Conor

It's a pretty simple and quick job to divert a small diameter pipe. As in you can do all the works before anybody notices. 7am on a Saturday morning for a 30min shutoff would be perfect... What size is it? And no, there's no way your solicitor would have found that in a search.

I've been told that of you ask (non trade), a 30% discount is likely. A friend of a friend got their order zero vat rated and then a 20% discount without even asking... My quote with them is sitting at £7.5k so I will be asking!!!

Hardi backer board. Pretty much standard way to tile on to wooden structures. I'm not sure of I'd have it as the only material on your stud walls.. you also have to bear in mind building regs re fire and sound. I'm sure somebody will come along and clarify.

Good luck. We've been browsing kitchens, windows, doors etc . All seem to have 8 week + lead in times.

That's over £140 a metre. That's excessive. That's the kind of money you'd pay for a large diameter public sewer. I'd be looking for a new contractor. But devil is in the detail... Is there difficult or specialist reinstatement? What depth does the main and manhood need to be? Does this include connection charge to the public sewer? Is it pvc pipe or two wall polythene?

Go back to the assessor and see what happens when you upgrade insulation to about 0.15 and put in triple glazing. This is kinda what we should all be doing as a min starting point before thinking about heat sources and power generation.

Two-stroke leaf blowers must be one of the most anti-social contraptions ever devised. First thing I'll ban when I'm king of the world.

Doesn't really work like that - there's a very long thread with lots of formulae and arguments about this subject. The wall should be considered as a single thermal element, where the concrete is in the profile, doesn't really matter. It's an order of magnitude cheaper to put a 40mm sheet of PIR on the inside vs a 100mm sheet of EWI grade EPS on the outside.

We're just sticking on 40mm of PIR on the insides of the walls (then plasterboard screwed through to the webs) to get the standard Amvic blocks down to 0.15. considerably cheaper than a larger block.

What's the normal method of bring water, electric and tele in through a tanked basement wall? I was thinking of sticking in 3x 50mm conduits through the ICF at about 300mm apart and tanking around them. How would I then airtight/tank them after the cables and pipes go in? Expanding foam and tanking tape? Same approach I assume for the waste pipes? Stick in a section of 110mm PVC pipe at the appropriate depth? Thanks

I'm also doing a great job of getting in my builders way 😅

@ZacP what's your procurement strategy? Are you going to buy the Icf and assemble yourself along with some assistance? Bear in mind structural warranty erc. That was my plan but in the end I went with a contractor to supply and fit... Came in at £51k, a fair bit more than my DIY estimate of £40k... But I'm saving £3k on not needing a warranty and it'll be done 10x faster lol. And contractor takes all the risk. I recommend you price up a contractor to supply and fit the ICF along with all structural elements.

Have you priced AMVIC? They came out cheapest - about 50% cheaper than NUDURA for reference once you factored in all the "extras". FYI we're in th emiddle of our basement assembly: Looking like 2 weeks from delivery of forms to concrete pour. Once you factor in the setting out of tracks etc (1 day alone), a full week for assembling blocks and doing rebar, and other 2-3 days bracing and setting up props and checks before the pour. That assumes you've no complicated or large openings. Builder started forms on our simple 100m2 basement on Monday, will be finished tomorrow lunch time, bracing the four openings in the afternoon and into next week assuming props arrive on Monday, with pour hopefully on Wednesday. Extra insulation will go on with the tanking the week after.

I just got the main contractor to do in the end. Much simpler and cheaper as he provides the guarantee.

I think you can do better. I was getting quotes around that or less, for a house three times a big.