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I've been gone for some time, around 9 weeks. I'd had a stroke back in August whilst at our caravan, getting us ready to move in 2 weeks later. For the technical people (everyone on here!) I had a dissect of the artery in my cerebellum. Artery opened for a few seconds, which caused a clot and then caused a stroke. The change was instant and I spent 5 weeks in hospital, however home now (well was home for a week now in the caravan, which im very happy about). Its affected me physically on my right side. 9 weeks I couldn't walk, but now I can so very happy. It's just one of those things, I wasn't doing too much (even though I was doing a lot) sometimes it can be caused by trauma, but well never know the answer to that. I was only 39 (now 40!) , fit and healthy, as above its just one of those things. I'll make a full recovery, and no more likely to have a dissect than others are which is low so all good. I've been positive throughout and intend to be, just another hurdle which is no problem.

I have an idea of what you've been through. I had a Haemorrhagic cerebral infarction a few years ago - just before embarking on building 110m2 extensions to house and garage. Having already submitted plans I decided to go ahead with contractors. Learned to walk and use my left arm again while waiting for them to show up. I swear the effort of doing as much as I could manage on the build sped up my recovery. Everyone thought I was nuts and I realise I looked pretty disabled at the beginning but after a year of pushing myself physically I would say I made a full recovery. Apart from not being able to hold on to a piss for as long as I used to. I guess much depends on the luck of the draw but if it happened again I'd take the same gamble. The alternative of giving into it just didn't figure in my thinking. Brains can be incredibly plastic if you take the time to rewire them.

Abnormal service is resumed! 👍 I wish now I'd run a separate return from the basin hots. Could have had a bronze pump and "instant" hot, triggered maybe by occupancy switches.

Why do you want it to heat up faster ? it will cool down faster a nice thick concrete slab works like a big storage heater and evens out the temperature fluctuations.

Why use block ad beam it’s expensive and less thermally efficient

If you can get more insulation in the floor with UFH I would, this will help limit downwards heat loss.

as I near the finish of the internal soil pipes (for now at least) my thoughts are now on the water pipes. I have decided to go with the radial manifold system. our toilets and washing machine will be supplied by a RWH header tank from the loft so they're not part of this plan but I am planning on putting a manifold in the loft to allow each toilet to be isolated individually if required. Below are some screenshots of what I think I need but I have a few questions (btw, ignore any pipe sizes you might be able to see, I just couldn't be bothered to remove them and the software I used ignored my request for metric sizes anyway!). In the master bedroom en-suite, we're having his and hers sinks. is it really worth having separate pipes for each sink or should I just run both of the same hot and cold? In the studio it is a small and rarely used en-suite and so I figure I might as well just run a single hot and cold feed and run both the shower and sink of that. madness or justified?. it's also quite a long distance from the plant room (15m - 20m or so) so I presume it'll need an HRC? Any of the other runs need an HRC? or should I just put one in regardless as it's a sensible thing to do even if our dead legs are minimal? In the kitchen we'll have a Quooker under the sink. I've just got the single cold feed for the kitchen sink and Quooker as I see no reason to have the Quooker on it's own feed especially as they're in the same location. is that sensible or should I run a dedicated feed for the Quooker? think that's it for questions for now. any other comments? Ground Floor First Floor Studio above garage

In very rare circumstances. To get an idea as to how much energy is being used, they are adequate in this circumstance, especially if the crankcase heater is resistive, or acting as a resistive load. It is because with AC, the current and the voltage are out of phase. When voltage is crossing the zero voltage point, current is infinite. To find out true power there is a lot if calculating to do during each cycle to find out, at any given point, what the actual power is. Root Mean Square is one method that is fairly easy as it, in effect, makes all the numbers positive. So less calculations to do. Another method is to take the area under each curve during a cycle, then multiple those areas. That is the integration method. Hard work if calculated manually. What usually happens with cheap clamp in meters is that a power factor gets assumed, often between 90 and 95%. So the meter over reads sometimes, and under reads others. But on average, it evens out.

We left you with a poured slab and we were chomping at the bit to get the ground floor Nudura walls up before the end of the year. Well, I am glad to report we got there - almost ? After getting the slab done, I figured I'd get ahead a bit and it would be a good idea to talk to someone about the waterproofing we would have to put on the outside the walls before we started backfilling. To cut a long story short using waterproof concrete in walls such as these is a complete non-starter, so Type-B waterproofing cannot be used. Visqueen's R400 Radon barrier is not an effective waterproofing method and so we now face having to use a Type A and a Type C waterproofing method - basically this will mean for us a waterproof screed being added to the floor with channel ducting where the walls meet the floor and the "egg-crate" plastic material across the screed and up the inside of the walls. That should eat into our contingency ? ? ? But also it meant a dash to get some waterproof slurry to paint round where the Nudura blocks would be laid the following morning and mixing and painting it on under floodlights (it's the dark grey stuff in the picture to the right). Oh what fun!! But, the following day we were up early to welcome out walls, the bracing and two fine chaps (Louie and Harry) from The Fell Partnership who would be helping us Day 1 to get the first row in place. We then scurried around unloading things off trailers and flat beds, and installing the waterbar between those pieces of upright rebar. By 10am we were ready to go. By about 2pm we had most of the first row in and part of the second row (see below). If it hadn't been for some non-standard corners in the design, we would probably have been at Row 3, but that's what you get for following a design religiously ✝️ (FYI - the T-corner is all to do with the design - don't ask yet) On the second day we were left to our own devices, I had to make a dash to collect some extra Nudura parts and some waterproofing equipment (due to the direction our waterproofing system now had to take) so we made a later start but still we were very pleased to get up to 4 rows installed. Day 3 we were ready to begin installing all the bracing system, and after hitting her head SWMBO was made to wear the Christmas present from her children. and on Day 4 it inevitably rained in Cornwall ? , but before our help arrived again we had managed to just squeeze a block on to Row 6 (the final row before the first pour of concrete) After the help on Day 4, we continued to finish things off on Day 5 by constructing part of an internal load bearing wall, and a wall with the only window opening at this level which will be for the family bathroom. FYI - the rest of that side of the house will consist mainly of windows into bedrooms plus some extra small sections of walling (to be determined) Where we were not able to complete things before the pour happened (time didn't allow) was where the internal wall meets the external wall and there are two doorways to construct (this is why I said we almost made it). I will have to do these in the New Year, mixing and pouring the concrete by hand (just under 1 cubic m) so that'll burn off the Christmas pudding ? A week later (during which we had some more high winds) I came back down to finalise a few bits (like lack of scaffold planks and bracing in some places) to be greeted by a snaky ? wall. so that was all straightened up, the rest of the bracing fitted, and the Nudura joist hangers inserted. (Between straightening and the pour we had Storm Barra, but my remedial work held up nicely) I won't bore you with pictures of hunky men doing manly stuff with concrete pumps etc. but suffice to say it all went very well, with no leaks or blow outs so "he who shall not be named from Channel 4" would have been very disappointed if he was allowed onsite. And so, last weekend (after a midweek pour in the remnants of Storm Barra) I was able to deconstruct the bracing and we are now the proud owners of some freestanding, high-wind-proof walls. Really happy at the attention to detail that Louie and Harry paid to ensuring the walls were straight and true before the pour began - right up my street. So now we have a tidyish site again (for a short while) ready for steels installation in the New Year. We have to finish off the internal wall, then waterproof and backfill outside, and install joists and flooring before we can continue with building the upper floor walls. We're hoping that by middle of next year we can start on those upper floor walls. So until 2022, and the inevitable next lockdown, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas ? and a Happy New Year ?

Thanks all. Crucially I should have added 'ago' to the walking bit (I've been walking alone for the last 4 weeks). Onwards and upwards

Wishing you all the best.

Yes a well designed dormer can really compliment a roof.

I really like the look of (decent) dormers but they are more difficult to Insulate well (thick cheeks) but maybe at your latitude you are less worried about that. Secondly a steel or glulam ridge will allow a cut roof giving a completely clear void in there.

I’m glad to hear you are well. This news is a real dose of reality, puts the minor house build annoyances into perspective. Look after yourself.

So sorry to hear that but well done fir being on the mend, my brother had a stroke a few months ago and made a full recovery. Just goes to show we never know what’s around the corner in life.

That's a cracking looking project you have there. 1/ Remove the roof.. Yes probably the most practical. Keep that timber! 2/ Option 1. - raise front and back and reduce the roof angle. I would think carefully before you change the roof pitch drastically, you could easily change the character, apprearance.. planning issue? As a guess that looks like about 40 deg.. makes for an attractive, watertight roof.. easy on the eye (well mine anyway). Also in terms of structural design it's a nice and angle as it reduces the bending effects in the rafters as more is converted into an axial load. Option 2 - raise all walls and chimney and keep current roof angle. Now that is an option especially if you have enough matching stone to allow you to hide the fact that you have added say 300 to 450mm to the external wall height. Remember though that you just need the outside to match, you can use a cheeper material where hidden. I would try and keep the something akin to the current roof angle. 3 Install three dormer windows at the front and three skylights at the back (north facing) If you raise the walls then you may not need all three dormers. Remember they are a lot of work = cost. Can you get away with two and say put a feature window in the gable end? 4 New trusses either scissors or raised tie across 5m span of the house. On paper your approach is good.. but this is an old building and they don't take kindly to the horizontal forces that raised tie and scissor trusses can generate at the wall head. Yes you can get special slip shoes to mitigate.. but... then you don't get the wall head tying effect.. see later. Have you put a string line / plumb bob over the existing walls yet? You may find they have been enjoying life and are far from straight and plumb. Nothing wrong with that but it can be a challenge to marry up a modern manufactured truss with an old structure like that. I would have a look at traditional cut rafter roof but with say a steel, timber flitch beam or glulam a ridge beam with simple rafters down onto the wall head. The first floor can then be independant and all that leaves you with a big space and a vaulted roof to really play about with. The main thing here is that with a bit of care you can adjust the rafter lengths and so on to follow the shape of the old building to some extent. At the end of the day it depends on what floats your boat. For me.. if it was mine, (can you feel the jealousy creeping in?) I would want it not to look like I had put a modern square box roof on an old building.. I would want to keep the gutter detail looking "original" and so on... and a good joiner (chippy) can work wonders here. For all: I have copied a bit from and old Wolf Systems design guide which lets you see the typical types of prefabricated roof trusses. The raised tie and scissor trusses can add an outwards thrust onto the old wall heads. They are old walls so SE's are cautious and that can lead to an overly conservative design... underpinning, knocking down bits you don't really need to, replacing perfectly good old oak beams and so on. These "conservative SE add ons" can by far outweigh any savings you may make using prefabricated roof trusses. Over the years I have found on these conversions that the walls tend to lean out at the head. It's rare to find them leaning in. That said though, I did look at one that did but the Farmer had excavated out the inside to make a slatted slurry pit for his cattle. Somebody did buy it and turned it into a house! I suspect the pit was filled in before it went on the market. Let's assume you have some walls leaning out. You are adding a first habitable floor so you put some of the floor load onto the inside of the external walls. This tends to tilt them back the right way. At the same time by using a ridgebeam you take some of the rafter roof load and shed it to the inside walls.. this is load reduction on the external walls which is helpful. You also tie the cut rafter to the wall head.. so that if the wall wants to move further outwards the rafter holds it still as it's connected to the ridge beam.. the rafter acts like a tie. The load is tranferred back up into the ridge beam and taken out away from the external wall or in a place you know is good to go. At the end of the day you play about with the structural design so that you try not to add any more significant weight to the old foundations and that lets you say.. hey the old founds maybe good to go without any major interferance = cost. To make all this work and make the real savings at the end of the day I would always say.. let's look at what we have, how does it behave / work and let's design around that. Every old building is different and that is part of the fun / challenge.

I feel for you. I have had a bit too much contact with stoke victims over the years. Just take it steady and heed any signs, my partner didn't, and she did not make a recovery at all. Keep up the physiotherapy, it is the only thing that got my Mother moving again. Now she is like a toddler running around the house. @Onoff Sorry to hear about your Father.

Glad you are on the mend, all the best.

Great you’re back up and running mate !

All the best mate! keep well!

+1 to all of the above. Glad you're on the mend.

Hi John sorry to hear that, I wish you a speedy recovery I had a heart attack 18 months ago out of the blue, like you it was caused by a blood clot following a small arterial rupture Things like this are very scary, and make you feel very vulnerable. Good to hear you’ll make a full recovery.

Keep fighting to push forward - respect ✊

My old man had a stroke at 40. Recovered fully and went on to lead a long life. Died a couple of weeks ago aged 93. All the best on your recovery.

I bring out the best in people.

My brother had a stroke at 46. Doctors said he was lucky to survive the night. But 6 years on and he’s driving but his right arm is still poor and the hand mostly stays in a fist. He also has Aphasia to top things off. But he says this is his second life and is pretty upbeat most of the time and is enjoying life in sunny Scotland. I wish you a speedy recovery and a long, happy and healthy second life! 🤘

That's great news. Life begins at 40!

I guess it depends if you can get to those joins in the event of an issue . 95% of mine I can . But ; I’ve yet to have a Hep2o fitting fail !

If you are able to do ground bearing slab then forget block and beam

Not sure I would change, even if I had the choice. Steady temperature below the floor, about 8 degs, instead of a breeze at what ever temperature it is outside, could be -5, so heat loss could be bigger.

ps. I have considered a hybrid version of two pipes to each room from a manifold and teeing off to each appliance from there. but, as you say, adds more in fittings even though it reduces pipe usage. but also adds joins which I'd like to get away from!

Ignoring any solar gains, our house sits at a steady 19 degrees. Have a big gas boiler and even bigger buffer, to keep the boiler happy. Flow temp in the floor is 23-26 depending outside temp. 192m2 operating on a single zone.

My view on this is simple . Had a manifold of manifolds and run a pipe to every outlet . My backs (expletive deleted)ed so I can think of nothing worse to getting under a sink etc. to isolate it . It costs more in pipework ( but less in fittings if you just let the pipe ‘ go where it wants ‘ . For me to isolate in 1 place is fantastic - and I use this facility easily . I’ve just added an outdoor sink and broke my own rule ; branched off the kitchen hot and cold - it just wasn’t worth the effort of 2 new feeds . So in hindsight; an ensuite for example could just be 1 hot / cold feed rather than be a feed for each outlet I suppose . I guess it depends as well if you are living on a building site ( like I am ) ; the convenience of isolating each thing is great .

if the walls not built, use block and beam and avoid the hassle completely.

I’ve just finished my ground bearing slab from bottom up 100mm crushed concrete compacted 23/30 mm fill sand blinding 1200g DPM membrane 200mm Celotex XR4000 two layers of 100mm all joints staggered and taped slip membrane UFH pipes 100mm fibre reinforced concrete ecFlow why have concrete and screed ? That’s two floors you only need one

Really pleased you are recovering and will get back to full health. Thanks for letting us know and best wishes for quick and full recovery.

Gosh I’m sorry to hear that but also great to hear about your positive progress.

This sheet isn't a dpc, it there to stop hydrogen bubbles forming from the reaction between aluminium foil on the insulation and the concrete in the screed.

I presume you have planning permission? do you have building regs drawings? BCO will need (or at least did in my case) to see the SE calculations for the building. I suggest you spend the next 2 weeks trawling this forum on every possible subject and talk to the existing NI members who have done it all. if you can't get a mortgage on ICF then, rather than fighting the system, maybe pick a different build method? I can empathise with your need to get this going but maybe just take a step back and get some solid plans in place before digging more stuff up!

My neighbours spent or were conned into buying £52k worth of heat pump ground source for underfloor heating and radiators in a very leaky old cob farmhouse. It’s so expensive that they have only turned it on twice allegedly. They poo poo’d my idea of putting in the 2 x heat pumps which run 5 x air conditioners in an 80’s built bungalow. Its been a month since they were installed and I’ve set the 1,900 square foot building to 20 deg C. It is so damn energy efficient and we have no radiators at all or awful copper piping running all over the place. Oncr the bungalow got up to temperature the power used settled down and is powered by the one set of solar panels dedicated to the hot water and heating….not even connected to the grid. 12 x 390w ground mount panels seems to be holding up nicely so far. So I think air conditioning is the way for leaky buildings (I have. Positive air pressure system as well to sort out damp and have constant fresh air coming in). I’m not convinced on Heat Pumps when you use radiators unless in very midterm houses.

I think I would be clearing your site of all top soil, ideally it will land about the height of the bottom of your old strip founds, then a base of hardcore compacted in 100mm rises to get heights then slab, however, SE will need to advise, it is just what I "think" might happen. I cannot see a slab would be going straight on top of that even if the trenches were not there. When we did our slab, we had to clear down to the clay - in our case about 24".

Put one a day in your sandwich box and you won’t need to buy any 🤣

Dead animal.

I think that's the only one that needs a comment. Yes - an air gap above. I would install 2-4" less than the depth of the beams, and install it near the bottom.

If using spray foam, you could spray paint it afterwards to make it less obvious.

Allow anyone to knock and rebuild a house without planning provided it would fit into the same "box". No planning limits on solar panels. No planning limits on external insulation/triple glazing/external blinds. No Aircon without solar PV. V5 style deed of transfer and government house "MOT" to allow peeps to sell their old icebox house simply. Encapsulate entire uninsulated streets in a giant polytunnel.

All I'll say is that downlights are the devil, and large arrays of downlights are whatever's worse than the devil. My eyes are already bleeding looking at the array in the kitchen. One thing I'll recommend (which we didn't do enough of) is to walk into each room, imagine specific scenarios about how it will be used, and think about what the lighting would ideally look like for each use. For example, the kitchen is probably going to be the most complex, because it has lots of different uses across the day and night: - Cooking on a weeknight: compare a bright summer's day with a dark winter evening - Eating lunch/breakfast at the island - Eating dinner at the table - Coffee on a dark, overcast winter weekend morning - After-dinner lighting for midweek where you might be wandering in and out from the living room, grabbing a cup of tea, etc - A party where there are lots of people drinking and eating snacks - A dinner party with 6-8 people at the table (does the lighting change over the course of the evening? Brighter when people get there and you're engaged in cooking and organising drinks, then changing focus to the table when you sit down to eat, and perhaps changing again if things continue after dinner) Other things to consider: - Will you have any art on the walls? If so, how will you light it (if at all). - How much of your lighting can be done with local task lights versus bright downlights? In the kitchen example, are you better having some good task lighting above the island where you'll be doing food prep, coupled with some more moody, lower level lighting over the island for when you still want to see what you're doing (e.g., eating), but brightness isn't so important. - Consider lamps and wall lights that are controllable as part of scenes incorporating your main lighting. Another thing to consider is to look at the lighting in bars and restaurants, and see what sort of lighting gives you the sort of mood you're after. It's amazing the impact a couple of lamps with orange or red shades can do to the feel of a space.

No. WC basically maintains the return temp. Target flow/return temp is increased as it colder by taking a reference from the external temperature sensor.

Or an automatic, most modern cars have auto handbrakes nowadays, perhaps SHE could buy herself a new car.

As I wrote the last blog entry, Scotland ??????? were beating England ??????? in the Calcutta Cup and we were all wondering when Lockdown 3.0 would end - we're nearly there apparently. We were also sorting out re-mortgaging to a lower fixed interest rate, - DONE, and we are paying about £200 a month less than before!! choosing insulated raft supplier - DONE, we went with Jackodur Atlas system determining steel re-inforcement requirements for the foundations - DONE and for the most part installed ? So, after more enforced delays, it was back onsite in May with the groundworker to get the stone and blinding sand in place ready for the insulated foundation system to be installed. This involved about 80 tonnes of stone and 15 tonnes of sand being delivered - we have about 5 tonnes of each left over, fo which I have no doubt we'll find a use ? (and before anyone asks, yes, it was rolled with an appropriately large machine at the appropriate time). This all added to a sense of well being - we were in the fresh air, doing something beneficial (for us at least) and we were finally coming UP, out of the ground! Break out the party poppers ? Ahhhhh - the insulated raft choice - it started out so simply having read the various comments in the forum, and Kore Systems it was going to be. I did then visit the Swindon self build centre and saw Jackon's stand and what seemed like a good system. Our SE had specified a 250mm thick slab throughout - no thin bits and thick bits - the Jackon Jackodur Atlas system seemed to fit the bill - a few calls, swap some drawings, commitment to delivery timescales, but with the flexibility I needed, a person onsite on day 1 to help. Quite straightforward. I won't go into detail, but let's just says Kore Systems approach was "our way or no way". With a delivery to a local yard by articulated lorry and then our groundworker getting it on his trailer to go the last mile or so, we then proceeded to handball it all off the trailer. From delivery to the yard at 8:30am onto the ground by 1:30pm. The handballing was done by Mrs BB and I in about 4 hours. The insulation comes with a nice waterproof holder for the instructions and the plan to follow - think "a jigsaw puzzle with the special parts all numbered and shown on a drawing". All the other parts are standard, but if you work from pallet 1 through pallet 2 to pallet N, you can't go far wrong. The very nice man from Jackon arrived just after we had stopped for lunch and we began with laying the first two sides and three corners, and then Mrs BB and I carried on the following few days to lay the rest. We did come across one part while the man was onsite which had not been cut properly in the German factory - you should have seen the delight on his face when he realised he was going to be able to send a snottogram ?. It was easily sorted, but if he had not been onsite I can see that it could have caused a big time day - even with being onsite it took about 45 minutes for him to work out what had gone wrong. Day 1: Day 2: Day 3: Day 4. : Next in was the combined Radon barrier/DPM, the first layer of reinforcing mesh, including a double-layer strip (see left hand photo below) around the 3 sides that will be retaining walls. During the laying of the re-inforcing mesh we suffered our first big accident when one of them caught Mrs BB on the shin and we ended up at the local A&E for her to have a few stitches applied - she is still talking to me ? Over the last few weeks we have managed to get the time to put in the second layer of mesh, with the help of a good friend and one of our neighbours-to-be. We're pretty close to pouring concrete, but just have the starter bars for the external walls and one internal wall to put in place, and two sets of bolts that will eventually have two steel columns attached to them. Oh, and well done Italy ??. (he said grudgingly)