ToughButterCup

Since you are going to need scaffold later, try a bit of kwikstage. Buy four casters and you have yourself a mobile platform, like this.

@readiescards, how much time do you have? We are on Glacial Till overlaid by Made Ground. We like you are also on slope. The first thing I did with the digger I bought was to dig a deep hole (as deep as the arm would reach), mark and cover the hole with railway sleepers. And left it for a year. Each month, I'd take a photo of the water level in the bottom. As @ProDave suggests above, that job established the winter and summer water table. (For that year only: but it gave an indication of an average level at that location) We did the same at another location and the level was a little bit different, but not much. That exercise provides us with fairly hard evidence of where to put in land drains: and where to duct the water. On the basis of those results we have a plan for a 'wet area' for our GCNs. When that overflows, it'll trickle off into the surrounding fields.

Given that I'm deeply into the full-on DIY experience and DIY kwickstage experience to boot, the next practical challenge is to reduce the number of solo trips up and down the staging I have constructed. Which makes look interesting. My first thought is 'weather' I'm thinking of being creative with an suitably adapted empty plastic barrel pressed into service as a housing. But I bet someone has solved the problem before.....

The only reason I can see to replace my current helmet with another one (dropped and deeply scratched) is the slots which allow ear defenders to be 'parked' on the helmet, and visor be slotted to the front. I love the bump cap I bought for Debbie. Don't tell anyone, but I wear it when shes not on site. And nobody points and laughs. Mostly the bump cap does what it says: stops me bumping my noddle on the scaffold. Whereas my helmet is just big enough to make me duck a bit more than I normally do - slips around when I don't want it to; and while its quite light-weight its a bit of a pain. Mostly I'm on site on my own; mostly I nut myself gently (but painfully) on bits of scaffold. And nobody is going to drop a spanner on my head. Cap or helmet?

Well, ya learn summat every day

Yessir! I'd better get into the Regs hadn't I? Oh Gaaauuuud it never stops does it? Ian

Yes. Presumably they don't dwang in Wales? (This might well go downhill from here....)

Get yourself a twisting tool as suggested by @JSHarris. I have had one for years and I use it regularly. You can more than double the strength of wire when you use it to twist a long length, or just tie off the short ends super quickly. It takes a bit of a knack getting used to, initially you break (over strain) a few strands, but you soon get a feel for when you're going to break the wire.

At the risk of sounding like I know what I'm talking about, should I dwang my joists? All those in favour say 'Aye', all those against say 'Nay'. Where's he dug that up from then? Here This is the relevant passage. '... The slimmer JJI joists have been plated at their ends and dwanged (horizontal braces) to form a rigid structure. Two thicknesses of 12mm plywood will cover the ends, followed by the green vapour membrane being folded up over to give a vapour barrier. Insulation board of 140mm thickness will be fixed on top of that to bring it flush with the Durisol blocks below.... ( https://edinkist.wordpress.com/diary-of-the-build/)

Thanks very much indeed. ..... Ian

Yer a star! Cheers! Ian

Sometimes you bump into really interesting stuff online..... like this (scroll down to the section headed Wall-Plate) Here's the relevant passage '...In order to make the house air-tight, the wall plates have been installed over a polythene membrane, which is shown tacked down until the construction has proceeded to the point where it can be folded up and over the plywood which will soon cover the ends of the joists. Ultimately it will seal against the plywood decking which will be laid on top of the joists....' (https://edinkist.wordpress.com/diary-of-the-build/) To ensure air-tightness at the wall-plate roof interface, is this method (putting the wall plate on top of a polythene membrane) common? I feel some phone calls coming on.

I never let that stop me

The Durisol rep dropped in on his way to another customer yesterday. He (says he) has work booked until November next year. And can't both recruit and retain staff. Unless, like him his family are fully involved, in the Gig Economy, you have little chance of keeping good staff. That's what'd kill off the notion of a career. Off out now to have another dose of the full-on DIY experience. (Pssst, know a good roofer who'll work for next to nowt? )

Here you are.....

Thanks @Alexphd1; here as a direct result of your post earlier is my little mobile work platform. Thanks very much indeed. I cannot tell you how much difference having a mobile work platform makes to our work schedule, and my confidence in getting the job done. It is already clear that having mobile work platforms will have a significant impact on the build. I am going to build four. Thank you. Ian

Depends what you call a career. The turbulence to which you refer has hit us almost as hard as flying a small microlight downwind of Preston on a hot Summer's afternoon: the thermic activity there can be vicious. Two building business owners have spoken to me this week of the rate of staff turnover in their small companies: both laughed outright when I told them of our woes in terms of reliable staffing 'If we cant get the staff, then you'll have a really hard job' So now, I have a second (fourth?) career. Building a house. I didn't think I could drive a digger: now I can (quite well, I think). I had no idea about planning: now I do. I had never mixed concrete before: now I can do all sorts of stuff I never dreamed of with it. H+S was a closed book to me: it still is mostly. I hadn't a clue about scaffolding: now I have about £7k's worth and have a sensible, safe structure to work from. I had no idea about levels, @nod came and helped me out; now I can do it for myself, I hadn't worked outside for 21 days at a stretch since the 1970s: now I often do. I had no idea how to build a roof, until with a bit of help, I did (still un-tiled). Another roof coming up. I had no idea how to build a Durisol wall: now I can do so and take pleasure in doing it right. I feel sure that I am going to be able to put in our first floor - never done so, but in a month or so from now, I'll have everything in place to do it well. In doing all of the above, I have saved a good deal of money - at a conservative guess, about the average UK salary. A career? Nearly.

Is that the guy whose wife has been desperate for some while, she's desperate to transform her home, but he never quite gets round to it? You know, the one with the ' ... nightmare hallway and awful kitchen... ' ?

You are in familiar territory. The end of one thing and the beginning of another. I hope these two resources will be of some help. You might like to have a look at this resource (The Party Wall Act ) Here's a link to the official Explanatory Booklet I suspect you might have already done this, but if you haven't...... Welcome by the way! Ian

They don't need the work @Russell griffiths. We paid £2.5k and that price included extra work asked for on the day (some extra holes)

Quite the opposite. It's a question of balance. How do you work out what to do? Network. Charm a few local builders to sniff around it. Same with local estate agents. Take a local planner round too. Listen. My fingertips are saying - knock it down and rebuild. It's likely to be cheaper and quicker. Welcome by the way Ian

I really appreciate it when members think with me. We tried that, @Onoff, and it worked - to an extent. We also tried three other ways. Sometimes it didn't work with any method, and we had to get on with other stuff. Now we face the challenge of extracting threaded bar from fully cured concrete by a self-build enthusiast who has never before used a core drill made a safe working platform at that height out of kwikstage (and appropriate fall prevention precautions) tends not to read instructions How hard can it be with that mix of online readers and a just-bloody-do-it approach? Just for the record, I went to Screwy's and told them about my Erbauer core drill set. At their suggestion, they replaced the whole set , no quibble, and in addition gave me a £5:00 credit. So I bought a scaffolder's magnetic level as well. I know SF come in for some stick, but replacing a complete set of core drills without even the beginnings of a quibble is first class. Well done ScrewFix.

Durisol North are visiting (again) tomorrow; we discussed the issue of creating online T+L materials last summer. Who knows what will come of it? Lord knows, I have enough source material to put together a course on ; How to screw up a Durisol Build In One Easy 10 week Course, (while maintaining a sense of humour) and (now I come to think about it) How to Cope with the Consequences of a Screwed Up Durisol Build (in 20 hard lessons. Lesson 1: don't use a core drill bit on hammer - the teeth fall off) There's a new build in Durisol in Lancaster starting this week. Bet they know about diamond core drill bits. Can't take a joke? Shouldn'a started should I?

Nowt. Except interstitial condensation, mould, gnashing of teeth, foaming at the mouth, hair and teeth flying in all directions. And anyone and everyone on this forum who is in the slightest interested in passivhaus shaking their head saying "Has he learned nothing?"

Back in this thread, I explained how we were going about remedial works to cope with the likelihood of further poor workmanship of our original installer . The strategy relied on installing shuttering: that in turn needed to be tied in with threaded bar. Since that threaded bar was going to be immersed in concrete, those bars needed to be extracted a bit sharpish. Of the 140 odd we installed, a few stuck fast. Today the steep learning curve on how to extract those that remained. The idea was to core from the inside (concrete) from inside - outwards and then just pull the rest of the bar out of the PIR. At first, using a 25mm core, like this I found that I fouled the threaded barrel by drilling slightly off center. So, back to the 38mm core and bingo What did I learn? Don't use a diamond core bit on hammer. You knock the teeth off the core bit. Shutter Durisol no matter what they say on their website. It ain't wurf it, mate, ain't wurf it. ( @jamiehamy, sit back and smile ) Sharp lessons in self-build: at least one or two sharp lessons a week at the current rate.