crispy_wafer

Crikey, thats a chasing tail job, hope you’ve got it? How likely is that cement going to survive a winter or two? I wonder if tar or something would be better. The cement will hopefully give you a short term answer to if thats the issue

So ingress between the slab and upstand. Any way to expose outside the junction of the slab and where the upstand has been poured onto it, and then tank the bejesus all round it?

yes you could do, probably better than my effort as I used lengths of ufh expansion foam as had loads spare, just gave to the screeders to push into place when the screed was flowing. Screed both sides held it in position, not the most tidy, but it serves the intended purpose.

something that can be cut or ground flat easily after the floor has dried out. Also by doing this you may find the screed lips up a bit at the expansion joint, but again can be ground flat when the time comes.

Move the door over by another 6 inches, it would give you room for boarding and architrave too, edit: woops, sorry just seen the stairs. Ignore

Have you laid pipe and backfilled already? To be fair, I'd just redig and keep schtum about it. I really doubt they'd be too bothered. Must remember that most jobs are just box ticking exercises and it's not personal to them.

I've driven a range of machines while having a go at this build, dinky sub 1 ton micro up to a 3t Takeuchi Personally the sweet spot for me is around 2.5 range. It can be trailered, and is strong enough and has long enough reach to do meaningful jobs, and will tick over without needing full revs to do the job. Wouldn't say no to a clean sub 2 ton machine though. Still do a lovely job for ground work, levelling out, grading, ditching, lifting and carrying from a flatbed... Used takeuchi, volvo, and kubota. didnt like the volvo, the door latch was at knee height when getting in an out, got bruises to prove it. Got an old beat up kubota compact tractor so love the brand, but the takeuchi wins for me as it had a radio 🤣...

Morning all, Would anyone like to share their paid for sq/m prices for plastering please, we looking at a mixture or jobs on this build. I can work out the meterage and go from there! Float and set on the outer walls, skimming all the drylining of stud walls and ceilings that I've already done. plus framing and boarding of a /\ shaped ceiling, approx 15 boards. and all the boards I've hung will need treating beforehand as they've been up for so long... Had a couple of prices in there is a fair difference between the two, not going to moan is what it is, as we all need to earn a crust, just need to sanity check. Anecdotally the guys I've had round mention a couple of weeks work so will take that at face value. Many thanks Marek

C, would be my vote, alternatively lift roof off, and new roof trusses to span across the old and new.

@Tony L I’m prone to the odd irrational thought when things go south so please bear with me…. depending on whether the blocks in the floor are grouted in or not, I’d be tempted to hire a digger for a weekend, whip the end blocks out, sling lift the beams a few inches and rollout a wide dpc one beam at a time. That would give me peace of mind, whether it’s actually required or not I don’t know. If the blocks are grouted then this becomes a bit more difficult, and becomes a question of whether you are willing to sacrifice a pallet or two of blocks, unless they can be cleaned and reset. All becomes a question of time and if you have the will and desire, to make it how you want it. This Coming from me who was being unhappy that my builder didnt backfill to my trench blocks on the inner side, so I lifted all blocks round the perimeter and dumped in tons of mot to fill the V to solum level, whilst I was under there I fished out all the crap tins and sandwich packets they dumped, makes no difference in reality apart from my wallet being lighter, but gave me a peace of mind and thus i could sleep a bit easier.

a couple or 3 coats of Black bitumen paint on the ends would be easier, probably cheaper too.

had a mix of polypipe and floplast. no problems with either. I used weld-on 611 for solvent weld cement after having a string of poor results from using the gloop from screwfix. A tube of the lubricant from toolstation has proved invaluable too!

150mm or even 200 cavity is not uncommon these days, even on build sites. Don’t let it phase you, do more and have a comfortable new home that exceeds regs.

as above, do yourself a favour and the builders a favour, and get whoever is doing the drawings to widen the cavity and fill with woolbatts or pumped beads. PIR is great on paper, it's just not worth the expense for cavity fill. - We are not saying this cos we're mean, its just in reality so many stars need to align to get the installation spot on.

Ok, assumed having a nice tight straight angle was the go to. But I think you are onto something actually, I'm bad enough with my straight edge as it is, checking and double checking, and as it's my bedroom I'll be waking up and looking at it every day!