Triassic

Hand dig only, no machines unless you have the finest touch!

In the past they used employees homes.

@ragg987 what type / make of manifolds are they, do you have a photo of one, as an example?

With some types of insertions there is a simple screw down valve under the red cap. Might be worth checking, if the connection is still accessible.

How did they connect the tail to their main ? Some connections have an inbuilt shut off valve. Photo might help. If you don't mind getting a bit wet you can replace the leaking valve with the water still on!

I’ve been reading up on UFH zoning in highly insulated houses. I was wondering, If the house is likely to maintain a steady temperature throughout, do I need an expensive branded UFH manifold, thermostatic mixing valve, pump and individual actuated zone valves. Why not simply have a pump supplying a common feed manifold and let the room stat switch the pump off when the desired temperature is reach? No doubt this is too simplistic!

Is there no Megabad of plumbing fittings, such as manifolds?

I use a churn brush to knock the lime mortar back into the stones, this also helps get a nice look to the finished wall, any mortar left on the stones tends to weather off over the next couple of years.

We’re at the bathroom design stage and being a bloke i don't have a clue! If it were left to me I’d buy a perfectly serviceable white bathroom suite from the local builders merchants. Luckily my wife has more idea about what is really required, so yesterday we set off round the local bathroom showrooms, of which there are four, a large one which is part of the local family owned builders merchants, a middle range and two high end showrooms. Having sat in, tapped and operated the various offerings it’s become clear, you get what you pay for! So we’re having what I class as “high end”. The other thing that has become obvious, the higher the cost of the item the heavier the brochure and the more bewildering the array of bits and pieces that make up their bathrooms. We arrived home with around 25 brochures and no clear idea which manufacturer we will ultimately choose. Having talked to various sales people and sat in a number of loos, we’ve decided we want wall hing toilets. We also know we need to draw up a basic layout for each of the four bathrooms and get an idea of what fits where, to help us narrow down the choices. We also need to decide, bath or shower or both and which bathrooms get which. So this morning it’s tape measure time. We will start by making so templates, walk round the various bathroom and finalise what goes where. Then it’s back to the showrooms to try and narrow down exactly style to go for. Then once we have a shopping list we can start looking at where’s best to buy from. Just a quick question, can you mix and match items from different manufacturers? Edit 1 - On our visit round the showrooms we were given 22 brochures weighing in at 21.4 kg. Interestingly 3 out of the 4 offered an initial design service, in 2 cases there was a design fee of £200, refundable when you order the bathroom, the 3rd was free but you only got a couple of print outs of the 3D image of the finished design. We've come to the conclusion that we were given loads of brochures so as to confuse us and in the hope we’d take up the design offering and consequently place an order. On the price front, everything we looked at in the showrooms as twice the price of Megabad, obviously fitting is an additional cost. The photo at the top is the site loo, it’s all we have at the moment!

Has anyone got a photo, sketch, layout plan for such a set up? I only ask as I find it easier to understand rather than a written description!

It was very much like the examples on the wen site (3 spread sheets covering labour, materials, quantities etc).

This only came about after the number of claims against surveyors went up, suggesting it was their fault that things with the house weren’t right. As a result RICS added more checks to their checklist and insurers started offering to cover the risks associated with missing certificates etc. Buyer beware!

I used https://www.estimators-online.com/

We got an online QS to do ours, £150. Just send them the drawings and they do the rest.

Our donor timber frame Bungalow had hardboard internal wall coverings and 1/2” fibre board wall coverings on the internal face of the exterior walls. Apparently, according to a now retired ex county council building surveyor, lots of these were build in the 1930s.

So you’d got fully Sunamp? How would you deal with UFH and cooling? I assume you’d retain the ASHP and feed it directly into the UFH. Thanks for all the contributions to this and other Sunamp threads. It’s crunch time for me, I’m starting first fix in the New Year, so need to finalise my space heating and hot water design. I’m come to the conclusion that one large ( suitably sized) Sunamp, charged using solar PV and off peak grid electricity is the way to go for DHW. Still not sure about Space heating! In my case I’ve fitted hundreds of metres of pipe in the slab. Do I really need the cost of an ASHP and unventilated hot water store? Maybe the Willis heater is the way to go and in summer when it’s too hot, just open the windows and purge the hot air! What keeps you awake at night?

Will building control expect to get a copy of the structural calculations for the stairs?

I’ve had a couple of quotes back for our steel staircases and both have included a sum of £3,000 for detail drawings and structural calculations. Are detailed drawings and structural calcs normally required? If so, would it be cheaper to get someone local to do these? £3000 sounds a lot

I’m about to start first fix electrics and was discussing lighting with the electrician. He tells me that one of his suppliers does a free lighting design service, he’s going to send them my plans. Has anyone els3 used such a service and if so, what did you think of the results?

Best get it cut down asap, or find another plot.

With a base cost and top coat it added up to 10mm

In the cabin I used up offcuts 10mm thick slate floor tiles as cills.

Ali, stone or timber?

In the end I went for straight 10mm bead to give a flat finish, the render guy was happy as it’s easier to get a good finish. The beads came via Hew Grey builders merchants.

Who specified wind posts? If not you, the architect or the SE. you don’t need them. The groundworker might be trying it on and charging for something you don’t need and won’t be fitted !?