ToughButterCup

Jungs, das darf wohl nicht wahr sein? https://euobserver.com/green-economy/157364

Rare to see a thread where readers make the effort to summarise accurately.... Thanks very much. I made the error of thinking MVHR would have to be ON all year round. Here - as opposed to many other places - we won't need it to be ON for a few months a year. But we do need it. Next problems: Which unit? How much?

Why? Because I was told to. Why ? Keeps the tigers away. And it looks pretty (ier).

That'll be that then @Mr Punter. Thanks for the heads-up.

You couldn't make it up : two blokes from Lancashire Roads are outside right now : two shovels, a small 7.5 tonner. Just been out to talk to them - they made the point that the hole needs to be as clean as possible before any 'blacktop' gets put in. They're using a blower to clean the hole(s) out.

What's the difference - and the point of two types of tarmac?

Debbie's idea. ,🥴 she's always correct, right, perfect, spot on . Jaffa cakes all round @Pocster

Hmmm, interesting, thanks. Our boundary is the where the MoT1 (see above) meets the road What makes things more interesting is in our case the fiber will run under our bellmouth (car-park), so I need to be quite careful to get the design correct. Your job looks really neat - may I ask - what are those three indentations just inside your driveway, @Blooda ? I suspect they might be either lights or perhaps for security posts ... you can see why I am interested because of the design below ( the shaded area) with green lines in it ..... and as someone above says, people will use (and already do) use our forecourt as a parking area ...... Maybe i should consider fixing something like this security post .... What do you think?

Do you know what, I had that thought. I wondered whether there was some kind of guidance from the local planning authority. I'll have a look through their documentation and see if our suspicion is correct.

Might tarmac be a partial answer? I say partial because it will inevitably be broken up by some of the really heavy tractors that go past and and sometimes tankers. And where on earth do I get tarmac from? Where is one of those gangs of dodgy looking blokes offering to resurface your driveway when you need one?

Our officially adopted roadway is not very well maintained. Have a look at this. Here is an image of the edge of the road next to our drive. How do I make a 'good' joint between the drive and the road? Here's what's planned I'm not really sure where our curtilage starts - or stops. The plan is to make some sort of concrete nosing to secure the sets which we want to put in. The main aim there is to prevent them from 'moving' towards the road. I'd like to put the sets in to show the edge of a cartilage. But finding out where that is will probably be a long process and I just want to get on with it. So maybe we just put the sets 500 mm back from the edge of the road and then just fill in the gap with the MOT1 and compact that. Messy.

It looks like you've used gravel to fill the grid. What sort of gravel did you use? It looks really nice and I'm quite impressed

So that's what magic mushrooms look like....

Maybe that explains things.....

Well @flanagaj Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Briefly: Here Be Dragons. When the soft and Smelly hits the rotating blade it gets everywhere. Not so Briefly 4 Lancastrian 'chocolate box cottages ' all in a row, everyone pooping down the same septic hole, sun shining, blackbirds singing: everything was lovely. One lovely old lady on her own, one young family of three, one codger and his floozy, and us four. All was sweetness, and light. Lovely old lady dies. Son moves in. Throws his weight around, brings his nasty terriers in - 24 hour barkers (working dogs you see ). Also brings his rifle in and starts shooting. (6 months later the Police rescind his license) We apply for PP, and within a week, the neighbour comes and nails our back gate shut. We have access rights across his garden. Why? He didn't like the fact that we suggested we would discharge to a local stream and avoid adding to the septic tank....... He thought he could object to our build most effectively by saying the septic tank couldn't take any more 'volume' 8 years later he struggles to say a civil word to me. So the answer to your question is: it depends on people: there neither is nor can be one clear-cut answer. People change, move away, die, have opinions and are generally inconvenient. Best o' Luck fella. Best o' Luck.

I'm not sure . Our house falls only just within the one grid square on the edge of a bigger area on the Radon map I think that puts us in the 1 - 3% risk area. We have a barrier in place The risk appears to me to be minimal., therefore. Quite why we were required to have a sump in there as well, I really don't know.. I took the cap off the sump pipe yesterday. Full of water. So that means the sump is also full of water. That means pumping it - constantly. At least there's unlikely to be rats down there Stuff it. That's OFFICIAL

Thanks @Carrerahill. Current thinking is dig out to 300 below FL > Mot 3 compacted > underlay -300- SWA to gate area - 3 - 4(?) core > underlay -310- 17mm duct for Fiber BB> embed junction box for BB (B4RN) EcoDeck 500> topsoil , rough grass mix> two rows of cobbles to curtilage set back 750mm > concrete nosing to road deck. > Blacktop to road edge . Tea, medals.

Oh God! I still haven't done it. BUT , work is scheduled for this October. Plan (cross section and plan will be posted here) in September.... I think, definitely, more than likely, probably. Yeah. Hmmmm....

Thats the best idea, I think. It exits the house under the foundation (1.5 m down) and i'm reluctant to dig that far. Since the gas is heavier than air, can I assume that its OK to expose the riser -say 300mm of it - put a 90 in, then a short traverse across the path and into a gabion wall .... ? With an appropriate rodent barrier. The thought of rats under the house floor .... I suppose I'd better check the radon sump first too - for all I know its full of water. Inspection camera's on the shelf in the container : hardly ever need it, but when ya do, ya do.

Exactly correct. And ours will have an MVHR system. But not for a while yet. The issue is that I - incorrectly, naively, stupidly - thought that the house wouldn't be habitable without MVHR. Thats wrong. 6 months of the year, we have one or more windows open all the time. So its a bit like our towel radiators - off for 6 months a year

I can't afford a system either - yet. But I will be able to at some stage. I hope by then, performance will have gone up and price come down for older systems ( they already perform well enough for us ). Or maybe we could rent one for the duration of the last BC visit

They might. The wording of the FO request needs to be carefully considered. A thick skin is cheaper and less effort. 8 years in to our build and the guy a couple of doors down still holds on to the anger he expresses at me not selling him the plot on which we built Salamander Cottage. Last week, by accident, he waved as he drove past the build. Nearly had a quick Scotch on the basis of a scintilla of recognition after 8 years.

Quite. Which is why I stress (above) '... in our particular situation...' Even though we are 'light-and-airy' we still need MVHR. But I now realise that for 5 to 6 months of the year the system will be switched off. If I can't take a joke, I should not have started this build should I ? Keep smiling and get on with the next job.

@Kelvin We have a large slider that sits under the protection of a protected open area ( 4.2m by 2m : we call it the Winter garden. Kevin WotsHisFace from Grand designs calls that sort of area a Breeze Corridor) See the image above. So far the rain has reached that window a handful of times in a couple of years. If we go out - as opposed to go away for a bit - we leave one of the suicide doors (see image - top left) on tilt and maybe the Velux on the latch. Even in bad weather locking the slider open a few mm would not allow any rain in the house. Yes, if we went out for the day and closed everything up it would be stuffy. Cat fart lingers worst of all.

@JohnMo : I accept all your arguments above - more or less. In my particular situation I find to my annoyance and surprise that the house performs brilliantly on its own without help from MVHR. Re: more or less (above) The only time all our windows have been shut is when we've been on holiday. Otherwise at least two are open all the time. We don't mind heat - SWMBO was totally happy in the recent warmth - even at night. I couldn't care less. Our heating season is very short indeed : a couple of cheap Aldi heaters on for an hour or so, and electric underfloor heating in both wet rooms: oh and one of those warm blankets As @craig says above, we can crack the large slider open a few mm - and lock it in that open position. @dnb, I'll be down for that in a year or two. Loads to get on with - especially as I've had a nudge from @SteamyTea about the data handling. Paths and carparks first. @SteamyTea - no outside data - but the university Met Dept is across the quad from where Debbie is ( 2miles away) . I'll go and ask if they have local data (bound to) As to heat input - no data. But we've just had a SMART meter (SMETS 2) installed - and we know exactly how much PV we've injected into our 14 kW SunAmp. (from the inverter and the myEnergi kit). Annoying number of days in June that we exported to the grid. Grrrrr.