Mesh Castles

[LA3222]

Is there such a thing as too many? I was looking at some pictures on here for how the UFH manifold is temporarily supported (installing mine at the weekend) and noticed that on all the images there is a distinct lack of mesh castles?

 

I thought i needed to put in enough to stop it flexing too much whilst walking on it - i think now that i may have been overzealous?

 

[Russell griffiths]

That looks cock on. Well done ??

[Cpd]

What a great looking site ! 

[Dreadnaught]

Really nice job!

 

I'm looking very closely as I'll be doing mine before too long.

Those photos are before the installation of the UFH pipe? 

Is that 3x stack pipes?

And what looks like three service conduits (green, blue and black), presumably in the area of a kitchen/utility?

 

[LA3222]

Cheers @Russell griffiths, your feedback along the way has helped a lot.  Sometimes I wonder if being a first time self builder is a double edged sword, invested enough to want everything perfect without the prior knowledge to know when something is 'good enough', so making life hard for yourself ?‍♂️

 

Thanks @Cpd, it's not too shabby, especially in the summer when everything is in bloom!

 

 

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, LA3222 said:

Is there such a thing as too many? I was looking at some pictures on here for how the UFH manifold is temporarily supported (installing mine at the weekend) and noticed that on all the images there is a distinct lack of mesh castles?

 

I thought i needed to put in enough to stop it flexing too much whilst walking on it - i think now that i may have been overzealous?

 

 

Neat...looks like a bloody CAD rendering! ?

[LA3222]

15 minutes ago, Dreadnaught said:

Really nice job!

 

I'm looking very closely as I'll be doing mine before too long.

Those photos are before the installation of the UFH pipe? 

Is that 3x stack pipes?

And what looks like three service conduits (green, blue and black), presumably in the area of a kitchen/utility?

 

I intend to do the UFH pipe this weekend, yes its three soil stacks and four service ducts into the plant room.  Black 110mm to run SWA in, grey next to it for phone line, green and blue are to run water into and out of the house (green because it's what I had to hand!).

 

It's been some graft doing this, approx 180m2, mainly by myself.  Had a few days help from father in law and a mate as well as the missus who has put in a few days graft tying steel (didn't do her back any favours!).

 

To be honest the weather was the thing that probably took its toll the most.  Gets really windy on site and I was out in it all trying to meet a deadline (self imposed as I want the house up at start of April) for the concrete pour.

 

Made mistakes - normally due to rushing and thinking 'that'll do'....it usually doesn't!

 

The sand blinding was the first mistake and it affected other things.  A  it if a saga to explain but I should have done a second pass (nearly did). The surface wasnt flat and the EPS ended up not sitting right, after a lot of cutting and glueing I scrapped it, pulled everything off and redid the sand.  It was much better this time and the EPS just butted nicely together.

 

Didn't put profiles out.  Yarp stupid, I thought about it but once I'd got one wall marked out I assumed I could plot the other corners to that and then fill in from corner to corner.  No.  What looks straight to the eye is not, the walls wandered out by up to 30mm on the longest run.  Scrapped it again, put profiles up and then it was easy.

 

Rookie errors which cost me time.  Frustrating as I considered them but dismissed it and cracked on only to have to do it as I was thinking to

 

Nearly got a slab though so things are good - until Corona virus gets in the way?‍♂️ 

[Dreadnaught]

Very informative, @LA3222. Thank you!

 

Water goes out of the house for what reason? Just an outside tap?

Will you have any drop-downs in the slab for door mats, door thresholds, shower wastes, etc?

Any cables or conduits going through the slab to floor boxes or to a kitchen island?

Are you having a heat pump? Where do those pipes go?

 

[Danny68]

I second what Dreadnaught has said and thanks Dreadnaught  for bringing up the additional  questions it's the attention to detail  that will make a good build,  now I need to remember to ask myself those before I do my slab .

[LA3222]

7 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

Very informative, @LA3222. Thank you!

 

Water goes out of the house for what reason? Just an outside tap?

Will you have any drop-downs in the slab for door mats, door thresholds, shower wastes, etc?

Any cables or conduits going through the slab to floor boxes or to a kitchen island?

Are you having a heat pump? Where do those pipes go?

 

Water - yes to outside supply.  I have a room at bottom of garden to run water to aswell.

 

I dont have an island in the kitchen so didn't need any duct for that.

 

Yes to heat pump.  I seriously considered running duct for that, decided not to for two reasons:

 - I dont know exactly how the dice will fall in       terms of what goes where in the plant room.

- i looked at pre insulated pipes for heat pump, someone on here used them and had to go 1m deep in order to get the required bend. 

 

I decided it would be simpler if not ideal to go through the wall once I have everything in place.

 

I considered also pouring the concrete for the heat pump to sit on outside.  Decided not to so I'm not committed to locations at an early stage.

 

No showers etc downstairs so no need to put stuff in slab.

 

Door thresholds were at the back of my mind - they will be low, so figured with the internal floor build up there wont be much of a threshold going from in to out.  I need to revisit this to check.

 

A mat well was on my list but i had forgotten it so thanks for the timely reminder?

[Russell griffiths]

On a different note, @LA3222 how about giving people some details of your timber extension on your mobile home

i have mentioned this a few times to people living on site and I got the feeling they all thought it was to much trouble, but looking at yours I reckon it will make life in there a 100times better. 

[Russell griffiths]

7 hours ago, Danny68 said:

I second what Dreadnaught has said and thanks Dreadnaught  for bringing up the additional  questions it's the attention to detail  that will make a good build,  now I need to remember to ask myself those before I do my slab .

This question has been asked a lot regarding services and slabs. 

I wonder if we could get a list of all the things to go in before the concrete is poured, and keep it somewhere on the site as a reference guide. 

@AnonymousBosch because I know your not that busy really. 

[Taff]

19 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

On a different note, @LA3222 how about giving people some details of your timber extension on your mobile home

i have mentioned this a few times to people living on site and I got the feeling they all thought it was to much trouble, but looking at yours I reckon it will make life in there a 100times better. 

Yes please I would certainly be interested in this.

[Taff]

Site is spick and span, where’s all you sloppy mud & sludge! 

[Dreadnaught]

@LA3222, forgive all my questions but I am very interested in your experience:

 

What is the red sheet? Is it just a thick grade of polythene?

How are joints handled with it? Mandated overlaps? Just taped? And how are penetrations handled?

What did you use for bonding the EPS?

 

Approximately whereabouts in the country are you?

 

Its a good and innovative Tanner raft-design as you show in your other post (hope you don't mind me linking to it to help others), nice and thin concrete profile. EPS cut by Kore.

 

[Gone West]

@LA3222 Tidy site. ?

[LA3222]

2 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

On a different note, @LA3222 how about giving people some details of your timber extension on your mobile home

i have mentioned this a few times to people living on site and I got the feeling they all thought it was to much trouble, but looking at yours I reckon it will make life in there a 100times better. 

I'll start another thread somewhere and post some pics when I can - it is a game changer in making things comfortable for the missus and kids (I work away so they get the raw end of the deal but they're happy).

[LA3222]

2 hours ago, Taff said:

Site is spick and span, where’s all you sloppy mud & sludge! 

I hate mess - it has been carnage over the last few weeks whilst my efforts were focused on the raft.  I tend to don a head torch and tidy when it's dark as I cant get much done on the raft.  The missus goes into town every saturday and sunday to take kids to various activities so I always send her to the dump with a load of waste, most of it's gone now.

[LA3222]

@Dreadnaught the red sheet is visqueen radon membrane.  My village is ln a list with the local authority where passive radon protection is required - so radon membrane but no need for sump/pump.

 

Joints are done as per the manufacturer's instructions, minimum 150mm overlap, double sided jointing tape 50mm in from edge then single sided tape over the top of the overlap.  I used visqueen products for all of it.  The double sided tape is good but keep it warm. The single sided not so good.  It appears to come off after a while so not 100% stuck down. I think @MikeSharp01 highlighted this issue in another thread.  Incidentally I ran out of the single sided so in haste bought some similar stuff from screwfix, cheaper and seemed to adhere far better.  The missus preferred using that!

 

Penetrations, I bought some top hats but didn't use them.  Reason being is that the soil pipes I left in place have a socket on top which I'd have to cut off to get the top hat over (in hindsight put the pipe through it before installing the pipe?) so I left the missus to patch the hole created with another bit of membrane and loads of tape.  I left her to do the corners too - pita!

 

I intend to wrap some foam around the pipes at FFL and just below so if I need to fit a junction socket over it at floor level there will be room for the socket to go on once I've dug the foam out.  Two of the stacks will require this.  I left the sockets on because I have caps which fit in them and will stop crud going in so its convenient to leave as is for now.

 

Bonding EPS I used Soudal Low Expansion foam - in hindsight I should have bought loads in bulk from somewhere as I used a lot of cans which I hadn't considered.  Kept going to screwfix everytime I ran out so probably spent more than I should have on it.  I reckon I probably got through 20 cans, I'll have to check.

 

I'm in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

 

It has been hard work and draining, would I do it again - yes, just not in storm season.  The weather was probably the thing that kept morale low.  I enjoy working on site when its sunny as it's so nice in the countryside, but trying to lay the membrane in Storm Jorge was a particular low point? 

 

All good now.

Edited March 17, 2020 by LA3222

[SuperJohnG]

On 16/03/2020 at 21:05, LA3222 said:

Is there such a thing as too many? I was looking at some pictures on here for how the UFH manifold is temporarily supported (installing mine at the weekend) and noticed that on all the images there is a distinct lack of mesh castles?

 

I thought i needed to put in enough to stop it flexing too much whilst walking on it - i think now that i may have been overzealous?

 

Cracking job @LA3222 fantastic. 

[SuperJohnG]

On 17/03/2020 at 07:27, Russell griffiths said:

This question has been asked a lot regarding services and slabs. 

I wonder if we could get a list of all the things to go in before the concrete is poured, and keep it somewhere on the site as a reference guide. 

@AnonymousBosch because I know your not that busy really. 

 

This is a great idea, I have searched quite a lot but it can be struggle to get all the info, hence following @LA3222s raft execution very closely to make sure I don't miss anything. 

 

@LA3222 I have to take the time to commend you, doing an absolutely brilliant job and the fact that you take the time to share it with us is mega helpful for me and others who will be doing the same. Really helps demystify the process and gives a confidence boost to me that it can be done.  Well done to you and the missus so far and thanks again.

[LA3222]

Lesson learnt - dont use spray paint on EPS, it doesn't like it!! Should have been obvious really but I was in 'let's get the floor plan sprayed out so I can do the UFH' and didn't think:

 

 

 

Spotted it quick so had only sprayed a short line.  

 

Not sure of the best way to work out where doors are so I can route the pipes through the 'safe' areas. In the end I cut some timber lengths 900mm long and positioned them where the door openings are. If I had lots of pipes to go through an opening I then ran the fitst pipe 50mm in from the edge to give me a buffer and that pipe then acted as my marker.

 

If only a couple of pipes went through a particular doorway i ran them through the middle.

 

Cable tying the pipes takes forever.  I now wish I had hired one of those tools that tie mesh for you and used it for both the mesh and UFH pipe, would have saved me a lot of effort.

 

It's not 'hard' work but it ruins your knees and back. I'm 37 and fit, but I can feel the damage being done to my knees and it isn't good - I've already had some damaged cartilage removed from one when my cruciate was reconstructed.  I hadn't realised how much the back and knees would be affected doing this.

 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by LA3222

[Russell griffiths]

18 minutes ago, LA3222 said:

Lesson learnt - dont use spray paint on EPS, it doesn't like it!! Should have been obvious really but I was in 'let's get the floor plan sprayed out so I can do the UFH' and didn't think:

 

 

 

 

Oh yea, been there done that. 

Make sure you avoid all bitumen based products as well

im not telling you how I know but it cost me two days of hard labour and made a bloody mess. 

[SoldierDog]

One question. Did you also install a land drain? or not bother? and for what reasons either way.

 

They always seemed to be spec'd on the raft designs i've seen but dont actually seem to be that often installed looking at the examples on this site?

 

Thanks

[Jeremy Harris]

12 minutes ago, SoldierDog said:

One question. Did you also install a land drain? or not bother? and for what reasons either way.

 

They always seemed to be spec'd on the raft designs i've seen but dont actually seem to be that often installed looking at the examples on this site?

 

Thanks

 

We installed a perimeter 100mm perforated pipe land drain under the Type 3 sub-base, and later plumbed  it to the Aquacell soakaway that we later installed under the drive (when we'd spent hours trying to locate where the ends were buried).  IIRC, this was in the SE's spec for the sub-base, although that may have been because we're on very hard and impermeable gault clay here.