Conor

Our builder used Amvic. It seemed fine and we only had one partial spill during the pour when one tie failed. Tbh the people putting it together is more important than the system. After looking at several and visiting some builds, they are basically all the same.

Apprenticeships are the way to go. We started doing them in our company (civil engineering) and had great success. Both of the last apprentices are now full time.employooes. I'm sure one of the big commercial or residential building companies will do something similar, with the rain to get people trained up as foremen etc. It'll also give him a better idea of what he wants to do... "Builder" isn't really. Single job! Site supervision? Project management? Safety? Plant operator?

Cover it all in lean mix concrete. Nothing fancy required. Only really for driveways and roads, not needed for other areas unless very shallow.

It's a significant job, I think you'd be talking about £50k in total by the time it's all done.

I can guarantee you that the bungalow will have minimal foundations. Ours of the same era had about 100mm strip of lime mortar directly on top of the clay, about 40pmm below ground level. Dust would be the biggest concern and make sure your demo crew have a method statement to account for it. Rain helps ?

On reality you'd rod from the inspection chamber outside right up to the top of the stack. BC guy was dismissive of rodding points inside as they are rarely accessible or effective. Hence placing of a rodding point outside and use of easy sweep bends

Yes, on the toilet pan connection and the 90,° bend. Nothing on the branches. BC happy.

Use 100mmx140mm soap bars to lay a half height course.

Wouldn't everything in the ES run to the stack at the toilet, them drop to the ground floor WC and them out through the wall below ground level? Inspection chamber at that point. It's VERY similar to our layout and that's exactly what we're doing. We've a 150mm service void under the first floor and all branches from shower and sink will run to the stack from the toilet. A couple 45° bends required in the stack to get the alignment right, but will be hidden in a void behind the kitchen units.

Hiring skips is probably the most expensive way to get rid of waste. Better off sorting the risings, taking the timber to your local recycling centre in a car and trailer, metal to a scrap merchant, and either spread the rubble out on the site (compact for driveways etc) or get a grab lorry to take it away. If you're room on site, just pile it all up and deal with it not by bit if you have time

Cheers. Glad to see I'm not the only with a weird and complex PV panel installation!

We used 80mm square post and welded heavy straps to it. Single storey.

I may come round for a nosey @dpmiller but I think your scaffolding is all down?

Any reason why I cant use a ~400mm wide strip of ply at the bottom instead of the three battens? The bottom of the trays basically abut our flat roof and I'm getting the roofer to extend his flashing up 300mm, the trays will then overlap, and there will be about 100mm from bottom of the tray to the valley. Rough mock up below, nb piece of ply is only 250mm or so. The trays extend beyond the entire length of the flat roof valley.

It's not just about "payback", it's about day to day comfort (not having big swings in temperature, needing the heating less), and well, shoving less CO2 it to our already screwed climate!

We've had a few round. Nobody has actually been interested enough to price. The Sto guy was saying their prices start around £100m2. Have another Sto guy calling round tomorrow... Apparently he could be closer to £70m2... But I'm not holding my breath. Not yet got prices from any of the other "cheaper" systems. This is Northern Ireland btw, supposedly one of the cheapest regions....

Just use one of these. https://www.bes.co.uk/25-mm-x-21-mm-27-mm-straight-universal-transition-fittings-polyfast-13545/ That's how I connected to my lead pipe. Just note you'll need a good length of pipe available in order to get it on. Going by the photo, Im not sure you have enough. May need to chip away.

I think this is EXACTLY what we need: https://www.turboslug.com/selfbuild/modernist-self-build-insulated-render/ Just need to figure out how to build out the render board and leave a vent gap up to the underside of the deck.... ideas welcomed!!

We have our thermohouse panels installed for the flat roof: Here is their basic detail for a typical flat roof, but doesn't show how the void is ventilated: I spoke to them and they recommend soffit ventilation to stop the batons/firring strips from rotting. We want a minimal detail with render right up to the 90mm drip flashing, so I'm not sure how to achieve this... if it's even needed?

What do you call two robbers? . . . . . . A pair of knickers ?

Yes. You can have air admittance valves on all other stacks but you need one main vented stack. We're having ours go up through the roof from the main bathroom.

No. It was a technical breach of right to light, but was too marginal as a basis for addressing so she recommended it for approval.

That's the wording ours was. There were minor issues but the planner justified her decision in her report to the senior planner. I basically think it's the stage between the planner submitting the report to the senior planner / panel formalising the recommendation.

I wouldn't accept that. Btw you're brick work is stunning. Almost looks too good...

We have our waste pipes coming up through the slab. Most are well above the slab and will connect to black pipes above the FFL. There are one or two that finish just above the slab, and was planning on just using black pipe for these as I have all the fittings. Is the insulation/screed zone considered underground and do I have to use underground pipe? Would hate to use the black stuff only for BC guy to tell me to lift it...