MikeSharp01

Cripes - its been so long since one had a drawing room! I guess the best thing is to define the rules and then work it out from there. Here is what I have been using as rules, that I can recall. 1. Keep the falls correct as per BR. 2. Do not have underground joins - IE only join flows at access chambers so you can rod through in case of a blockage. 3. Have straight runs to access chambers - max flows to one chamber looks to be about 5 see HERE 4. Do not split flows out - you will end up with, for want of a better word, muck building up on the split and eventually it will block. 5. keep runs under the house to a minimum and always straight. 6. Employ correct practice when passing through slabs / foundations to allow for differential movement, structural integrity and any possible settlement. 7. There are special rules for dwellings with many toilets that ensue you don't create a backup if everybody flushes at once! (usually the minimum size pipe allowed) Think that is everything

To add to confusion, sorry Ian, but how are you dealing with the VAT on the utility room? Have you checked that anything in it will be VAT free and so will the building! From the original question point of view, why not take it head on and provide a condensate drain you can get at to clean out. Condense will happen both ends perhaps but once the system is up, running and stable it will not occur in the pipe once all the surfaces and surroundings are up to temp. If you are not careful you might be able to make the whole system into an illicit still!

Makes sense but would need more work on quantification, need to experiment once we get a system up and running.

What makes you wonder Steamy?

On walls the old 1200 / 1220 conundrum then essentially leads to waste...

And the answer is / was?

Brilliant - gives us all hope.

Sorry to hear your key is broken again! (Its amazing what you learn from the peoples beyond the Welsh border)

Every day in every way I just get more consumed with the idea that this mountain is higher than it was yesterday - can that happen I ask and decide that the world of self build is not subject to geological laws. I think that @jack said that we probably spend too much time thinking weras we few, we happy few, want the most optonal outcome and thinking is just part of achieving it while the possible side effect of over thinking damages confidence.

Sorry, yes should have used connector not converter they do work on unscratched copper tube very well.

Given that you find about equal support for both sides in the plastic / copper argument it is but a small step to conclude that both systems are valid (not sure what everybody heres favourite plumber @Nickfromwales view on it all is) as you can mix the two systems you perhaps are in the very best position. You will still need the converter fitting between the plastic and the copper to get into the gap - this can be brass but then you must use an insert for support against the olive and sealing (some inserts are just support others offer support and sealing). John Guest have a slip connector (not suitable for central heating) which is very slim so might be worth looking at that.

@PeterWdoes this not depend on the door size (762 / 838 / ?), the gap under the door, the clearance at the door head and the wall finish around the door, shadow gap or no shadow gap for instance - depending on how the shadow gap is formed, will the door lining be directly on the stud and architraved, what thickness will the lining be(30 / 27.5 / ?). Alternatively is gap filling the order of the day.

I have one of these poles for the windows at millstone manor 5m reach plus my 2m. They go up to 16m and are great for cleaning the soffits and facias. I have tried to get the portable pump pack, and use the dehumidifier to make the ionised water, but it seems never to be in stock.

Great curves! What is the azimuth and elevation of your array? Looks almost perfect due south +/- BST!

Came across this today, wacky and wonderful. http://www.treehugger.com/tiny-houses/passivdom-passive-tiny-3d-printed-carbon-fiber-autonomous-solar-powered-marvel.html probably a portend of things to come.

Will be intesting to see if you can still drop the pin in the UK in a little under two years - get your calcs done now!

We put the water pipe in the duct before we laid it because I was worried about getting it through! Could have done the SWA as well but kept radius at 400mm so I am hopeful.

We used RC25/30 concrete mix as this is used in slabs with reinforcing steel and is specified for light traffic warehouses s should be up to a normal home. It can be power floated and further polished if required after chemical densification. The slab we poured was the garden room slab and designed to be an experiment for all aspects of the main house construction following a couple of months behind. As I have said elsewhere we learned a lot but perhaps the biggest on the day learning experience was to powerfloat in the same area sequence as the pour and over about the same period. We ended up power floating the final area too early, we were constrained by the hire of the float and although it has come out acceptably it is not as good as the rest of the surface. The salts coming out happened later, after about 10 days in the form photographed above but was happening around areas of drying out from day 3. It looks to have been my own silly fault as I only covered it for the first two days and from then on I would wet it when I arrived at site and keep it wet during the day but it was often dry the next day so as @Ian has pointed out this constant wetting and drying probably caused the problem. The problem is not getting worse, no more areas have appeared and I keep those that have swept. I am hopeful all will be well.

It feels to me that we must acknowledge their training and experience as they should ours. It is perhaps this tension that, when not 100% focused on creative synergy between architect and client, creates the perception of arrogance and aloofness often alluded to here as the problem with architects. In the end if you are not a trained and practising architect you will need an open mind and a very large quantum of empathy with their drives and motivation to get the very best out of them. In their training they are taught how to elicit thoughts, ideas and feelings from clients and then interpret them in the designs that have been commissioned of them. As with the rest of us they do not know what they do not know (or have not been told) and in terms of best practice in aspects of construction, such as highly insulated homes where solar gain plays a bit part, many will not be versed. This does not in itself detract from their wider value in driving forward the built environment albeit at the behest of clients. Aye there is the rub! As in all soft systems, those constructed by humans, the CATWOE acronym, coined so aptly by Peter Checkland (et al) tells us, how we might come to understand one another and create solutions to problems once they are mutually understood with clear root causes identified and shared. CUSTOMERS, ACTORS, TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES, WORLD VIEWS, OWNERS & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS. As self builders we are often very clear about what we want and this is a constraint architects are trained to work with, why, because knowing what you want is not always what you should have or need. There is, after all, often a fundamental difference between what you need and what you want. As a professional I was always trained to give the customer what they needed rather than just what they wanted, unless the two were 100% coincident. They wanted a degree, they needed an education. In the end they, formerly the state, were paying me to improve things for them and they acknowledged that they were employing me to support, explain and curate their journey. In taking them off piste you had to be able to justify the choice, show them things they had never considered and make the case for driving it home. Sorry @SteamyTea, I cannot agree - design, architectural or otherwise, is at the core of our environment be it good or bad, engineering delivers great designs based on leveraging sound science only if the initial design is sound. In most things it is not difficult to see the juxtaposition between form and function and perhaps which follows which is the fulcrum upon which this discussion balances. Houses, Le Corbusier said, are machines for living in and he was right but living is a human construct, back to CATWOE, not an engineering one, well thankfully not yet anyway! Perhaps its sharing our ideas and allowing others to show us as yet untravelled paths we find hard to do?

Nothing wrong with our architect, done a good job working with a difficult client, us. There is perhaps nothing wrong with discussion but I would hope we don't chase them away as they do add value in those dimensions of this business where their expertise has direct impact and I think that has been well discussed on the old forum, where at least one architect helped us get to grips with the questions we needed to address with ours, but perhaps not on this forum. maybe we should address this gap somehow as often, as alluded to above and elsewhere, getting the best design even with an architect on board can be very challenging.

You forgot Piers Taylor (also from house that 100K built) who is an architect.

This is the loco on the railway here at millstone manor. This loco can handle the 1:30 slope with around 1T on a truck from the drive up to the log store, workshop and top station (Moss bank) it takes a bit of time to steam up but the battery electric loco is ready to go as required to transport things up the garden. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your view, the drive goes to the front door so the front of the house can be fed without the railway.

Somebody is bloody good with a digger! Smoother than a babies bottom and just look at those teeth (tooth) marks!

Here is the roofing bible I have been working with.. seems comprehensive but of course I don't know what I don't know! https://www.fixmyroof.co.uk/videos-and-guides/pitched-roof/slate-a-roof/#

Have you got a double row (double cover / starter course) on the base line, not sure I can see it in the picture, without it the water will run through the gaps on the base row and into the fabric also the geometry alters quite a bit!