Leaderboard

The piling crew phoned me early on Monday morning. Can we come to site on Thursday? We're going to be done earlier than planned and we don't want to waste money on the ferry. Fair enough I think - the ferries are silly money if you're moving equipment. It left me a little problem though - the site wasn't graded to the right level and I had no piling mats. They were on my weekend list so they would be ready for Monday when I was originally expecting the piling team. So a few phone calls later and I had my stone order accelerated and had found a very speedy digger driver for a day and a half. I'm still learning the art of grading with a digger and I haven't got time to mess about. Besides, who is going to walk around with the surveying stick saying "a bit more off here!" if I don't? Job one was to complete a piece of French drain along the front third of the southern edge of the property. Due to the lack of dumper truck, we improvised a stone carrier. We skip a few steps now because I didn't have a camera for most of the grading work. The crushed tarmac arrived for most of Wednesday morning and I spread it about until it got dark. I didn't get all of it finished but there was enough flat ground to get a good start on the first few piles. This is after the first 20 tonnes arrived. There should be no surprise that it rained the previous night so I had to deploy a pump to empty the garage footprint lest it turn to a swimming pool. I spent the morning of Thursday marking out the site with a couple of decent tapes and a laser level. It should be good to 10mm or so all things considered. This is (hopefully) adequate for groundworks. The ring beam will cover the multitude of sins, I am reliably informed by the machine operators! The first pile hole being drilled. A momentus occasion - we are finally under way with the build. The plan with the piles is to auger down to 3 metres, through the reasonably clean clay to where it starts to contain a lot of chalk particles and an awful lot of water . The anti-heave sleeves will then be fitted (the most expensive toilet roll middles I've ever seen) and an end driven steel pile will be installed to approximately 8 metres. More drilling and shovelling. The team can work at quite a pace! Even an attack of super moles doesn't put the team off their game. Most of the sleeves are now installed. Little did you all know, I am secretly building a multi-story car park. The piles are ready to be hit with the large hammer on a string. Sometimes brute force is the best way. All piles installed and concreted. Oh and it rained again for a change.

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.

We have a Sunamp Uniq 12 heated electrically for our DHW - it ran (via an Eddi controller) entirely from our 10kw solar from early March to mid Nov and at other times of the year we give it an overnight (potentially economy 7) burst. This is with the 10kwh electrical battery taking priority, but even then the Sunamp has been getting solar power the odd day recently. There is no hot water tank installed. UFH is powered from a low temp Daikin ASHP. Re your OP: Our EPC certificate (101 rating) says 11,000 for space heating and 2,400 for DHW while actuals were 1,800 (input to ASHP so output around 6,000) and 1,000 (only 2 of us though). We're 380 sq m.

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

I've direct experience of reporting to a government minister for a time, when I was programme manager for a fairly big procurement (at the time my delegated budget was £1.38bn, believe it or not. . . ). He was a nice enough chap, but really hadn't got much of a clue about the nuts and bolts of his job. I had a routine briefing with him once a month, for maybe an hour or two at most, and almost all of that time was spent with him trying to work out how to spin progress, and the inevitable problems that arose, further up his political food chain. I learned early on that he had zero interest in actually delivering a bit of kit that would make a real difference. I don't think it's realistic to expect any politician to have any real interest in making significant changes to society. Politicians have a very limited ability to do much, and they all, without exception, tend to prioritise staying in power (once they get there) over doing anything unpopular that has any chance of making any real difference. As @AliG mentions above, the really powerful levers for change (or rather stasis) in society are the everyday wishes of the majority. The majority vote for things that don't negatively disturb their life, and don't care too much about anything outside that. You might get some "Islington Idealists" ranting about the need for more social housing, for example, but see how they react if someone comes up with a plan to build that social housing in their back yard. Interestingly, we had a fair bit of unexpected support when we submitted our planning application. Some of those who had objected to a house being built on our plot years earlier had changed their minds. At least two of those, plus the view of the Parish Council, I think, changed their minds because the plot had become so overgrown with brambles and weeds that it was a real eyesore, and they took the view that having a house on it would be an improvement. I don't think they really wanted to see our house built, but building it was the lesser of two evils in their view. When I mentioned that the village should think about writing a Neighbourhood Plan, and include in that provision for affordable housing for people who'd grown up in the village, it received a very lukewarm response. There was a lot of noise about the need for affordable homes, but no one seemed to want them to be near where they lived.

The ring beam is 600x450mm of steel re-enforced concrete. The spans are in the main a generous 3 metres each. I trust the structural engineer's calculations. What could possibly go wrong? ?

Agreed. The mechanical thermostat in my living room holds the temperature there to within about 0.25 °C. That's not the problem. With a thick slab, though, won't there be a possibility that too much heat will be dumped into the slab before the thermostat begins to see a rise in temperature resulting in an overshoot? Whether that's actually a problem in practice is a separate question but not one answered by your quoted experience.

Lots of issues here. I have no idea what can be done about the mental health issue. I see it all the time. My daughter comes home and tells stories about other children at school who plainly have mental health issues and these are affecting other children. I know a few people who have or who have tried to commit suicide. None of these people had any money issues. I really doubt it is anything to do with government cuts. It is clearly a very complicated issue, I don't know if general mental health is deteriorating or it is just more noticeable. In terms of the original question, "Is this one reason the UK is in a permanent housing crisis", I believe that the real answer is because the UK wants to be. The government really doesn't have that much control over large social changes over time. Lots of countries have lots of different government priorities yet society has seen similar changes. In general the weight if people's actions creates the world that they want. In the UK, the majority of people own their own home. They have a massive vested interest in keeping house prices up and do not care a hoot about people who don't own houses. Governments come into power by pursuing policies that the majority of people like. The majority of people in the UK and NIMBYs who don't want houses built because it keeps up the value of their houses which they have often borrowed against. We have all suffered these NIMBYs in planning, their real concern is basically always that your house being built might devalue theirs - whether that is making the street look less nice, or reducing their light and privacy or increasing traffic or indeed HS2 - what they really mean is it will harm their ability to maximise the value of their house. You cannot build a house you would like to live in - tough that is not their concern. In the last 20 years the UK has seen higher inflation than both the USA and the rest of Europe. Borrowers and owners of hard assets benefit from inflation and the UK has higher inflation than many other countries. The other issue as people have mentioned is the inevitable pull of large cities. As more and more people move to the South East, people act like this is a peculiar problem to the UK, but we live in an urbanising world where large cities continue to draw people in. You see this in China, Australia, the USA, Japan, everywhere. Thus these places have a shortage of housing and the rest of the country may have a surplus. The government can fix the problem by freeing up land to build in the places that people want to live, but the people who already own houses there don't like it and will complain endlessly. There could also be limits on the ability to rent and Airbnb houses as well as to stockpile houses for investment purposes. Airbnb is another way of turning houses into an investment and not a place to live. But again this keeps benefitting the 2/3 of people who own a house. It is interesting how popular progressive taxes have become. The more of the tax burden that falls on the fewer people the more popular it becomes to have more progressive taxes as most voters win in this scenario. Strange that this kind of policy is popular whilst policies that obviously would reduce house prices are much less popular. Is the difference simply that a larger percentage of people own houses than pay net taxes. If of course these trends continue eventually less than half of houses all be owner occupied and the pendulum will swing.

umm i don't think those are deflection criteria, they look like the loading. From my limited knowledge what i understand is that deflection limit should be 0.003 times the span, with a maximum deflection of 14mm (with strutting), 12mm (without strutting). http://www.newbuildinspections.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/LABC-Warranty-Technical-Manual-V8.1.pdf page 32 So for that max span of you are into the 14mm/12mm maximum. There is an interactive span calculator for MiTek metal web joists which may be useful to you, as it calculates deflection for different joist constructions https://www.mitek.co.uk/span-calculator/ For 5500mm the PS-10 posi at a 253mm depth @ 400 C's (97mm width) its calculating a 12.52mm deflection.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/regionalaccounts/grossdisposablehouseholdincome/adhocs/005568meanrenttomeanincomeratiopercentagelondon2001to2014

Were does this mental health come from ? stress, pressure, all part of the harse environment created by the Tories & Labour but mostly the tory cuts. How would most people deal with 20% cuts in income and then not a wage rise for 4 years? and told you need to pa extra rent because you have a spare room. People really don't understand the world here now in the UK. You lose your job and don't find another quickly and it quicksand, you could lose everything - people have. Then when you have nothing you are told you have go for a job apointment. You get the job but it's zero hours contract and you don't get enough work. It does your head in. People turn to drink, drugs any thing for a break from the pressure.

There was a TV programme in the 80s called Monkey. There was a Dutch priest who frequently gave young village girls a blessing. Turned out he was a German Nazi officer on the run. Don't suppose they make kids programs like that anymore.

Mixed bag here because I’d have recommended using a flexible waste to alleviate such a baptism of fire. FWIW, a large number of tray-specific traps come with a flexi and in some of those instances you have to use it. Ive been fitting barrooms for a 1/4 century and I’ve never had a come back from a flexi. They are thinner walled, they do have grooves / undulations, but it’s just water and no solids so, apart from a build up of ‘human / soap fatty scum’, ( which builds up in a rigid waste pipe JUST AS WELL I ASSURE YOU ), there is no issue using a flexi at all. If it’s out-stretched then it could benefit from being supported, but after that I’d never say it was to any detriment whatsoever. If the supply waste pipe is rigid with no movement X/Y/Z then you will need to be mm perfect in the execution. No twist, and finished plumb and flush to the waste hole and aligned dead centre. Good advice given about mocking this up dry, but some fittings will bind and not allow you to push them home as they will do when lubricated with the glue. Gaining 2-3mm over 2 or 3 fittings ( during re-assembly ) will put you off centre. Beware

Yes you can skim MR boards If you are tight for space 150 wall is what I normally use as a party 50 mil stud set on a stick sealant braced every 1200 vertical 25 mil acoustic insulation stapled in place Two layers of 15 mil SB These are used for dividing student blocks So pretty good acoustics One later of PB would be fine devising bedrooms Unfortunately you can’t get foil backed moister or sound boards If you are worried about sound when cutting out for lights or sockets It’s quite simple to build baffle boxes into the ceiling or studs using off cuts of pb and 25 mil angle

+1000

Definitely tile first.

It's OK, I think we know he really means high heat capacity. . .

Normally, with flat tiles, I'd say tile first then fit the profile as you'll only need to worry about a few points being sealed up i.e the screw holes. As for textured tiles... @Nickfromwales will be along shortly! ? How textured are we talking about? Guess if you do butt the tiles to the profile, with the profile in effect in a channel then it's a job for copious CT1 and baby wipes. Doubly important to tank the wall too methinks.

Honestly when my clothes come out washer after a snip they are not damp enough to hold much water, I mean I could not wring them out and find any water it's that dry and in fact some items feel dry. Perhaps you spin on a lower rate or just you washer is not as good at spinning.

You may be right but they dry in a few hours and the weight of the waistband pull them enough to mean they don't need ironing ? Anyway, I don't think you understand the drying process, the water doesn't fall off downwards they are not that wet. Doing it the other way would also mean the clips cover the thickist part of the material so that wouldn't dry at all.

I ended up watching a programme about private landlords last night (this: https://www.my5.tv/britain-s-council-house-millionaires/season-1 ). Interesting to see how some entrepreneurs were preferentially buying former local authority built houses, with comments that they were usually quite well built. Accepting that it was a very biased view of a small section of the private rented sector, it did show just how much money a few are making from buying up houses that were sold under the right-to-buy scheme. I'm biased, though, as I remain convinced the right-to-buy was an exceptionally flawed concept. Had local authorities been allowed to use the receipts from houses sold under the scheme to build more houses, then it may have helped limit some of the social housing problems we're seeing now. By banning or restricting local authorities from building new houses this scheme seems to have worked to make a few people relatively wealthy, without meeting the growing need for social housing.

And we got ours (priorities) right when we were their age of course. Hindsight, experience. Thats what BH is about innit?

@Home Farm you got this ! . I’m building a bleeding house from zero experience- so I’m damn sure you can do this . As it happens I’m at a similar point as you are . Knowledge is power !

No, a condensing tumble dryer does not need one. The waste heat goes into the room rather than out of the wall, and the water removed from the washing ends up in a receptacle to be emptied, or they can be plumbed in to discharge down the drain and never need emptying.

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!

That shower waste you have looks like a Wirquin Twisto - I got supplied one with my shower tray, I took one look at it and went and got a McAlpine shower waste. I don't know how they perform against each other but the build, fitting method and quality of the McAlpine is far superior.

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”.

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.

Not tin but cheap https://onduline.co.uk/#

I would be the same but 6 weeks ago you thought the job was for a professional and you was right . I would never attempt plastering but if I did the worst I'd have is a crap wall , water is a completely different devil that can hurt you a year down the line undoing half a dozen other jobs you've done . If you really want to do it then you tube videos of shower installations would be my advice .

https://www.cladco.co.uk/ lots of people I know use this company without fault.

Planwell only do box profile, not corrugated. I didn't find them any cheaper than Jewsons. But as they specialise solely in roofing they might have some advantages.

All my socks are the same. In fact, most if my clothes are. I hit a winning style formula in 1978, so stuck with it. Apart from the platforms, but they say you shrink with age. I keep wondering how much energy I save by not wearing knickers. Discus that if you want.

Dead man walking.......

dare i say it --a good use for a themal mass to smooth things out

Just dont get sucked in to buying any walk on glazing.

The approach many of us have taken is a) confirm that the min extract rates are being met for kitchens & bathrooms (n.b. we easily exceeded these without even trying) b) balance in / out at a given air flow (the most fiddly bit) c) figure out the fan speed required to meet the whole house ventilation requirement and confirm that your system can meet it. Then turn it back down to whatever you're comfortable with. d) write up the above in a formal looking report and see if the BC ever asks for it. Of the above, b) is probably the most important as it ensures the system is running well. a) should not be a challenge and c) is all down to personal preference.