LA3222

I intend to do the UFH pipe this weekend, yes its three soil stacks and four service ducts into the plant room. Black 110mm to run SWA in, grey next to it for phone line, green and blue are to run water into and out of the house (green because it's what I had to hand!). It's been some graft doing this, approx 180m2, mainly by myself. Had a few days help from father in law and a mate as well as the missus who has put in a few days graft tying steel (didn't do her back any favours!). To be honest the weather was the thing that probably took its toll the most. Gets really windy on site and I was out in it all trying to meet a deadline (self imposed as I want the house up at start of April) for the concrete pour. Made mistakes - normally due to rushing and thinking 'that'll do'....it usually doesn't! The sand blinding was the first mistake and it affected other things. A it if a saga to explain but I should have done a second pass (nearly did). The surface wasnt flat and the EPS ended up not sitting right, after a lot of cutting and glueing I scrapped it, pulled everything off and redid the sand. It was much better this time and the EPS just butted nicely together. Didn't put profiles out. Yarp stupid, I thought about it but once I'd got one wall marked out I assumed I could plot the other corners to that and then fill in from corner to corner. No. What looks straight to the eye is not, the walls wandered out by up to 30mm on the longest run. Scrapped it again, put profiles up and then it was easy. Rookie errors which cost me time. Frustrating as I considered them but dismissed it and cracked on only to have to do it as I was thinking to Nearly got a slab though so things are good - until Corona virus gets in the way?‍♂️

Cheers @Russell griffiths, your feedback along the way has helped a lot. Sometimes I wonder if being a first time self builder is a double edged sword, invested enough to want everything perfect without the prior knowledge to know when something is 'good enough', so making life hard for yourself ?‍♂️ Thanks @Cpd, it's not too shabby, especially in the summer when everything is in bloom!

Is there such a thing as too many? I was looking at some pictures on here for how the UFH manifold is temporarily supported (installing mine at the weekend) and noticed that on all the images there is a distinct lack of mesh castles? I thought i needed to put in enough to stop it flexing too much whilst walking on it - i think now that i may have been overzealous?

Saw this yesterday whilst I was festering in my anger, made me smile - like everyone going through this, quitting ain't an option.

I dont have an issue with anyone who tells me straight up that they dont want the job, it's the being strung along whilst they tell me they do want the job which really winds me up. I would rather they free me up to invest my time in finding someone who does want my cash rather than waste my time in pointless dialogue about a job they then go radio silent on. @Oz07 I was in discussion about self compacting, but I was put off by another self builders on here saying that their EPS and steel started floating when the concrete got under it. @stephen margerison I'll always keep going, stopping ain't an option whilst the missus and little ens endure static Caravan life! After a lot of googling and phone calls this morning, I have another contractor lined up - booked in for last friday of march, let's see how this one goes?‍♂️

Moan time. I have gone through three contractors now who I thought I had lined up to do the concrete pour/powerfloat of my slab. Everytime they seem keen and talk a good talk, then eventually they stop answering their phone, dont even have the courtesy to let me know they dont want the job anymore. One even sent me a text saying yeah he's still on to do the job, then didn't answer my call or respond to a text when I rang to sort out a few details - why the hell take the time to type that text out if you dont want the job. So now I'm two weeks out from needing to get the job done and no contractor, again. If I thought I could do the job myself I would, unfortunately this is one of those areas where they need to have done it before I reckon. Back to the drawing board?

But then gold is deflationary aswell - everytime a new mine is found they are effectively printing money! A cryptocurrency with a fixed number of units is the solution. Its value will then only ever go up rather than down.

FIAT is a fraud - where does all this newly printed money disappear to? The only thing I know is that every time money gets printed on the magic machine, the pounds in my pocket become worth just that little bit less?‍♂️ I think fiat will disappear eventually and be replaced by a decentralised cryptocurrency of some description? We are already drifting into a cashless society - just a small step then from digital pounds to a digital cryptocurrency?

Yarp, 100mm in the thin part, 200mm in the perimeter. I've got a load of 40/50meshmen which I have used at the 50mm height but I'm not happy with the cover on overlaps so am thinking to spin them all around to the 40 as this will put the steel roughly in the middle of the 100mm around areas and give me about 30mm (top of steel to top of concrete) of cover over the parts which overlap where its about 25mm at the minute.

The concrete cover as specified on foundation drawings, is this a minimum or what is must be? My drawings state 30-40mm cover, does that mean the mesh needs to sit in that zone from the top of the concrete or is this a minimum figure, so the steel can sit at 50mm below the finished surface? 30-40mm don't leave a lot in areas that lap as the top sheet in the lap is pushed higher and when I attach UFH pipes there won't be much cover there at all.

@SuperJohnG I went with blockwork as I wanted a more substantial/solid outer skin. It's a bit of a wind trap where I am so it's just a psychological comfort thing! The blockwork will be rendered so could have been done with render carrier board.

@SuperJohnG I have SIP with a blockwork outer skin on an insulated raft foundation. The way it worked for me is I first of all had a soil survey done to get a ground bearing capacity. Architectural Technician did my house design which I gave to SIP company and asked them for the point and line loads. They used their SE to get this for me (incl in cost of the SIP supply/install package). I then contacted Tanners and provided him with the soil survey report and the line/point loads of the SIP and the house design. They then produced a foundation plan which included a slab for the TF and a separate ring beam to carry the blockwork skin. Gave this design to Kore and i am now pulling my hair out trying to build it in the worst February on record?‍♂️?

When the dpm took flight like a sail due to a particularly savage gust of wind it was a low point. Back in the fight now though!

It's been a challenge so far, with many mistakes made. There are other factors too such as the shape of my slab and the horrendous weather, once I cross the finish line I will post a summary on here which will hopefully be of use to those who tackle it themselves in future.

Bit of a thread resurrection! Things have moved a lot slower than I anticipated, the insulation is all assembled after some trials and tribulations. Intended to get the dpm nipped today, I got as far as cutting and positioning it all before the heavens opened. Tried to towel dry and stick an edge as me and the missus shuffled along, gave it up as a bad job. Now have a good layer of water in there and a puddle pump arriving tomorrow! Hoping for a dry spell tomorrow so I can get the DPM taped up, have a feeling I'm gonna have to pull it all off to dry any water that got under the overlaps, will be interesting with the forecast strong winds. A dark sense of humour is essential with this self building malarky?‍♂️

I got some stuff done, one long wall assembled and all the corners assembled. Couldn't put them in the right place though as the bloody wind meant I couldn't run a straight line with my tape, gave it up as a bad job and moved on to other stuff. Did you get that rain earlier? I actually had to retreat indoors when that came!

This bloody wind is doing my nut in. Outside trying to glue eps together and this is not helping?

It is indeed rather windy here! The morning after the night before shows that a few pieces have slid across the sand but that's all. The challenge will be trying to glue more together today in this damn wind!!

Its sat abandoned at the minute....seems heavy enough and the friction of each piece next to the other has it fairly well secured I think. If its budged in the morning I'll sling some steel on it. Bit threaders with it all after today, part and parcel of self building I suspect? New day tomorrow!

Is it just me or did anyone else have dramas putting there raft insulation together? I have all the pieces in the right place but I'll be damned if I can get them to but up to each other snugly. My dimensions are all over the shop. About 15mm over 15m length and 20mm on the diagonals?‍♂️ There are 14 pieces in the long side so just 1mm between them all leaves me with a big error at the end. A long and frustrating day!!!?

I am right now doing my founds. Dug out 800mm and put 500mm of stone back in. Had to go to 1300mm in a few places as the ground was soft. 50mm of sand on the stone followed by 300mm of EPS. I had already dug out a wedge of the plot prior to this as it slopes gently. Got rid of 500t of muck and brought 300t of stone back in. Of the top of my head I've had about 1000t of muck/concrete removed so far at £7.50/t. Such is life ?‍♂️ I could have chucked some strip founds in but wanted to go for an insulated slab. You can do what you like really, just depends on your appetite to pay for the muck out and stone back in?

In a nutshell, yes. Architect is the overarching bod who has been pulling everything together. I decided on a SIP company and they did all the load calculations/SE stuff which they then gave to me. I passed this onto TSD who then did the foundation design for me based on the ground bearing capacity and the loading of the SIP build. This all got fed back to the architect who amended his drawings accordingly so it shows the SIP structure and foundations on it. This drawing went to the SIP company whose in house team then use it as a starting point to work out panels etc. I have done a lot of tweaking of the design directly with the SIP designer, moving doors/windows slightly, moving other bits and bobs. Ince that is all done I will sign off to say I'm happy and then any issues later on, the fault lies with me?‍♂️ With the foundation design, I just sent Tanners drawings to Kore and they worked to that. It has been fairly straight forward to be fair so far, I sometimes wonder as to the value of the architect in all this, but then I suppose the foundation people are only interested in the foundation, the SIP people are only interested in the SIP so that leaves me and the architect to stitch it all together into a cohesive plan.

Trying to do as much of the founds myself as possible. The design was done by Tanners, the insulation is from Kore. Due to the ground I have, it needs digging out by 800mil before putting 500 of stone in. 50mm of grit sand to go on that before I can lay out the insulation. The insulation appears to be as simple as a jig saw puzzle - I have a plan with the edges marked out, just follow the foundation design when filling the middle in. The steel is fairly simple, just two layers of mesh, no complicated cages or such in the thickenings. I hope to get all that done and the UFH pipe installed before getting a contractor in to do the concreting. Not alot to show yet other than the big hole!

I have SIP with a passive slab. Currently doing the dig for the slab this week, it a bit of a nous as I have to dig down to sandstone which for the most part is 800mm deep, there are some soft spots though which are more like 1.5m deep so a lot of stone to put back in to fill the hole - around 400t all said! Doing most of the founds myself, hope to get the SIP up in March.

Windows are made to order - I sent the structural opening sizes out for quotes and let the window companies decide what size the window needs to be. Saves me worrying about opening sizes - just make sure they know what your opening size is and they should adjust the window size according to their specs.