MikeSharp01

Arrived at site this morning to find some weird happenings on my slab, see attached, I have no idea what this is all about but they all start on the edge of the DPC strip under the sole plate and were surrounded by salt deposits until I swept them to see what was going on. If I lift the DPC is does not continue under it! Any ideas? Wonder if I should lift the sole plate and let the concrete cure some more. DPC was put down 10 days after pouring and slab was kept wet for first 5 days.

My local Jewsons is very good for service, if I need it urgently they will drop it round directly if they can. Before xmas I broke a neighbours fence post and within an hour they had a new one on the drive for me to fit. I do check prices on larger orders and sometimes they don't get the order but I am learning all the time. I know the people there, recognise their voices and keep them informed of where / what I am up to. Their credit system is a bit odd but as long as I keep paying it works well and when I overpaid the other month, paid an invoice they had not issued yet, off the delivery ticket, they issued me a credit note which I then spent paying the invoice when it arrived. I guess it keeps their books straight.

Short answer: Probably not! Longer answer: It seems to me that the problem with trees is not that they are super massive but that when they fall they are travelling! Oak has a density of around 0.8Kg/m3 so a 200mm diameter length of say 5m long (forget the leaves and ancillary branches) weighs in at about 125Kg, assuming it is coming from 5 meters up and accelerating under gravity its will be doing about 10m/s when it hits your roof. So, sorry Jack, f=ma and so load / (force) is now about 1.25 tonnes (12.5Kn). The branch, at least in my experience, is round so the area over which this force will be spread is very small, although spreading rapidly until the full diameter is reached, at least at the point of contact, fractionally after impact the area might, generously, be 10mm2. This is probably well in excess of what you can get a timber frame to cope with at a single point, but even in the best case if it lands directly on one of the studs the stud will either buckle or push its way through the floor - everybody d..s! If you double skin with 18mm OSB, nailed every 50mm you might get to a wall that could take it, and spread it out along the sole plate if hit directly from above, but the roof, trussed or otherwise, probably won't. Hope that helps. This might convince you - although one hopes you won't be deliberately felling the whole tree across your hut!!

As the Guardian argues we need to beef up the consumer rights protection - it won't be easy because private (older) house sales need to be kept clear of it because of unlimited (cost of purchase + putting up the householder while the problems are fixed + stress on the family + fixing the problems) comeback in case of a problem and perhaps caveat emptor needs to prevail there but for a new build there really is no excuse. I think the problem may have its root cause in the way the big housebuilders (indeed all main contractors) are structured with a Coase's law boundary that is only a few layers deep and that actual work is carried out by a battery of sub contractors who have often / sometimes / not infrequently been screwed down on price and so are running on tight margins that drive cost reductions and corner cutting. Essentially you can argue that the shareholders, of the main contractors, dividends are driving the quality / size and supply down!

Thanks Jeremy, I thought it very odd that two CAD platforms have the same error, two lines apart. Maybe its actually one cad platform serving both masters. I am sure I got this error somewhere else yesterday - will drill back on my laptop and see what it was about.

Don't be daft, horse drawn transport is much more sustainable and was working well a few hundred years back, you get great manure and when they are no longer any good for moving you, or your stuff, you can eat them. No more landfill

Not using the Mr Bean exploding paint can concept then Jeremy

Been trying to download CAD drawings from Marley. Got this message: URL: http://www.marleyplumbinganddrainage.com/support-and-advice/cad/ Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e0c' Command text was not set for the command object. /CAD.ASP, line 367 Thought must be a Marley issue as this is an SQL error, so off I went to flowplast and got this message: URL: https://www.fastrackcad.com/CADFrame.ASP Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e0c' Command text was not set for the command object. /CADFrame.ASP, line 369 Looks like it might be me, but cannot see how? Have those damned hackers cut off our supply of CAD blocks?

Ours will have a bathroom - that was all the stuff here on the shower tray former, we included the building in our planning... not sure what rules prevent this although we have it as a condition of planning that it cannot be identified / converted into a separate dwelling.

Just doing this on our build - using the same technology as the main house to get my hand in with the techniques. Passive slab - does your slab ring, I joist portal frame, small MVHR, 34m2. Lots of fun

Cripes @Bitpipe are you still allowed to fight with black pudding or is there a law against it - I don't know, cruelty to pigs entrails or some such.

Mowing the lawns is great exercise Jeremy - but I am sure you could do away with it and install an automaton (robot lawn mower), imagine the fun you will have designing, building, programming and then watching it progress across the lawn leaving perfect stripes. You might have it mulching the cuttings or, with some extra work designing, building and programming popping up the manure heap and dumping its load appropriately. For ideas why not look at this:

Thanks for the link @Onoff noise just worried me, but by the looks of it is a good job as it does ring.

Working on my new garden room slab today and dropped a hammer, did no damage but the noise it made gave me pause for thought. It 'rang' - made the slab sound very 'live'. The slab is 100mm thick at this point and the outer ring is about 2.5m in three directions and about 2.5m from the crack prevention slot. It sits on 200mm of EPS at this point. I must confess I was expecting a very dead sound but didn't get one. Have I got something wrong somewhere or is this what I should expect on the main house slab?

People might argue that the washing machine is dependant on the nature of the guests. If it's going to be used by walkers / fell runners / hardy out door coves in general then it's probably more important than if the typical guest is a worn out electrical professional and his / her partner who just want to relax buy the fire and perhaps catch up on the latest shade of grey novel - no disrespect to any fellow buildhubers.

Yes access regs are important but there are a couple of things you can do. Perhaps use a widish pocket door and swap the glass screen for a shower curtain that can be drawn back to increase access to the WC. Assuming the room is bascaly a wet room.

Yes, sounds odd / interesting Peter - tell us more!

Yes perhaps get the washing machine by the front door at the bottom of the cupboard but in a little way, fix the boot rack to the door, uprate the hinges to take the load, just make sure the door doesn't clash with the front door and hang coats above to give small wardrobe as @ProDave says, in the bedroom. Also maybe the bathroom is quite generous you could probably get away with 500mm less length and perhaps move the whole central wall back that much, makes the bedroom that bit smaller, but the main space is 2m2 bigger

Chunkiness of the frame often depends on the reveal detail, the more you cover the frame with the reveal, getting better insulation detail, the less chunky it looks. Obviously the opening sashes will be the most chunky so deciding where they appear, inside or out, and how much reveal you can achieve around them are critical decisions. Other factors are the frame colours / contrast with wall finish and just how well insulated you want everything.

Absolutely agree @JSHarris. The only draw back of the Passivhaus institute is the tragedy of the commons problem were we all use the standard but don't support the evolution of the scheme strongly because the cost of certification is high and the value it adds is uncertain in the market, where the market matters to owners. In the end it will probably need government to enforce adherence to the standard which is supported by a levy on builders. Although it will increase up front costs but dramatically reduce energy bills and hence our footprint on this planet. It is heartening to see planners in the UK going down the PH route. If I get a moment I will look to compare nZEB with PH. I know that PH did influence nZEB but not sure to what extent.

Ok Ted I will give it a go, I did try when you first posted but felt I was not able to answer many of the questions in such a way for it to be of value to you. To help you I have some comments on the questions set out below: (Your list does not include all your questions.) 1) What is your job role within your company? (Most of us are not in companies with any direct building involvement - I am a director of two companies and proprietor of another one - none of which are related to building although one of them will do the control systems. This question offers no way out for people who are not in the building industry - so you missed an opportunity to widen your respondents pool at the get go although they can put self builder in the 'other' category! Also because many here are both building professionals and self builders the nuances of this cannot be encoded in your question other than in the free text 'other' answer.) 2) How long have you been involved in the Construction Industry including any time spent studying? (This is a poorly defined question if we are not directly above and it depends what you mean. EG I was one of the 'Sons' in the family firm who built my parents home - I was 5 years old, does that mean I have been involved for 50+ years? Alternatively if I was in the business for 2 years in 1980s and have been self building now for two does that make 4? Those of the in the professional aspects of construction can answer for their professional time, the rest of us will perhaps only include time from the minute they decided to think about self building.) 3)What sector of the construction industry are you most involved in? (For many here this answer will be self build, but for some it will be both professional and self build. This will duplicate data in question 1 above. -Great for triangulation but frustrating for your respondents.) 4)In your own words, define what you believe constitutes a self-build home. (Interesting question and free text so you will get some interesting answers.) 5)What do you consider to be the main benefits of self-build homes? (Good selection of options so you should get some good answers.) 6)Do you believe that self-build homes are more likely to be effective at delivering nearly zero-energy homes than traditional procurement methods? (Most, if not all, here will strongly agree.) 7)Please justify your above answer. (Justify in what sense? Most will say that it's because they can address the details and control quality much better as they have a direct investment in making the home in line with their intentions.) 8)Have you considered 2020 nZEB proposals for any self-build projects? (Most will say no, it is not even high profile in the mainstream house builders minds so why would the self build community be interested.) 9)Have you included any renewable energies within your projects? (Most will say yes, it is quite hard these days to get a decent SAP rating without at least some PV so there will be at least that I suspect and many will have ASHP as well.) You also have a number of other questions, many of which assume the respondent has built many homes, I have tried to answer as best I can. I have to make two final points: nZEB won't happen in the UK unless young people like yourself can sustain the passion for it, or something like it in the BREXIT context, and win the hearts and minds of the big housebuilders. Although many here think of passive house standard as a guide others don't - self builders are a broad church! Given this I am sure that all of us here would want to support your emergence into the profession as a champion of low energy and sustainable homes. I am sure we all wish you all the best for the future. I have completed your questionnaire.

Hi Ted. Having supervised enough dissertations in my time I appreciate that the comments from my colleagues on here won't at first site look helpful. I guess you don't have time to do a major refocus, as @Ferdinand describes but you could speak to your supervisor and see if you could add a section which looks at your dissertation's specification reflected in the self build community, which this site is a very good example. If you can see your way to looking at it like this you can drill a rich seam here with a simple targetted questionnaire for the members. HMG wants to / is promoting self build as a means to close the housing gap but the nZEB is, as my colleagues have said above, probably not for us and perhaps not the wider UK building fraternity and there is some rumblings that it may not even get a head of steam in the EU itself. As @JSHarris says his, and probably most of the self builders on here are stretching every physical, financial and intellectual muscle to build energy efficient homes in their own way. In the age of free speech you could also, again subject to a discussion with your tutor - who I hope is not the one expounding the virtues of nZEB Code, set about concluding that the code is not going to hit the self builders, most of whom here are well ahead of the main building industry curve so it is even more unlikely there. You will be aware that the present government dropped the higher specification requirements out of building control legislation following pressure from the building industry around the cost of achieving it and in order to speed up the flow of houses. All of these aspects of the soft system that controls how we set about stepping more lightly on the planets resources create a quite a heady mix you can write about in your dissertation.

Think there are business options that allow / offer this with handsets and a server somewhere in the cloud connected to the PSTN so you can have a land line number. Domestic types end up using something like BT SmartTalk, there is a TalkTalk equivalent I think.

Does it have a timer, I recall that when I looked the basic range did not have timers?

At which outlet do you get building the dream with a side order of lunch?