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Celotex / Kingspan / Xtratherm style foil faced boards, joins taped with self adhesive aluminium foil tape as a vapour control layer. https://www.toolstation.com/aluminium-foil-tape/p81953

So finally got round to finishing all the decorating over the Christmas break! The front window will be getting swapped for triple glazing at some point, but other than that and a tiny bit of skirting board its complete.

Yes, chimney effect with vents at the eaves and vents and the ridge. With low pitched roofs it is sometimes okay to use vents on both of the eaves and rely on pressure differences across the house to create to necessary air flow. In this instance you need to ensure continuous flow so need a 50mm gap at the ridge. Here's a good illustration:

I have used natural slate tiles. We did adhesive and mesh on the insulation, then the tiles. Butted up with no grout.

My name is Danielle. We have recently been granted planning to demolish our current bungalow on the plot my husband and I bought in 2016 and build a replacement dwelling in Chandlers Cross, Hertfordshire. It will be 405m2 plus a detached 110m2 annexe/garage outbuilding. This is our very first self build so feeling both nervous and excited with the challenges to come!

You will need a pump, not just for the distance from the truck but to get the concrete to all the different parts of the floor slab. Dont even consider a wheelbarrow this needs doing properly

Thank you for your reply, we have argued this point successfully as the horses are solely grazing the field meaning their purpose is not equestrian but agricultural as per Section 336 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 which defines the land use as agriculture when used for grazing. Of course if the horse were ridden, driven or used for breeding their purpose would amount to equestrian.

It's not RHI but I will give him a call tomorrow and see if he can pop by or advise!

I would ask the installer to come back. If it’s a RHI install the installer also has ticked a box to advise they have instructed you on the operation. best to get it resolved while the install is fresh, warranty, defect period etc otherwise may end up like another saga elsewhere on this forum

Indeed. Equestrian is agriculture in Europe but then .... And that's not a Brexit comment it's gastronomical... Simon

Ok so you can get round this. What sort of tiles have you got @Jilly..? Prior to ridge venting the simplest way was to use tile vents - you’ll need to replace a tile every 3m or so in the top 3 rows of tiles. It’s easy done - they push up the tile above to allow access to any fixing and then swap the tile for a vent. They are made to match the tiles. Alternative if you have a planning issue or non standard tile is to use lead vents - lovely looking but eye watering expensive if they are non standard sizes. These are the vents - about 3 times the price of plastic but lovely to look at ..!! https://www.justlead.co.uk/product/roof-void-vent/

Before ordering the smaller one, try it. This will at least confirm the voltage is okay. then leave it on 24 hours and see how hot it gets. You might not need an air gap if it runs cool.

That is about 200W. Hard to tell remotely. Circulation pump maybe. Just that it sounds similar to my cylinder when it is heating up.

See if there is an electrical isolator on the immersion. Failing that, turn all the stuff off in the house and see how fast the meter us running. 20 minutes should be about 1 kWh.

@Jilly you need to insure no moisture enters the roof area the only way to do this is with a robust method of air sealing, if you put the 50mm pir under the rafters tape all the joints together with foil tape, I fitted each sheet to each other with expanding foam fist and then applied the tape. The boards will need to be taped to the walls to make a complete airtight box.

Probably also time to think about wiring for lighting.

This is common with PIR and other light weight insulations and is probably more down to it's lack of thermal mass and decrement delay rather than it's thickness.

I think that according to some bat experts, this new kind of membrane is unproven/insufficiently tested in the field hence why the bitumen is still recommended.

I tend to find actual 'answers' from professionals to be very difficult to extract nowadays. They tend to be vague at best. I suspect this may in part be due to the fallout from Grenfel and not wanting to open themselves to potential accountability for something down the road. Not great, but seems to be the world we live in now. I too have pondered this issue. I decided that I'm just going to get some intumescent stuff - roll or something to wrap around the neck of all penetrations through the floor/ceiling, including soil pipes etc just as a personal belts and braces action. I couldn't find any specific guidance when I searched previously.

It is most likely that the washing machine is only connected to the cold water, so it should not deplete your hot water tank.

Alot of us have used Ubiflex and it looks really smart. Put this is the search engine on here

1000 litres = 1 cubic metre

+1 to the 50mm taped PIR under the rafters. It really cuts down on condensation risk.

We have a pitched roof with 200mm deep rafters. Its a breathable membrane so only needed to allow 25mm for it to drape. Think our insulation is around 160mm PIR. Vapour barrier below and plasterboard. Wish we had more insulation, mainly because it gets too hot in summer in those rooms. You might investigate putting another 50mm layer of PIR or insulated plasterboard below the rafters.

There is other evidence you can use (it’s noted in the claim form). Has to be within 3 months of the document you use as evidence however.

Rob songer did some training videos which he put on YouTube years back, these are very good if memory serves . Stu Crompton is good but he and Charlie Collinson come across as a bit cocky to me (the latter mostly), however they are both doing a good job at promoting their trade, which is vastly under appreciated. The pick and dip method has many merits for brickwork and you can use a smaller trowel and carry less mortar, and minimise inputs to getting the bricks down; saving arm ache.

Does this 50mm air gap have eaves ventilators? If so, is there a continuous gap to provide flow across the whole roof? From the photo, I'm suspect the ridge beam prevents this? In that case you do need to add ventilators. In the photo it looks like the steel beam is inside the insulated envelope? I wonder whether your only other option would have been to look at using woodfibre insulation but that would have requires a re-design of the roof buildup (as this system typically uses an external insulation sarking board). However, I don't know how this stuff works with bats. I think your easiest option is to ensure that the 50mm ventilation gap between your pir and the F1 membrane has sufficient cross-flow and then focus on breathability around the rest of the house.

@Gav_P you inspired me with your superb technical drawings and beautiful simplicity. So here’s the easy to follow guide to build a house .

I don't have a direct answer for this, but I have two vents which go through a cavity wall which I had to put in as a fire stop, which leads from a vaulted ceiling into the loft space, and I put fire rated valves on these to maintain the fire protection, it seemed a sensible thing to do. I think its more about maintaining any existing fire protection

looks great. Is that Howden's Clerkenwell?

I am indeed mate, been a long time coming that one, but finally made it! ?

Yes as per @Bitpipes comment. However yes you can take the cash uo to the allowed value. But once you reach a point you've maxed that out you need to call the surveyor back out to assess the current value which will release more funds.

I was tempering the wind to the shorn lamb. So to speak.

Cracking job mate, bet your really pleased ?

Yes Temp , I have come across this argument before. However this (welding) is a structural safety issue. The counter argument to this is.. prove that what we see will not fail when subject to the design loads and is equal / equivalent at least to the recommendations in the codes. Initially you are often greeted with silence when you counter this way. The photographs I posted form part of a remedial works scheme. It’s a very long story but the builder went bust, the structure was found to be defective and off the back of that the warranty provider instructed and employed a contractor to carry out remedial work. There can be no doubt that they (warranty provider) are now responsible for the welding you see in the photos as it was they that instructed the contractor who carried out the welding. It is fair and reasonable in my view to expect that the warranty provider will remediate the works to a level that reflects the original “value” and quality of the build that they have underwritten. To achieve this, the remedial works should be capable of resisting the loads etc that were used in the initial design. In some cases there may be an allowance for fair wear and tear but this is in my view not applicable to structural safety as it compromises on what we call the “robustness”. The above is a bit off topic but hopefully if any members are having trouble with their warranty provider then this may point you in the right direction. One way of dragging the warranty providers to the table is to focus on the structural safety aspect. Once you turn this into a safety issue then it tends to focus their mind!

Start searching Facebook under alternative living groups.

Klotzen nicht Kleckern That is, concentrate and do not disperse your efforts. In self-building, it is often best to decide on a couple of things and do those - rather than pfaff around over bits of everything. You won't learn 10 trades in a year, so do no try. You can decide to get a couple of skills deeply, or perhaps provide dogsbody type skills to enable you to exploit your pros effectively That might be tidying up the site and labouing for a brickie, or making sure that materials are all in the right place so your £30 an hour whatever does not waste their time. Or becoming an Ebay-sniffer to get high quality things at a low quality price. Or indeed realise that you may add more value by working because you are paid more than you save by doing brickwork slowly. Or spend your time building a knowledge of what you want so you can avoid building it 10% bigger than you need. There will be a collection of things that nobody except you can do - find out what they are. One is to be the keeper of the copy of Spons. (I see that Buttercup has not mentioned the wall that blew down ? ? .) F

OK so why not use a profile and strip ..? You can buy IP65 self adhesive strip and you can get some really nice profile - I used a quarter round behind a bath to cast a glow up a wall and it was dead easy. You need to “hide” the transformer somehow but not difficult. Or it can go in the attic and just use the grey T&E for 12v to the strip Profiles here https://www.ledspace.co.uk/collections/corner-led-profiles/products/flat-corner-led-profile IP65 strip https://www.ledspace.co.uk/products/tradestrip-60-12v-led-strip-warm-white-splashproof

The boss likes ToughButterCups suggestion re the candles. She ALSO wants lights behind the bath. So, back to my original question, can anyone advise on my original post regarding the decking lights?

You're gonna end up doing it yourself ?

so first quote is in (albeit an incomplete figure) along the lines of "still waiting on some pricing of materials and haven't priced the driveway, drainage and pump stations, but will be around £350k". I nearly fell off my seat. goes without saying that I think this was priced to not get the job. oh well, still got another 3 quotes to come in. we shall have to wait and see what they're like before looking at other options.

Mrs Tet will not countenance anything else but carpet and rads upstairs Regards Tet

Well, with my screen name, I'd better be the first to say welcome. And with our screen names, we should both be wary of that @Russell griffiths : he thinks buttercups are feeble, delicate little things. ?

Fiscal deficit boys! Run for the hills. An economist has infiltrated us. Arrggghhhh!

To be fair this is fairly similar to the drawings I gave to my builders when they did my extension.

Oh , forgot to mention ; not to scale and exact quantities not specified

Cabernet Aided Design?

Wife now thinks she may have been in shower over 20 minutes so it could be she completely used up all the water! This hasn't happened when I've had a big bath and she had the large showerhead on and the Mira shower is really powerful. I should have got on the app whilst she was in and adjusted the temperature to cold.....