Sue B

How long till Boeing going into administration? I give it a month.

Me too - I expected a completely solid feel to the floor. This was the only room where there was any noticeable flex.

Our last bedroom was over 6m across and we had block and beam floor. The spec came back to triple beam per one row of blocks. The floor still moved more than I felt comfortable with. The kitchen was underneath and it was one of the main reasons not to have an extractor hanging from the ceiling over the peninsular where the hob was - I didn’t want any more weight on the floor. If I’d have realised what the flex was going to be like, I would have asked the SE for more steel which I would presume would fix the problem.

Welcome - well i’m sure if you offer to become our resident bat expert, we will all love you and forgive you for the money that we have to spend of bat surveys and the like ??. Luckily we don’t have to do a bat survey which did surprise me.

OMG - never seen a roof do that before.

Glad to see it was the older lady - that’ll be me when we build ?

First blow out - they appear very high for a first pour.

Welcome - very exciting times. Plans please ?

Welcome - love the look of the house.

Any drone around here should be noticed as we are just within the 5km exclusion zone of Bournemouth Airport. However, a lot of my neighbours are of the type you would worry about. ??

Peter has wanted a nail gun for many many years. However, he has form with tools which have resulted in a ban on the purchase from me and the kids. Chain saw - “it slipped” and landed just above his knee cap when he was doing a tree pruning course when in his early 20s. Angle Grinder - “it span” when it hit a hard spot when cutting into a wall for joist hangers. He blamed it on the fact he is left handed so the spin undoes the handle (it seems like an excuse to me). It hit his chest just under his bra line - I think he was trying to do a self moob removal of truth be told. Luckily they were both fairly superficial with no damage to bones, ligaments or tendons under the surface. You will understand I’m sure my refusal to allow a nail gun into the house.

That is the sort of price I wanted to pay. Peter also would prefer the larger size. Our site is relatively secure but our neighbours would of course all know it was there! it was just a surprise to see it pop up on Fb of all places and so local too.

This has just come up in my FB feed. It’s a lot more than we wanted to spend but it is also newer. It looks like 322 hours. Comments please?

We are still at planning stage so plenty of time for us to work out what will work best for us. Concrete and screed but no hard floor surfaces as it’s really bad for the dogs joints. We are having an MVHR as well. In our previous house we had UFH and an MVHR with a comfort cooling box added on. We used it for the first summer after we’d finished and moved in and our bills went through the roof but the house didn’t feel any cooler. Things have moved on since then though. At that point, I had heard of running the UFH through cold but condensation (as you have alluded to) was the problem. We don’t expect the UFH upstairs to ever need to be used for heating but as I have now heard from a few sources about cooling the slab a little using an ASHP, it was an idea as the pipe is cheap to lay before the screed goes down. Presumably, if we get the air-tightness right and the downstairs temp right, the concrete floor/screed upstairs should escape the carpet mould you have found before?

Screed with the pipes in the screed

Hollow core concrete with carpet.

We will definitely go for one as even after the 10 years, some mortgage companies apparently like to see that once was in place even though it may have run out - bizarre I know and maybe no more than scare tactics to make you buy one.

We have swung from UFH everywhere, to UFH downstairs only, to towel rads and electric mats in the bathrooms upstairs back to another consideration....... Knowing that the ASHP can be reversed in the summer and do some slight cooling of the slab. Is it worth laying the pipes upstairs simply for the cooling possibility in the summer? we haven’t done the calcs yet but are pretty sure we will not need heating upstairs.

At the NEC Homebuilding and Renovating show this weekend we made initial contact with several warranty providers to get details ready to send our details off for a quote once planning permission is in. AEDIS were very nice and we settled down to give them some details. We got to the question of main contractor and of course - that is us. They were very apologetic but wouldn't be able to give us a quotation without a main contractor as we may not be competent. This is surely what the warranty is supposed to check, especially if they are building control aswell. If we were completely hands off on our build and hire a shonky builder, we would be relying on building control and the warranty inspectors to highlight the failings of our builders. Just goes to prove that they expect payment for a paper excercise rather than a true check that what you are doing is safe. We went back to some of the other companies that we had spoken with and they were all ok with it, provided that the checks were completed appropriately by both building control and the warranty provider (or the same person if the warranty is providing the building control as well) they would be happy.

Is the Conder easier because it has "legs" to stabilise it while pouring the concrete in so that the concrete holds it in place lower down? Does that mean the hole has to be bigger as the BioPure hole is smaller at the bottom and steps up looking at the pretty pictures?

http://treatment-tanks.com/product/waste-water-treatment-tanks-england-wales-uk/ We have sent an email asking for the price again. The price is a supplied price - they come with a crane to get it on site. Gravel underneath to get it level and back fill with what came out. It is a big beastie. The salesman hasn't had his emptied in 4 years apparently FWIW.

We haven’t bought our digger yet (apart from my near miss the other day) but he has finally seen the sense in the purchase. Until yesterday he was convinced that hiring one when needed would be fine.

Well if it did float, we’d have a 2 ton submarine tootling down to Christchurch Harbour ?? We’ll just have to make sure we have a wee or two a day to keep it filled !

Peter loves the concrete one but we just can’t find the bit of paper with the prices that we wrote on. It won’t require any concrete to hold it in place which we have to add to the BioPure to compare cost properly (to stop the bobbing bouy scenario). It also needs a pumping station because of the high water table and the slight incline out to where the discharge pipe will end which comes neatly in the biopure pumped version. I would go for the Biopure one but he will be digging the hole so more discussions to be had yet.

We have just got home after 2 part days there. It’s 155 miles away so we did an overnight stay at the premier inn nearby (£40 for the night). We looked at sewage treatment works and have got down to 2 contenders Bio Pure or a concrete one that will solve issues with our high water table. Talked to a few MVHR suppliers and ASHP suppliers. Listened to a few talks. Spoke to a few warranty companies (AEGIS won’t cover us as there will be no main contractor which was a surprise). Checked out site insurance and whether they cover our guests being on site or not (yes - public liability insurance covers them). Glass balustrades for our balconies - one company we overhead the prices he was talking about to another customer and walked away. Another company was 2/3rd less. looked at a few window companies - spoke to Internorm and asked about installation issues that seemed quite common (naughty ?) Found a new window supplier that I hadn’t heard of before - Weru. German windows that look beautiful and have in-built flyscreens and external blinds as options. We’ll never be able to afford them but I stroked them lovingly anyway just in case the lottery win happens. Then looked at a few cladding options. No wonder we’re a bit tired! Book your parking tonight if you are going tomorrow. It is £16 if you pay on the day, £12 if you pay in advance.