LSB

My Henry was one I acquired from a company that went bust when I was 23, my first job after uni and it wasn't new then. It's still going strong now and I'm in my 60's so it's in its 40's. Cleaned the fire out with it today.

We can do the 11th as long as we are back by 10:30pm to lock up the village hall so leaving at 10pm. We are IP17 so Woody would be best for us.

when and where and we'll try and make it, can't promise as depends on other commitments though

Hi guys, won't be there. why is it that life gets in the way of building life. All sorts of shit going on at the moment and build not really happening. I really thought when our daughters grew up it would get easier, but not at the moment. We'll be back to action at some point, but don't buy us a drink as it'll just be left for now.

We've been to a few shows, but found all windows / build kits and nothing really useful for physical self builders. At the time we wanted to talk foundations, drainage, build systems except timber frame & ICF. A bit of MVHR, but really just sales.

Check if you have CIL in your area. Good luck and welcome

unfortunately not as this is a conversion and the floor slab is already in situ hence drains on top of the foundations. We need something to get the drain drop and the height below the DPC

I am cutting a small channel through my foundations to run a 110 mm foul water drain. I need to get the top of the pipe 150mm below external damp proof. The concrete is as hard as hell. Question is do I need to allow any gap around the outside of the pipe top on bottom as it passes through the foundations at the bottom and the lintel that will run over the top or can get be a snug fit ?

another vote for JP metalworks. My husband worked in the factory opposite them for 10 years and they were always friendly and helpful.

Hello Our SE has specified a reinforced concrete (RC) slab with 2 layers of B1107 mesh with make-up of: castles 50mm up mesh chair 100mm mesh 50mm above totally 200mm How do I put 110 waste drain through this, as in is it okay to cut a channel and keep the integrity of the mesh. SE and BC both asked and both very reticent and slow with replies and we'd love to get on. There will also be 50 PIR above slab (more below already) and 50mm screed. Thanks

family stuff gone tits up so off to Bristol to try and help, so won't be there.

as usual it depends on work, but hope to

Hello We have an internal wall that will support the roof, these are 7.3 150 * 215 * 440 (so wide) hollow concrete blocks. What's the best way to join a 90 degree intersection with standard size blocks which are thermalite. These To these The concrete ones will be filled with mortar and will be the top of the 'T' for internal walls and the vertical of the T joining the cavity wall. rough picture below. The cavity wall also goes the bottom side of the celcon. Do we use one of these Or, tooth the blocks into each other.

We've been out of action for a bit with family, but let us know what's agreed and we'll try and come.

what's the plan guys, this week or next month this week now tricky, due to Sizewell taking over our airbnb and wanting us here to babysit Rumanians. When they offered us the money we thought 'great', but now it's becoming a bit of a pain and almost not worth it (until they have left) 8 weeks of them and they don't speak English and I don't speak Rumanian, and they eat smelly food 🙂

where and what time

I started this post out of interest, it's not meant in any way as a criticism of people who 'get others to do things'. If we won the lottery, more than a tenner 🙂 then I would try to persuade HID to do less and get more help, but he probably wouldn't as he doesn't trust others. He's there now on Sunday morning working on blocks for a tricky corner. That said I need to go to work at lunchtime, so not much difference except mine provides a tiny amount of money for bills.

I can't see you slowing down until it's finished and you are living a life of luxury in all those cafes in Woody.

We can't do the 28th, going to the theatre in Norwich

Time moves on and so does the build, albeit much slower than most of the builds featured in blogs. Over the past 4 months we have dug out, cleared and prepared our 2nd phase ready for the groundworks, as in all the stuff that goes in the ground, costs lots of money and is never to seen again. The next wall to be replaced and the old roof to be removed. This is one of the original walls, but it only had 200mm foundation so was not saveable. Cleared Trenched, this is where we had to get the SE to visit, he said we had clay and needed 2.4m trench originally. The BCO visited and said 'you're having a giraffe'. A site visit was arranged between the two of them and 1m was agreed. Of course this cost of circa £500 for a bit of paper from the SE to change the original drawings. Concrete pumping, these guys were brilliant and come greatly recommended. I think G&J had the same peeps. Certainly beats the previous trenches which we raked despite the extra cost Then we needed to dig down for the insulation and floor pour. BCO cleared us to use our own sand for blinding. Then insulation, DPM, more insulation & mesh And the next pour, again with the pump, in 30 degree heat. 22 cbm of the stuff. and our new levelling tool, a bull nosed float, hired for £17 for a week, which gave much better results than our previous raked floor in phase 1. It will, of course, be screeded with UFH when we get to that stage, but lots of walls to be built first. And drains and windows and doors. As per one of my other posts we did have some blocks knocked over for the single wall by the pipe, but looks like that is because of light blocks and hot temperatures. We also had to keep some of the existing foundations and walls as this is a conversion so we need to sort our drainage with those. Talk again when walls are up, in about another 6 months probably 🙂

Welcome, what part of the country are you in.

We can do the 21st & 28th

self build by hubby, he decided on these because they are only 9k whereas the solid ones are 18k and when he started he found them too much. He's stronger now after all the work so changing will be feasible.

no lime added 😞

A mortar question for you guys. I am laying Celcon 7.3n blocks using a mortar mix of 5 to 1 (measured out by eye on the shovel) with blue circle cement and building sand from Travis Perkin and an additive to help the mix. The problem that I am getting is after a week or so the strength of the joint is surprisingly weak with little effort or pressure required to break the block off usually with a neat break with the mortar “delaminating” from the adjacent block or concrete foundation. Where am I going wrong ? What do I need to do to get a stronger bond. We had concrete floors poured on Friday and there pump pipe knocked down 4 blocks as they went from area to area. The wall has gaps for doorways so is only 4 blocks, is it just that this is too few blocks for a very heavy pipe. Obviously, as it's built up it will be supported by lintels above the door ways. The blocks were laid weeks ago, prior to us preparing the floor ready for pouring.