epsilonGreedy

The Building Construction Handbook 11th Edition page 953. By my calcs a modern insulated B&B floor will exceed this, [Edit] though I note the OP is discussing an insulated raft. The diagram in the book shows the rest bend connecting to the vertical stack just below the floor concrete. If say from FFL you have 80mm screed + 150mm insulation + 100mm block + long rest bend radius of 280mm = 610mm

My foundations are open at the moment and in the wet weather running up to Christmas the trenches partially filled. I currently have 600mm x 600mm of poured concrete and two courses of blocks which brings the blockwork up to ground level on one side and 1/2 block below ground level on the other side of the house due to a gradient. The trenches filled to about 1.25 blocks deep at worse but following some pumping I realized this was caused by surface run off external to the oversite and also some run off from the contained oversite. The good news is that following a less wet period I have discovered that the winter water table is much lower than the flooding indicated after digging some drainage sumps 400mm below the poured concrete top. I have not used the sump pump for 3 weeks and have found the sub soil (silt plus some clay) has a natural self draining capacity after moderate periods of rain. During the most sustained wet periods the trench pooling did not overtop the oversite so your situation might be worse. I am less concerned about the over all situation because once the roof is on that will eliminate one source of foundation flooding. Like you I might consider a drain where the foundations face the uphill plot gradient just to encourage surface water to take a faster route around the property footprint and down to a soak away on the lower side of the plot.

I have been reading up on stud walls and concluded the most chunky timber cut I face is a 100mm x 50mm. The 210MM Titan has a stated cut range of 62mm deep and 310mm across so man enough for a stud wall frame section on its side. As to skirting board I cannot imagine anything higher than 225mm even if I pursue the heritage theme though that could look odd with modern 2.4m regulation height ceilings.

Good to see you back online advising. Is the Titan a step up the quality ladder from an Evolution Rage which was criticized in the other linked thread?

I am having difficulty justifying spending a £ few hundred on a mitre saw early in my build. A list of applicable tasks during a build (not a timber frame) would help me decide, so far I have: Internal stud wall framing. Skirting board trimming plus 45 degree cuts. Door frame and architrave (or will I buy ready-made kits). Garden decking. From @Mr Punter Ali flashings. Guttering Joists Flooring (laminate?). Those tasks alone should result in a payback compared to buying in carpentry labour at £150 per day. The more immediate task I face is cutting about 35 45mm square timber pieces for my static caravan skirt framing though a mitre saw feels like overkill for such a low accuracy task.

I think the story has reached the point where journalists project the story line in any imaginary direction that their readership will find more palatable.

In a fair world the rouge employer would fund the ex. employee's £80,000 p/a prison costs.

I wish this applied to self builders, the planning officer did concede the situation was confusing. In the end he said I could not be declared as a householder because in the formative stages of a self build there is nothing to distinguish a self builder who intends to occupy a property for 20 years from a small commercial developer. He added I could not classed as a householder until building control signoff hence the £234 developer NMA fee would apply. Has your experience been different? I am now onsite and paying council tax, could this nudge things in my favour!

The modern job application process is a minefield of psychobabble. I do not know whether to blame the job hunters or the HR departments, I suspect the latter because the applicants are just responding to market demand.

Last year a pro planning officer posted in a few threads, he cautioned against over use and raised expectations with NMAs. For example loading an NMA with a large list of design tweaks can backfire because if one item in a list of 7 changes is objected to then you loose £234 and like a game of of snakes and ladders its back to the starting square. Summarizing his advise, I think he was saying that an NMA is a single shot gamble with a fast turnaround and for double the cost a full PP application buys the right to a dialogue with the planning department including the option to resubmit a tweaked application more palatable to the planning office..

Yes top of the wish list as I am currently short of outside dry storage space. There is also an aesthetic motivation, my two SB neighbours who have been onsite longer skirted their caravans before Christmas and now their sites look neater.

OSB3 it is, I hope it only has to survive two winters. The 1200 x 600 osb panels will be screwed to a frame. I have a plan to insert a course of dpc material to throw water away from the skirting as it runs off the caravan walls.

In my case 0.22 of an acre with planning for a 1500 sq ft house. In the past month there have been three threads where quoted pre-dig start up costs were £60k, £28k and £18k. I felt it was time that someone stepped forward with an example to illustrate there is a different cost path providing: A plot purchaser does not enter a fresh architectural re-design/planning cycle. The plot does not present difficult ground conditions that demand special engineered foundations. Self build financial products can be avoided.

I am sure you know the national figures better than me, the source of the chuckles was that the job hunting brickie wanted a quiet rural life with small commutes away from the stresses of big cities and large housing developments without a pay cut. The two brothers were on half of that £325 which they said was the going rate locally.

When I had a team of brickies onsite for a weekend laying my foundation blocks another guy turned up and introduced himself to the team as a relocating brickie. My guys were happy to talk to him for 10 minutes and compare notes on the state of the trade. When he left they laughed at his expectation of £325 a day which the relocating brickie claimed was the going big-site rate 70 miles away though they were not offended by the approach.

This weeks lesson in static caravan living is that the risk of frozen plumbing is not theoretical. I few days ago the night time temperature fell to -5 and I forgot to set the gas central heating to the defensive night time schedule where it kicks in for 15 minutes every 90 minutes. The bathroom cold water tap coughed in the morning, spat out some icy sludge, then trickled before finally returning to normal. No longterm damage but a timely warning. Anyhow after that preamble here is my question. Question: Would 11mm thick OSB sheet be up to the job for the under static caravan skirt side panels with an average height of 550mm? The max panel size would be 1200mm wide x 600mm high. I expect to use 50mm x 50mm square timber for the skirt framing.

My planning permission is for a house in a prominent sensitive village location within a conversation area. The long term planning restrictions are highly specific e.g. I cannot erect a greenhouse, garden shed and even a pagoda would be pushing my luck. However for the duration of the build there are assumed rights specific to an active building site including workers accommodation and material storage. Metal site boundary fencing must be present on 80% of UK building sites, so I suggest you go with the flow on this subject and worry about more important stuff.

My local planning office showed zero interest when I tried to start a conversation about internal layout changes. You are more likely to trip up and transgress Building Control regulations when revising an internal layout, it is all too easy for a small change to break fire egress regs.

The evidence will be an approved NMA if not I loose £200 and learn not to believe the juniors who man the on-demand public access duty desk. Whenever I visit they often consult with their seniors in the back office.

Best follow local practice moulded from hard won experience of pro's. It is not universal practice in my part of the world. Are you planning to live onsite?

I am considering something similar bool assumeWoodSmokeHangsOverVillage = false DateTime lastMvhrShutdownEndTime = DateTime.Min ... if ( dateTime.Now.Hour.IsBetween( 18, 23 ) and ( windSpeed < 6mph ) and ( outsideTemp < 10c ) Then assumeWoodSmokeHangsOverVillage = true if ( assumeWoodSmokeHangsOverVillage ) and ( DateTime.Now - lastMvhrShutdownEndTime).TotalHours > 2 ) Then // Consider anti smoke ingest shutdown if ( house.Co2 < 1000 ) Then mvhr.Stop()

Travelodge Liverpool: Digger driver wrecks hotel reception https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-46953987

Thank you, this is one worry off my list. I am currently trying to calculate finished external levels for both the principal mobility access (to be the rear main house door), garage storeroom pedestrian access and also the entrance vehicle ramp into the garage. Tis all made more complex because a flash flood risk means my dpc should be 150mm higher than normal. My latest thinking is I will need another 30 tons of 2" clean hardcore to raise the patio 200mm otherwise the m-spec ramp will become a minor civil engineering project. I have a 6m straight approach to the main entrance across the patio.

Has anyone considered a smart MVHR control system that adjusts nightime airflow based on CO2 levels?

If you post any bad jokes on the forum at 2am I will put these down to CO2 poisoning. Think I should buy such a monitor as I face a year living in a static caravan.