Russdl

That's the kind of answer I was looking for 👍 What are the catches? I can't find any local supplier so I guess that's one.

I don't know much about this GEOCELL foam glass gravel stuff but the more I look into it the more I think it will suit me just fine for my future garage/workshop. It looks really straight forward. No trenches (but a deepish hole to dig). No EPS to cut. NO DPM it seems as well, and most of it I reckon I can do myself. I'm sure there are catches that I'm unaware of (like price maybe?) what am I missing? Is this GEOCELL foam glass gravel a good option for a garage/workshop foundation?

Most definitely!!

Now that is a significant difference! I had no idea. So @China21 could be absolutely fine/up shit creek looking for a paddle shop depending on which side of the border they reside.

If you are too high I would have thought the best solution is a retrospective planning application.

@China21 my understanding is the 2.5m highest point should be measured from the highest ground so, in your situation, where the rear right is the highest ground then the front elevation should be no more than 2.5m above that. As the ground falls away back to front your front elevation should be 2.5m plus the amount of fall from the back right corner. if your roof slopes front to back and your back elevation is 2.5m then I suspect you may be a little too high.

I’m considering EWI’ing a garage that doesn’t exist yet - following with interest.

You can’t have 101% 🤣

@puntloos are you sure? At the beginning she says somalong the lines of ‘no light gets inside’. I’ll invite @ToughButterCup back… @ToughButterCup can you review that video ⬆️ up there somewhere. I think she’s saying they let no light in. Is she? It’s in German, I think you can help.

That’ll learn me. The point I was making was they were very very effective. I don’t recall how often we cleaned them but don’t recall it being any more arduous than other cleaning chores... … on the proviso you have inwards opening windows of course otherwise I suspect it would border on the impossible.

@puntloos are you sure she’s saying ‘blocks 75% of the sunlight”? My German is a bit ragged these days (perhaps @ToughButterCup can help) but when I lived in Germany we had blinds similar to those and they blocked at least 200% of the sunlight, it was like walking into a cave when they were down. I hear the 75% bit she mentions, but before that she’s talking about keeping cool so perhaps she talking about the solar radiation?

They have to say something (whoever the CDM writer of words is) the reality is wholly different. I told MBC (our timber frame supplier) what I was proposing and they were more than happy that it met the requirements - the toilet obviously being the main one. As @ProDave says, a touring caravan ticks all the boxes but not everyone has the space for that.

I built another shed for that as well. That was well used and I only had to train one individual on what a bog brush was and how it worked and it was all good from there.

I built a shed using timber and windows from the previous demolition and a bit of shiplap. Kettle and a water container, even biscuits and a cool box for milk etc. proper nice it was, well I thought so. The timber frame contractors had a look, admired my handiwork and then retired to their white vans for their breaks, mostly with their own thermos flask (but the biscuits did go). The shed is still in use, but as a shed now. I think it would be well worth asking Potton exactly what they expect of you to fill their requirements and do the bare minimum to meet their demands.

This from the Harvey site May answer your question.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the soft water will slowly remove the scale from the tank so that may be what is happening, the soft water going to the tank is coming out harder because it is bring scale out with it when you run the tap. If that is the case you won’t get soft hot water until that process is complete. Found it from the Harvey website

Installed at a very slight fall. The rain drains down the gaps all around each tile, so drainage is good, having said that there is a minuscule lip to the tiles and that, along with surface tension, does cause a small pooling of water at the lower end of most of the tiles after it’s rained. The lack of grout was one of the reasons I went for the pedestal system as my experience of patios in the past is it’s the grout that fails first and starts looking cruddy/needs redoing.

Strong - but not indestructible. I would say ‘no’ and in all the blurb I’ve seen regarding the pedestal system, I’ve never seen one where they use a central pedestal as well as the corners. Ours are 1200x240x20 they are supported at the corners and mid point at the sides so that means there are two 600x240 bits that are unsupported. These long tiles we have do flex as the central supports are a nats knacker lower than the corner supports (I found it impossible to lay them without them see-sawing otherwise). The flex is almost imperceptible, it’s probably only me who is aware of it. When you stand on the middle of the tile it settles that ‘nats knacker’ on to the pedestal underneath. I have no fear of that unsupported 600mm section either side of the centre supports breaking. Well none of them have yet 🤞🏻

How about getting out of the car, is there room to do that? Driven in forward, will the drivers door open over the planter? Will the passenger have to step down to the steps or is there enough room to walk along the ramp to the pavement?

‘Ard as nails. >276 ppm (according to a postcode checker, I don’t know the exact figure)

Trying not to drift the thread too much, and I understand it will be difficult for you to do - if not too expensive/impossible but… We’re in the southwest-ish and moved half a mile from old house to new build, the water softener has been without a doubt one of the best decisions we made. The old place, scale everywhere, that shower spray stuff to clean the shower glass and all that guff. The new place, nothing, no scale, no sprays, 1 washing machine thingy instead of two etc etc. the salts not cheap but the pristine taps/glass and all that kinda stuff pay for it.

Now that’s interesting. Looks clever, I wonder what the boffins here think of it?

Sorry, the above info is duff. That price was for the larger format 20mm thick exterior tiles. The 10mm thick interior tiles would have been less but I can't find the invoice.

The tiles are called 'Myspace Cinnamon', they cost circa £50/m2 including VAT after discount, way back in 2021 when the world was only mildly mad. They are very hard wearing, our steel staircase was dropped and dragged a short way across the lightly protected tiles on its way to being installed. With trepidation I removed the protective cardboard to see a big black mark on one of the tiles which transpired to be powder coat abraded from the staircase, once cleaned off the tile was pristine.

In a word ‘no’ but I’ll try and dig out the information for you later.