saveasteading

That is simply another layer of dpm, and it is there to stop the screed running between the insulation boards, so nothing fancy but tough enough for short term foot traffic.

Sensible. Bug this is why so many people claiming to be roofers get away with it. No fear, no checks.

There's a huge amount of light comes through any skylight. Any hole through a roof is a liability. Is there a flashing kit? Presumably your roofer knows about rain and leaks and overlapping. They don't all.

Except they use lots of aircon cooling?

It is an empty shell. structurally sound though may need some strengthening for the safety factors difference between agricultural and domestic. Maybe not....its got to be close, as it held 3m of grain against the walls. It's big. The idea is to do the structural work and make it weathertight, then do up 1/4 as self-contained and move in. Then do the rest. I've tried the Intelligent Insurance website quote system. But it isn't intelligent . It gave me a quote but then I asked a person to confirm if it knew what it was doing. ie it asked silly questions. along the lines of it's a barn conversion, self build, its a shell .....how long have you lived in it? with zero not an option. What is the rebuild cost (now or when finished?...no idea). So the real person decided it couldn't be covered. I'll try the others tomorrow. I'm not even sure what cover is needed. It's not worth a lot physically at present and could only be damaged by driving a train into a column, and it wouldn't even do much harm. so in principle public liability now, gradually increasing. then there is a stage when it is occupied in part, and I guess the nature of cover changes.

Another daughter, another self build renovation / change of use. Recommendations for what insurance / insurances we need please. It is a barn conversion in SE England. I promise more details when appropriate. Bank of M and D. It has been drifting along at lawyers' pace for many months and suddenly it is time to sign. And suddenly we realise we have to insure it. TOMORROW!! Nobody told us.

I'd need to se numbers because floors vary in construction, and sub-floors vary in conductivity. eg a suspended floor will lose more heat than one on dry sand, a long way form the perimeter. But 150mm is a sensible target. Plus a thin screed with tiles on it will release heat to the room more readily than a thick slab with laminate for example. ie the heat will go into the room before into the ground,.

What is your floor at present?

@hellopaul Is there a technical reason limiting you to 100mm? If it is just cost then it is worth finding a way to afford the extra 50mm. You get your money back in 4 or 5 years As a compromise you could try 50mm eps under 100 pir. Eps is half as good for half the cost but first the heat has to reach it. So I would consider it. Things change a bit if the building is very wide or very narrow.

Has anyone outside Scotland decided to install to the Scottish regulations? It seems sensible to me and isn't too expensive.

For diy, it really depends on your skills. If you can do it you don't realise that others can't, and vice versa. The secret is a base line. It might be an existing wall or you make your own. Then with measurements along it, you measure off at right angles to each and every feature. Then you draw it up to scale. Triangulation gives a double check. Buy 2 long tapes. 30 of 50m. Stanley of equivalent. Some pegs. Scale rule. Slopes is another matter. What accuracy do you need? Within mm or +/- 100mm? Now that is only on paper. A specialist land surveyor will have it all in 3d on cad, to hand over to the subsequent designers. With very fancy (and very expensive) kit a specialist will do it very quickly.

As does high tensile cladding. The coating itself is not expensive as it is dipped on both sides as the coil passes a bath of the stuff or sometimes sprayed, but very quickly, and is re-coiled. I recall it is about £2/m2 more than an upmarket galvanised finish. Then standing seam adds another £10/m2 plain or coloured. This may only apply to my once preferred suppliers so I'd be glad of updates and corrections. Standing seam preformed takes up a lot of lorry space as it doesn't stack. It's pretty well impossible to repair or patch neatly , so I wouldn't have it near trees where a branch might fall.

It has of course helped the local economy (and the German kitchen industry) and the money will trickle down to us all. The swimming pool will hardly get used and will end up being a nature pool. The hot tub is probably heated by treadmills operated by locals, or even badgers. It's a shame that the people are having to sell their dream home after only 2 years. Maybe they don't like it. we can only hope that they don't lose money.

The planners won't understand it, and it is not their concern who owns the land. BCO would generally agree to it if it has a certificate for their files.

That seems a lot, especially for an expensive product. The cost is simply a matter of time and rates, plus some element of risk for the contractor if he damages a more expensive product. I'm out of touch but I'd hope to do it for a similar rate to the material cost. When shown the costs and finished products they decided that they didn't mind screws after all. But I can se the attraction. so will it take 10 days say? 10 x 4 workers x £250 , then plus 40% for oncosts and margins. £14k already. Add scaffolding? I've done maybe 100,000m2 of cladding but never standing seam. No client selected it when given the options. I'm wondering if it is a sellers' market. You could ask the contractor if he knows an equivalent product that is easier to handle, as standing seam cladding products have some variation in quality and fixing methods.

Theoretically it is clean. If it has had any pretreatment and is then distributed over this huge area, the bugs will have cleared it. But I fear that most systems are incompetently built and incomplete. Therefore you should get independent testing, paid for by the vendor. Then there are the redundant trenches beneath the building. They are likely to be unsuitable for building on. You need a strategy for this and some cost set aside. I'd guess that the best solution might be trench footings to beneath the drains, then a suspended beam and block floor. Slightly more expensive than ground bearing but not too bad. And even allowing these solutions, you are at risk and the site is blighted. It should be considerably cheaper than a site without this challenge.

1. If the vendor doesn't appreciate the issue, then it is polite to advise why you will be ducking out. They may then offer a huge discount. 2. If the vendor knows and is concealing the issue no harm in applying 1. You must not have their drain under your house. And the ground has been messed with INsist they rebuilddrains on their land. Plus doundation issues. Your drains. restricted £50k discount? Or walk away. even then you need a derailed solution before committing.

Youre all getting og right by the looks of it. Plumber thinks the pump has failed. But first he has to change 2 hoses and fit stop valves. And replace the rope seal. Outside he wants to change an emergency stop valve which is on line before the tiger loop. Then he can service the boiler then see if the pump has to be changed. Meanwhile he gas given me a warning notice that the oil tank has to be changed. I thought these were scratches but he says it is uv failure in the plastic. An expensive day. Isn't there some repair and treat system? It seems not.

It makes it effectively into a beam with extremely wide flanges. A steel column or beam works by having one flange in tension and the other in compression. Keeping them apart is a steel spacer or web. The same logic applies with engineered joists. But in a SIPS panel it is a continuous block of glue separating the 2 flanges made of plywood. In a normal timber framed structure the outer face is of osb fixed onto timber studs, effectively making a lot of T beams., and for even greater strength an inner timber sheet could b added.

Welcome. What I would worry about, and needs consideration. What is the expected life? I'd hazard 20 years. I know very little about it but my thoughts are that it will work, and be very low in carbon footprint but I'm wary of trendy ideas. There has been straw around for centuries but I don't see old houses of it. Wattle and mud yes. Reeds for a roof yes. So it could be ok. Adobe works in southern Spain but not here. It gets wet in Spain where there is no drizzle, but quickly dries again. Rot is the issue. so casting rain off it and away is crucial. Achieved by keeping the straw well up from the ground and having big roof oversails. And yet these same oversails will keep some of the wind off it Have you researched these things and have answers already?

I wouldn't worry about it. Concrete laid well is barely porous. Water tanks are made from it without lining. It will get damp and stay damp but very little will rise through it. Dpc or dpm above it will suffice. The effect of the reinforcement is not important either but paint it in bitumen at the concrete interface if you like. Just build if all well.

I've got it because replacement windows had to look like Crittall. Planning requirement, rightly required as it is aesthetically correct. Nobody notices that they are dummies. There aren't any on the inside though, which reduces fiddly cleaning. I was nervous that they might fall off as they are fixed with dsst. After about 8 years there have been no problems.

That is approx an egg cup of water. Does it change with time/ weather? It seems to coincide with the spot where 2 strips of dpc coincide, so a theoretical gap back between them.??

Can I bring in a new rule that anybody who ever has bonfires is not allowed to criticise wood burners? That's not aimed at anyone, just a generality. I say that while sitting in a draughty old house with no central heating until it is fixed, and an electric heater on. I don't know what fuel made the electricity. I'm going to overcome it temporarily by doing some pruning and leaf clearing and filling the brown bin to make municipal compost. I will do it very gently to avoid any dust that is below 10 microns.

Yes, you'd expect the big developers to have their own quality control but no. Not just housing either. Our bco said he was inspecting an upmarket shopping mall development. Inspecting a floor shutter, he saw there was no steel mesh. "It's coming." Went back an hour later to find the concrete poured and no mesh in it. It's scary really. If he hadn't the integrity and some courage to go back, then that would be a dangerous building. It's all too easy to keep a bco off site if you want to. I welcome them, genuinely, albeit they can be annoying sometimes.