redtop

as an aside we are half way through putting up 14 gabion baskets and although time consuming we have used graded quarry waste at £8 a tonne so cheap to fill

no he wouldn't be able to stamp them; I will find out more tomorrow

he owns a sawmill so I think was going to cut the joists himself from douglass fir trunks. Seeing him tomorrow to discuss. Apparently the extra cost for taking the post joists in the roof to the 3xx mm size costs an extra £5k!

OK, sounds right and I havnt gone down this route, no need as renting locally. But if I read it right they have to give 24 hours notice to enter a dwelling house and, if you have put temp beds away, etc and claim its site welfare facilities... Yes of course they will get you in the end but in the meantime you will have had use of it for months. I don't condone breaking the law but I also hate the fact that the council have such a broad right. In my previous house we put up a garden house (posh shed, very posh tbh) and our son used to kip in it when visiting and indeed lived in it for 3 months for a while. No-one complained but if they had and the council had turned up at the door to my house wanting to inspect my house and garden I would automatically say no; let them go through the courts which they are legally entitled to do.

SE proposed 253mm (or similar) posi joists for all floors (ground floor is raised off ground on posts). Roof is flat, green roof. frame builder (chippy, stick build) reckons solid timber joists would be better, more solid, less bounce for ground floor and will take a higher load for roof. Going up a size in posi joists to get higher roof loading (3xx mm, to get to the 90KG per m sq) pushes price up a lot. We are near Sea in cornwall so mild but wet and windy we will be running MVHR and do have quite a few steels at ground, and first floors but again builder reckons he can orientate joists soo we wont need to cut big holes for the pipes what do you reckon guys???

yeah ours was included (and simple), looks similar format to Jeremy's

if it causes a reduction in the max power each house can have I would be wary, there are talks of gas boilers being banned, etc. That prob wont happen but more and more people will over time move to ASHP, electric cars, etc so anything reducing max power below the norm could have valuation / sale issues downstream

we used jet blue on our 32mm MDPE pipe connections, not meant to need it but I used it and no leaks and its a direct 32mm mains connection so very high pressure. guess it depends where exactly its leaking from?

as an aside when do you use tapered v square edge board??

we keep going round this (wont be needed for a few months yet), and think we will go down the fermacell route and fit ourselves. I couldn't plaster but am confident I could use the fermacell filling compound so labour costs would be zero, D

mine have cost >£20K for 41 220mm driven piles, 3 to 4.5 M steel casing and then 1.5M rock socket, then filled with re-bar and grout

we have driven piles, and then steel posts and then steel substructure tying it alll together. Ground floor will be between .5M and 2.5M above surrounding ground due to slope. So no choice really over than suspended timber floor. I agree the exposure to the cold winter air is not great. We will insulate between the 253mm posi joists and then again below them, ventilation gap and then concrete board

yep. with the typical old state of the UKs housing stock non BC approved work is more common that not. I generally don't care and use it as bargaining to knock some of the price and generally have enough knowledge to spot anything major structural, well have done so far lol

I have bought, done up and sold loads of houses over the last 10 years, many (in fact probably all) missing some form of BC / planning / electrical / gas approval or safety certificate. Massively common and inevitably sorted by indemnity insurance or some other form of insurance. We have tended do improve houses (new kitchen, decorating, new heating, etc, but nothing structural) and then sell as perfectly livable but with scope to improve / extend further; as a result the buyers don't care as there will be major work being done anyway. Mortgage coy don't care so long as you keep paying ?

must be millions of Victorian homes still standing with suspended ground floors and nothing but mud underneath. Bloody cold though ? still I think its probably easier with concrete (and certainly nothing to go wrong once done) but perfectly possible with joists, insulate between is easy; could wrap external cladding below that to remove cold bridging if room allows

oh, has anyone tried using fermacell and then not needing to plaster? would make up for the dif in price and save a very messy trade

so you would go for habito over fermacell?

photo was 2 days ago, got worse since then. Groundworkers keep scraping slop and dragging the drilling machine out but its a bit of a losing battle. Think we are going to get more stone on the ground, not easy as narrow access means lorry parking 800m away and 3 t dumper doing runs up and down the hill. Oh and where the lorry would park the council are doing road works... arghh

an old topic, but talking of mud...

quote below (ex VAT) and some bits removed for clarity (minor stuff like tape). I mean £800 for fixings! 190m² Insulation timber frame, Pavaflex 140mm @ 375 Isolair 140mm (replacement for Pavatherm Plus (discontinued) 192.000 140mm x 1780 x 560 Isolair (Pavatherm Combi) T&G 4,869.12 20.000 220mm Topix Timber/CLT Fixings (Pack 100) 800.00 3.000 1.5 m x 50 m Pavatex ADB Membrane (70 m²) 414.00 94.000 140mm x 375 x 1220 Pavaflex (1.83m²/pk) 2,336.84 2.000 Transport - 2 x 18t dedicated load 1,180

no that was supply only, 190m2 of external walls so not massive

and here is a some man porn (sorry ladies, but well, its big and makes a loud noise) drilling.MOV

we had planned on 160mm for the outside, and given we are in cornwal its not cold (wet yes...). maybe we drop to 100mm. quote for external and between the studs insulation currently at 11.5K, that includes vapour wrap and (very expensive) fastenings for the external boards. it doesn't include floor and roof insulation

foundations are 41 odex piles driven 5M into the rock, each one is 220mm wide. And price has gone up as grounnd workers have had to come back and help dig out piling machine... re the timber we could have used C16 100x37 (or something like)

so we have a stick build specified, with vapour proof OSB on the inside pavaflex between studs and pavatherm as external wrapping. then battons & cladding. Went for this as like the breathability and high thermal mass and natural materials. Also lack of membrames appeals to me. Anywhooo; surprise surprise, foundations and steel substructure costing more than expected so looking for possible alternatives. We do want to stay with natural materials and I have worry about fire rating (raised wooden house in a wood with crap fire engine access) and want a building fabric as high spec and robust as my limited budget will allow. Note the timber frame is slightly heavier than normal, C24 150 X 50 mm. Wall thickness isn't an issue as no neighboures near by. Driven wind and rain is as we are in Looe near the sea. Advice welcome ?