Thorfun

Cheers. I’ll look in to it. ?

The CE gave us the finished driveway make-up (albeit for a permeable block packing finish) but I’m interested about whether, if in my situation, you’d choose to throw money away on a temporary sub-base or put down the actual sub-base and deal with any damage done during the build.

Because it’s specified by the civil engineer. But also the Groundworker who did my new entrant said it helps to distribute/disperse the load on the sub-grade.

Yes thanks. Sorry forgot to mention that geo-textile will be going down below whichever route I decide on.

And by sort after do you mean remove it and put the type 3 down for the sub-base to the finished driveway? if so, that’s definitely one of the options I’m thinking of but I can’t shake the feeling it’s just throwing money away! But I guess I can get over that eventually if I go that route.

And that’s permeable and suitable for a SUDS compliant driveway? And I assume the open surface tarmac can just go on top of it to finish off the sub-base for the resin bound surface?

afternoon all and a happy sunny Sunday to everyone. I hope you're all having a lovely day. my latest dilemma/decision is to do with our temporary hardstanding for the construction traffic during our build. I am currently digging it out to the depth that will eventually be required for our driveway and need to decide whether to simply put down some temporary hardcore for the build and then remove it all and then put down the Type 3, the open surface tarmac to go on top which will be finished off with the resin bond that we've decided on. here's the plan for our driveway and you can see that there is a RWH tank, diffuser tanks and plenty of pipework to eventually go underneath the driveway so anything I put down will need to be dug in to at a later date to install all of that. as such it would seem that just putting down some crushed concrete to create a temporary hardstanding would be the best route but it also seems like it's simply throwing money away as it will need to be bought and delivered just to be dug up and taken away afterwards at another expense. But then if I pay for MOT 3 now will that get ruined during the build and by digging in to it for the pipes and tanks? any suggestions about what to do or what would you do in this situation? or any other options I might not have thought of?

does this help? not MBC foundation but designed by Tanners for a Kore system and a level threshold entrance.

thanks all. really given us something to think about.

We're planning to have vertical timbers for our balustrade. something like this..... so would presume that the vertical timbers would help firm it all up.

@Trw144 they look amazing! it still amazes me that they can take a weight as they just seem to float. is there any bounce at all? even if you jump from stair to stair? (off to read your 4 year old thread on them now)

ok, so how would one go about doing that survey? we are living on site in the existing building and have a mains water supply but we want to get a new supply for the new house as it's at the other end of the plot so rather than run a pipe all the way around the existing building and up the garden I feel it'll be easier to get a new supply. do I just put a water pressure gauge on our outside tap that I'm 99% sure comes straight off the meter as I had to fix a leek under the garden? or is there something more scientific than that?

agreed! this is one outcome I'd really like to know as we're thinking of cantilevered stairs but are worried about the expense.

ok cool. that makes sense and thanks for clarifying. as my run is only about 30m I'll go for a 25mm pipe too.

Hi @Nickfromwales. this is confusing me. first you say a bigger pipe makes complete sense and then say that 25mm should suffice. my run is also about 30m from the road to basement plant room and I'm all for future proofing stuff so I fail to see why you would want to go for the 25mm over the 32mm if there's no downside (apart from a bit of cost).

so bigger pipe = higher water pressure? is it as simple as that as to what you request? I presume a 32mm connection will cost more than a 25mm though?

when I first approached the local water company about a new connection they also asked me what I wanted rather than telling me we had to have. as I didn't know I put it all on a back burner but now we're getting near to needing to make that water connection application so this thread is very interesting for me! ps. I have made the assumption that @nod is asking for the pipe size for the connection to the water mains. if this isn't the case then, like @ToughButterCup, I too have got the wrong end of the stick

well, it may have been a waste of time and money but as we paid a flat fee for our architects and the water calcs came as part of the thermal modelling package as far as I'm concerned it wasn't extra money paid but part of the fees. so no harm done either way.

that may be, but we had an architect who required calculations to be done to ensure we complied with building regs which I then sent off to building control as they wanted to see the calculations.

our water usage calculated to be more than the standard building regs but with the RWH being used for toilet flushing and garden it brought our water usage to below the BR.

I also would've failed this if it wasn't for the RWH tank. the main thing for us for the RWH was (to quote @ProDave as I don't think I could've said it any better) "prop up the failing infrastructure a bit". basically to allow those who don't or can't get water in a drought period to get it from the mains as we won't have to (as much).

the question of whether something pays for themselves has been done on here a lot and you'll get answers from both camps. personally, we plan to have all 3 of those you've listed. RWH will never pay itself back in 100s of years, but that's not why we're doing it. For solar PV the payback period could be quite a long time but, again, we're not doing it to save money or for any payback period, we want to reduce our reliance on the grid. ASHP for us just makes sense regardless of the dwindling RHI payments and requirement for MCS installation to get them as we don't have mains gas and I don't want to use tank gas or oil so electricity/ASHP is the only really viable alternative. ultimately, it's up to you and what's important to you. some on here (like me) don't do these 'eco bling' products for financial benefit, others won't do them if the sums don't add up. as I said, there are plenty of threads on this subject in each of the respective sub-forums. take a read and see what conclusions you come up with.

oh dear, I'm sat here waiting for my new Huepar to be delivered. I hope it works!

I phoned SF on yesterday and a new replacement pump was delivered today. now that's what I call service!