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Finally we have concrete! After cancelling Fridays pump job due to someone hitting a high voltage cable on a the Thursdays job he turned up at 7:30 this morning to set up, however he wasn’t a happy bunny as anothe4 of the pump guys had inspected the site access and had said it was fine! After a lot of struggling he managed to get into a position he could put the legs out to allow him to deploy the boom. Thee hours and 25.5m3 later and a lot of hard work for the two of us, we have an excellent insulated concrete foundation! The first load goes in. The finished job. Spot the concrete pump truck.

I’d paint it with poster paint... then wait for a good rain shower and say it faded ..!

I’ve just concreted the foundations for my new build. I’d calculate the volume to be 23m3. I got a second person to check my calculations and they came to the same figure. I talked to the concrete pump guy and he said I should order a little extra and some would be lost within the pump and pipe work, so I ordered and extra 1/2m3. The pump guy guy turned up today having never seen the job, one of his other guys had been on site to check access and had said to him it would be fine. So he set up as best he could, as a result the rear end of the pump truck was stuck out into the road. Becauses of the distances of involved We had to carry extra lengths of 4” rubber and steel hose up onto site and couple these to the end of the boom. Four concrete wagons turned up at half hour intervals and the pumping went smoothly, with only two blockages caused by hard lumps of cement within the concrete mix. However we were about 2m3 short. So I ring the concrete company and ask for an extra load. It turns out I should have ordered “23.5m3 PLUS.”The PLUS means that your not exactly sure about the volume required, by saying PLUS you’re staking a claim in the pecking order, so if you ring up for extra, you get The next load out of the batch plant. If you don’t say PLUS and you ring up for extra, it’s like placing a new order and you could get it as the last load out of the batch plant or maybe first load tomorrow. Having finished pumping we had to uncouple and empty each additional length of hose of concrete. The pump guy then inserts a foam ball into the end of the pipe and sucks this back to his truck, filling the pump hopper with any concrete left in the delivery lines. This has to be discharged onto site, in my case onto the stone driveway. I then had to barrow 10 loads up a steep drive and dispose of it into a canvenient hole (I’d estimate there was about 1m3 within the concrete pump and hoses) in my case, a freshly dug foundation. Whilist your doing this the pump guy is power washing the hoses, equipment and pump truck all over your drive. One final thing, you also need two bags of cement to prime the concrete pump. Luckily I had two bags on site as the pump guy expected me to supply it.

@newhome There is a mix of large houses (similar to the photo above), restored hospital buildings and the rest of the houses are standard developer houses.

Yeh like the dwarves .... There was dopy, stupid, clumsy, brainless, clueless, witless and c**khead.....

Remember to put expansion gaps at doors. We screeded two rooms and then tiled right through with an opus pattern stone. The two areas of screed appear to have shrunk very slightly towards there own centres pulling apart/cracking at the doorway. Needless to say this curved crack propagated through the stone. This despite a lot of effort to do it right, including using fibres and covering the screed so it didn't dry too quickly initially, then waiting a long time for it to dry before laying the stone using a flexible adhesive etc. Just forgot/didn't know we should put an expansion gap in.

Size 10 the ground floor is 145 sqm internal floor space and the garage is 36 sqm internal floor space

So here is the i in team. Post ‘approved’ by @Nickfromwales

Well we had a mouse fall out of the ceiling yesterday, when I went to pick it up to release it it BIT ME.... the bastard!! I was freeing it and it bit me (luckily my gloves)... so it flew out the window, not intentionally, I just jumped at the vicious rodent attack and was next to the window.... it landed on a broken wardrobe, looked up at me and ran off (I'm sure it flipped me off too)

Yes. I should have made it a heart

Looks like WD40 will do it over a couple of days. One label is a 9”x9” triangular gloss faced bugger at the top corner. Epilation of a bear would be easier.

The granite will be a Chinese dark pink.

Thanks. In our first unsuccessful application the house was white and the planners said that there was no chance that the house could be white or grey, even although they said it could be an individual design compared to all the other buildings, they said the house had to be either cream or pink as that's what the current buildings are a mix of. When we submitted our second application with the revised design. they then said that the house had to be pink because it's in the "heart" of the conservation area and will be one of the most prominent houses. They are saying pink over cream because it's between two of the old pink granite buildings. I then asked if we could go ultra modern and use zinc, the planners said yes. We came back with various combinations of zinc roof, walls and white render. But again they wanted pink render, so we abandoned the zinc idea as it would have looked ridiculous with zinc and pink render. I would say 85-90% of the new house are cream and 10-15% pink. So tonight I am colouring in all the houses on a site plan, so show the planners just how few pink houses there are in a hope that they will let us use cream.

Given you are going to have the most contemporary house in the area maybe you'll get away with something a bit more contemporary as far as the pink scheme goes? As in the whitest pink or maybe something with a pink / grey feel? I would probably go for RAL 7016 for the rest I think. Can you get the colour palate into a picture so that you can see the difference more easily? I love the style of your house BTW.

There was a thread some time back, what to do with small offcuts of PIR insulation. Answer. Post them to @Onoff

This demonstrates the lesson I (seemingly repeatedly ) learn. Confidence and ability are not necessarily related

They do already. A delight you are yet to experience!

Well from start to finish. There was initial plumbing guy who did the first fix plumbing. Then kept letting us down again and again for second fix so we moved onto plumber number 2. Then there was solar man who came and installed the solar thermal and connected it up. All of the heating and DHW was connected up wrong by that point . Then there were 3 plumbers who came out and fecked around with the heating to get it working (or making it steadily worse as it turns out). C**khead was the worst. Then there was the plumber who came out to do the drain pressure test for the council. He was pretty good as it happens and didn't rip me off like some of the others. Then @Nickfromwales and @PeterW came up and actually did get it working ?. Now I need a solar guy to come and sort something out there so we shall see if I get someone. The whole thing has been a nightmare!

@newhome 50% of the old buildings have been converted into flats. The cottage next to our plot is going to be refurbished as a house. The hall across from our plot is going to be the community hall. The pink round the bay window is actually stone (maybe faux), not render, but yes it isn't nice.

And then start ...Part 2

WD40

I take it you have never dealt with a conservation officer before....

Watch out for bridging the DPC if you bring the paving up to the door. Ideally it needs a gap both to the edge and underneath to allow for drainage

Yes the doors will be accessible entrances and I do intend then to have level access so I am grateful to you for your thoughts. No problems, we are all on this forum to give and receive, so once I finalise such matters I will post again. Yes, I am aware of how tight the SBC can be on such matters but thanks for the heads up anyway.

You can get smooth square face concrete cills that you would use on a block build to support the door. These are 100mm wide or 225mm if you lay them flat . Your door will come with a cill of its own so when you build your step the paving slab/bricks can slide under the door cill until it reaches the concrete cill and hides it from sight.

someone please remind me to lock this at 99 ?

Have a chat with the builder as he may have a cunning plan... or just not thought about it, , as for my 2 cents if you are going to cast something you will almost definitely have to paint it, as trying to imitate actual stone with dyes/ sand types only works if you havent got anything to compare to close by, If they're composite doors I would probably choose hardwood sills,

Another 38 pages to go at least...

I would strike out - seems clearer.

Thanks @Nickfromwales it's all starting to make sense now.

Only mentioned because I bought 70 sheets in December as the price went up 30% in 6 months.....

@ultramods apologies I feel like I'm stalking you now The plumber I've arranged locally (he's maud based) has completed my heating changeover (old oil combi to new oil boiler with thermal store) Charges £27 per hour, was happy to quote in any way I wanted, copper, plastic or tektite? (I might have that last one wrong) He's starting my first fix plumbing next week. Didn't do my underfloor heating as I put the pipework in, but does do underfloor heating. So solely looking at the hourly rate, that seems high.

typo, sorry Concrete meshmen, got them from Travis perkins, cheap as chips they support at either 40mm or 50mm, dependent on what you need.

@Ultramods I changed my floor makeup at the last minute to save on screed after getting quotes for 6k plus for it, plus the cost of the 150 PIR, plus the drying time etc. Changed the floor from 100mm c25 with 150mm PIR on top, then ufh pipes, then 70mm screed to 125 c25 mm with 300mm of eps70 underneath, with my underfloor heating pipes ziptied to the mesh held halfway in the concrete. I only needed 230mm of eps to make up the same U Value, but I went with 300mm as it allowed me to get a decent bulk discount on 100mm sheets. I installed all the ufh pipework and insulation myself over the course of a few days

Sorry - try this as way of explaination. This is one I did recently that gave insulated ground bearing slab and also a filled cavity below ground which helps for UFH losses.

Family friend has A Fridgemaster. Also likes it.

One of the guys we had onsite used a Henry. He admitted that he'd bought it second hand and had used it on building sites for years before realising it was even possible to put a bag in it! He figured it had lasted that long without a bag, so why start now. He's since had several more bagless years out of it. I wouldn't go bagless anywhere I wanted to keep the dust down though.

@newhome I have learnt from experience with trades in the past not to go with the cheapest. Our strategy is to try and get the preferred company to try and match the cheapest quote.

@newhome The architect rates the 20k plumber higher than he does the 27k plumber. Both plumbers provided quotes for similar spec of materials. So really the only difference in the price is the cost of labour.

The is a fridge equivalent of Parkinson’s Law. (and shed and car boot and wardrobe and suitcase and...)

Something cute to start the day.... This is Gizmo (aka Banoffee or Fatty) And her siblings Minka, Biscuit and Shadow in the shadows there.... Our kittens who are 7 weeks old and REALLY ANNOYING, but almost ready to go to their new homes.... Apart from Mink... whom I have fallen for *sigh*

Back in the day I was a cop..... plenty of 'bluebottle' call outs to practice a strong stomach on

@Russell griffithswhatever solution you go with, and whatever it costs, it'll be worth it for that view. Stunning location ?

Do try and keep up lol.

In other words he’s never put a bag in it ... filter will be knackered so order one of these and a pack of these as @Nickfromwales says..

so this https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/refrigeration/fridge-freezers/samsung-family-hub-rf56m9540sr-eu-american-style-smart-fridge-freezer-real-stainless-10164049-pdt.html is a no then?

Admins..... wheres the 'puking my ring up' emoji ? Jeeee-fackin-sus. Thats the shits. Good on you for getting stuck in, but thats something else.

I am just utterly gobsmacked (for want of a better phrase) for all you are doing for me. The reaction was purely to that message. @Ferdinand's "Master of all Trades" is starting tomorrow to get my existing house ready for marketing. @PeterW & crew and @Nickfromwales and crew are sorting out my internal works - to what extent I am not yet sure as there seems to be more and more. Never has a disaster (for me) been turned into a positive experience in my life before. DIY SOS has nothing on this. There is no free advertising, no tv fame, and (thank god) no Nick Knowles. These are just people who I have got to know on buildhub over a brief period of time who have surpassed any expectations of the help I hoped for when I joined this forum. I am forever in the debt of all you. And to those who have reached out on an emotional level. Initially, practical help was the last thing on my mind. I was utterly, devastated, sick to the stomach, scared and in full panic mode. Family and friends didn't really understand and were, in general, sympathetic in a condescending way, leading to me feeling even more stupid and pathetic. Only on here were there people who know what it is like to be in this situation - or similar. I'm not sure where I'd be if it wasn't for this forum but I wouldn't be where I am now. Aware that I won't have quite the house I was planning or anything like the pension pot I was counting on. BUT I will have a house that meets my needs and I won't be bankrupt. Thank you Buildhub - You are all amazing

If you where to build a single skin block garage (As an example) stand outside with a hose spraying on the wall and see how quick the water penetrates to the inside, couple of minutes if your lucky, I presume this would demonstrate how porous a concrete block actually is.

Any housing solution that doesn't address the role of buy to let is working with a hand tied behind its back. Not that I blame individuals for choosing to invest this way, maybe if there was more pension security or other safe investments it would help though. Also build to let should be encouraged as an alternative.