Russell griffiths

Ok news update. It's a funny old world isn't it. So yesterday I turned up to a job that was a new build, very modern timber frame, timber cladding. I got talking to the owner and at break time told him my troubles and showed him our plans, he loved it. After work i bumped into a good neighbour who asked how things where going, I told him and showed him the plans. He loved it. so it must be I'm just an idiot. Meeting the the first guy did show me that we have designed it a bit to large as every one of our rooms was a good metre bigger than his in both directions, so going to try and squeeze it up a bit as I know the planners are going to have a fit when we send it in. And every metre is going to cost more dosh so it's going on a diet. Cheers russ.

Definitely mortar both sides,

Our wooden reveals where pre fixed to the windows but I didn't mention that as I thought it might confuse the issue.

Just interested in people's opinions has anybody got all there plans ready for planning, and then completely changed their mind on design? we have spent 6 months getting everything ready and I'm now unsure if the house we have designed will fit in with the surroundings. If I ditch it and start again it will cost me aprox £5000 to start again but if I push on and build it I may have a very expensive show piece that I don't like. Anybody else had the jitters this late on?

This is how ours where done in oz. timber inside reveals was a finger jointed pine, with the architrave of your choice. I actually liked it compared to the standard plastered reveal. It had another benefit if fitting blinds it provided easy fixing points.

I wouldn't use an aircrete type block if rendering, they suck the moisture like crazy and can be a pig to work with. Ok inside as plaster takes to them so much better.

Has anybody used an acid etch. It's used in Australia to scratch up the surface of new polished floor slabs before tiling. Works a treat.

This was going to be a question I was going to ask, 1, where is the water coming from? 2, how are you going to keep it in the hole? 3, as far as I see it if you dig below the water table it will fill up on its own, but it will go up and down as the water table does. Your water will disappear two ways. One evaporation, two it will run out the bottom and sides of the hole. So you really need to do a bit of testing. Dig a few test holes and see what the ground is like. We are on gravel with a very high water table, as you can see from my pics we have more trouble trying to keep the water out than keeping it in.

Is this for an on ground floor or suspended. If on ground as in on top of a concrete floor then can you not hand form it in screed. I have done this a number of times and it is the norm in a lot of other countries,

If going for crushed concrete you need to be quite specific as to what its content is. I have just had a load tipped and 90% was crushed brick after a rough level with the digger and a bit of rain it has turned into red coloured porridge. I stopped the other trucks coming and looked for a different supplier. It was £10 ton which is fairly reasonable but no good if it turns to custard after a drop of rain.

Fill it with fish and you won't have a newt problem anymore. Yummy. Be prepared to get muddy it's a bit of a dirty job

Do it don't tell anybody. We have 3 lakes and a number of large ponds, every time we look into getting consent for something it ends up costing us a fortune. Tell nobody don't upset anybody doing it and get it done. The one in the pic is about a third of an acre, took a week with a 14 ton machine. No spoil left the site cost £1400 to dig and about £200 to plant it and re,seed around it with a wildflower mix. But then again don't listen to a word i say I'm just a bit dodgy. ?

What is going on in the picture with the patio door in that looks like a dip of around 20mm is your slab that far out of level or is it the camera angle. The rest of it looks horrific. With regards putting a straight edge on it and measuring under it this is only any good if the slab is level in the first place, adhesive is not designed to compensate for an unlevel floor slab.

Right I'm no expert but I have built a house that had pvc edge beads and was painted afterwards. We used a scotch bright pad and normal sandpaper to rough up the beads before we rendered, we did not have any problems with an acrylic exterior paint sticking to it, apart from if it took a big hit from something. As as for the silicon I think you will need to get a stanly knife out and do a lot of rubbing with your finger. It does come of pvc very easily just going to take a while. How big are the gaps between the beads? Is this where the silicone has popped out? Like the look of the bricked up window? Its too late now for you but for for anybody else reference you can get a special spray adhesive just for pvc trims.

Sitting here talking to the father in law (retired electrician) and he said they used to fit all metal boxes on a batten between studs and that the plasterboard boxes where only used to add additional sockets when you couldn't get behind the board. You live and learn.

Can you not just chop the stud off and put it in 50mm lower.

Have you got a pic of this dave. If you are fitting the boxes to the batten how is the plasterboard going on, or is this just a counter batten

Get some ply sheeting in to hold the corners. If you lose a corner it will take ages to clean it out and more cost in concrete.

That's good news it may seem like a minor issue but I was actually hating the thought of having sockets half way up my walls.

Not sure this is how I would go about it. Why are you fixing the boxes to the batten I would personally have a lower batten and a higher batten with a service void between, you then use a back box designed to grip on the plasterboard. If you draw your wire runs on the wall before you should be able to avoid any drilling.

You're an absolute font of knowledge @JSHarris ?

Ooh er. Never heard of a heat collector mat. Our other neighbor has 4 pipes in 200 m loops, I'm starting to look into your heating system @JSHarris at the moment. Still loads of research needed. I may start a new topic.

I will pop over and see Anthony and see what he is using, we have also thought about heating from ground source in the lake as our other neighbor has done, but not sure yet as he had to install 800mof pipe which took up a large area of lake bed.

This is the basic outline. We have just over 11 acres, but 8.5 of that is water ?

Anthony Edmonson. By any chance. If so we are just over the road.