Dreadnaught

At the risk of hijacking @NSS's thread, what dilution factor do you recommend? (My concrete raft is being poured in a month or so.)

I recall that @Jeremy Harris used PVA glue on his insulated concrete raft, presumably diluted.

I heard about a trick of sucking a plastic bag attached to a cord through a duct with a vacuum cleaner. Does that work in practice?

@willbish, my timber frame is not up yet, so not porgressed the stud walling at all yet, but still convinced of my decision to use metal framing. As you probably know, @nod is our resident expert.

You've prompted me to check with my window provider. Thanks!

… plus the lower standing heat losses for a passive house.

What type of tape to use please?

Thanks @Ferdinand. Very interesting. Yes, I read that thread before posting, thank you. It look like Toolstation are quite miserly with their discounts. And I will try some independent merchants of various sorts too, see what I can discover.

Thanks @Temp. Ah yes, this one: https://www.toolstation.com/content/tradecard. That looks like a MasterCard credit card. Not quite what I had in mind but might be an option.

Is it possible to get a discount from Toolstation? As a self builder building an entire house I will be buying a lot. Before I start spending too much, I'd like to lock-in some discounts if I can. Cash accounts only, don't need credit. I've signd-up for a Toolstaion account online but not yet picked up a "Customer Card" in store. Any tips about how to get discounts from builders merchants in general, but especially from Toolsation?

Thanks all! Very helpful. A busy day yesterday. The pipe is now (along with a fibre-option-cable duct) in and I have lots of photos that I can share with Anglian Water. In the end, we didn't remake the concrete road surface around the duct that I mentioned, with a road plate over for protection. This will enable us to easily revisit it again if Anglian Water requires it. Interestingly, a few days ago Anglian Water said that they don't come out to inspect the installation of a TBS. (temporary builders supply). I will send them the photos and see what they say.

My ground workers are moling my water pipe today in my access road. All going well. There is one duct for an electricity cable (see photo). They are proposing to go OVER the duct with the water pipe. The water pipe will be only 300mm deep at the point. Is that ok? Would it be at risk of freezing? Should I kick up a fuss and ask them to go UNDER the exposed duct SO its depth is 800mm as it is for the rest of the run?

Thanks @PeterW. That worked well. I bought 8x laminating pouches for £1 as an experiment and they come up a treat using an iron. Will be stapling them to the gate to my plot tomorrow. Three so far: 1) The house number (as my gate looks like a generic garden gate rather than a building site). 2) A sign saying "For site deliveries please call…" with my phone number. 3) And a generic site safety one like this…

Yes, my thoughts too. When I will prettify the cabinet, I intend to try to do it without calling out UKPN. I quizzed the guy from SSE about this when he visiting to fit the meter and he said it is a grey area, and suggested that it may be possible to swap the cabinet by simply moving the plywood backing sheet over with everything still attached and remain in compliance with the regulations. (By the way, I think it is UKPN's responsibility for moving a main fuse, not SSE as you mentioned, but I might be wrong.)

The meter box is temporary but the location will be the permanent location for the meter and the "main" CU. At the end of the build, I intend to replace this unsightly plastic meter box with something rather more attractive, perhaps one of those green metal kiosks or perhaps a brick cabinet. At this location, I also intend to be a EV charging point too. Wisely, I will let those more knowledgeable than me answer that.