scottishjohn

the thing with blockwork is you can stop and gather more funds if you need to --TF once you start you must get it wind and water tight pretty quick blockwork can stand being wet for a long time

you still will need space for a tank no matter what - look at dimensions of a tank big enough to store water for 6 people having a shower - maybe you are trying to squeeze too much in . what is the floor area of your of your on suites - are they already built or is this you planning using shower cabinets will save alot of space . I have an on suite that I built in a fitted wardrobe space+ 500mm and its 2m x1.5m with toilet 900x900mm shower cabinet and hand basin etc

sounds to me you need to loose about 1m x1m in one of the bedrooms to have a suitable size tank for all the house

system looks interesting ,but 28k for a normal sized 3 bed modern house seems expensive . but please post again if uk agent appears

if you are happy that the black stuff is water proof ,then fit vapour barrier below insulation just before cladding so it stops any moisture from occupation getting into roof space i am guessing that black stuff is draped across the rafters and then counter batons above and then slates - If so then that is supposed to run any moisture down the roof and out the eaves. and not be be totally air tight pir will not absorb moisture to any degree -- if you wish to lave a gap it must be above PIR and must be well sealed making a cold space above it between it and the black stuff which is what you your roof is designed to have with that type of construction -its cold roof

to get same insulation with rock wool as PIR you would need at least twice the thickness ,maybe 3 times the thickness depending on type -look up the "u" values" so to me it would be PIR -then another vapor barrier before the cladding .

I suspect installation temp will have a great influence on how tacky it is if some sort of butyl based product. just like "flashband " is

wee suggestion-- go through them and make piles of same thickness will make them lie better if all slates on same row are same thickness them ore expensive the slate the more them will be same thickness I found the ones Igot to slate my old refurbed explosive shed -which were a £1 a piece varied greatly -but 100year warranty -will outlive me

longer you leave to plant -the more failures you could get get them in as soon as you can and water well hope you like hedge cutting =--cos they grow very quickly and never stop

and that is nothing like strictly true . I have a granite house -rubble walls 700mm thick wall then vertical timbers attached to stone work with an approx 40mm gap -on top of which lathe and plaster that gap goes from under the floor right up to the roof space built in 1730 that is dry lining unfortunately they did not have vapour barriers -- so it was big drafty passge --but the interior walls for the most part are perfect but I would not want to heat the building without some insulation -only where the roof has collapsed has there been any water ingress to the lathe and plaster and ceilings

that is your opinion -and not show9ng us pictures of what you have will not help you to get any advice - and makes me suspect you do not know exactly how your walls are constructed and therefore the correct way to tackle damp once and for all-. for sure hard rendering of any sort onto them will not 100%stop the damp problem if you do not have an air gap to your living heated area walls and a clear vent path for the moisture out of the building no problem to me if you wish to abuse my opinions - -I know how I am going to sort similar if not bigger problems on my project

so you say its made from cut sandstone blocks each is 18" thick any pictures -- I would have thought cost of cut sandstone blocks at that thickness would be too expensive for a cottage If you are right you should be able to see shapes of stone work on inside and outside

maybe me,could be totally wrong -- but why not a concrete raft if ground is so bad . a house was built here next to the river nith as in 30ms away from the tidal nith -- very soft as it was really just sand +clay -which will never dry out- the solution dig down and insert 1m square blocks of polystyrene with rebar tying them together --then concrete on top of that --been there for 20 years and nearly gets flooded sometimes -- but it ain,t moved - I reckon the Buoyancy of the blocks is floating the house

dry ling with a clear path into the roof space so it has somewhere to vent the mositure to -just dry lining and area and sealing will not work --it must have a clear path for it to move out of the building

I agree with most above . but before you can make any definitve decisions how are the walls constructed -is it one layer of stone and mortar or inner and outer walls and rubble in the middle how thick are the walls do you have lathe and plaster interior walls ? or hard plaster If you have rooms large enough the right answer is to build a wood frame house inside it with a gap to wall and a vapour barrier and insulate in that framing - so your inside wall can breathe into this void . there will be no DPC and maybe not real foundations --so rising damp will always be there - to some extent

do you have a spec + drawings for this under pinning under pinning term can mean alot of things and why just the corner ? surely if you make that solid you could stand a chance of the rest of the building sinking around it . . just a thought and maybe a wrong one could you not just make a new deeper foundation right up to the corner , tie it to exsisting one and another wall close and tied to it at the corner so load is spread on the old building I could be talking rubbish of course . but under pinning sounds expensive

my view go for 2g and a velux insulated blind- presuming you can get at them to close the blind they work amazing well in my bathroom with the biggest velux i could get -manual operation

why so keen to get tiles so close? and surely using only one baton will mean you end up with ledges for water and general dust and crap to gather up on as there will be no route from top to bottom for anything to pass I know my house roof was done without cross batons and 20 years on the amount of rubbish that had gathered up on top side of batons was huge-and was damp half the year which could cause baton rot ?

thank you for the replies no one has answered my first question --not what it will dig --I know its not a digger but what will the shovel lift we don,t have 1m wide door holes 820mm is max and I am not expecting it to dig ,as i said at start , but if it can lift 100kgs -with shovel then its a good compromise ,as all these sort of things are my tip /storage site for the cut stone is 300-400yds away ,so a mini dumper would be very slow . as for my 3t being too big -- no It is on some levels is too small for what I have to do .- 200 loads to clear the road of 60 years of tree debris and litter compost and same again of stone to repair the access road cleaning out is the first part of the job before serious earth moving starts and cleaning out inside to get scaffolding up to allow repair of inside of walls is very first job . I still have real idea of repair and rebuild costs --so dodging any large outlays st this stage . to get men to hand ball and barrow will soon run into big numbers - and travelling 1/4 mile to unload small dumper will eat up the days - -mini dumper that will go through doors holds -3-500kgs so 6 o8 journeys to one of bigger dumper .

also for using a parting off tool attached on back of the saddle saves fitting it on every time you want to part off while still having your normal turning tool on the other side of the saddle

its the self loading bit that I like as i can use it just to move heavy things about as well-- thats why I ask if anybody has an experience of them and what they can lift --not dig out

interior of house is about 2 -3ft deep in old floor remains ,tree debris etc and lots of stone to move about It goes through the doors and having cleared some with pure OAP hard work looking for something to help a bit and be good as a gardening tool later -- I know its not a digger -but hand balling dozens if not hundreds of large stones about +plus all the small stuff is very tiring and time consuming . lifting 50kg stones up to the dumper lip 1.4m after carrying them from inside house is not real for me ,would take me all day to fill it once I,m 70 wife is 74 --so about 2-3 hours of that is enough for a day I already tried a micro digger -- but its reach is such that i cannot load direct into my 3 ton dumper - the lip of the 3ton is so high that a micro digger needs to be so close very time consuming in moving everything twice once through the windows ,then make a pile you can sit the micro digger on to then load the 3 ton dumper where as with this hi tip I lift from inside house and go 30 yds to load my real dumper and cart it down to my dump zone a few hundred yards away

https://www.lawnandpower.co.uk/product/lumag-md500hprohts-500kg-tracked-mini-dumper-with-high-tip-and-shovel/ anybody used one of these --any idea on how much weight the shovel will lift

thanks but borrowing is not my scene -

any one got one they have finished using?