Leaderboard

Go to band p eps, they are a manufacturer not a re seller, save a fortune they will cut what thickness you want so you could go 100mm eps 90eps 80mm traditional sand and cement screed. good thickness to keep the ufh pipes well covered and a good lump to use as a big radiator.

Govt website lists the official guidelines https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-refunds-for-new-builds-if-youre-a-diy-housebuilder#goods-you-can-or-cannot-claim-for

Seeing the reaction being portrayed on news channels, you would think scrapping unrealistic targets means we are going to stop building new windfarms etc and just give up. No it does not, it means we are going to continue making improvements as fast as we can without silly unachievable targets clouding the issue.

Couple more possibilities - pipe wasn't deburred and/or o-ring is torn (look closely). Star washer thing is a bit snagged or on at an angle. Took me a while to figure out that the seal on these is only the o-ring. Any tape / gunge is just covering up a bodge and there'll be an underlying reason to look for.

Water companies will, by default, say no. As dealing with these kind of things is a PITA. You'll have just talk and badger them. A good design will see you through. Last thing you want is to divert, a good build over design is the only approach

I'd follow the manufactures recommendations in full. Well actually, I'd use mortar...

I've used the same fitting on an old lead pipe. They shouldn't leak at all. Is everything straight? How did you tighten it? I find hand tight often isn't enough for those (years of experience installing meter boxes.)

So the Building Inspector must have been impressed by the speedy addition of an inspection chamber to the new septic tank installation. He replied the next morning, requiring one more document and saying that this was the final outstanding issue. Luckily we had the document to hand and sent it within minutes of the request. Fingers crossed!

Well done, push on.

I wouldn't be trusting an IR thermometer pointed at a shiny metallic surface...

You mean £1 = £1 but Scotland gets the oil money, and backdated 60 years? Scotland would jump at that but not sure England can afford it. Wales is on the formula too. tho' not quite the same formula. but this is getting into politics......out.

Yes we in the North should get the cheaper electricity to encourage people here to switch to heat pumps and use up some of that lovely renewable power, and it is folks in the south that should pay the grid surcharge to pay for the work allowing them to share in the green revolution.

Exactly. There are bottlenecks on the HV grid that are already at capacity. Some wind farms have to shut down at times as the grid cannot take the power they generate * And it is taking an age to upgrade the grid. For example the proposed third HV line to the far north passing us, has been in design and consultation for about 10 years so far. * One of the wind farms near us, they are building an electrolyser to generate hydrogen using power directly from the wind farm I am sure I have discussed this, I think it is a bonkers idea. The hydrogen will then be taken by road to distilleries to power them. Surely it has to be better just to build the power lines needed and feed them with electricity?

In England the Building Act gives authorised officers of the LA the right of entry to premises in respect of building regulations. However, unless it's a factory or workplace 24 hours notice of the entry has to be given to the occupier. I assume Scottish law has a similar provision probably in the Act that sets out the framework of the scottish regs

I saw a news article talking about how power hungry data centres are and with AI growing the national grid will struggle to cope with the extra leky required.

That's the problem in the article. The HV network in that region has no extra capacity. All the tree huggers that think every house should have a heat pump immediately and every car should be an EV immediately, forget that if that happened too quick we would have the same problem.

The issue in the UK isn’t necessarily about generating capacity it’s more about transmission.

Hunted down some bits and diy ‘d it

If you want to make up volume then 270mm isn't really that much. 200mm of EPS would do the trick nicely. From the top down. 70mm screed with UFH Pipes stapled into EPS with long staples. Slip membrane. 100mm EPS 70 DPM wrapped up the walls. 100mm EPS joints staggered to the top layer. Sand levelling layer £11.33/m² is the cheapest I found after a 2 minute Google for 200mm and a U-value of about 0.18 W/m²K You could go even thicker, say 225mm to save the screed depending on the minimum required thickness of that.

In other words, Dunning Kruger. @saveasteading - when talking about this to students (The less you know, the less you know that you don't know) , I found that they had to think hard about how to 'read' that dictum using the comparator - less...less. Since I also had to find a way to teach them good written style, I found positivity worked better hence; ... The More You Know The More You Realize You Don't Know ... Realising the essential truth of that is a bit depressing. AA Milne comes to mind. The six year old seems stuck in Dunning Kruger's jaw.

I once had a BCO say he didn’t like an SE,s calcs so told him to prove it was wrong!,!, he told me he was going to get their “in house” SE to look at it, never heard back and I carried on.

Hmmm, what does this place do to me? I'm going to take some images with my thermal imaging camera to see what's going on with our pans.

My absolute favourite tool of the build, one of a growing collection. Does everything from 90mm ring shank framing nails to full head stainless for cladding. Still need a hammer, mind you.:

It is a hob, not an objet d'art, they are meant to have scratches.

I went to one of those, well two. Look what a fine person I have turned out to be.

I did a calculation on this a while back. Convert the 3D shape into a 2D topological shape i.e. work out the area of the periphery and add it to the floor area. Then just calculate as normal. So say your floor is 8m by 10m and 0.1m thick. A = 80 [m2] PA = 3.6 [m2] TA = A + PA = 83.6 m2 Multiply by U-Value. PIR k-Value = 0.022 [W.m-1.K-1] R-Value = 0.1 [m] / 0.022 [W.m-1.K-1] U-Value = 1 / ( 0.1 [m] / 0.022 [W.m-1.K-1]) U-Value = 0.22 W.M-2.K-1 Then add/subtract for joists area and properties.

Yes raising the surrounding ground by something like 300mm. It’s going to give some more protection against flooding as well sitting a bit higher. We’ll need to work hard to blend the extra height into the surrounding garden.

It should not leak so a few reasons why it could be . The incorrect fitting possibly the old stuff is usually 19/20mm depending on what has been used, make sure you have the correct plimac/ plasson adaptor. The pipe has a mark/indentation where the fitting is . The o ring has been kinked when putting it together? Incorrect insert ? Transition couplings should be 100% leak of the correct type and installed correctly

Tell the sparks he’ll be running his cables from above. Ridiculous idea to put them in the screed when not absolutely necessary

I haven't really paid much attention to this thread but this jumped out at me. The minimum formation depth for any foundation is 450mm to get below the frost depth. Are you going to insulate the surrounded ground as well as raising the level (this is commonly done in America but not so much here)?

It might be, but engineering is not all about catastrophic failure. Acceptable deflection is important as a constant tiny movement can cause problems i.e. rattling or leaks. Ah, the old screw and bolt debate. Regardless of what others say, screws and bolts are different things, that work in a different way, not a case of one is better than the other, they are different and should not, in isolation, be compared to each other.

stripped the soil off today. We are only going down 200mm to try and stay in the stiff clay near the surface.

Adding trellis is more lightweight and might look more aesthetic?

It is crushed stone without the fines. Type 3 is a particular grading and uncommon. You could get a lorry load more easily than a bag. A builders' merchant will have single size stone in big bags, with more or less variety according to local fashions. It can be expensive though when it is made from attractive stone for paths etc. I bought some last week called Cotswold stone (It is white and will be exposed) for £78 / bag whereas the sharp sand or gravel on the same delivery was £42. If there is a local stone then this should be cheaper. As it happens, it is for laying inside gravel grid specifically to be free draining. The original went in about 15 years ago and has had a lot of use. We are cleaning the messy top off and releveling some areas. Because of erosion it is not open textured any longer and it puddles locally where it has dropped. But because it is on a slope, any that doesn't make it downwards will run off because of the slope. Then it is caught in a perimeter layer of gravel and french drain.. To summarise. Single size stone or gravel is SUDS in itself as long a it is deep enough, to hold the rainfall, and contained . A slope is up to you, but where would you then catch any runoff?

Welcome, just bolt new posts to the side of the existing ones and buy 2ft panels to sit on top of the existing ones.

If it was so important, I would think that the advice about placement in shower rooms would be more visible in the literature. In all my reading around this topic I found very little about specific placement in regard to shower cubicles. For the extract plenum the recommendation seems to be to make them as high as possible. Although the shower is a significant source of heat and moisture. There are other areas in the bathroom that need moisture to be extracted too. I’ve seen some designs, where a branch system is the priority and this means that the placement is more restricted. Ben at House Planning Help podcast, had a professionally designed and installed system and the plenum for his bathroom is above the door on the wall. I will be placing my plenums near to the shower cubicle but not directly above.

I did this, got a lovely warm floor! Things to reflect on - I went mineral wool over the hemp they specified and used the Pro-Clima membranes and tapes etc. The Pro-Clima membranes are amazing, but they’re a bit over-kill for the application in my opinion looking back. Get standard breather membrane (windtightness) and vapour membranes (airtightness) and you’ll be fine. However the Pro-clima tapes and membranes were worth the money and I’d highly recommend them regardless.

I used my theodolite’s optical plumb to sight over my corner markers and help get my strings in position. 3D printed some adjustable string holders to move the strings into position easily. Now I’ve transferred the points to strings it’s time to strip the top soil and add the type 3.

We are doing a self build on a Scottish isle. We are having an issue where the build inspector is undertaking un-authorised site visits when no one is on site. Is this allowed or can they only comment / inspect work at the organised intervals - surely this is trespass, although they could easily argue that they were viewing from the road? We aren't doing anything out of the blue or against what has been warranted - they just seem to be wanting to be either 'helpful' / difficult, mainly the latter.... It seems to be that they are commenting on personal opinion, rather than what is regulation - it also seems to be the case that because we are doing a fair amount of work ourselves, and not using any of the main island contractors, they have sparked a particular interest....

A new wife might. This one don't even need a kitchen.

I am all for that. We can charge you more for things that are southern based. So TV and radio broadcasts, proper beer, fresh vegetables etc. Who needs a universal service. Let's carve the nation up and say '(expletive deleted) you' to the neighbours.

Not a typo, can’t remember the name of the company, so I thought a bit of google would find it, even with the wrong initials. 😉

Zero to Hero as I was wanker of the week a few days ago.

Dungeons

With booze you loose, with dope you hope

Wow 60 years ago.

I am a man of few words... until 2 pints go in and then you can't shut me up Give me a slightly cold home and I'll pop a blanket over me, but give me a warm house and I'll kill everyone within a 50m radius.