Thorfun

I'll save my UFH pipe laying for the ground floor when I will have lots of time. thanks all for the advice and I'm 99.99999999% sure we've made the right decision. ?

anyway, I've made the decision now. we're not having UFH in the basement for now. we'll see how it all goes and can always add something later if at all required but we don't think it will be going on the levels of insulation we have and other member's experiences. means my original Saturday plans are now back on! woo-hoo! ?

I probably could get a refund on the UFH pipe from Wunda but as we're going to install wet UFH on the ground floor I might as well just keep it for when that happens. when I discussed this with the wife she also said that most of the rooms in the basement are active rooms so when we're playing music or in the gym then we'll be generating heat, the cinema projector will chuck out enough heat as well and so it'll just be the games room area which will probably end up being a den for the kids and their mates so that might be the only potential area that needs heating and if there are a few of them then I'm sure it'll be fine. We don't have much natural light. we were thinking of light wells but it was an expense and complication that we decided not to bother with as the activities that the rooms have been earmarked for don't really need natural light and there should be enough coming through the sunken courtyard sliding doors to make the games room area light enough for teenagers. ?

we'll have between 30 - 40mm between top of mesh and top of slab. working on 30mm with the 16mm pipe it leaves only 14mm between top of pipe and top of slab. I sent this information to the structural engineers and they said that isn't enough. not sure 12mm pipe would help much tbh and, it's probably too late as the pour is on Tuesday.

@joe90 and @PeterW I've taken another look and lifting up the top mat is never going to happen. here's a couple of photos of the mesh and chairs. if you both think it'll be a complete nightmare to run the UFH pipe as per the Wunda plan... then I think we're leaning towards just scrapping the UFH in the basement. I know that @Bitpipe doesn't have heating in his basement and says it's a comfortable temperature all year round so it is a possibility just to scrap it. I guess this is a dilemma all first time self-builders go through as I have never lived in a well insulated and air tight house so trying to get my head around the concept of not needing heating is a challenge!

I'm pretty sure the basement guys have already tied all the steels together so would be a nightmare to undo it all and then re-tie it. (I'll just pop out and take a look) bugger.

it's too late for that @PeterW. top mesh has already been laid so it'll be a case of threading pipe under the top mesh or just forgoing UFH in the basement altogether! I'm aware it'll be very time consuming but it's the only option I have now.

anyone have an opinion on this before I make the assumption that it's fine to do this? I've just been told by the SE that I have to attach my pipes to the underside of the top mat of rebar as there's not enough space above the top mat to do so (it would leave only 14mm between top of pipe to top of slab) and so anything I can do to make threading the pipe through the top mat easier the better!

thanks, good to know. it will be cable tied to the mesh. I do have a decoiler and have watched some YouTube videos so think I should be ok. I'll give up my plans for Saturday and spend it laying pipe instead. then that'll give me the 2 days to do it in. hopefully it'll be enough! yeah, I remember reading that and have made a note to double check as I have one 80m coil and 6 x 100m coils.

Hi John, can you tell me how long it took you to lay your UFH? I have 680m of coils to fit this weekend before our slab pour monday/tuesday next week. was wondering if I could get it done in a day or if I should budget 2 days for it?

Hi all, I am hoping that the rebar will be in place for the slab pour next week and so I will have this weekend to lay the ufh pipes in the basement. Wunda have designed it so that all the pipes go through the doorways but as our walls in the basement will be blockwork and there shouldn't be any penetrations/nailing in the slab do I have to stick with running pipes through doorways? Basically, is it ok to run UFH pipes in the insulated slab underneath blockwork walls?

so, here we are at the end of the 3rd week of our build with the groundworkers having dug the basement to depth and put the sub-base down ready for levelling and compacting on Monday with the blinding and insulation to also be completed on the same day. We got a second digger driver on site this week and things have really got going and on Friday we even had a 3rd person to stand around with the laser level to assist. Here's the time-lapse video of the week. The basement contractors were due to start on Monday but as the groundworks aren't quite finished they've been pushed back to Tuesday. Despite that we're very happy and even happier since I've been told that the basement construction should only take 5 - 6 weeks, whereas previously I'd been working on around 8 weeks to complete. This is brilliant if they can do it in that time frame and I've already given the timber frame company notice that we might need the TF a couple of weeks earlier than anticipated if they can accommodate that. only time will tell if that's the case. The week finished off with me laying my first ever slab. It will house the electricity kiosk and also be a place for our wheelie bins to go. it was actually the UKPN surveyor who suggested to me to make the slab for the kiosk a bit bigger to allow the bins to go there. I thought it was a great idea and saves me creating something further down the line. Being a bit of a cheap-skate I use some of the old shiplap cladding from the pool house that got pulled down so it probably wasn't the best wood to use for the formwork and, after I put one piece down I did notice is was a bit warped but figured it's just for bins so just left it there. if it's not obvious it's the piece on the left hand side. Also, the 150mm ducting for the electricity cables made tamping the concrete down quite tricky around them so it's not perfect but it'll do. And if anyone asks I'll just say it adds character. seems to be a one-stop excuse for shoddy work. I promise I will take more care over the actual house! For mixing the concrete I was going to hire a cement mixer but at the last minute decided to cancel that and save myself £25 and a drive to pickup and drop-off the mixer and ended up mixing it by hand in a wheelbarrow. that was pretty hard work for someone who sits behind a desk all day and I'm feeling pretty stiff and sore right now but I'm sure as the manual labour progresses it'll help get me in shape in the long run. I'd like to finish with an observation.....this self-building is a funny old thing as I've never ever looked forward to a Monday morning so much in my entire life! I'm just so excited to get to Monday to see what next week will bring. Hopefully I'll go back to hating Mondays once the build is completed. that's about it for this week. I can't wait to see what next week brings.

oh dear.

Today I learnt to lay a slab. it's my first one and not a very important slab as it's just to house the GRP electricity kiosk from CCF Fibreglass and a couple of wheelie bins. it was about 0.2m3 and I mixed approximately 1 part cement to 6 parts sand/ballast pre-mix with some water by hand in a wheelbarrow and then tamped it down to get a rough but level-ish finish. There are 3 x 150mm ducts in the slab for the electricity supply in, out to the house and out to the STP which is nearby so these got in the way of getting a nice tampered finish but, all things considered, I'm very happy with what I've achieved today and think I did an alright job for something that I really didn't care how good it looks. I'll have another one to do to house the ASHP further down the line which I'm sure will be better. what did anyone else learn to do today?

so if you're having your walls plastered then it's straight edge all the way? I assume there's a price difference between the two as well?

this is a really noddy question but one I've just never known the answer to.....why would you choose tapered edge over square edge or vice-versa? why are there 2 types of plasterboard edging? what use case is there for each edging type? ps. not read through the plastering forum so if this has been answered there many times I apologise in advance

thanks. I believe the IC depth is due to other invert levels and then the final invert level of the STP. I also haven't a clue what the hydrophilic strip is for! I will speak to the plumber but, ultimately, will just ignore that. I understand about the long radius bend moving up to save ceiling height but that will change the penetration height for the foul pipe and that's a can of worms I don't want to open as the basement contractors are starting next week. as it's currently designed we'll lose about 500mm of ceiling height in the games room so it'll only be 2500mm high! I think we can live with that. ? point noted about the rodding point. will bear it in mind when speaking to the plumber about it all. think I've had enough of the civil engineer and the fees they charge.

be careful here, it might be different for underground connection but when I first approached OpenReach I was told I needed a survey for £336 inc VAT which I paid and they sent their sub-contractors out (Kellys in our part of the UK) who did the survey and then OR gave us the quote. When I eventually went back to them the quote had expired and they said "Oh, this department doesn't do new connections any more you need to speak to the New Sites team to get a new quote". No offer of refund for the wasted survey and it was £336 down the drain. This was from the Infrastructure Solutions team at OR: "Thank you for your enquiry, the query below would be dealt with by our new sites team. Please contact them on: 0800 783 2023 option 2 then option 1. Email address: nsrecep@openreach.co.uk Or register your new site on the link below. https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-for-developers/registering-your-site/#module6" the New Sites team were very helpful and sent a surveyor round who said we 'could' go underground but they'll charge for the digging, road closure etc or we could just get a pole put on our boundary for free. I don't think it takes a genius to know which we chose! so I would suggest, if you haven't already, contacting the new sites team or simply registering on the website. iirc, when I contacted the team they said you need to register on the website first. good luck and I hope you don't get stung for the £336 survey fee as well! p.s. I hope it's ok to post those contact details mods? if not please delete as appropriate and accept my apologies in advance.

although, the CE designed that 150mm pipe with a 1:50 gradient so running a 110mm pipe at 1:80 gradient will make the hole in the basement wall in the wrong place! ?‍♂️. but as we have 3m high ceilings I'm not worried if I have to drop the 110mm a little lower and I'm not going back to the civil engineer (who take weeks to respond) to redesign it for a 110mm pipe. I'll just wing it on site and even if I have to use a 1:50 gradient with the 110mm that should still be ok.

thanks. had a quick look at Document H1 and from that quick scan I agree that 150mm is overkill when looking at the tables for flow rates and pipe diameter and gradient. just received confirmation from the SE that the penetrations have no impact on the structural design so I'm happy with it all now.

have you had quotes for both? might be a simple decision once you have those to compare. for us, it was about £20 difference so 3-phase was an easy choice.

Hi Nick, thanks for the response and the confirmation that the 150mm pipe is not required. I will be speaking to the AT today to get the drawings updated and then sent to the SE for confirmation the penetrations aren't an issue structurally.

to update this thread.... I spoke to the civil engineers and they said "we don't normally get involved in things like this as it's internal plumbing"....err....but it's your design! anyway, he then went on to say that he doesn't see an issue with it as long as it's not more than 90° bends. so I take that as being a sign off from civil engineer. I spoke to the groundworker and he said no issues with getting rid of the extra penetration through the wall and the internal run from pipe C to A but you should never run from a larger diameter pipe to a smaller diameter foul pipe like the CE designed after running the 150mm pipe through the wall! you can go from smaller to larger but not the other way around. this kind of makes sense though, right? the waste will be funnelled into the smaller pipe which could cause congestion? like on a motorway when it goes from 3 lanes to 2 lanes due to roadworks? he also said that a 150mm pipe is something you'd find serving 3 houses, not in a single house. which still leaves me confused as to why the CE designed it this way. anyway, as I haven't hired a plumber yet I can't run this by them so I've decided to just go with the groundworker's suggestion and do 110mm waste pipe through the basement wall. any comments from anyone on this before I send the architectural technician an email in the morning explaining what I want? then I just need to get sign off from the structural engineer that all the penetrations won't affect the structural integrity of the building and I'm good to go!

I thought these tanks were sized according to the roof collection area? at least ours has been. it has to, apparently, be sized so that it overflows occasionally so as to 'recycle' the water some times so you can't size it too big. I got quotes from rainwaterharvesting.co.uk and Rainharvesting Systems Ltd and both were pretty comparable in price but I prefer the look of the F-line tank gravity system from rainwaterharvesting.co.uk so will, probably, end up going with them. haven't bought anything yet though so cannot comment on the company but have been very helpful during the quote stage. both suggested between 4,500litres and 5,000 litres systems for our roof size. Also, as we've got sedum roofs we have had to keep the drainage from that out of the RWH tank as well as any water from ACOs. hope this helps.

Congratulations! and I hope that there was some popping of corks. ?