LA3222

Is that normal? I thought 'shrinkage' cracks are up to 0.6mm wide. 1.5mm wide is Double that - I may be wrong though?‍♂️

Price difference is not to be sniffed at, tidy little saving there.

Its strange leaving the van, not sure how it was going to feel to reach such a milestone but its definitely surreal. As ever though, the job list doesn't end so its onwards and upwards!

House is far from finished, but it is habitable so after 2.5yrs of van life we've upped sticks and occupied the house. Very surreal! Been lurking on this forum since 2018 now I think. The standard of my build is a direct function of the 'knowledge repository' that this forum is and the assistance of various members. Thank you one and all. Now for the next 2.5yrs of my build - garage, landscape, drive....the list is endless, should probably start with getting a shower room functioning though??‍♂️?

This is a bug bear of mine on this forum - I have two. The first is how some go on about how 'perfect' and 'precise' their slab, frame whatever is. This caused me a.lot of stress early on when things weren't quite perfect. I now know enough to know that building ain't perfect - it doesn't matter as long as the end result is correct. I.e. insulation, air tightness and look. The second is costs. I think people like to delude themselves/be able ro brag how little their build costs and kit all sorts of things such as plot etc. How can that not be included- its a build cost. Yes it will vary depending in region (which is the excuse most use for ommitting) but then so do labour costs, do they omit those? Nope. People on here love to massage the numbers. Not many will give you a true 'total' cost. My dislike for this stems from the fact that the unwary will.read this and factor it into their costings and come a cropper. For myself, every single spend I have that would not have arisen if I wasn't self building is a 'build cost'. Simple. 'Sat quietly now waiting for the I built my house for less than £1000/m2 people to pipe up?'

Solved - set the temp to ** to turn off!

Yeah gave me a certificate. I was doing it as pre plaster Check with the intention of one at the end. Result was so good that I'm not bothering with another?‍♂️

@joth just looking at this, is there a dip Switch for freeze stat? Trying to turn this rubbish off - can see it in the aux options, not sure what to do with this?

I had one done before plastering, not a chance I'm paying for another. The result was low so what is the point of another?

You need one.

I bought a cheapo 12v pump off amazon, cut the connector off an old 12v laptop charger and rigged that up to pump the glycol out the containers into the buffer tank via the top connection. Was easy enough, then topped it up with water via the fill loop. Pumped it around and purged the air everywhere and jobs a fish. Spotted I have a leak on one of my loops upstairs that I hadn't realised - must have cocked up when running the water everywhere and got overzealous with a screw going up into the floor above. Luckily it's in the main bedroom which is a tool/fixtures store so no carpet down. A pita but easy enough to fix. Closed that loop off for now. The number of plumbers who told me they don't do ASHP is mad - the one who did quote was enough to convince me to get kn with it myself. Got an absolutely gleaming spark - the only trade I've had that I would recommend. He just gets amongst it and gets the proverbial done, no fuss and to a high standard. Like you say, it really ain't hard. A preplumbed version is even easier as most of the electrical work is already done!

Not gonna lie, was buzzing to see the ASHP come to life so can get the UFH and DHW up and running and today was the day! I did all the plumbing for ASHP, UFH and everything else, got a preplumbed Ecodan which the spark powered up today. Few issues at first getting it going until.i realised that one of the pump valves I thought I'd opened was nearly closed - kept getting 'Low Flow' which as I'd 'opened' all the valves was puzzling until I realised I hadn't actually opened all of them?‍♂️ Not sure how long it will take for the house to get up to 20degrees from 14 but its going at it now. All set for a Christmas move in - few rooms Not finished but kitchen lounge and bedrooms good to go?(may have to shower in the van unless I can get a shimmy on and tile one of the ensuites - can't have it all?‍♂️) As an aside, doing all of the plumbing, ASHP etc as a.self builder really ain't difficult and I would encourage others to tackle it.

9npaid £850 for a zarge reach master with a 5.7m working height. So, more expensive but then you get an extra 3m?‍♂️

Bin it.

Deffo only used that on the membrane, way too pricey to waste. Surprising how quickly you use it up! Think it was 20 to a box.

I used the Orcon at the join of frame to slab and in a few other random places too as its really good stuff. Do not underestimate just how much vana tape you will use. I ordered one box then had to order another so paid two lots of shipping and I still had to buy some more rolls from GBS - that was when brexit happened and they stopped shipping to the UK from Germany. My build is 280m2 and I used 50 rolls altogether!

This made me laugh, indeed it is. This is one of those jobs that when you know, you know! It's a piece of piss and you can do it yourself. Get the sika grout 111, mix up in a bucket and with a drill, paddle mixed and some watter, and then pour away. It flows really well and will fill the void nicely. I built a wooden former around the base, silicone the outside edge for good measure. Let it go off for an hour or so, remove tue former and tidy up the edges. Job is a fish.

I mentioned a temporary habitation certificate to my BC inspector, his reply "just move in and don't tell us"?‍♂️

I used the plus, no real reason as to why, I am probably guilty of spending extra money unnecessarily at times?‍♂️

This smacks of doing something because "thats what people do" rather than considering 'why' am I doing this and 'what does it achieve'. The pipes come pre pressurised, the minute you cut it you will 'know' that the pipe hasn't been damaged during laying. After laying its child play to walk around the slab without deliberately standing on the pipe. During our you ain't doing anything about it. People will stand where they will. This is just a load of good old fashioned tosh! Yeah the maths works out, in practical terms it is over engineering at its finest. The pipe is solid, I could jump up and down all day long on a piece sat on mesh and the odds of me piercing it are low. If you want to do it then do it, it doesn't cost anything other than a few quid and some time. I would question what is the point. I did all of my slab except the concrete pour, was walking all over the pipe for weeks before concrete went in, didn't waste my time pressurising and no drama. That pipe is solid, you ain't gonna puncture it unless trying to. The thing to worry about is kinking it rather than puncturing it.

Not really, what is the argument for doing so? So you know if a pipe gets punctured? If that happens mid build what are you going to do about it? Nothing. If a pipe somehow gets punctured mid build you ain't doing nothing about it until you start bringing the heating online. It's sat in a concrete slab and in an 80m pipe could be anywhere. The only way to easily find is pump hot water through and use a flir to identify pooling. So having the pipes under pressure doing the build is a pointless exercise. Even during a concrete pour, why? If one gets trodden on and punctures, like fook you're gonna stop the concrete pour to find it, you will crack on and park it as a future problem to deal with. People on here seem to have an obsession with pressuring pipes. Pointless. I would also suggest the pipes are very robust, to puncture one would be extremely unlucky.

The pictures made me spit my brew out I laughed that hard????.....how big is your fridge and washing machine?

I paid for a connection 3yrs ago now, been living in the van for 2.5yrs, no bills. Water board bloke turned up today looking for our meter?‍♂️ Thought it was winner winner, chicken dinner with free water/sewage. When we had the connection and rang up for bill they told us we were registered as commercial, commercial people said domestic, after some to and froing actually trying to pay a bill we gave up. Looks like the piper now wants paying!

Well this was a timely heads up @ToughButterCup. I am now in a bit of a pickle with cash flow and working out how best to proceed. If I occupy the house and start the clock there is no chance I can do sufficient work in 3mths to unlock the remaining funds and get the VAT back. Cant build the garage as that is where the caravan sits, so I need to work out how I can do sufficient work to add 70k to the valuers price to unlock my remaining funds but without building the garage?‍♂️. Why the hell are they arbitrarily interpreting the legislation in order to stiff the self builder. Peanuts, go after the big boys, that's where the money is.

O drama bud, I will pm you his details.