Russell griffiths

Sorry mate but they look crap.

So while I am below floor level I could bang in a 1m spike and join another to it and carry on banging until the second one is at outside ground level ready for a nice cover and connection later. What you think. This would put 2m in the ground but I will only have to bang it 1.5 if that makes sense

Looking at an American video, as the foundation reinforcement was being placed the electrician installed an earth wire joined on to the reo cage to provide a good earth. We are just at that stage and I wondered if it would be worth taking my earth into the footing and onto the reo, instead of an earth spike located under the CU. @JSHarris @ProDave if the the answer is yes what diameter earth wire would you put in. Cheers russ.

Thinking of doing a blog. Anybody interested ? does anybody read them ?

I think you are spot on we think the top slab was just over kill and someone with a mate who could get cheap concrete but the footings underneath we think may have had some sort of plant machinery sat on top. Maybe a conveyor belt or something similar.

Oh how I laughed after removing the estimated extra 60 tonne of concrete, we skimmed off the surface to find .........? yep more concrete. A row of three strip foundations, not very thick as foundations go 600mm deep 600wide and about 40m in length im afraid the little digger refused to play with this so I had to hire in a bit bigger machine. I had machine envy after this, so smooth loads of power and the reach is incredible.

So having a wooden cabin on our site I had Presumed it would be sitting on probably 100mm thick concrete slab wrong. So 350mm thick seems to be the requirement around here to put a glorified shed on. I have been in the heavy side of the landscaping industry for 30 years and I should have known to expect the unexpected. for anybody out there embarking on a new project be aware of things like this if I had been doing this for a client I have estimated it would have been an extra £4000 to remove it all.

E bay starting bid 99p

If a roll of dpc costs a fiver then why not chuck it in.

In my opinion it would depend on your outer finish, your ground level and a couple of other things if you have a dc on the ground and water can bounce on the floor and jump up above your floor dc then that is what you need to stop if ground level is below slab level so any bounce will not breech the dc then no you need to look at your construction method and make a decision based on that.

Here’s mine

What’s up chap ? looks good making good progress.

G,day looking for a damp proof membrane in liquid form to be either brush applied or spray for the junction of my icf blocks and my footing the icf company recomend a peel and stick membrane but I think a liquid will get in the nooks and crannies better. Needs to be compatible with icf blocks so not solvent based. Thanks russ.

What has its name got to do with anything what I was getting at is this is the AAV restricting air admittance, does it need to be there at all does the system work better with no valve in place ? If it does then how about controlling smells coming up instead of preventing smells entering the area the AAV is situated.

Ok thinking outside the box as usual if you went with @jack idea and had another trap in the vertical pipe then........... why do you need a durgo, what you need is air admittance not smell restricting you could have an open vent as the trap below is stopping smells coming back up. Have you tried this with the durgo removed. Helmet on waiting to recieve incoming flack.

I had 3 quotes for the insulation for a raft and isoquick where the dearest. Lots of others out there.

I would love to use box profile, however at the moment I don’t think it would look right the house (hopefully) will be very angular and sharp and I think the box profile just won’t look right. I will I’ll however buy a couple of sheets when we get to that stage and chuck them up and have a look. Price wise I hope I can use box profile.

There are a lot of other things you need to consider Damp, you will need to protect the upper floor from anything rising up. Cold. The timber floor offers a modicum of cold protection from the concrete below, if you chuck another slab on top you will transfer everything from the lower slab to the upper. It would be just a token gesture but you could put 25mm of insulation on top of a damp proof membrane and then a thinner screed with a light weight mesh to give it a bit of strength.

I had thought of this, has anybody done any cost comparison compared with a roll type insulation.

You need to just start networking my story this month. Had a chat with a lad doing some gardening next door to me as my garden is suffering since I started our build he said he does a bit of fencing and landscaping so I had him for a day to sit on the dumper 3 weeks later he has agreed to work with me for 3 days a week for the next year has stayed at our place and looked after the dog when we went away ex army, tidy as can be, willing to do anything, never needs telling just gets on with it. If I hadn’t had a chat with the lad doing the gardening I wouldn’t have never found him put yourself about a bit, get to know the local odd job guy.

Yes 99% of the house will be done by me. @Alexphd1 when you say double sarked you mean Scottish terms so sarked as in solid boarding if we need a solid board under the sheets for rigidity and fixing, could the lower board be replaced with just a membrane. Double 18 mm osb is a lot of weight and money. Your joist depth is not that high, what form of insulation did you use.

@Russdl have a look at stratco highland tray. Australian company, we had all our roofing off them for a house we built in oz. lots of American companies doing standing seam no links at the mo just having a search around.

Sketch please we have looked at the tata(catnic) steel standing seam but are also looking at importing a product from either the states or Australia.

I have seen this type of membrane, did you like it ? did it seem to do what it said it would. @Mr Punter

The specifications for the sheet roofing is that it must be fitted to a flat solid surface, minimum 18mm thick for fixing purchases, no battens as you would distort the sheets being completly flat with just the standing seam used as a joint, without a full flat fixing surface I think you would notice every ripple and wobble as it dipped and humped over the battens.