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After around 18 months of planning things have finally been moving a lot faster over the last couple of weeks which is great! I'll try to summarise the interesting bits: Type 2 vs. Type 3 Our EPS was installed on a sub-base of 150mm MOT Type 2 and 50mm sharp sand for blinding. Structurally this is absolutely fine, but there was an awful lot of and fro with the foundation designers about if permeable type 3 + grit should actually have been used as specified in the system certificates. I believe the only potential down-side of this approach is the potential for capillary action causing water uptake in the EPS and reduced thermal performance, but, given we upgraded to 300/400mm EPS this shouldn't be a significant concern. Drainage below EPS While it was a challenge with the invert levels (especially with the 400mm EPS) we decided to try and ensure that all drainage went through the sub-base and not through the EPS. This resulted in a redesigning the drainage runs as well as ensuring we use inspection chambers without drops, but it all works in the end, with just small notches being required in the underside of the bottom 100mm of EPS in a couple of isolated locations. "The bend at the foot of the stack should have as large a radius as possible and at least 200mm at the centre line" One warning when putting drainage in. Make sure the correct shallow bends are used! Our building inspector had, in theory, given us a pre-pour approval, but then when he got the drainage photos it was clear that the correct bends hadn't been used for first floor SVP's which he flagged up, so we had no choice but to mine through 300-400mm EPS and change them! Why so much EPS? Given our house design has stepped sides (something to do with street scene according to our architect) this means there are numerous steels and load-bearing walls internally. What this meant in practice for the foundation design was that around 60% of the slab needed reinforcing and would have 250mm concrete and only 200mm EPS. We had a u-value calculation done based on our actual foundation design and as we expected the u-value wasn't great, so we decided to go ahead and upgrade the EPS to 400mm which ensure there is a minimum of 300mm EPS across the while slab. It might have been overkill, but the price to upgrade wasn't that much and our PHPP calculation was already assuming 0.10.

We only agreed that we would explore the possibility of building our own home in January, and now somehow seem to be well and truly on our way to seeing that happen in the coming year. Very exciting, but also quite daunting. Like most self-builders, I watch episode after episode of Grand Designs, Build the Dream etc, wondering why people fall into the same financial pitfalls almost every time, and more importantly, how we might avoid doing the same. Having found a plot with planning consent pretty much straightaway, we are now making great strides with our potential builder, Dan, who is a passivhaus enthusiast and all round eco-builder. We think we have arrived at the actual design, and will be in touch with the planning department shortly to see if we can have the changes to the original planning consent considered as material minor amendments rather than making a fresh full planning application. We have copied the scale and footprint of the design that won the original planning consent - a rectangular box that is both generously proportioned and an efficient use of space - and are designing in efficiencies where possible to make the best use of our budget. Three weeks ago we went down to the plot for the first time since having completed the purchase to began clearing debris and strimming the long grass. My parents, who live 10 minutes away, just over the border in Devon, gave us a hand. After four days of physical labour we were all absolutely exhausted, but very satisfied with our handiwork (see photos). We also met several of our future neighbours who almost all were absolutely lovely. We had a remote meeting with eco-builder Dan yesterday to discuss timescales and the build method. He proposed that we consider a stick build due to our very tight access (a 50m long driveway to the plot with only 2.2m width and restricted height in places), and to begin next Spring. With the likelihood of a second wave of Covid striking in the winter, and with me working for the NHS, we think that planning the build for the spring is probably sensible. It gives us plenty of time to deal with planning and do some thorough research on the various options for AHSPs, MVHRs, windows, external finishes etc. Below are photos of me, my parents, and my husband Darren, all hard at work. C63ACCAC-732D-438E-A3D4-11048661E3F6.mov IMG_7771.mov

@wozza who is buying the tiles and where are they from in the world ..?? I’ve seen some lovely large format work but the tiles were eye watering in price but they were millimetre perfect. I’ve seen some 900x900 in some of the better tile shops that if you back to back them there is a 5-6mm rocker across them so your lipping will be dependant on laying pattern.

I haven’t ever needed to use them, and I have produced “exemplary” work consistently........where the tile will permit it. Where I have tiled with less than exemplary results is when a tile has a curve or ‘cup’ ( and some even dog ears ) where it is impossible to get zero lip / kickers. With a 1200mm x 1200mm tile, there may be merit in using the levelling system as at that size the tile will bend slightly. That may allow the tiler to get above expected results so I’m on the fence at that size. Without the levelling system you are 100% at the mercy of the tile. Best you choose a good tile and allow the fitter to use whatever they want to fit it, as they will be making the promise of a good quality job, not us.

They are handy Some use them most don’t I’ve been a tiling 40 years and never have Thiugh I hadn’t used Ditra till 15 years ago I’ve four tilers work for me None use them and there work is perfect

Mate served in Iraq told me it was de rigueur for the locals to cover mains junctions with a "carrier bags" up on roof tops. Not a good idea as though it rains infrequently the bags quickly go brittle. The mains junctions are often nothing more than bare wire ends twisted together. He said they'd take it in turns to naked sunbathe (helmet on, weapon to hand) whilst on stag. More than once he'd been awoken by an unfortunate bird or rat disturbing the crumbling plastic bag with inevitable results.

In 1930s bricks I would be using a softer lime repair mortar not resin as that’s for reinforcing joints. 1:1:6 cement, lime, sand and mix well but make sure the joints are well raked out and damp when they are done.

Leave it at 10mm then trim with a Stanley knife after he has left ?.

The problem is one of airflow. If you stop the airflow when smoke is detected, you then need to pulse the intake fans regularly to see if the smoke has stopped otherwise you won’t have an airflow to test for smoke...

A nice feature would be if the MVHR could detect smokey air on the intake and temporarily shut down (bit like the humidity sensor on the extract triggering the boost feature). I'm sure someone handy on here could suggest how you could re-purpose the detector on a smoke alarm to do this....

Give me the sizes when you do it and I'll knock you one up with brass eyelets and a drawstring. Got loads of old covers like this.

On a serious note if said winch is left outside it will pay to make or get made a loose vinyl cover. Been using this lot for over 30 years: http://sailmakers.co.uk/ I'm sure there'll be someone similar in your neck of the woods. (As an indicator how good they are they worked on the Cutty Sark after the fire a few years back).

To c9me back at the surveyor I think you would have to have proof of the at the time, and that they were negligent give) their methodology at that time. Personally 8 think it may be easier just to address the causes. none of it sounds excessively expensive or complicated. eg You can reopen up your air bricks. Ferdinand

Not at all - it may be slightly slower but will clear much quicker once into the 50mm section.

It depends how it is getting in. Do you ever get standing water outside at airbrick level. If so you can modify drainage outside or modify your airbricks eg by putting the offset "z" vents in to move it once course up the wall.

This is what I have just used to lift my first floor panels, some of which are over 200Kg. I decided to buy a slightly better qualikty Rhino hoist rather than an ebay one as my son was helping me and I'm keen not to kill him. The hardest part was lifting and fitting the hoist, although when we took it down we realised it could lower itself, it would have also pulled itself up!

This may explain the damp issues in your other thread. Any mortar will be better than the crack. Does not need to be strong or hard.

If you had a full structural survey and it was possible to see the damp and the raised paving without intrusion you may have a case but you have waited 6 years so I doubt you have any chance.

Another here that installed MVHR but I must admit we are “open window” people so frankly during the summer I switch it off. I always said I thought it would be better controlled by a “poor air quality stat” but they don’t exist!!! (Threads on this subject have existed in the past).

A very good summary of the benefits and how we use our system. I would add no condensation on windows etc in the house. As @Cpd says, we have MVHR here, without much if any shelter and winter wind speeds of 60mph plus in winter. Genuinely, not an issue, it just works away. I fitted the inlet and exhaust vents on the leeward side of the house. Occasionally you do hear the fans struggle when the wind gusts at extreme / is swirling multi direction, due I think to pressure differentials. Having rented a 15 year old house here while we built, that slight occasional imbalance was far better than the whistling and howling gales that would come through extractor fans and trickle vents! We have had MVHR in 5 houses now, the first back in 2003 when airtightness and good levels of insulation weren't really a consideration! The difference even then to the house before which had trickle vents and extractor fans was night and day and it's something I wouldn't go back to by choice.

I have the invisiweep, not sure if I'd go with that type again - the hole is very square and bigger than you'd think, ill take some pics later to show you what I mean

When BC visits for the final inspection Anything you don’t have He or She will ask you to forward via email and then about a week later they will email your certificate

That's pretty much it. Electrician issues a final testing cert, plumber does similar for their certifiable items (boiler and pressurised cylinder?). BC will give you a cert after their final inspection and when all open items have been addressed to their satisfaction. You don't need LA BC in addition to independent. Is valuation board to do with Council Tax? That can become due much earlier in process as soon as your LA deem the property habitable - i.e. before BC makes the same determination. If you've managed to elude them for now then well done.

basically if you buy and replace roof --could you resell and get all or most of your your money back --if not the price is wrong that would be my view

it was two or three years ago now but when I did my EWI my research concluded that EPS was the best product. There had been some issues with PIR boards warping post installation under EWI, many major system suppliers dropped them and only support EPS, mineral wool or wood fibre. Worth checking out the green building forum for EWI threads, there's been some very comprehensive discussion over there over many years and there's some really good advice. I'd caution use of PIR unless you can be sure of a comprehensive manufacturuer backed warranty (even these are very dubious in my opinion). Even 70mm EPS will make a huge difference in relative terms (if you can go thicker then do, you dont need much soffit overhand and deep recessed windows look good in my view). Could you manage to sequeeze in 90 or 100mm EPS? Since my EWI the walls no longer feel cold and the temp variations in winter are much lower. You'll also note that when the heating goes off, it isn't freezing cold 40 mins later! Whatever board you use, make sure they install them well - I actually did a course in EWI (to learn how to apply the render, I can plaster a bit so it was pretty easy to pick up) But on the course, we did a morning doing some boarding and instructor actually said if you have any large gaps, fill them with basecoat! I challenged this and he sulked for the rest of the course but doing this is really bad, it creates a cold bridge, but worse it will mean that the render may dry unevenly (heat loss path will show the joints in the render) and in the long run there are examples of the joints staining through the render, I would guess because differential algae growth on the facade due to variable moisture content of the render. You want all joints to foam filled and also use thermally broken fixings recessed below surface with a cap of EPS to close - they work brilliantly and remove the cold bridge and also remove the risk of a fixing "grinning through" the render if sat a bit proud. Not sure what lambda you are using to calculate the u-values but worth checking you are looking at enhanced (graphite EPS) which is considerably better than standard, in the order of 0.031 (vs 0.038) from memory. Also worth noting that EWI grade EPS is cut from aged blocks to ensure dimensional stability - I used a mix of Kaycel EWI EPS and also some EPS supplied by Baumit. But be careful to ensure it's stuff for EWI. Do consider taking EWI down to the top of the footings (builder may not understand this or may be terrified of doing things below DPC so you might need to do some research and show some details) but do a search for plinth EWI (again masses of disucssion on GBF). Many of the large system suppliers now have details for plinth, the taboo of going below DPC seems to be fading which is good. Chose render carefully - your builder will likely plump for the cheapest acrylic finish coat unless you specify otherwise. Typically you will see a basecoat in two passess with a mesh embedded but then a thin coat finish. Worth paying a bit more for a silicate premium mineralic thin coat finish in my opinion (most manufactuers give this option) - it is a nice matt/mineral finish and can be readily painted with mineral paint in the future, otherwise you'll be looking at a film based paint over silcone or acrylic once it gets tired. Also silicone and acrylic can look a bit plasticky in my opinion. Also consider the grain size as well, the standard grain sizes again can look a bit tacky. I used Baumit nanopor fine - 1mm grain size and lovely flat matt mineral finish. (I ran a thread tracking my DIY EWI installtion over on GBF http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=15355)

That sounds like the rules for permitted development, i.e. you can't cover more than half the garden with sheds etc.

You would expect to see your brickwork completed to dpc height before any internal blockwork is done. You want to be able to set any openings out so that they work to bond where possible.

Well no, MVHR filters incoming air so can actually be cleaner air than opening the window. There's many ancedental reports on here of owners needing to do much less dusting after getting MVHR. That means less dust particles floating about in the air you breathe

it is something that is very enjoyable to learn and do if someone is so inclined and does eg an evening course. My mum did such when we had a lot of Guy Rogers furniture, and dining chairs from grandparents. You could get a job which is 90-95% as good as a pro. But allow an elapsed year or 18 months overall. Then you will always have a talking point in the house. Or if you are in a furniture area then I am sure there will be umpteen people who do it weekends. Just ask around. Eg ask a local gym who redoes the leather on their machines. Or get your company to do it. Personally I have a tenant who is a professional upholsterererer who works on the line at a high end furniture manufacturer, so I am sitting in clover eating a buttercup on this one ? . (*) F (*) Sorry - cowslip, as they are more exclusive than buttercups - see Watership Down. Reserved for owsla.

On my outbuilding I dug 2ft x 2ft holes. Compacted soil at the bottom of the holes using a ram, then put in 4" of MOT Type 1 hardcore I had left over from another job, also rammed. Then 100mm of concrete ( or rather I put concrete in until the level was right which was about 100-150mm depending on the hole). My out building is timber framed with oak posts and cladding and a clay tiled roof.

We got our awning from Roche and when we discussed it with them they suggested that we have the full-cassette option as this would protect the awning from winter weather (which in the UK is a big thing). It was one of the best investments we made as we kept going back on our decision and then deciding to have one etc. If you're unsure, get some advice but I would recommend a full-cassette as it has withstood one of the worst winters we had and some very high winds. Hope that helps.

I used Leyland OK in my airless sprayer. Only snag I found was that the stuff I had from Screwfix had been standing around a long time and took a fair bit more mixing, as it had settled a lot at the bottom of the can. Not really a problem, just meant more time mixing. As for storing the gun etc without washing it out, I found that leaving the gun dunked in a bucket of water overnight worked, but that I still had to take the nozzle off, the nozzle holder and the curved seal thing behind it off and clean them all carefully before re-use. Cleanliness is next to Godliness with these things. Keep them very clean, lubricate them every time you use them and store them filled with a mix of 60% ethylene glycol, 1% sodium nitrite and 39% water, pumped through the unit several times via a bucket, then the system will stay free from corrosion etc and remain ready to use after a good rinse out with water when you next use it. The sodium nitrite is the main corrosion inhibitor, Using this mixture is the same as the "pump armor" stuff, that's sold at hefty premium by the likes of Graco.

Hi again Firstly I should say that spraying emulsion paint on to interior walls and ceilings is at least semi skilled and That these machines operate at very high pressure therefore can be dangerous if not used properly. Mix the paint in a 30 litre bucket, 20 litres of good quality paint to 6 -8 litres of water, stir with a paddle on a drill for 2-3 minutes. If you do the painting at the optimum point in the order of works this minimises the need for too much masking. I usually just mask the windows and external doors with sticky back film and tape and chuck a dust sheet over any stuff that is in the room. Overspray will go on the floor and on to skirtings and architraves, as long as these are pre primed then a light sand and top coat later the overspray is covered. Its not a deal breaker if sockets and switches are on, it takes about 30 seconds to mask a socket with 50mm tape. Setting up the machine is a bit too complex to explain just with words. A typical room can be first coated in about 5 mins. With regards to those who say that the finish is so good that it is a problem then this is a nice problem to have. I’d say get everything two coated for speed, move in, then when you’ve got more time paint the walls in your chosen colour or special finish with a brush and roller. I hope this is helpful. @Ferdinand

My experience was that the wall/ceiling prep was no different at all. Prepping the paint is a little more involved, as it has to be very, very thoroughly stirred, far more that most would bother to do when painting with a brush or roller, but really just a matter of using fresh cans of paint and a drill-driven mechanical paint stirrer well. Flat surface are dead easy, corners less so, but I found that swapping out the nozzle for a smaller pattern one and doing all the corners first, then fitting a wide nozzle to do the walls etc, worked fine. I used a large painters george as a hand held mask for edges, very quick and easy to do once you have the knack. Getting the pressure right for the paint and nozzle was a bit of a knack, too. Too much pressure and you get some bounce back that creates dust, so best to dial the pressure down so it's just enough to get an even pattern. By far the biggest issue if the clean up time required for the airless sprayer unit, hose, gun, nozzle and filters. I found it takes as long to clean the kit properly as it does to paint a whole room, so best to plan to do as much painting in the same colour as possible in one go, that way you only get the clean the system up once, rather than several times. I never found a reason to use a brush or roller, and managed to practice enough to be able to spray pretty precisely with a good surface finish. It would now be my first choice for a big emulsion painting job, for sure, but then I detest painting anyway...............

Reporting back on the Wagner Project Pro 119 from @alexc. That is a £600 machine when new. My handyman did his first ever session earlier this week, and did 3 rooms with 2 coats of Leyland Trade Contract White over new plaster - walls and ceilings. Total surface sprayed was about 140-150 sqm x 2 coats = just under 300 sqm. That took 5 hours of actual spraying using a total of around 27 litres of paint, which had been diluted 10%. I went with Leyaland because current Wickes offers gave a good price of £1.30 per litre for an order of 30 or 60 litres (10l tubs 3 for 2) - about 30% below the best price the Johnstone's Centre could do even with a Trade Account unless I bought pallets of it. That is just about 1 sqm per minute, which is probably slow in the scheme of things - as we ran it at a lower pressure setting than Alex said was possible. So coverage was just on 10 sqm per litre - a little low but one coat was the first one on the plaster. We deliberately took an elapsed day or two to learn the system and work out the tricks and let the knowledge sink in. Masking the rooms was done carefully, and took about half a day, and cleaning the machine afterwards took about an hour. The estimate is that overall it is probably 3 times quicker if including the masking in this case over using rollers etc. We mixed the tubs for about 15 minutes with a drill paddle immediately before us, and had a bucket of water to submerge the gun when not actively using it - that may be overkill. There was quite a lot of overspray, but that is probably partly down to the learning curve. Masking the floor with building membrane would fix that. i think the easiest mistake to make would be to dispense paint into a bucket which has been used before and not cleaned *really* thorough - the little bits of paint which flake off are exactly the right type to block the gun and waste half an hour cleaning it. We just diluted the new 10l tubs 10% and put the paint pipes in there. Were I using buckets I think I would use a new one every session; the 75p or 99p for the bucket is cheaper than time cleaning out blockages. A good purchase, which will pay for itself within one job just in saved time. And I want Alex's plot moved to Derbyshire to build a house on. Ferdinand

Depends what you're spraying, really. If it's emulsion, or water based paint, then just an ordinary dust mask will be fine, as there won't be any fumes and there's not a lot of dust created either. If you're spraying oil-based paint or lacquer then a respirator with an appropriate organic solvent cartridge would be a good idea. Even then I suspect the benefit is small, as the fumes won't be significantly different from applying the paint with a brush or roller. It's easy to think that painting with a spray gun is going to create a fog of paint and fumes, much as older, high pressure, low volume air spray guns used to create. Because there's no air with one of these guns, the only paint dust is going to be stuff that either doesn't hit the surface (usually because the gun isn't pointed at it) or that bounces back off the surface if the gun is too close, the pressure is set too high or the gun isn't perpendicular to the surface. The spray pattern on one of these airless spray guns is pretty tight, as long as the tip is clean and not worn (they do wear out after a few tens of hours of use). With practice you can paint without masking anything, just by using a larger version of a painter's george as a mask, held in your free hand. I found a scrap bit of thin plywood, with a bit of thin, but stiff, plastic sheet, with a nice straight edge, taped to one side worked well. You can just hold this into a corner and spray away, moving the mask as you move the gun. Decent gloves are essential, as there is a risk of paint getting blown into your skin if you accidentally point the gun at any unprotected part of the body. It's a bit of a compromise, as thick rubber gloves give good protection from the high pressure spray, but don't allow the dexterity needed. I ended up using the Port West A320 PU coated gloves. Not ideal, in terms of giving total protection, and they are porous on the rear surface, but they give good dexterity, and that's a greater safety benefit in my personal view.

Further to the above, I've been digging out prices if anyone wants to mix their own pump corrosion inhibitor. It seems that the Graco Pump Armour is a bit pricey, at around £16 per litre, so it's worth looking at a cheaper option. For those that want to make their own "pump armour", then here's a recipe, using stuff from ebay. Bear in mind that this will produce the same concentrate as the Graco product, so needs to be diluted in the same way before use. This is actually a 60% ethylene glycol, ~1% sodium nitrite corrosion inhibitor mix, so near-identical to pump armour, and at least well within their production tolerance, right at the upper end, so it will, if anything, be slightly more effective. Buy 5 litres of 100% ethylene glycol (around £20 from ebay) and 250g of sodium nitrite (also from ebay) for around £5 (this is more sodium nitrite than needed, but it's cheaper to buy 250g). Mix 50g of sodium nitrite to the 5 litres of ethylene glycol and then add 3.3 litres of water and stir well. You now have 8.3 litres of "pump armour" concentrate, for the princely sum of about £25 (with enough sodium nitrite left over for four more batches). Dilute and use in the same way as pump armour. The only differences between pump armour and the above mixture is that pump armour costs over five times more, and this home made version doesn't have the blue dye and bittering agent that's added to stop people drinking the stuff. Chemically it will do the same thing, and provide the same, or better, level of corrosion protection. If you don't want to bother making the stuff, then buy blue antifreeze concentrate (not the red or purple stuff) and use that. Any decent brand of blue antifreeze concentrate will be around 40% to 50% ethylene glycol, and will have sodium nitrite as the corrosion inhibitor. The red or purple antifreeze is not ethylene glycol, and may contain silicates and be based on OATs, so is not suitable for this purpose. Decent quality blue antifreeze is about half the price of pump armour, so still a significant saving.

LOOK HARDER !!

About £250 for the 1500kg one last time I looked - they probably do a WiFi version that can be used to lift walk on glazing for about £800 which would be better for you ......

Think I will go with this Some interesting 'tips' in the ad < - > 5. Do not use micro electric hoist as a manned elevator. That's my fun spoiled < - > 9. To enter the construction site must wear a safety helmet. Erm, ok < - > 10. Before the operation, the workers are not allowed to drink. That's my fun spoiled again! < - > 11. The site is not allowed in the barefoot, wearing slippers, high-heeled shoes and trousers. And again!!!