sheepie

Hey, Well I was expecting to pay for the foundations myself and then do the brick laying over a much longer period say 8 months working weekends. I know it sounds flippant as if I could just tear away to this but as I said I spoke to a person yesterday who had no experience before they built and while it took them 7 years they found that doing it themselves enabled them to add to their build and fund it without the need for a mortgage. But from what I am understanding here is that you are allowed to build up a mortar bed? See I thought they all had to be one level and if they were out even below ground you had essentially fluffed it. So there is scope that if two corners are out by afew mm you can just add more cement to build it up? Does the same apply for block work say you reach an end wall and there is a slightly larger gap say 10mm can you just add more mortar or do you need to try and cut a brick to fit in a slice? Presumably my Architectural Technologst can provide me with effective plans so I can do this myself e.g. if I ask him to make this as straight forward to a DIY bod vs builder they could provide more measurements and heights, no?

Going for double block dense inside and out so fully rendered so the look and feel and creating a clean pointing isnt really necessary. I've watched afew youtube videos but I think given the cost of foundations is fairly reasonable here in northern ireland is cheaper than the rest of the UK think leaving that to the pro's is the way forward. Though I will think it over. The brickie looks promising. The question I have is alot of youtube shows people starting on corners first. But how do you know that whats level on one corner is level on the other without an extremely long spirit? Like I know you can use a string line but until you are able to get a spirit over a complete course you will never truly know is that correct or is there a trick to this?

@JFDIY I thought about this but this looks way too complicated for me its one thing starting from level and keeping it that way its another trying to pin point random points on a map and hope you dig out the correct thing. Like what happens if you find your say 10 mm out on one side to another or is it just a case of cutting a brick to keep it level?

Hey Folks, Was at a persons house today and they told me that they built their entire house from brickwork up and they said its fairly straight forward if you to it slowly sprit level and take lots of measurements. I am wondering if I get a ground worker in to build it all to FFL Is blockwork something that I could attempt Has anyone else done it, Cheers

Spoke to the Building Control - Their Response: The installation of the Electrics does not fall under The Northern Ireland Building Regulations. However we would advise that they are installed by a competent person. You may wish to speak with your proposed house insurer in case there may be any requirements form them. For the record I have never had to put any electrical details down with any house insurance in the past.

See Scotland's one is interesting as on this website: run by which: https://trustedtraders.which.co.uk/articles/electrical-installation-regulations-don-t-get-left-with-unregistered-electrical-work In Scotland, notifiable work has to comply with the building-standards system. Any electrical work carried out under a building warrant (from your local authority) will either have to be approved by a registered installer (an approved certifier) or checked by the local authority. but for NI it says There is no equivalent statutory framework in Northern Ireland, although we’d still recommend you use a competent registered electrician for safety reasons. I get that filling in the Cert above I would need to carry out testing but it leaves the caveat 'I believe to the best of my ability' So If I buy and read the IET Guides to the BS7671:2018 and follow it to the best of my ability I can in full confidence said I followed the spirit of the regulations.

See I'm not completely sure thats true because if there is no way to verify the install then the cert also becomes irrelevant too? I'll contact BC to find out what they require. http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/researchandlibrary/2010/4810.pdf The NI Assembly writes: "There are currently no statutory requirements for domestic electrical installation work in Northern Ireland" "Businesses and lone traders may opt to join a number of accredited schemes that mirror the system currently in practice in Great Britain. However, this is not a mandatory factor within NI legislation. According to the NIESLG there are 550 electrical contractors working in Northern Ireland, with approximately 100 not registered with a recognised certification body. This gap in regulation has led to a number of difficulties as identified by NIESLG:"

Hi Folks, I have started getting some contacts built up and some early quotes for my self build project. I figure no matter what I build it will be a bungalow with a similar number of rooms etc. so wiring is going to be nominal in distances based on my budget (there's an outer limit to what I can build) so I can sort of ballpark what I need to do the wiring. I have been reading that there are people who are Part P registered however in Northern Ireland I have been reading this isn't a requirement. Is this true that I could literally go ahead and install my own electrics without having any form of certificate and training and have building control sign it off? I guess it sort of makes sense here as some farm wiring I've seen is absolutely shocking - I install wireless broadband.

Thanks folks, I haven't bought the site yet as the Estate Agent is closed and I want to see Building Control regs for the existing founds but I think its best I have all my ducks in a row so that I if I meet the owner of the site I don't look like a complete idiot not having a clue what I am buying. @Russell griffiths I am still on the fence about UFH as the pro for it is that it keeps the house warm all the time but the con is that it requires more pokery installing it (As I want to do a lot of the plumbing myself) to keep costs down buying ebay bulk loads for a basic 'Homerun' e.g. 1 pipe for each utility. A house I lived in before my current one had a DPM that was cut with copper pipes running from below it. All burred in a slab so of course after 2 years of wondering why I had rising damp in the bathroom we found 'boxed' pipes below a thin layer of screed which were leaking into the subfloor. I have also had several plumbers do wee jobs in my current house only to find that there are always the occasional leak. So this has put me off plumbers touching anything, I can run a very long pipe end to end and bring it out of a wall and put connectors on each end, I've fitted god knows how many Ethernet cables in conduit / pattress so pipework is very similar. Because the house is a bungalow im thinking of using metal webbed joists to the attic so I can run individual pex runs to each outlet rather than drilling a chunky joist which has a heck of alot of regs associated with that.

Hi Folks, I have had a look at some plans for a house + land that has PP and founds in place. The Construction of the sub floor is 100m concrete then goes the DPM then Insulation 100mm poly but the cut away shows a further 100mm screed But say I wanted to put UFH in does this add further to the 100mm screed or do I skip this and put in a lower 60+mm screed. The second wee question is there a difference between Liquid Screed (That seems to be laid over UFH) vs Sand and Cement mix? Cheers

Hi Folks, Looking at a property as you can see in other posts and looking to get a price for a shell only. I would be happy to project manage this myself as I would be undertaking the vast amount of work inside myself with friends who are able to lend me a hand in various trades. Do I just hire a brickie / provide the materials and let him 'have at it' or is there a way I do this? Like If I search Facebook for local brickies who have done work locally how do I approach that I want them to build to wallplate level? Do I ask for a price per block / per meter square or per job? Do I ask like (can you provide me a quote per m2 to build double block cavity 2748 bricks with wall ties spaced at 1m and 90mm kingspan with 10 mm air gap / dpc and dpm toothed in from subfloor and cavity closers for 11 windows 3 doors - built to wallplate)? Weather or not I buy the land (with existing founds) depends on what the estimates would be with regards to getting a shell up and going.

Hey, I can answer some of these questions. I do have the drawings and it looks correct - If you can see in the picture there is several soil stacks and they all lead out to the ground outside. The excavated land was to meet the reasons of PP which said The depth of any underbuilding between finished floor level and existing ground level shall not exceed 0.45 meters at any point. @dpmiller I have contacted building control at the start of the week who gave me spiel about Data Protection under GDPR and they as such cannot give me the info I require - I have asked the Estate Agent to Confirm with the Vendor that they have a building control 'Pass' certificate and that the property was built within the PP time limit of 5 years. @Declan52 You are correct that is a space for the garage but I would probably not use to keep costs down. @Declan52 Whats the deal with the moss growing - Is that just an acid wash job to get that off. In your opinion is the founds OK. Finally the land is smaller than your traditional 0.5 acre but the view is over Lough Neigh from a considerable height. Land Owner wants between 60k and 70k - I have spoken to surveyors and architects who say to put in a much lower amount of 45k. The last question I have is if I wanted the footprint slightly smaller so that its a rectangle rather than the 'L' shape.is it possible to demo the back part of the house .e.g where the garage void is and bring it in so that its a rectangle. In effect building a new foundation strip + wall. If I wanted to inspect the foundations would the vendor allow this?

I include pictures of the foundations. As you can see there is moss growing and the floor looks strange not like any concrete ive seen usually concrete is grey not a blackish colour? Also what type of foundation is this and why is it stepped like this. Is the lower step effectively were you start the outer skin / insulation. Can I salvage this site?

Hey folks,. I'm looking at purchasing a site to build a bungalow the local land owner bought up fields and put PP on them prior to Planning Permission in NI stopping the practice. As a result to keep the PP active many owners built the foundation. The property I'm looking at has a foundation that was put in 10 years ago, would this be at all usable there's moss growing on the outer bricks but the concrete subfloor has no cracks etc. The foundations are trench fill the using builders blocks upto ground level. There is one parameter brick removed and below is what appears to be type1 stone and on top is 100mm solid concrete in each room. Presumably this is the sub structure that would then have a DPM then insulation. Given the age I'm not sure what to do is it possible to reuse old founds or is it a demo and if so can the strip foundation below still be used. I find it odd them selling the land with pp and foundations for such a high price. Given no one has bought it in 10 years. Also the footprint for the bungalow is way too large and since it's an L shape would be costly so I'd be looking to get plans drawn to utilise one rectangle and then just turn the rest into a patio or drive. Is this possible or is it better to start again?