BotusBuild

22mm to a hot a cold manifold in the plant room, then 15mm to each room/item. Two pairs (H&C) to each bathroom, a pair to the kitchen, a pair to the utility. Just spent 5 weeks camping out, and the rain shower had plenty of water.

Just what we did for our sewage treatment plant

At last, I'm tall 😁

I'd have to keep ducking down to use those, and I'm only 5'9"! Neat idea though

What we had to do for ground floor because it was going to be a retaining wall part way round (horizontal and vertical). But the SE insisted on extending the horizontal rebar through the top floor as well

An update (after the fact) Plastering finished in the open plan area this coming week (by others) DONE (see above) Remainder of stone cladding arrives and work begins to get the most inaccessible (high) parts put up before the scaffold gets taken away - this means cladding two 7m x 2m wide walls. It arrived and I did get the stonework done on the high parts Plumbing pipework ready for ASHP installation DONE Gabion basket and pad for ASHP to be installed on DONE Mist coat and first coat on plaster (SWMBO is at the ready) DONE Begin fitting upstairs UFH (Not done) Front door being fitted (January) by others DONE Take 3-4 days off for Xmas DONE and appreciated ASHP installation (January) by others, that will allow for hot water and the downstairs UFH to be available ... DONE Fit a temporary bathroom ... DONE Fit out utility room as temp kitchen ...DONE Its been a comfortable month in the house (in fact we are staying an extra few days while it is cold overnight!). We fitted an over bath shower, and done a lot of other work since. and that'll be part of the next blog entry.

So, no solids to move? If so, then a 100mm pipe could give you a better fall than a 150mm pipe if I have visualised this correctly

@nod, @Nickfromwales, Clarifying Q. You tank before tiling? Can the tiles be applied directly to the tanking or do you need something else (tile backer board) in between? FYI - I was going to do just backer board then tiles, but reading your above tales, I now want to know from the best, what is the best build up (from studwork). This is not for a wetroom, just a bath and shower tray area of bathroom and ensuite Thanks in advance

Talk of plaster implies internal reveals? We have plaster board and plaster right up to the frames, no gap.

My personal opinion, mainly based on the term "do it right first time", is to do small tweaks that don't cost a lot but make it usable in the way you want it. Start saving, and in the meantime think up the options for where things can be placed taking into account where things like gas, water and electrics are currently located, and how easy to move them to where you might want them. Settle on a design, get quotes, then save more, or re-design to get within your budget 😉 Finally, move ahead to install the open plan design of your dreams

Would nylon washers be better? Smoother to twist and no chance of corrosion.

We have about 130m2 of foundation slab that 1) needs to levelled and 2) needs to be raised by an average of 55mm. The foundation slab already contains the UFH pipes so there would be no intermediate insulation layer - the screed can be poured directly on the slab as far as I am concerned. I have read that Cemfloor can be used in this manner and the min thickness is 25mm for such a bonded application. All the installers I have contacted want a membrane installed first and I have pushed back quoting from a document they sent me as part of their quotation packs. Their also asking for an edging strip to be installed as well, but this screed will sit up against the EPS of Nudura ICF, which surely itself will absorb any "movement". Awaiting their response, but I would love to hear if anyone else has applied Cemfloor just as a levelling screed with no membrane between it and the foundation slab.

I guess I'm going to be cutting away the bottom edge of all the plasterboard I've installed 🙂

Phew, I answered correctly

Done, same speeling error seen as above

Wow. That is all

Welcome back. Glad to hear you came through the depression - can be a difficult time. Good luck with the new project/s whatever they might be

@Jilly - already on the plans and designed for 🙂

Some years ago I listened to a talk about creating a green roof from recycled materials. It started with old carpets as the protection layer, and used crushed demolition materials mixed with top soil as the growing medium. I can't recall what they used as the edging to separate to the drainage stone from the greenery. I wonder if anyone on here has done something similar. What was your experience and would you do it again? I do also wonder if there would be any affect on BCO sign off when something else (Bauder) has been specified.

We just used B&M white matt (Turner&White) mixed 1:1, then 3 more coats on top unmixed. £10 for 10L Anyone want some free buckets?

Thanks, but what is shown in the photo is the "after" and is not shifting with just water and sponge. Looking for suggestions as to how to remove the afters.

Done that. What was left after is in the photo

Most of the mess is down to us on door steps, so I'm not putting this on the render company. They taped and covered well. Most of the dirt is accumulated over the last 18 months, with a little bit of render. "Some render" in the OP may have been misinterpreted 🙂. Sorry.

We have suffered some render getting on those nice new aluminium window frames and cills. I'm looking for a gentle way to remove this causing no or as little damage as possible. I've seen there are cement removal sprays - would these do the job and if so have you used one that you would recommend. Is there another better way without having to scrape, sand and respray?

What type of joists do you have? Solid, i-joist, web joist (asin picture above)? Do you have open access to the joists still or will you have to remove plasterboard etc. to fit the ducting? The former we all hope