ToughButterCup

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

I have a pair of crampons you could use....

Debbie's making you one. (Too late, it's writ now .... )

Not easy is it? And what's a

With all our recent alarms and excursions, trips round the desert [insert your own cliche] I have not been thinking too far ahead. But, now we are able to plan a little way ahead. To first fix. What does first fix mean? I have done a few hours reading based on this search, and elsewhere; this YT search is useful I'd like to collate your responses into a simple list. One bit of reading about First Fix points to the contest for space in the gap between ceiling and floor. MVHR ducting seems to come out on top. So maybe an ordered list would add value: scheduling is a persistent self-build nightmare.

Reading this post with interest, , it occurred to me that I have about four workbenches of various sorts distributed round the site. And so I wondered what others do.... The workbench , or in my case, the lack of one, was instrumental in sacking our first builder. Here's how. The Durisol blocks we use need cutting to size sometimes. And for speed, the lads would make a small pile of Durisol blocks on which to balance the top block: the one that needed to be cut. That's fine, until in trimming the top block to size they damaged the one below. Perhaps just a bit. But just as perhaps , a bit too much. And before you know it, when pouring concrete in the block with a cut in it, you have a burst. And God knows how much concrete on the floor. Explicit instructions to use one of the four temporary work benches provided were given to everyone in the company. One bollocking followed another, followed by a sense of humour failure on my part. Instrumental in the series of issues leading to a departure stage left for the company concerned. Currently I have two piles of pallets, each a different height an old (20 years) Black and Decker Workmate A Bosch table saw framework with a bespoke OSB insert an old stainless steel restaurant kitchen work bench The most useful is the pile of pallets. Just the right height, adjustable, just the right weight, easy to cramp work to the top level. Very adaptable. What have you used?

Now, phhhhhhhhh, I trusted you until this post. I really did. I dunno, they say all human relationships are doomed to disappoint.

It's perfectly normal for customers to request samples from producers for consideration by planners. I have never been charged for any, and would be amazed if you were. It's a well-understood process.

@nod, call yerself a Northerner? Living south of J33 . Phhhhhhhh. Southern Softie(s) I say

Zer iz nussing vrong viz ze Bosch. Ja!

Notice the canny Planning Permission Free house on wheels..... Nice one

Just one sentence each (from @PeterW and @Calvinmiddle) plus a casual remark from our SE saved £13,500.

Amen to that. The trouble is (well it is for me) the assumption that due diligence is enough to filter contractors with a poor record. In my case, it did. But it couldn't filter for poor management of staff during the build. Couple that with the pressure we all feel to get the job done (code for reduce-the-stress-of-the-build-process) and you have a significant brake on that reinstatement process. Where do you draw the line? 2mm out of plumb? 6mm over 3 vertical meters? C25 not 35? How does a domestic client know the difference? Who out of all of us has done a slump test on delivery BEFORE pouring? Bird's mouth beautifully seated on the wall plate, or one which would accept a 50p piece? Well, not to worry, it'll settle. @nod knows his stuff. I don't. And every trades person knows he knows his stuff. (But, he tells me that occasionally they still try it on - quite a relief that , in a masochistic sort of way) And they know I don't know my stuff. Buildhub is the mainstay for me in bridging the gap between complete naivety and a fighting chance of getting work done to a reasonable standard.

Look at @Construction Channel 's in his videos. He could hold a party in his, and have space enough left over for his drone to fly over the party goers.

Focus on minute detail. Be flexible. Be determined. What you have above is a serving suggestion. At this stage there's all sorts of hidden crap in those figures. At every level people take the p1ss out of self builders. That added to huge (often self imposed) pressure to ' finish ' makes price inelastic. Until you tell people to their face that their price is unacceptable. And in the current building boom...... Aim for £1500 per square meter as a fair price. All you can do is network like mad. It eats time like nothing else I know and is stressful, and draining.

Scaffold poles, scaffold planks, left over ply.