mvincentd

18mm osb3 rather than 1" marine ply. Perfectly adequate and 1/3 price.

Within range for you if it comes to piles; https://www.minipilingsystems.co.uk/contact-us/ and https://www.suttles.co.uk/suttle-piling/ I dealt with both but went with Suttles...nothing in it on price except they were more open minded on the spec of the piling mat which saved me loads of ancillary hassle and cost. A fair chunk of the cost is on 'mobilisation' of their kit so although its 'only' the orange areas that need piling i'd suspect it'll be the more costly option.

There will always be a way. Look at houses built on ultra high cost land like sandbanks ..... The built units literally occupy every square inch of the plot! Your solution will be specific to your plot and the nature of your build. I could easily have put a caravan on my site ..... but couldn’t have removed it once the house was built. I originally saw my driveway as a plentiful area...... but then discovered I needed 95% of it to squeeze a crane onto at regular intervals. Do look out for potential trip ups and get an experienced set of eyes to take a look ( A builder who understands the build system you are using).

HSE can walk on at any time.....and on most sites can probably find a technicality on which to at least issue a caution (regardless of how much effort has gone into conforming to H&S), which will be a billable action. The random visit I had resulted in my being pulled up for not providing hot running water for workers.... had the inspectors mood been different he could easily have shut me down for risk of falls from height.( I’m the principle contractor). So long as it’s a random visit rather than one prompted by an incident i’d suggest to think of it as like a mafia protection racket.....it’ll cost you, but in a vaguely affordable way. The whole HSE thing can tie you up in knots so before you bother with any of it i would suggest you establish and understand what your actual status (in the eyes of HSE) is for the purposes of your role in your project. That will then inform what responsibilities fall to you.

I needed 160dia holes and had to modify beams to 305 deep as a minimum to accommodate this.....and position holes according to rules; Hole should not be located closer to the support than two times the depth of the beam or 10% of the beam length. (therefore in this instance 254 x 2 = 508, say 550mm OR 305 x 2 = 610, say 650mm) The best location for a hole is between 1/5 and 1/3 of the span of the beam. Holes should not be closer than the depth of the beam apart. Beware if you are using metal web joists with varying profiles, differing bearing systems or any other characteristics that might throw their natural service channels out of whack. I couldn’t establish workable positions for the holes in advance of installation, ruling out plasma cutting off site, so used an angle grinder to cut 160 x 200 oblongs in situ which also provided much needed wriggle room.

I found this the other day when brain aching uneven rates of silvering on untreated wood cladding; https://russwood.co.uk/exteriors/cladding/sioo-uniform-weathered-appearance/ "In the months following application all boards will turn the same tone regardless of their colour and exposure to the elements.." and "can be regarded as largely maintenance free and can be left for between 10-15 years before re-application may be considered. In many instances, timber will have taken on a naturally weathered appearance by this time and therefore reapplication is not necessarily required."

So i'd imagine your geo survey states your excavations can sit near vertical in the temporary state....meaning you only have to over-dig a metre to create space that can be made viably safe to work in. I was on chalk and lined the vertical excavation with hessian under chicken wire which proved effective at containing the small surface crumblings and gave a (possibly faux) sense of confidence to the concrete contractors such that the boss was happy to take the job.....his workers were more circumspect but reading between their lines I think they never feel theres enough safety in place for them and it's more common than not that they find themselves woking in compromised positions. Its a balance of viable risk and viable economics. Even if you plan on actually doing the work yourself, get a tanking co' to quote.....if they're saying yeah we'll get in there and do that, then you can probably consider it a viable risk for yourself to do. I had a visit from HSE shortly after we'd backfilled. He intimated that he'd not have liked what he'd seen had he visited at an earlier stage.....that could have been properly expensive for me. I'm not trying to divert you from the main question of what membrane technology you'd prefer....just saying you should consider its real life constructibility in your specific site. Maybe you have the space to batter back your excavations 45 degrees and the money to muck away that extra 700 tonnes, and then backfill it later.

Yes, in the final analysis I felt that generally traditional shuttering did little to mitigate the 'man in trench' H&S aspect...the exception being where space was at its tightest and we used single sided shuttering. I recall the 'apply as you go, ground up, from inside' theory being a part of our discussions. It came down to how much confidence I wanted in the membrane system......I couldn't shut my eyes and live that process of installation and believe it was competently executed. (I happily acnowledge I was totally paranoid about waterproofing basemented walls)

Also remember having ufh pipes in the main slab will likely alter the performance of the ufh compared to them being in a 50mm screed so factor that in. For example my ufh sits directly in my slab which ranges from 200 to 300mm thick, so i'm not expecting to be able to adjust temperature at any kind of speed at all (not fully commissined yet).

You need to also keep yourself happy, by feeling reassured by your chosen method...so ask yourself why those suppliers no longer offer warranty waterproof membranes for ice. When I got quotes from companies that offered true warranties (as opposed to just material cost warranties), the prices were sending me a clear message that they didnt want to have to warranty an external membrane on icf underground. Internal cavity drain was favoured on the basis of assuming the icf would leak and so deal with it internally. The warrantied cavity drains were still hugely expensive. This combined with H&s concern from the principle designer regarding how to safely put a man in a trench between an icf wall and a vertical excavation in order to tank it, caused me a total rethink of the construction method. Obviously that’s down to site specifics that may not apply for you.

same as others.....structural eng' does not indicate anything for concrete spec beyond rc32/40.

if you choose to go Makita cordless don't get tempted by the cheaper earlier model that didnt have a tool-less blade change......apparently was a problematic pita. This is 2nd hand info...not my own experience..but it took the advice , and the quick release version is proving great so far.

In your makeup what do the clippings, sand, driveway blocks bring to the party apart from an aesthetic (I assume) at the cost of what....70mm or more? Couldn’t you ‘stamp’ the concrete when it gets poured, with a block pattern, and add a dry shake dye to the concrete to get close to the look of the currently specced blocks?

Spot on...i paid £1126+vat for much the same...3 boreholes and a soakawy test.

...so you already have the lower layer of rc in place. https://www.sikawaterproofing.co.uk/products-systems/sikaproof/sikaproof-p-post-applied-fully-bonded-membrane-system/

I have cash accounts because i like to walk away with THE piece of paper that needs to get filed so I can do it immediately, not wait for a monthly statement...and I can see the debit to my balance immediately, thus keeping me in a state of continuous financial alarm and vigilance rather than just the once a month heart attack.

Is that a typo and you mean walked on? Is this a 3 line list, or a single sentence? Surely if you mean your 'roof ' is more a 'utility deck' you need a 'specific to concrete' type of membrane, not standard roofing edpm? I might be way off here and reading it all wrong (due to gin) but i'd ask your structural engineer if this is a roofers job at all.

Yes, that scenario works better for me than an external project manager, ....and certainly on a cost/benefit basis. Yes, it goes without saying that my build needs a project manager, but there's no reason why it can't be (inexperienced)me. I want sufficient involvement in my project that I know and understand it inside out anyway, and i'm prepared to give it all my time. If I was only going to 'visit' the project a couple of times a week it would be unthinkable to me not to use a main contractor who was effectively project managing it and replicating my level of understanding of the project as a whole....so why would I then add a project manager. A project manager is like any other contractor....interested and committed in accordance with his remuneration. My biggest problems are occurring at seemingly micro-detail on the drawings, missed by architectural technician, structural engineer and building regs.....so I don't believe an external project manager would have spotted them prior to them becoming an on-the-ground problem either....unless i was paying him to be extremely inquisitive from early on. I do believe his trouble shooting of them would be superior to mine but he'd still have to refer to the team of AT, SE & B'regs...so he wouldn't have fundamentally changed the situation but what help he brought would have been at great cost. Don't get me wrong, i'm having huge difficulties with my build and have made horrible mistakes. Self project managing won't be viable or palatable to everyone or suitable to every project but please lets not rule it out as something else best left to professionals along with almost everything apart from shopping for windows and floor finishes.

very very useful responses for me, thank you all.

I've just arranged to extend mine with Protek and it was pretty much pro-rata the original policy.

I have the exact same question on my mind right now and for ease am inclined towards the same solution of mineral wool...but i'm bugged by the idea that it might be effectively creating a hybrid roof at that point, with insulation both above and below the osb deck.....so maybe foil backed insulation is needed to mitigate condensation. This article and its subsequent comments seem to support my concern; http://blog.celotex.co.uk/technical/flat-roof-refurbishment-the-perils-of-the-hybrid-construction/

I paid £50 in Nov' 2016 for a North Dorset new build being the first address on a street that didn't have a postcode...so I got my first choice name, and number 1. The postcode allocated was previously parked along with others 'yet to be allocated', in a field 3 miles away....and when my new address went live with the post office it still took a couple of months for google to accurately place it, in which time numerous delivery drivers gave themselves the runaround by not reading their notes.

I'm in North Dorset Vivienz. At an early stage of works I accompanied my groundworker to Sydenhams and Bradfords, places he favoured and had a rapport with. His introducing me made a significant difference I believe and i've had great service and good prices from them both, compared to other merchants where i've just made solo contact as a self builder. My Blandford branches are constantly accessing Verwood's stock for me. Even if I went into Verwood for something i've already had before from Blandford, they'd check to ensure I didnt pay more than I previously had. I think it all comes down to what 'discount tier' the merchant group chooses to put you on, and for me that was significantly affected by how I was introduced versus my cold calling for 'best possible prices'.

https://www.hilti.co.uk/anchor-fixings/injectable-adhesive-anchors/r4803

Be sure to discern the two different types they offer; https://products.idealcombi.com/en/product/futura-plus-sliding-door-with-low-threshold/ https://products.idealcombi.com/en/product/futura-plus-sliding-door/