MikeSharp01

Hi all. Our architect has come back with our house soils plan and has requested rodding access in a straight line from the access chamber on the other side of the house. Is there a way around this requirement as the rodding access requested is going to be inaccessible at the very least as right beside a footpath under a hedge! Is it not possible to put a rodding point above the rest bend from the toilets etc? D-01 Groundworks.pdf

Simple solution is get a laptop / ipad with HDMI output and all viewing is sorted.

Smart TV if you want to watch on the TV or you could just purchase a suitable smart DVD / Blue ray player as these connect to your TV and also have the browser facility - check before you buy, and they are cheaper than a TV. Of course if you need an excuse. .....

Its good news week ( - Hedgehoppers Anonymous 1965). Well done....

That's some pregnancy test kit you have there @SteamyTea. The subsequent children will get through loads of DHW.

Yes the old slippery floor problem. Here is one that sound very 'build hub' " Yes, use the GE II Silicone caulk. You can use it to glue the vinyl on and also seal the joints. Also, think about making your sides taller; 16-18". Russians are great climbers, and you want room for substrate, 4-6" as they love to burrow. Or at least put a lip around the edge to keep him from climbing out! Nice of you to take him in! This winter you can plan the outside enclosure! " Ref

Yes if two competing methods arrive at the same outcome the simpler is to be taken forward and the other summarily shot! Poor old Lorentz....

His Razor, the programming language, or just parsimony not at work?

As I understood it the pipe doesn't have to run in a duct but I thought that it has a bit more protection in a duct and if I ever have to replace it under the slab I could bu just pulling / pushing a new length along the duct.

How about: Devilishly Ingeniousness Gargantuan Galaxy Ephemera Remover. (You me, everybody - as nothing on back of the elephant of time.) Back to work - its windy so moving 8x4s onto the roof of the GR is 'interesting'

I have led such a boring life.... I think I will go and do some building, oh hang on its a Sunday so I will have to do it very quietly. PS Welcome back to THE forum - well on the way now to emulating the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy of all things " building, renovation and self-build " EG: "The build hub guide to the galaxy describes forum members as generally somewhat demented humans who have led otherwise interesting lives on the plant earth but have fallen into building what they euphemistically call dwellings on this plant. The members have a number of rituals that must be performed at regular intervals including out boasting their exploits with their partners such as what they did on their honeymoon, (- a short time spent doing stuff you didn't used to be able to do until you were 'married' but which is now so much practised before marriage that the whole idea of a honey moon has, in the opinion of your editor been entirely devalued) and what they gave as gifts for Christmas (- a short lived celebration requiring the giving and receiving of unwanted gifts as a mechanism for rebalancing out the planets mass because it results in lots of objects being moved from on side of the plant earth to the other). Although such dwellings are designed to keep out the weather, ( - a topic often discussed among the peoples of planet earth), they are no defence against the Vogon destructor fleet that is at this very moment receiving orders to clear a space for the pan galactic highway that will involve the planets destruction. Destruction that is only assuming that the galactic planning authority grants the necessary permissions, insurances are in place, the DHW supply scheme is finalised, the bath surround design is complete and all 'party universe' agreements have been ratified - all of which ensures that although the Vogons are ready and waiting with their DIGGER ( - suggestions please) the highway, like so many others planned by the powers that rule the galaxy, will not be built and the forum will carry on productively using up my time ED."

Have you confirmed that you dont need a party wall agreement?

I am experimenting with airtightness on our garden room and think I would like to go for wraptite, which is an external airtightness membrane that is vapour permeable. The Garden room is designed to be a model of the technologies for the main house so experiment is the name of the game. Anybody out there used it / seen it / got any opinion!

Hi Peter. That is very interesting, as I understand it if its not in the 'small print' then they cannot enforce it, so I would write back to them and ask them to point out the point / condition they are referring to if a build overruns. Why would the length of time be an issue anyway unless it gets so long that the materials are starting to become time expired - perhaps that is where the problem is. I guess you do have the option of getting the certificate issued but is this tied up with the work of dismantling elsewhere on the site?

Hi Sarah. Yes Bricklayer will do all of that, a. depends on building control requirement for an extension and just how air tight the rest of the house is. Essentially you need to make sure that you don't reduce the overall airtightness of the whole house and preferably improve it to make the insulation in the extension work that bit harder. If you are plastering the inside then this will usually do much of it but making sure you get a good seal around the windows and any doors will also be useful, if you have any pipes / services running through the walls then these need to be sealed well. Ensuring good air tightness needs to be in all the sub contractors' contracts as it is no good if the plasterer does a great job and then the plumber just punches a great hole through and does not make good. b) you will need some sort of detail around the windows in brick / block construction this is usually done with a cavity closer - such as here. The window fitters will then seal the window to the specification you set for them. There are loads of standard details for this out there, such as here. Singles lift means just one surface at the level of / suitable for the roof by the sounds of it. The bricklayer probably won't need it if only 2.5m high but the chippy, fitting the roof structure and cutting into the exiting build probably will and the roofer also. Work with the scaffolders to make sure that their scaffolding does not interfere with other trades' work such as the roof structure chippy, down pipes (rainwater), any service penetrations and windows and doors as you will get those trades moving the scaffolding and that is a big no no and you don't want to keep paying for the scaffolders to come back and move it out of the way of the window fitters. Although they will probably work from verbal instructions you will find yourself answering loads of questions and paying for changes that could have been avoided as even a simple sketch will help you work through your thoughts and be clear with each trade where you want things. Agree it's not simple but it will save you loads of questions and clarify things - sections are not required other than for details not the whole building. Given the cutting in with the existing roof you may want to leave that a bit open because you won't know what is under there until you get it open and if you are knocking out a big opening you should seek a Structural Engineer's design as building Control will require this.

Welcome - Sequence and interfaces between the trades becomes everything in this sort of project - being clear of everybody's scope and knitting the scopes together is vital. Covering up is not difficult if needed but probably the knock through can be done once the extension is actually part built and perhaps largely watertight. Have you a drawing that might help us understand what you are doing? Otherwise a typical sequence might be (Not exhaustive): Get design including specifications for materials / finishes etc. Get planning permission. Get building control on board. Ground works - including any soil pipes, electric / gas / comms ducts etc. (Usually the ground worker) Foundation formation - fitting any insulation, laying DPM and pouring the concrete of a particular specification to a tolerance in the ground works. (Usually the ground worker) Walls including damp proof coursing, insulation, window apertures and airtightness. (of whatever construction - sounds like timber frame in your case). (Chippy) Roof timbers, sheathing - wooden surface, Vapour Control Layer if required, air tightness and link work to existing roof. (Chippy) {Rainwater goods probably needed here as well to take water from roof} Cut into existing roof and cover up. (General builder type work but chippy might to it) Roof covering including VCL if not in chippy scope, EG membrain, and refitting / making good any tiles from sloping roof to meet new flat portion. (Roofer - they usually want a flat, boarded / sheathed, surface to work from and connect roof to rainwater goods) Brick infills, required damp proof courses, associated insulation and structural connections(Bricklayer) Cut through existing building including fitting structural steel if needed. EG Lintel / RSJ (General builder) Fit windows and maintain / continue airtightness (Window company or general builder) Complete outer surfaces EG render or whatever. (General builder or specialist depending on finishes} Internal fit out EG second fix etc, without damage to airtightness. (General builder / Electrician / Plumber) Plastering / Drylinning (Plasterer / dry liner) Kitchen fit (Kitchen fitter) Decorating (Decorator, significant other - if persuadable or yourself!) Kitchen warming party. Each one will need a clear scope and check that there are no gaps and minimal overlaps (no point in paying twice) between the scopes. Hope this helps.

Welcome. Sounds like a great project, the £2K / m2 is not a bad cost to aim for and you can control it so the jumbo jet that is a self build lands roughly on the pin head of your finances by doing things like controlling spec and fit out in the loft space - you can get a lot for just over a million even right next to a water course and close to a sewer! Its great that you have built a solid relationship with your architect as this helps no end to ally fears you have. Good luck and keep posting / searching the forum for help.

Then it looks like it can go lower but the sill detail will change and you will, as others have said, need to sort the structural stuff around the move out with your SE.

Not for domestic LPG it isn't @Crofter that is still, it seems to me to be, a rather uncompetitive market.

When I have thought this through for our build the only thing that I became concerned about was the way the wind swirls around the building that ensures that the prevailing wind does not blow the exhaust air over to the inlet. It struck me that inlet air temperature drops out of the equation, as having a negligible overall effect, across the year unless you have the opportunity of a trombe wall or some such.

Only today Jeremy this will be solved, just not quite yet.

They said we would never get to the moon - ideas are just that, designed to stretch the intellectual envelope, agree it is not a viable idea but only with the proviso 'yet' and it might be overtaken by other developments that make it irrelevant, such a nuclear fusion, wonder where we are with that?

Very interesting @SteamyTea Wonder how the solar figure is derived, IE is it just the grid connected large farms or does it include exported domestic, where this is implemented. Also if it does not include small domestic installations then the figure must be distorted because demand will be depressed by people using their own solar and not then drawing off the grid. One thing is clear - what we need is a set of highly focused tracking mirrors out in space to keep the solar farms, and just the farms, illuminated for much longer, perhaps 24/7 in cloudless times. Wonder what the unintended consequences of such a system would be!

One thing I have learned from my work on site over the last few weeks. You cannot create a building in the same way you would create a car. The modern car is created with parts arriving from all over the world using a couple of simple maxims - every part is make to a specification with tolerances, the cumulative effects of all the errors is so designed as to ensure the machine still works correctly. Such an approach enables assembly and the full interchange of parts, an idea first developed by the small arms industry to ensure that you could make a rifle without a skilled fitter. Put simply the building industry is still full of fitters and yours truly is coming slowly, well not so slowly, to the conclusion that fitting is the name of the game. I guess I could have worked it out when I realised I would need a pair of nail guns, nailing is not engineering is it! I machined every component of the garden room to +/- 0.5mm and -/+ 0.1 degree on angles. Spent days creating an environment that would allow me to do it. The slab is level to +/- 2mm and square +/- 0.5mm and I tool the slab errors out levelling the sole plate. I took the components, studs, trusses and lintels out and and just assembled them in the virtual positional scaffolding created in the space above the slab with lasers, now replaced with string. Can I get the roof square (+/-2mm) - can I heck. If I can't I will have to cut the OSB sheathing to make it fit. Why is square illuding me? Cos wood changes shape in unpredictable ways, including engineered timber and even self levelling lasers are only good enough to get things within a couple of mm over 10 or so meters. My brother says get a good tape rule, a plumb bob, a battery powered circular saw and give up measuring with lasers, perhaps he is right. Still I have progress I guess. Ho Hum.

Sorry @Vijay its an in joke with me which is the result of something a friend said to me many years ago, suffice it to say they built an extension on their cottage which included a drawing room because it had been a long time since one had had a drawing room.