joe90

As per Steamy,s post above, yes our site is very flat, thick yellow clay and very boggy. The local building control guy was happy with trench foundations and asked for 800mm deep and 700mm wide ( our walls are brick and block outer and inner with 200mm full fill cavity with Rockwool ) we installed a French drain around these (back-filled the trench outside with 50mm stone) and piped it to a local ditch. The foundation detail was as follows to avoid cold bridges and I am very happy with it, we did not need an SE to design or sign it off..You mentioned “cottage”, ours too is cottage P.s. we also have a DIY installed ASHP ( which I have yet to fire up).

Mine was different but, we asked for a temp supply into a fibreglass box ( meter housing for outside walls) on temp poles next to where it would be built into the back of the garage, a waterproof double socket was put on one of the poles for extension leads and whatever for the build. when the garage was built we simply swung it from the poles and inserted it into a hole left in the wall and it was connected up by my electrician. No further charges for a permenantly supply or moving it.

We have a cooker hood and it’s part of/matching the range cooker, it’s recirculating to take grease out of the air and we have an MVHR extract fairly close by.

Well Zoo, try not to let it wind you up, it’s you that will have a heart attack, not them. You are the better person for trying to be nice and doing things by the book. I have suffered I’ll health because of stress and now refuse to get wound up as I know I am the only one that will suffer. Smile sweetly at them ( it will wind them up even more) and show them you are not bothered ( even if you are inside ?). I too have suffered from anti English attitudes from some people in North Wales. p.s. You are welcome to borrow my chainsaw anytime .

Well if their going don’t worry about it, when we were applying for planning for our site we had a god awful neighbour, luckily he has gone. Perhaps you could drop a note through their door to say you have sought professional advice on this matter and this is notice that you are going to get the overhanging branches trimmed. Perhaps get friend/s on site when it’s done so you have witnesses if they kick off ( big friends are even better?). Jeremy tried to be very nice with a new neighbour and he just took the pi**.

That reminds me, when we had our sewerage plant commissioned the chap asked if we had a waste disposal unit as they don’t work with treatment plants!

Our design was a large cottage kitchen with dining area and a separate lounge ( the other side of a hallway) . I also planned a large ish hallway with statement stairs ( I hate pokey hallways and narrow stairs).

My case (hips) is a little weird, there are times ( over the last twenty years) when I can’t even put my foot to the floor because of pain, but it does not last more than a few days, X rays show little wear and tear. Brufen seems to help. I am booked for a DEXA scan in a month ( bone mineral density scan) because of similar pain near my hips, this is to establish whether my bones are sturdy etc, will be good to find out. I do suffer nowadays from back and hip pain later on if I carry anything heavy during the day ( old age?)

Thinking about this a bit more, an advantage of these screw piles is that you can keep going until firm ground is found, even if this was below stream bed level, just need to extend them if necessary. Long term we had planned a summer house of some type in the garden (when I get the house and garden finishe£ ?) and frankly I will now be using screw piles ( done enough digging to last a lifetime).

No, crowbar. First make a hole with the crowbar in the ground ( pilot hole) then just wind the screw pile in with a bar through a hole in the top, keep going till it’s solid. Simples. They are after all DIY manual screw piles.

Having my lunch and thought I would see what’s available re screw piles, these seem good and not mega expensive. https://www.ukhelix.com/product/eco-diy-manual-install-screw-piles/

Yes, after taking glucosamine for years I also read that and stopped taking it. Is there any “ proven” concoction that helps us old men? with their joints ( mine are getting worse after all this building malarkey)

Depends on your ground conditions, get a spade and dig a bit out, get through the topsoil (300 400 mm) and see what you got underneath, only then can you decide what to do. I think ground screws would be fine as Jeremy says, they just need to go down till they feel firm.

Magic ?. i think you could dig it by hand, depends on your ground but 800mm to 1m should be deep enough, and big enough to Weald a shovel ! But only needs to be 300 to 400mm square ( at the bottom) a minidigger would be easier (costly) and if you bought some shutter ply for the lawn as protection it will not show much. You may have a problem operating a digger on that sloping site ( they can fall over !).

I too like the colour, we wanted “National trust olive green” for ours but made the mistake of choosing the ral number from an iPad, settled on ral 1000 and told the window company who were spraying our windows , when they arrived we were shocked, not what we chose ( we said) oh yes you did ( they said) we have grown to like ral 1000 but beware people, don’t chose colours from a screen ? Well done dave, we too have just chosen our kitchen, it’s a race to the finish.

Photos please, then you will be swamped with good ideas, and lots of good advise. Also welcome ( to the madding crowd ?).

Or like Dave above with pads but steel pillars bolted to pads.

I too, am not impressed with architects, they want you to build what they want, not what you want. I designed our house completely but got an architect to do the CAD drawings ( I still use pencils !) and interpret up to date building regs. Despite this our architect still got a lot wrong and we had to go back several times and repeat what we wanted. I now wish we used an architectural technician as there was no “ flair” or “ artistic input” required.

All mended, no big deal ( although it sounded like it) . For those anal enough to know, the disc backplate bolts had come loose and catching on the wheel bearing hub, the bolts are now a little shorter?. frankly this was a little light relief from the endless building work, back to it now. p.s. I did not deviate from the thread as my car was going click, and I did buy it.

Ah, that did not go well!, half way to Bude and lots of noise from front wheel, limped home hoping nothing goes bang or falls off, so that’s something else to do, mend the car ( at least it’s old enough to be mended with a set of spanner’s) ?

Like most I have had health problems for many years ( stress related according to some) and friends told me that taking on my build would not be good for me. I have found the opposite, I do not get stressed ( but have no mortgage or borrowing to deal with) I have learnt to have a very laid back approach to life ( something I tought myself). I have thoroughly enjoyed the achievement of my build and bloody proud of what I have achieved. My wife gets uptight about somethings but I refuse to. Life is too short, life is not a rehearsal, life is to be enjoyed ( as much as you can if your not well) I do ache from the physical work but that is not a bad thing. Do you know what?, I have been working indoors during this glorious weather and I am going down to the beach in a minute in my historic open top sports car for a coffee, the work can wait for a couple of hours ?

Yes Peter, they will go In Conduit, they were outside the box anyway before they went down into the “ sauna” ( as my son calls it my “poo sauna”.?) even my wife commented when we were having tea outside “ are you sure it’s working?”.

No, it’s done by adjusting flow of air to various parts, you could see when he was turning it the amount of bubbles and turbulence lessoned. The timer switches from large bubbles ( to break up solids) to fine bubbles ( that generate bio activity).

As an update, I have moved the blower housing on to a concrete pad next to the unit, lined the whole lid with acoustic foam, lined the blower housing with it as well and the unit is a lot quieter, job well done.

As I put in a different thread, our six person treatment plant ( three bed house) will mostly have only the two of us and that’s why I chose a vortex that can be “ turned down” to match the input, the commissioning bloke said lack of food ( poo) will adversely affect the efficiency of the plant ( I.e. too much water).