LA3222

It's all covered over at the minute, they didn't finish till late evening when it started getting dark and out of concern for frost I covered it asap with frost blankets while had a bit of light left (it was a rubbish job - windy as hell and I had to deploy the head torch!) Weather here is it's own beast and seems contrary to general forecasts?‍♂️ Its crap weather for next couple of days so I'm just gonna leave it covered for now, will pull it all off when the sun comes out next week and get some photos up. Seemed ok to me but then trying to judge things like 'level' is nigh on impossible with the naked eye.

Strange that it looks a lot worse in the picture than when stood outside looking at?‍♂️

This is where it stands at the minute - I have no idea if it's good or not other than to trust the contractors!

Rog ?they're out there now doing it and asking me if I'm happy?‍♂️ In my mind, the powerfloat was to iron out any bumps/uneven spots and to 'seal' it as such so dont get concrete dust coming off it!

How 'polished' should the slab be? Contractor is saying that it doesn't want to be too polished if tiling etc direct onto it? I know that powerfloated slabs are difficult to bond to, but wheres the happy medium?

That's a good effort on the trench, you dug that by hand? It's what I like about self builders, summat needs doing, it needs doing - simples?‍♂️ No one else is going to do it for you so a 'crack on with it attitude' is essential.

I get you now, so this an internal upstand, I thought you may have been doing something externally. I'd be interested to learn more about what you are doing here as I suspect you have trodden a path I want to walk. Our builds are very similar in terms of SIP, size, no gas, all electric, a good chunk of PV. I also think aircon is the sensible thing to do - in the summer when needed it will be paid for by the PV so a no brainer. At the minute I have them as two separate systems, ASHP to the UFH and air con to it's own manifold in loft. They are both the same thing - a heat pump. What I havent investigated is whether I can get both uses out of one heat pump - UFH and air con (too busy looking at other stuff). Thinking about it now there are many on here who use the ASHP to cool the slab but it is the same O/P - ASHP --> UFH pipes. Can this O/P be switched from UFH pipes to aircon ducts? (Just thinking out loud now as you've got me pondering this now!). Yeah, be interested to hear where you're going with your set up. Cheers Jamie

Hi @dnb seems you are at around the same stage as me - my frame was due to go up in two weeks! I'm interested in hearing a few details of your build - in particular you mention insulation upstand, can you elaborate on this for me please. Also your air con/heating solution. Thanks Jamie

So, full lockdown - there goes my concrete?‍♂️ Decision made.

I did ponder that they may be more amenable to dropping the overrun price - think its 9% at the minute which would cost me a fortune.

This is an absolute mare! I cant see how the TF company have any more say in this than me - I reckon it's the government who will be calling a stop to everything?‍♂️ Cant see how the TF company can bill me to store summat they cant even move anyway?

This is looking the sensible option - if not the one I want to take.

Scaffolding - that's the other concern. My quotes at the minute are for 12wks then a weekly charge. No way I want to keep paying for a scaff that ain't getting used so that will be another thing which affects the decision. One part of me thinks if I'm off work and the house is up I can get stuff done - but then I wont be able to get materials?‍♂️ I'm considering calling it quits at concrete until the dust settles?

Bit of a dilemma of the should I/shouldn't I variety! Concrete due this Saturday, TF due to go up on 6th of April. I'm concerned that if by some miracle I get the frame up everything then shuts down and I cant get the blockwork or roof or windows done, leaving a skeleton TF exposed to the elements for a yet to be determined timeframe. This concerns me and I'm arguing with myself whether I should call it quits if I manage to get the concrete done and wait this mess out. Second opinions would be appreciated and will hopefully clear up my thoughts. My heart wants to crack on, my head says tread carefully.

Pipe lengths is probably a factor too - think they go up to 120m so will need more than one to do a room. All my pipes are 80&100m.

Lesson learnt - dont use spray paint on EPS, it doesn't like it!! Should have been obvious really but I was in 'let's get the floor plan sprayed out so I can do the UFH' and didn't think: Spotted it quick so had only sprayed a short line. Not sure of the best way to work out where doors are so I can route the pipes through the 'safe' areas. In the end I cut some timber lengths 900mm long and positioned them where the door openings are. If I had lots of pipes to go through an opening I then ran the fitst pipe 50mm in from the edge to give me a buffer and that pipe then acted as my marker. If only a couple of pipes went through a particular doorway i ran them through the middle. Cable tying the pipes takes forever. I now wish I had hired one of those tools that tie mesh for you and used it for both the mesh and UFH pipe, would have saved me a lot of effort. It's not 'hard' work but it ruins your knees and back. I'm 37 and fit, but I can feel the damage being done to my knees and it isn't good - I've already had some damaged cartilage removed from one when my cruciate was reconstructed. I hadn't realised how much the back and knees would be affected doing this.

Ha, you wont like mine much then?‍♂️, I'll stick a picture up later but I have 22 pipes coming back through one doorway into the plant room where the manifold is located. I am working under the assumption that yes, it will be a hot spot but during normal use the heat should distribute through the slab and even itself out. There are 11 hot pipes tight in the same area going out which will heat it up, equally there are 11 cooler pipes coming back through it sucking heat out, so all things being equal it will find an equilibrium which isn't too far out from the average slab temperature?‍♂️ It an ideal world the plant room would be in the middle of the house so that everything can be distributed equally in a 360 degree pattern. Failing that I would run pipes under the soleplate of stud walls - but the TF detectors could put a nail through a pipe so too risky. Going through doorways is safest if not ideal.

With it being SIP, the roof should be watertight once they have finished and the breather membrane put on. I dont want leave it exposed to 'test' this any longer than necessary but it is what it is?‍♂️ I have read talk of 'loading' out the roof to settle the structure but is this really a thing? A few ton of tiles over say 250m2 roof surface isn't actually a great amount to 'settle' the structure? As you say, do it the order you have traded available may be the way forward so I can keep things progressing!

Quick question, all of the TF builds that I can recall looking at on here have the roof tiles before moving onto the outer skin. Does this sequence have to be followed (or advised to follow)? Reason I ask - think I've lost my roofer, comms have gone silent (I've covered my woes elsewhere regarding concreter, seems the roofer is playing the same game now?‍♂️). Is there a sound reason as to why I shouldn't get the brickie in to chuck up the blockwork whilst I try to line up a new roofer? I have someone in mind but they are likely booked up for a while now and I am loath to pay for scaffolding to be sat there not getting used.

I, like many others are just going to crack until something cant be done. Laying the UFH pupe now, concrete is booked for next Saturday, timber frame due to be put up the week after. Time will tell how this works out?‍♂️

It was mentioned in another thread that others may be interested in what I built next to the Caravan and why. I started off intending to build a sheltered area where we could dekit without traipsing mud etc into the static. This grew into me adding walls so that we had some additional space. The father in law had an old door kicking about so we put that in and then he asked his builder mate to grab some windows being scrapped when he could so it also has a window in too. The floor deck, I built a frame out of a load of timber and then put a load of pallet wood (scrounged from work over that). Wasnt the best so I bought some OSB and put that over and got a stiff decent floor surface. The platform I built 2.4 x 4.8m so it fit the size of 2.4x1.2m OSB sheets. Used some timbers for the frame of the roof and covered that with OSB. To keep the 'inner' skin dry I chucked up some battens and then some cheapo feathered boarding over it for the walls. The roof is just the cheapest corrugated stuff i could find. Inside i put lino down for a floor. The racking from our old garage is in there along with our old fridge freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer, draws from our old bedroom for the kids clothes, shoe racks, old kitchen table. The space is like a utility room now and gives us loads of extra storage space and somewhere to transition from outside to inside without trashing the van. I chucked a load of old rugs down where I could so it's not cold for the kids feet. It gets dirty in there with mud etc but doesn't take long to set right again. It's not particularly airtight (I sealed any big gaps with cut up memory foam mattress) but it is weather tight. I got a sparky to install electric sockets in there for the white goods and a fluorescent tube light. I think the missus would find it very difficult without that additional space, I'll have a look at costs but I seem to think I spent around £800 altogether, very much worth it though. I'll upload pics once I have had a chance to look at my laptop.

@Dreadnaught the red sheet is visqueen radon membrane. My village is ln a list with the local authority where passive radon protection is required - so radon membrane but no need for sump/pump. Joints are done as per the manufacturer's instructions, minimum 150mm overlap, double sided jointing tape 50mm in from edge then single sided tape over the top of the overlap. I used visqueen products for all of it. The double sided tape is good but keep it warm. The single sided not so good. It appears to come off after a while so not 100% stuck down. I think @MikeSharp01 highlighted this issue in another thread. Incidentally I ran out of the single sided so in haste bought some similar stuff from screwfix, cheaper and seemed to adhere far better. The missus preferred using that! Penetrations, I bought some top hats but didn't use them. Reason being is that the soil pipes I left in place have a socket on top which I'd have to cut off to get the top hat over (in hindsight put the pipe through it before installing the pipe?) so I left the missus to patch the hole created with another bit of membrane and loads of tape. I left her to do the corners too - pita! I intend to wrap some foam around the pipes at FFL and just below so if I need to fit a junction socket over it at floor level there will be room for the socket to go on once I've dug the foam out. Two of the stacks will require this. I left the sockets on because I have caps which fit in them and will stop crud going in so its convenient to leave as is for now. Bonding EPS I used Soudal Low Expansion foam - in hindsight I should have bought loads in bulk from somewhere as I used a lot of cans which I hadn't considered. Kept going to screwfix everytime I ran out so probably spent more than I should have on it. I reckon I probably got through 20 cans, I'll have to check. I'm in the Lincolnshire Wolds. It has been hard work and draining, would I do it again - yes, just not in storm season. The weather was probably the thing that kept morale low. I enjoy working on site when its sunny as it's so nice in the countryside, but trying to lay the membrane in Storm Jorge was a particular low point? All good now.

I hate mess - it has been carnage over the last few weeks whilst my efforts were focused on the raft. I tend to don a head torch and tidy when it's dark as I cant get much done on the raft. The missus goes into town every saturday and sunday to take kids to various activities so I always send her to the dump with a load of waste, most of it's gone now.

I'll start another thread somewhere and post some pics when I can - it is a game changer in making things comfortable for the missus and kids (I work away so they get the raw end of the deal but they're happy).

Water - yes to outside supply. I have a room at bottom of garden to run water to aswell. I dont have an island in the kitchen so didn't need any duct for that. Yes to heat pump. I seriously considered running duct for that, decided not to for two reasons: - I dont know exactly how the dice will fall in terms of what goes where in the plant room. - i looked at pre insulated pipes for heat pump, someone on here used them and had to go 1m deep in order to get the required bend. I decided it would be simpler if not ideal to go through the wall once I have everything in place. I considered also pouring the concrete for the heat pump to sit on outside. Decided not to so I'm not committed to locations at an early stage. No showers etc downstairs so no need to put stuff in slab. Door thresholds were at the back of my mind - they will be low, so figured with the internal floor build up there wont be much of a threshold going from in to out. I need to revisit this to check. A mat well was on my list but i had forgotten it so thanks for the timely reminder?