Mulberry View

Our First Floor layout is pretty simple. Here's our latest Posi design. I specified a target of under 10mm deflection, which this design achieves. What is the best way to hang these joists in a Nudura build? My current mindset is in fixing Ledger Plates to the long walls in the required places before the pour, with pocketed concrete protrusions and J-bolt fixings. This would remove the need for resin fixing and also the need for cutting back the insulation. Any pitfalls to this method? Beyond this, am I best to top chord hang the joists or use normal hangers onto the Ledgers?

Hi. Sorry that the first reply on your thread is nearly 2 months after you posted it. Seems that we already follow you. We're @selfbuild_mulberryview

Yes and yes. I could just tee it in to a rainwater pipe below ground?

I've successfully (though not without dramas) managed to get 1.0m (average) of Waterproof concrete into my ICF walls, this takes me just over the periscope vents in all areas of the building. These are at a variety of heights due to the differing ground levels around the building versus the internal floor levels (which also vary). This photo is at the back of the build, where there is the largest deficit between the top of the foundation and finished external ground level. Now that I have concrete in the lower portion of the walls, can I consider some amount of backfilling? I'd like to be able to walk along here and in the not too distant future scaffolding will be needed. This is at the highest part of the plot. I'm thinking Geodrain membrane onto the ICF, then backfill the trench with pea shingle, but is that enough? Do I need some sort of mechanism to prevent water from collecting on top of the foundation?

I bought 70 odd panels for about £600. They were ex rental ones, so all had some damage. I was able to cherry pick the best ones though and most are usable. I've since been able to trim down how many I needed and have sold at least half of what I bought for more than I paid, I'm sure I'll easily get all my money back in the end. I picked them up in 2 loads on my Renault Master Flatbed, which was a little questionable.

Our project has 16 'Flat windows', at least 50% non opening. There is a large 3-sided Oriel Window, 2 Doors and 2 Sliders (4.2x2.5 and 2.4x2.1). We've had quotes for quite a few companies, but frontrunners at the moment include Reynaers (their Masterline 8 product, with Masterpatio sliding doors) and Origin (their OW80 product, with Sunflex SVG30 sliding doors). Both quotes sit at around the £60k mark and hit average U-Values of around 1.1 and are fully installed. Anyone got any opinions on Reynaers vs Origin?

See, I feel like it'd be worthwhile to fix everything in place. There is no detectable movement in my floor, but some of the blocks still wriggle a bit. Grouting will stop all movement, won't it?

I know there are loads of different approaches to grouting Beam & Block. The one I like the most uses a strong but custard-like pourable consistency mixture of around 2:1 Sand/Cement squeegeed/brushed in. But where to start with sand and cement quantities?! I've got about 110m2 of floor area to do, with the fortunate benefit of them being in 3 distinct and separate zones. To note - the infill is all done, including the double/triple beams, so this is purely for grout.

Very handy post this one. Just what I was looking for. I've been contemplating the method so I can plan for my floor joists pre-pour and the method I had in my head is pretty much exactly as per the video @Russell griffiths shared. Russell, I assume you still advocate this method now we're a few years down the line?

I spoke with our Beam manufacturer about painting with bitumen paint and was told there is no need. The discrepancy is in the comparative heights of the bearing surfaces, so isn't camber related. I had to cut them due to a change in the approach of how the lower portion of our building is constructed. This meant repositioning the perimeter bearing surface and consequently having to adjust the beams to suit. Not fun, but not everything is!

Thanks! Is it best to fill the beam gaps with cement first, then grout after? Any guidance on what sort of quantity of grout will be needed? The floor is 129m2.

We looked at all sorts of designs, alternate wide/narrow spacings, deep beams and ended up going for all narrow spacing. I felt that this was a better option than the 225mm beams for us. I almost went for the wider beams throughout, I have these for the Car Port, they're savagely heavy, I'm so grateful we didn't as they are 56kg/m and would have totally ruled out me moving them around without machinery. I put these ones inside the perimeter using a 3T Digger, but have manually handled them since. The shape of our building is not optimal for energy efficiency, but it does benefit from allowing for short beam spans. Our longest span is 3.9m, hoping for no noticeable bounce.

OK. not so bad then. The middle sleeper walls are 215mm blockwork and have 250mm DPC laid on them. The outer walls are 100mm blockwork and have 450mm DPC laid to allow me to turn up and over the top. More, I think, than is needed, but we love a bit of overkill at Mulberry View. The raised up part is the Living Room, lovely to get an impression of the size now for the first time. The photo was taken from the Dining portion of the Kitchen/Dining Room. I hope to have these two rooms done tomorrow, well in terms of beams laid and spaced. Can anyone give me tips on grouting?

So, day one of DIY installing our Beam & Block went well. I've managed to get most of the 40 beams in my Living Room area in place. This is being done with no machinery, all beams are inside the perimeter, which is a blessing and a curse! To note, our beams are 175mm deep and are ALL spaced at 275mm centres, due to my paranoia about floor bounce. Longest span is 3.9m (the ones in the photo are around 2.85m). What's the expectation with the beam standards? My beams all look to have been cut by Stevie Wonder, none of the ends are straight and some have chunks out of top/bottom surfaces. As part of a change of building tact, I had to cut around 100mm off almost every one of the 180 beams in my scheme, which was no fun, but this allowed me to cut the damaged ends off, so that's OK. However, now that I'm laying them, I'm seeing as much as 10mm differential in the vertical beam height. This is sometimes owing to nobbles in the concrete on the bearing face, easily knocked off with a chisel. However, some are harder to sort, needing a full re-dress with a grinder. Is this normal? Or should I be turning a blind eye to 10mm deviations in the installed surface?

Turns out this was the correct answer. My SE specifically suggested the Flexseal type of fitting, but turns out that a normal coupling was actually the right thing to use. So, out came the pea shingle, expanding foam and after a few hours of struggling, I'm much happier. BCO came and gave me the green light, so we're all good. Thanks for your input everyone.

Yes. that I've considered and would be something I'd try to do as a minimum. I notice that Flexseal make a connector similar to what I've used but with an additional metal band across the middle to keep the pipes in alignment, but it's contradictory because it takes the flexibility out of it as far I see. I'm going to arrange an inspection with the BCO, even though my drainage isn't complete. I think to have them on site to discuss is the best way to reach a practical solution.

I deliberately orientated the chamber like that, despite it not being my first thought because it it is more logical that way. The flexible connector branch comes in from the 2 upstairs bathrooms, hence it'll see flow from 2 toilets and a large bath/shower. I gave that the priority of the main gulley. The one that comes in from the bottom of the photo is a grey run from the Kitchen, so made sense to me for that to drop in from one of the side ports. Does my logic stack up?!

Thanks for that. Very helpful. After challenging the SE over the necessity for a 'rocker pipe' setup a couple of weeks ago, I ascertained that he didn't specifically need the 'full blown' solution and was happy with a flexible joint either side of the foundation in some logical fashion, but didn't need it to meet the 'by the book' spec of a rocker pipe. I asked him what a 'flexible joint' is, he specifically linked me to the rubber coupling I used, he did not mention a normal fitting either side. I am a little annoyed with him if this had been a possibility. This is the view from upstream to downstream, so this is the lip that 'stuff' will have to pass over as it currently stands... I say again, this run is contained within the solid chalk bed, beneath the foundation and does not pass through the concrete foundation in any way, so the idea of needing to make it flexible just isn't logical to me, well, here any more any than anywhere else. Why should there be any differential movement here that there wouldn't be under the drive for example? I understand it if the pipe is passing through a wall, but not in isolation completely underneath the foundation. I have to make separate reinforcement over the top of the foundation to deal with any risk of the imposed loads from above irrespective of the above.

I've got two of these, similar but slightly different. The one in the photo, luckily, is immediately adjacent to a rest bend and a vertical stack, taking flow from 2 upstairs bathrooms. The 'matter' will be passing through with some velocity. The other one is slightly less so. It feels like a flaw in the system from the outset. The notion of differential movement in this case baffles me, the drainage is all in the chalk layer. In fact if you lifted the house and foundations away, the drainage would all remain. I don't really see how there will be differential movement in the same way there would possibly have been had I passed through the foundations or wall structure.

I've had to use Flexible Couplings in the drainage run either side of the point that it passes under the foundation, but they just don't make sense to me. We aspire to make our drainage smooth and free of undulations, but here the flexible couplings will allow the joint to become misaligned and thus probably create a step or an edge that will undoubtedly catch stuff as it passes over. Have I missed something here? Am I over-worrying? I've done everything I can to ensure the joints are aligned, but by design, this can change if the ground were to move. It frustrates me because I don't actually think they were important in our situation, it's just that the SE suggested them and now the BCO has taken that and clung onto it. Anyone got anything to say about these?

Sorry to hear you're caught up in this. As you'll see from earlier posts in this thread, Norfolk and Suffolk was affected by this. In fact, when it was current, it was covered in the local news when there was anything to report. We faced the same threat of not knowing how long it might last, we realised that it could be years. In fact it all blew over in a few months. To me it just seems like another of many moves to bring chaos to the country with no tangible reason.

Great, thanks for that. Does the depth relate to the concrete I'll need to successfully bed/haunch it in? The deeper they are, the pricier they appear to become.

Yes vehicles will use the drive. Likely only Supermarket vans and stuff, maybe the odd site delivery, but we can't get huge stuff up the drive anyway. The plastic cover has already had various heavy vehicles over it and has survived!! (It survived 20 loads going away in a Unimog) Wheels will go over it unfortunately. It's in a turning area. The drive is likely to only ever be gravel. It'll be set in concrete.

Yes, but I'm hoping for some guidance on what type. The last time I asked the merchant for similar they sold me covers that I know believe are for tarmac, they are very shallow.

One of the inspection chambers on our recently installed foul run is in the shared part of the driveway (shared between 3 houses including ours), it was fitted with a plastic cover and frame as a temporary measure. I would now like to replace it with a proper one. It's a 450mm Polypipe chamber with plastic risers. I'm thinking B125, but what style/type of cover is right for use in a gravel driveway and how is it detailed?