divorcingjack

So true! This bit was horrible - thankfully we are on site now, so I'm writing up history I'll eventually catch up to where we are at the minute!

Ferdinand has it spot on about the rigs. If you look at a medieval street map of the town every building has a long strip of land behind it, traditionally a kitchen garden or pasture for a horse/cow/goat. The town was agriculture based, originally, and pains have been taken to preserve as much of that history as possible. Our plot was the original rig length by double the width, we could see where the original boundary line had been, but the dividing wall had long gone, unfortunately. We had an archeologist who told us all this stuff when she came on a site visit, fascinating. That's also the reason why there was SO much blimmin topsoil (over 2m deep in places!) all over the place - the land had just been used as grazing for hundreds of years. We found a lot of cow bones.

At the end of the last episode, we were the proud owners of a landlocked, overlooked, overgrown plot in the centre of a medieval conservation area. Easy to develop, right? The plot was accessed through a narrow close, about 2cm too narrow for a transit (even with the mirrors folded and a brave/careless driver in charge), so completely impractical for the creation of a new house. On either side, the plot is overlooked by 3 storey blocks of flats, tight up against the boundary, and at the rear, by a selection of very attractive 50's, harled, concrete panel lock up garages. There are 8 of these that back onto the plot. So, to cut a long story short, we ended up having to buy 2 of these garages, pay extensive lawyers fees, carefully take them apart and store the bits to allow us proper access to the site. They were not cheap. They were so not cheap that we couldn't afford to knock them down - we're going to put them carefully back together when we're finished and sell them to recoup some cash. The plot, as it stands, consists of two traditional Scottish rigs, covered in a LOT of topsoil, ivy, an old timber shed and a million old paving slabs. Hopefully no Viking longships or bodies. The space itself is very tight, limited in the height we can build to and with lots of overlooking/privacy issues. Our architect came up with an initial plan of an L shaped building, overlooking our own courtyard garden with no windows on either side gable to avoid privacy issues. We liked the design - the planners liked it, our neighbours and various local groups very much didn't. We had numerous objections including "inappropriate use of modern materials" (newfangled wood/glass), "destruction of the rig structure" (it was abandoned waste ground and had been garden or pasture since pretty much the founding of the town) and so many others that I can't even remember them all. We had to go to planning committee, where we were advised that it simply wouldn't be approved with a flat roof design, so back to the drawing board we go. We end up with a quite compromised design, three stories and with all the complexities that brings. No-one was very happy. We passed committee and got our planning. So, to building warrant stage we go - back and forth between various build methods, SIP being the front runner for a long time. Numerous engineers, foundation meetings, quotes and drama, we end up with a building warrant package ready to go. The DAY before submitting the package to building control, we heard the news that we could potentially obtain some land next to our plot boundary, and improve the vehicle access. After tears of frustration and chucking away all the work the architect had done, we realised that actually it was a stroke of luck and we could radically improve the design, the floorplan, the access AND the garden area. Never mind all the work already done and the time spent .... BACK to the drawing board, AND planning, all over again.

OK, so the entry is down to the fitter? The gas company won't have anything to do with the house from now on, as the meter is already in place and connected (albeit 50m away from the house). Are there building regs to do with this? Stupid question, I know there are building regs to do with everything! Cheers, dj

So, our concrete is scheduled for Wednesday, and I just want to double/triple check something before we pour. Our meter is a considerable distance away from the house (in a close - due to a historical quirk of supply), and we have run conduit from the meter, up a hill, around the perimeter of the house and now want to plan it's entry to the house. At the minute, the conduit runs under the slab and comes up through it. We are now thinking that perhaps we're not allowed to run the supply under a wall and it must come in through the wall itself. If we ventilate the conduit at the meter end, and seal it inside the house, is that OK? The boiler will be against the outside wall, so it would literally just be the width of the wall that we're talking about. What has everyone else done with an MBC slab?

I guess it would be something like the systems that they used to use in commercial buildings for polystyrene ceiling tiles, they left a gap between. Otherwise, multitool? Could be quite snazzy for a ceiling actually, nice thought.

perfect, cheers @Nickfromwales Any recs for liquid membranes? You guys are so much help, what a place this forum is

Yeah, was thinking no former, as we have a good screed guy and you know, money.... Just reinforcing fibres? By perfect, do you mean flat or smooth, or both?

If you don't mind picking up, there are loads of branded taps and plumbing gubbins on gumtree. I've picked up a load of hansgrohe stuff for our place for buttons. Always see hansgrohe/grohe taps on there. Normally, annoyingly, too far away for me to pick up! Perhaps worth a look?

I must admit, I've taken a much keener interest in the building process since I've been building my own. Driving past new build sites, horrified by the lack of and shoddy fitting of insulation, for a start. My 5 year old has started tutting audibly when he sees a new build site. Don't know where he got from.

Haven't seen them in real life, but on lots of house programmes. I quite like the look on the occasional wall - I think if it was all over the place it might look a bit "swedish sauna". I'd probably go for a matt lacquer like they use on oak floors, protects from staining, but doesn't look too shiny. I'm allergic to overly shiny things as they need dusting.

In work chaps, so can't reply in detail, but you lot are bloody invaluable. @Nickfromwales the showers are all hansgrohe or grohe, should be ok from the front? Using an ibox type arrangement. If we could move the shower, that would help a lot. Also, I LOVE the pic that you put up, it's just the look I'm after Also - how much depth should I leave for the water guard tanking? We're thinking of stopping the pour at 75mm, leaving 25mm for fall, tanking, adhesive and tiles. Sound reasonable?

Hi all, Sorry to dig up an old zombie thread of mine, but some questions have come up on-site now that we are close to pouring the slab. So, we have 2 bathrooms on the ground floor of an MBC passive slab, final floor finish throughout the rest of the house will be the polished slab, so no wood/tiles or anything. In order to have a level threshold between the tiled bathroom floor and the rest of the house, MBC has offered to just pour the concrete to 50mm, leaving us to pour the final screed, create the fall, tank and tile to meet the rest of the slab. However, we've now discovered that 50mm is not enough depth to cover the UFH pipes and Hilliard is not happy wth our solution from an engineering perspective. So - questions: - Our plan now is to use a block of EPS to cover the drainage area - unfortunately, the pop out is at the opposite end of the shower area (close to an external wall) to where the shower head will be (against an internal wall for future maintenance). Can we leave the pop up where it is and run a connection from the shower waste to the actual drain? - How much outside of the shower area should be sloped? It is not a true wet room - we will have a glass screen, but floor tiled all over the large format tiles. No mosaics. - Do we actually need to tank the whole floor or just the shower area? It is ground floor concrete. - What depth should we leave for the shower waste? Should we block this out from the concrete or cut it out afterwards? - Finally - has anyone done this with MBC before? Do you have pics? Pretty please?! Cheers, dj

Next update when I'm on my way home from work on the train

Although Ian has a good point, if there is a chance of a risk. We knew there was no contamination nearby, we just needed to prove it to the council.

We had exactly the same issues with our plot - historical garden ground, potential contaminated land nearby and planning doing their nut asking for all kinds of surveys etc. We ended up getting a local engineer to assess a variety of trial pits that we dug ourselves (saved in plant hire and labour time), and then I bothered the local council environmental health team for local historical records of recent land use. They were very comprehensive (and free!) - I tool all their info and the report from the engineer, put it all together with a load of pics from the library into a PDF "report" and planning accepted it and removed the condition. result! A few grand saved. It's worth ringing around the council departments as you might actually get someone helpful. Worth a shot! Good luck though, it can be a right pain.

Six years ago, we had a casual conversation with an architect friend about the fact that we'd like to build our own home. Taking the resulting vague, non-committal "hmmmmm" as rampant, unbridled enthusiasm, we started looking for plots. First thought - our very own back garden. It was massive, a pain in the arse to garden, and it would be free! Back garden plot Pros: - Free -Less gardening Back Garden Plot Cons: - On a notorious flood plain - Not actually where we wanted to live On balance, we binned that idea. But not before paying the first of many fees to the local council to be denied planning permission. It was at this point that my out-of-control addiction to giving money away to the local council (or anyone, actually) began. Second up was a plot in an outlying village, about 2 miles from the place we actually wanted to live (but couldn't afford). Lovely plot. (someone else's front garden, giving them the classic double whammy of less gardening AND extra money to spend during the leisure time they'd have gained by not gardening) Local village plot Pros: - Nice road in semi-posh village - Little school - Pub - Services on site - South facing Local village plot Cons: - A LOT of trees - some with TPO's - Not free - Still not where we REALLY wanted to live - Quite small This was a tough one. We knew that we'd never get a plot in the dream location, but was it a compromise too far? Whilst we were swithering about plot 2, an unbelievable opportunity came up, right in the centre of our dream location. Dream plot Pros: - Where we REALLY wanted to live Dream plot Cons: - Lots - Who cares? - No money for the rest of time Needless to say, we went for it. So, that's how we ended up with an inaccessible plot, complete with a ransom strip owned by someone else, surrounded by a million overlooking flats in the centre of the medieval town. Next up - how we got access to the plot (hint: expensively) and fulfilled my need to give away some more money to the council.

Just to have some current prices on this thread, we paid £10.50 Inc VAT p/tonne for new type 1, delivered. But we bought a LOT.

@Silage - ask me next week how polishing the slab for a final floor finish goes! The boys are on-site this week for our slab and hoping to pour concrete on Monday. We've planned for a powerfloated (ie. NOT diamond polished/mirror finish) final floor but it all depends on the weather on the day.

We're filming for his ch4 programme, so I'll ask him the next time he's up!

Can't add pics on my phone! Just wrangling the little one, then I'll update, promise!

Will do! Our engineers have mostly been a joke anyway, so ...

Unfortunately, no Darren this time, just the three lads, but they seem more than capable! Terrible jokes will fit right in here

Hi all, @recoveringacademic has kindly granted me blog rights, so I'm off to make a start Pics later!