Tom

Wouldn't taping the joints of the PIR form a VCL in itself?

*insert quip about home automation and daylight robbery here. Thanks all. I'll see what they say, would want to make sure I put in whatever cabling I need so if I suddenly get an epiphany and want to switch on the toaster when I'm at the in-laws then I can.

Right, I'm going to see someone tomorrow local to me who specialises in home automation. Looks like they deal with Lutron products. I know NOTHING about home automation, and tbh am none the wiser really having read the posts in this forum. I can just about cope with a dimmer switch. I'm not sure really what I'm after but hoping I will be convinced of it's worth tomorrow. I guess I want to make sure I put in whatever cabling I need at this stage, to give me good options later. Does anyone have any views on Lutron products? Future proof? Are there any pertinent questions I should ask? Thanks all

I'm hoping 6 weeks. Once the floors are poured they are on to the Nudura walls. Which is supposedly their forte. Lol.

Builders back on site today. Putting in the rebar mesh ready for the pour of the floors. What a sh*t show. They started to stack it all up ignoring the flying ends etc, so in some areas there was a risk of the concrete cover being too thin - and even some rebar sticking out. Oh, and they managed to tear the DPM in about a dozen places - which I have just gone round repairing (resulting in me gashing my thumb quite deeply). That's of course not counting the DPM that was laid too low along one entire wall so it won't even reach the top of the slab. FFS. Not a good day! Need some positives here. Lasagne now, so there is that I guess...

Thanks both ?

Yep, gonna pay monthly rather than weekly - and withold the last until I'm - and whoever I bring in to do the roof - are satisfied.

I feel I shouldn't do anything while I'm still feeling so livid, Steamy. I'll see what the next few months bring, who knows they might actually hurry up and want to get it done and on to easier jobs - so might work out better in the end. I'm more than willing to give impartial, candid advice to anyone looking at doing a Nudura build in the south west any time soon!

So I need a water treatment system for our borehole water - which are much cheaper in the states. I can buy one through eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112506683908?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20201210111314%26meid%3D392f242fe5b34ae6a3fe24db85b5a1d5%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D112506667078%26itm%3D112506683908%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv9PairwiseWithPLXWeb&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851&amdata=cksum%3A112506683908392f242fe5b34ae6a3fe24db85b5a1d5|enc%3AAQAGAAACAK0l6ZcXn1Nff0PwyrujJdRi1WQkXspBwrA7EEu5GTTIGIOpNnFrIzj7j8v0hUj1hTlncb4lneImdJ3bq8XBX4zGfjOwMJfkgt9%2BpL9nE%2F94uyoyFQclTZmHxdY7K7usfBzn8DqVH9%2FrYdeVEbCkimUnVvqYoJko5X%2BbiTyuDj4DLWXW9dyjSc9ggDA%2FfyaF2EvkAJi7452WQL6OynDfhs3BbLBCuNm1Zt%2B9Kvtxhbun9a%2Ffa0CgEiQLMgwVD1KrCE6Tz3sWhJYdCsZNoVA%2BgzgCn%2FfakA%2FJuyxbQWyGQoo9AxrsQ0jUscddqdK8oSx8eSMyI%2Fn%2FHBpaeg1kFYATHzOa5DqIrc7c7Izr4zuFAQXyICMrQ7%2BOHbj8iD12cmDFb0siXo5%2B9KCH%2BuswefptkF5UHII3orhYciJy20EhdeVOMdkLSoc6l6TWFrFHycBwlwbSRHJn0w%2BBd8ip83OGi0Zgh%2BElSo1C%2BNsGqVyNWtVszBGw6ayafcj%2BkhmWD90egAFePPZHyRr6Mj1klVo%2FeYOPmbRSFzxzspXaHvpstGPygKrUs2D7mvtxuQiRsmPqa6SayrbSj4DiXur5Z8%2BikgWJ5Hr9%2BF6sZVTfNCsYiH%2BEqeVjLiw3Y3UmZ2ws6Se%2BhkiGxyM3el20GNq0WQNFBaNV7Ppr74aDnYC4UY4aoIx7|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2047675 But it says there are import charges of 200quid or so. Is any of this reclaimable?

Yep, bought our blocks from Tim - and our builder is one of the ones on his list. Same here! I'm going to pay them monthly, and withold the last month until it's all done to an acceptable standard.

Sure, but the thing is they haven't quoted - I'm paying by the hour: however difficult or long it takes I'm paying them come rain or shine! No risk to them, all the risk on me. So, update: no one turned up yesterday. Got a message to call one of them in the morning but got no answer. Finally a call from them this morning: "we're leaving your build, mate". He tried to throw all sorts of excuses at me but at the end of the day it's a complicated, difficult build - yes, taking more time (which I'm paying for) but it actually involves some brainpower. Easier to jump ship and build a box with 4 equal sides - which is what the've done. I called the more senior of the two, and after some negotiation they have agreed to come back and finish the nudura walls and the floors - but of course fit this in around the garage they are now building. Oh, and 10% on everything going forward (only concrete really) - but they want this backdated to cover the stuff I bought before too (1.5k approx). We have no option really. We need it done. We can't wait for another Nudura specialist to become available (yes, it's a one day course I know, but that doesn't mean you can actually build a house after watching a few PowerPoint presentations). This level of unprofessionalism I find staggering, but I guess not paricularly unheard of. I will not be leaving a good review on Tripadvisor.

Might think along these lines, though any fixed price is definitely going to be at a premium, especially if they feel they have some room to make up if they have not made enough up until now. Could suggest paying the 10% at the end - then this puts me in a good position come snagging etc

Hmmm, some days do seem like very light days - but that's the nature of a build I guess, things seem to go in fits and starts. Or perhaps it's just mine... It's charged on the hours used. It's been on site for several months give and take. Use it regularly to shift things around, been used a lot last few weeks to shift lots of soil etc. Otherwise seems quite useful to have it there I guess

Thanks all. Interesting to hear the mix of views. I pay the two main guys 25/hr each, then their labourer 15/hr (he makes glaciers seem like theyr're moving fast), and another younger chap who is actually very capable at 13/hr. Compared to all that the 10% they want to charge on materials seems quite minor! Thanks James, I might take you up on that. I'm paying by the hour so any handling is on me anyway. I agree if it was a fixed price the cost of the plant would have been included, as I'm paying them per hour then I guess paying for the manitou by the hour is reasonable. Yep, which is why if I'm paying them by the hour any extra handling (which there isn't) would be paid by me anyway I would definitely be tempted to do this, but we are now getting to the bit of the build when the walls should go up quickly and I need their experience with working with Nudura. At te end of the day, this extra 10% might cost me an additional 5-10k or something. Not a massive amount in the grand scheme of things.

The other thing they handed me a bill for was for the hire of their manitou. They are charging me this at £30/hr + diesel. So far 38hrs. Does this seem reasonable?

Yep, I think you're right It's their own fault TBH. Typical builder thing of just picking the phone up and ordering from TP - and why not, it's not them that's paying at the end of the day! Their mesh rebar price 117/sheet, I found online within about a minute searching for 103... The only other big ticket things will be the concrete for the floors and nudura walls, timber for the roof, insulation for the roof and corrugated sheet for the covering. ...assuming they aren't expecting 10% on the MVHR, UFH, ASHP etc etc!

Hmmm, yeah, I feel I need to check everything though. Especially since they built a wall in the wrong place.... We have no other options unfortunately, we're building in Nudura and there are no other builders free with any experience with this. We're at the stage of the walls going up now, so hopefully we can see things through to a watertight shell then part company.

...and applying retrospectively, contrary to the prior agreement? Hmmm, no.... ?. More of a "my word's my bond, mate".

Evening Ladies and Gents So, my builder pulled me to one side today and said that they are thinking of quitting the build - either that or they want more money. The current deal is I am paying them an hourly rate (I know, I know, this was the only way...) and then 10% on any materials that go through their trade account. This was with the caveat that I could source my own materials and buy them myself if cheaper. This I have done on a couple of big items (eg floor insulation 5k, rebar mesh 10k). Now they are saying they want to take 10% on all materials, whether through their account or bought by myself AND apply this retrospectively to the insulation and mesh. I was willing to renegotiate, and said so - but TBH it sticks in the throat a bit that they are now wanting to apply new terms retrospectively. I'm of the view that if the terms they agreed at the start have not worked out, then that's on their head, and they'll know for next time. A renoegotiatin of our agreement going forward is OK with me. What's your view?

We're using mars bars for our pour on to EPS: https://tzursteel.co.uk/products/concrete-square-bar?variant=31227315028026 Then these deck chairs between the two layers of mesh: https://tzursteel.co.uk/products/continuous-wire-chair-2m-lengths-each-spacer-from-50mm-to?variant=27962143571991

Thanks mate, it's all been passed by our LABC. The ground has been compacted well. A few mm drop would not be enough for convection currents, esp as it's all sealed, and the air gap might even improve U values!

The ground isn't going to settle now, we've built back up and compacted well, there will be no possibility of ventilation under the slab either, so I'm sure it'll be fine. I think that's a good idea re keeping boxouts around the pipes. I think we'll do that when we pour the lab so we have greater scope for adjustment later on.

Ha, yes it was top of the design brief... No, the floor was designed like that due to the nature of the ground. I's an agricultural site, made ground etc. As it was, we ended up digging out most of the made ground down to original ground level so could have made everything back up to spec and had a ground bearing slab. Hey ho, you live and learn I guess. Anyway, we are where we are so will be having this mental floor make up. Not yet. How critical is positioning of the shower waste pipe at this stage though? How much bodging-room do you have to play with if you have a 75mm screed to alter/shutter/hack out? If I'm T-ing in to the 110mm stack with the shower waste as indicated in my diagram above, how can I be certain it won't empty the shower trap/gurgle etc? Are there rules of thumb with regards the design of this? Found this: https://www.marleyplumbinganddrainage.com/support/installation-advice-and-help/design-advice/soil-and-waste-design-advice/ which seems to indicate my proposed design should be OK.

Thanks mate. I was initially confused a bit by the proposed floor make up but it is a suspended floor as you describe above, in that it is supported on the perimeter by blockwork. The slab itself is spec'd to have two layers of A393 rebar mesh in it. It is designed to take internal blockwork walls laid directly on it with no need for extra footings etc underneath. The EPS is the lowest compressive strength available (EPS70) as it will not be taking any of the load from the slab. We went down this route as the ground we are building on is pretty much all made ground and this way we take all of that uncertainty over what is underneath out of the equation. It also means we can add/move blockwork walls with carefree abandon in the future if we were so inclined. We're just coming up to floor level now and doing the last bit of oversite preparation before putting the blinding and DPM down. One more question, where should I be aiming to bring the shower waste up - how close to our proposed shower location? I'm guessing we will run a shallow fall of pipework from this to the shower trap itself within the screed?

All plans have been passed by BC, but TBH they are light on detail with regards the drainage. I spoke to BC two days ago and they were, typically, fairly non-commital.