Adam2

On my camper van I used one of the Sikaflex products (may have been 512) for the large roof solar panels - 3 years not moved a bit

Wow sounds painful - how has your relationship been with them been before this? Maybe you need someone on-site to do a few hours of setting out to get most of that list covered. Control station - as far as I know is a fixed reference point that all house positions are based on. My architect was responsible for water pipes from house entry to point of use etc and the structural engineer co for everything outside - can be painful when they need to talk to each other though.

Am at a stage where we're finishing up in the garden and may have the possibility to have some PV mounted on some stepped gabions. Previously discounted as the ROI seems more or less non-existent. But, I've seen some on here do a low cost install and thinking that as panels come down and cost of power goes up this may start to make more financial sense again post FIT ending. So, have seen these on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Solar-Panel-260w-260Watt-MCS-TUV-approved-Solar-Power-project/293261529860?hash=item4447bfd304:g:yAYAAOSwl2deNCbA wondering if I purchased 12 of these what else would I need for the install and what should I expect it to cost? Mountings - will custom make from ali and attach to gabions at an averagely good angle - They will be facing SW so not a bad direction. 30m chunky cable to go up to meter -? Inverter - ? An electrician for final connection - how much time? Anything else needed here? Planning to mainly use the power to generate hot water, though we do have an electric car so at weekends that could be a useful usage + if suitably hot maybe even running the ASHP for cooling a few weeks a year. Could utilise day tome power for washing machine as well as work from home mostly. Feels like we should be able to utilise a fair amount of the output ourselves so it feels like could make economic sense if the materials price is right. A rough calc which seems wrong so please correct if you can: PVGIS indicates panels at 30 degrees and facing SW will get 35 to 150 kWh / m2 / month through the year Maybe an average of 80 kWh and maybe we can use 60 kWh of this 12 panels at about 1.2m2 per panel = 72Wh / panel/month, with 12 panels = 864 kWh/month generated (& used), per year = 10,368 kWh Assuming cost of electricity is 12p per kWh then 10,368 * 0.12 = £1,244.16 This seems like too much doesn't it.

Many are like that. I found one that was great on one house then next time was rubbish !!! Only thing that worked for me was phoning a lot and each time getting a target date and then phoning before that date to check all would be OK. If they are busy I think they may tend to work on whoever is making their life a PITA ? Be that pain ?

Looks very nice, think that might be one where my wife says yes until she sees the cost ?

will PM you my price for comparison

Triton do a paint on w-proof membrane " TT Vapour membrane" they recommended for my ICF Let me know if you need a contact there for info etc

Appreciated Jeremy - we're not far from each other and I'd called Landford earlier as before I heard of the issue was planning to drive over and choose some trees ? The phone call saved a lot of time. I was hoping for something that would deliver a decent amount of screening during this year so smaller girth I don't think will help me. Any thoughts on the cork oak? Seems OK, grows fast when young and slows down and is evergreen so may not really be a problem - especially if I did buy an expensive Ilex and find it was later a victim of the moth!

Thanks Jeremy - they are actually the co I was working with but they are not able to supply out of their area unfortunately. Have tried a load of potential suppliers but nothing nearby available or from further afield hence thinking to take the option from Paramount for the alternate species. Maybe I could get them to deliver as far as they can and I collect from there!

I was hoping to plant one of these as screening but suppliers tell me not available due to a DEFRA embargo relating to a pesky catapiler! A suggested alternative is the Cork Oak - apparently not a problem, bugs don't like their bark or something. My interest in the original choice was the tap root structure not critical but figures may have less long term impact if someone in future lets it grown out of control. Any info I should be aware of in having the cork oak? Looks very nice though I doubt will see the nice bark for a long long time. Main criteria is 2m trunk with min 1.5m head that could grow to fill in a space between some other trees to screen my new driveway from neighbours garden as it may feel a little oppressive.

Ok thanks for the input. An option could be some sand in some clear resin or under a couple of layers of clear car laquer - if this does become an issue. About to press the button on 20m of waterproof LED strip light from alibaba - hoping with the right size hole I can have this captured under the nosing on the tread to avoid the extra cost of housing...

Yes good point. Will have a look at some products. Any clever ideas for hidden fixings? May have to open up the steps and see if can fix from behind, also will need to check thickness of the for led strips.

Our gabion walls are coming on well. We have some gabion steps running down through them and am thinking of what to use as treads. Options so far seem to be: 1) floor tiles laid on mortar - with mortar or concrete used to create a good bed into the stone/wire. Not so keen as think they may come loose over time if there is any movement - maybe can do sufficient prep to ensure that isn't the case. 2) Timber - fixed through into another timber under the wires (so sandwiching the wire) - should work OK, easy enough to have small overhang and concealed led strip light beneath. Only issue is longevity and/or regular aftercare 3) Composite decking material - could be OK, not used before so unsure if this is viable / if any specific issues to be aware of. One problem may be fitting led strip under as depth of mnaterial may not easily allow for this. Thinking we'd leave the riser as gabion/stone If you've done something similar would be great to hear what you ended up with.

If you need a house warranty (peace of mind, mortgage, re-sale in < 10yrs) then you may want to check with your warranty company. In my experience (limited to my current project) they will not warranty below ground waterproofing so if you are thinking to get a warranty then you may need to use a waterproofing co that can provide a suitable warranty for the product + workmanship. If using EPS (or XPS of course) this limits your options. Some (Sika from what they told me) don't warranty ICF any more - my guess is some early bad installs led to too many claims. Some others will provide a warranty (insurance backed for 10 yrs) as long as you use their range of products and an approved installer. As part of this I would strongly expect you to be using waterproof concrete + an external barrier or an internal cavity drain (hate the idea but is an option). However, a warranty is not something you will ever want to use of course so avoidance of problems is #1, though if the waterproof co both test the concrete and supervises other aspects of the install then you will be on your way to a quality waterproof solution so there is maybe some upside to this approach even if you don't care about getting a warranty.

Actually got in touch with the above co - very helpful on their technical line. No problem just have the concrete to falls and either have linear drainage below the resin or use something like this if you want a surface level drainage - which I think will look better and be less likely to have leaves stuck in it: https://www.aco.co.uk/products/freedeck

These guys say resin bound is permeable : https://www.sureset.co.uk/about/resin-bound-vs-resin-bonded/

A bit more research indicates that with the resin bound finish being permeable the drainage should be at the concrete level and not at the surface level so that also presents a bit of a challenge. Possibly I could have the concrete base installed to a fall which will have a perimeter aco drain installed so that it is at the concrete level but the detail of finishing the resin bound surface eludes me so I may have to do battle with a supplier to see how they would propose this - maybe it's as simple as just having some shuttering above the aco drain (possibly angled). As the aco is not very wide, this seems unlikely to lead to wear and tear issues.

Thanks Pete - though we're concrete with mesh on top of beam and block so not sure we should core drill through the beams or the blocks to replicate the above

Looking at levels for a new driveway that will finish at the garage entrance and thinking that if we want to improve the very rough surface of the garage what are our options (size is ~7 x 5.5m). 1 - sand/grind a bit and tile = ~25/35mm increase in height 2 - as above but a latex compound instead of tiles 3 - as above but an epoxy compound instead of tiles 4 - thin layer of concrete maybe with fibres It's kind of important right now as this will determine the level we want to finish our driveway at and this (as per other post) is beam + block + concrete so the structure beneath that can be adjusted but when built will be staying as-is aside from the final surface which probably is resin but tbc. Not sure how good options 2 & 3 are for wear and how thin you can go with option 4 so info appreciated

Am looking at driveway levels at the moment and fancy these nice looking resin bound drive finishes but as they are porous is that an issue if the sub-base for most of the drive is 100mm of concrete? Do we have the risk that in winter the water enters and then freezes causing damage to the 25mm resin layer? Sub-base for half the driveway is on an elevated platform with beam/block + concrete, possibly we could lay this to a fall to reduce water penetration into the resin.

Yes just for the driveway, house will be in a concrete raft or 2.

ABC Anchors, dealt with Megg who was mega helpful. Quick supply and can provide on site support if needed, which I opted for as we used our own digger.

Yes, https://www.tus-ufh.com/ Very helpful co

Hi, we're happy with most of our house design (until we change it again...) but think we could do better with the top floor so really interested in ideas here. The requirements are: Master bedroom with dressing area and en-suite 2nd bedroom (there are a couple more on lower levels) 2nd bathroom that could be en-suite to the 2nd bedroom but could be outside of the room My thoughts are that the master en-suite and dressing area would ideally be larger. 2nd bedroom anyway will not be used that often so could maybe be reduced a bit. Exterior side walls are shaped like this to make best use of plot so not scope at this stage for anything radical on that front. Master bedroom has high and wide windows which we want to keep so does limit some re-planning options. We will rarely use the bath in the master en-suite but this is the only bath in the house so thinking it could maybe move to the other bathroom on the same floor but with an eye on future resale (~5 yrs) maybe buyers would expect a bath in a master en-suite - even if they won't use it much either! MVHR etc will come up in the services cupboard. Thanks for suggestions.

We have a couple of large areas of garden to plan - previously these were turfed but that turned to mainly moss and needles due to the shading from 3-4 nearby large pine trees. We're thinking of options for the garden and figure we either try a more suitable natural lawn or artificial grass. I tried to knock up a pic in powerpoint - poor man's design tool! At the bottom there are some more trees (red hexagons) creating additional garden shade and the fencing on the left (as viewed) is about 2m high and we'd like to plant the bottom left 1/2 of this area with bamboo & trees for privacy (yes I know need the right bamboo or decent containment but this seems a good option for this area). A few questions: Are pine needles going to be a complete nightmare with artificial grass in terms of removal? Is it worth trying again with real grass - though I guess even then the needle removal is going to be a a big chore Is artificial grass OK with dogs that may go to the loo on it? Hopefully they will listen to instructions but can't be certain ? We won't use the grass areas much for sitting out as we have some large terraces further up. We need to decide now as we'll lose machine access when we start the foundations