Gone West

It's on the side of the crusher in the picture. They're a Thanet based builders.

I can't see how it would be possible with brick and block. We have wall U values of 0.09 but that is with a 495mm overall thickness I-beam timber frame.

We only had the concrete crushed once which was with a 5000 series machine. They set the jaws at more than 50mm so we had to manually grade the crushed material through a 50mm mesh. If it doesn't pack up on you and there are enough of you to keep it fed then you can get a reasonable amount done. It depends how big the lumps are to start with and how small you want the final material. It is quicker to pass it through the crusher twice with large lumps than to try to get the size you want in one pass unless the lumps are small to start with.

23C is the perfect temperature in the house and car for my other half, although she is quite happy if it's 25C. Ahh, Edinburgh now I understand.

I find this useful. Pipe Sizes and Dimensions Chart.doc

The table below shows dimensions for male threads and the number of threads per inch (TPI) : British Standard Pipe Thread Sizes BSP Size Outside Diameter TPI 1/16" 7.7mm / 0.304" 28 1/8" 9.7mm / 0.383" 28 1/4" 13.16mm / 0.518" 19 3/8" 16.66mm / 0.656" 19 1/2" 20.99mm / 0.825" 14 5/8" 22.99mm / 0.902" 14 3/4" 26.44mm / 1.041" 14 1" 33.25mm / 1.309" 11 1-1/4" 41.91mm / 1.650" 11 1-1/2" 47.80mm / 1.882" 11 2" 59.61mm / 2.347" 11 2-1/2" 75.18mm / 2.96" 11 3" 87.88mm / 3.46" 11 4" 113.03mm / 4.45" 11 5" 138.43mm / 5.45" 11 6" 163.83mm / 6.45" 11

I paid £200 all in for a mornings work.

I sincerely hope there won't be any future DIY for quite some time. The build has cured me of any desire to do DIY .

I used Sika Proof and not had any problems. I've got these three on Freecycle at the moment.

It is possible to get an A without PV. We got an A(95) without PV and IIRC I was told it would be an A(103) with 3.6kW system.

Great looking area. Good luck with the build.

Yes I have an Internorm PH door that is flat faced and keeps the rain out.

Yes that is what happened to us. We had to start paying council tax in January but moved in, in April. The house was signed off in February, although not complete. We submitted our claim in May, two weeks before the deadline of three months after sign off.

We have a grey squirrel that has suddenly appeared in the garden. There have never been grey squirrels around here because there is no woodland or significant trees other than orchards. It is being a pain chewing the bird feeders so I'll have to go into the loft and get my Weihrauch.

We have that colour grout in the ground floor tiles and it still looks ok with just over a year of use.

Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your project. I'm not so sure about putting plant in the attic as some friends did that and are now taking their MVHR out and putting it somewhere more accessible.

Welcome to the forum, ask away, and good luck with the build.

So as far as you know it is still possible to fit a DIY PV system and have it signed off by an electrician but just not be able to claim for anything. Is that UK wide?

@Samhelliwell Congratulations, nice looking house.

This is the question from 2014. I'm struggling to get my head round the physics (is that the right word?) of a timber frame construction, so you will have to bare with me on this one ---- so looking on a typica timber frame wall build up, 1 - plaster board layer 2 - a vapour impermeable layer (this stops the water vapour inside the house being pushed, pulled or otherwise drawn into the wall construction and hence stops condensation within the wall. 3- the timber frame and insulation 4 - wall sheathing 5 - a wind proof breathable layer (this is to allow any moisture within the wall to exit into the big wide world). 6 - a rain shield layer of some sort, cladding, bricks or block (rendered). So do we need a sheathing layer and the wind proof breathable layer? What exactly are we trying to achieve? These are the full answers from Tom Foster. 1 - yes 2 - leave it out altogether - although still mainstream, recent research, WUFI modelling and bitter experience shows that vapour resistance at this (or any) point in the wall buildup is BAD. It's a myth that water vapour originating from inside is the problem in walls - walls can't help containing enormous amounts of moisture, hopefully safely in vapour form, not condensing to liquid at any point - and 95% of that originates from outside and ebbs and flows diurnally and seasonally. Don't try to block it - the drying out needs to happen both outward and inward. An inboard VCL halves the drying potential of the wall, which may never dry out, but increase its water content year by year. VCLs used to work, still just do for mere Bldgs Regs levels of insulation, but accidentally IMO, as an air barrier rather than as a vapour barrier as everyone imagined. Now, with v high levels of insulation, VCLs are bad news. 3 - yes - but only vapour permeable insulation i.e. not closed cell PIR, PUR etc. 4 - yes 4a - Now you need more vapour permeable insulation, right across the external face including the studs, which on the system you describe are a straight-through uninsulated thermal bridge. External insulation will almost entirely kill that bridge. You need 250-300mm of insulation; unless you have studs that deep, it can't all go between the studs; part must be in additional layer outside the sheathing. 5 - yes 6 - but masonry will require an outboard foundation, so vastly increasing your foundation dig, muck-away costs, lots more concrete, greater effective 'footprint'. Cladding will need to be hung from the eaves. Instead of both 5 and 6, patent thin-coat render direct on the external insulation is by far the cheapest. You need a layer that's impermeable to air (but very permeable to vapour) at some point in the sandwich - doesn't matter where. In addition a windproof layer outboard, if your outboard insulation is fluffy or has an 'open' surface - EPS is a little bit 'open' so prob needs that; PIR/PUR are not 'open' so don't need that. This windproof layer is usually also the 'breather felt' layer, laid close fitting at well lapped joints. Don't trust sticky tapes anywhere. The breather felt is well enough water proof to catch any water that may get thro the rain shield. It must be very impermeable to vapour; it won't be very air-impermeable but good enough to keep blasts of wind off the insulation face. Don't take my word for all this unless paying me a consultancy fee - check it to your own satisfaction.

It was the same for us. At seven weeks I went in and asked if the application was likely to be approved and they hadn't looked at it either. The excuse was loss of staff and having to sort out a new planning policy. They ended up refusing everything and after appeal we went to committee and won unanimously.

Could you make a small perspex window in the cover?

Just check you're comparing like with like. Does £1000/m2 include foundations? If so is it an average price for foundations, getting out of the ground can vary enormously.

I used a roll of s/s wire wool used to fill exhaust silencers on racing cars. Can be bought quite cheaply.

So the question for you is, do you want all the hassle of doing a self build to be marginally better off on the valuation at the end.