Thorfun

now that makes more sense. 🙂

probably not so bad with LVT but in our last house (new build by a mass builder) we had tiles which were obviously laid after the kitchen went in and when I had to get the dishwasher out from under the worktop I couldn't do it as the tiles were so high the feet would retract enough to get the dishwasher out! ever since then I have decided that I will take the extra cost hit and tile under the units.

well, I figured that that top row of blocks has nothing at all sitting on it so if that block collapses then it won't affect anything! I was actually quite tempted to just take the whole block out but I paid good money for the core drill and wasn't going to waste it. 😉

thanks all for the advice. hired a core drill this morning, used a platform rather than a ladder and have drilled 8 holes so far (107mm) and, even though the drill is bloody heavy for this weedy middle-aged man, it seemed to go through pretty easily.

look forward to reading it thanks. 🙂

I'd be more concerned about the water pressure lifting up the house than water ingress! but I'm not a structural engineer or an engineer of any kind but I do know that I have an external sump and pump with a land drain around the base of my basement and there is a constant run of water (and it's above the water table!!) where water runs beneath the surrounding rock 2m below ground level. I'd hate to know what would happen if I let all that water build up with the upward pressure on the basement and house above. I'm sure more intelligent people will be along soon.

me neither. you need a structural engineer to sign off on that

doesn't digging down to just have a void increase the costs? why not dig down to the basement floor level and then dig the pool area out a bit further? seems counter intuitive to do it the way you suggest and more costly! not only the increased depth but then also paying for block and beam flooring and supporting walls etc. seems crazy to me. Also, you'll need some form of sump and pump to pump out water from around the basement.

we have built a basement and put 200mm EPS 300 underneath it and others, like @Bitpipe put 300mm under the basement slab. just do it and I agree that you might have issues with SAP and building regs if you don't put any insulation underneath. I note that you don't mention what type of insulation the architect has specified but it's my understanding that PIR won't have the compressive strength which is why our structural engineer specified EPS300 for under the slab. if it's EPS then I would up it to 200mm minimum in my opinion.

our local Groundworker dug a big hole and then outsourced the basement build to McGuinness Brothers Construction based in Luton who did a very good job.

and, if aesthetics are important to you, it looks a lot nicer.

I have my G99 application and the battery was included in it so I’m good to go I think. But will double check everything

this one https://www.jewson.co.uk/p/hand-held-diamond-drill-JTH3063A has a built in water feed. I could just hire it for a week, stick it on my account and be done with it. thanks for all the answers, I'll have a think about it all and work something out. going to leave this job until next week now as well so I'm not rushing to do it.

like this https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-erh750-3-4kg-electric-sds-plus-drill-220-240v/232fv ? says it has a safety clutch

interesting idea. was looking to hire a core drill at about £50 per week but if I can buy a cheapo then that might be an option. will take a look at screw fix, thanks.

phew! that's what I thought and I'm restricted by my 10kW Solaredge Inverter that the array is connected to and we have permission for and then the batteries will be on the house side of the islanding.

I've asked my M&E consultants if they included the originally planned PW2 with the DNO application for PV and am waiting to see what they say. I'm not going the Tesla route anymore but will, most likely, be using a Lux Power AC coupled inverter so that will island the home/battery supply as I understand it. I guess the problem is that I will be using my local friendly sparkie to do the install and not a battery installer. I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Ok. Noted and will do. how about number of holes per block? Able to advise on that?

tomorrow's job is to make a start on drilling through the dense concrete blocks in the basement walls to allow the MVHR ducts to be run. I have an SDS drill and some diamond core bits. will be using the 117mm bit for our 92mm ducting. my question is is it one hole per block or can I put 2 in a block? they're standard blocks so are 440mm wide so I could fit 2 holes next to each other and still leave 'some' of the block intact but it just feels like they'll be like Swiss cheese. I'm only going through non-load bearing walls btw. any advice before I make a mess in the basement in the morning/maybe afternoon depending on how my day job goes?

didn't realise storage needed approval as well as PV. why is that? it's not like the batteries will discharge to the grid, right?

try other architects. some charge a percentage and some charge a flat fee for each RIBA stage. we chose one that charged a flat fee and think we got very good value for money.

yeah. looked at it. more expensive than the Powerwall 2 was my conclusion! I'm not fussed about 3-phase solutions either as I'm planning on running the whole house on a single phase and already have a single phase inverter even though I have a 3-phase supply. if I get a 3-phase EV charger I'll just suck it up that I have to import on 2 of the 3 phases. I just think it's simpler that way! and I'm also thinking that as battery tech advances if I have to I can swap out battery modules and replace with newer tech whereas with these all-in-one solutions you're kind of stuck with it.

it's a relief to me too! although I'll reserve final judgement until after the blinds are installed. I'll be framing this and showing it to my kids.

I have to admit I've not read the new regs but the external blinds chap said I'd be ok with our external blind solution so I've taken his word for it although I don't believe it affects me as we're already at watertight stage. but I might be wrong. 🤷‍♂️

was talking to our external blind supplier about this and all this means is that you have to consider overheating when putting in the huge bifolds and lots of glass. it doesn't mean you can't have that, right? as long as you put external shading in, be that blinds or briese soleil or pergola or over-hangs etc then you'll be fine. I would've thought an architect like you @CharlieKLP would love the idea of designing in shading solutions. 😉