Conor

We're in same position. Went through various options, split level, build up on rising walls, partial basement, full basement. Turned out full basement worked out most cost effective. ICF is quick and cost effective for basements.

I had this discussion with my architect last week. We require a couple retaining walls in the region of 2.5m high. The engineers design for reinforced concrete look scary and expensive. However, the interlocking block option works out more expensive and much more time consuming at that scale. Same for gabions, as you end up with a wall just as thick as it is high.

Welcome Stevie. Where abouts are you? ASHP does seem to be the best option. But your focus should be on the overall air tightness and insulation of the building. That's the best way to ensure low running costs and environmental impact. The current building regs aren't the best and you should be aiming above. We're aiming for passive standards, i.e. wall u values of less than 0.15, triple glazed windows throughout, MVHR, solar PV and good airtightness. All of that means that the heating demand of our 290m² house will be so low, we will only need a small 5kw monoblock ASHP. FYI you won't have an open fire in the new house, but get a room sealed multi fueled stove somewhere in the house. You won't use it much, but worth having. When you're at the show, speak to Daly renewables re ASHP and Graeme from Green Energy Store re solar and off grid options. Unfortunately there are no grants of any type!

2.2 tonnes. Handler I'm hiring can lift 3tonne. Balance and getting forks under will be the challenge. But only has to move about 10m

So this is how it ended up ? The HIAB could basically only drop it off right to the side of the lorry. Couldn't get it in to position. I'll have to hire a telehandler to move it.

We're in the posh bit of town. No rats here ? squirrels on the other hand.... @Declan52 I've just torn down the roof of the old house and have some massive purlins I can chop up with the chainsaw.

That makes even more sense. I'll drop it round the back of the house on some blocks instead.

Good thinking. Its being delivered for free and the guy is doing an extra run in the afternoon so I'm not going to push my luck taking his time. I need to get a telehandler in again soon so I think I'll get one that's capable of lifting it so I can take my time! It's going to have furniture in the back and a workshop in the front so want it as level as possible.

Love everything about it. Best of luck, hopefully we can help with any questions you have along the project.

I've a feeling I'll get some funny looks from the driver when I get the spirit level out...

Have a 20ft container arriving tomorrow PM for site storage / workshop duties. I've an area cleared and compacted stones down... But it's far from even. I was thinking of setting down a few 40mm thick paving slabs on the low corners. Would these be up to the job of taking a container that will be full of general tools and materials? How accurate do I need to be with levels? Maybe 4 tonnes in total, not much more.

You'll find there will be a negligible price difference. We started out with a partial basement, but when I looked in to it in more detail, doing a full basement made so much more sense. Doing a partial basement makes the foundation and ground works for the ground floor so much harder. You'll end up the massive, deep foundations for the rest of the ground floor as you'll be working with disturbed ground and inevitable differential movement issues. We're doing a full basement, but will only have one habitable room as we don't have the money to fit it out. But the construction, foundations, tanking, insulation will be so much easier and faster. Yes, I'll have a few more loads of earth to get rid of, but worth it.

Not quite sure what you mean about the basement being underneath? The insulated slab is the foundation to the building. Basement level goes on top of the insulated slab, with tanking system continuing from under slab up along basement walls. Then you've your ground floor slabs (usually precast hollow core concrete), then first floor (of you have one). The only insulated floor is the basement floor slab, everything above is then within the thermal envelope. However, if your basement is just plant, storage or utility, then you might want to keep it uninsulated, and instead insulate the underside of your ground floor slabs.

Decision made. And I've just remembered I've a 20m or so length of armoured cable that I can use to make an extension out of that will be perfect for the job.

Thanks all. There's an earthing rod and RCD in the kiosk if that makes a difference? The idea of just having a single cable running and then a 4 way gang lead hanging in the container does make a lot of bloody good sense. It'll only be used for a few months, and I've enough jobs to be doing. I'm sure I can get some basic plug in LED lighting to do the job.

I've a shipping container arriving on site on Tuesday. It'll be mostly for storage but intend on using the front for tool storage and a mini workshop for when it's raining. Nothing too taxing, maybe a mitre saw and a few chargers plus LED lighting. Our temporary site supply has 2x 16a commando sockets, one for hooking up the site office and other for the shipping container and whatever 110v tools are used at the time. Unfortunately our DNO prohibits 13a sockets coming off the supply board. Can I wire up a basic fused 13a circuit and 5a lighting circuit and be connected using a 16a commando socket extended from the temp kiosk? The 16a sockets come out of an earthed board and 100a RCD. Do I need to earth within the cabin? Thanks. NB, the 13a socket in picture has to be removed before the DNO will connect us.

Thanks guys. It's a basement build... So we will be backfilling around the slab, so I'm thinking we can get the forms in place, put perimeter drain in place, then backfill with stone until we get to the top of the forms. Should hold them in place... May rethink my plan to use self compacting concrete tho!

I'm committed to using a passive raft, have prices coming higher than expected. Best quote is £6.5k supply only, and I've priced up using standard EPS 100 and 300 sheets and it comes in at around £4k. I've seen it mentioned on here before that people have done their own insulated rafts using standard EPS sheets and made their own edges. Has anybody done this and how do you make the raised edges of the raft to take the concrete pour? Need to figure out if the passive raft "L" pieces are worth the £2k premium.

Good to hear, we just sold our previous house earlier this month and should really get our claim in!

Dial before you dig. If you suspect a utility is in private land but not accurately on records, you'll need to contact the utility and get a wayleave agreed

Same view as above. Gas is about 5p per unit, putting it in the same range as a typical ASHP, but you can get a gas boiler for a few hundred quid. Personally, I'm now going for a ASHP. This is because of my low heating demand that means I can use a 5kw monobloc ashp that can be bought for lass than £2k, and I can install it myself. That makes is near enough that same cost of a gas install (current house gas boiler install cost £2300). And, if I operate the ASHP on night tariff, it becomes significantly cheaper to run than a gas boiler. Another big reason is I want to minimise the life time CO2 emissions from the house, gas is 100% fossil fuel based energy and an ASHP has the potential to be 100% renewable

Are your cavities insulated? If so I'd expect a u value closer to 0.3? I'd aim for an overall u value of 0.15 (as per passive House standard). any lower than this and you're getting deminishing returns.

He was saying this is the third time he's been to a unit in our block (20ish apartments) in recent years, all with the same problem.

All sorted. Was, as I suspected, a failed bypass valve. Plumber just cut and capped the bypass pipe as there is a rad in the hallway with no TRV that will act as the bypass.

We're in a similar situation, 300m² house (100m² of which is basement with only one room, but all needs to be ventilated). My neighbour designs and installs ventilation systems, and said to me I'd need two units. He says the performance figures and capacities of MVHRs are typically optimistic and while will pass building regs, won't perform that we'll in real life. Much better off with an oversized system running at 50% load most of the time, than a barely capable system running at 75% most of the time and struggles to meet boost demands. I can certainly understand his rational, but I can't justify another £2k so will be going for one unit!!!