Declan52

Don't add to much water.

For 1m high I would lay the first course 450mm wide then the next 325mm wide then the last 2 course 215mm wide. It will be the weight of what's above pushing down on the steps that stop the wall from toppling over. Scroll down on the link and see how the retaining wall is done. That one is 325mm wide for 2 courses then into 215mm. Don't forget the fine gravel and the drain pipe so water doesn't build up and push the wall over. http://www.pavingexpert.com/featur03.htm

Go and book a nice Carribbean cruise for a bit of rest and relaxation for you both.

So your kitchen was fitted by a different company and then the worktop guys came along and took a jigsaw to your units and left them like that??? What are you meant to do with the tube of silicone smeared over the unit and the Packers left sticking out. I wouldn't be paying a penny more till all the damage was repaired and the joints done to your satisfaction.

I would just keep it at the original level. You can use the excess to form a base for a step or ramp on a doorway outside.

My under mounted sink was put on with a tube of stixall. A piece of timber was wedged under it to hold it in place overnight then removed the next morning.

Make sure no matter what lintel you go for that you prop it every metre. Leave the props in for a couple of days till what's above it goes hard. 2*1 or 2*2 is more than enough.

Being right under the window doesn't help hide the joint. The light will always catch the sides and make it more visible.

What kind of plumber spends an age doing all that lovely copper work then cuts that 90 elbow with a hatchet??

It's more than likely the sun making the dpm expand and causing the tape to come loose. As above once the concrete is on top it won't go anywhere.

You are sort of correct up to a point. When starting a self build everyone has their wish list of things they would really want in their forever home. But once the calculator comes out and you start going through different quotes for the build you soon realise that unless you have a Grand designs type budget then tough decisions have to be made. Anyone that puts themselves through a self build and I mean being hands on doing some of the work or being a project manger and running the build will have worked many many hundreds of hrs and had many a difficult day to deal with. To go through all that and end up the min standard of a build would be madness in my view. You would be better off just buying a new build on some site and the most you have to worry about is the colour of the kitchen door and tiles for the shower.

Working on different sites here in NI I in the past was always an adventure. Depending on what side of the Street in Belfast you where building on had a direct correlation to what 3 letter words where tattooed on the "community representative" who would be working on site with you. And when I say working I mean arrive on site every Fri to just lift the brown envelope and ask you was everything ok and no locals messing with your cars.

You can easily map it yourself. Fill a few buckets of water with a bright food gel dye mixed in. Open the manhole lids that you think it goes through and pour a bucket down. You will soon see if it is the same sewer pipe. If you need to find the exact location as it goes by your plot you can use a set of sewer rods and a CAT and mouse. On the plus side as the road is concrete it will be much cheaper and easier to reinstate than a asphalt/bitmac rd.

I have their 3g uPVC passiv Windows and have had no issues with them after 4 years. It was actually doing a search for reviews of this type of window that lead me to find ebuild and I think it was @JSHarris that I first asked questions of about his. They are a massive outfit in Ireland and serve nearly all the big builders so a small self build job isn't high on their priority list. The main issues here would be through the fitting of their Windows. They don't hang about when doing them. All you can do is get a price and visit a showroom and then compare them with other companies and pick a winner. It might take quite a few phone calls to get that far but it might save you a fair bit of money. They have a network of sales reps so it's this guy you need to be on at constantly not the office staff.

I got all mine from a quarry outside Cookstown. I could walk to where they take the sand out of the Lough from my house. It's great for football pitches etc just never liked it when building.

Sounds like a very fair way of setting out what you as a seller want and by what date and then seeing who really wants to buy your house. Gd luck.

So how does a sealed bids auction work. Will @JSHarris get a load of big brown envelopes each containg an amount that the buyer is willing to go to and that's it . You then pick the winner presumably the highest bidder or do all the interested parties just get a second chance to bid.

Are you going to use white cement in a footing?? Bog standard Portland cement as long as it doesn't say Quinn on the bag. Don't forget you will need a mix or 2 to grout your floor up. Quarry sand is always better as it's dirty sand. If it comes from a Lough like loads of places here it's too clean and won't hold water and goes to fluff.

Look how much extra good detail you have already done and none of it is costing you mega bucks. There are none of the issues above high on any list. They are just small details that once you add them all up make a big difference. That's the big thing about doing a self build, you spend ages on the small things and read and read and make the right choice hopefully. If it's a mass built house then it's just choosing the kitchen and bathrooms you worry about. Never seen holes cut out of blockwork to hold hangers. You can get hangers that are built in, not a good idea, and standard hangers nailed on to a piece of timber but that's a new method. As @PeterW says can you post a link to how these work. If your window fitters are bang bang 10 hilti nails and half a can of expanding foam later then you need to be on the ball here.

But you don't need to spend a fortune to get a good quality build. It's all in the detail. Mine is most definitely not a high end deluxe build, it's just done right with lots of time and effort put in to get it that way. To get a house that barely passes building regs and comes in at a c rating won't require vast loads of money and time to get it to a B and even possibly an A with the addition of some pv. What score you get in the air tightness test will be a massive indicator of how your build has went. How are you sealing up the inside skin of blockwork?? At all the junctions, floor to wall, wall to ceiling, wall to Windows/doors how do you plan to sort these out?? Will your Windows have trickle vents and will your front door have a letter box?? Are you going to seal up every conduit in the house plus around all sockets and ceiling lights??? All that's above is what is the difference between a mass built house and what you hope to end up with. Not one care is given towards these. Dot and Dab plasterboard is used so you end up with a thermal tent. If you're lucky you get scrim cloth at the ceiling junction but as your house dries and and moves it cracks and then any heat escapes. You won't have anything at the window door junctions. All conduits and service pipes won't be properly sealed up. Not one of these issues will cost a fortune to remedy but each will have a massive impact on how you're house performs.

There is a difference though in the fully glued up beads being permeable to water and stopping water from the outside penetrating through the cavity till it gets to your inside skin. Being beads they will have tiny air gaps when they form the solid mass in your cavity. Any moisture that gets through will drip down from bead to bead through the air gaps till it either goes out through the bricks through evaporation or falls all the way down to the bottom of your cavity and makes its way out through your weep vents. Either way none should travel across the cavity. This is assuming that your wall ties are built in correctly which I have seen wrong on many occasions. @Ian examples where caused by poor workmanship where the brickies never put enough motar on the edge of the brick to form good perps. If the guys you have chosen to build your house can't do this then you need to tell them to pack up their tools and leave.

Would it not be much simpler to move the chimney inside the room so it sits out from the wall whatever depth you need it for your chosen stove. Then run out the flue through the wall as you have planned. This would leave the gable with a straight wall and save you a fortune in materials and labor.

It's there as Russell says to stop any moisture traveling through. It won't stop gases either as your b&b floor will have vents to get rid of any build up here. We call it tanking in NI and I done it on 2 sides of my build due to the differences in my ground levels. My house is cut into a 2m high bank on 2 sides. With the dpc folded up I could put in a slight gradient on my level access instead of a shorter ramp. Put it simply a 30m roll of either 450mm or 600mm dpc will cost less than £20 and will be of benefit to you to build it in.

I think your worrying about nothing. Unless your house can get hit by a tidal wave the volume of water that will fully penetrate bricks or rendered blocks is minute. As @PeterW says this type of cavity fill had been used on refurbs here for ages but only really took off for new builds on the last 10-15 years. That was primarily due to poor workmanship from brickies where large gaps would have got left in behind the cavity boards we use here. No site in 20 years that I have been on has used the Rockwool type batts that are used in the rest of the UK. The beads aren't loose like they used to be. Once blown in at high pressure and the glue sets they form a solid block that no moisture can penetrate. Any moisture will fall down against the bricks and evaporate out your weep vents. If your brickies can't get the motar to stick on the bricks to form good perps then you have got chancers with tools not brickies.

With regards to flow type screed make sure you do your research here as some need a lot of work afterwards to get tiles etc to stick to them. They do heat up quicker than sand cement but they will also cool down quicker as they aren't as thick. My sand cement screed is 75mm thick and takes around 90 mins before you can feel heat on your feet but it will stay warm for maybe 2 hrs after the stats have stopped calling for heat. Plus being sand cement there aren't any issues getting tile or wooden flooring to stick to it.