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All the soapy bubbles can block the air gap, going up the size helps..

I ended up buying the Mammotion Luba and, although not 'stripes' as such, the parallel lines do look pretty good (plus they're actually straight, unlike when I manually mow!). Edit: this was two cuts, one at 0 degrees and then another at 40 degrees.

with a little help from his friend. 😉 IMG_0405.mov

Exactly. Loss for anyone other than the bank. I'm just saying don't assume L o C is an easy answer. I did them for 10 years. When the order turned up it then lay on someone else's land and was still at risk. Then you build it and the client doesn't pay. Can you take it down and away? No. English law is apparently the worst in Europe for anyone other than landowners. Can you stop work? No, you must give your client notice, but carry on. Don't ever go into contracting. There you are, some sympathy for the kit suppliers. They have an unknown client every time.

Exactly that. You really three plans I guess with plan C being people and wheelbarrows. But great effort. Well done on a very neat and tidy job.

You can't change the temperature with the "view temperature" button, that is viewing actual temperature, not the set point. Instead you use the "Set temperature" button where you can cycle between water leaving temperature and DHW tank temperature and adjust them. You have no doubt tried that and found it does not do anything. You clearly have not discovered the bug feature in the software. You can only adjust these temperatures when the heating mode is on. So even though it is the middle of the summer and you don't need any heating, go and turn the heating on. Then you will find you can adjust the hot water tank temperature. Then go and turn the heating off again. I can't remember if I discovered that by accident, or someone else told me.

With the great weather in the last two weeks, following on from the slab pour, we will endeavour to pour the walls of the house tomorrow. I'm thinking I won't sleep tonight. Mentally listing all the things I wanted to do, and re ticking them off. First 7 cube is arriving at 8.30. 🤞 I'll leave this picture with you....

Day 48 of the build was a big one, we poured the ICF ( PolySteel) walls. Following the slab pour 2 weeks earlier, we start on building the PolySteel ICF walls. I've no experience with ICF, and thus can only comment on the usability and quality of PolySteel. The process is straightforward, all the blocks are t&g on all edges, so you simply use a bead of fire rated foam and push the blocks together. Each block clips to the last with two **clips joining the metal mesh inside the block together. Our rebar spec, was I think over the top, but basically we had a pair of 10mm starter rebars vertically every 300mm centres so the first two rows we had to position the blocks over the starter bars. In addition to this each corner block( 2 left-hand and 2 right-hand in our case per course) have 4 off 10mm L bars and pairs of 10mm horizontally on 300mm centres. Our perimeter is just shy of 40M, so all in that's just short of 2KM of rebar. Point 1, the spec calls for 400 mm L corner bars, (which I had cut and bent) you can't fit these. You can get 1 in but the other 3 need to be shorter on one side to get in, this was more so on the first two courses with the precast starter bars in the way. I ended up cutting 1 to 400mm X 300mm and 2 to 400mm X 200mm per set. These were tied in place to the metal grids in the PolySteel. With so many starter bars I made the ones located at windows longer so that they were around 80mm below cill height l, (this was when I poured the foundation.) This saved me adding extra verticals bars after, and in the main worked out. To cut out the windows I had to figure out a good way to cut the blocks. The Steel mesh in the block has a 30mm plate that sits under the surface of the IFC to allow you to screw into with self drilling screws ( one of the reasons I liked this block) For window openings This needs to be cut, I had an old rage metal circular saw and this worked amazingly, if I did this again I would buy one for the job. But I'm never doing this again😂 The most difficult part was cutting the mesh, this is 3mm bars, I used a small cheap set of bolt cutters which worked but was difficult getting into the cavity of the block and then squeezing the cutters. The angle grinder was too cumbersome in the tight space, and ripsaw with metal blade just too bouncy it felt like a bodge, so patiently cut hundreds of 3mm bars to make the openings. I think a small cut off air grinder would work well, as I did try a Dremel type cutter but this was painfully slow. At two courses high it was time to start bracing. This was done by fixing 4x2 to the blocks on 1M centres and at every opening ( the 4x2 will be re-used for studding later) I secured the timber to the blocks with 100mm baypole screws 3 per block in pre drilled holes. Below shows a bit later on but a 4x2 ring beam tied to all the verticals. We also tied the long walls (N&S) to each other with long ratchet straps and more 4x2. A little security if the winds picked up. Once 3 course we're built, I made the boxes for the windows and doors, basically 6x2 screwed through the ICF into the timber. These we're then sealed with some silicon and or foam. On the back of the 6x2 I screwed in some coach bolts to act as a key to fix them to the concrete. Each course we added the corner and horizontal rebars. We then erected some Kwikstage scaffold around the inside perimeter. This is old rusty scaffold but wasn't ready for the scrap man just yet. The bays fit really well, snug if you like. When I purchased the scaffold I also got thrown in a load of 5ft tubes, swivel, couplers and clamps. So I went around and braced the scaffold and tied each section to each other with short sections of pole. This made the stage rigid, lastly used some standards to brace the North and South walls together, creating a mesh in the middle. The final course of ICF seemed easier to cut out the openings, not sure why. All blocks were screwed to the vertical 4x2 and then the vertical 4x2 we're plumbed and tied to the scaffold. This made the whole lot rock solid. I used string lines to make sure the walls were straight and plumb before fixing to the scaffold. Now we put in the vertical rebar, pairs of 10mm rebar on 300 centres. Pic below shows the corner L bars before the verticals were fitted. To pour the concrete, around 12M³, a pump was put of budget as they would have to come from Inverness, we were quoted 2K, so reverted to the 360 bucket method. I created 2 pour boxes and 1 corner box put of OSB, to act as a funnel for the concrete. We poured in 600mm levels and vibrated the concrete. Moving the pour boxes along as we went. The first wagon had 7 cube so this would be over all the cills, once the cills were full, we capped them off and screwed some 4x1 in place. All working like a dream... When vibrating I noticed some of the ** clips holding the blocks together pinged off.. I went down to check levels etc, and noticed that one corner block on the SE corner, between a long window and large lounge window had moved😱. The t&g was holding but the was a 15mm gap. Ok panic starting now. We stopped pouring here and moved moved on but needed a solution. I'm not proud of this, but we used a haulage strap, through the window around and out through the door and back and ratcheted the section of wall together with some timber on the corners to prevent the strap digging into the ICF. Followed this up with some OSB and timber straps. Then the cheap electric vibrator we were using in to window voids gave up. Couldn't handle the stress of the day, my heart rate was in triple figure now. The hired in vibrator we were using from the top was still going strong, and I also had some cheap plate vibrators to hold against the walls which were doing enough. I went around all the corners and added more bracing, berating myself for not adding large strips of OSB on all the corners.why didn't I do that. If your reading this because your planning to use PolySteel then screw large sheets of OSB to the corners.. Ok, heart rate still in the hundreds, but the first truck was done, we were level, with the exception of the problem SE corner to about 1.4m. everything was holding and plumb. The moved corner will be ok, as long as it stays put. While waiting for the truck to go back and refill, around 90mins, I went manically around screwing more battens to the corners. The concrete was setting up on the SE so I was feeling a little better, but worried about filling up the corner With the excitement of the corner issue and my manic battening, I forgot to add the additional supports for the two large windows, these were left out so we could fill the lower part of the wall from the 360 bucket. We start the second lorry on the West wall, working out way to the SE problem, all working well, vibrating and filling as we go, shuffling the pour boxes around. Then the hired vibrator started smoking and gave up. Back to sticks and the flat plate vibrators for the last section. We skipped the SE corner and worked our way along the S and then W walls. With about 3m of wall to complete the digger shut down. Spanners out, more fuel, clean the filters, bleed the injectors, no go, dead. Ok. Fire up my old loader and get it as close as possible and shovel it in... No this wasn't happening, the steering piston decided to come off, an old fault that came back just at the right time. FFS anything else. Yes, those supports for the lintels I forgot.. Pete!! Those lintels are sagging argghhhhh. Acro props and some more tense moments we jack them back into place level and plumb. Ok back to the other fire. We were contemplating buckets when my neighbour brought his Manatu with a big bucket and managed with shovels for the last bit around 1/2 a cube. While the tops of the walls were being floated, and in anticipation for excess concrete we managed to fill some shuttering for a front path, and the start of the ramp to the rear door. This is the offcuts of ICF from the windows that will form the path and increase the levels at this corner hopefully softening the height in this corner. So it's done, it's up, my heart rate is now normal, and I think I dodged a bullet or two. But with DIY and house building you have to adapt to react to the events as they unfold. My list of favours I owe my neighbour has expanded. But we can sit here today and be proud of the product. the SE corner will need a little fettling to get square,but nothing to worry about. On wards and upwards. Day of rest today, just off the strim around the pods, guests due later.

That's plenty. 1:40 - 1:60 is max / min, but as long as it's downhill the BCO won't care....plus the fact that a 50mm pipe creates its own air-break means the water can discharge down the pipe at its own pace without affecting the rate that soap suds etc disappear down the shower drain.

Your plumbing has come along nicely, our young apprentice Looks good to me, just hard to see the actual fall of the long run? Have you put a laser / level on it end-to-end?

It's horses for courses, simple as that. Private clientele who know zero about construction would be forced to use a PM. Not all PM's are any good. That cost is a set % of the gross build (project total) cost and can be utterly unfair and disproportionate, and can also be a 'risk'. That can be a 5 to 6-figure sum. With a company which provides a turnkey service (foundation, structure, insulation, airtightness, B-Regs, S.E. etc) there is an inbuilt opportunity, should you have chosen as well as is practicable, to save a huge chunk of the PM fees that would otherwise reside in your lap, be your responsibility, and would be utterly uninsurable against (most architects and PM's have a long list of exclusions and caveats stitched into their contracts to limit their liabilities) so the risk doesn't go away even if you It's down to trust, getting a "feel" for the customers or companies (the shoe goes onto either foot) and then you decide which is the better of the "2 evils". MBC is like a family run business, and they don't stray from what they excel at doing. They have a 'get in, get done, finish, move onto the next one' ethos, and I for one hold them in very high regard. Would I trust them with £100k of my own money? Yes. Would I trust them with the same sum of money if that relied on them having successfully imported a finished product from abroad to then pass on to me? No. The reason is, trust wouldn't be relevant, as there would be the additional weak link, a completely unknown 3rd party risk attached, a-la the Isotex debacle; a set of circumstances which would then be something that changes things way beyond my comfort zone. These are my own thoughts, and opinions, and not advice. But they do come from over 8 years of familiarity.

Plus 1 Ive left it till I applied for building regs each time Then notified them a couple of weeks before breaking ground

Double check but my understanding is you only need to claim the exemption before commencement not as soon as you getting planning permission. Think the timescales are.. Assume liability - (must be done before claiming the exemption). Claim exemption (Form 7 part 1) - (Must be done before commencement) Commencement Notification - (Must be done before commencement) Get Building Control Approval Build house and get Building Control Completion. Claim exemption (Form 7 part 2) (Must be done within 6 months of completion) Must live in the house for 3 years after completion. You should also submit your VAT reclaim within three 3 months of completion. Caution: If you move in before completion there is a risk HMRC will deem you to be complete on that date even if you don't yet have Building Control Completion).

Yep, this one uses GPS so there's no perimeter wire to run or any of that faff. Setup is literally a case of mapping out your cut zones by driving it around the edge with the android/ios app like an RC car via bluetooth. It uses something called RTK (real-time kinematic positioning) to get down to cm level positioning so it just needs a good view of the sky. You can access it on wifi but that only works for me when it's docked as my wifi coverage outside is fairly poor. I'm running manually triggered mows at the moment as I've only had it a few days but I'll setup some schedules this week.

Porcelain tiles are a good option Strong and long lasting

What if fair? Without know the number of trading TF companies that go bust every quarter, compared to the number in the business every quarter, and what the outstanding liabilities are, hard to say if 6% is fair or not.

It does make a difference, even for a short run. Up to you what you want to do, but I say things for good reasons

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

I don't remember. a lot though! if I ever remember or find the information somewhere I will let you know.

same run but with the basin waste added as I'd forgotten to do that!

Yes I agree it is important to know that many people you meet will agree with this, either instinctively or moulded by its influence. Also to see that another chunk of the nation mostly want to know more about Diana. I miss the chance to see the Sun and Star in the site huts.....clearly telling their readers how to vote, and whk to hate, mixed with childerns comic content . I was employing these people!

My thoughts exactly. Potentially housing for 12 humans but because of 4 bats we can’t live in these 2 houses. Absolute madness just like the planning procedure when bats are involved.

https://flameport.com/electric/socket_outlet_circuits/index.cs4 designing out a risk, that’s good design I think , I just like high power appliances not to cause any issues. I have no issue if anyone wants to fit double sockets, it’s not a coding issue just not my thing.

all news channels and interviewers hypeeverything to the limit and beyond not just bbc -but all of them need alot of bullshit to fill the news slots we now have in all the different media channels so they just pad it out and keep repeating same things its called brain washing

I think the press just look for or make out the world is going end now - everything is extreme. Listened to a news article the other day about mortgage rates and how loads of people are having to sell their homes... The interviewee let it slip that only landlords in his experience were choosing to sell, not general home owners.

I would have thought the flints would whack down better with chalk in the mix as it will fill in the gaps like having fines with type1.

Good point, I must of been skim reading and missed the word bought. Down to the builder to fix.

Do you actually use the deck at that point or is it just a walkway? If not claim the space back for the garden with a path through it maybe. Why has it rotted? I’ve just started planning our deck which will span the south elevation of our house. We’ve decided on Thermopine using hidden fixings and the Justifix mounting system from Sihga.

That’s what you must concentrate on, re invention is good, life,s needs change with time.

Aaarghhhhh. 1 they are horrible to admninister 2. The bank wants collateral. Cash or your house.

I often tile directly on to flo screeds 5 days drying time in plenty of time in this weather I always use the same adhesive as the tiles Flexi Bagged Ardex for timber Keep it simple Don’t buy expensive products for the sake of it

I was very happy with the terms we got from the small-ish TF co we dealt with. 30% deposit 10% on completion of design, to release structural drawings to BC balance on completion of erected structure with an offer from the Co to withhold an amount to cover any missing or snagged portions

The way the house building industry is funded is rubbish. I think this is due to the time for invested money to be returned in a useable product. Hence what we all do is buy one brick, one plank and one nail at a time, pay people at short intervals and watch our houses slowly go up. Everyone's exposure is small, you buy a brick and some mortar, pay a mason and your investment is secured quickly. The disadvantage is you negate the advantages society leant two hundred years ago in the industrial revolution with the efficiencies and quality improvements of mass production. Anything build in a factory like trusses, kitchens and windows are all bespoke to fit in with aforementioned bricks. Hence they have only one customer for the product made. The manufacturer is really exposed. If one person doesn't pay they're left with £££££ of product they can't sell. They respond to this by gambling on the creditworthiness of the client every time they make a sale, often going bust in the process or else demanding large amount of cash upfront like MBC and shifting the risk to the client. As they are the top end of the market and have clientele who can afford to self insure, who can blame them. If MBC were building a standard house type X that could really be erected in any one of 100 clients sites in a blink of an eye their risk would be much smaller. However if they prebuild a bespoke slab and kit for @Furnace and they don't get paid they are goosed. Until we all agree to live in extremely standardised houses we will have to live with the risks of building brick by brick or else exposing ourselves to the creditworthiness of manafactuers and they will need to do the same for us.

surely tho you'd need two pumps else the risk is the same?

I was in a house a while back that had wall to wall ply inside. And I mean ply everywhere. It was beautifully done. However it was too much wood. Plus they daren’t put pictures up etc as it’s not so easy to fill holes and paint over. Be nice in a smaller area like your hut. It’s so expensive though. I have a bunch of sheets left over from the roof to use in the garage as mounting points for all my plant equipment.

The nice thing about T&G is that any mistakes or damage affect only a limited area, and it can be fairly easy to swap out for a new length. With ply it's a much bigger area you're dealing with. If you look at the boatbuilding suppliers (e.g. Robbins of Bristol) you'll find all sorts of veneer options- sapele, teak, mahogany, or teak and holly strips for flooring. Just make sure you're sitting down when you see the price.

You can get ply with a known face quality and material - sapele etc - the kind of thing that boatbuilders use for cabins. I wouldn't order online unless I had seen the quality before. The best shed I've found for standard ply is Wickes - at least you can see what you're getting. Wouldn't 12mm do - 18mm is awful heavy? Also 'exterior' ply to deal with damp well. You can also protect any bits you're worried about getting too hot with thinnish (say 1 or 1.5mm stainless sheet).

Your partner. Forget everyone else. Honest - not tongue in cheek.

Well that’s obviously because some ‘professional installers’ can’t read 🤣 I’ve seen that system boiler install that’s over in the other thread, there’s no way that person was qualified. If they were, then there’s serious issues that need to be addressed in the training sector.

There’s the manual. It has a single call-for-heat dry contact that can go to a programmer, hi-limit stat or just a simple on/of switch. The main controller does everything else

You do need access to the installer password, I just went direct to the manufacturer, they were good and gave them to me, I just said I was installing and needed the code. Had to find the installer manual online, to get all the codes for different parameters, in total 18 different parameters needed some input. Most were basic, like setting up DHW from a switched thermostat instead of PT100 probe, heating and cooling curves, enabling summer/winter switch. There were only two real running parameters to change. They were the fine tuning of the behaviour of when the heating/cooling cycles stops and starts up again. Out heat pump ran for 20 minutes, then stopped and basically say idle for about 4 hours. So for anyone interested this is what happens. You have a demand flow temperature let's say 26 degs. Heat pump will slowly bring the flow temperature up to 26 and try to hold it there, once the demand temp has been exceeded by "X" degs the heat cycle will stop. My original setting was 0.1 degs, so at 26.1 degs the heating cycle stops - I bumped that up to 0.5 to give a longer run time. Once the heat cycle has stopped the heat pump will resume heating when the return temp has dropped to flow temp, less target delta T, less a value "X", this being set at 2.5 from the factory. So return temp required to drop to 26-4-2.5=19.5. my lowest return temp was alway higher than this so I reduced the "X" parameter and ended up at 1.6 instead of 2.5. As we have seen many times the installer doesn't put in much work in to the controller side, does the most basic so he can walk away. In my case he would not changed the the settings mentioned above, he would have set the flow temp to 35 instead of 26 and left cooling switched off. Just had a look at my electric input over the last 23 days and my average is 6kWh per day. This includes 9 hrs slab cooling (4 to 6kW removal rate) (190+m2) and DHW heating to 2 people each day, electric mostly from PV.

That is the type of thing that a new user needs to know. Do you have a link to more details?

Buy the right unit and the controllers are a piece of piss too…. The carel platform on the CE units really is fantastic in this regard.

Almost. The wet side is basic. The controllers can cause problems, especially if the end user does not have the correct access codes.

Design it yourself, but the unit from Chris at CoolEnergy. Great product, great support. Find a local plumber, they’re easy as piss to install.

I wonder who will be the first to say you don't need UFH on anything other than the ground floor of a well insulated etc. build🤔 FWIW, I have three manifolds (2x13 ports and 1x2 iirc) and they feed off a single flow/return. I have it in 28mm up to where it branches off - each branch is 22mm to the manifold. I have a pump on that 28mm flow and then a pump each on the two big manifolds. Nothing on the 2 port...it relies on the push from the 28mm flow pipe pump. No issues with flow. 280m2 - yours will maybe need two flow and returns in 28mm?

A circulating pump running all the time could use 200W, and that should be obvious by the small noise it makes.

I've quoted recently for 48m2 worth of windows and the prices range from £356 to £485 per m2. You can see a chart of them below: PM if you want the breakdowns in excel! Edit: X axis is the area averaged U value of the whole window (glass and frame combined)

Exacta Mundo. 👌 A pattern develops....