ToughButterCup

I'm on about £1500 ( I guess) a square meter (146 m sq) . And thats working too hard, too long, moaning too much, enjoying small bits of it. It's 'King hard work. I could not have got this far without help from the folk here. The advice and moral support (well, some immoral) is critical.

Interesting. Never heard of one of those until now. This what you mean?

Well, Russ, its good to know that man of your standing in the world of self build is just as incompetent as I am. Very satisfying, that. Blew the bung out while doing the internal pipe test as well , this morning. Thats three meters of pipe (vertical) , so that makes about 300 litres of water pushing on it - 300 kg: you'd 'a thought I might have worked that out before hand wouldn'tcha? Got it in one hasn't he?

Unfortunately , yes. You might get away with cutting an inspection hole for a random sample of joists , making a generalised judgement about how adequately they are fastened and then making good as necessary. In the preceding posts, I smell aggro. It might be as well to get an independent surveyor (RICS ?) to write a proper report, and then present that to whoever needs to see it. It'll take away all the you-said-she-said-thats-not-needed nonsense that you appear to be facing. And get the surveyors fee added to the bill.

The title says most of it .... Is there any point in getting a smart (whatever that means) thermostat for something as humble as electric UFH? I've got a fused spur time switch - I'm not getting up extra early to make sure that Twinkle Toes has warm feet. ?

Hello Tim, welcome. I've built using ICF: not the only system available among ICFs , but there's a healthy range of offerings on the market. Here's my experience of ICF - not all of it good: better you know about the warts as well as the laughter lines innit? The key strategic decision at your stage: who's building it for you ? - experience counts for almost everything. (I take it you'll not be doing it yourself - you've got a decent Beemer parked in the drive - you wont want the carpets to get muddy now will ya? Specially with a wee hoos like that in Bearsden or Milngarvie eh? ?) Ian

If the cash settlement is a complete and satisfactory repair, then thats the best of a bad job. But what might satisfactory mean? To my inexpert eye, just putting noggins across the centre of the house would not be satisfactory. Maybe this is a case for an independent surveyor's report and recommendation?

First post: welcome, therefore. .... you beat me to it, cross post - could you show us how out of level it is....? 10mm over 2000mm .... Ouch! I haven't got a clue how to remedy it simply... our carpenter's here, so I'll go and ask him now.

Anyone got summat to help Debbie read in the shower? She reads more than she breathes

I lost patience with our providers in a similar case. Kicked the problem upstairs. They sent a new lad out . He discovered the signal was going past our place, two or three telegraph posts further on, and then coming back to our pole. Bingo. What I'm trying to say is the problem might be between your house and the last mile of wire....

I knew it ! Heavy metal fan innit!

Hmmm, a bit like those plastic clips that are used to vary the dosage on a medical (infusion) drip? Goes from wide open to completely shut ... Anyone got any idea what I could use as a pipe clip? I've googled around a bit ... tried a clothes peg - a G cramp (that works, but it'd bugger the line up in no time.) Those small plastic cramps are too weak. I'm a bit short on lateral thinking today.... Help!

Whadger fink I am Ed? Some sort of amateur?

The Italian Job came to mind today. Only blew the bloody test bung out of a 110 pipe didn' I? What with a Manometer? No, with just a little more force than that. Bought myself a nice little test kit, and for whatever reason couldn't get the damn thing to work. Tried a test rig before using it on the real thing. Bloody thing kept leaking. So tonight, in the bath, instead of abluting, I'll give it another go. See where the leak is. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, I'd had an idea. If I were to fill the piping up with water from the top of the rodding point (just visible) like this I would effectively have a couple of meters water pressure pressing on the bottom bungs, and maybe a bit less on each of the joints. As I started filling the pipe, my suspicion was aroused by the creaking of the plastic joints - specially this one You can see there was a bit of a drip there, but I wasn't too suprised because its unsupported. An hour later I got bored of checking the water level. It had gone down a bit: 100ml or so. So I went for a coffee. The pipe is eight meters long or so - about 880,000 cc... (?) How much is that? I dunno. Pop! PPPPSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ! I'd blown the bottom bung out hadn' I ? Neighbour stuck his wizzened head over the fence, swallowed his tongue laughing. Tried it again. Full on Charles Atlas screwing the bung tight this time. Two hours later, got bored took the brass cap off the bung. Got wet. Very wet.

?

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 ?