Russell griffiths

Sand blaster.

Your icf house should be airtight without any internal finish. I tested mine before plasterboard and got a good score, big mirrors, cupboards, flatscreen telly, fix a chunk of 5/8 ply behind the plasterboard, then just board over. Externally, mine sat outside with no external protection for 3 years, you can stand there with a hose on it if you want, you won’t get any water penetration if you pick a good icf and if you detail the window and floor junction correctly. The only thing that hurts it is UV.

That concrete is probably what is known as ( oversite) just a thin layer to stop weeds and stuff, they used to build the dwarf walls on top of it that carries the floor joists. Its normally very rough and can differ in thickness massively. Depends how wild you want to go, I would probably take it all up. What do you want to achieve and how long are you going to live there.

I would turn the ceiling joists the other way, I would then build in as much strength as possible on that front edge, back to back joists with a steel flitch beam sandwiched in between. When you size doors you need to allow a 20mm gap at the top that is filled with a compressible insulation with a trim covering this gap, if you don’t any deflection will press on the top of the door and stop it working correctly.

It does exist because I did just the same job. black 3/4 to a brass tap to 25mm mdpe we have a very good agricultural hose supply near me, I went in and got it all off the shelf. the brass stop tap will hurt your wallet.

I know what product it is I used it myself. What are you looking for ? You do realise it’s Canadian so not much English info.

What’s that ??

Jesus Christ man, pull your finger out.

I would and paint the battens black.

I think you are looking at something poorly done and think it’s all like that. why can you see through the wooden cladding ? Obviously it must be an open joint system, in which case they have obviously used an incorrectly specified membrane. do you want open joint cladding? Icf can be covered in what ever you want, you then just use the correct mounting system. there should be no reason you can see a reflective membrane under it and I hope for their sake it was all taped up or they will have all manor of creatures living in it. pic is timber on Icf.

What I would ask yourself is why have you chosen velox. what does it bring to the party that other Icf products don’t. if you cannot think of one then why did you choose it. Do the same with all the other blocks. price is not a consideration. I was offered a substantial amount of blocks free, all I had to do was transport them, I declined and left them on the pallets.

Put it in as late as poss, two days before the last sheet of plasterboard goes up.

I’m looking at porcelain floor tiles 1200x600, but 600x600 would be ok as well. Got prices around £32 a metre am I being unreasonable to think I can get this cheaper. What I don’t want is curved rubbish. Can you get quality at better prices or not anymore.

The other option is to spend £3000 on a treatment plant £5000 to install it £1000 to get power to it, £200 every 2-3 years to empty it, i had a quote of £17,000 to fit my treatment plant, I would happily pay £8000 to get connected to the main sewer.

You’re going to be a handy bloke. You can answer all the questions about : How much will my house cost to build : does my nut in. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

For £300 just get it tested and see how it fairs. , fix as needed.

For anybody who hasn’t been to graven hill, go and have a look. lordy Lordy, what a cluster(expletive deleted) of miss matched design and people’s ideas.

200mm x 5mm steel, comes in 6m lengths, curves lovely, rusts to a nice brown colour, looks excellent against old style paviours. Needs a steel pin every 1200 banged in and welded or screwed on site.

1. Why do you want the blocks to be air tight, this is not the location for your airtight layer it’s above the blocks in your dpm. If you set your floor height correctly you won’t have any cold bridges as that is mitigated by your insulation layer. I have block n beam and just had a good air test result, so no problem there.

That’s an easy fix and will save you loads on foundations, just move it to under the centre of both windows. Trench fill to 150mm below pipe, box around pipe and bring concrete up either side then concrete lintels over the top. You will probably need a new inspection chamber in the front garden.

How long will it take to get it all covered up. I have just been on a job where they had to strip the whole sparking off and re do it because it had been exposed for over 6 months. It could be a case of using something really cheap for six months and then when you are ready to clad rip off and replace with the best you can get. I used a product by proctor on the roof, vent 3 I think it was.

I would say your plasterboard is inadequate. But that depends on your bco. Normally a layer of fire board (pink) or double board in standard 12.5mm. If you can document that your soundshield is the same as pink or two layers of standard then brilliant, if not then. As I said ask your bco.

You just cut in half, you don’t remove the amount that would be the mortar joint.

I did one just liked this and moved the drain so it ran dead centre from front to back through the building. brickwork and lintels over the top.

@craig how come they are not classed as a fall arrest system then, I would have thought it was just as easy to fall through a 2m x2m window as it is through a glass balustrade.