Conor

I poured a 100mm concrete base for a temporary electric kiosk on Sunday afternoon. Even tho I covered it well to keep it protected from the cold ... Still not hard to the touch! Temp has been hovering around 5c here. Warming up now tho.

Similar to what I'm planning, flush filter units mounted in a drop ceiling bulkhead, ducting to external wall and an external mounted fan unit for silent operation. Insulated damper to maintain air tightness when not in use. Plan to have the ceiling surfaces within the bulkhead above the island made from MDF painted in wipeable kitchen paint... For those once a year cleans!

You can get window frame sealant, harder than silicone and doesn't fade in sunlight. And can get it colour matched to your frame colour if it's a standard RAL.

Yes. You just build up against with mortar in between the ICF and brick. I'd add in wavy wall ties now and again - you can get ones that are a screw or point on one end that you can attach to the webs in the ICF.

Just as above. If feeling fancy, you can use Chrome plated copper...

I'm intending on using a self adhesive bitimous tanking membrane for the ICF walls and raft foundation in my partial basement build. Applied by myself. As far as I know, I'll need a 10 year guarantee in order to be able to get a mortgage. Problem is the structural warranty I'm getting won't cover the basement tanking. I can't seem to find any policy I can buy online that would cover this. What options do I have? I suspect getting a specialist tanking contractor in is going to be well beyond my budget. And only two of the walls are "below ground" anyway.

I take it you don't need a mortgage on the build? I've been told I'll need a warranty on the basement tanking when I apply for a residential mortgage when the build is completed. The structural warranty I'm getting for the build won't cover the tanking system....

Literally cheaper than 10 screws from B&Q.

Our main kitchen and living area is basically the same size (but 5m wide at kitchen end) Would like it a little wider but we can make it work. The key is management of foot traffic in the space... We've positioned doors so there is no through traffic at the far end where sofa, TV etc will be. That dining space will be one of the most trafficked areas in the house... They'll most likely have to have a small dining table that's pushed in against the wall 90% of the time. I'd be tempted to put kitchen in the middle, and dining where kitchen was. But all depends on how they using dining space.... I find most people don't use big dining areas anyway.

Usually a 10mm hex key. They are not designed for frequent operation... I wouldn't go near it, because if it goes wrong, you're in a world of hurt. If it were me, I'd dig down near the connection, and install a Toby box. Squeeze the pipe off, cut and connect.

Best using the appropriate BS approved equipment for the job. On the chainsaw, there should be a noise warning and will state the appropriate class of ear defenders required. I recommend the combined hard hat / face screen / ear defenders jobs. Cheap enough from the likes of screw fix and the best for the job. Goggles / glasses aren't enough. You'll soon realise that when you have a 2" splinter or knot smash into the screen at full speed...

Thanks everybody. We will be applying for a rates revaluation in December, we'll enquire with the LA about the residential address status after that happens.

Extending the 30mph zone will be the responsibility of the high ways agency or local council. Good luck with that. 90% of the time, making a visibly splay is just clearing shrub, fences, etc and can be done in a day at the cost of a man and a digger. Will be up to both parties to maintain it so nothing grows over 250mm (or whatever the requirement is) in height. If you are in an SSSI, AONB, conservation area etc, altering the road side environment may be more difficult that you expect. Our planning permission states that we CANNOT remove the roadside hedge at the front of our site, preventing us from improving visibility from the existing entrance.

Holy crap. That's terrible design. They should have stuck a boundary box on to the initial connection tail. And the piggery comes of this same connection? Where does the ownership change from UU to you? Usually, it's at the aforementioned boundary box... Who's responsible for a leak on that connection?

Don't assume that you will be able to achieve the splays. E.g. there could be something physical that you can't change or remove, e.g. a utility kiosk (unlikely). Or the splay area may extend into another plot of land, and do not assume that the land owner will be coorperative. Lastly there may be ecological reasons why you can't make the splay, protected species etc etc. These things are always more complicated than you think. And is planning permission dependent on the 30mph zone being extended or did I misread that?

I was also surprised at the rate of oil consumption on my chainsaw. You should be able to adjust the flow rate to get a sweet spot. Mine came with oil set on max flow, which meant I went through 500ml of oil in a couple weekends. Touch the chain now and again, you should have a mark of oil on your fingers, but shouldn't be wet or excessive.

We've sold our current house and are moving in to a rental in January for 12months during the build. It's a PITA contacting banks, employers, DVLA etc about changing address... And I don't want to have to do it twice. Can I have our "site" as our primary address (it's an existing house with postal address (post box on the gate) during the build or could we fall foul of the VAT man when we do our VAT reclaim? I've read here about people being caught out moving in before works competed etc. Wondering if this is a risk of we have all our correspondence going here?

We used hardiboard (cement fibre board) on top of the old floor boards before tiling. Saves having to prime / seal timber floor. They just screw down.

We were in opposite position... Bought to renovate, worked out cheaper to build a new house, due to the poor condition of the exsting house (we'd basically have to take the house back to 4 bare walls). We did a renovation and extension of a 1970s semi. Top tip from me, get everything 100% finished before moving in!!

Thanks guys. They are on the thin side, so I'll stack them on their sides. Another little job for the list...

Done. Good luck.

I'm about to start removing the many, many natural (Bangor blue) slates off the old house. Plan is to stack them on pallets, then use a telehandler to lift them down and store in a far off corner of the site before roofing 6 months later. Do they have to be stacked vertically, or can they just be stacked on top of each other, flat?

We got a QS to do one, then updated it with some of the actual quotes we were able to get before the application went in. Got architect to sign it off. I think there's a standard methodology / template that QS use.

That's the advantage of a self compacting concrete mix... No compaction or vibration required. Watch some of the videos, looks like lumpy water lol

Read an article about self compacting/consolidating concrete (for my raft foundation) and it had a section on worktops. Said it was ideally suited due to it fully filling a form easily and not leaving bug holes. Also claimed that if smooth enough form was used, no polishing was needed. https://www.concretenetwork.com/self-consolidating-concrete/ Obviously you'd have to come up with your own mix... Which might be a challenge!