saveasteading

Here's my take. Thermal mass is great as it helps to even out the temperatures in extremes. It is especially good at catching extreme heat in summer and in hot places. However in UK we really need to keep expensive heat inside the building, rather than heat the structure. So we provide an insulated box which can be made of anything. Mass outside the box helps but is not critical. Fridges and freezers are a good reverse example: they don't need mass.

sado here. They should be very useful if only the formulae weren't written by impractical people and if so many assessors weren't either ill-informed or worse. as long as the developers can choose the unit they want to air test then it is useless and pointless. Perhaps one reason why the developers chuck so much money at certain mps.

100 litre will do for diy as it comes fast enough for mix/barrow without exhaustion by mid-day . 10 x 20kg bags per mix is a lot of humping. I'd want bigger if employing a labourer though. That is £290 at screwfix. Well used and who knows the condition? £50 as a risk.

Well done the groundworkers and/ or setting out team.

We can all feel good along with you.

Nothing wrong with that. Also works round corners. Doesn't go out of adjustment....ever. One improvement would be to use Irn Bru for easier reading. I have used one in a basement underneath a factory, where nothing else would have worked. I bought a hitech equivalent that uses pressure differences, so it works up- hill/ stairs.

It may have been you I got this from. This makes you a guru. Having had groundworkers make huge mistakes with lasers I added this to my other lotech methods. Battens bashed into footings showing pour level. Nails in sides of trenches ditto. Golf balls to show falls on slabs and check drain runs. All highly recommended.

For a period of over 6 months it is cheaper to buy than hire. Plus, at the end of a hire, all the damage and loss has to be paid for. Then they sell it off. The going rate on "Marketplace" seems to be between £10 and £20 for a panel with a foot and clips, mostly acc to quality and damage. That seems fairly high when there's so much around. And then there is transport

The best thing I learnt in preparing for it was to use a 'prepared' spirit level, jacked up at one end with spacers blocks and sticky tapes.. that made it so easy compared with jumping in and out of the trench to use a hi-tech machine. or buying a fancy laser. I'm sure that the errors of 1/2mm every time added up, but you can always do a proper check occasionally.

But it will be a tiny dia pressure pipe full of macerated stuff. Might it settle and congeal? I don't know but I haven't heard of problems. As I said though, I'd put it in a 4" pipe so it can all be pulled out just in case. That's if I did it, and I might not. I might instead build a mini reed bed or dry compost. Or go indoors. Or use a a bottle.....cost zero. It is all so much more fun when it is someone else's decision.

that's on the list. but they seems to go for just 1/3 less than on Marketplace, then there is transport, so barely worth it. at the recent sale a 'box of drainage fittings' sold for £40 for about 100 bits. some were very obscure though. I would have to design the drainage around the bits. I'm looking at some cls and ply that I was about to order anyway. but if it isn't well under half the best new price then somebody else is welcome. I am using Wickes for the cost comparison. less 10% discount, less VAT. Then as you say add VAT sometimes and there is 10% commission. I will have every lot costed first and won't budge over my figure. A mixer will be the biggest risk I may take. They don't seem to let you do much with them here. You can't run an electric mixer in the middle of a field. Viewing is same day from 90 minutes before. I might be on here again next week asking how to get it going.

Its a good idea , saving money on hiring and disposal, and priming the tank for real action. as @joe90says, it is temporary and so the bco will not be interested in the pipes until the final run goes in. If it blocks then you can clear it. But the digester and soakaways have to be right and inspected. But beware the levels. Joining the dots is fine as long as all the falls stay within the design parameters. But things go wrong. Spirit or laser levels can be out of adjustment. Groundworkers , if you are using them, don't necessarily understand geometry or how laser levels work. You may encounter obstructions and have to revise the design. On our steading project I did the design and the hands on laying. When we found obstructions (big boulders, other pipes) we could make informed decisions as we went. These always mean going steeper for a bit, although bigger pipes was an option. the digester ended up 100mm lower than the original design. as it went in last it didn't matter, but the hole was getting uncomfortably deep. You don't want to end up lower than the tank intake, or to have a flat last run to make it fit.

I'd expect the same applies at dispersal sales whatever the reason. It was probably working until they ceased trading. I thought that would be a bit sad but nobody seems to think that way. But at the 'bring and buy' auctions there could be all the junk. I'm going anyway. It is a good day out for people watching. Many of the attendees appear to be dressed up as cartoon farmers (tweeds and Barbours or dungarees as appropriate), and most are there for a day out and a look at the tractors. I think I will lay off the expensive plant, except maybe a mixer, and wait for them to appear in private sales when I can see it working.

You are right though. This isn't good enough, leaving you to sort the clever stuff out.

Done. For the project that starts now, not the one that is finishing @LindaP Interesting. I didn't understand some of the questions, which suggests we see sustainability differently. I've found that before. My company entered a sustainability award process once, and they told me after that 2 of the judges gave 100% because of innovation, attitude and leading the way, whereas 2 gave low marks because they didn't understand that efficient design is saving materials (and carbon) and because we weren't using wind turbines, solar panels gshp etc. The next ear I made it easy for them, explaining every decision and colour coding. For example the question on how much we were spending on sustainability. Nothing is my real answer, as it is all designed with sustainability in mind. How do you put a cost against not doing something, or making use of the existing structure in a novel way. You include gshp but we know that many are installed where they shouldn't be. So is it the decision to do something that interests you most, or the best decision? The end of the building's life could be an interesting question too. is it going to be easy to dismantle and recycle? where does the eps go? We are not installing solar. does that count against us? Or is it a pragmatic decision that it will require carbon to make it, and to reinforce the roof, that may never be recovered in energy harvesting I wonder how different the answers from BH will be to those who are less hand-on and less technical. eg having a house built completely by others. I am not criticising. It has made me think how difficult it is for you to set these questions, and that we are not all aiming for the same thing.

It is timber sitting on concrete, so it makes sense to avoid any chemical reaction for very small cost. As above, it would be a shame for that roof to be sucked away by a gale. Uplift loads can be huge. It needs expert specification for the fixings. An SE for the loads and experienced roofer for the practicality. I don't know for sure but most domestic roofing has battens and an air gap. This is sitting on the pir. Apart from any condensation issues, the pir might crush or the fixings rip the metal under foot traffic, unless thought out.

So one of us is wrong. Tables show that 50m is no problem for a £300 unit. Speak to the manufacturers...they might just know. @Russell griffithswould be worried about a blockage. My ducting insurance with a pressure pipe all the way in it makes theoretical problems sortable. Big commercial pumps have a big tank in case of power cut, and a spare pump in case one fails. your plan b is to go round the back and plan c is to go into the house.

You are suggesting that end of life junk is not normally submitted or accepted?

The grandchildren think I can fix anything. That respect can only drop with time. Glue, cleaning, nuts and bolts..yes. Engines, no.

I'm going to an agricultural auction and have my eye on some basic materials and tools that will come in useful. At a previous one I went to for experience, this sort of stuff sold at about 10% to 50% of the best competitive quote for new. Trailers were selling for about 1/3 less than they would be on Marketplace. I was surprised to see Stihl hedgecutters etc going for £400 or more, because surely there is a risk. Or more likely the people buying them work with them all the time and can tell. But cement mixers / lawn mowers / mini excavators. How do I have the faintest idea that they work well or at all. when thy are sitting in a field and not testable. Or is there some honour among farmers? If things were regularly useless then the auctions would soon enough be regarded as dumping grounds and avoided.

yes, we were using it instead of it going into a tank for later sucking out. But the OP here wants it for a mancave, so nobody else is there and he is busy washing his hands as he hears the pump. It is a cumulative thing. If it can lift 3m for example, then that includes 1m down and 4m up again.

That is normal. remove the gravel then either wash it and reuse or replace it. The mucky gravel can be renamed 'free draining compost' as loved by succulents and herbs, Good idea. A small pipe will be enough to shift that small amount of water. Make sure hat it can't work in reverse.

a saniflo costs £300 ish and will do the job comfortably. I would put the small dia pipe inside a drain pipe though as a duct in case it need sorting in 10 years. I once put one on a site serving a double toilet and about 12 to 15 workers, pumping about 15m, and it worked for a year.....and so we moved it to the next job and it worked for ages too. Each model will have a spec stating a distance OR height gain, but you need to find the graph that combines the two. for some reason a pump station has to have a tank that holds a day's worth of content, but a saniflo doesn't.

That can't be an oil spill. I'd say it is a slight level change causing puddling and slower drying very locally. You probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for your general, and justified, unhappiness about the colour change. If it did happen to be a surface skim of light oil then in time, 6 months? it will be consumed by algae, or you could wash it off.

I'm not really sure what the detail is. Is this beam outside, forming a porch sort of space? I'd avoid expanding foam except for any small inaccessible spaces. Instead, fill the I section with rockwool. The rigid type used in cavity walls which is also waterproof. Or pir. Cut to shape and pressed into the spaces in the beam. Fix some more to the underside. Then box around the beam in cement board. Obv the hole in the wall need to be filled and insulated too. Do deal with it. It matters even if some people don't understand it