over the position I was in decades ago when starting out, as everything is easily available online and the internet has loads of resources that show how each job should be done. A bit of patience, together with some practice on test pieces, and I reckon anyone could make a reasonably good job of it.

Waste water plumbing and plastering are two completely different skills, as a builder I did small bits of plastering but anything over a few square feet I would get a professional in (if I wanted a good finish) but as @Jeremy Harris says practice with a few fittings to get the feel and go fir it. Watch a few utubes vids, you will feel empowered when you do it yourself (I know I did 40 years ago ?).

One great thing with plastic waste pipe and fittings is that they are cheap, so you can buy a bag of solvent weld fittings, some pipe and adhesive and play around with the stuff to get a feel for how it goes together. Well worth the bit of additional cost, as there's a knack in making good solvent weld joints and it's far better to make any mistakes on practice parts than on the real job. If you get a few solvent weld access plugs you can seal the ends of your bits of test pipe and then check for leaks by filling the pipe up with water. After three or four joints you'll probably get a good feel for how they work.

@Home Farm I feel so much for you, I was very lucky and had a brilliant builder but with support here from people that know, this job is completely DIY-able (IMO). I am completely self taught and been a builder for many years (retired now tho) it only takes some common sense.

I like EPS for that sort of thing but mabe some thought needs to be given to EPS with respect to spread of fire depending on the proximity of other buildings, boundaries, etc. Obviously it's used in standard EWI but that's not with timber cladding over it.

I thought I'd update this thread: Cleaning with a water, light detergent and a brush not only took forever but it was pretty patchy too. Like painting the Golden gate Bridge - before I finished the bit I had started had already deteriorated. I didn't want to jet-wash as I was advised against it as it would apparently roughen the surface and further help the dreaded mould to grow even more. After talking to a few providers of commercial cleaning products that would have cost me many hundreds of pounds to buy let alone the labour to apply, one of the technical people was very honest with me and recommended I try soaking the surface with clean water then using a weak bleach/water mixture 1/10 applied with a fine spray nozzle. At first this looked promising but the mix was drying-out before it had time to work properly. I increased the mixture incrementally to about 1/4 and this worked really well. IMPORTANT to do this at a time of the year when it's still quite damp outside and cloudy i.e. so that the mixture will not evaporate too fast thereby giving it time to work. It's very important to thoroughly soak the surface with clean water, starting high up and I did arreas about 3m2 at a time. I applied the mixture to a really wet surface so that on contact the mould can run down easier. Leave it for about 20 mins max then wash with clean water. After looping the whole house once some stains were apparent where the mould had run. A second application of the whole house cleaned that up. After about 2 weeks the cladding had turned to near white, like drift-wood. At first I was worried but since I did this very early spring it's now weathered back to a kind of grey. I wanted to leave it for 1 summer and 1 winter to see what happened There are no apparent signs that the bleaching has damaged the wood The surface is a kind of grey but not grey enough for my liking Right now the mould is showing signs of coming back but nothing like the images above My next step is to repeat the cleaning process in a few weeks time but this time it should be easier as the cladding is nowhere near as bad as it was. In the summer I'm going to treat it with Textrol. This was apparently used on the London Velodrome so if it's good enough for them it should be good enough for me. Not cheap though at approx £1,500 materials only for my job

If you use a top access trap a flexible pipe may not support the bottom part of the trap enough during assembly. If the bottom part moves too much it could be hard to screw the top part into it through the tray. Solvent weld may seem bit scary but it's not really. Helps if you mark the outside of the pipes after dry assembly and use a reasonable amount of solvent. Then you get enough time to rotate the pipe to line up the marks before it sets.

I got a requote from Protek last month, 12 months is their current sweet spot for best value/policy duration. I think the 12 month extension was slightly cheaper than the first year of cover.

Does he want site insurance (damage, fire, injury, hired plant etc during the build) or a warranty? I got a Protek site policy through Versatile Insurance, there were quite a lot of questions about trades/experience etc on the form but when I talked it through with the broker they said I didn't need to bother answering most of them for the site policy, would only be relevant if I wanted a warranty as well. They were fine to do the site cover on the basis it would all be me with occasional labourers and the odd specialist trade. I was told by a couple of insurers they wouldn't even contemplate quoting for a warranty as there was no chance they'd offer a price I'd accept for a full self-build extension. I wasn't that fussed about that as we don't have any external requirement to get one.

Welcome! There are many from Scotland here and most of us were terrified once upon a time ?.

prior to starting any work ?

Welcome. A semi extension is not a *huuuge* project, and others have done similar so advice and experience are around - so relax (a little), for a bit. Recommend vodka and chocolate ? .

It's been a while since I last updated this, but we're slowly making progress. Since the completion of the roofing in November, we've mostly been cladding, the joiners fitted the doors and windows, we boarded the inside and last week the cellulose got blown in. It's reassuring how well the house retains the heat from a small portable heater, unlike anywhere else I've ever lived! Bit of a delay in the cladding due to me underestimating both how much we needed and also how much we discarded (too much sap). Weather's made things a bit slower at times as well. Photos below. Cladding in progress (don't look too closely). The ends have all been trimmed and bevelled now but this is the only photo I have. The snow arrives, makes for cold hands when they're above your head hammering all the time. Boarding the first floor with OSB The insulation arrives. And disappears into the walls within a day.. Next up, try and sort the foul drainage as it's been a bit neglected, MVHR first fix and then ready for electrical and plumbing first fix.

Yes I can see that, but depends if you want the border to continue down the sides, or just horizontally. The 450mm tile can be cut in half as it's a repeated pattern. Five and a half @450 plus two 225 would work

Think the 225*225 tile is the corner one for the border. So the border would actually be (5*450)+(2*225) rarther than 6*450.

It looks like they do a 225mm tile too, 450x6=2700 +225 =2925 Or 13x225=2925 12 grout lines at 3mm =36 =2961

I agree that it would look bad if you cut into the pattern. But do you need to tile the wall tight up into the corners, or can you just tile areas? Or maybe you could tile the wall with plain tiles and have these set into it.

Or use cut down center tiles to make the "border around the border".. 3000/450=6.666 So 6 full border tiles with a "border around the border" of 0.666*450/2 = 150mm approx. So with luck you can get two from each 450*450 center tile. I think 150mm is wide enough so that any slight variation in width won't be obvious. For example you won't notice if the border one side is 5-10mm narrower. However if it was only 50mm then a 5-10mm variation would be more noticeable. Planning will be key. Make a drawing. I'd start laying tiles from the centre and work out.

Hmm, The only thing that I can think off, is that you fill the area as much as possible with your pattern / border and then fill in around the edges with a plain matching tile.