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Weeks 4 and 5 of the build saw our basement slab being poured. it was a major milestone for us and we're really happy....well, apart from the section that was too high and they needed to grind it down of course, but apart from that we're really happy. ? We have 200mm EPS300 specified for under the slab and this was laid by using a long telescopic rule from the profile board strings 4m above at ground level. We are supposed to have a 200mm toe outside the slab and luckily I was outside when the basement contractor's engineer came for a site visit to set out for the slab and I asked if it was square and was told it was a bit off in one corner. a bit off turned out to be 70mm. now, in my mind if a structural engineer tells me that the 200mm toe is needed to take the 45° load from the walls above then you really should have a 200mm toe and 130mm just wouldn't cut it. you'd think that wouldn't you? but, it turns out that unless I was there to ask them to move the insulation so that I had the correct toe all around it it wouldn't have been done as the corner points had already been marked. I got a few huffs and whinges about 'but we've already set out' but there was no way I was letting it slide and made sure I was happy with the toe widths. This just goes to show the importance of living on-site as I pop out every hour or so to get a break from my desk to see what's been going on. if I didn't do that I wonder what else might get missed and just covered up? Anyway, after the corners were set out the FIS waterproofing membrane (http://www.fisproducts.co.uk/product/maxiprufe-plus-2/) was put down on top of the EPS300 as this will then join the same membrane on the walls to form a waterproof wrap around the basement to ensure Type A protection and with the Type B waterproof concrete that will give us our 2 forms of waterproofing. Following that was the formwork, steel bar and mesh, hydrophilic strips (http://www.fisproducts.co.uk/product/cemflex/) and kickers and then we were ready for the concrete. The day of the slab pour came and we were extremely excited. It was though, as I’m sure it is in most cases, a very last minute dash to get ready for the pour. The contractors were let down by a couple of extra pair of hands on the morning of the pour so they were rushing around finishing off bits in between lorry loads of concrete. it all worked out ok in the end though. We took loads of photos as well and here are some for your enjoyment. The waterproof membrane on the EPS: Formwork almost complete: Steel mesh: kickers almost finished. the final ones in the courtyard (to the right) were done on the day of the pour: The shuttering for our sump in the courtyard: first lorry load: almost there: finished: sadly the weather turned a bit for the worse during the pour and the finish isn't perfect so we'll probably have to put a self-levelling screed down but we can cross that bridge when we get to it. the next morning: After they struck the slab formwork they made a start on the wall rebar. it's only now that I see it up that I realise how bloody high the ceilings will be! 3m was the request and that is what I got. painting them will be fun. ? I did create a video for these last couple of weeks but as all the work was predominantly down at the bottom of the big hole and the camera didn't really catch it all I've sped the footage up quite a bit. Still, I think it's a pretty good watch and you can certainly see a large portion of the work that was done. (Please note that the music has explicit lyrics so you are forewarned) This week they’re starting on putting up the formwork for the walls and we’re hoping to get a pour in towards the end of the week which will be great. I was told that the walls should take about 3 weeks in total so we should really see some great progress over the next few weeks. As always, thanks for taking the time to read our journey.

I am pleased to see people specifying 8mm max deflection. If you need to install rigid pipes or ducting through these, do it NOW. You could blow in thermal insulation - either fibre or polystyrene. If you do the latter you will not be able to have PVC cables in that zone.

Thank you all. I am on-site now but will review these suggestions tonight when we finish. We are working on our corner posts now and I’m delighted to find everything is perfectly aligned and square ?

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.

Good points from all. The geology of Lincolnshire is quite variable, some expensive to build on ground, great ground too and stuff in the middle. This is where you can get tripped up. Try and find out as much as possible about the ground as this could have a big influence on the design if you are on a tight budget. The other thing in Linconshire is flood risk.. have a read around this and see if this could throw up a design issue. Have quick look here for an educational resource and if you feel able then provide more info on your site. http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html In some ways you can get quite far managing the cost risk but if you don't spend a bit of time researching the ground then you always have that big elephant in the room that can stop you enjoying the journey as much as you could be. It's often said that if you are building on the ground then what lies underneath often poses the biggest cost risk. At the concept stage try and spread your research time so you cover all the elements of the build rather than focusing too much on say the choice between timber frame and masonry construction. @hbooth If your not sure about the geotechnics / ground then just post on BH and you'll get plenty help.

We have a B&B first floor with UFH. Think the make up is... 75mm UFH in screed 80mm PIR (would use more now) B&B Floor 150mm beams with 100mm blocks (so 50mm void between beams) Battens on clips supplied by B&B company Plasterboard. The combined depth of plasterboard, batten and 50mm void was just enough for Fire and Part E rated downlights. Our SE recommended using two steel beams in our largest room to reduce the span that the concrete beams needed to cope with. Thses steels are deeper than 150mm so the tops project into the 80mm PIR. I can make a sketch if thats not clear.

Problem solved, courtesy of Ali Dymock's amazing YouTube videos and the span tables linked to above. We need 10x2s for the 4.6m span, and will put in some noggins for stability/to better support the roof. 18mm ply on top, with EPDM over that. It actually looks achievable now, although we only have until the end of the day on Monday which might be a challenge. I can see that Ali Dymock left his garden room wrapped in tyvek membrane all winter, so if we run out of time to do the cladding it won't be the end of the world as we can return to it later on. Where would I be if not for the buildhubbers?!!

By the sounds of it it might be worth buying or long term renting a small telehandler. There will be many, many more heavy and bulky deliveries during your build. Think of all the blocks, sand, insulation, steels, slates, stones, paving, kerbing etc. We had a 7m manitou for a while, was brilliant. Stable and powerful enough for buckets of stone, pallets of bricks etc. Foot print no bigger than a mid sized car, but far more manoeuvrable.

Often 72 blocks in a pack.

You probably wouldn’t get discrimination/selectivity between mcb/rcbos in the consumer unit best to stick to a fuse.

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/WYDSF100M.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=315107931576&placement=&kw=&network=u&matchtype=&ad_type=&product_id=WYDSF100M&product_partition_id=987624279487&campaign=shopping&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuvyIwqPl8AIVT7LVCh1SBgu6EAQYASABEgIfhvD_BwE if it’s more than the max permissible you need one of the above units to protect your cable. the one that the DNO supply protects their cable and meter.

How will you clear the roof between the two pitches? I may well be completely wrong here but a colleague had quite a bad experience with a similar setup where leaves and other dirt accumulated quickly, keeping water there and eventually causing a serious leak.

Our near passive build only costs a few quid to heat/run a day and will always have a low energy requirement as it's highly insulated & airtight. That higher spec was not that much more cost when taken across the whole project. Architects (hopefully) design buildings that will get permission to be built, meet the needs of the occupants and to a rough budget but they can have flights of fancy that are expensive (we have some pretty, rear bedroom balconies that were not cheap are are never used). The cost per m2 is the best approach - take your build (as distinct from project) budget, divide by £2000/m2 and ask for a house that size. If you're confident that you can build for lower (or increase your budget) then ask for more. Paying for professional project management services (architect or stand alone) will add to your costs and may keep you on budget and to the specified design but they rarely 'save' money. Having a main contractor will give you some peace of mind and 'one throat to choke' but they will expect to make a margin on top of the build cost. Taking this responsibility on yourself will save you that cost but you also introduce the risk of making mistakes so it all needs to be balanced out.

100a is permissible if the tails are 3m or shorter, but if they’re longer then you have to downsize to an 80a fuse at the meter. Check with your BCO about the acceptable mounting height of the new CU as there are all sorts of crazy bastards out there mis-quoting regs I assure you. You may have to ask for a deviation for the CU to go above the “recommended” knee-jerk height so get your ducks in a row before mounting the CU.

It's 6m span, I had checked the span tables and a 304 would have done it at 400mm centres. seems excessive for sure. I'll let you know how difficult it is to turn an MVHR pipe in there! Seems definitely like the logical approach. For the master I'll try and get some insulation in there, albeit it is 2dB a change by 3dB is actually a halving of the sound power. So it's significant. Soundbloc and resilient bars being the best bet. I'll need to do a wee bit of research on flanking sound, thanks.

Very nostalgic for our own build - these are the best times and well done for calling them out on the mis-alignment. The only times things went wrong for us were the few times I was off site - I missed the last week of groundworks due to a work trip and even though the working trench was filled with the specced stone on 3 sides, it's now obvious that they used excavated spoil for the last bit at the rear as it all settled and has continued to do so making our patio uneven. Same contractor also hit the electricity main with his machine causing a small fire on site - I got a very panicked phone call while in bed in Tokyo A week we took as family holiday nearer the end turned into a bit of a go slow for the joiner (day rate) and decorators as my site cam evidenced. As the old saying goes - 'It's not the work that expected, it's the work that's inspected".

? it is a sump for the land drain and the courtyard drainage. the water then gets pumped out to, eventually, an inspection chamber and then discharged.

If I was specifying this at design stage, I would put it in the utility, after the DNO's cut-out install a 100A MCB in a little 2 way enclosure - you may even want to consider a 4 way unit and put in surge protection - then run out a SWA cable as a submains to the consumer unit. I'd use a 25mm 3 core for the short length and all the additional cost will be.

Very nice. Looks good. I love concrete pours! Even now with my build nearly done, any excuse I get, I order a ton of all in one and get the mixer out. What is the deep hole area that appears to have shaft leading down to it?

You can penetrate it (otherwise how would they fix it to the structural ribs) and it self seals but if you subsequently withdraw the fixing then you should seal the hole with airtightness tape. I doubt one or two holes would make a difference but lots will. MBC put a 50mm service batten over the airtight board, aligned with the structural ribs, and for any load bearing elements like TVs or sinks etc, I just put in additional noggins or ply where required within the service cavity. The electrician also took care to fix back boxes to the service battens (or on noggins spanning them). Where penetrations were required (e.g. outside light) he put a duct through, angled downward, and sealed with tape to the face of the board. When the required cable is pulled through the duct is sealed with silicone and another bit of tape on the inside.

yep, the horizontal membrane goes up the outside of the wall a bit and is overlapped by the vertical membrane on the walls enclosing the whole basement in a membrane. with regards to costs the waterproofing section on the quote is around £10k which also comes with a 25yr insurance backed warranty. it's a cost I'm happy to pay for peace of mind.

Each DNO is different but the common number is 2or 3 metres max, then you will need to run a sub main with suitable fusing of your own. your local electrician will know this

I'm not an electrician, this is all based on what I have researched for my own install.

My understanding is the meter "tails" to the consumer can pass pretty much straight through a cavity wall to a consumer unit, they cannot be longer than 2M. and cannot run or change direction in a cavity. If they are longer than 2M an intermediary switch/isolator is required. If the meter tails need to be run to a consumer unit they need to be protected in metal trunking

Just wanted to say a big thank you for all the advice I have received from everyone, I really would have been lost without it. Will be swapping over the manifold.

This membrane - there will be separate rolls for the walls attached to the ones under the slab? Do you have any indication of the cost - I know you have groundworks as a package. Sorry, more importantly: great progress and an excellent catch in the corner!

Or use I joists https://elliotts.uk/i-joist-faqs

Well done, great progress. You can join your separate ridge beams using a scarf joint. There's a very neat video on it by Skillbuilder - Cutting a scarf joint for a carpenters roof - which is a self locking version, although you can use a simpler 'straight' cut which is bonded or mechanically fixed. You will need to some pretty hefty timbers to span your 4.6m flat. If you're looking for a vaulted ceiling, it may be worth looking at plywood gussets as ridge rafter ties, which you can make . Otherwise, if you have the head room, adding ties across the span at wall plate level is pretty straight forwards and probably a safer best. You don't need to build roof trusses so to speak. Here are a couple of links you might find useful: Article: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/framing/how-it-works-collar-and-rafter-ties Video: Plywood Ridge Rafter Ties Verses Conventional Roof Framing For Small Sheds - Building Better Roofs HTH

Utility and hide it in a wall cupboard. Pretty sure regulations prevent it from being directly above a toilet/cistern.

it is voltage drop, resistance and heat related. The switch has to work harder and can be problematic over long runs. IMO a short patch lead being stranded and the structured (in-wall) cable being solid is fine.

Have you looked at the online timber roof span calculators? They obviously come with a bit of a caveat around the assumed loads but if you know your roof makeup you should be able to adjust if necessary and it might give you the confidence in your roof strength/assumed timber size. Something like: https://www.timberbeamcalculator.co.uk/span-table/flat-roof-joists?load=1&class=C16

@Dave JonesNo they aren't. Cite your source.

Looks great. That basement height will be mega.

I'm new to self-build myself but a fair bit further on from you. My own experience re the architect has been very positive and I can only imagine the mess I would be in now without him to be honest. I'm sure going it alone for some is the right thing to do, but I certainly do not have the confidence to do that. Our architect has been brilliant to deal with in all regards and comes in at a total of £3500. I'm more than happy with that and guess like many thinks it's different strokes for different folks. As far as build costs, you could ask 10 people and get 10 different answers in my opinion. It depends on the complexity and design of your build, whether you're simply going to pay a builder to do it for you or project manage and become the main contractor yourself. Plus, material costs are increasing massively at the moment but there is talk that might start to correct by the end of the year. Whatever, sounds like you're past the point of no return, try to keep your design simple and try not to spend more than you need to while targeting a quality of build that you will be happy with - that's what I'm doing. The Builders Bible has some good advice re construction costs and how design can affect them.

It’s very difficult at the moment with materials nearly doubling over the last couple of months Plus one with Steamy regarding Architecht and also a very good point made about choosing your contribution method If you are looking for speed Look no further than TF But TF kits are costly Traditional will come in quite a bit cheaper But take longer to get to watertight

Welcome. Start researching different construction types, brick, block, timber frame, SIP, ICF, rammed earth even. Then decide what you can do yourself. Then decide what you can do without. Sack architect, they will spend all your contingency, and more. You don't need much more than a sketch to get planning.

Welcome. Lots of posts on BH covering the same issue. Have a look at the Costings part of the site. Quick guess, multiply your floor area by between 800 if you are very experienced and 2500 if you like me haven't a clue. That'll give you a very rough range. Pick your target from within that range. Our architect told us that we should expect to pay 1500 per square meter. I haven't checked recently, I think we've overshot by a bit after 5 years of slog.

Yup. Mixer / plumbing to stay as-is. An hours worth of spanner spinning and it’s 100% sorted. ??

No the mixer is correct if you look at how it is piped, it’s the manifolds that are wrong. On some you can swap the flow meters for the actuators but it’s easier with these to slack off the grey nuts and switch the manifolds over.

@Nickfromwales will the mixer work if he does that? Or should the mixer also be moved?

Just drain down, swap the two manifold rails over, and reconnect. Should take an hour max with one spanner. Isolate the loops with the red and blue taps, towel down to catch the 2 pints of water, or less, and crack on. Everything else can stay as it is. Simples.

Which way is pump arrow, should be upwards. The reason the manifolds need to be swapped is that the flow regulators only really allow correct flow in one direction, yours are being blown shut by water passing through them in the wrong direction, probably limiting flow. Is your extension off the same manifold, or a different one?

We had a similar problem under our windows, so rather than creating a lower ledge with ballustrade across we built up the plasterboard to create a higher display shelf/recess for my kids artwork. Works ok for us.

Drive and half shafts. Kind of defeats the purpose of them. Strange some how people like modern kit in a house, but want to own a 70 year old design crap car.

When thinking about windows, I always consider where I can wander about in my pants without scaring neighbours etc. So the big window on the stairs is great for light, but not privacy... plus it’s south facing so will have significant solar gain.

Couldn’t believe my luck when I found this covered in dust in a barn - 2 full sheets of OSB - kerching £££ (Shamelessly stolen from another forum).