BotusBuild

We are building with an insulated raft foundation and ICF and I have seen mention of these in various topics, and have scoured my architect and SE drawings and notes for mention of these on our build. I have investigated what they are, and what they do, but its still not obvious as to whether they are needed on not. Awaiting the inevitable differences of opinion with interest ?

Jackon - their Atlas system As used here

I bought a 2-stroke McCulloch a few years ago - brush cutter and strimmer heads supplied as part of the same attachment set. Last year I purchased a chain saw attachment set, and they used to do a hedge trimmer attachment which I was going to buy this year but they have discontinued them ? I would recommend the McCulloch system

That'll do it. As long as this happens your side of the water meter you will be OK ?

You've beaten us to having walls and a roof, albeit on a workshop ?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GL-iNet-GL-MT300N-V2-Converter-Pre-installed-Performance/dp/B073TSK26W Recommended by a fellow IT security expert - very useful if you are travelling as well and want to VPN from a public wifi hotspot e.g. local coffee shop or a hotel room

Elapsed time - far too long due to Covid-19 ? We had a local groundworker in who:- Stripped off the topsoil (to be put back at the end) dug the very large hole in which the foundation are now located dug more holes to fit the sewage treatment plant (STP), inspection chambers and drainage pipes (incoming and outgoing from STP) laid and graded the stonework and blinding sand All in all that probably took about 6-8 weeks, over a period of 12 months, but that was because I want to be involved and was restricted in travelling like everyone else. So, yes, I did lay drainage pipes, install the STP and the under foundation Radon sumps - I just didn't do "heavy machinery" stuff. The laying of the foundation insulation (Jackon Atlas) took my wife and I the four days noted in the pictures in the blog entry. Since then we have spent another 3-4 weeks installing the Radon barrier/DPM, and the reinforcing steelwork. We have to install the UFH pipes next, then we will contract someone to provide and pour the concrete. We are currently delayed due to non-Covid issues, but hope to be concrete complete by the end of September.

See the pics (Day1: to Day 4:) in the blog of our build in Cornwall. Wife and I did this with half a day assistance on Day 1 from one of the tech team on site. It's straightforward once you get going

You won't need a more powerful pump because you are splitting that long loop. As Russell has said, just the extra port/s on the manifold and the extra actuators. The extra money will save a lot of time and frustration later. You might get away with a 135m loop length, but go for the 3 shorter loops where you need 270m of pipe.

OK, you've asked questions which have been answered. The advice is clear. It's up to you whether you accept it or not. Good luck

Assuming that all these loops are on the same manifold, then you have to run them all at the same flow temperature, so changing spacing from 150 to 200 for one loop is making life potentially a little more complex. Do you have a problem with splitting the [original length] 270m loop into 2 or 3 loops? If not, go ahead and do that and stick with your 150mm spacing.

1 set is at 200mm ctrs, the other at 400 ctrs. Currently looking to use Nudura for the walls Congrats on your progress

I know - this thing will hold up a block of flats ? My SE has also spec'd two rows of starter bars (wait until the next blog entry), one from the bottom layer, one from the top. Appreciate how you kept yours upright ? Will be plagiarizing ? (or is that learning?)

Started with the twist tool, but it broke, so I put a tent peg in my cordless drill and it is so much better (set to slow speed with the variable trigger speed as well)

As I wrote the last blog entry, Scotland ??????? were beating England ??????? in the Calcutta Cup and we were all wondering when Lockdown 3.0 would end - we're nearly there apparently. We were also sorting out re-mortgaging to a lower fixed interest rate, - DONE, and we are paying about £200 a month less than before!! choosing insulated raft supplier - DONE, we went with Jackodur Atlas system determining steel re-inforcement requirements for the foundations - DONE and for the most part installed ? So, after more enforced delays, it was back onsite in May with the groundworker to get the stone and blinding sand in place ready for the insulated foundation system to be installed. This involved about 80 tonnes of stone and 15 tonnes of sand being delivered - we have about 5 tonnes of each left over, fo which I have no doubt we'll find a use ? (and before anyone asks, yes, it was rolled with an appropriately large machine at the appropriate time). This all added to a sense of well being - we were in the fresh air, doing something beneficial (for us at least) and we were finally coming UP, out of the ground! Break out the party poppers ? Ahhhhh - the insulated raft choice - it started out so simply having read the various comments in the forum, and Kore Systems it was going to be. I did then visit the Swindon self build centre and saw Jackon's stand and what seemed like a good system. Our SE had specified a 250mm thick slab throughout - no thin bits and thick bits - the Jackon Jackodur Atlas system seemed to fit the bill - a few calls, swap some drawings, commitment to delivery timescales, but with the flexibility I needed, a person onsite on day 1 to help. Quite straightforward. I won't go into detail, but let's just says Kore Systems approach was "our way or no way". With a delivery to a local yard by articulated lorry and then our groundworker getting it on his trailer to go the last mile or so, we then proceeded to handball it all off the trailer. From delivery to the yard at 8:30am onto the ground by 1:30pm. The handballing was done by Mrs BB and I in about 4 hours. The insulation comes with a nice waterproof holder for the instructions and the plan to follow - think "a jigsaw puzzle with the special parts all numbered and shown on a drawing". All the other parts are standard, but if you work from pallet 1 through pallet 2 to pallet N, you can't go far wrong. The very nice man from Jackon arrived just after we had stopped for lunch and we began with laying the first two sides and three corners, and then Mrs BB and I carried on the following few days to lay the rest. We did come across one part while the man was onsite which had not been cut properly in the German factory - you should have seen the delight on his face when he realised he was going to be able to send a snottogram ?. It was easily sorted, but if he had not been onsite I can see that it could have caused a big time day - even with being onsite it took about 45 minutes for him to work out what had gone wrong. Day 1: Day 2: Day 3: Day 4. : Next in was the combined Radon barrier/DPM, the first layer of reinforcing mesh, including a double-layer strip (see left hand photo below) around the 3 sides that will be retaining walls. During the laying of the re-inforcing mesh we suffered our first big accident when one of them caught Mrs BB on the shin and we ended up at the local A&E for her to have a few stitches applied - she is still talking to me ? Over the last few weeks we have managed to get the time to put in the second layer of mesh, with the help of a good friend and one of our neighbours-to-be. We're pretty close to pouring concrete, but just have the starter bars for the external walls and one internal wall to put in place, and two sets of bolts that will eventually have two steel columns attached to them. Oh, and well done Italy ??. (he said grudgingly)

Nick, I see no responses on the thread, and I need similar service in SE Cornwall. Did you get anything via private message?

Maybe not what your looking for but we saw this at a trade show (remember them?) We were given a "stand price" of £800/m at the time (2+ yrs ago) www.balustrad.co.uk

No surprise to most of us who have been buying materials recently https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57247757

Assuming the UFH pipework is going in the screed I cannot see a need for anything other than some form of clip system to hold the UFH pipes to the insulation. Can you provide more information about the "thinboard"?

I often see on this forum the "connect to the gas network" comments. Recently there has been a lot of talk about the ban on gas boilers, including just today this article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57149059 I do wonder why people make the "connect to the gas network" for new builds in light of this probable move to no new gas boilers. Just my 2p worth

For reference - at 60C you can receive 3rd degree burns in about 5 secs. That comes down to 10 minutes if the water temperature is at 49C. So a lower water temperature makes for a safer home for vulnerable people (elderly, infirm, children etc..) http://www.antiscald.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=15

I'm looking for recommendations of a combined Radon/DPM for use between the insulation and concrete of an insulated foundation slab

Yes, I did think that would be the case. Thanks for clarifying

Thanks @ProDave and @joe90 Updated drawings based on your feedback, LGF first, then UGF:

I'm the other one building near Saltash. The original plans for our planning permission were drawn by ARCO2. I tried to use them, but timing and cost were all wrong for us. Now glad that it was wrong, as I have found the plans and elevations just didn't match up. Anyway, to your search - go grab yourself a large helping of Patience, sprinkle over a little pessimism, but top it off with some enthusiasm and an open mind to what might be possible with sites that you look at. It took us about 2-3 years to find the right thing. Glad we waited - we are building a semi-basemented 2 storey, 3 bed house that we aim to be well insulated, air tight, and hence a low energy home. Good luck with you search