BotusBuild

There is no harm in thinking about UFH manifolds placement, and how each loop would get to the one it needs to connect to (remember 2 pipe per loop when it gets to the manifold, leave room!) Starting using LoopCad to form some ideas on where pipework will be. For the MVHR, there are two main ducting systems, I refer to them as hard and soft. Hard ducting is unforgiving if something is built in the way of a route, difficult to put perpendicular to joists. Soft ducting (flexible, narrower pipes) actually needs a lot of room when you get to the manifolds (I know 😀). So think about options where the main unit can go and how it would impact on ducting design. Soil and waste pipe layout!! Discuss where all those sinks, basins, baths, showers and toilet etc. are going to go and don't forget possible plant room condensate and safety valve overflow pipes. For showers, think shower trays, steps, wet room??? And then make sure the builders know so that waste pipes can be located accordingly (don't ask me how I know!) HTH

Well done. We're in our 60's, although when I started I was in my late 50's!!! Nearing the end of the tunnel, and overall it is immensely satisfying. Hint: put out a Wow tin. Like a swear tin but for all those people who will come along and express hiw well you're doing. Minimum donation is £1. Paid for our 3G windows already 😀

Alan, I have not paid anything to have this work done. I applied to EE for broadband, their 74 Mbps service, on Jun 6th. The router was sent very quickly, and sat around waiting for the OR work to be carried out. Can't recall when the OR survey was carried out, but it seemed to take a long time before first OR activity on July 15th (telegraph pole). July 22nd was the box on the outside wall to the box inside and associated piece of fibre. Then another 2 weeks until the external fibre was laid from a neighbouring pole to the new pole and to the location of the external box. Finally a week after that (yesterday Aug 9th) that external fibre was connected at both ends. EE were then immediately on it. As soon as I connected the router to the internal box, we had interweb connection and Wifi inside the house is acceptable for now. They have also very quickly issued the first monthly bill. (£26.99 pcm) So from order to completion, about 2 months, so not bad, all things considered.

When the house is done 😀, then the garage, the ... 😀

Snap

RESOLUTION TIME: On Saturday lunchtime I got a call. Two engineers from OR have turned up to splice the fibre. Turns out we are 1200m from the "cabinet", which isn't actually a cabinet, its one of those multi-manhole-cover pits in the road. They also had to splice in the "cabinet" as well. 2 hours later EE hub plugged in and we have interweb access JIT for the move in. Happy days

Done. They got it right on the second time of asking 🙂

Which is fine if you have a decent 4G signal

We picked one of these up unused off FaceAche Marketplace, but there was no user manual. Wondering if anyone has one they wouldn't mind sharing with us. Model number PBECZ-120-50/MF with this on the bottom of the heating element

Update: OR visited us on Monday and connected the cable from the pole next door to our new pole and down into the trench. The cable went into an OR supplied duct in the trench, and the end got left by the external box that Kelly Group had already installed (see above). Then, they found out that the cable at the top of pole next door was not connected to anything - you couldn't make this up. The guy went to the junction box (about 1/2 mile away) and sure enough there's a bundle of cables in there not spliced in. So, we are now waiting for the splicing team. FFS.

OR just put our fibre cable in from one pole to the new pole, down into a trench we dug to the house and the external box. From the bottom of the pole they installed a small ducting (~15mm extension diameter, black with a yellow trace) in the trench through which the fibre is fed. We were told we can fill the trench now.

Installing skirting boards in first room. Cut and ready to fix. CT1 seems like overkill and may be difficult to remove (if that became necessary). So, which glue? Or sealant? Or silicone? And would you screw in as well, if so what screws? Something that is hidden would be requested 😁

What is the floorers reasoning for not using a leveller? Looking at the drawings, I would go that way; pre-seal the gaps around the sides of the area to be levelled to stop the leveller running away (a mistake I made) with tape or your favoured sealant (allowing it to set off), then apply leveller. Apply flooring. There'll be an expert along soon 😉

Only problem I now have is the size of cable ducting I put in 🤣🤣

Radio we will have DAB or google speakers for. Will look at the 8 LNB option - got any links to recommended products?

When doing first fix, I pulled aerial cable to 3 bedrooms, a lounge and one other room - so we have 5 end points into which a receiver/TV can be attached. All these cables run back to the plant room. I can run aerial cable through pre-fitted ducting from outside to the plant room also. (Pocster's already hating this planning ahead and preparation 🙂 ) From what I have gleaned from interweb searches, it is not possible to install one satellite dish, send the signal to a splitter to feed those 5 points and allow each individual TV to be able to freely watch whatever they want. Or even 2 TV's come to that, through a splitter. Suggestions I have read include a 4 "port" LNB on the dish and running 2 cable to each receiver/TV, installing multiple dishes (but this isn't some diplomatic mission or transmission station), or something called Unicable. We're likely to only have 2 TV's to be honest, the bedroom points being for future inhabitants should they desire them. So, anyone got a setup with one dish, and multiple receivers? What splitter/switch are you using?

I'm going to step back as I can't figure out the relationship between those two diagrams. I'm finding it hard to visualise. For others help the answers to the following may help - 1. Are the ground beams pieces of steel? 2. How many ground beams? 3. Does the slab sit on the ground beams? Or, are the ground beams embedded in the 250mm slab? 4. Is the SE aware of your requirement to put the UFH in the 250mm slab? He may design differently if he knows this. Sorry I can't help further at the moment

I may have missed something here. I'm assuming the ground beams (the dashed bits?) will be poured at the same time as the raft - they would just be thicker than the rest of the slab, say 350 instead of 250mm deep. If so, then just lay your pipes as you have described, although I tied ours to the top mesh, before you pour the concrete.

Ah, memories of an all-night party on the beach while a student at Cardiff Uni back in the 80s.

So, EE are working on this. Well they have "contracted" Openreach to install FTTP, but they have already sent the router. So far, OR have installed a telegraph pole and sent someone from Kelly Group to install the boxes outside and inside the house with a piece of optical fibre between them via conduit I had installed during the build for this purpose. We have dug the trench from the base of the new pole to the house, and are now waiting for OR to realise they have not connected from the pole where the fibre already is to the new pole and then to the house via our trench and into the external box. Watching the new pole start to rot and get vandalised by woodpeckers in the meantime.

Summary if you dont want to read it all - contact EE to request new broadband, let them deal with Openreach. I applied to the broadband supplier, Plusnet first but then switched to EE. Both were told it is a new build. I provided postal and What3Words addresses. In both instances, an Openreach dork(s) came out to survey which in both cases involved me telling them where the relevant pole was already, where they needed to install a new pole, where they would be putting the box on the outside, and the inside, which conduit they would use, and I would trench from the base of the new pole to the house. Plusnet wanted to pass on over £1100 of Openreach install fees, so I took some advise from the site and applied to EE instead who are covering the Openreach fees. I will be paying the £20-something per month for 2 years for broadband. See this thread for more details https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/44113-openreach-taking-the-proverbial-for-tree-lopping/

More detail required. Are plans already approved? They should stipulate, but you say red brick, timber and glass. Is that what you want, or is that what's on the plans? Is the plot 270m2, or is the proposed house 270m2? Any pictures of proposed building to share. Can you share anonomised plan drawings (no names, no addresses)?

Keep the u bend and elbows in one cupboard AFAIC. Neater and will therefore annoy certain people 😀

Definitely comes out of their lounge, so not a kitchen extractor. Take your point about they may not have fitted the woodburner, but it's been there for 18 months already, so they could be challenging some of our procrastinators here on t'hub 🙂

Just done a short walk around and found the flue for the gas boiler is elsewhere, so I think this is definitely a chimney for a woodburner, and not a flue as in the subject. My mother, who lives next door k new the previous owners and this chimney comes out of their living room. I think a message to the local council will be forthcoming from a "concerned passer by". I also noticed cracks in the brickwork around the strap support, so you right, Nick, a shit job.