MikeSharp01

Jealous I am.

The site slopes so at the rear of the site the dig is down 600mm at the front it is about 400mm, it is 15m long and 9m wide. So the volume, with swell, is 68m3 x 1.40 = 95m3 which is 7 x 15m3 trucks full. Then there is the soak away (1 truck) and we have to remove about 30m3 (2 Trucks) of soil from the footpath. We have already sent 3 trucks of rubble away, who ever knew how much rubble a wooden shack needed.

Although I have been away from the build for a few weeks due to to flu, work (yes I went back cos they asked me help out for a few weeks) and parties I have been back on the build for the last 5 days and have reached a harrowing conclusion. The muck away costs for a passive slab are huge! The first lorry grab lorry turned up today and took 15m3 of soil which didn't even dent the pile and we have only done about 30% of the slab area, 600mm deep. When I worked out the budget for this phase I had reasoned that the existing property, a timber cabin, would be hollow down to the soil when in fact, as we demolished it we realised that it was on a slab with some massive foundations - no idea why. These had to be broken up first, and disposed of as rubble before we could start to scrape back the clay to the required depth for the slab build up to commence. So I now think we will need between 10 and 13 lorry loads of muck away which is about 4x the budget I had worked out and will eat a second chunk from the contingency. The expansion (swell) of clay (40%) as you dig it does not help either. I noticed that the grab lorry has load cells, or similar contraption, so it knows just how much weight it has aboard and although we had the volume today we were well down on total weight. So my next job is to run up and down along the pile with the digger to compact it so that it goes back to around 100% before the grab picks it up as I don't think it will swell much in those jaws. Moral of the story is - if you are thinking of a passive slab and you need to dig down, IE you are not building it all above ground, work out the muck away costs carefully.

120-150 as the 100-120 probably wont stretch. If you can get a 'returns' possibility buy one of each and return the one that fits best. If you can get the 120 to stretch, without tearing, then it will be a tighter fit but the 120-150 should be fine. Ho wide a tape are you looking for?

Is this a meeting part of choosing an architect or have you chosen? If you are choosing then you need to understand their approach and style while trying to understand if you feel you can work with them. I would not show them ideas but let them come up with their own so as to broaden thinking.

Would an external three way (2 in 1 out) heat exchanger so you could use one coil with two heat sources extra pump needed but might widen the scope.

Looks like a brilliant job all round, everybody learned something and @newhome can move on. To top it all given the Solar Thermal temp the sun must be shinning there, which just tells you that the sun does shine on the righteous, well some of them anyway. It is all somewhat tinged with sadness (not) by the fact that this thread will sort of slow down now and @Onoff's 'boxing in' thread will remain supreme, now at 55 pages I see. One might speculate if 'boxing in' will ever be overtaken for pages and while the job ain't finished it will continue to grow, for this thread we could look to use different metric and say that it has shown the measure of THE forum and didn't need, or take, 55 pages. Well done all.

This is a skill he probably needs to work on so I guess the more opportunities the better. (I thinks that's a complement @Nickfromwales)

They also serve who only stand and wait - John Milton 1674! - that would be me then.

I think readers might be confused, naturally the beer is being used to fill the intermediate transfer circuits with alcohol, it will never freeze and if desperate you can get a drink from the drain tap!

Looking good JP

Been working hard on the plans now we have had the all clear from BC, managed to get the stair design put back otherwise we are good to go. In drawing things up I came across the build up below from the architect. Its only on a portion of the front and rear walls (the others are 300mm I joist and 40mm PUR) but I am worried about several things and though I might seek thoughts from THE forum. My concerns are: 1. How to seal the bottom of the PUR to the top of the EPS to ensure no cold bridging? 2. What methods are there, other than long nails, to fix the Vertical battens through the PUR to the I joists (which only have 36mm thick flanges) and will these support the weight of tiles, horizontal battens and fixings. (I had thought of M12 studs fixed to the flanges -bolted both sides, and then fed through the PUR at intervals but it feels like a phaff although it won't be much of a cold bridge overall it feels like a great dew point opportunity. 3. What sort of thing (detail) can I do along the bottom of the overhang to make it look good, seal the bottom from insects but allow air flow up behind the tiles? Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

P's sorry meant to add that you could use the CC to cover the additional repayments on the final drawdown so that you can eat!

There might be a route through this but you need to find a way to fund the finish of the main house. Maybe find a zero interest credit card or two. Once the build is complete, to an acceptable standard, you can remortgage and / or perhaps your current lender would reduce the interest rate naturally as thus feature is built into some self build products.

Not sure. Why not make a model and have a go on that.

What sort of a mortgage do you currently have?

Yes but visible / tangible progress - ours has not moved for two weeks - back on it today though.

Because your worth it!

Welcome to THE forum - looks like you knew that already?

Capital HIM and capital HER

Is this the very definition of asymmetric fantasy. You dream of UFH ozing warmth while she dreams of bathrooms with tight / pert little taps, and that oh so heavenly toilet paper holder in chrome.

HIS and HERs

On our build we have had THESE from strong tie specified. I think they use pins rather than bolts but single row all the same.

Not by HSE you won't - they will throw exactly the same book at you as anybody else (I would have thought as ignorance is no defence), but your charter organisation might, just might, take a dim view if something goes wrong particularly if you are using your professional insurance to cover aspects of your work on it.

PS think I might want to 'speak' to the person who ran that weld down the plate joint, probably the apprentice on a Friday!