Roz

@Christine Walker and @JSHarris thanks - how thick was your slab in total?

Wrong wording then. Reinforcing mesh wasn't in our structural drawings and the BCO said we needed it at least around the edges. In the document he wrote "The concrete floor slab of the extension is required to rest on the foundation block work and have A142 anti crack mesh 600mm wide around the perimeter" Previously the floor slab didn't extend into the block work. Why is warm up time irrelevant? It's a barn conversion, with new extension.

Our BCO specced that we had to have it at the edges, and I read that often it's run throughout if you're doing this UFH method... although I don't remember where I read that. I haven't heard of fibre reinforcing before. If you were picking between putting the UFH pipes on the insulation under 100mm of slab, or half way in on reinforcing mesh for example, which would you choose? Quick warm up time would be nice, but I'm not totally stuck on the idea.

Fair enough - although our place is so small we don't have any walls downstairs at all! And we can't really change our minds about that ?

? thanks Ferdinand ?

On advice from this forum, we're putting our underfloor heating in our slab instead of having a separate screed. Can anyone point me in the direction of any resources I can link them to? They haven't seen it done before, and I don't want to simply say 'I read it in a forum' ?. They know what to do, I think they just would feel better with some external information about it being done. Additionally, does it use a different type of concrete to a normal slab? One of them mentioned being nervous of the pipes being damaged by the stones in the concrete. Finally, if we have a 100mm slab, and we lay reinforcing mesh on it and put the pipes on the mesh, how far into the slab should each of these elements be? One of our builders mentioned he would have guessed the pipes would have just gone onto the insulation as with a screed, but as the slab is100mm I mentioned warm up time.Perhaps either way can be done though.

I think ours is about that depth too. I might just ask the builder to sort out the distribution chamber from the merchant! Is non-woven geotextile the right option also by the way? It's more expensive than woven so wanted to check before I committed.

This was what I found when looking, which just seemed expensive when compared to the inspection chambers! https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/product/underground-sampling-and-distribution-system-chamber-110mm.html But then found this.. https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/product/polylok-standard-4-hole-distribution-chamber-with-flat-cover.html and i don't understand why the difference in price

What is the difference between a distribution chamber and an inspection chamber? To be placed between the septic tank and the soak away. Distribution chambers, when googled, seem to come up very expensive.

When I was looking at this I emailed a couple of places about it and got no responses. I messaged one of the ones advertised on eBay asking if they offered to new homes and whether you could move within the 7 years, and just got a "yes and yes" sort of response. Feel like if you can't take the time to reply properly then you're not going to be great at customer service down the line. Ended up forgetting about it, I liked the idea of its simplicity, having installation included etc, but it doesn't seem worth it for the problems it might cause. Let us know if you get any more real information though!

Thanks, I've got my size and a 'floor plan' layout showing the area and pipe layout and trench size etc, just wondering if I need to do a diagram showing the slope and the ground make up etc

Can anyone provide me with the detail they submitted for building regulation approval of their foul drainage field / soak away? I am not sure how much detail I need to go into. Would love to see what docs you submitted. Thanks!

I asked about this and apparently you can't just compensate by overloading the roof and floor in order to reduce that in the walls. I thought you might be able to! I'd like to do another barn in the future and if it's big enough we'll definitely go down the breathable route. Will be great to se how your project comes along

A couple - we're in a world heritage site so getting permission for that would be unlikely. Also, we like the character / look of granite barns. @Cpd I don't know what thermal mass is so I won't get involved in that ?

Thanks! I'm sure this is fine by I go by 'Roz' even though my passport is 'Rosalind'... does it matter if they're all the same to 'Roz"?

I don't understand sorry, so I shouldn't expect it to be a given that the materials are 5%? In which case I'd be better off buying them myself I guess if they won't do it.

Thanks so much! As I'm on the case of getting them to re-invoice I should check that everything correct is on the invoice - this is my first one. It's got: Their VAT reg number Their address Their company name Amounts shown as gross totals (no VAT break down - should it be?) I'm asking for my invoice address to be added. Anything jump out as missing?

Thanks! This is what I thought. I'll email them.

So I asked for our tilers to issue an invoice at 5%, due to tiling a barn conversion, which they said they were happy to do. However, they seem to have charged the materials at 20% and labour at 5%. Before I embarrass myself when replying to them, can anyone confirm I am right in thinking BOTH materials AND labour should be 5%?

Thanks cpd, it didn't sound right to me either. I don't see the need if there's vapour control on the insulation. He suggested blackjack... which looks like a nightmare for uneven walls.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone. I will take it on board and mull it over! I just had a meeting with our building control officer and he said we need to tank the walls - is that true even if you've got a taped vapour control layer on the insulation? Thanks in advance!

Does anyone agree it would have benefits r.e thermal bridging in comparison to just using insulated plasterboard?

We could fix the timber studs to the joists above and concrete floor below with a horizontal timber, then fix the vertical timbers to this? Had originally planned to screw through them into the insulation but perhaps this isn't needed. I can't tell because the website is down but it's possible the information was originally here: http://www.superhomes.org.uk/resources/internal-wall-insulation-1/ Here's another link with some information about it though : https://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/insulatingwalls.htm

I originally saw warm batten detailed on superhomes.org.uk but the website seems to be down and has been for a while. You can still find their drawings about it on pinterest, but not the explanation.

We don't want to lose this much space. We do have to comply but they're happy with the level we had proposed on drawings (52mm insulated kingspan plasterboard), but 25mm+25mm celotex plus plasterboard is equivalent U value. What are the main objections to the warm batten method?