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Hi and welcome. That's a disappointing start to a build. The discussion usually starts with "Show me the wayleave agreement that says your pipe can be there"

I had a few spare minutes on this lovely sunny Sunday evening and decided to spend it writing up a blog post for our basement UFH install and screed. We have a 250mm reinforced concrete slab sitting on top of 200mm EPS300 in the basement. The slab wasn’t very flat and so we decided to use a cement based liquid screed to give us a nice level base for our finished flooring. So we put down 25mm of PIR to level things out and also to allow the UFH pipes to be stapled to. I did some quick maths and I figured out that it was cheaper to use the 25mm PIR and UFH pipe staples than to use pipe clips fastened to the slab and a thicker layer of liquid screed and so an order was placed with our BM and it was delivered and fitted by my lovely wife and me. We found this is a pretty easy task to be honest and only found we had to put a small bit of sand blinding to level a couple of dips in one room. In the rest of the basement the PIR just took the bumps of the slab out. We taped the joints and foamed around the edges for a belt and braces approach even though there was a DPM going on top. Next came the DPM layer. We found this a bit of a pain to do! Not hard but trying to smooth it out and keep it square so that a constant amount was taken up the walls was just fiddly. In the end we got the laser level out and set it about 150mm above screed finished level and then used that to ensure we had enough DPM up the walls. Then we had to tape it to the walls but soon found that standard gaffa didn’t stick to the concrete walls nor the dense concrete blocks! We painted the concrete with a PVA mixture and that helped a lot for that but just didn’t work on the concrete blocks at all. Off to Google and this awesome forum and I eventually found Gorilla Tape which sticks well to concrete blocks and we were off and running! Following this we laid the UFH pipes. This was a job we actually really enjoyed. It was very satisfying creating those wonderful spiral shapes. We made some spacers and I was laying the pipe according to the layout designed by Wunda and my wife was walking behind with the stapler ‘kerchunking’ down the staples as we went. At the end it looked so good we were sad to think all our hard work would be covered up and never to be seen again. This was my first time running UFH pipes and also my first manifold fitting and I was very happy with how the manifold turned out. I filled the pipes with water and the pressure gauge showed that there were no leaks. That and the fact there water wasn’t pissing out anywhere! With the liquid screed booked in we needed to get a move on and get everything finished off and ready. The last stretch was to fit the temperature probes, perimeter expansion strip and create the expansion joints for crack mitigation at the doorways. Thanks to advice from this forum’s users I ran the temperature probes in UFH pipe with the end crimped down so as to not allow screed in just in case they need replacing in the future. I got the expansion strip from uHeat on eBay. It came with a plastic skirt and adhesive already attached so it was a real breeze to fit. Not much more to say about that The final thing was crack mitigation strips for between the doorways. After speaking to the screeder I decided to use 5.5mm plywood board. It was an inexpensive and simple solution. I was asked to cut them to size but leave them to the side of the doorways and the screeders would add them as they went around. Obviously I had to put them in place first to ensure I got the sizes right! So here are photos of our basement ready for the liquid screeders. On the day of the screed they turned up early before the screed lorry to setup their pump and check on my prep work. They said it was exemplary and that I wouldn’t believe the state of the prep work of some of the jobs they turned up to! They had absolutely nothing to do to the prep work which made them happy and made me happy that all our hard work was worth it. They put down their little tripod level thingies and waited for the screed to turn up. Once it did it was really quick work and very impressive. If it wasn’t for the fact that they ordered 6.4m3 of screed but the company only sent 6m3 they’d have been done in a few hours but, as it was, they ended up having to wait a good 2 or 3 hours for the last little bit of screed to turn up. They were not happy as, in the end, they had to spend the whole day here when they could’ve been on to the next job. But, at the end of the day we had a wonderfully flat looking basement floor. And 48hrs later we were walking on it. 🙂 All in all very happy with the whole process and I will be getting these guys back in to do our ground floor screed. thanks for reading.

I have split a corner plot in Hertfordshire. The current plot has a three bedroom detached property. The new plot will have a two bedroom chalet bungalow. This is my first build.

@saveasteading Hiya. My thoughts in line with your text and in green colour to give it a go. About to order the timber for the stick build section of new build (replacing demolished section.) 1. I am trying obviously to get the most efficient design to save timber and labour. Gus - Good effort I can see that a kit build company brings in whole wall panels, places them on a sole plate, then straps a top wall plate on to hold it together. Gus - Yes normal practice, but lurking below the surface there is a contractual reason for doing this. The TF company base their quotes and design on the assumption that dimensionally and level wise they can erect the panels on a controlled interface.. the sole plate. If the TF company are erecting they will send their surveyor out to check the dimensions and levels. But with stick built, can we not build the studs straight onto the sole plate, and then a single top timber (except where doubled/trebled as lintels etc)? Gus- technically in terms of the sole plate if you look at one panel alone.. yes if what you have below the sole plate has a higher compressive strength perpendicular to the grain than the sole plate timber once you have taken into account the load spread down through the depth of the sole plate. But in practice you will often find it very difficult to comply with the level tolerance and dimensional tolerances that the TF panels require. That is one, probably the main function of the sole plate. Call the top timber of the panel the top rail. Above that is another timber.. the head binder that connects the panels together. But.. the head binder serves a number of purposes. For example it adds a bit of stiffness to the head of the wall for. If one rafter is moving more than others it helps shed and share the load out. Also, the panels often work to resist sideways (horizontal) wind loads and the head binder is required to make the individual panels work as a whole rather than individually. This makes the whole system more efficient. Head binders can be long so less chance of say a truss clip falling next to a heavily nailed joint. Remember that a timber can only take so many nails before it splits. Saves wood, saves labour, reduces cold bridge, increases insulation area. I think this may just be a standard detail that is not questioned. Gus - always good to question and share knowledge. This is the only way we learn to build better, safely protect the environment. Now with modern cheep laser levels your local builder can achieve much better control over the tolerances. But! not all builders can do this. Yes it is a standard detail but if you can design for a higher standard of workmanship then @saveasteadingmake sense. If you could remove the sole plate and replace with insulation then there is an obvious advantage. One less joint. more air tight, more insulation and less shirinkage over the panel height. Oh.. timber frames shrink, the outer leaf of masonry less so. Timber shrinks much more perpendicular to the grain (the sole plate, bottom top rails and head binders) than along its length. Thus when we design TF's of two or more storeys we need to look at how we orientate the timber in the wall panels and within the floor zone (the rim beam for example) to minimise shrinkage and differential movement that jambs doors/ windows and causes other "horrible" things to happen. 2. Any idea why there should be a dpc under the sole plate of Internal Walls? Architect and Engineer dont have it but a potential joiner's QS has included it. The wall will be on a concrete slab with dpm below it.......just checking I am not missing something. Gus - Good practice. If your timber is sitting on an internal concrete slab well protected with a dpm and no condensation risk then all boxes seem ticked. But if you have a burst pipe the slab could be soaked for months before it dries. Best to isolate the timber from a slab that could suffer from a plumbing problem that could compromise a major load bearing wall. The houses we are designing should last well beyond our lifetime. at some point someone will get a water leak. 3. Simpson rafter hangers with adjustable sloping foot.....cost about £18 each. !!. x 50. I cant see any competition to this supplier. Know any alternative or something cheaper. Ah.. generally longish rafters, can take about a 25% notch depth before shear at the ends becomes a potential issue. You could use a standard Simpson JHA hanger.. PROVIDED they are not intended to also act as ties. In the round if it is up at say ridge level you can sometimes use a cheep standard hanger and cheep steel strap to provide the tying required. You can even use a timber up at the ridge as a tie if Architecturally acceptable, you fix plaster board to same timber.. free lunch! 4, Inverness area only....where is the best timber price at the moment? The prices seem to have eased, and are about £550/m3 for big timbers. That is list price and should come way down for a big order. Do John James sell direct? Loads of mills doing C16, but is it treated? One local mill said they can't beat the merchants and only do special commissions. Good news on prices calming down. Also, as the rafters become shorter in the triangles of the valleys and hips, is there a stage at which we just bang in 4 nails? Yes it's often called loose infill, less than 1.0m length and uniformly loaded it's pretty much infill.

Worth checking where all the weight is going to be. I dont see any structural grading stamps on any of the timber(c16/c20 etc) and a quick peek at floor joist span tables says 7x2 is good up to around 4m, when graded timber is used.

Has an engineer been out to have a look? I found it very useful talking to one rather than people in the estimating department. They will always start with a presumption that the customer will pay for anything that needs doing!

Our design SAP was done with an assumed air change of 4. MVHR was always planned. The actual air test result came out at 1.4, which I was disappointed with, but the tester nearly wet himself with excitement as it was the best he had personally tested so far. Then when all the figures were sent back to she SAP assessor, he issued the as built SAP with an improved figure over the design SAP. In Scotland at least it appears an air test is a requirement, and I know of one builder nearby who's air test came out better than 3 and he was forced to retro fit mvhr. So plan for MVHR from the outset, or get the air test done before the plasterboard goes on.

*better than

OMG you poor things. I can only offer commiserations at the pain of unexpected costs. If you cant avoid it hopefully you can find other ways to save some money.

It sounds more like a ventilation issue.

Welcome welcome. Plans and pics are always received well!

@Temp Correct. So to design and build to the current BR’s, an application needs to be submitted before 15th June 2022 and works started before 15th June 2023. Not complying with both of those means adhering to the new BR’s.

Nah, that’s got to go, should never have been done in the first place, be nice to your neighbour but it’s their problem to sort out, just give them plenty of time to find a solution.

Given what I thought that batteries of that size cost that doesn't seem like a bad price at all. I have the super optimistic thought that one day you will be able to import / export from the grid at similar-ish rates. Yes there are always efficiency issues no doubt but it really seems like this should happen for the greater good, and in this case there is less reason to have batteries unless you wanted to be off grid for parts of the year. Can't see it happening any time soon though.

Should be fine - I have electric underfloor heating in the kitchen/diner/hall and utility and keeps the house much warmer than the gas boiler when combined with my wood burner. So bigger batteries are more useful to me in the long run. My total price all in is 14K.

No it isn’t. You need to register with the ICO, pay £35 annually and make sure you have signs up saying cctv being used for crime prevention purposes. What you cannot do is install it in changing rooms, showers or bathrooms.

Yes that systems looks similar, and the ballast looks neat as well.

Quick sketch with some varied size circles on it to show “x no Quercus Rubus, y no Crataegus monogyna, specimen Betula Cordifola etc etc” to provide a varied and natural sight line to the location … don’t put too many big trees, and don’t space them too close together as they will need space to spread - the good news is that as they want it then it becomes VAT deductible.

+1. I've just specified 40mm PIR thermal break / upstand for a client where the walls will battened for a service cavity, PB + skirting. There will also be a 10mm foam expansion skirting at the edge of the slab to allow ( the miniscule amount of ) expansion. Pennies to add the foam skirting, so better to be belt and braces. Not necessary where you have a passive raft, but very necessary where you are pouring slabs within 4 boxed in sides and the slab may wish to push out in all 4 directions.

It’s quite simple Sends your drawings to the sap accessor and will produce a sap report for planners Once you have finished there is an as built sap report Total nonsense as they rely on what you are telling them to be true

I'd move to 300mm EPS floor installation. Also @Thorfun used a similar buildup to you recently in the walls. Maybe their comment is worth considering before you commit. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/27181-tf-house-about-to-start-and-last-minute-pondering-insulation/?do=findComment&comment=412180

Here's hoping @pocster's a keeper!

Yes ! Very fast indeed ! I’m at 7 years with at least 2 years to go I reckon ( so we will call it 3 ) . You are positively lightening!! 😁

Half-hour minimum. Often, if I have a project to do over the weekend, I spend Saturday looking for all the tools and materials. It's usually dinnertime by the time I've found everything I need, so I finish up for the day. Sunday morning I go to start again, then realise I'm missing something essential. Quick trip to Screwfix or Toolstation (me not being able to start a job without such a trip has genuinely become a standing joke in our house), back home, half an hour finding all my gear again, then if I have any time left, I make a start. Rinse and repeat. Now you know why it took nearly 5 years from moving in until sign-off.

No you shouldn't submit a reply to your neighbours comment. As has been stated multiple times, a single neighbour objection is unlikely to result in your application being rejected. It would not help your case if your guests left comments either. The planning department has zero interest in how good your B and B is. You really need to get a better handle on the planning process and what the main considerations are in accepting/rejecting a planning app - this won't be rejected on the back of one comment, so if it was refused, and you chose to appeal, removing the neighbours comment probably isn't the issue you need to deal with. You would need to refute the material planning considerations that resulted in the application getting rejected in the first place.

Here is a pic from the internet that I followed but, the internal DPC was lowered to floor level as my builder says if it’s still that high it causes a slip plane above the skirting, to mitigate this he inserted a second DPC on the outside skin 15pmm above ground level. The whole house is surrounded by a French drain anyway because of the high water table

Yes longer ties off the shelf, I used concrete internal skin lintels and brick arches for the outer, no thermal bridging. my founds were dug with a standard bucket but driver widened them as required to non standard width.

Gosh can’t remember but rockwall insulation batts 100mm x2 staggered. My builder was not sure about full fill but they had a BBA certificate for this. After the build was finished the west wall got soaked through winter rains and when I core drilled fir the ASHP pipes I found the insulation had not absorbed the wet at all even though the bricks were soaked. I have since treated the bricks just in case.

Inside your sewage tank? 😆 Nice view though!

Stainless steel wall tiles. Off the shelf in most BMs here. Seperate precast concrete lintels or steel beams depending on span. Catnics are relatively unusual. Typically a 1050mm foundation. 42" bucket or a 3ft with a bit of extra wiggling.

Best to use foil tape that's what it's meant to be.

You may not actually need planning permisson to operate a B&B https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/planning-permission-and-building-control-tourism-businesses If this is still your main residence and you have not made any changes to the actual building to let some of the rooms as a B&B then planning may not even be required. That is the basis that we operated our last house as a B&B as the house was physically exactly as it was in the planning permission.

forgot to mention that there is no laitance as it's a cement based liquid screed (Cemfloor)

The beads and batts are the best for rain AFAIK. Beads are pretty much standard fit here in Ireland for new builds. Mostly 200mm cavities. I've not heard any horror stories.

here's a reasonably reliable source of data for the year 2019 -2020. I've had a quick look and there is some surprising data .... (eg) only 77% of pension credit uptake... those who need it most, I suspect.

@laurenco Hi Lauren, the 2mm deflection is I think more about the centre of the structural opening and was a stipulation from Express doors for the sliding doors iirc. A sag on one side would surely indicate that the side of the opening didn't have enough support? In our case, the steels sit on top of some chunky side supports. If anything is still visible, I'll take a photo tomorrow. No photo tomorrow, means nothing visible. Your design looks much more difficult than ours. Our doors are all sliding doors within a wall, so nothing jutting out. Simon

forget about the PV and sort out insulation underneath your new wet UFH. Now is your only chance to do that. As you say, you can come back later and add PV

This is exactly what I used, full fill in a brick/block cavity, BBA certificate, and I know damp does not migrate across it (damp penetration of brickwork, but not across insulation after building) also it’s not a petro chemical product which I prefer not to use (but had to under the concrete floor as rockwall would collapse 😱.)

Look like they don't fit. Not very good at all. If they were supply and fit then they should sort it out. If you measured up yourself then that's on you. A bay window is a bit trickier to measure but still run of the mill stuff for a window fitter..

I think the rational is to improve the overall dwelling. Personally I don't have a problem with this sort of interference. Setting national standards is the job of government, if it is a good idea, then parliament does not oppose it and it becomes law.

Oh dear. The days of mortar dabs are long gone. A continuous mortar bed is the only way to lay any kind of slab. For more info have a look at this paving expert article Also, as Jonny mentioned a slurry primer should have been applied to the slate as it's not the least bit porous. A mix of SBR and cement the consistency of runny porridge is brushed on just prior to laying. Frome the article: Spot Bedding British Standard 7533: Part 4 , which covers the installation of both concrete and natural stone flags or slabs, requires that these are laid on a "full bedding layer". This applies to ALL classes of pavements, including patios and driveways, not just the big projects undertaken in the town centre or on a retail park.

Hi All, I hope you're keeping well! I just wanted to introduce myself 'Joe' to the forum as I have been a long time reader and now hopefully getting closer to starting my own build. The forum is such a great resource for information and the knowledge of the users is simply amazing - I really do appreciate everything I have read here as it has helped me so far on my journey. I am hoping to learn as I go and all being well, I'll be able to help others as I pass through each stage of the build and gain my own knowledge and experiences. The house is a two story house with a connection to single story building for the kitchen, dinning and living area which in total is approx 330m2 sitting on 0.8 of an acre. It will have a ground source heat pump, with underfloor heating on the ground and first floor, mechanical ventilation heat recovery system and a PV solar array with battery. Windows triple glazed throughout. The current SAP report SAP rating: 92 A Environmental: 93 A If I have missed anything I will update the above. All the best, Joe

For us, about an inch thick stack. Latest CC statements. 3 month's pay slips 3 month's bank statements for all accounts Proof of deposit Detialed costing for project (combo of QS estimates, quotes, all signed off by architect) Proof of address and identity (utility bills, passport) Current mortgage balance and 2 years of original statements. You'll find that will be universal for all mortgage companies.

Welcome. So that accounts for my low water pressure a few days back, and when I returned on Monday my murky water. Out of spite, drill a borehole and get a sewage package plant in. Don't pay the company that charges the most in the country a penny.

so where are these hot tubs? Y’know, for planning reasons…

I watched this YouTube video today and in here he mentions that if you have already submitted you have to finish the build by June 2023 or comply. See from 1min in..

Yes, but my house was 98% complete when we moved in!

You know what, I just can't be bothered.

Silly question but can I just use good old fashion masking tape to joining PIR insulation boards when laying them onto the concrete slab?