Vijay

A rich family my Mum once worked for did this in Hampstead Garden Suburb, but same as Triassic, they are multi millionaires and bought a huge house costing millions just to knock down and start again.

I've been dealing with Alan for a while now as I'm going with Polarwall too. Found him to be a genuinely good guy, so I hope he can help you too

Who did the previous work?

I think the problem is also pride too. I'd be ashamed to turn out some work I've seen over the years. Maybe you're just good at things Joe but also WANT to do a good job and not just about the money

Been thinking about this a lot cos I've got exactly the same issue with nearly every trade I've dealt with and not been impressed with. The problem is how do you combat the DIY approach when you believe you can do a better job than a lot of trades out there

I agree with above based on my post and the helpful replies here http://forum.buildhub.org.uk/ipb/topic/2646-zero-rated-vat/

Cheers guys. Can't see an easy way of raising the ICF panels so would prefer not to do that. I'll get the ICF done first and then look at what I need in terms of blocks. SE specified 7N blocks

yep, I reckon some are gonna be less than 300mm and some more. So ideally looking for a block that can easily be cut (if that exists)?

3 courses plus mortar would be too high wouldn't it??

I'll be starting the rising wall within the next few weeks and it's a mix of ICF and foundations blocks. The ICF panels are approx 300 high so I need to lay blocks that are going to line up with them so they can support the concrete floor beams. Some of them are just sleeper walls for the beams and some will continue up to the internal load bearing walls, so I need a mix of widths, 100mm for the internal walls and single sleeper walls and 200mm for the sleeper walls where they support beams from both sides. I asked TP and and they said they couldn't get a block to suit. Any idea what I'd need to use? Oh, and I also need to have air bricks in those walls for ventilation. Cheers Vijay

I hope to have done better than 50mm!! lol Just from a ten minute scan with a rotary level, I would say I'm within 10-15mm either side of level (so 20-30mm from lowest to highest points). I'll give Polarwall a call this morning but I suspect it's going to be cutting every board to fit

Cheers Roger. You're more than welcome anytime mate Went up there today, it's drying out nicely. Levels aren't spot on but if I'm being honest, I never thought it would be over 30m. It's gonna take a bit of work getting the first course of ICF spot on.

Cheers Russell

Look out in Lidl, those type of sharpeners were around £20

lol wish it was more exciting

I know a guy in High Wycome who might be able to help, they've gone home for the day but I'll call him Monday

They are where I had to move a few bits and rather than just fill with concrete that costs me, I shuttered them, then will remove the ply and back fill

162.5M

The worrying thing is, after speaking to them this morning, he is their best guy!! I told them he was the part that let down their service and I would never want him back on site!

Didn't even think of taking a photo of the mess they left, my mate was on the digger cleaning it up as we all just wanted to get home Completely agree with you, they have no right to just dump the mess where they feel like it and the more I think about it, the more it annoys me.

You'd think if it was the same company, they would understand the mix was ordered by the customer and a pump guy should have the right to mess with that order I've already told them that IF I use them for the ICF, I would turn away anything that isn't perfect and what I ordered. I'm too tired to feel anything lol

where abouts in the country are you Bitpipe?

To say we're all exhausted is an understatement but it's done! Was a half 4.30 get up and finally sat down for something to eat (back at home) at around 9 last night. Ended up using 93.5m3 of concrete which was exactly 9 lorries. Drivers were friendly and brilliant but the pump guy was the most miserable unhelpful bloke I could have - and I'll be speaking to the concrete company about him this morning. I don't think they should have put him on my job if he wasn't a "team player", was so obvious he just cared about getting the concrete out of his pump - even asking the drivers to add water to speed things up. He ended up just dumping the crap out of his pump without asking where or for the bag we had, which left a horrible mess over the access road and has probably upset my neighbour (which we already don't get on). Levelling was quite a headache as with so many corners in the footings, things would slump a little. Then when there was too much water, you would have things level and then after half an hour, where it was level was no water which was evaporating. We did use a small vibrating poker but was far from mad with it, probably a 2 or 3 out of 10 in terms of how vigorous. Had one mate doing the rebars (400mm at the top) which saved us a big job at the end, as he was constantly behind us waiting for the concrete to set enough for them to stand up. Weather held off until the very end where we were packing up in the rain, but a massive relief to drive away with it all done

I think they got a sense of they were covered by having a certificate signed by me and as you say, no harm if it helps get the zero vat

lol considering I was up at 6 this morning thinking about tomorrow, you're probably right!!!