scottishjohn

the replies from you all --and I am not saying you are not looking after your tanks or havibg a go --maybe you are correct it does not need desludging very often but suppose neighbours are not using correct washing powders or flushing wet wipes ,tampons etc !! It shows why when you are sharing with others why you need a solid agreement so you don,t fall out with neighbours on how often or when it needs servicing and there is money there to do it same as when shared road ways need maintainece so you want control over it if its on your property

I just got this from british water site which mentions desluding and keeping of records https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.britishwater.co.uk/resource/resmgr/publications/codes_of_practice/bw_desludging_v.2.pdf Iknow from ahving a garage that you must get a waste ticket from who ever does the job or you could get a fine for not disposing of waste in the correct manner by an approved contractor I think you would be unlucky to get a visit with how things are --but it is possible an they could ask to see your log and who did it

it is a requirement in scotland now to keep a log of when the tank is serviced not sure about england and with present cuts in council spending not sure how often they will ask the question but i did read somewhere it if not now but shortly will be a requirement from SEPA will go and hunt sepa site and try to find it a quick search https://www.sepa.org.uk/regulations/water/septic-tanks-and-private-sewage-treatment-systems/maintaining-your-private-sewage-treatment-system/ Iam sure iwas told by the SEPA man that log must be kept of servicing and desludging S oif dealing with a shared tank as this first post was discussing ,then it makes sense to have an agreement on who pays for it

I personally would not share with neighbours --they could sell up and you get a real nasty one unless you have an legal agreement where everybody pays into a maintaince fund -- every month ,£20-30 a month so when it needs servicing there are no problems and you put it in a separte account if they don,t want that then let them sort their own problems this needs to include any successoors to the other properties or I promise you when it goes wrong they will cry poverty that should also take care of the yearly empting that is now required same as with access shared roads would avoid like monkey pox

as siad before the draughts around the door will give ventilation and unless its for your super car etc then just put a jumper on and some portable heating when needed I doubt you will be in there long when its freezing ouutside or if big enough you could make an insulted sub workshop area at the back as i did when younger and doing aero modelling I had a big widow inthe back of the garage Idid insulate the flat roof area with some thick stuff from https://www.secondsandco.co.uk/

Iwent vortec as the emmissions are actually better than a bio disc AND LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE

Iwould avoid a horizontal clyinder if possible --will make bleeding from system al ot harder and if you must have one make sure its not exactly hoorizontal --have a high end so air will go to it and hopefully not get trapped

are you putting in stud walls up there as well ? noreasonwhy you should not use theties already ther to attach your foam backed plasterboard to them and additons as needed to match up the PB sheet lengths your roof is adold one so make sure it has plenty of ventilation getting at eaves so you don,t cause a moisture problem

I might have been tempted to bring the walls into get serious insulation+water proofing and make it into a window seat

Ok then attach cement board to insulation ,then render I was only commenting on what I saw locally on some new houses maybe they sheeted them and rendered so quickly I never saw what was done when passing them

all i would say is check carefully all over the floor with a 6ft level before making any decision

slight change of subject there are some new houses near me that they built the TF then fixed 12" slabs of polystreyne insulation to exterior then rendered it so no messing with voids and tricky bits thought it was quite clever

your picture shows brick work is this covered with cladding ? if so then 2 concrete ones will do as the edge of them will not be seen or if totally internal then concrete will do

If you do not want the lintel to show on outside brickwork then you use a "catnic" lintel and conctrete one for inside https://catnic.com/products/lintels there are many suppliers but this will show you how they fit and work

I must be out of touch £600 for a day and the trip was not far away if they were back in an hour $600 cash is really about £800 if they paid tax + ni etc -- so it would have been a no at the start from me - or certainlt no pay till job was done + no a;terations world is full of chancers these days

whats going on top of your block =beam floor ? UFH ? If so you will have plastic sheeting ,then insulation , then screed that sheeting will come up above finished floor level and can join to air tight membrane on stud walls I am guessing sleepr walls come to to where you start stud walls , so ne big black plastic sheet across beams and up the sleeper walls and under the stud walls ,then insulatrion UFH piping and screed your finished floor will be at top of sleeper walls

If it is and has been tracking water in for some time it will take a lot more than a month to dry out once you have sorted the problem ask anybody who has had the house flooded how long it takes for it to dry out

mortar too soft? dpc too slippy do you really need a dpc there is lintels are galvanised? you would not use one with concrete lintel

6" is minimum you want the ends of your lintel to sit on-more the better picture shows that one is not on enough as its only on half a brick ,which is not 6" same goes for others inpicture --not long enough I can,t see how you going to get a full mortar bed above the lintel as it is at present as it was never fitted right to start with --too tight a hole and you can see bricks have sagged in middle over time as lintel bent + bricks above the lintel at left end have joint in wrong place -nearly sraught line down lintel end or it was not fitted right way up most have an upside marked on them probaly fine .but not correct never understand why you would fit short lintels --they not expensive anyway

does anybody NOT fit counter battons? my present house was built with just one set -horizontally and caused a mass gather up of dust and crap behind them and casued rot at lower 4 corners of the roof Ibut yes i know inenglend these used to just use one set of battons with saggy tar pper between them and trusses but never in scotland we always went for sarking boards ,but yes some went for just the one row of battons,like my house -- to save maybe £100 on a roof is silly. but then alot of houses here use slates do all you get is breather membrane then slates nailed on -no battons I suppose the condenstaionis only going to happen if you have a badly vented cold roof - and a warm roof shouldn,t get that anyway

surely if first battons are vertical this will not happen as any condensation will run down the sides of them and not gather up ?

so you must have detailed plans if you have live planning -- which has a time limit -----otherwise its just outline planning which means you do not know what restrictions or requirements will be from planning is there mains water and power mains sewage to site of course not forgetting open reach ducting for telphones and fibre broadband all these need to put in before or at same time road goes in --so lots of money before you staert building first house I got my power cable in -within 3 months of asking --but still been waiting 4months + for a meter -- do not underestimate the time and expense of these things

do not underestimate the cost of retaining walls as a guide look at cost of concrete "lego blocks "--and work out how many you would need with right foundations they are quick to build with a digger --- you say large what is large --how high + how long and what sort of ground is it on-- do you have rock that needs to be removed -- how is the ground behind going to be drained and where to sewage system for whole site ? that will need to be a serious system lanscaping costs? this project needs to be looked at as one job including roads and all services ,even if it is to be done in sections maybe a talk with a larger developer to see if they are interested in buying the site the number they come with will tell you if its viable sites like that are always being sort after by larger developers 600tons of "soil" to be removed thats not alot for the size of your site and probavly could be spread about ? and have you thought about how much soil you need to move to build your road? alot of work to do before you do anything more

and there is the problem you can recycle nearly everything -but as long as its cheaper not to -then it won,t happen lithium batteries are the latest instance we dig more raw lithium ,rather than recyling ,cos it is cheaper same goes for grp turbine blades -the cost to grind them down to recyle them into usable grp again is too expensive - so they go to landfill you need a government to insist on this ,but it will never happen due to vested interests we should be promoting hydro and tidal power ,but the return takes too long for the money men ,so we end up with wind trubines with a fixed life span and a waste problem look at any hydro scheme and the life span --most are still going nearly 100 years from when they were built we got 3 on the river dee here in s/w scotland -uses the same water 3 times --and now that is the way to do it built in1936 and still going we are forecast to have a warmer wetter climate and the tides come in and out twice a day --every day and the beauty of hydro is you decide when you want the power -- the dam is the biggest battery ever most rivers could accomadate some sot of hydro scheme- or arcemedes screw if smaller river with decent flow but not great height drop and it would also help eleviate the flooding problems ,by smoothing water flow If they think that beavers are the solution to flash flooding in a lot of places ,then why not a proper dam and generate electric at same time I know a few farmers that would love to harness the water on thier farms ,but the rate they get for the electric + the planning problems + grid pproblems means it does not happen the money men rule every goverment there has or ever will be no one takes a long enough view on these things -

ladders are not for that job and cotinuops working at height and reaching out on--use a hop-up or small scaffolding it will be bettter ,safwer and probably quicker in the long run Iknow about pains being an old age builder and first thing is proper work boots easy to end up with a life long problem iif your not careful