epsilonGreedy

My brickie opened the cavity 5mm for my English bond walls. The trowel/whack cut headers are irregular but the cavity batts fit around these. I fear the OP won't be happy with the internal look of the part built outer leaf, English or Flemish bond looks very rough viewed from inside. Is it Flemish all around? In my part of the world the posh bond is presented to the road and something lesser like English Garden wall bond is ok sides and back. I wonder if the planners would approve a variation?

You should be concerned the builder started this project before establishing the house foundation details. The costs are mounting up, I reckon £200 to £400 just to dispose of 20 tons of soil and now possibly £1000 of concrete.

Thanks. I better phone my BCO to sound him out. I cannot imagine what standard might be transgressed with Nu-lok because their system saves 30% on slate hence weight and the galvanized rail/battens cannot be a fire risk. Do you sort out our drainage plan in the other thread?

I have discovered that it is better to source from a quarry that produces what you need otherwise you will pay another quarry to be a middleman. Near me I get best price for sand from the quarry that digs sand out of its own quarry and a bit further away another quarry produces limestone and hence offers a much better price on limestone. Is the 1m perimeter just a working base or is it an important element of an insulated slab? I ask because 500mm is deep for just ground stabilization. Could any surplus be used for your driveway base? Note there might be a SUDS drainage requirement that would rule MOT1 out.

I have been thinking about the Nu-lok system but have a more general question. This question was prompted by a casual question to my architectural technician who looked at Nu-lok and came back saying "I could not see any British standard approval so you might want to run it past your building control inspector". Which bits of a roofing system need approval? My truss manufacturer will design the skeleton of the roof to a recognizable standard. Natural slate would by implication be approved. The chimneys would meet width to height stability standards and I know my roof design meets the flue/chimney pot height regulations. Would the metal rail/clip system that is the essence of Nu-lok require separate certification?

One of your later photos shows an already sharp incline from pavement upto the base of your house, so you need to move ahead cautiously. You say you cannot afford a SE so I assume you cannot afford the £50k plus costs of structural fixes to your house and also the neighbours if both houses start to slip & crack a little towards the new carport hole.

@Margaret dailey I have three questions: Have you looked at the lower grey band of wall under your neighbour's bay window? I ask because I am wondering if it is just a surface render or some concrete reinforcement underpinning. If underpinning then this is a clue that you need to be careful about removing all that soil in your front garden. Do you know the age of the property? I would guess 1890 to 1925. Knowing the age of the property provides a hint about how deep the original foundations are. Some Victorian foundations are way-way less solid than standard building practice today. Have you applied for planning permission? I assume so judging by the notices attached to the lamp post. @The Forum Collective Could Margaret transgress party-wall regulations if she digs out the front garden to within 3 feet of the front bay wall?

My chainsaw safety tip is keep checking how secure your footing is. After a few hours sawing a pile of logs at a fix location the accumulation of resin on the ground becomes dangerous particularly on a concrete drive.

It cannot be any worse than the infamous nose-blow hankie "have I got Covid-19" photo upload in the Corona virus thread, we were traumatised for life by that shot.

After 4 weeks of inactivity while waiting for floor joist manufacturing to resume I was looking at the approaching end date of my scaffolding free hire period. I had negotiated the scaffolder down to a 2.5% per week overrun rate but even so that was going to be annoying money down the drain with a likely 2 month overrun. Yesterday the scaffolder phoned and I assumed it would be for an interim payment due to my delayed instruction for the second lift. But no he had phoned to say to help everyone out my hire costs were going to be suspended from the day the Prime Minister closed the economy down and the hire clock would start ticking again once I requested the second lift. How unusual is that?

I am assuming the piggery will be built where the photographer is standing in that photo? Is the intention to fix the rodding point (probably metal) within the internal floor of the piggery/laundry?

My advice was sound as subsequent posts explain. As a minimum you should adopt @PeterW's halfway plan correction and come in via the intermediate branch with a 45 degree bend just prior to the IC entry. It seems a shame to hardwire an intermittent sewage problem into your new build for the sake of an extra bit of digging to reprofile your trenches.

The photo example using plastic components uploaded by @JFDIYis exactly as I was suggesting though I suspect the helta skelta fiddle on the shower drain could also be eliminated because the different invert levels of the main run through the IC compared to the branch entrances would also fix @AnonymousBosch's height problem.

You would eliminate much of the 40mm if the IC was rotated 45 degrees as suggested. Could it be that your groundwork team anticipated this arrangement?

Yes to a bend at the main exit. If the main entrance port is 12'o clock then the shower could come in on the 10:30 port. I thought all of this was broadly accepted best practice, maybe I read too many docs.

The idea behind my suggestion is that it is better if solids don't splat over the branch change in level and instead slither through the primary channel. I have read this in some docs though the alternative is not doomed to fail.

@PeterWWill provide a definitive answer to your main question. I want to comment on the orientation of your toilet IC, it should be rotated 45 degrees clockwise so the solids follow the main channel through the IC and the shower enters a minor branch.

There are two solutions for dealing with ground movement: (1) is for the pipe to run through a footing aperture with flexible stuffing as shown in one @Oz07photo or (2) allow for articulation either side of the footing wall. An ordinary 100mm plastic coupling/bend piece should provide enough articulation.

Why would you think that? I am politically opposed to wrecking Western civilization in an irrational response to dubious global warming science but saving money makes sense. I happen to believe a faithful implementation of current house building thermal regs leads to a decent home that is thermally far better than the average UK housing stock. Chasing higher performance introduces new problems that lead to expensive solar shading retrofits, hot bedrooms, heat removal technology and humidity regulation technology. I might get to a low B EPC with a little extra effort above basic regs. I also suspect that experiencing less than 1 degree of temperature variation across 24 hours is bad for human health.

Well he had Irish accent. A bit of googling leads me to believe I was talking to https://www.bpcventilation.com/contacts in Co Antrim. Is that North of the border? I have only sailed to Kinsale and around the Fastnet Rock before.

Thanks both @Jeremy Harris& @JFDIY Based on feedback the updated rule of thumb might be: Size MVHR unit at 100% throughput to Build Regs ACH. Add 25% for reserve boost and to account for vent throttling. Add another percentage if long duct runs were required. Add another percentage in the case of full family occupancy. In practice I will delegate MVHR planning to that nice keenly-priced Irish company I met at the NEC and also favoured by many here. I will use this thread to cross check their recommendation. Question: What length of ducting qualifies as a long run? +10m maybe?

Joining the dots here, the rule of thumb seems to be to size the MVHR box @ 100% throughput to the Build Regs ACH requirement and post sign-off turn the MVHR down by 50% or more according to personal preference and/or RH/CO2 measurement. Does this sound right? @Jeremy Harris

I view you as one of the most hands-on BuildHubber who is onto 1st and 2nd fix, therefore it seemed odd that you would be asking how to implement a 15 degree bend in a drainage run. Many threads here get off to a meandering start because the problem faced is not fully described in the opening post and it takes a few replies before the full complexity behind the question is revealed. I assumed this would be the case with your question, sorry. If I was to rerun my own self build I would have instead purchased one of those £100 drainage component multi-packs which contain an assortment bends and couples. These are excellent value per component compared to buying individual items over the counter at Screwfix. Do you have much more roof drainage to implement?

I used one of those to connect my caravan drain. In addition to the flexi bend shown in the photo, half of the coupler can be turned 180 degrees to create a sideways s-shaped wiggle.

Is this a trick question? How about a 15 degree single socket 100mm bend. P.s. I am sure there is an undisclosed complexity not mentioned in your question.