ToughButterCup

The only job for the VCL in a warm flat roof is to prevent water vapour condensing inside the insulation layer isn't it? Maybe it would be better to say .... condensing on any suitable surface above the VCL. Should, therefore, the VCL extend up the sides of the PIR insulation (as well as underneath it) ?

Hmmm. You might like to do some research on this board about Thermal Mass. The idea is much misunderstood. At least read this

How long have you got @scottishjohn ? Could I rephrase your question, please? If you've used Durisol, would you use it again, and if so why, or why not? I cannot any comment about other ICFs. But I am sure that you should investigate them in just as much depth as Durisol. You need to know why are are using your chosen ICF in as much detail as why you aren't using one of the others. I am sure they have their strengths and weaknesses too. Short answer: yes, I would use Durisol again without hesitation. Because I know exactly where many (not all) of the traps are. My risk appetite will be higher than anyone who hasn't used it before. Next thing to say is I'm not that far from you : want to pop down and visit? Here's a fairly long reading list . Start with the worst and work up from there..... Do your own search on this site for Durisol too. PM me for a phone chat if you need. Ian

Oh boy are you right @Barney12. I think its linked to the fear which naturally goes with the personal change process. Better to do what you've always done. Good luck.

Click - God it took me ages to get that. Must be fifty years or more since I was taught that......

On our flat roof, it looks like I need to join two sections of wall plate together. Thanks to everyone on this thread I'll make the join so that at least three joists are resting on the plate (NHBC Standards 2018, 7.2.6 Wall Plates). (Thanks Gary @nod ) The same guidance suggests I should use a coloured timber preservative (7.1.4) And I bet they don't mean the stuff you get from B+Q. An Internet search gets a flurry of probably irrelevant results. Do they mean the blue color stuff you get on roofing battens? Ideas anyone?

But @lizzie, wimmin are always '... freezing... ' ........

This thread -so far- is a good precis of UFH and PH ideas. I wish that a few years ago we'd had a thread that summarised issues so well. I suggest we pin it.

Staying on top of your budget is hard nitty gritty work. Often done when you are tired; and therefore error-prone. Employing a QS is a good starting point - but we found the hard way that its only a starting point. Naively, I assumed that the QS work would be accurate until - by accident - I found a couple of howlers in his work, (a couple of thousand logged instead of a couple of hundred). I suspect that there were a few more that I didn't pick up. A QS' work is merely an indication of cost. Every heading needs to be checked In my direct experience, one QS employed on the contractor's recommendation appeared to have an unhealthily close relationship with our QS. Unknown to me at the time, I later found they were drinking mates. Finding out who knows who, and knowing how they relate to one another is worth the effort. That information depresses the price. Building trades act and relate to one another as does any other elite.

Tricky. In ascending order: point out> show> cajole> tell> instruct> warn> get someone else> sack> Many of us here have had variations of this on-going theme. It's a friggin nightmare; and self-builders are regular targets of what @LA3222 accurately describes as

What a beautiful place to build. Had a short holiday in Drumore recently. Welcome (With a bit of luck I'll be finished when I'm 67 ? )

MVHR.

Oh. Thanks for the heads up. Oh shit, I've just gone back to the plan..... there is a joist right next to the end wall. Sooooo - I do need to fill that gap at the end of the wallplate. ? Polyfilla?

The wall on the right is the one that the joists cross. The plan shows no wallplate across that short wall. There is no floor above. It's a flat roof.

I fitted my own wall plate yesterday - with the help of @DavidFrancis. Whoo hoo! Maybe it's a small thing for you, but to me it's a huge victory (over myself) But (isn't there always one but ) look at this ... the gap.... does it matter? No joist runs over it. Ta....

Do you ever sleep Gary? There's that really stupidly expensive lighting shop on the A6 just North of the Blackpool road ( before you get to the Petrol station). Been in there yet?

How gorgeous.is that.....? Tell us about Lime interests me because it's a bit mysterious, many shy away from it, some have advised me against, others the opposite. Welcome, by the way

Welcome. Hmm, what's an inclusion rate ? If I'm asking that then the direct answer to your question is - no - . But I'm interested in the answer. How about chucking a handful of perlite in the normal mix? Our residents chemist ( a certain Mr Harris) will be along soon.

Nope. That was a Martian.

@Onoff, you are the only person I know who still writes essays on your walls.

Welcome. You've got me interested. What was the warning? You might like to keep the response appropriately annonymised. ?

Will it work on my air guitar? If so, Debbie'll buy one.

Go on dad, be a Devil. Go for 2.6 - Dare ya! ? Seriously: really seriously, on the day of the pump, you get to 2.5 meters - what are you going to do if yer man says, "Well there's £300 worth of concrete left in the lorry: want me to dump it " ? I regularly bless the advice @TerryE gave - he suggested digging out a small pit for the flushing out remnants from the pump ; now got two or three nice little flat work areas which can be kept clean and tidy and ready for a temporary work bench.

The simple answer is somewhere. The most important thing is to have a clear end in mind and stick to it. It really doesn't matter where somewhere is. Choose one of the millions available to you and think about it's dependencies. Follow each one of those dependencies to the bitter end. You'll find there are thirty or so things that you need to be thinking about in any month, of which 10 are important and 5 both important and urgent. Lists and lists of lists are helpful. If you need to share those lists, consider some of the free list apps that abound on the Internet, we use Google Keep. But paper and a whiteboard are just as good, if not better in some ways. The most difficult thing to judge is how to penetrate the appropriate help network in a way that those network members approve. Make no mistake: trades people act and communicate exactly as a more traditional elite. They are harder to talk to than the average mortgage account manager. Harder to reach than your MP. Banging on a contractors office door (because they don't answer the phone) may be exactly what's needed to break the log jam but a turn-off for others. Find out which pubs they use. Listen. Welcome to sleeplessness. Welcome to networking. Welcome to compromise. Welcome to a lifetime's reading.

Is the question: can we build under PD rights? If so, the answer is highly likely to be yes. Provided you follow the guidelines. Here is chapter and verse.