saveasteading

You will have a dpm in over the insulation, to stop the wet screed from washing through between boards (it floats!). That also provides your air tightness and yes, lap it to the walls.

Ground beneath an uninsulated slab has a surprisingly good U value in a very big building, and the insulation manufacturers have stopped mentioning it. However there are diminishing returns if you have good insulation above it, as not much energy reaches the underside. For a typical house it is about 0.8 to 1.0, which isn't great. Therefore a suspended slab should be selected for other reasons*, and then add 10mm to the insulation if you want. * on clay, on hillsides, where access is tricky for vehicles, for low skilled diy, to rise higher without lots of fill., to get a floor without weather delay risk.

The main problem with an eclectic mixer might be boredom. Might have to try lots of mixes to keep it interested. I've messaged the seller who is going to try it out. Won't be free if it works, I suspect.

I have always chosen real bricks rather than slips and am still inclined that way. This sits on conventional footings. Needs a bricklayer though. I am also recently sold on the principle of a service void internally.

It did me once upon a time. Then I included the fixings in a wall conductivity calculation. It becomes lost in the decimal places. The bolt shank is say 10mm dia. The thread doesn't matter. Consider that in proportion to the wall area. Yes real heat will pass along the fixing, but you can stop a lot of it with a cap outside. You can work the fraction out yourself, for your own comfort. The convert that to £ and you will relax about it. It is very much more important to have a permanently solid fixing, and supervise it, if not doing it yourself. I would include some redundancy in that, eg if the calculations say you need 3 fixings, use 4. Why? because things go wrong in building...eg there may be a flaw in the wall.

Photo?

Your turn to clear the pump might concentrate the mind. I lived briefly in a tenement where we took turns to clean the stair. If you didn't, big Aggie from downstairs knocked on the door! Then you did it.

Go through the normal motions. The motor only pumps air down a pipe to make bubbles go through and add oxygen (and disturb the contents), as in an aquarium. Nothing mechanical is happening. In the first chamber, the solid contents sink or float and don't move through. No harm can be done. Good toilet paper is a pulp by the time it reaches the chamber anyway. If it was my garden irrigation then I'd assume the pipe was blocked and blow along it. Don't do that unless with some device.. Or the rubber diaphragm in the pump has stuck. Again blowing through it....or not. Have you given the box a slap?

Is 'it' the pump that bubbles air through the liquor? Turning it off will do no harm. The contents will continue to separate and digest just not quite so well. Have a look to see if bubbles are coming up. Phone Marsh on Tuesday. @ProDave has changed a pump if I recall so he might be along.

A good professional tiler uses a quick setting adhesive, from powder, and holds the tile for 20 seconds...and it stays put. Amateurs use slow setting adhesive to allow for adjustment, and spacers hold it in place. I suggest you go to a tile merchant and get some stickier stuff, and spacers. Tell them and they will be helpful.

I'm sure that as a bricklayer, the branded one would be the wise choice. all day every day for a few years perhaps? thousands of hours and getting bashed with a shovel. For self build, not necessarily.

that sounds like politics to me. Wrong anyway. I have done some maths classes in schools when building there. I can't say I saw much difference in understanding or skills between private and LA schools. Of course some didn't have a clue. But what surprised me was how some who were decent at maths couldn't translate it into practicality. eg I showed them the building we were doing and asked them to work out the concrete quantity. getting the right digits was fairly common, with help, but very few could do decimal points. Does that sound right? Is it going to be half a concrete truck, or 5, or 50? No idea. One teacher said that the main help I was providing was in confirming hat I used maths (well, arithmetic) all day every day. ie it isn't only for an exam. I think you might be the answer. Volunteer as a classroom assistant immediately.

Where would they save money? thinner steel that will dent and distort. A weaker, slower motor? less stable stand (see @Nick Thomas)? there are lots of sizes. and the comparisons above are for the 110 to 130 litre range. The cheaper ones don't go any bigger though, probably for the above reasons....more steel needed. Do the branded ones reverse? for shifting stuck lumps, rinsing or for controlled discharge?

If you did , say, a dipstick test every 6 months, showed there was no sludge, and kept a log with photos, I doubt there would be trouble, at worst a warning. BUT if there was contamination and they traced it back to you, as somehow they often can, the absence of tests and desludging would add to the consequences. I wonder if there is a diy way to deal with the top crust when there is one. Mix it back into solution to be digested? Bury it?

I'm putting up a stud wall single handed. But I'm not skilled at it. I am screwing the framework once for control as i have only 2 hands. Then banging in nail gun nails for stability and strength. The gun cost me £70 off marketplace. It's a scary beast to use. If I was knocking up mass produced panels on the floor, I'd use the gun much more.

Agreed. But if you bought a screwfix one and used it hard but reasonably, and it failed in 6 months, you would take it back. Maybe it doesn't mix as well, so uses more time, and that would not suit a professional bricky. But for me mixing a barrowload or two it might be fine. Or it doesn't tilt well? or is horrible to clean?

also, the builder can realise that the SE is not unreasonable, and any future suggested change should be put forward , not done unilaterally. This joiner may have used this product on many projects and 'know' that it is generally ok, but your project may have more uplift.. OR the SE doesn't know this product which might be ok or suits some projects but not all. Both / either can learn.

What is the advantage of the Belle at £530 over a screwfix unbranded one of the same capacity for £290? I am looking for second hand but they seem to be silly prices. typically 2/3 of the new price and 'well used'.

What did they reject? I might have proposed a soakaway or sand bed perhaps 10m from the burn, to filter the water a bit more. I can see their point of view. Even a badly installed 3 chamber tank will still do most of the work, even with the power off. But one of the other types might overflow fairly neat stuff if the power went off. And we know that lots of people won't know or care about putting beach etc down the pan. I'm guessing from previous posts that your burn hurtles to the sea, and runs all year. But they can't go looking at every case. Anyway I have had a good day. My English proposal just needs a soakaway or short French drain. That is £1,000 not to spend. I will put lots of numbers down so the BCO just skims to the end. and an obvious quote of clause 1.11. I have more concern now about the roof water going to an existing trench that was dug for twice as much roof, I know works, but can't really prove. Again, it won't go to the EA so as long as the bco is happy, it is my shout. BTW I am thinking of including a large water tank in-line, to use for summer watering. If I filter the incoming water and use a pump it doesn't even need to be deep or accessible. What size would allow for keeping the garden alive during a hosepipe ban? 3m3?? £630. Will it ever repay itself? Probably not. £2/m3 x 15m3/year ??? x 20 years = £600. But the garden not dying! priceless.

On our Scottish project this was close to being an issue. The magic, fastest number seems to vary from 12 to 15. We had 17. If it is faster then I think it can still be put before the EA or in Scotland SEPA. The concern is of the sand washing away and sinkholes forming. Our sand was like rock to build on but porous with it (glacial deposits). It might cost more to prove though, than building an alternative solution. England. But I was looking for the logic behind it. If based on proper science then that could be the makings of the proposal, as the regulations are generic of necessity. Then I found the magic clause 1.11. Wouldn't you show that to the Scottish inspector if it suited? I wonder why they are not concerned though. They know it is silly? Been told to keep out of it as policy?

Absolutely. I'd end up describing my recent trip to The Glenlivet distillery. Back on subject. Not that we know where the OP is building: Since the area became of special interest I note how often the westerly rain storms fizzle out before Morayshire. Nairn has annual rainfall around 700mm. Aberlour 800mm, much of it turned into whisky. shouldn't hijack this topic though.

Quote from HSE If the site has a policy on clothing that does not allow shorts then you are expected to follow this rule. Clothing needs to protect against hazards on site. During cold weather it is important to keep warm, especially when, for example, working at height where the cold can distract and lead to loss of concentration. As I suspected it is not HSE but a site rule. Logically then, the site manager makes you wear longs for arc welding and in January. But could allow, but not insist on, shorts indoors in July. Seems sensible enough. I certainly wouldn't wear shorts clambering about in a shutter full of reinforcement. Safety boots can be hot too. Sandals or crocs?

I'm hoping I am misunderstanding the regulations. Document H , Drainage and waste disposal. Actually on reflection maybe Document H used to be silly but now is vague. The Scottish rules are still silly. So I will start with them. Quote The floor area of a sub-surface drainage trench required to disperse effluent from treatment plants or septic tanks may be calculated from the following formula: A= P x Vp x 0.25 so for a typical 6 person house with average percolation of 30s/mm. the result is 6 x 30 x 0.25. = 45m2. That is a fancy trench system measuring say 3m x 15m. Perhaps that is sensible for a septic tank outlet where the stuff is still filthy. 6 persons would produce 6 x 130 litres in a day total. Less than a m3, not all filthy, and it dribbles in. Then it says to reduce it by 20% if it is a treatment tank. (Not so long ago manufacturers claimed this outflow was almost safe to drink.) 20% reduction seems ultra conservative. In a discussion with a JCB driver in Scotland, as he lifted our treatment tank in, he said they always just put in a rubble soakaway. Perhaps 20 times he had done this. The building inspector was not interested. My submission showed a great big drainage field. With this in mind we left our drainage field at 'phase 1 of 3'. Now to the English reg's. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/442889/BR_PDF_AD_H_2015.pdf For septic tanks the same formula applies. However I don't see any reduction for treatment tanks. I'm sure it used to but perhaps sense has prevailed. At 1.54 it mentions package treatment works but is silent on what happens to the outflow. Hey... I have just found clause 1.11... It says "normally allows discharge direct to a watercourse". I am going to propose putting it into a soakaway and see what results from the bco. Does 'normally' cut it details-wise? I must admit just pointing the pipe at a copse on one occasion and the bco didn't look. But back then the reg's said nothing on the subject. Any feedback on what you have done is welcome. I guess Scottish rivers are generally much cleaner, so they don't want anything going in. But I think it is silly, and perhaps ignored. Next time I would quote the English regs. even for a Scottish project. But I am working on an English one so it is now clear. Thanks for being on this journey with me. It really has helped typing it down logically. Perhaps it will simplify the process for some others too.