Russell griffiths

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.

Whack it on, move arm through a normal set of manoeuvres, check oil level, check for leaks. Jobs a goodun. No more complicated than that.

Why would square take up less room 100x100 square?

Sorry sounds like a terrible idea my personal opinion of course you do what you want it’s your house. Problems I can see damp hard to insulate cost now what about a wine cellar.

Can you lift them vertically and install on a concrete pad stone, hidden in your insulation and floor makeup.

Just looking for some very rough answers trying to make sure I have enough room on the roof for some panels 3 bed house 206 square m ground source heat pump most normal things in the house nothing special what sort of amount of room will the panels take up i know i haven’t given a lot of information but I’m just after a rough idea. Thanks russ.

Instead of looking for a SE that understands what you want to do. Why not ask an insulated slab supplier to recomend one. I am building in ICF and am using the SE recommended by the block company, he also specialises in passive slabs. But he’s over a month away from doing mine, and I booked him in 6 weeks ago.

Where’s that patent lawyer.

As far as I understand if he is worried about slipping, you can include a trench in the center that acts like a key way why use concrete to level? Can you not use crushed stone compacted and eps on top.

The problem with finding another will be the time delay unless you have already got one in mind mine is booked for a month in advance at the moment it could be easier to do it how he wants and you can get your concrete in next week mine has just suggested something I didn’t like and I was going to argue my point, but in the end it seemed like I could spend half a day arguing or a couple of hours work and do it how he wanted and move on to the next stage.

Thanks all for replies as I said this has been going on for the last 2 years. The water co are not really interested as they have been out at least a dozen times She has used up all the freebies insurance company are not interested as they have paid twice already to fix it. The wheels are in motion to get it replaced i was mainly concerned regarding the dirty water coming out of the ground. If we had children I would have gone and told her immediately and shut off her supply being its me and the wife I can live with it a bit for the next couple of weeks it may have actually done us a favour as we are insisting it is replaced in its entirety and removed from our property we have even offered to pay half. Bloody hell im a nice bloke.

At the moment @JSHarris with the pressure low the evil black water has stopped coming out of the ground i believe if I turn it back up it will probably start again. With this pumping out of the ground I have to walk through it to get to my garage, I also have to drive through it and we are worried about the dog walking it in. At the moment with the pressure turned down, the meter spins rapidly making me think a good squirt is coming out, preventing any nasties getting in. When I have previously (5 times) repaired this pipe it has always been a very small split. I intend going to see her tonight with a firm warning NOT to drink the water or shower I will suggest she contacts Thames water in the first instance to get an emergency over land supply put in. New water main WILL be installed in the next month or two, not through my land. Watch this space.

Thanks for all the replies i have turned the pressure down to slow the leak, but not off as @JSHarris pointed out. Very good point. This is an ongoing dispute we have with the very elderly and very unwell neighbour please tell me im wrong, I was under the impression that any pipework on the house side of the meter is the responsibility of the home owner. We have had the water authority out on so many occasions we are on first name terms. They have always said it is the neighbours responsibility as it is on her side of the meter. Just before last Christmas it burst again, she said she had no money to fix it, so Thames water had to put her an emergency overground supply in that ran across our front garden for six weeks. This has been going on for over two years and has burst 6 times. I may continue this this if I think I could do with some legal input. We have already spoken to a solicitor i am currently taking a softly softly approach and hoping she dies very soon. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but she is the nastiest old lady I have ever met.

Good morning, @JSHarris I think you may be the man for this we have an ongoing (2years ) problem with a neighbour at our current house it turns out their water main runs under our garden and is prone to springing a leak last night I discovered it had burst again, but this time it seems more serious the burst looks like it must be under an area where both our leech fields for the septic tanks are we have an evil smelling black dirty water rising out of the ground. I am considering turning off her water supply today, but this could have some implications and lead to a bit of a legal battle. QUESTION. what type of nasty things can I expect to find in this water what precautions should we take what can I do to clean the area. Many thanks, russ.

There is no logic it is just the way you word it At the end of the day you are probably talking about £60 so don’t sweat it and be thankful you can claim any of it.

We had this situation last week and as my wife is an accountant she asked the senior VAT consultants in the office to clarify the situation. If the invoice is for the supply of concrete and the hire of a pump with an operator then the whole amount is VATable and you can reclaim the VAT on the material aspect (but not the pump hire). Although the pump hire with an operator seems like a sub-contractor, it is not considered to be so as the operator is not really doing a task as such, they are more a means of delivering the material i.e. the driver of the pump. If the pump operator poured the concrete, levelled it, smoothed it and troweled it to a finish, it would then be zero rated as they would be supplying a service but it would need to state this quite clearly on the invoice.

As peter said I would have installed it higher to take the load and then some sort of non load bearing stud work to make the curved shape. Picture.

I was going to say they look shit but I could hear the jokes coming,, i will go out on a limb here and risk major embarrassment by saying that I sit down for a wee a lot of the time. Why you ask, are you weird answer. It saves splashing (happy wife) I can check my phone while sitting for a minute.

Sorry mate but they look crap.