Russell griffiths

Thanks @HerbJ very helpful, quick question. Your slab is quite complex with lots of thickening beams throughout. Looking back could you see a benefit of having a thicker slab all over rather than all the associated work in forming the thickening beams. My last house had beams incorporated into the slab on top of piles but that was due to sloping ground, I’m thinking know all the effort in creating these beams you could just cast a thicker slab all over, more concrete yes but less labour.

Evening, I know many on here have used an insulated slab, I tried not to call it a passive slab as even though it may be insulated the house you put on top does not necessarily have to be to a passive standard. So question, how thick was the vertical element to the insulation, not how much you have under the slab, the bit that stands vertically and held the concrete in place, I don’t want to pay for two much insulation if it is not needed, looking at various companies and they all have different specs. Cheers.

Hi @Pete I’ve booked myself on the catnic course on the 23rd of this month, so I may find some answers out but I will try you first. Looks really good by the way. Is the hidden gutter a standard made thing or did you have it folded just for your project ? what sort of fall did you put on the gutter, it looks quite shallow. Any pics of the outlet to the gutter. What was the average length of sheet you used, they look like good lengths. How many metres did you get done, in what time period ? Did you do this with just the misses or did you have any other help ? Would you do it yourself again ? how much dosh do you think you saved doing it yourself ? Bloody hell dont don’t I ask a lot of questions, if you have time any answers would be most appreciated. Cheers russ.

I have also lived in oz with a steel roof and they are noisy, I think the difference will be you will probably be looking at having a roof build up with a thickness of at least 300mm maybe more, whereas I bet your roof in NZ was 100mm max with probably 25mm of insulation if you are lucky. Im having a steel roof with a vaulted ceiling and noise has not even crossed my mind.

Our tray for the air con unit was hung from the rafters on 4 pieces of threaded rod so very easy to adjust to give a little fall to the outlet.

When I fitted air con in my last place the unit in the loft had a folded galv tray under the unit with a drain pipe that went to the outside, any condensation or water drips would exit out the pipe very effectively. So maybe we should start thinking about these under any wet equipment.

Has this duct got the finish paving on top yet ? if not dig it back up and lay 2 new ducts it’s only 20m so materials will not come to a lot and you could get it dug out and back filled in a morning with a small excavator. 2 new ducts no water leakage. If you brought a 100m coil you could run 3 just as a spare.

Hi whereabouts are you.

I was looking at the height of your cladding off the ground level, regarding roof overhang, your bottom row of cladding is below Dpc level and in the splash up zone so it will catch a lot of weather all of the time, where as this could be acceptable if you had a large roof overhang, you do not so that lowest row will be exposed to a fair bit of bad bounce up and could wet your lowest batten as well. Just a thought, I wondered if sometimes we are putting design before good standard building practices.

I prefer this type of finish, as previously mentioned I would hate to run plasterboard to the floor and get it damaged by kids toys, hoover. What about it getting damaged by say water from a steam mop or something similar.

I agree the program is a crock of s##t but after looking at the price of plywood in the merchants I wonder if prices are altered to suit house prices and wages. I know around my way they seem to have a price in the shops that gets adjusted for the horsey set and second home owners. 5 logs in a bag for £6.50 a small joint of pork in the butchers was £33 two days before Christmas.

I was thinking say. 3 whole packs of osb and 2 pallets of plasterboard. or what if you made it up to a whole truck load, could it be worth it if spending £5000 or more.

All the ones I personally like still have a skirting board, but it is fitted flush with a gap above. I couldn’t imagine a wall without a “ bash zone “ for the crazy wife and the hoover.

Has anybody noticed building materials being cheaper up north. I watched over Christmas HOMES UNDER THE HAMMER. and couldn’t believe some of the work carried out for tiny budgets, the one I watched had quite a nice loft converted and I couldn’t believe the small amount of money they said it had taken. Granted wages for tradesmen will be cheaper but are there any deals to be had from merchants.

How about that, just enough to give most plasterers a panic attack.

Has anybody here used the square edge board and had good results? I taped and jointed my last house and a BUTT joint where there is no taper were the work of the devil, they required lots of effort to get right and I think your battening will need to be cock on to not show any imperfections. Haven’t I read somebody here using it recently. ?

Looking at your new drawing is your bottom row of cladding a bit low ? i would think it would suffer a lot from continually being wet/dry wet/dry, as I believe your design has very little roof overhang.

Do you risk water entering the vents in the case of some local flooding, if at ground level ? Should they not be a course higher ?

you Don’t have to skim them you treat it the same as if you had taped and jointed. You would be taping and jointing the fermacel wouldn’t you ? You treat it very much like the corner beads with a 3 coat finish and sand.

Lots of companies doing different types, have a look on Pinterest.

In our last place we put traps in the loft with our initials on them and me and the wife had bets on who would catch one, £1 a mouse makes life a bit more interesting.

@RichS hi can you give me some more details of the kore system, who did you buy it of ? Who did the design, engineering? If I go down the route of a passive slab (depending on ground survey) i will want to do it all myself so looking for a good contact on all the bits and pieces. Cheers.

Who is pouring the slab ? really it should be down to them as it’s their name on it. Can i I ask who’s slab system have you used and who installed it, I’m just starting to look at various types.

Well if you have used their battens and plastic fixings what are they claiming you have done wrong.

Would the battens be altering the appearance by trapping moisture against the back of the claddin ? Where as the spaces with no batten touching would be free to breath and dry.