jamiehamy

Voila! Out sink unit and the bin unit both came with these, which have rubber seals at the edges. I've had a small leak from the tap area as I've not tightened it (and someone splashed a lot) - just sat on this and caused zero damage :-)

Interesting. We used a mix by Breedon that was self compacting last month, we laid it during Storm Caroline (300mm slab on sheet metal decking). Weather forecast changed 2 days before pour and it froze the night after the pour. There is a thin layer of water on most of it just now but I'll check and see how the surface looks. So far it looks fine but I've not been near it for ages!

What direction is the elevation facing?North?

It is - I'll need to check I can get the dishwasher OUT now the flooring is in!

That's what my BCO 'suggested' when I asked if we needed the open vent in the middle - said with a tank, at least one must vent to air, but he wasn't bothered what one.

Got the floor in this afternoon which means the kitchen is now 95% complete :-) still got 2.5 bathrooms to complete tho. Really pleased with the kitchen.

I'll dig out our spec tonight and see if any is relevant to yours and post. SE is probably not as au fait with this tuff so might we be better to be proactive.

So BW is your Building Warrant submission. In Scotland anyway, these are more detailed drawings than the plans, showing how each element will be built, and demonstrating how the house will be built to current standards. In our case, we had elevations, showing window openings, cladding, roof details etc. The floor plans showed layout, smoke alarms, door opening, stairs, kitchen layout, bathrooms, lighting plan, stop cocks, hot water, heating, ventilation amongst others. These were also accompanied by a Specification which provided written detail on various elements - walls, roof build up, heating spec, details on stairs, Handrails, insulation, and much more. The other set of documents are the engineer drawings to cover the structural elements, and drainage. As a package these are all submitted to Building Control (normally by the architect) who will approve these as the house being built - or seek clarifications or changes if they are not satisfied the submission addresses the regulations. Once you have the BW approved, you can start building - to the design submitted. You can change elements, however will require an amendment to warrant later on - or a whole new submission if major changes. The mortgage people seem pretty clued up hence the questions - although I'm surprised at the level of details they are going to. These questions are more the sort you expect from your BCO tbh. They are fair comment generally however and should be answered by the parties I listed above as part of their fee (because they need to be answered to mean a proper BW submission is being presented). I would add that the world over, engineers are possibly the worst people to deal with and I would suggest avoiding the temptation to sack him/her. Too far down the line for that. You need to stick with them - a visit to their office might help! I've found them useless tbh and not worth their invoices time for the value they added, which was box ticking more than anything else.

Company that were doing this have just gone bust. Site is lying abandoned, house barely water tight.

My thoughts on the above - not unreasonable list tbh and lots to be filled in by the architect - mainly by adding comments to drawings or the specification. REgarding "final building reg approvals is normally achieved well into the contract as relies lots on sub contractors input" - this is a bit of a red herring. You need to have your initial BW submission accepted by the BCO (for the mortgage and with amends as per above)- only once you have completed construction to you get a final signed off and habitation certificate.

Renovations are a big undertaking, so we'll done on getting there! A couple of friends have done them on really old properties and me and OH are both agreed we much prefer a new build! We've taken 2. 5 years so far but will pretty much be 3years to fully complete - its tough but we've never sacrificed a nights sleep, always in bed for 10pm! :-) enjoy the fruits of this one and I'm sure you'll take stock and always keep one eye on plots. Before we got the water tank, we had pretty much bought an old barn - it fell through and it seemed we would never find anywhere. I've probably said it before but you never know what might come up. Btw - lists are essential! I've got a wee blue book full of them, even at 34 I forget a lot! Effort to build - don't forget you can design your house to be easy to build with only a little thought. Have a good New Year and don't leave us! Jamie

Maybe that's the common denominator - fitting. I fitted it myself :-)

I found the experience from start to finish seamless. Just to add balance!

Worked - Sheet metal decking for garage roof. Engineer had selected 3 mahoosive beams to span 7m (garage width) with three separate sections of block n beam spanning between them (in 3m5m sections) , to be topped with a structural topping. Very expensive and labour intensive. Opted for sheet metal decking which spanned the 7m, tek screwed together and hit fixed to the walls. Rebar in the troughs, A252 mesh on top and a 270mm slab. Really straight forward to install, roof in a day, rebar in a day, propping half a day, pour concrete half a day. Didn't work - taping and filling. I had a go in the kitchen and whilst to the casual observer it looks fine,if you shine a light certain ways, it's crap. At least I had a go, but glad I got the rest of the house skimmed. Wisdom on here recommended against tnf but I had to have a go. Best left to experts!

Your hand tight or ours? :-p

Respectfully, I think @Vistihas made his point - not revisiting!

Not the best pic but this is the line pump unit we used - even if it was on a trailer it would not save any space (it would take more as would need a tractor unit to out it in position) and weight wise it won't matter as the jeager needs to back right up to it?

Hiya, what is the problem you are trying to address? The pump is a very large piece of kit so the trailer will be rigid flatbed sized?

Our plasterer was great - although he had to delay for a week or so on the second round, which didn't really bother me. Anyway, I wanted the master bathroom ceiling plastered before Christmas to let me finish it and I asked if there was any way he could help me out. He came yesterday on his last day (with two other jobs that day) and did it for me. When I asked him how much I owed him, he told me he couldn't think of a good housewarming gift so that was it! He was there a good 4 hours! So yes, it pays dividends to take it easy on squeezed tradesmen! The landscaping turned into a 4 month saga but at the end of it, they made me a special plinth for the phone box and did a lot of other wee bits for no charge to make up for the delay. All looking great, the delay will be forgotten as soon as you're in!

Okay, so if nothing else, you've made me feel better! I've got all the above except the bathroom and two beds (although have a working toilet).

We've made a decision not to move in just yet. If I get the main bathroom done we could but still have two more (tiling is hellish!) to do and two bedrooms that have not been plastered. We've decided to enjoy our last Christmas in the wee flat which we love anyway and relax now (I've been flat out for weeks now). I know not the same for you but a genuine consolation might be that you can all look forward to a proper first Christmas next year? I'm quite philosophical about is, as I guess you are. Without meaning to be cheeky to Mrs G, thing could be a lot worse in soooo many ways.

Of course you can use them (to answer the question posed) - stick them together and couness hours later you'll be wondering if your time might not have been better spent actually doing something useful. Maybe I'm feeling a bit tender that I've worked for weeks without a single day off and having time to stick together pieces of insulation just to save a bit of waste is a positively luxurious thought! If you've nothing else to do, I'd love to see pics of the patchwork quilt!

I don't follow you. What is the 'insert' and what is the 'concrete side' of icf? Icf uses insulation to create a shutter - which remains in place?

This rings a bell. Someone on here used it and I'm sure had issues. Nit sure what the actual cause was, likely workmanship rather than product. As per Peters point, if you are putting insulation in top then concrete, then rubber is not the product. We used Elotene DSN, which is self adhesive provided a primer is used. This is a bituminous vcl and totally waterproof. On top of that we have 150mm tissue faced PiR then the rubber membrane. If you have a concrete topping maybe a roll on (Alchimica) water proofing might be easier?

Jet Blue or Jet Lube? I have looked for this before and can't find it! Probably being daft tho!