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"Would break my heart I think coming up in a wall." Its an achievable task without a doubt, check and double check your measurements and it will work out. Mine ended up exactly where intended, my grievance with the water pipe location stems from my failure to come up with a comprehensive plan of how I intend to install all the equipment in the plant room rather than getting the location wrong.

They’re not too bad although I would get a darker colour if I were you. Probably have to shampoo them every six months for a good clean and just a jet wash every month or so in the summer. I know what’s happened but it’s still incredible to actually see it before your very eyes.

We used "0-32mm" stone... in reality it's dust. You can use sand as well.

10mm is fine - bulk is even better if you can get it by the lorry load.

Is it made in Spain per chance?

Piccies please? We have helped you through a 2 page thread... If it looks crap it will at least make others feel better!

Yes. 10mm is probably the largest size through the sieve, so it will be the same. Check with the groundworker so he does not have a strop. If you are getting a lot it may be cheaper to have it tipped loose.

Hey guys thanks for taking the time to reply to my question, so 5 years ago, I became a quilified bricklayer, but decided to change career. So I'm trying to get back in the game, I'm pretty much trying to go from bricklaying on site to starting out on my own. So any help I can get, will always be appreciated. Thanks again

I have got the Urban Concrete in a TV / office / spare bedroom multi function room. I battened out the wall to run cables behind and had the furniture floating(ish).

That's why I thought it would give you a good comparison, before/after. At the end of the day though it's a kitchen sink.

Ok, think we have settled on www.showerwall.co.uk These are both from the 'concrete' effect range and they are matt and textured which I quite like and with the proclick they shouldn't show the join as much as some of the glossy ones we saw. Has anyone had textured panels? We have three showers (two walk in ones and one in an alcove with three walls) and I'm down to around £1300 inc vat including Internal Corners, End Caps, Panel Adhesive and Silicone Sealant. Two of the showers we have settled on Urban Concrete which has sort of textured lines on it. And one shower in Washed Charcoal (the shower has a smoked glass screen). This again is quite textured.

yep. it was initially 12mm but after reading some threads on here I decided I didn't want to take the risk of a bouncy floor and asked them to reduce it to 8mm deflection. another win for this amazing forum!

Or use clear acrylic sheet then you can see if there is any condensation ?

You can't. It comes down to the statistical probabilities of the stochastic nature of weather and house usage. Or just make of from plastic. Easy to get a sheet of PVC and some 'plumbers plastic pipe glue'.

I used ply fir my distribution/silencer box, if your worried about condensation then paint it (lots).

I asked the TF company to design our first floor joists to an 8mm deflection which they did at no extra cost. our floors should be solid as a rock as the joists are 300mm centres.

MDF won't like condensation. Might has well make it from cardboard. There's plans for a homebrew MVHR floating around that uses ply and sort of tilts the construction that I guess helps with any condensation. You might be able to pinch some construction tips. https://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/DIYHRV/DIYHRV.htm

Here are some other hopefully useful tips that can save you money without reducing the quality of your build. 1. put together a complete material list for the whole house and then add a resonable contingency - you can then send out this list to all your potential material suppliers, but sometimes you may need to separate out types of materials for specialist supplier - e.g. timber only merchant versus masonry. 2. When calculating materials, don't just go by lengths and area. Why? Because if you walk into a builders merchant and say you need 647 meters of 47x175 c24 carcassing, they'll likely chuck a load of timbers the same length, like 4.8 or 6 meters. This can end up really inefficient for your build and more expensive as sometimes longer length timber can be more expensive than the shorter ones per meter. Instead I suggest you sit down with a spreadsheet and calculate the lengths you need for each part of your build, including noggins etc. So for example, if you're building an intermediate floor at 400 centres with a span of 3.2 meters, a 3.6 meter length will give you the span and the noggin (you can see the potential wastage here if you're working with 4.8 or 6 meter lengths. You'll end up with something like a list of 32 @ 3.6m, 24 @ 4.8m, 28 @ 6m. Same thing with the flooring - lay it all out across the building rather than simply taking the square meter figure, you'll get a more accurate number of boards. 3. You draw down on the material list as your build progesses at that agree price. Sometimes the price may change simply due to timescale but you have a better starting point for that negotiation. It's time consuming but will save you money and will reduce waste. I filled less than half an 8 yard skip for the entire superstructure of the build and I've used thousands of meters of timber. And where we are skips cost a lot of money too! I completely agree with other comments about buying plant and machinery where you can. I bought a digger and small dumper and within a few months calculated than if I'd hired the same stuff it would have cost 3k more. I also sympathise with your frustration about estimating build costs. Neither my wife nor I could fathom this inability of anyone in the construction industry we spoke to to be able to predict the outcome build costs. Now I understand a bit more, it's in part due to the dysfunctional and inefficient way the UK construction industry works, including I think a signficant portion of the professionals associated with the industry. I've found that those per square meter figures are pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things and it seems costing is more down to licking the index finger and sticking it up there in the wind - but as has already been meantioned it's also down the building design, site location, specification etc. etc.. One things that caused us trouble was that finding local builders with the experience of working with the materials we chose were non-existent so suitable builders would have to travel some way which has a big impact of cost. With our build we'd assumed we could squeeze it in at about £1200/m2 but local prices meant we'd more likely be looking at around the 2k/m2 if not more ( we had one quote that was 2k/m2 to shell only!). If I get it in at the price I think I can manage, I will have build it myself for about 900 and that will likely include many sacrifices along the way in terms of spec.

Don't have a sink yet, but going to get a local company to make a smaller version of this:

Leaks could be from anywhere - how old is the conservatory roof ..? Usual issue with glass roof panels is they creep on the seals when they get hot, so you can carefully remove the outer glass retaining trims, lift out the units and replace the seals and then reinstall the units. It’s no worse than replacing double glazing in a window, and if you take your time it’s a nice job to do. In terms of overheating, you are limited to blinds or replacing the glazing with a solar glaze type coating, or a self adhesive solar film. The latter can be done when you take the units out to replace the seals.

Crikey I bet it’s tropical in there any time the sun shows it’s face! I’d be tempted to replace the roof with a “proper” roof, rather than glass or polycarbonate. A quick google search would give you some ideas like this https://www.eygwindows.co.uk/lifestyle-blog/is-a-conservatory-roof-replacement-worth-the-cost

did similar to @James94, dug the trench where I wanted it, i cut a scaff plank in half then pushed it into the ground at the end of the trench with the digger bucket to make a post. Brought the pipe up to it and build the lock box to the scaff plank.

here is the quantified shcedule showing pretty much every item to be bought, only as good as your plans and they do make some assumptions but its a very good starting point. The banks rely on it to lend. qs.pdf

There are templates (the RIBA has one) but they're used on large projects. I spent weeks trying to answer the same question myself about four years ago. Maybe there are one or two now, but they're not in widespread use I think. You are in excellent company here. We've almost all been through this mill, damaged by it, pissed off by it, bitten by it, call it what you will. After 5 years at it, I'm so punch drunk I just about manage to look daily at the bottom line (whats left in the bank) . Sometimes I can only manage it weekly, sometimes I wince and avoid looking. The other day SWMBO - a super-careful administrator with a gimlet eye for uncomfortable levels of detail said ' Just book him whenever , we'll afford it somehow.' Could have knocked me flat. Building gets you like that . I think there are probably one or two BH members who have been able to do what they like, when they like here. Its the norm to be scared legless by the money issue.

Prob last chance today to use the mower before spring. Didn’t need cutting though, just collecting leaves from a small garden ?

SWMBO wants a new pan. Tbh no 'effin difference to what's there. So this weekend it's old one out and new one in. The "new" one is the one that came with the bathroom suite. Put that to one side when we went wall hung. Wtf not just sort this one??? She'll paint a room ceiling again and again where the flat roof is leaking. Or buy expensive wallpaper and paste on the hardboard walls we have here in place of pb. Beats me. Getting very like her mother! ?

Not seen Nan since!

I live in the bottom of a valley. The more leaves fall, the higher the ground gets.

Best bit of advice @brickierob1 is to combine all these threads into one else you will be starting a new one for every brick you lay. It can be a bit like @Onoff bathroom thread

We have purposely designed our office with sockets at desk height as my other half works with plans and we would need a large desk area and easy access. As a temporary measure my wife's work office is relocating and she has got a large 2.5 metre long desk and two office chairs. Yours looks very stylish but I could never work in that tidy way, it's paper and post it notes everywhere!

Only if it turns out ok, otherwise I shall let this thread wither on the vine and pretend it never happened.

I'd get a spade then and tell her to get digging What is your plan B, posts on slabs with a timber ring beam & deck?

I know, our house has downstairs timber suspended floors.

Needs a different glue. Ow about a cheap plastic box, the kind they sell in PoundStretchers (which is misnamed as a £ is a fixed size and mass, though, due to FOREX, can have a different purchase price, even if the purchase price parity is similar)