ToughButterCup

Oh dear, the sainted @Russell griffiths is right, too right for comfort. And so's @PeterW. I suppose I should be grateful, - really hard to write that word in present company...... It piddled down here last night. Look at this Look at the ground, just above the pipe on the left hand edge of the photo. The big crack in the backfill (not the best photo). It's just as if the ground sighed with relief at the rain, and sank 10mm or so - bit more maybe. So, a la Russel Griffiths advice, I'm going to wait another fortnight before I doing anything to that pipe trench (backfill with pipe bedding) - to let it settle some more and a la Peter W's advice, later still, I'll need to bed that 30 degree bend in a concrete boot won't I?

Sid is house trained.

Beat me to it @PeterW

The answer to that question should be in your raft design detail.

As I imperfectly understand it, not having a cavity is one of the attractions of an ICF. 1 pour - how high? A reasonable expectation for 1 pour is - roughly - head height. Beware here, across the ICF fraternity, there's a lot of willie waving about having poured a skyscraper's worth of building in just one pour. All of it sh!te. Nudura have some very good training videos on YooChube.

Perfik. At least you haven't got 30 meters to dig through by hand eh? ?

Yes. But, I (if I can be bothered) separate big bits out: they serve well quickly to fill this, that and the other.

Ugh! They are massive money pits. Every pool at which I worked (summer lifeguard, ASA swimming coach) whether indoor or outdoor, public or private always had corrosion issues. Steer well clear of even very small amounts of Chlorine gas: 50 meters or so in air. Its very dangerous indeed. Don't use it. There are plenty of Chlorine products turned into tabletised form, that are designed for a domestic installation.

We made a 'pond' to which we added bit by over-ordered bit. That base has been used by everyone as a dry, flat conveniently placed work area. Very useful indeed. Didn't have the choice of improving a garage. I decided to do that as creative way of coping with the flash of anger and rage I experienced when one tradesman tipped large material handler bucket's worth of concrete down some banking of ours. Man I was annoyed. Getting on for £300 worth of C30 just tipped down a bank. Furious doesn't cover it. Now, we plan to crack it open with 'feather wedges' and see if we can grow Sea Pinks.... Still mad just thinking about it.?

I haven't read any .... There are two ways of reading your post : you're too close to the boundary for comfort, or is there a maximum distance for the I/C from the boundary ?

Hi, welcome. I am sorry to read your story, especially as it's your first post. We have experienced theft from our house too. Its horrible. But at least there was no violence against us. Our son is a local copper, his partner a CSI. You can imagine the detailed stories we hear. And the levels of detailed advice we get too. You appear to me to have a very sensible, logical approach to your security requirements. Beyond what you already plan, the key thing is constant vigilance. To help me work on that, I try to spend a few minutes each week making a thief's job just a little bit harder. Take looking in your windows. Plant a really thorny bush in a place that makes it painful to do that? Your shed (for example) Any loose tools? Secure them. Walk the burglars walk. Think ... what makes his job easier. How easy is it to smash that security light? Gravel on the driveway? Noisy gravel, or so compacted you can't hear anyone approaching ? While each one of those suggestions is minor, acting on many such smaller items adds up. You will be able to think of many more simple cheap things you can do to protect your property. The biggest threat is complacency.

Because then it wouldn't be concrete.

Just put a shutter (say) a meter either side of the bit that changes direction, mix some 3:2:1 concrete and plonk it in then?

Piling is a very interesting topic. As I (imperfectly) understand it, piles of many types - are driven, screwed or compacted to whats known as a Refusal - simply a calculated back- pressure beyond which its not worth doing any more work (called the Working Load I think, maybe wrong). Refusal sometimes therefore varies by position. In our case one of the 64 piles just shot into the ground - to Refusal at about four meters. Most refused at a bit over three meters. One hit an incursion of rock. Because it was the last pile driven I could hear the difference in the cadence of compaction. And the ground really shook. The rest sort of slithered in. Just for completeness, @eandg, piling cost us £6500, Groundsure test , about £2500 ish, and one critically important letter (email) from the SE - one that together with a bit of research on my part and help from BH members saved £17000 (yes 17K) . Hillard Tanner saved his fee many times over. Top bloke - and his partner Nick Bailey. Ours were tested to 2.5 times the static load. One or two of the piles achieved 3 times the static load and one a little more.

Erm, what's concrete mass fill ??

Whooooo Hoooooo, thanks sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. ? Digger's just arrived and the pipe would have been under 200 mm of pipe bedding by 2:00 today.

Yes. Compulsory. Whats the point of the piles if they don't carry the load you need? Just to check, could you post your pile quote(s) , and break it down into piling and testing, please?

How right was Ed ( @Construction Channel) ? I had to resort to this to keep the bloody pipe still. It was like grabbing hold of a Turkish wrestler..... Those pipe / oil filter grabbers (that red one is magnetic) is worth it's weight in gold to me - 8 fingers in total, 6 that work. I used two crowbars instead of road pins. Thanks Ed. Ian

Ahhh, heard about those but never used them. I'll shred some old shirts then.....

So far I have the design needs to be BR compliant : read Part K does not need to be solid concrete : pad it out with blocks or similar : 100mm of concrete is fine consider how to radius the steps : silicone , plastic ; careful with the landing width line the block with soffit board maybe? consider adapting precast blocks It's obvious that @Ian's point is the key to success on this one. So, I'll get on with the design and post it here. Thanks everyone. Ian

You lot have the bit between your teeth on this one : thanks very much, I appreciate it ✔️....

Exactly @Adrian Walker. It'll need to be designed carefully just like other elements of the build. Perhaps better put my question is; In terms of the construction phase , is it just a matter of proper shuttering and correct concrete mix?

Yes Dave it is.... You know the saying, Happy Wife, Happy Life....

Watching Building the Dream the other day ( Series 9 Episode 8 , 21:50 ish) Debbie saw this staircase and loves it.... The concrete winder that is.... or concrete block or whatever you call it. I like it as well, partly it because it also simplifies the stair run. The bottom of our stairs are surrounded on two sides by concrete walls. To make Debbie's dream come true, all I need to do, I think, is pour a concrete block of exactly the right dimensions to enable a BRegs compliant stair run to be built on top of it. The block itself also needs to be exactly correct in terms of risers and run. And that means serious shuttering and a sore back I expect. Cure time doesn't matter too much, we have some nicely textured wood left over for the top surface. I think I can make this happen. Any gottchas you can think of?

To answer your first question directly - the price depends on trial depth, number of cores and level of detail in the feedback. You cannot do without a proper soil survey. Unless your risk appetite is very high. In which case any reputable piling company will want to do their own survey or insist you get one done. Is 4k (your quote) expensive? Get 2 more done. And when you get the numbers back, be sure to compare like with like. Not always easy