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Today I learnt to lay a slab. it's my first one and not a very important slab as it's just to house the GRP electricity kiosk from CCF Fibreglass and a couple of wheelie bins. it was about 0.2m3 and I mixed approximately 1 part cement to 6 parts sand/ballast pre-mix with some water by hand in a wheelbarrow and then tamped it down to get a rough but level-ish finish. There are 3 x 150mm ducts in the slab for the electricity supply in, out to the house and out to the STP which is nearby so these got in the way of getting a nice tampered finish but, all things considered, I'm very happy with what I've achieved today and think I did an alright job for something that I really didn't care how good it looks. I'll have another one to do to house the ASHP further down the line which I'm sure will be better. what did anyone else learn to do today?

There's been a considerable hiatus in both blogging and building. Looking back, my last post on November 22 last year was explaining how we were finding it tricky to make progress and that my wife was due to give birth to twins in early Jan this year. Little did we know that about 24 hours after writing that post, said twins arrived 7 weeks early necessitating a fairly urgent trip to Glasgow, first for my other half and shortly after for me to be present at the birth. For medical reasons I won't go into here, we have only arrived back home about two weeks ago, a 5 month spell in hospital essentially curtailing all building work (not that it was ever going to be the priority even if things went smoothly). So I expect progress to be fairly slow now, but we have a relatively short list of tasks to completion, including sorting the parking and turning area, finishing the outside drains and completing the access ramp and level threshold platform for the front door. There are a fair few number of other jobs which are needed to properly finish the place, but those will have to wait a while and aren't essential. We're currently pondering a plan around our VAT reclaim. I'm intending to apply for a temp habitation certificate, partly because it might take us a while to get to completion. However, it's easy enough to buy and store any materials I might need to finish my final jobs now, so I'm tempted to try and use that certificate for my VAT reclaim. For anyone following this blog, you may remember a rather large electricity connection quote from SSE (which we paid). 18 months after connection, a cheque arrived in the post for a substantial sum, due to their final costs being a lot lower than quoted! Anyway, I took a quick few snaps this afternoon to liven up this post. I hope to try and get some better ones once we're more finished, and a future post will also consider our final costs.

Interesting thread this. Good technical points made by Peter,Craig et al. To add my thoughts, partly technical, but mainly to open up design options you can consider that are cost effective, that won't lead to problems with your mastic etc on the finishes, sticky door issues, glass that fails due to adverse unforseen loads etc and the subsequent arguments. Don't forget that these large glazed openings cost a lot, the glass, slim frames etc. A bit of technical stuff. The formula for deflection of a steel beam is 5* w* L^4 /384 EI. For the keen, often domestic steel beam design ignores what is called shear deflection but for timber beams this needs to be accounted for as it is significant. To explain the formula for typical domestic steel beams. E is Young's modulus.. a property of the steel which does not change with beam size. w is the load per metre run of the beam. I is what is called the second moment of area and L is the length. Now you can see that if E, I and w all stay the same then if you have a beam 3.0m long then L is to the power of four i.e. 3*3*3*3 = 81 units, if you have a four metre beam we have 4*4*4*4 = 256 Now 256 divided by 81 = 3.16. So you get over 300% more deflection on a four metre beam than one that is 3.0m long all other things being equal. The thing to draw from this is that beam deflections are very sensetive to length. Extrapolate this to an 6-8m opening and you get this exponential deflection which plays havoc with your doors. The next parameter you can vary is the second moment of area "I". To get your head around this the formula for a rectangular beam is I = b*d^3 / 12 where b is the width and d is the depth. You can see here that if you have a rectangular beam 200mm deep beam d^3 (cubed) is 200*200*200 = 8*10^6 mm^3 (mm cubed) but if you have a same width but 300mm deep it is 300*300*300 = 27*10^6mm^3. So buy increasing the depth of the beam by 100mm you reduce the deflection by 27/8 ~ 300%. The way a steel I beam works is that you cut out the sides and place more steel in the flanges. This give a much more efficient shape so by moving the material to the top and bottom flanges you get more "I" for your buck! Now for a big glazed opening design the starting point is how much deflection will be ok over the head of the doors. There are general structural recommendations in the codes that go along the lines of beam span / 360 but these are mainly to do with the other elements of the building. If you have an effective clear span of 8.0m that is 8000mm / 360 = 22mm. That is going to jamb your doors, break the mastic seal (at times you will notice the bend over the opening) on the outside and probably damage any wall paper inside. It's easy to fall into the trap where you see the deflection as being say 22 mm, so you put in 25mm of say compriband.. but if you compress compriband or similar down to 3.0mm it will start to extert load on your doors.. it's good (squashy) but not that good! You also need to make sure that when the load is not there that the compriband will recover and not leave a gap. The next thing (Craig, Peter etc have touched on this I think in the past) is that there is a difference in how you install bifold doors and true sliding doors. A sliding door head can be installed with a bit of a gap over the head as they now tend to be all bottom supported, but bifold door heads need tighter packing at the head. In other words bifolds are less forgiving in terms of beam deflection. If you think about it. When the bifolds are open there is a lot of glass weight hanging out from the building so the mechanism at the head of the doors needs to be held firmly in place so that over time they still perform, the tolerances are tighter and less compatible with the structure. As promised. If you have read this far then if you have a single storey extension with a large opening you may have a flat roof above. Here you may be able to use the upstand on the flat roof to accomodate a deeper beam thus reducing any downstand in the extension. If you have a two storey house with large bifolds etc below you can start to look at turning the upper floor external wall into a big truss. This in the right circumstances can allow you almost take the doors right up to the ceiling! The secret is that there comes a point where a big steel beam is no use / economic if you have some height above to do something. If you have a modern house, say with an "L" shaped roof" and go in the attic you may see lots of thin prefabricated trusses. But at the "L" bit you may see some sturdy looking trusses.. girder trusses. You can apply the same principle to creating a large glazed opening on the ground floor. If I was looking at designing a 3.5m plus opening for glazing I would use start by saying.. I want no more than 6 - 8mm deflection at concept design stage under say snow loading or roof access. I would then look at the type of construction.. masonry, timber frame. Timber creeps over time so that has to be accounted for. I would also look to see how much the founds may settle.. if there is uneven loading.. differential settlement. Once you get a handle on the "feel" of things you are on your way to getting a problem free solution. This all may sound expensive as you need an SE, experienced designer that can look holistically at this but it may only cost a little more for the extra design input. Ideally it may end up that you save money!

I think thats powder coating. As soon as you get close to the sea all the guarentees start to wither. Have a look at the fine print. We will have powder coated aluminium gutters and the manufacturer - very reputable, won't offer more than 10 years corrosion guarentee cos we are within 1km of sea. Normal would be 30 years IIRC.

Oak door linings. Fish pond. Cladding for the barn. And creosoteing

so, here we are at the end of the 3rd week of our build with the groundworkers having dug the basement to depth and put the sub-base down ready for levelling and compacting on Monday with the blinding and insulation to also be completed on the same day. We got a second digger driver on site this week and things have really got going and on Friday we even had a 3rd person to stand around with the laser level to assist. Here's the time-lapse video of the week. The basement contractors were due to start on Monday but as the groundworks aren't quite finished they've been pushed back to Tuesday. Despite that we're very happy and even happier since I've been told that the basement construction should only take 5 - 6 weeks, whereas previously I'd been working on around 8 weeks to complete. This is brilliant if they can do it in that time frame and I've already given the timber frame company notice that we might need the TF a couple of weeks earlier than anticipated if they can accommodate that. only time will tell if that's the case. The week finished off with me laying my first ever slab. It will house the electricity kiosk and also be a place for our wheelie bins to go. it was actually the UKPN surveyor who suggested to me to make the slab for the kiosk a bit bigger to allow the bins to go there. I thought it was a great idea and saves me creating something further down the line. Being a bit of a cheap-skate I use some of the old shiplap cladding from the pool house that got pulled down so it probably wasn't the best wood to use for the formwork and, after I put one piece down I did notice is was a bit warped but figured it's just for bins so just left it there. if it's not obvious it's the piece on the left hand side. Also, the 150mm ducting for the electricity cables made tamping the concrete down quite tricky around them so it's not perfect but it'll do. And if anyone asks I'll just say it adds character. seems to be a one-stop excuse for shoddy work. I promise I will take more care over the actual house! For mixing the concrete I was going to hire a cement mixer but at the last minute decided to cancel that and save myself £25 and a drive to pickup and drop-off the mixer and ended up mixing it by hand in a wheelbarrow. that was pretty hard work for someone who sits behind a desk all day and I'm feeling pretty stiff and sore right now but I'm sure as the manual labour progresses it'll help get me in shape in the long run. I'd like to finish with an observation.....this self-building is a funny old thing as I've never ever looked forward to a Monday morning so much in my entire life! I'm just so excited to get to Monday to see what next week will bring. Hopefully I'll go back to hating Mondays once the build is completed. that's about it for this week. I can't wait to see what next week brings.

Tile directly on with a flexible adhesive

@Construction Channel made his:

Ventaxia kinetic sentinel B I think. The in-built humidity sensor exceeds my expectations; you only need the shower on for a few minutes for it to kick in, then it just drops off when it's ready. We put in the boost switches in case we needed to 'clear the air' (and, from memory, to help satisfy Building Regs) but in reality, they're never used.

I learnt about ovens from my Father in law, what to look out for in terms of cleaning, the control display sizes and so on. Off topic.. Don't panic Jilly. NHBC regs touch on this, have copied below their text in italic from section 5.2 D10 of their regs. A minimum void of not less than 150mm should be provided below the underside of floor slabs and beams. On shrinkable soil where heave could take place, allowance should be made for the void to accommodate the following movements according to the shrinkage potential of the soil: high potential - 150mm medium potential - 100mm low potential - 50mm. If you get stuck then I would look to see if the ground has recovered from any trees / hedges cut down in the last two years or more.. this causes ground to swell. Also, have a look at what time of year the solum is installed, at the end of the winter where moisture contents are high and the ground has lifted/ swelled. If conditions are right you can make the point to the BCO that the ground has swelled (heaved) upwards close to it's potential maximum so once you put a dry building on top it will go down and increase the void. A reasoned argument coupled with a pragmatic BCO could resolve. This is a bit of last resort stuff to get you out a hole if you get stuck.. say main underbuilding levels set.

Think I've used them all. I'm basically a price whore. Ffx good on lower value as delivery normally inc. ITS usually dearer but do have occasional offers. Powertoolmate fine.

Another thought... If the cill is moulded in-situ and the cill's concrete core flows into the facing brick frogs, that will result in a nice structural bonding & reinforcement of the base of the window aperture.

Ok so for those that want to see a pretty horrendous - but acceptable - load graph then is is from a job we did but did not use the steel in the end as it was designed without the ridge as a single steel. This is the sort of detail I get from the SE - note it’s in three sections which is the inputs, the graphs and the notes. First off, this is a beam that is 305 x 165 - no small beam. At 46kg/m it would weigh in over 350kgs. It is purely a ridge beam, so no real additional loads. What’s worth noting is the Deflection Limits. Fully loaded, it’s Span/200. That means if you want a 4.5m span that only deflects 5mm max, you need to tell your engineer you want Span/900..!! That is the bit most people get wrong or miss, as it’s a standard value unless you change it..!! Now look at the graphs. The bottom is the deflection graph - at 3.75m it would be deflecting over 15mm. Now finally look at the notes. Note the comments about assumptions made, and the deflection being within the tolerance ..!! This is a beam that is 305mm deep, with a decent profile and yet a 37.5mm deflection would have been acceptable ..?? That’s 1 1/2” in old money ... So maybe a few people need to talk to their engineers and explain their requirements and a lot of these door issues wouldn’t occur.

I cast a load of coping stones to match a Yorkstone using a mould made from kitchen cabinet offcuts. Mix is 4 parts washed plastering sand, 1 part white cement and 1/2 lime. Half filled the mould, laid in some cut up rendering mesh (glass fibre coarse mesh) and then topped up. Vibrate it with the SDS drill and left to set. all look good and tbh 1/10th of the price of York stone...!!

oh dear.

I have done the several times, need to mitigate thermal bridging, concrete is a bit naff so we buttered the shuttering box with a clever mix of yellow pit sand and white cement , add a few bits of reinforcement then careful concrete, finally top off with the sand mix ensuring no concrete shows when set almost indistinguishable from real Bath stone. easier on the floor for upstairs, quoins etc -

yes, my 9.5kW inverter unit modulates just like a gas boiler and can consume anything from 600W to 3kW. The fan and pump are variable speed as well as the compressor.

I think the answer is, it depends. Assuming an inverter type, which is just a confusing word for variable power output, and assuming it has some temperature difference controls, then it may well draw less current. I suspect the biggest load is the fan as it is trying to move several tonnes of air an hour, and a tonne is a tonne, regardless of what it is made of.

Yes it could sit there for years.

https://www.aluminumhandraildirect.com/effects-of-salt-water-on-aluminum/

Nor me.

Won't do any harm whatsoever. You might get a bit of mould if puddles form but a quick brush and some bleach and it will be fine. If you grout the blocks there won't be lots of water get through.

You can get upvc with vertical joints rather than the mitre. I didn’t think it was worth the additional costs tho, it’s going to be a very small number of people actually notice the joints

There is guidance from the government to planning officers here that has links to the legislation.. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ensuring-effective-enforcement#planning-enforcement--overview There will also be a lot of "case law" by way of appeal decisions over the years.

Why? thats dearer than doing it in 110mm underground pipe, how will you rod it if it blocks. No only suitable for a pumped outlet.

Tapcon screws are good for this. For your timbers you'd need the 82mm length: See https://www.metrofixings.co.uk/main/product/productinfo/606/5 x 82mm 3F82 Countersunk Concrete Screw/1 Installed at 400 centres should work fine. You just drill a hole, clean out the hole and screw them in. For belt and braces you could add some straps. The first method you mention is the traditional way of building modern stick timber frames. Frankly for a workshop, I don't think it matters that much. However, if it's going to be insulated and possibly heated then with the OSB on the inside, this creates your vapour control layer (providing you tape all the junctions and corners between the sheets) that prevents too much moisture entering the frame from the inside of the building. Then, as your builder has said, you just need a breather membrane to the outside. If you go for the osb around the outside, you'll need a vapour control layer - anything from a thin plastic sheet to advanced adaptable membranes - in the inside of the frame. You'll also need a breather membrane on the outside of the osb. So in a way, osb on the inside can be easier. If you're planning to insulate and have it heated, especially with blown cellulose, you need to get the detailing right on the wall buildup to take the pressure of the pumped insulation, but the osb on the inside should be fine. I'd also suggest that if it's to be heated and you insulate with something wooly, I'd counter batten the outisde of the frame with 2x2 and install an extra layer of insulation. Using cheapo glass wool insulation this will be as cheap as chips. It'll take the edge off the cold on winter and help a bit in the summer. So basically you'd end up with a wall build up from the inside: osb stud wall 2x2 cross battens breather membrane battens for cladding cladding. I would line the inside of the roof structure with osb - to act as your vapour barrier, just like with the walls. With the metal roofing sheets you are going to get condensation on the inside. You must make sure you have a ventilation gap between your insulation and the metal roof. So I'd recommend you plan in battens on top of the rafters. With or without insulation, I'd install a breather membrane on top of your rafters, under the battens. Essentially you'd end up with a buildup along these lines from the inside: osb rafters (with insulation) breather membrane battens (forming ventilation gap) roof sheet As with the walls, it's worth considering the thickness of your rafters and the amount of insulation you can get in there. Just make sure your rough opening are straight and true, ? and a bit larger than your windows and doors. 10mm each side/top & bottom usually works fine. There are plenty of sites that'll show you how to frame rough openings but here is one that covers it https://www.jlconline.com/training-the-trades/framing-rough-openings_o The great thing about timber framing is that you can actually still do most of it with hand tools. All you really need is: Hammer Screwdriver Hand saw Pencil Tape measure Square (speed square is ideal) Spirit level Chisel (Stapler for membrane helps) String (for straightening frame and walls) But you'll need a drill for your sole plate and anchors.. Good luck with it!

Definitely not. Why would you want to blow all that moist stale air out under your roof covering. Nope,

No to the cavity from me. You're likely to get off gassing from the roofing materials on sunny days not to mention the ventilated space will get very hot in the sun. On a still summers day even with roof terminal unless you allow a significant inlet height you’re lightly to get elevated intake temperatures. Are wall terminals an option?

I’ve to call on there tomorrow afternoon I’ll have a look

Don't they make a fibrous cement product? Aluminium generally, does not corrode, but if the wrong fittings are used there can be an electrolysis problem. Also, how close to the coast, and how high up. The big waves come in from the SW.

When the correct checks and tolerances etc. are done, they are a thing of beauty (this is a 12m clear opening). When they aren’t they can be a pain in the a***

Why not fit it in the ceiling void so you have no projection into the room below, lots more work but a better outcome.

With something like this. Drill a hole and hammer them in. https://www.screwfix.com/p/fischer-nylon-hammerfix-8-x-100mm-50-pack/33940 It is to do with breathability and condensation risk. After the vapour control layer (polythene sheet on the inside), you are looking to allow any vapour to travel outwards in a heated/occupied building. So as you travel outwards, it is easier for water vapour to travel and be evaporated (evaporation is a combination of humidity differences, temperature and airspeed). To put a sexist slant on it think of drying washing. If you lay a wet towel on a floor, the part touching the floor does not dry, but the part exposed to the air does, this is why we hang washing on a line (not really sexist as I do all the washing here). This is all about detailing. You could probably do it either way. Fitting the OSB on the outside is probably easier when it comes to fitting the insulation but you will be cutting up a lot of small sections of OSB to fil the gaps between the walls and the roof. Not hard, just fiddly and boring. If you fit it with screws, rather than nails, you can easily change it if it all goes wrong. Nothing to stop you from doing both in reality. Make sure the aperture studwork is solid, square and true. And the right size. Remember, it is a posh shed, not a forever home. If you were in West Cornwall, I would come over and have a laugh. What power tools do you have, a cut off saw will be useful, as would a planer thicknesser. And a decent table to work on.

We went through this scenario, we could have had a 9m opening looking out onto a stunning view, but in reality we live in England where it is damp and miserable half the year, so how many times do you open that door fully. We we ended up with a 4.5m door and a 3m picture window, this is far more practical, reduced the cost of the supporting structure, was simpler to build. Win win.

An expensive folly and waste of money for which the TV home shows have a lot to answer for..??

That's the only way. JustBloodyDoIt - habit forming, wholesome, frightening. Satisfying.

I cut the oak trees down 10 years ago and milled them. and then made the door linings and now makeing the doors

I’d make the unit next to the duct in the dressing room a double sided laundry basket/cupboard onto the landing so you can access dirty laundry etc without having to do the wander round the bed etc.

Is there an argument for a door from ensuite to landing so that people can access if necessary, and to take things through to the dressing room without the bedroom hike?

I think you need to get a copy of that report. Write a letter to manufacturer's registered office (which you can look up on Companies House for free)giving them the background and in writing and politely, but firmly, threatening legal proceedings unless they provide you with a copy. The basic points you need to make in your letter are: logic dictates that either the manufacturer is responsible or the installer is responsible; if they, as the manufacturer, are not responsible then there is nothing for them to hide and there is no good reason for not sharing the report with you; in circumstances where they are refusing to give you the report, the logical inference is that the report must implicate them and therefore you can only infer that actually they are liable; accordingly, if they don't provide you a copy within 21 days of the date of the letter, you will make an application under civil procedure rule 31.16 for pre-action disclosure of a copy of the report. This should rattle their feathers a bit and may get you the report. The report won't necessarily be the gospel truth as its author is probably biased, but it is likely to be relevant to your determination of who is at fault. Your only alternative at this stage is to hire a expert in sliding doors and sliding door installation to assess them and write your own report which you can then use to cajole the responsible party into fixing the issue. If you go down that route, be sure the expert complies with Civil Procedure Rule 35 and the Civil Justice Council's guidance on experts to be used in Court proceedings. I'm not suggesting you actually go to Court, but doing these things and threatening the sliding door company with a discrete Court application that just gets them to give you the report may help in making it look like you are willing to take that step, and that might be enough to prod them into action, get you the report and then use that to take matters forwards.

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Another BPC customer here, we wired the MVHR boost function (sentinel Kinentic +) to activation of bathroom light switches and also put a PIR in for daytime activation. These also activate the secondary return pump for DHW. So we had no need for the switches.

Also it is kW not KW or killa wot ours

Ha, I learnt that block and beam should have a 225mm void over clay, rather than the <150mm my less than reliable builder intends...

And don't mention it on an internet forum......