Barney12

I did consider the idea of selling our rock. We have what must be close to 100t we've dug out of the ground. But you have to factor in the cost of sorting and moving. Then for us we need as much ground fill as possible for other areas so what goes needs to be replaced with something else (at a cost). In the end we've decided it will just be re-buried!

Its in the ground!

Thanks guys. I had a minor panic moment after we started to dig the geothermal trench downhill which wasn't the original plan!

I have a question: If you have a 100m loop of water (in a water pipe) in a sealed circulating loop (with no air)....... If said circuit is going uphill (but of course what goes up must go down!) rather than level. Does it require more energy to circulate? In other words does it require a bigger pump?

Can't help with Vellamo but definitely a +1 on Crosswater. We used them on our barn conversion and they're as good as the day they were installed and that's got to be knocking on 10 years ago now.

Ive spent most of the last 4 days simply running around keeping things tidy. And of course making what seems like dozens of decisions "on the fly" each hour. This is my first full self build but I've done 3 full refirbs/conversions for our previous houses. I cant abide an untidy site!

Sage advice. I certainly couldn't keep up this pace. As you say though thoroughly enjoyable!

We should have it fully installed by tomorrow. I'll run a temporary power supply to it and report back on cycle times.

Ive got to be honest. I'm fecking knackered! I'm off down the pub for a well earned pint and take away fish n chips!

We're 4 days into our groundworks and the slab prep is nearly there, another day of levelling and rolling and we will have it cracked. The ground works guys (and me!) have been putting in 10-11 hours days all week. Several hundred tons of earth and rock moved and close 150 tonnes of new material added. Our split level slab makes things much more tricky! Ill be really glad when this bit is over!

The Graff tank going in today. Although the instructions supplied with the pump are limited you have to set the date and time on the unit and it definitely makes references to "cycle rest pauses".

I like it.

I think the correct term is "seam" rather than "rock"

Crikey. 30T! That's a biggun!!

Well we're certainly having some fun with groundworks this week! The quote of the day from the digger driver today was "what you have here boy is a bloody quarry" Even something as simple as a drainage trench is proving troublesome. Top middle in this picture you can see a scraped rock. We've had to get a pecker in tommrow to break it up as the 13T digger won't shift it. We've been moving rocks as big as 3-4ft all day.

Graff specification is 150mm firm base (we're going to do a weak mix of concrete on our super hard ground) and then back filled with pipe bedding/granular fill 500mm out from the tank. Ill take some photo's

So with a full stop do you bring the architrave out to the stop? I don't think I've ever seen that detail.

Good idea. I couldn't bring myself to buy the kiosk when I know I can make one for less which will blend better into the garden.

Hmm good point!

Yes direct from the quarry. Fortunately it's only 10 miles down the road.

That's my problem. Nearest building is a good 30-40 meters away. Its eventually going to be housed in a small wooden 'plant room' which is also going to house a small CU for the bottom garden electrics.

As per @joe90 other thread which I just posted in. Our Graff unit goes in this week. I'll report back. Sounds promising.

@joe90 We decided on the Graff unit in the end. This one: Link. Its going in this week and will connect to the existing outbuilding and flat so will be 'live' pretty much straight away. Well at least it will be when I fathom how I'm going to get temporary power to it! A few of points of interest: If you download the manual you'll be fooled into thinking it needs assembling. That's not the case in the U.K. they are delivered fully assembled. The manual also states that the air hoses are not supplied. Again wrong. In the U.K. they come with 20m of hose. There is as yet no installation guide for the one2clean units. It apparently hasn't been translated into English yet!!

More of an observation than anything else....... Im amazed at how muuch pipe bedding im going to need. Just to surround our Graff treatment plant needs nearly 10 tonnes. Add to that 60-70 meters of pipe to bed in. Not helped by the most ridiculous ground conditions which mean digging any thing less than a 2ft wide trench is impossible. Ho hum.

Another productive day