Canski

Oh thanks. I can’t bring myself to build them for a loss. Maybe the same applies to the OP. We all know it would be a better house if demolished and rebuilt but I doubt if the numbers would add up.

It may be me. I managed an Oh Lordy Lordy out of him for not fitting MVHR 😂😂

You are not going to get brickwork or blockwork supplied and fitted for those rates. I'm unsure about the other items.

We had meters installed by British Gas and they were spot on up to that point. When we raised some issues concerning the smart meter they turned to shite. Some of the idiots I spoke to in their call centre were absolutely useless. Remembering that they had no exit fee I have just swapped to Octopus who have been OK up to now.

Don’t worry about this. You saved having to cavity fill by having the trench blocks to below the beams. Cavity tray is just DPC but wider. It gives you an extra level of damp protection. It’s not expensive and would be installed quicker than cavity filling. You would have to install it over your air bricks anyway so it’s just an extension of this. Get some good tape for the corners though. Start planning the superstructures.

Honestly that's not the end of the world. A 200 mm cavity instead of 150 which is what it looked like from the other photo would have been a problem. Your cavity trays will be from the top of the first course of block above DPC (+ 225mm ) down to DPC on the outer skin (0.00) Make sure your insulation is in and photographed before these go on. Move on to the next stage.

Yep you will need to submit your section 80 and wait for the reply. It was only a week or so for me.

This is what I mentioned yesterday. It looks more like 200 to me from your photo. That’s why I asked how they were going to infill the ends of the beams.

Please tell me what size cavities you are supposed to have.

This is true. I’d like this question to be asked …. What happens between the ends of the beams ? And just out of interest ( it’s good to see the holes on the blues filled in) but why with black mortar ? Nothing wrong with it but why ?

No that’s nuts. Maybe they took it off to point the blues but even so.

do what all the young ones do at my place. Get to the door then send a text.

No I used them to check the setting out on all of the external walls. What is this luncheon thing that you refer to ?

Of course but there's usually a few of these on a house build. I calculated many diagonals on my build and marked an A3 drawing up with them on and laminated it ready for site use during setting out.

Remember Pythagorus is your best friend when checking setting out.

No no no. Don't build anything different than what is on the beam and block drawing. Every action has a reaction and if you don't follow the beam and block drawing you may discover this first when you come to a S&VP. If you have a situation like the section on the left simply lay the DPC at the level of the bottom of the beams then lay the 'slips' on this and lay the block on top of these with a mortar bed in between.

This would help divert the water to the outside but I’d be more concerned about how the water is getting in. Is there a drip groove below the cill ? I can’t tell from the photos.

For levels I had a 100 mm board fixed to the fence. I had the 2 FFL plus 1 m marked on there for the 2 houses. I had an engineer come out and mark out the building. While he was there I got him to extend the long line of the brickwork and marked it on the rear fence with a nail at the front I marked it next to the pavement. I then had the rear wall points extended and marked on the fence. I also took a couple of measurements from a fixed point to the corners of the house in a few places just in case. I had a 2 stakes with a nail in it for this and used 2 tapes to get the corner points. again to set out the brickwork corners. Levels were taken with a laser from the FFL points from the fence. Once up to DPC and everything is checked you don't need them again. I was glad I did it as the digger lost a couple of corner points whilst manouvering.

Rats !! I could have saved that Alutrix money. 🙂

Idon't think videos were available when we used these 🙂 We used saws supplied to us by the German companies. They were similar to a recip saw and I wished I had taken my stihl saws with me but hadn't. The blocks are very fragile if you have cut them in the middle of a line of holes. They were ok using sand and cement because you could fill the holes behind the gaps on the joint but with thin joint this was virtually impossible.

The air pockets are the insulation. I have also seen somewhere where the holes in the blocks are filled with what looks like rock wool. Having said that I have laid 100's of m2 of these in Germany using both thin bed and traditional mortar and I agree with the rest of your comments. A pig to cut and course to openings and penetrations and although I haven't tried them I can imagine that fixing to them is not easy either. Then again most Lidl stores in the UK are built with them .

Isn’t it just great when someone tells you when it’s too late. 🤯my plumber told me that the flush pipe he needed was inside the concealed cistern behind the tiled access panel just after I had just grouted the tiles.

No we went with Rads for the first floor with heated towel rails in the bathrooms that either run from the heat pump or electrically on a timer. I looked at spreader places for UFH and decided against it due to cost. Pozi joists are ok at 6m but you may need a steel beam in the middle.

This is correct. I hope that the beam and block company had the drawing that showed the walls below DPC ( foundation plan) the blockwork should be built to the underside of beams then a full DPC added before laying the beams to the plan supplied by the beam and block supplier. Then prior to the blocks being suspended in the beams the 50 mm or so should be built up solid to the underside of the blocks and then the blocks inserted.

I went for pozi joists in the end. I would have much preferred a beam and block floor but a few things put me off. 1) the fact that I don’t think that we will need much heat upstairs anyway 2) the cost of the extra masonry to raise the height to give me a service void. 3) I would have had to beef up my blockwork load bearing capacities and I was tight on the u values of the blocks as it was