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Look ! Clean ! No crap ! Used a brush - magic !! p.s Notice no underground photos ?

I couldn't find it on the website either so called. DITRA 30m roll for £6.67+VAT / m2 as a starter. Thanks @nod.

After putting in an offer on our plot in November 2019 , 3 lockdowns and 2 architect's later we have today received the email to say planning application approved ? might even stop for a cheeky one on the way home Brake ground in 4 weeks , here we go, Still feeling clueless and way out of my depth ?

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.

I have never been sold on this type of design. I think there has to be compromises along the way. I suspect they were originally designed for sub 40 m2 flats in Tokyo, rather than larger detached houses in Scotland. Below is the heat profile of my very basic cylinder. The heating element is at the base, the heating window is limited to 1AM to 7AM. Generally I have finished using lost of hot by 9AM, then it is minor stuff and a shower in the evening (I work the later shifts). You can see that the cylinder 'settles out' by 10AM and then gradually cools during the rest of the day (there is usage in this time) So short of 'churning up' the water, there is little headroom to draw of a constant low temperature for space heating, without reducing the DHW temperature. Note that the bottom of the cylinder is about 18°C by 10AM. But while it is being heated it get to about 42°C (probably higher as all the probes are just taped to the exterior pipework/copper cylinder, except the cold supply with is in the loft tank water itself, why it rises a bit during the day, ~1.4°C, since the mid Feb, so will rise more as the year gets on). So if you look at the mean temperature line, most of the day it is only 30°C, which gives you about 100 litres of water holding about 2 kWh of energy. Now the temperature of the whole cylinder can be raised until the top is sitting at around 65°C, but the bottom will still be at around 18°C or so, that would be a mean of 42°C, so the bottom half is only 12°C higher, not enough to make much difference (shade under 4 kWh). These calculation do assume perfect stratification, which does not happen. It is also late, so my sums may be wobble, and I have broken my glasses, so even @Onoff is starting to look good.

It is most useful in ICF and TF construction You do it as soon as the exterior walls, roof (can be tricky with a cold roof), doors and windows are in, but in the case of TF, before insulation is in. The idea is that you can seal any gaps in the external wall before it is insulated (that just gets in the way) and boarded out (which has the VCL behind it). There is probably no 'one time suits all builds', the idea is to test before everything is closed up, as as I explained earlier, the VCL is not the airtight layer, it is on the warm side of the building.

BN and FP applications are usually only those submitted to LABC’s, not AI’s ?

Unit only yes, but add cost of ducting and installing it. If you can run it via the loft, either straight to the bathrooms, or with some easy boxing if going lower, then cetral unit will indeed be a better idea.

@kxi you don't need to worry about gaps unless they are more than 25mm or so. If you use a drier mix and are gentle with the first few shovel fulls, it'll most stay in place. For the bigger gaps we used a sheet of OSB propped up with a couple scaffold boards. Takes a few minutes. As we were doing an ICF build, we were able to do all the grouting with the left over mix.

Not sure what the question is tbh but... Erm...I have no screed. For the main floor area it's concrete (20mm ballast) laid and tamped using screed rails screwed to the walls. The wet room corner is a different concrete mix using 10mm pea shingle, sharp sand, cement and heavy on the SBR. The A142 mesh runs across the whole floor. The main floor concrete is laid on Polypanels which have the UFH pipes clipped into them. The wet room corner is full depth concrete. Under the (blue) DPM is the pir insulation layer (150mm).

I think their concerns are misplaced. As long as buildings can pay for themselves and perform well within their intended design life, you're best off stopping there, else you risk over specifying and using resources better placed elsewhere. There's a cost (financial and environmental) involved if you end up over designing. There are as many reasons to demolish, dismantle or otherwise mess around with buildings as there are putting them up in the first place! Still, there are plenty of good reasons to switch steel for something else.

Surely the shortest Q&A ever!

there is so much work on at the moment that builders can pick and choose. just to add to the complication, make sure that you check builders references and see some of their previous work. and don't pay up front.

Yes

Oh my, I feel for you Jilly. What a frustrating situation. So are your plans now to draw a line under this builder chapter and take on the remaining works yourself or are you going to try and find replacement builders? When I was starting my work, I had no less than 4 neighbours come and talk to me and share their experiences with builders. All of them had firms either letting them down, 2 of them disappearing, one leaving incomplete work, delaying completion and claiming they had done to completion. One of the builders actually left one neighbour when they got to the roof structure and when chased just said he wasn't interested in the rest of the work anymore! I know it doesn't help solve your situation but hopefully illustrates that you're not alone in this.

How about this topical method of resistance heating: https://heatbit.com/ (not an endorsement...) Current UK kWh and BTC prices suggest about 50% pay back. Could be different tomorrow. I suppose if you lived in a cold, sunny place and had excess PV you might be tempted.

To clarify, my main reasons for using BFRP are: 1 It will never corrode This is mainly a concern for external concrete. As @George points out, concrete will likely eventually crack. With steel reinforcement (especially on a ground slab) this means water gets in, it will then very likely spall and the whole structure need repair or replacement. This might take 50 years to play out, but I'd prefer things to last much longer than this. There is a concern from some that this current age of steel reinforced concrete will result in vast amounts of crumbling structures, at great financial and environmental cost. https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-concrete-56078 Perhaps why China is putting so much effort into non-steel reinforcement alternatives. This mega-project using GFRP for similar reasons due to harsh conditions: http://galencomposite.com/news/saudi-aramco-runs-a-project-using-galen-rebars/ Basalt looked to me like the best of the alternatives: As it happens the concrete slabs that we had to break up in the farm roadway were unreinforced, 60 years old, and had no cracks (why we had to remove them is another story), testament to being well installed I suppose. The steel reinforced concrete portal frame barn is now spalling and will need repair. My steel frame supplier (who puts up a LOT of industrial and agricultural buildings) is similarly negative about steel reinforcement in ground slabs - concrete will last a very long time on its own. Adding steel builds in an inherent flaw. 2 Bit cheaper Surprisingly, it looks like using the basalt mesh might work out cheaper to use than the equivalent steel (mainly labour savings). Unless it all breaks after 5 years of course. 3 Ease of install This is what Orlitech seems to be selling it on https://orlitech.co.uk/composite-mesh-orlitech/ , and I suspect the difference is marginal in some cases. But in our case we were going to hand place 100 x 70kg sheets of A393 mesh, which is a lot of heavy lifting. The equivalent basalt mesh sheets are easily carried and placed by one person who could do it all day. Both basalt and glass fibre mesh seem to be much more used in the US than the UK, but when I last checked, there was still caution over basalt as it is new - so limited to slab on grade work. As in the linked post above, basalt seems to be superior to glass fibre due to better tolerance of the alkaline environment in concrete. Felt like it was worth an experiment. BC had no problem provided the SE was happy (which he partly was).

In the planning stage of new build currently applied for Certificate of Lawfulness very old electrical Qualifications and retired

Seriously guys.

Noise compared to what? I keep saying, My ASHP probably makes about the same noise as the roar of an oil boiler burner, except the ASHP noise is outside so does not bother me. The only time it might bother me is sitting in the garden in the summer, but if it's warm enough to sit outside, it would not be heating the house, just the hot water, and you could go and turn it off and let it heat the water at a different time if that bothered you.

Looks the part. At £5/m2+VAT I'd rather DITRA though even if it's a little more expensive.

They will soon make a mess, they put more on the floor than anywhere else.

Some options here: https://www.protilertools.co.uk/categories/materials/tile-matting Durabase is thicker (4mm) than DITRA (3mm) and about 10% cheaper. There are a couple of uncoupling mats that are less than 1mm thick and quite cheap (<£5/m2), but that's not much room to do a good job of uncoupling. If @nod used DITRA on his own house I think that says a lot.

I don't know if the stuff below is any good, but I guess it doesn't decouple. Only £2.87/m2 though. "Kerakoll Biotex Anti Crack Matting is a reinforced anti-cracking sheet matting, for evening out tensile and sheer movements between the substrate and the surface finish. Also suitable for use as an anti-cracking product for tongue-and-groove hardwood floors on critical substrates. For internal floors. Previously known as Kerakoll Idrobuild Tex Matting" https://www.tilingsuppliesdirect.co.uk/product/kerakoll-biotex-anti-crack-matting#.YKO0bahKhaQ

Ok ! Have to wait until next week now as plasterers in from tomorrow.....

I normally pay about £5 m2 CTD

Get the airtightness sorted. All the rest becomes a smaller problem.

"Standard" insulation levels are pretty good in reality, that isn't really the problem. Though increasing the level in the largest surface areas, or the coldest side of a building can pay dividends. Air tightness is more than just stopping drafts, you don't want cold, outside air, to be able to bypass the insulation and get behind any interior surfaces. This is why building a are wrapped in Tyvek, or similar. They let moisture out the insulation, but don't let the wind or rain in. But because it is harder for water vapour to escape, we reduce the amount by fitting a vapour control layer, which is anything that is basically gas tight. This is not to stop drafts. I shall repeat, this is not to stop drafts (I hope I have spelt draught right). It is purely there to reduce the air mass in the house, which will be at higher absolute humidity and higher temperature than the outside, escaping. This is why MVHR is fitted. Basic fans can be used to just expel the moist air, but why throws the energy out with it. You can still open windows if you want to. So basically, it is not a trade-off with one thing or another, it is a combination of all things. Like a car, I can get away with budget tyres on my low powered C-Max as it is driven steady, but if I had someone else's Porche, or C-Max for that matter, I would expect decent tyres as I know I would drive it like a (expletive deleted) at their expense.

I shopped around and got my two Geberit flush plates (Kappa 20 Chrome Gloss) for around the £25 - 30 off of I think eBay & an end of line place. Both bnib. Need another one. There's a few Geberit spares can be found and 3D printed from Yeggi.

That seems to be quite common - the groundwork crew excavate / re-instate and contract out the concrete work - mine did same.

Yes. 315m², air volume of 900m³ means I need an overall flow rate of about 600m³/hr. A single unit would struggle and due to the layout of the house the pressure losses in the long duct runs would be huge. Two units work much better.

The feedback on German sites about the flushplate is exactly the same, or even more critical. Its clear that both companies are taking the peees.

I should clarify, in case I haven't already, that the nervous break down thing is because my eyes are allergic to chrome. They much prefer brushed brass, brushed gold or matt black. Whilst some of these options are available in the Grohe and Geberit flush plate ranges, they are astronomically expensive!!! Upwards of £200 for just the flush plate. Now I may be may be mad enough to have an allergy to chrome, but I'm not mad enough to pay £250 for a geberit flush plate in "fine brass". I'm now considering Vitra, as they do some very nice flush plates for £20 in matt black. The frame comes with a 7 year guarantee, so hoping it is fine, but if anyone has any experience, good or bad, of Vitra toilet frames and cisterns, grateful if you could share. And if someone like @pocster wants to make fun of my chrome allergy, that would be fine too. If I don't laugh about this soon, I will have to cry.

I’ve done this many times before Especially fast moving commercial TF If it’s traditional just lap the boards past 50 mil Then trim once the windows go in Weve just done a show home with no widows or casings and slimed the window walls to a taped edge 100 mil short of the edge The customers will pay me to send someone to plant the heads and reveals Then tape and joint Just leave the window walls in skimmed But you will have to pay him a couple of man days to come back and pick the window walls up

100mm insulation would need to be PIR to meet regs.

We used to calculate when mixed on site half went in the wall, and half on the floor, not used, or stuck to the mixer, borrowed. Most likely the problem is the difference between theory and what happened to it on the day. It can be as simple as brick frogs up or down or circular holes inside bricks being more or less filled and so on. Sorry I can't be more help. Good luck Marvin

Pre-action protocol you linked to apply when you are planning to take someone to court. Therefore the pre-action protocol begins with the Section 7 requirement that the claimant sets out its claim including specified information. In litigation, this would reasonably happen after you have exhausted all other avenues of resolution, not before you've even tried to talk to the other party to sort it out. Even after you've already tried all other avenues, you are asked to meet and try to negotiate a settlement through mediation or something else according to the protocol before the claim proceeds to court. Here is a helpful link to writing a letter of claim: Contents of letter of claim. It details the basis of the claim. This is not where you start with dispute resolution, it's towards the end. Here is a brief outline by Which? of dealing with builder disputes to illustrate that the formal legal stuff comes as a last resort (see section 6 specifically for when the pre-action protocol applies): https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-complain-if-you-re-unhappy-with-building-work-aWG3g5O4RZCh

Yes I have read the protocol and I'm familiar with its use. There is currently no dispute in the OP. And as I've said you first have to ensure you've given the builder every opportunity to satisfy the contract within a reasonable amount of time.

And before you get to this point of pre-action protocol you still need to demonstrate that you have given the person you're claiming against the chance to rectify the problem/satisfy the contract. If you walk into court and say to the judge something like, I hadn't heard from the builder for a while so I sent a letter of claim and commenced legal action, without having tried to take every effort to resolve the problem, you're not going to get very far with your claim. The judge might very well sit there as say, 'oh so you just started with a threat to take legal action?' My view, which is also based on experience in the courts, is that you need to take every opportunity you can to avoid going down that route. Sometimes this may be painfully slow and frustrating. However, you need to show that you've no other option available to you for recourse other than legal proceedings. Hence why, right now, I suggested it was more sensible to try to re-engage with the builder without any mention of legal action. It's simply premature. I think @Jilly 's approach not to be confrontational is the best bet right now, although that doesn't mean she can't be firm and assertive ?

Be careful about getting the other guy involved. Who (or what entity, if a company), exactly, did you engage to do the work initially? Who was the recipient of the funds (ideally evidenced by an invoice)? If it was a company or the first guy, I'd want it in writing that the funds already paid will cover this other guy coming in to finish up.

Hahaha cheers for the reply Marvin, much appreciated it. Most my mortar ends up on the floor or down the cavity ??

sounds like my own company "Bodge-it and Leg-it Ltd"

No point in treating water to flush your toilet etc. Someone I knew was a medic in darkest Africa and when asked about his house in England they could not believe we shit in drinking water!!!!!?

Admin ! That’s a nasty bait remark causing great psychological damage to me .

Nah!.

LOL!. Now it's too cheap!. I can't see from the photo it has the 'fleece' side. You buy some and tell me how you get on ?

Go on, photo of downstairs ? (where all the crap is I recon!).

Wasn’t “ Pocsters budget basements LTD “ was it ? . Very dodgy company , loads of issues

Very nice, not sure you need fire cement to point up the bricks, it’s far enough away from the stove (IMO). .....WOT NO PURPLE @Big Jimbo will be miffed ?