Ecobrix Self build with Isoquick Insulated Slab

[CJO]

Hello all,

 

We are a couple in our thirties who enjoy long walks on the beach and looking for someone to share it with...ooops wrong forum!

 

We are in our thirties and we were lucky enough to purchase a dilapidated 1950's bungalow which sits on a decent plot. We had no idea what we were going to do with the bungalow but it soon became apparent that trying to 'renovate' it was going to be a waste of money as the 1950's construction methods had not survived the passing of time.

 

The bungalow shall be replaced with a modest two storey dwelling with an upside down layout. Planning permission came with its challenges some of these included, a neighbour who on the night our appliacation was live on the planning portal spent the evening canvassing around the village trying to gain objection members, our parish council at first was wary of our intentions, we also had a planning officer who at first glance dismissed our proposal and then more challenges and bumps we faced were caused by our neighbour. So far we have succeeded in them all. (But we do stay on the right side of the rules, too chicken to risk it). 

 

Building with Ecobrix formally known as durisol, we are using an Isoquick raft foundation.

 

So far, Ellie and I have knocked the bungalow down ourselves, recycling most of the hardcore for future use by having it crushed, dug the foundations and laid the sub-base ready for the Isoquick to be laid on the 28/7. Living in a static caravan on site and at the moment 18months in... loving it! 

 

We have been filming our progress and loading it to Youtube, if you are struggling to fall asleep at night I couldn't recommend listening to my monotonous drone enough! Our channel is called Turning Rosemount Upside Down. 

 

Looking forward to picking peoples brains and would love to be able to offer support from our experience also.

 

Chris and Ellie

[mjc55]

Welcome!

 

We too are using Ecobrix as our build method, will definitely follow your progress

[Gus Potter]

On 20/07/2025 at 19:00, CJO said:

We have been filming our progress and loading it to Youtube

I would comment as an SE but I kind of feel that you are taking advantage of the BH ethos where things are not monetised. I'm definitly not going to give up my time as an SE ( call that £400.00 a day) if when you get into bother when I know you are back ending it. 

 

I won't be following you on U tube! Buildhub in my view was never set up with that intention.

[CJO]

6 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

I would comment as an SE but I kind of feel that you are taking advantage of the BH ethos where things are not monetised. I'm definitly not going to give up my time as an SE ( call that £400.00 a day) if when you get into bother when I know you are back ending it. 

 

I won't be following you on U tube! Buildhub in my view was never set up with that intention.

Morning Gus,

 

Not quite sure how we’ve managed to get your knickers in a twist. 

 

We are certainly not taking advantage of the BuildHub Ethos. We haven’t asked for followers, likes, subscriptions, go fund me pages or anything of the sort. To make money from YouTube you need to be posting a video almost every week and those videos need to be of good quality editorially wise.

 

If you were to view our page and videos it would be clear to see that our efforts are put more towards the build than the filming in the effort to make money from YouTube (U tube). I really wasn’t telling fibs about my monotonous drone.

 

I mentioned that we are filming our build as it’s so much easier to see a process happening rather than reading about it, our experiences may help the self builder, as we’ve watched many videos that have helped us.
We have also found our build method/type is still quite new and uncommon in the UK, so someone thinking of pursuing a build of this type can watch a video on a case study of it all.

 

It’s also documenting it for ourselves to look back on in 50yrs time when we’ve probably started forgetting the reason why we went upstairs for.

 

Not quite sure about ‘getting into bother and back ending it’ but I’m sure you mean well by it. We have a Structural Engineer on board, Build Inspector, Architect and professional trades where we know our own limitations. But thank you for providing us with your day rate in the hope to attract business from anyone on here who is paying more for their Structral engineer.

 

I’m sure the admins of BuildHub would have removed my comment if they thought it was not in the ethos of the site.

 

As I said in my introductory comment, I am here to pick the brains of those in the know and hopefully provide insight if I can… nothing more, nothing less.

[CJO]

7 hours ago, mjc55 said:

Welcome!

 

We too are using Ecobrix as our build method, will definitely follow your progress

Hello mjc55,

 

Fantastic, what stage are you at?

 

We have attended our training day and put our order in. Hoping to start raising walls up by mid September.

[jack]

3 hours ago, CJO said:

I’m sure the admins of BuildHub would have removed my comment if they thought it was not in the ethos of the site.

 

(Context: I'm a moderator.)

 

As you may have picked up if you've spent some time browsing BuildHub, the anti-monetisation vibe runs deep. The site has no ads, sponsorships, or subscription fees. Everything is run by unpaid volunteers. Some of our members, like @Gus Potter, are very much on board with - and defensive of! - that ethos. I personally think it's one of the reasons that experienced people like Gus, @nod, @craig, @Nickfromwales, and many others, are so willing to freely give their time to help other members.

 

I spotted the YouTube reference when you first posted, but in the context of the rest of your post I personally didn't see a problem. In theory, it could become an issue if your channel unexpectedly got very successful and became monetised. Even then, you'd need to keep posting links to the channel for that to become a problem. I imagine you'd get a polite request at that point to stop posting about your channel, but as you say, given your intentions that's a pretty unlikely outcome.

 

In any event, you seem to be self-builders in the fullest sense of the phrase. I would love to have had the time, energy, skills, and confidence to do something similar when we similarly replaced a 1950s bungalow 10 years ago.

[nod]

48 minutes ago, jack said:

 

(Context: I'm a moderator.)

 

As you may have picked up if you've spent some time browsing BuildHub, the anti-monetisation vibe runs deep. The site has no ads, sponsorships, or subscription fees. Everything is run by unpaid volunteers. Some of our members, like @Gus Potter, are very much on board with - and defensive of! - that ethos. I personally think it's one of the reasons that experienced people like Gus, @nod, @craig, @Nickfromwales, and many others, are so willing to freely give their time to help other members.

 

I spotted the YouTube reference when you first posted, but in the context of the rest of your post I personally didn't see a problem. In theory, it could become an issue if your channel unexpectedly got very successful and became monetised. Even then, you'd need to keep posting links to the channel for that to become a problem. I imagine you'd get a polite request at that point to stop posting about your channel, but as you say, given your intentions that's a pretty unlikely outcome.

 

In any event, you seem to be self-builders in the fullest sense of the phrase. I would love to have had the time, energy, skills, and confidence to do something similar when we similarly replaced a 1950s bungalow 10 years ago.

Well said 

I moderate on two unrelated sites 

Both are overrun by adds and scammers 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, nod said:

Well said 

I moderate on two unrelated sites 

Both are overrun by adds and scammers 

Same as the screwfix and plumbers forums, fecking boxing rings full of big egos.....

 

Buildhub is a joy in comparison, which is why we sometimes shoot first and ask questions later, lol. "Just keepin' the patch clean guv!"  

[JohnMo]

6 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Buildhub is a joy in comparison

Was on a renewables forum, too much advertising, too much pandering to advertisers. In the end I just deregistered myself.

[Nick Laslett]

@CJO, I’m sure you’ve already watched it, but back in April 2019, Grand Designs: The Streets, Series 1, Episode 1 featured two Durisol builds. They feature a wall blow-out during the concrete pour, which is not as rare as you might suspect. 
 

We have an ICF build, which was constructed by the supplier. We had two wall blow-outs, despite all the bracing. For us they poured 2.7m walls in one go, but maybe doing two lifts would alleviate a lot of the stress. 
 

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs-the-streets/on-demand/58244-001

 

They talk about the episode here. 
 

 

[JohnMo]

7 hours ago, Nick Laslett said:

Series 1, Episode 1 featured two Durisol builds. They feature a wall blow-out during the concrete pour

You are only supposed to do 6 layers of blocks with Durisol or Ecobrix and fill 5.5 layers and apply a temporary patch panel to blocks where a cut joint is. They had blow outs because they did follow the rules. Our house 70m perimeter, no blow outs - I just followed the rules set out in the manual. No training available when I did ours due to COVID either. But I'm strange and like reading product manuals.

 

Product has been on the go since the 1940s. So if it says do something in the manual its normally for a very good reason.

[mjc55]

6 hours ago, CJO said:

Hello mjc55,

 

Fantastic, what stage are you at?

 

We have attended our training day and put our order in. Hoping to start raising walls up by mid September.

 

Hi Guys

 

Don't worry about some of the comments that people on here make,you get used to it 😁

 

It is such a useful forum and generally very very helpful.  There are some on here that seem to be very anti-ecobrix, fair enough but hopefully it will suit us.  As @JohnMo states above, with a following wind and using the proscribed methods you should be OK.  (Hint: if you put an @ before the name it will highlight as above and the person will be informed about the post)

 

We are just about to start using the Ecobrix to build a "Pod" which is a bit of a mini-me of the house so that we can try out various ideas on the Pod before (hopefully) using them on the main house.  The Pod has to be a raft foundation due to the proximity of some trees, the main house will be trench fill.   A bit knackered now as we laid 14 cube of concrete for the base today.  Pod build with Ecobrix to start next week and as Johnmo stated up to 6 courses for each pour should be manageable,any more and potential problems lie ahead!

[CJO]

@Nick Laslett We haven’t watched it, but that will be a viewing tonight. Thank you.

 

Ellie and I are in no rush on our build so will definitely be keeping wall size down to a minimum before a pour.

 

Also after our training day we found out a 5mm wood screw can help you out massively in between webbings.

 

I think people underestimate the weight concrete has, after shifting 3.5m3 of concrete by hand for our drive it’s opened our eyes and we have since made the decision to get professionals in to pour the slab!😅

 

@JohnMo that sounds promising for us if you just followed the manual👍🏻

[JohnMo]

20 minutes ago, CJO said:

sounds promising for us if you just followed the manua

And use a concrete pump lorry, makes life easier. Not cheap but worth every penny.

[jack]

3 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Same as the screwfix and plumbers forums, fecking boxing rings full of big egos.....

 

I don't remember the details, but I asked a question on a plumbing or electrical forum many years ago. Can't remember the details, but it was something where there wasn't much real info online and I wanted to understand the issue before I got someone onsite to quote for the work.

 

All I got was a load of aggressive wankers piled on saying I was cheap for not paying someone for the advice.

 

I've never experienced anything quite like it.

 

[Iceverge]

@CJO welcome to the site. Always nice to see new blood coming in and good luck with your build. 

 

On 20/07/2025 at 19:00, CJO said:

We have been filming our progress and loading it to Youtube, if you are struggling to fall asleep at night I couldn't recommend listening to my monotonous drone enough! Our channel is called Turning Rosemount Upside Down. 

 

Sometimes about the phrasing here made me think "here we go, someone else shilling their wares". I imagine this is what @Gus Potter picked up on. I had a look at the channel and clearly you're just two more usual victims for hardship like the rest of us. 

 

Internet forums are a blunt comms platform and giving the benefit of the doubt to the other posters works well, not only in posting but also in retort. Hopefully we can carry on in that spirit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Iceverge]

On 23/07/2025 at 13:35, JohnMo said:

But I'm strange and like reading product manuals.

 

Hand in your "real man" card immediately. 

 

 

 

[Gus Potter]

On 23/07/2025 at 07:31, CJO said:

Not quite sure how we’ve managed to get your knickers in a twist.

My knickers are just fine thanks. If I had any concerns about knicker torsion then an old remedy is a Jock Strap use by many famous sportsmen. 

 

On 23/07/2025 at 07:31, CJO said:

But thank you for providing us with your day rate in the hope to attract business from anyone on here who is paying more for their Structral engineer.

My day rate varies but had provided you with an indicative industry figure that you might aim for as a self builder. A graduate Engineer for say a mid sized consulatancy, is, under competetive conditions charged out at around £85.00 upwards and hour, senior engineers more. The devil is in the detailing and thought that goes into buildability. The way people design is important as self builders often don't have the same buying power and range of contractors to chose from.

 

On 23/07/2025 at 07:31, CJO said:

Not quite sure about ‘getting into bother and back ending it’

I think you do!

 

On 23/07/2025 at 07:31, CJO said:

As I said in my introductory comment, I am here to pick the brains of those in the know and hopefully provide insight if I can… nothing more, nothing less.

 Ok let's put is all down to a miss understanding and move on. BH is a great place to share knowledge, I learn loads here and in return try and give a bit back. 

 

Seriously though all the best with the project. If you have any SE type queries then feel free to post and if I can give you a few pointers or help out I'll be happy to do so.