ToughButterCup

We are building with Durisol. Why? A balance of price, simplicity, build time and thermal performance. This is how they go together.... And concrete gets poured inside the holes. A weeks ago, I bumped into this video and fell to thinking (I really wouldn't mind a few days off that obsession) What if I were to embed my electricity ducting in plastic conduit within the concrete? And so I spent hours digging around. Got nowhere. The videos on YooChube don't allow comments or questions. Rang up the company, spoke to one of the Directors (Tim Bevan) who talked about the sites where he had seen it done. So it can be done. Do you hear the 'BUT' yet? Well I've been trying to think of one, or a few, or some, and got nowhere, except thermal breaks: use plastic tubing once it's in, that's it: not very flexible need to be damn sure the placing is exact : plan properly concrete etches, and eventually destroys the conduit: really? BCO might not like it : ask What might the benefits be? No wall chasing First fit easier Save space in the planned services 'slot' (hardly worth thinking about) I'd dearly luuuuurve to stick my MVHR ducting in it. Now that: that would be brilliant. What do you think? Ian

Thing is, we get something out of all of them ; even if it's negative. The program may have one particular focus, but you take what you can get from every resource - not always what the program maker intended. @Construction Channel's videos have taught me huge amounts of stuff. I look at those I think are relevant to me. But almost always I have learned other things by accident: how to stack wood : how to shift 20 tonnes of hardcore with a small digger : how impossible it would be for me to construct a roof : how tight a level line needs to be : whether to hire or buy a material handler : how to get a pretty young woman to mix your cement for you. Ian

Welcome to the club then .... in more ways than one. I don't think there's one person using this discussion group that hasn't been held up for a whole host of reasons. Ian

@ProDave, Push, shake, rattle and roll roller.

Oh Gauuuud. Three doors down from me is the trendiest of Trendy Shepherds Hut. Been up for a year and nobody has used it

Too embarrassed to take photos. Glad that I had the digger to nudge it upright, and two hefty Lancastrians too! Ian

Yep; you guessed it, I can. Lucky the digger was next to it and available to put it back on its feet. One of the lads working with me pointed out that it really wasn't necessary to go everywhere at full revs and full speed. I am making a nice little car park for @MrsRA so she can drive in and out of the site in first gear - same for deliveries: safe off-road, off site parking. No need to access the site itself. Good CDM2015 practice, so I read. And big stones hide under the hardcore and tip unsuspecting rollers over - right over, half way down a bank Such fun self-building innit?

@Onoff, you rarely manage to give back to those whose generosity you receive. That's one of the excuses I have for trying to be generous: doing that helps spread it around a bit more. And so assuage the guilt.

Well, now I've got the story from the horse's mouth .... makes depressing reading, though.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. @MrsRA has a series of Kitchen designers in her sights.

Well @Nick, tell me will you, why I can't source British decent triple glazing? Oh, btw, welcome! Ian

@Redoctober I was concerned not to be more of a PITA than I need to be when talking to professional colleagues. Going over and over something a simple and trackable as levels and getting it 'wrong' made me think I was being stupid. Fear of exposure as an eejit...... The last thing I want is for an email from me to cause colleagues inwardly to groan at my stupidity, grit their teeth and wait for 48 hours before they reply. That's why I usually explain what I've done to try and solve the problem myself. As it is, Sam emailed me back within the hour.

That is the most reassuring thing you have ever posted.

I have been politely and probably correctly been taken to task on these pages for over-thinking stuff. And, I have responded Today, luckily, I have been found guilty of the above crime. Going over and over the levels for the piling mat and subsequent foundations - and getting errors - I decided to do some of the simple things that coders are taught to find errors in JavaScript or Flash Action Script. Print the levels out on a separate piece of paper. Read them 'differently' Make a separate sketch diagram : compare that with what you've got Annotate the diagrams you have got : use a pencil - don't look at the screen Go away and have a cup of tea and walk the dogs : forget the damn thing Sleep on it: and try not to let the niggle keep you awake : fail Sod it: email the architect - 'I expect I'm making some sort of stupid error, so would you help me .... this is what I have done to try and solve the problem for myself.....' 'Yes, here's the diagram... not to worry, this has the correct levels on it' I had been looking at 1100.D.7 for a few weeks. The correct file to look at was 1100.D.7B I know all the levels off by heart now........ FFL 27.650, Piling mat level 27525, Top of Pile 26925, Top of Pile Cap 27225. I could go on. Good for the soul this kind of stuff. Good for the soul.

Welcome. No. Get a sealed log burner. Get someone who really knows how to design it into the house. I haven't quite finalised the design for mine, but here's too much detail on how I arrived at the design we have - thus far. The low occupancy issue is an aspect I haven't had to consider. My first thought was that you might therefore be tempted to fit trickle vents. Probably not a good idea in terms of air-tightness. Given a SW orientation, you'll need to consider the effect of insolation. You are in Devon. Thus it might be an idea to run a PHPP model (£200 to get it done for you). Simple answer to insolation and low occupancy: draw the curtains before you leave. Or fit super-expensive treble glazing units with integral self closing blinds (Internorm). The principal advantage of that is you won't advertise your absence. @MrsRA fell in love with individual MVHR units built in to Internorm windows. Shockingly expensive, but in your case you might be able to get away with fitting (say) two of those instead of a bigger system.

Passive aggression is available to all.

How about Keep Calm and Carry On. or That Was Then and Now is Now

Well @noobuilder, its good to feel the energy in your enthusiasm. Now that, that takes skill. Ian

Good to see you back. The Internet is the place to find shared ignorance and thats why your technical understanding is so valued by so many people. People are allowed to be wrong on the Internet.

I'd change that slightly to, '... just enough and no more...' Reading similar successful applications might well be a helpful strategy.

Newts might do it for me.... I'll apply for some research funding

@IanR, not sure I need to come up with a properly specified request. Off to t' pilers again.

That's what I've come up with: maybe a water bowser or grain wagon - I'll just need to check the plated mass I suppose. Hmmm. Thanks Ian

Yo, just as I thought (suspected - logical thinking doesn't work on Fridays) if the mass of the counterweight is so large that it greatly exceeds the required 8 tons (in my case), then it doesn't matter.