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Ordered my Kore foundation yesterday (from Ireland). €9718 Was going to do BACS payment...but at the last second noticed the exchange rate being given of 1.05 from bank of Scotland.. Quick change to credit card and paid using that (no fees) and you get the mastercard rate at that point of 1.1. Point of the story £420 better off. Happy days

It's been a while since our last update but just to let everyone know we may be in for Xmas. We still need the EWI and render but inside should be liveable and we can get out of the caravan. The kitchen is almost complete now after getting damaged units all replaced and given it was ex display I think it looks lovely. The part with the hob on could possibly have been a bit longer but I didn't want a breakfast bar and by time we have our table, chairs and small sofa I think it will look good. At the moment it's like a big dancefloor! And although the majority of the house doesn't have light fittings because frankly we are skint, we did manage to get the kitchen/dining room sorted and I love the light in there which we got from a small lighting place I convinced the other half to drive a couple of hours for. If I would have hated it she would have killed me. We got the whole house sprayed white by a local decorator because I didn't want to look at plaster for 12 months and I didn't fancy doing the pitched ceilings in the kitchen and with a bad neck injury. For our bungalow which is around 190m2 it was a few hundred pounds Inc all materials, paint, masking prior to second fix. It would have taken weeks to do it and the spray finish is brilliant (although has a few marks on it from second fix now). No woodwork has been done because it wasn't in place and frankly we can't afford it and once we decide on colours etc we can get doors, skirting done later on when we have calmed down and gradually work through each room. We have already decided we want the kitchen orange eventually and our yellow living room sofa is due to arrive too just before Xmas so it will definitely have injection of colour. The bathrooms are almost completed now after the showerwall saga, on the third replacement it now looks decent. We went for LVT throughout and the UFH is working well in that it's warmer than the caravan......

I have just visited family (covid rules applied) and took the opportunity to visit @pocster and look at his underground lair, (I used to live nearby) wow , I discovered he has the same contempt for health and safety rules as I do!!!, place was a tip (but he knew where everything was!). He is the opposite of me with regard tech, I am a Luddite and hate tech, I prefer KISS (keep it simple stupid), Pocster on the other hand has tech running everything, from the front door lock which he can open with an ap , to flushing the loo (I bet). However as a software nerd I was impressed with the building work he has done (plumbing pipes aside ?) tiling is spot on as is his attention to detail. His site is basically a huge hole in the ground and I take my hat of to him for his perseverance and design. I don’t think he has any idea of a finish date (which he confessed his wife keeps asking him about). He was quite put out that I had not arrived to give him a hand and had the audacity to accuse me of wasting his day (mind, by midday he had not even started work yet ?), I have promised to go back and help him with his hoist (as he admits to not be much of a mechanical engineer) where I am not a software programmer like him. It was great to catch up with him and put a face to a name (he did say I looked nothing like my picture, but nor does he).I am not holding my breath on when he wants me back to help with the hoist (before I am in a wheelchair I hope!.) well done mate.

Right guys this thread is slowly slipping again into more and more personal areas. Keep it on track with facts and figures and debate away till your hearts content. But if it keeps getting personal then this thread will be closed.

Just installed a ground anchor. I bought only one as I was not sure they would work with our soil - it is littered with flint and other stones (when digging you are absolutely guaranteed to hit one with every entry of the shovel).On the 5th attempt, the ground anchor found a route through the stones and feels very firm (allegedly can handle 1.2 tons with the 900mm version I bought). I could fell it hitting stones, but I think it pushed them aside. Will now buy 3 more and the ratchet straps to tie the vans down. Will cost £250 in total but a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Here you go. Option 1 sold by and fulfilled by Amazon Option 2 sold by a different seller but fulfilled by Amazon Option 3 sold by and fulfilled by a third party

Nice to have the choice... toward the end of the build you will have spent all your savings, max’d your credit card, sold your nice car, and deciding if you want the weeks shopping or that fancy bath plug! ?

Nice... you don’t realise the size of the room until you know the tiles are 1.2m each!

We used the Perfect Level Master system for our 120 x 120cm tiles. Where we left an unfinished tile edge, we either put a clip in place with a small offcut of tile to support it, or we put the clip in loose.

How do you know the manifolds are the wrong way round? Yes normally the flow manifold is on the top, but that is usually dictated by the porting on the blending valve so you don't get a choice. But you have no blending valve so there is nothing stopping them being fitted any way round. I would have thought if they were the wrong way round, backwards flow through the flow meter would try to push the plunger up, not down, and you would see no flow reading. The fact you do see a flow reading on some of them suggests the water is going the right way. Or have I missed something? I subscribe to the air block theory to explain no flow on a couple of loops.

There’s a surprise (not).

You just think you escaped. He probably surreptitiously inserted a tracker you're unaware of..... or possibly a Mars Bar.....

Well I escaped ?

I used Tongue Tite screws for mine https://www.screwfix.com/p/tongue-tite-screws-3-5-x-45mm-200-pack/85991

That timber frame looks like it’s holding things up so don’t panic but a good 2-3” is ideal. Looks good !! Wire brush that paint off and leave it as it’s lovely stone.

Good call - I've not heard of one of those before.

Far from it Younger than me He does not live there. anyway, sting of the dump has no tech, @pocster,s place runs on it, if ever there was an EMP, he would be stuffed, can’t even take a dump ?.

Looks a bit bodged to me.

Are you saying I’m a grumpy , warty old git living in a slum ?

Google, Geberit and Amazon. Our plumber walked off site with the wall anchors for our DuoFix Sigma frame. Easy thing to do at the end of a hard day's asking me how this that and the other should be fitted - when, learning form last time - I'd put together in a single folder all the Geberit product instructions and diagrams - laminated and easy to access. And references to the key YT vidoes that they produce for the Sigma. I'd even loaded the important video onto my tablet and shown it to him, left it in the bathroom. All he had to do was tap the screen once to open the screen and once again to start the video. Ringing to get him back to give me the part (if he could even find it) would have taken longer than this ..... Geberituk website > services > spare parts > product catalogues > installation and flushing > duofix > frames > accessories > wall anchors > part number Copy, paste the part number into google : available in France, Germany, Netherlands and Amazon. Next day delivery (Saturday). As it happens, the plumber says he will be here on Monday of next week (really?) . Won't be an issue then because I will have fitted it. I don't want it lost again. Just for the Hell of it, I'll ask him where the wall anchor is ...........

If you are (very) well-heeled there is always RMS The World, which is still sailing around as a residential cruise ship, though not really low impact and a bit more expensive than a narrowboat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_The_World Has someone mentioned the special scheme in Wales - the One Planet Development Scheme? I think one key is to look to places with regulatory systems formed by their experience of low population density, and to keep a route back in as you get older. I wonder if an EU Citizenship is useful at this point, to be able to continue to target more remote EU Countries.

Cheers. So in that case, there's not actually a continuous layer of insulation outside of the timber frame (it's interrupted by the horizontal studs). But in the bits with the blockwork outer skin, the insulation is continuous across the timber frame (only the wall ties crossing it). The reason I ask... when I look carefully at, say, Celotex's guidance for the use of their insulation boards, it's fairly clear that it's ok to run them on the outside of the timber frame when the timber frame forms the inner skin of a cavity wall. It's a little bit less clear, when you want to to the same, but then have some form of cladding (say, vertically hung tiles, or render board as per your case) on the outside, instead of a self supporting masonry skin. When you go and look at the BBA certificate for the celotex PIR, it only really mentions build-ups with a masonry outer layer. I'm curious why this is. Is there something about the combination of insulation-outside-timber-frame and then a cladding layer that they are wary about recommending?

apologies, (my memory is not good these days ?) it was Digby Jones that made that statement. Digby Marritt Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham, Kt, known as Sir Digby Jones between 2005 and 2007, is a British businessman and politician, who has served as Director General of the CBI and Minister of State for Trade and Investment. He sat in the House of Lords as a non-aligned active crossbencher. quite qualified to make a statement about how business works IMO.

Will do. This is worth a watch:

As was said at the time, and as EU officials repeated last week, no deal is better than a (sufficiently) bad deal. So we need a deal which is adequate for both parties.

I also would still vote leave, as John Harvey Jones said in an interview way back before the vote took place “business will succeed despite what politicians do!”.

To keep an eye on lady callers.

Affinity water came out the next day to fit a new stop tap, even connected up my temporary MDPE. Very impressed with their service - came to my rescue within 45 mins of breaking the old tap and new tap installed next day - all at no charge. The guys commented they got a bit wet installing it because of our high water pressure. I must measure static pressure/flow rate again as it seems even higher since we now have 20mm MDPE all the way from the road. When we have completed demolition and the new piling and ring beam, I'll dig a trench and run 32mm MDPE from the new Toby.

On reflection Jack this is what we should have requested. I'll bring it up at the site meeting today.

I have the Parex thin coat render system on tender boards, longest run 27m with no expansion joints. T/f company had no joints in the frame and moisture resistant board company told me they had done longer runs without joints. Been on 3 years and no cracks yet! My boards are fitted on a batten which is held in place by 100mm s/s screws of which I pre drilled and then impact driver to secure. I had to leave a 3mm gap on all sides of my boards and they where put on brick pattern style

I have a layer of compriband around the centre of the frame and another layer near the outside edge of the frame. I also have Soudal low expansion foam around the inside edge of the frame. I didn't use any airtightness tapes or membranes in my house.

You won't be able to listen to Queen's I Want To Break Free again without flashbacks ?

You could take the time to pin a Sam Fox/Linda Lusardi/Kathy Lloyd poster directly above your bed like I had as a kid. Wouldn't be so bad looking up the hole then.

Needs a multi choice option. Compriband and PU foam, all day long. Anyone thats seals between window and building with silicone, needs a boot in the b*ws. As for no difference in price, sh*te. Compriband is significantly dearer than PU foam, both are significantly dearer than silicone. They’ve marked up significantly on material if they’re doing that.

45 degree walls make me cry ?

Is it rigid insulation or fluffy? If rigid you could just go ahead. If it is fluffy and looks ruinously wet, I would remove it and replace if wall ties allow. You could use polystyrene beads, but choose a very calm day.

Re, reclaimed brick not being as green as we think, I used “tumbled bricks” basically new bricks put in a huge tumble drier and all the corners knocked off. Everyone comments on them being “in keeping” and looking old.

That looks awful. A note from a structural surveyor would not satisfy me on this one. Can you clad the wall with something? The brick courses either side of the join do not line up. The mastic has been applied by a blind man with a shovel.

my god I could have forgiven it if the cill was tight to the flashing but why not just grind through the soldiers 3" up to give it a proper upstand?!

Crikey!! Whoppers! I like big ones... got any pics? ?

Think that's why @joe90 turned down a drink at his house.

Quite right. There's always somebody who'll try and slip one in.

We are always watching.

I'll arrange a visit through our normal back channels then?

On topic. Visiting @pocster

But the ducks move with you: and at 5am they nibble the greenery along the waterline. Soooooooo annoying when your ear is 100mm away.

So can the neighbours

To be fair... anyone visiting his place needs to get past the obstacle course of dumped building materials and Harris fencing before even getting to the gates! ?

Ermmmmmmm, if his house is underground, why does he want walk-on glazing?