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Hi Moved in on Saturday after 2.5 years but that includes doing up the house we were living in and renovating my sons flat. Flooring still needs laying down stairs and a new kitchen when finances allow,will come in at around 1k per square metre 300 sqm external. Have enjoyed the journey and thanks for the advice from yourselves.

Done . Blobbed tile adhesive as Nick said . Gone down to the ply so I think good coverage . Also scrubbed the underside of the tray as advised before laying . One (expletive deleted) up though . As I’m slightly further from the rear wall a small section of marine ply is just on the edge of the trap . I can feel it with my fingers . Awkward but I’ll have to cut that out from underneath somehow . Problem for next week . Just to prove its level ...

Seeing as we were going to be using the whole plot width and the overgrown garden would then be impossible to access (sensibly) with machinery we bit the bullet on a big clear-out. Getting our soakaway in also meant this was a good thing to tackle before the house so we've spent a few months of stripping things out so we could create the soakaway area, building a lot of gabion walls and laying artificial grass. Oh and we built a shed - a very fine shed indeed ? The soakaway is deep under the ground in the foreground - which helped to elevate this end of the garden to create quite a nice level area with space to the side for us to run drainage down and to plant some trees & other screening plants. The gabions are part filled with rubble and faced with local gabion stone. Gabion steps are a great idea but they aren't very durable left unfinished so we'll be designing a top surface for them later. We managed to redistribute a lot of the very sandy ground from the main plot area to level up the ground down here. Everyone needs a shed and every shed needs a base. Unfortunately there was a misunderstanding somewhere and the orientation of the slab didn't match the shed footprint hence the add-on on the right! we have some large over-hanging maritime pines which endlessly drop needles - grass would not last so after much research decided on artificial grass. This is mid-way through installation over a bed of 50mm compacted sand on top of the mainly sand base. From the top looking down

https://www.illbruck.com/en_GB/products/innovations/i3-system/ Essentially an i3 application (3 layers) in a PH it's a given to be honest, it doesn't matter who supplies the products but it should be installed as standard. PU foam is not water tight it's an insulation layer. ME508 or equivalent is not water tight, it is an airtighness layer. So what weather tightness has been applied on the external aspect of the window frame? That's why compriband is used. It has thermal properties, it has weather tightness properties, it has acoustic properties and we all know the importance of thermal performance in a Passive House.

Hoping it may help, I would summarise the differences over say 10-20 years ago as: 1 - A well insulated house gets isolated from the outside environment more, as both heat (insulation up) and air (leakage down). The house itself becomes more stable. A tell tale was insights from quite some time ago (15-25 years?) when people started superinsulating that eg "the temperature in the lounge only goes down half a degree in 24 hours when I turn all the heating off". The overheating in summer thing is the flipside of that that took some time to be appreciated. 2 - That introduces big changes behaviour and management - heating and cooling interventions are relatively smaller (and bills are less), but that also means that there is less scope to fix overshoot and environmental factors with big interventions - when they happen (which is hopefully less frequently). 3 - That in turns mean that control has to be almost designed in, which is why we have all these simulations, PHPP, solar projection models and all the rest. 4 - Two of the differences that we have noticed here over the last several years are a) that low autumn / spring sun is one area of concern, and b) summer overheating in really hot spells above 30C is another. Which is why we have all these wooden lattices around windows, and are thinking about evolving heating systems - either with cooling built in or extra eg split aircon units - to also do cooling or overheating mitigation. 5 - Things like local microclimate and externals such as trees can become relevant. 6 - In my house which was done to perhaps some what better than regs at the time I have some of these issues that I am currently thinking about. 7 - My view is that these factors gradually become more important as spec moves from current building regs towards PH levels. 8 - I find that some of the approaches and tricks used by my-dad-the-architect or my attempts to renovate rentals to higher standards help to address this is my own (somewhat less analytical) manner seem useful, so I talk about those - even though a lot of it has been a combination of gut feel and conviction. Other people have looked at it through a lens of numbers and calculations. 9 - One of your needs is to reflect on this as far as you find necessary for your new house. Then over the next decade you get to test how right you were in your assessment. Action learning ?. Hope that helps to try and express a summary in plain English. Ferdinand

Not sure but I couldn't add any more images to the other blog post so this is a continuation..... The interesting plot has 2 downhill aspects ? One is the main garden and the other is to the left/front of the house where we will have an elevated parking area - there is an earlier entry describing the build of the metal structure and helical piles etc. This pic is after the beam & block & rebar just before the concrete went in. Back in the garden w finished the lawn and built a shed. About a day to build and same again to paint, sticking some lawn on the roof means it will hopefully blend in well with the garden when seen from the house (& our neighbours!) On our boundary we hoped the ground would be stable enough to leave exposed for a while but unfortunately not as it was all made ground and not the lovely compacted sand we expected! So a little extra bit of work for a retaining king post wall - steels 6m in the ground. The excavated level needed to go down about a meter from what is shown here Moving on up we could finally start in the basement floor excavations - here is the 1.5m deep trench getting dug. The basement is a reinforced concrete raft 300mm across the centre with edge thickening to 450 and a LOT of rebar. Next pic is the deep trench filled and ground almost ready for a concrete blinding layer. We had a beautiful concrete pouring day! Blinding layer poured no problem - you can also see in that pic some of the 10T of rebar for the basement floor and walls + the start of the waterproof membrane install. We've had a few dramas on the project already - abrupt change in groundworks company, unexpected retaining wall, covid delays, other delays, missing steel in rebar delivery and we're only just getting started. But we're still smiling and still saying it's about a year away whenever anyone asks when we'll be done.

In all seriousness you could end up on one of those crappy neighbours from hell tv show. You are currently on the high ground. Chillax. Now he knows what people think of him,

Best not to get too abusive, even if they do deserve it. A good pal of mine had a real rant at his next door neighbour (who was being and indeed still is an unpleasant t**t) after a few pints and ended up in court. Unfortunately it seems that giving someone an accurate assessment of their character and demeanour is no longer acceptable in the nanny state, even if no physical violence is threatened. Just remember revenge is best served cold, over plenty of ice ?

Re do it with a dry ridge system, SO much easier. I did a wet ridge on a previous garage and it was a faff. A dry ridge system is so much easier.

Still going to be part of the community as there is always something to learn

I priced up building a double garage and reckoned it would be in the low 20s, this is a 50% larger building with insulation, but you are getting to close to the same price just for the slab. I put up a thread asking about garage build. The house will be timber frame with render board on the outside. The architect mentioned maybe we do this for the garage, but when you price it up, a cavity block wall is really cheap to build which is what people suggested to me. If you don't expect this room to get that much use, I would be looking at building a basic insulated building, basically a garage with Rockwool in the cavity and standard strip foundations unless there is a reason for a raft. Not sure what the cheapest floor build up would be but a raft seems like an expensive way to do it, maybe you just need an old school suspended timber floor with insulation. It is a single storey building so shouldn't need major foundations. I wouldn't be recommending this at all for a house, but for a building with infrequent use the extra cost would never be recouped in running costs. Maybe you plan to use it all the time, but I would question how much use a building 50m away will get when it is cold. As suggested a timber garden office type of building is another option, but unless you can build it yourself, a block built building will probably be a similar price and more durable.

We paid around 750+vat for initial model which analysed a couple of variables.

Big mess. I imagine with experience there is a sweet spot that minimises waste. I would, 100%, use a tile levelling / gapping system on the walls and floors next time. If there is a next time. Worst bit of the bathroom both in doing it and how it turned out. I reckon I'd be alright if I was apprenticed to someone for a bit. You can see why bathroom fitters and tilers earn so much! ?

Wrong person to ask mate! ? I seem to remember going OTT with adhesive, notching the wall in one direction then the tile in the other. I was squeezing more adhesive out from the joins than eventually held the tile to the wall! The one thing I forgot was to back butter the tiles when I did the wet room corner. I just notched the floor. (Mind I forgot to add fibres to the slab).

you’ve just replied to a post from 12 months ago ? I had a DIY kitchen in 12 years ago it was excellent. I’m just sorting things right now for my next DIY kitchen and service has been superb again so far. I sent a query to them via their message system about something 7pm last Friday. Expecting a reply into this week they replied 14 mins later. I’m going for the LUCA handless doors this time round they are such good quality really thick like 22mm. Your delivery will take up LOADS of room probably twice the size of your finished kitchen so make sure you have load of room. There is a LOT of packaging. If sitting for a while try to leave as much protective packaging but inspect ASAP. If possible take photos or better still video as you unwrap packaging. Just so you can reassure them any damage is not due to you doing it when fitting etc and thus helps to expedite any replacements. I had zero damage to all my units and they came up to NE Scotland. Likewise my best mate who ordered for them after my recommendation. one tip I’d give is this. If your kitchen has lots of the same door eg 600 high line or whatever get a spare door or two. My 12 year old kitchen had damage to one door which they no longer carried. Had I been able to swap it my kitchen would have looked brand new. sorry if this is patronising advice if you are an experienced fitter or whatever. ...and no I don’t work for them. Just a big fan. I think they’ve had some issues through lockdown but that’s understandable.

What NOT to do: I should have moved everything up a bit to avoid the silly, time consuming rips at the ceiling. Jury's out for me on putting fittings in one tile. I did for the shower controls. For the flush plate though I didn't. Dead easy to cut 4 squares out (though this 10mm off):

Paper Towel obviously.

I wouldn’t worry - this is a garage and you won’t get damp through there as long as there is place for water to flow downward. Cable in, squash some foam insulation round it about 4” down then top it with concrete and you’re done.

Take it to the grave with you. ? All good from what I’ve seen / heard. ?

So my neighbours have always had issues every since I put planning in . I needed to put a new drain in within the vicinity of a shared boundary . I originally emailed the neighbour with photos from every conceivable angle and that if any damage occurred I would be liable and repair or replace . Chance of anything happening would be near zero as I dug the drain trench by hand and it was a metre away . Neighbour kicked up a fuss and sent us down the party wall act . Total cost of that was around 5k ! Anyway today same neighbour came to me and asked if they could build on top the party wall probably about 60cm . You can imagine my response ... wtf is wrong with people ! . Sure increase the height of the wall via the party wall act . I knew various neighbors would need my consent for any party walls we share , just had to bide my time . Today karma kicked in .

You could have some blueberry bushes near those pines, assuming they get a modicum of sun. They may not need an acid top dressing there. Unlike mine ☹️.

That's interesting. For us the process was fine. Line by line attention to detail is needed. I remember cold fear. That I'd get the dimensions wrong, that a window would be dropped, that one wouldn't fit, that the slider just wouldn't slide. The windows are our highest single item cost. (Hmmmm, let's see about that... what might she manage to do with a German kitchen, eh? ) I must have treble checked the as built dimensions of the window openings three times. For the 4m slider, there was about 5mm clearance top and bottom, less either side. BTW, I'm still finding good uses for the high quality packing timber, and almost every Torx screw used to hold the windows in transit. Not that I'm mean or anything

Roofer that had the misfortune of using them because the customer bought them.... Brittle, severe colour variation from one pallet to another and not holed properly. Some with one hole, others with none but the marks from the punch machine. I'm a roofer and I would recommend you avoid them.

A perfect message to clear the air for a harmonious and peaceful coexistence. Well done. Did he stay for drinkies?

It's amazing the number of people who don't get the concept of not being a dick. It's exactly why I went to some length to get a plot that just had farmers fields as neighbors. Having said that I may regret it when I have to dig 100 meters along one of the fields for electricity.

I reckon that's a clue in Lidl. If all the boxes are intact then it's either new in the last day or so or OK. If there's one opened box then it's probably OK, people have just been having a look. If there are multiple opened or taped boxes then there have been lots of returns, avoid. Most of the stuff I've got from there has been OK or good but there've been a few bits of crap. E.g., a workmate-like thing which was very poor even though I picked one of the few boxes which hadn't been opened. I'd take more notice of that, now.

This was an occasional but recurring topic on eBuild, including a topic that Jan and I initiated. Our water supplier (Anglian Water) has a strict policy to the effect that: the pipe into the house must be a min of 75cm deep and their surveyor must review the house installation for compliance before scheduling any connection works on the public highway. (There is a waiver for approved installers but in practice these guys only deal with large installations.) The standard way to get around this is to do this installation in 2 phases: Install a standpipe and request connection to the standpipe. This triggers digging up the road and connection to your property including the installation of a meter, stopcock and double check valve at or near the boundary. This has a 6++ weeks lead time. When the house and plumbing is "finished", then apply for approval to connect up the final supply to the house. This has a 1-2 week lead time in our area. So you can parallel up the external works and 1st / 2nd fit with the roadworks for the costs of a standpipe and the extra site visit, which is often worth doing even if you are never going to use the standpipe in anger. What is crazy is that our water table near the boundary is about 150mm below the street level so IMO there is no way that A.W. will put their meter and stop cock at 750mm because it will be permanently covered in ½m water. I did suggest just making the standpipe available and fitting it at the same time as the digging, but no: there is an absolute rule: the Anglian survey engineer has to review the installed standpipe and standpipe tail for compliance with their guidelines before any groundwords can be scheduled.) See attached photo where I've marked the position of the standpipe; there wil be a second coil of MDPE from the standpipe. The black pipe is for the electricity supply. You can buy made up standpipes such as this one: PL34 Standpipe which costs £235+VAT and is as per attached image, but I will buy the bits and make up my own for about £30. One wrinkle is that A.W. insist that the bibcock must not have a hose connector -- so I can either spend ~£30 for one without a hose connector of use a £7.50 one and angle-grind off the hose connector. Hey-ho!!

Eek! ?

So if I tell you there’s just 3 blobs of ct1 under there it’s ok ? To my grave it will go . I did do one thing Nick . On the Marine ply I scribbled nick from wales was ‘ere Then when it leaks and a proper plumber takes the tray up he’s bound to ask “ which joker installed this ? “ There will be your name ... ?

that comment reminded me of this clip ?

I’d be more concerned over the lack of bond on the blocks

Unfortunately I am three hours away. At my parents last house they had a yew tree with about 100 years of needles underneath; ditto Scots pines. Amazing compost. if you need a disposal point, try @pocster‘s lift shaft. Then he can get his fridge down there just by dropping it.

I am a bit late to this thread but when I designed our house I used I beam rafters to give me depth for insulation (warm roof) which meant no trusses or internal beams, I have a large loft which contains the MVHR, it’s boarded out, foldaway loft ladder and so I have ample space for all that crap like Christmas decorations, suitcases and wife’s out of season clothes. I would not be without it as a usable storage place.

@Onoff gets the prize for most geographically distant British Mainland cultural insults in a thread page.

More fingers to hold onto the fence panels surely? ?