Patrick

I steared away from it for exactly the same reasons many others mention. I think Its great, but just so much work to do it yourself and of you buy it, you easily looking at 100£/sqm for decent quality. In theory it's amazing, but so are many other things if you take price out of the equation.

Hello, maybe some of the educated people on here are able to shed some light onto this purchase. As the Foundation is progressing, I needed a manifold for the UFH system. To have that in place before the screed goes down. So i looked on ebay , and found that loads are coming from Germany . Thought I skip the importers and just order directly. Had a quick look on German Gumtree as well and found a cheap offer for a Manifold including a LAING FP5000 Heat exchange pump(At least thats what it translates as), pickup only but next to mums town, so she quickly done me that favour. Looks like this: The Label says: TYPE: FP5000 Serial No.: 110110 primary: boiler circle max pressure: 10 bar max. Temp : 110deg secondary : heating circuit max pressure : 6 bar max. Temp : 110deg Laing was bought by Xylem and so the Laing pumps are not produced anymore My technical knowledge in regards to heating system is fairly limited and I am struggling even more with translating between German/English terminology. There is only a German manual (http://www.bosy-online.de/Systemtrennung/Laing_Systemanbindung.pdf ). I can read it , but it s telling me nothing tbh. The tricky bit is that I am fluent in German, but never worked anything to do with construction or anything technical at all over there. Now I do, but all i learned in the years between is the English terminology. Maybe someone is able to tell me what kind of pump this is. Because it says it is a heat exchange pump with it s own separate 6kw heater , which I didnt come across yet (again, what do i know) I mainly bought the item for the manifold . The rest really was just a bonus. The seller bought it around 18years ago and never installed it (rich farmer) and now just wanted to tidy his garages . Said he paid 1000£ for it , so it might be worth installing the pump as well. Any opinions on it?

Ok, my fault, you where right @Russell griffiths . Had a second look at it and will do as you re telling me ?. Thought that space will be too narrow between foundations and stream , but seems I can squeeze a Inspection chamber in there. And that will be a much better solution I guess . It would look like this : only problem there is the 90degrees bend into the IC , i think. Is this possible/advisable ? I could add a Rodding access on the other side of the building if that makes it better, like that:

Makes no difference. I understood it. The dpm is underneath. The slip layer is on top. I'm probably not going to use the beam and insulation, as it s that much dearer. It always seemed the more sensible idea as it eliminates an extra step (laying blocks), but it s not such a good idea if the price difference is 3k. I'm aiming for a mixture now, using minimal insulation in between the beams (as of jetfloor,beamshield....) and finishing off with regular insulation from seconds&co on top. So basically treating it like a block and beam floor. think this should work

Good wife

@nod Loads of pictures always better for me. Tbh I sometime struggle to comprehend the amount of text in some of the topics on here. Must be because I was kicked out of school way too early and most of the regular posters on here are some serious (ex-) academics.

Nice one @nod So the piercing of the membrane is not a problem? Edit: thanks @Visti . Think understood this now.

Once again, a bit lost here. As far as I understand the "best" or typical setup on a block and beam floor with ufh is something like this : With from bottom to top : -block and beam floor (or in my case, beam and insulation)) -top layer of insualtion -damp proof membrane -ufh pipes tacked into the dpm -top screed This will lead to the ufh pipes being stapled through the dpm like this : Isn't this a bit of a problem? Piercing the membrane. And generally, I'm a bit in the dark about the different membranes (dpm, dpc, vcl, radon barrier) in the floor. I do understand how a wall setup works, and no problem with a roof, but just struggling with the floor membrane locations.

@Adrian Walker No, Not Screwpiles. Im not a millionaire. Cheap standard driven piles aka ram a piece of metal tube into the floor with a giant overpriced hammer. ?

Been asking a few questions regarding this topic on the forum. It s nearly done and I can't see any hickups now, written permission should come in any day(or week) but has been a long way http://tintabernacle.blogspot.com/2019/10/building-over-sewer.html

Thought I give an update. Not that anybody is really worried, but some adventurers might read and want to try similar. I now hired a piling contractor. He's a brilliant guy (so far) and keeps up with all my bullshit. I decided against diy for once. Like many mentioned. It s too much of a specialist job. I would like to do it, but I'd rather not take the risk of failure at the end. Can still diy the rest so plenty to do.

Okay. Thanks. But the question was about piles. ? But Found something now : https://cordek.com/products/heaveguard-pile-collars Anybody used them?

@nod did you put clayboard around piles?

I was told by my BC officer today that he maybe wants to see a clayshield/CLAYBOARD sleeve around the piles. I read about it before somewhere, but can't find it now. These are some sleeves around the top few meters of each pile, same as clayshield around footings/ the ring beam. My engineer specified these at the rc beam but not for the piles. I m now either arguing with BC about the need for sleeves (with some backing from my SE) or I let my SE specify some sleeves. To start with, I would like to know where to get them. I already bought my clayshield for the RC Beam but can not find any of these pile sleeves online? What are they called and did anybody use them. Where did you buy them. I would think that it should be alright to put in piles without sleeves. The whole foundation design is so massively overspecified, it s unreal.

Yep. That was it. Just skipped through it again. Unfortunately not a word mentioned about budget or prices, so no idea if that went alright.

Just had my weekly peek on zoopla and found this one here : https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/52820763?utm_source=v1:5bWFDybfWx7C7AGpeagt7mP3PgcqjuqJ&utm_medium=api Not sure if I remember correctly but I think it was on one of the "hand out the blanque cheque" property programmes.

Like clockwork, everytime. I need something. I ask the people Involved- no clue. I call HMRC, pointless. I google, pointless - i search the forum - success after 30 sec. I think i should just stop using any other source of information/advice . Waste of time ?

Guess why I'm in the uk?

Oh yes. Swiss houses are different level. Last year I helped a mate In Zurich wiring in 2 new sockets into his fuse box in his basement. Took us all day because there are rules to every mm of the cable, how to lay it, which position in the wall, how it has to enter the switchboard and how it is all layed out in there, with labelling with a labelling machine (cause you CAN NOT handwrite any stuff on there, just cant) At the end, the whole precise job has to be checked and signed off by the Canton Electrics Board representative and God beware you had a mm off the regulations. Sounds and was extremely anal. But as a result you can open any switchboard and also any wall in a random house and know exactly where cables are going and what they are doing. Without checking anything. Another result is that rewiring a detached house cost you approx. 40-50k. ?

I did a pre app, utter waste of time and money. many others on here with similar experience. If you want to get planning app done and through, just skip the pre app and go for full plans. Get a phone number for your Planning Officer and phone him/her up. With a bit of luck, they tell you which corners to tweak to get it through. regarding bats: you have them already, so not much of a problem. Bat survey mainly is for people who want to proof they don't have any and avoid the trouble when demolishing. I was I this situation. It if you're fine with having them, just ignore this part when it come to handing in full pp. If they ask, hand them the original Bat survey that was done when original pp was applied for. Should be zero problem. They will just accept it. Would be different if it said "no bats" - then they might argue or want a new survey.

Yep. Time is the main difference. The commercial for Digital Total Station tells that the average traditional 2guys team does approx. 400points/day and with the digital tools you can now double the point to 800points/day(marking) with only 1 guy. I was doing traditional autolevel points on my own and approx. 30points/day. Completely unacceptable for pro-contractor. But I have 0 cash for contractors and a fair bit of spare time to build the house.

It was a Joke @PeterW . Thanks for worrying.(out by 3mm max )

Shouldn't be a problem. The diagonals are only out by 30cm , should be alright I think. ? But I can't wait until Digital setting out is finally available for cheap. Would make life so much easier.

After getting some good advise on the forum (DON T DO IT!!! LEAVE IT TO THE PROS!!!) I decide to ignore that and buy some 2nd hand equipment on ebay. How hard can it be http://tintabernacle.blogspot.com/2019/10/setting-out.html?m=1 It wasn't. Just time consuming. At the end it always is a question of wether it is cheaper doing it yourself or if it actually would have saved £££ getting a pro in. My case for doing it myself (as much as possible) is the massive knowledge gain. Even if it turns out to be the same price than having someone doing it for you (which most of the time isn't the case), I wouldn't want to miss what I learned so far.

@Red KiteNorth Wiltshire. Not too far from me. Would be nice to see some work happening. Pm me if you're up for having a nosey visit. Cheers. Patrick