ToughButterCup

It would be useful to include a link to the site of the free download. Here is the wikipedia entry The contents should be treated with care - respectful scepticism even. However at the very least, the links included make for interesting reading.

@Hecateh, it's the testing of the samples which is important. If you know exactly what the constitution of the ground is, then a foundation plan can be written on the basis of evidence. We have some sandstone under our clay, some of it is flaky, but one bit of it stopped the piling machine in its tracks (the very last pile). I can go and dig you some sandstone from our site now and you could rub it in your hands and soon there'd be a pile of sand. Other bits of it would take a sledgehammer blow with ease. Across our field , there's an old sandstone quarry - beautiful hard stuff. A test rig tells you exactly what the score is. Grit your teeth and do it right

That's the top and bottom of it.

Ooooo errrr. Dear me.

A very warm welcome from all of us here. You are doing what I didn't have the guts to do. A few steps too far into what, for the family, they would call the unknown. I am afraid I can't answer your question. But I can encourage you to be persistent. And the first step there might well be to network widely among those who have built with your chosen method. I for one would be very interested indeed to see how you get on. I have been fed a TV diet of straw-bale builds: but the details interest us here. You might notice I have tagged your post (just below the title line). That's to help others find your posts - all part of the service.

I don't know the answer to your question, but this is where I get my advice from The employee who answers the phone (perhaps used to now) seems(ed?) to have an encyclopedic contacts list. She listens well.

@Redoctober, you have five decisions to make. Hosting Volume of information you want to publish Blog platform Data security Domain name Hosting: you can disappear under the weight of guff written. Answer the next three questions and then decide the host Volume: text only, but video and photos hosted elsewhere (YT Vimeo FB} ? Or everything on your space? Video eats space, images too Platform: WordPress, but look at the smaller ones Security: EMEA Domain: purchase your own, or do you mind being part of a subdomain? ( redodoctober.wordpress ) Cheap, cheerful: sub domain at wordpress. Balanced cost with security, look at @TerryE or @JSHarris or @ProDave 's example. Once you get one you'll want to add bells and whistles.

The issue is the depth mismatch. Got through to the right person late this afternoon; and she said to taper the trench. So that's what I started to do. Until I found the end of the hockey stick.... 800 mm down. ? I'm not getting used to doing stuff for the first time anything like fast enough. Need a break I think.

ENWL (our Network Operator) is coming next week to make the connection, and I thought it would be useful to go into some detail about establishing the supply connection in terms of what a self builder needs to do before fitting a Consumer Panel. I also have a couple of questions. I have already done all the paperwork necessary, and paid the fee. There have been two pre-inspections on site: but things have been a bit fraught recently, so I'm running behind schedule. I need to dig the trench this week. My principal concern is to do it once and do it right. I need to dig the trench over our land to meet up with the incoming trench from across the road. How deep should it be? ENWL used to provide a guide for making connections, but, as is often the case, large organisations don't maintain their hyperlinks, and so the hyperlink is dead. However, I found the correct one here. (accessed November 2017) Quite why such a document should be found on this type of online resource ( but not the DNO's site) baffles me. The document may well be out of date. The DNO guidance says (on footpaths or verges) that low voltage cable should be 450mm from the surface. But that crossing a road, it should be 600mm below the surface, So, I need to dig a trench 450mm deep plus 150mm (the low voltage cable diameter), but the cable across the road is 600mm below the surface (plus the diameter of their ducting) So there's a mismatch. I only need 3 meters of ducting across my land. (it's less than that from the road to our piggery - where the meter box will be)

It's very moving to read posts like these. When the phrase thats not today's problem as in is used , it puts my own insecurity and stress sharply into perspective. And maybe other peoples too. My experience tells me that it takes a high level of persistent stress and anguish to get to the point where just getting through that day is counted a success. Thanks for posting @lizzie and @Moira Niedzwiecka, I am sure you can count on our continuing support. Have an appropriately modest man-hug. (each) Ian

A really elegant way of navigating that minefield . I'll commit it to memory.

Its really easy. Big-ish photocopy of a map showing the relevant features , mark your plot and anything else needed. Send to the Land Registry. Software? Pen and paper will do fine.

Listen to what both have to say. You are about to create a team. All three of you need to listen to one another and draw the best out of each other . That dynamic takes care and emotional intelligence. The biggest issues occur when there's imbalance: technical understanding and style of communication are the commonest worries. At some stage you are going to have to trust someone to work with you. Before that can happen they will have to work to earn that trust. In working towards it, all any of us can do is create an environment conducive to listening. Not easy, and not quick, needs hard work. I forgot to say welcome

General hilarity in the pub last night.....when someone suggested that in effect this gives me permission to close the road any day I choose. All I need is a few traffic cones. Its so very tempting, very tempting indeed.

And that's what we found. One way or another (DIY or Utility company) , the cost is (was) painful.

Ya could've rolled it down the hill into your front door! Where's yer sense of adventure man?

I breathe...

With friends like the good folk from my DNO, who needs enemies? I'm already persona non grata with the neighbours. This sign refers to work on our electricity connection which needs a trench dug across our lane: all of 4 meters at its widest. The work will be done on the 20th, and finished on that day too: so tells me the man who is low enough in the pecking order to really matter. Might be an idea to visit a different pub tonight - lets try one in Barrow in Furness - that'll be far enough away - inaccessible too.

That must be a very satisfying feeling. And managing to do so on top of doing a full time job is all the more creditable. Got a house-warming date in mind? (Sorry )

We have always loved them @MikeSharp01. They are singularly inoffensive, beautifully marked, shy, creatures. For me, its the shapes they cast that makes them so interesting. And their young.... When they gently shuffle across the kitchen floor looking for all the world like a piece of delicate jewelry, the size of a girl's wrist charm, almost as translucent as a bit of amber, its all I can do not to pick them up. Sid, our tomcat, sits and growls at them. Wont even approach them

That is not on. I will point the Durisol North rep to this thread and let them sort it out. email and voicemail sent. Ian

That is more than achievable with Durisol. I suspect that other ICF walls would be roughly the same.

@Jml, I have no idea. The above guestimate prices my labour at zero. It would also be a bit more complex to do the fiddly bits, like incorporate the hibernacular, and run an armored cable inside the wall. A Durisol wall is mostly concrete, and fresh air (the blocks are 65% air) Discussions about Durisol eventually focus in large part on the skill base needed to build with it. That's not to say it's complex: its the opposite. But it makes a fair comparison of price difficult.

Yes. I am building one next week (Yeah, right) . I'll post piccies. It'll be a good place to use up our spare rebar (but there's no need for it). As part of our plan, I want to create little 'slots' in the wall to grow wall plants and other local wall-loving bits and bobs. So during the pour, I'll drop some suitable PIR blocks in place and then spray the block so I can't forget which block contains the plastic. When it's all cured, it should be easy enough to dig out the block and plastic and then pop some grow modules in next spring. I am also keen to encourage our Great Crested Newts to use bits of the wall as a hibernacular. To that end, I'll leave some rubble in one or two of the blocks and make some small holes into which they can wriggle and so have a completely safe winter snug. Those blocks will need a bit of rebar to connect them vertically and horizontally. I'll also allow a clear slot at ground level to enable them to go through it if they want to Learning from the experience of building the house, I'll incorporate some metal ducting and build a few discrete lights into the wall. Cost? A few mixers worth of concrete per meter for a wall 2 meters high. Cost of the blocks? 4 square meters £60. Time to build? A day, tops. The foundation costs more than the wall. (But has already been built) Render? Here's how quick and easy it is (should be). Cost? Bit of sand and some cement and a soft old house brush, some elbow grease. Overall price for absolutely everything for a 2 by 3 meter wall with a corner built in, lights, and hibernacular, and spaces for wall plants, slot for a side-door: £300.

Thanks everyone. I'll try to find time to turn this thread into a checklist