MikeSharp01

Yes - thanks. I watched this video on the internals as I was not sure how best to do them - he makes it look easy - I will let you know how I get on next week.......

Yes, many thanks, any recommended brand(s) that I should use / steer clear of?

There is an argument for 400 centres based on achieving flatter walls with plasterboard but it must be marginal. I guess you need 400mm to meet the structural requirements around the larson truss system. There is also another argument based around the sizes of boards because OSB normally comes in 8 x 4 (2440 x 1220) while plaster board comes in at 2400 x 1200 which seems mad as to use the larger OSB boards you need, or it is implied that you need to, move out to 610mm centres!

You live local to John Smith's hallowed grave ..... How lucky are you. IIRCC it has a beer pump and free beer can be had on various anniversaries?

Taping and filling. Sorry should have made that clear - brain dead today.....

Just about ready to scrim / skim the drywalls in the garden room. Just need a steer on the best mud (plaster / filler) and perhaps a bit on coverage so I don't over order or miss out on potential price breaks. Do I buy ready mixed or powdered? I will also invest in a ROTAX for sanding / finishing as I don't yet have a large (ish) orbital sander. Any and all contributions accepted.

I have many neighbours and a footpath runs along the site edge, I have stopped telling people when I hope to finish as things are taking longer than I expected - most have now stopped reminding me. One family who were in a holiday rental last year and this did wonder how I was getting on as I had said I had hoped to be finished by next March - no chance. There are four or five regulars who stop for a natter, mainly now about other mad neighbours generally they are supportive and notice when I am not there commenting the next time they see me. It has its moments - last week I was installing the earth rod and I came across a large (10") iron cylinder I was uncovering it a couple (five doors down) wandered by and peered into the hole. I have have found this cylindrical thing down here I am just investigating perhaps, I said jokingly, its a UXB. She said "I lived in this area during WWII and this area was heavily bombed. I went much more gingerly and they marched off up the path at some pace! Needless to say it looks like it was some sort of drain pipe but very large. I try to fit in to the community as well, we will be neighbours when its finished, and do things for people, many of whom are elderly. So far I have delivered rubble, moved a heap of road stone, provided some timber for boarder edging and swept the end of the road where many of the loose stones, that form our road, had migrated out onto the main highway. I have even been invited to the WI coffee morning a few times!

Yes @Dyfed we are a self help community realy. Some of us have finished self builds, others are well down the track, some nearly finished and many, like you, just starting. Many are professionals in the trade or have engineering, academic and scientific backgrounds that means that there is info and, as are the nature of the challenges, on every stage of the project and even how to stay sain, and importantly safe, while doing it. I think we would all agree that self building is not for the faint hearted but it can be massively rewarding although not always financially. The big thing is you can have exactly what you, and your significant others, want within the normal constraints of site, planning rules where you want to build and of course your budget. Have a read of @JSHarris's blog - you can find a link on any of his posts. He did an MBC build 24 months or so back and there are others here a few weeks and a few months ahead of you. If you feel the need to contribute the BIG issue in all the passive house builds here is thermal control of the building and it's associated heating, ventilating, DHW and UFH all with their associated plant EG ASHP / GSHP / solar PV and thermal. One thing I think we all agree on is that there is no such thing as thermal mass but you can play with concepts of thermal inertia, decriment delay, solar gain etc to your hearts content.

Daft but cheaper to buy the whole box again by the looks of it.

Actually I am going out to the pictures - Death of Stalin, the Hw in my equation thinks it would be good for us. Catch you later!

Discuss.... Although the definition of 'happy' and 'easy' are difficult to define cleanly in this context specific space it is superficially possible to see that this idea has some merit if you are the 'wife' (please be aware that I make no allusion to gender here or in any other part of this discussion - any inferences are at the readers discretion) but that for the pleaser, the one trying to bring about happiness in the other, at least there must be effort involved. Let us assume that Happiness (H) is proportional to pleasing (P). However the whole equation might be drawn thus: Hw = El where Hw = some function of P. So Hw = f(P). One is therefore forced back onto what economists would call the cost / value equation at least in this first portion of the factored equation where the proportionality function needs very thorough understanding. This because the units deployed on each side of the basic equation (expressed as a function here) seem to have the propensity to be very different. How much 'pleasing' is required to bring about a quantum of happiness and in what units EG radiators drained / doors stripped / etc is this quantum measured. Inevitably this is set against the notion of 'easy' and it's unit's of measure EG new tools purchased, meals prepared, hours of TV watched, undisturbed time in the workshop or perhaps conjugal favours offered. However on this latter point and expanding now to the full 'Hw = El' equation one might, in particular circumstances, find similar units of measure on both sides of the equation - making the wife happy might actually be enjoyable for you and thus defeating the base sentiment of the starting equation. Where it true it would require some adjustment to the equation to ensure that it was reversible although doing so has difficult overtones IE El = Hw. From this standpoint of common factors (units at least) on both sides of the equation one might further argue that that if it were possible to find and undertake sufficient activities common on both sides of the equation with - of course, adding in the concept of a fully reversible equation that the problem might be made to disappear as the spiral of bliss moves all parties into a state of ecstasy. There is evidence that this occurs in many partner based relationships know colloquially as Love. Given this we can conclude that draining the radiators is a function of the easy life and the happy wife only asked you to drain them because they want you to have an easy life - QED.

Good question Steamy.

I think he meant costings!

How uncivilised.

Welcome to the Forum. Sounds exciting. . Loads of people on here have used MBC so you will get bags of support and info. We are building an architect designed passive house and we looked at MBC but could not quite get what we wanted from their construction method. Soooo many others will be along shortly. Looking forward to hearing more.

I am not allow household porcelain on site (its all Emma Bridgewater) I have £1 mugs from Lidl - but lots of them so when one gets dirty I just pile it up and have a wash up at the end of the week - oh hang on have I reacted to the first part of of this post and missed the contextual confirmation at the end.... Anyway I have some stuff that eats concrete but not mugs so if I get any splashes I can clean it off...

Now there is a word to conjure with - what could it mean - why would anybody use such a word, first known in the 15th century, as in beatification to describe a blissful smile - oh now I get it.

800mm (80cm) are the widest of those shown in my study, I don't have any of the wider ones.

What is going to force the bottom few cm out? Only water coming from behind, air might do it but not sure how much air you can move with the circulation pump and running it dry is probably a big no no. Best thing is to cut the pipe and install a drain cock at the lowest point. PS I suppose you might such it out of you have a wet vacuum cleaner. PS crossed in time with @ProDave

Not sure anybody would want to buy my study - here is a corner, best I can get without a fisheye lens, of what I think of / know is a typical academics (Retired in my case) study. Looking at it you can tell a lot about me from the books, although as there are 2.5 other walls so you would need the whole thing to get a complete picture.

Yes, as I said I was not sure I understood this at the outset - when he did the test in the Garden room I mentioned that I did not understand why it was so low, he said that is can vary and repeated the test but the max reading was 0.27 the electric board people gave Ze (They called it Earth Loop Impedance) at the PME junction box as 0.1 Ohm so maybe the 0.3 at the distribution panel (350mm of 16mm2 earth tail away from the PME earth) was out because 4.1 and 0.1 can get to 0.25 I suspect even down 45m of 16mm2 cable.

Ikea - Billy, everybody's favourite book case. Available in oak we had loads of them for the several thousand books we own and they are, well 12 of them, all behind and beside me lining the walls of my study - I stacked them two high in here and have a ladder to access the top ones - its 4.6 Meters to the ceiling! Needless to say they are bolted to the walls.

Ok its all done, installed and connected. Just thought I would update with a few pics and the test results. The panel as finally complete, rewired to remove all vestiges of single insulation as suggested by @ProDave with split Henly blocks and using the piranha nuts as suggested by @JSHarris and others. All the earths are connected together here both the PME supplied earth and the rod earth I installed. The gland, lower left is screwed into the top of the piranha nut and allows me to shrink wrap (still to be shrunk ) the three cores of the SWA feeding the Garden room and maintain the double insulation, inside the gland, while allowing them to split out. Installed - the earth rod for the utilities centre (This will eventually be inside the building once it gets its frame and cladding): The rather fetching main meter cabinet with the new meter (reading 000000) installed and connected to our main isolator: Interesting to report the readings: Ze for the earth rod was 4.1 Ohm, while Zs was 0.3 Ohms, prospective Fault current 811A and Sort Circuit current of 1324A Down at the Garden room CU (without the local earth rod connected, still to run the cable) the figures were: Ze 0.25 Ohms (Not sure I understood this immediately but think I do now - why is it so much lower than the 4.5 Ohms of the earth rod down the 45m of cable at the utilities centre) Zs 0.37 Prospective fault 693A and short circuit of 928 I am told these reasonable to good!

Ours is pea shingle, so not realy blinding I guess but to keep things flat I laid a 50mm strip, the thickness desired, of timber around the periphery of garden room slab, got that mm flat and used it to tamp the pea shingle to then tried to avoid walking on it!

Your better off buying one i paid £120 emptied twice in the last ten month due another on Friday £30 a time i bought a 25 lite of toilet solution and added some each week and hosed out the muddy boot prints each week probably sell it for the same as I paid when we have finished +1 although I pay £50 for a service last one was yesterday but before that was - June I think - very thorough and professional.