Russell griffiths

Thanks @PeterW more info, vcl on inside of inner insulation, taped to inner ICF wall. ceiling vaulted and completely flat so easy to wrap, 90mm service void on underside of ceiling. Ceiling timber clad. if I thought it was going to be a pain to install the vcl over the inner insulation I could put up a layer of 9mm osb and install vcl flat on that.

£24 e bay.

Morning all. Looking for opinions on a roof, ceiling build up i need to install some form of insulation to cover my roof joists to stop any cold bridge so there are two options really, on top or inside. option 1. Soft batt type insulation between the joists( depth to be confirmed) with a semi ridgid ROCKWOOL type board over the top laid at right angles to the joist with a counter batten on top of that. Option 2. soft batt type insulation between the joists (depth to be confirmed) with a ridgid insulation board on the underside of the joists at ceiling level, i would prefer option 2 as I am concerned about raising the roof line, whereas I have masses of headroom underneath does one offer any benifits fits over the other? Or is it a case of if the same insulation was used in both options the combined thickness would be the same wherever you put it. Cheers russ.

I believe they make a 160 version

Morning I’ve been using this tool to put the taper back on the ends of any cut drainage pipe, works a treat. Little bit costly but has been used in anger all week and paid for itself already.

No more complicated than this. My cutter has the hose attachment at the side, but I inadvertently turned the pressure up to high one day and blew a hole in the pipe. Waiting for a new one to turn up. v

The way I view it is if you do a narrow trench and put one on top of the other, what if you need to work on the lower one i would do a wider trench with separation between them.

OMG I must have a really nasty streak in me i was really hoping you where going to say it fell off the string. Sorry??

This also happens with fibre glass swimming pools, never empty one completely.

What about the drainage.

Having talked through your plot with you, and a couple of issues you have. Is there a possibility of running any of your services through their land.

I have exactly the same dilemma although you digger is bigger than mine. The answer is to dig down 300/400 mm beside the hole to create a hole for the digger to sit in nice level base track the digger into the lower shelf sit there to complete the lowest dig. I have seen the level piling matt you made, I don’t know why your worried ??? crack on son. PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS OF ENTERING A HOLE WITH OUT ADEQUATELY SUPPORTING THE SIDES.

Yep already suggested that one. It is standard practice in Australia build a big garage, fit a shower and toilet, fit some temporary partition walls live in garage finish house garage ends up as nice man cave with toilet.

For anybody living in or contemplating have a look on a you tube channel called. Pure living for life. Ignore his house building as it’s shocking, but have a look at where they are living they have added a timber porch to their van, in this porch is a wood burner, it’s a place to keep all the wellies, work clothes,dog and charge tool batteries, washing machine. It has transformed a tiny mobile home into a liveable functional space. We have done exactly the same with our current house, added a 3mx3m boot room it houses everything I mentioned above and actually makes the house practical, why do people dry washing in the front room, build cost for us was about £1000 including the wood burner and flue.

As Peter said and as I said previously get a pallet put it on the floor put block on top cut through block if you put your foot on it your a fool asking for trouble. you should not be making any dust it’s very bad for you. I hope you have the correct PPE eye protection, ear defenders. Common sense number 3 is normally lacking in the vast majority of people I meet. Pic to folow.

I would think in total we have probably cut around 80 blocks to fill in my floor. I couldn’t begin to think of doing this without a petrol disc cutter and a diamond disc if you get it all down, you can hire one and do all the cuts at once i have my own so just cut as needed

Getting back to crushing up a house I have recently just done a few rough sums for this and my conclusion was it wasn’t worth the effort my situation. If you look at my blog you will see I had an unexpected amount of concrete on site I didn’t know I had. So eight truck loads to remove from site. @ £140 per load cash. After all all this was gone I needed to make a Matt for the piling rig and also fill in under my floor 7 loads of crushed concrete bought in @ £140 plus vat per load, hire of skid mount crusher for 1 day £1200 plus vat plus fuel plus excavator to load crusher. Total about a couple of grand. Unless you have a lot to crush I would bite the bullet and get the big lumps removed and track all the bricks into the ground to make a nice hard standing to work on and park. In the end I paid to remove two loads from site of the biggest nastiest lumps, the rest has been buried in areas I know are going to end up as parking.

Block n beam layout. You can see the cuts if you enlarge it a bit. I would recommend this company if they have a depot near you. Seemed efficient, I changed things 3 times and it didn’t seem a problem awkward site for an artic,driver very good put them all exactly where I wanted them. And £ 800 cheaper than the next quote.

175mm high beams. Black bitumen paint serves no purpose apart from keeping me happy. Everything in the photo will end underground in the end so just trying to keep a bit of damp of the face. Mortar colour will be dictated by many things, we are in the Cotswolds so the sand is a bright yellow. Mix is 4:1 all flat blocks, easier to lay and exact width of my ICF wall.

Are they supplying a crane or are you. Many factors to affect it.

Block n beam layout is dictated by room length and span some rows will be 440 block length some will be 215 block width, if you have a soil pipe coming up through the floor you do not want it hitting a beam, so it needs to fall in a gap or block area. If you have two pipes in an area it may be unlikely that both will fall in the gaps (block area) so you may have a row of 440 then a row of 215 then a row of cuts. The pic shows all 440 blocks but a row of cuts on the end. Ignore blockwork buildup, my build is ICF so will look different to yours. Have you had a beam company do a drawing yet, it will show you very clearly where any cuts go. if not I would look into it as mine took 4 weeks to turn up.

Ok I’m a little scared. Please take this on board. Please please do not hire a 1 ton high tip dumper. They are BLOODY DANGEROUS hire a 3 tonne dumper they are very stable and you will have to be very silly to tip it over. The high tip 1 tonners fall over if you just look at them funny. Unless you have a very narrow site the 3 tonne one is easier to load as the bucket is bigger.

Why have you not got a hose pipe connected to it most of the modern ones have a hose connection we we have been cutting concrete blocks all week for the block n beam floor and the hose connector sheared off so we rigged up the hose to spray water directly onto the disc with a ball valve on the end of the hose so you can alter the pressure at that end in stead of having to go to the tap. Set up a pallet as your cutting station and you will be stood nicely up out of the slop, we pushed a piece of copper pipe into the end of the hose and gave it a clonk with a hammer to make a nice spray onto the disc. If you are having block n beam floor it will pay to get this set up nicely as you will have a fair few cuts.

A slightly different thought, do you have help to unload and stack the frame, don’t underestimate the size of this task look at j Harris picture, that’s a lot of timber to move around. As for storage i would either store flat or upright, but what ever method make sure you have blocking underneath to keep out of the puddles and ensure panels are flat, no waves or kinks i was always told to store trusses upright, with blocking under the ceiling ties to prevent damage to the ends, again no kinks or waves. Why can the frame manufacturers not hold on to it for another couple of weeks. Why not drive to the company and have a chat face to face, I find this works so much better than an e mail.

If when the house is finished you will have any paved areas around the house you will eventually have to put down a hard standing for this. So why not install it all now, it will provide a nicer working area. 15tonne of scalpings will probably stretch a long way around. Ive got two truckloads coming next week as I can’t stand working in the crud.