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Beautiful weather! Retaining wall in, Insulation, DPM and backfill installed. Got steel in for the piers. Yay lifting blocks over them :l

Sacks of gravel. Having just paid to get rid of a bag of soil that was mostly, well, gravel.

Block by block. Brick by brick... up we go. That's the hardest ones done now. Bit annoyed, there was a bit of grit on a block so I'm almost 3mm out of level over 6m I'm toying with the idea of looping pipes through the dense concrete blocks prior to filling them so I can use it as a solar...

Ideal world, DPMs are a continuous, perfect sheets of plastic (or other polymer) and will stop everything. But in reality, they are folded and rolled for packing. They have creases in them that struggle to seal when jointed. They get walked on. They have concrete and screed poured on them...

First two blocks in... let's goooo.

Fair comment Rusty, though if you only ever heat your house to 12, you're hardier than I am. My goal was to keep it ~12 ish at all times with a small space heater. And regardless of insulation, it's the the thermal mass of the tools that has caused my plague of rust. But a couple of harsh...

It's a fair point cdbe, but I'm after thermal stability more than warmth, and I want to use the mass as a thermal battery. fluctuations play havoc with machine tools and condensation. I may put a low power heater in to keep it up a few degrees, but nothing close to domestic heating levels...

Addressing multiple points from the replies (Thanks folks) "20mm isn't much" - agreed, but I've got 50mm gap on one side to fit the full system in and an alleyway on the other side that I can't afford to loose much width from. R value of the blocks is ~0.09, R value of 20mm EPS is ~0.48, so...

Planning on putting a 20mm EWI system on my block built workshop. After some confidence boosting tips. Are there any gotchas or preferences peeps have to offer? Silicone render or dry mix render with paint? Which is easier? Any decent tutorials or step by step advise for dealing with doors &...

Lifting the panel Waiting for the lorry... Very limited access. ACTION SHOT! Slightly spicy action shot ;) It's in! Looks.... awful. But with a bit of troweling.... Noice. Now just waiting for a cat to fall in it......

Come on 2025! Spring is in the air, the leaves have all come down. The magnolia has yet to shed its flowers. The weather is good. Time to dust off the winter dumping ground building site. Clear the water, rotting leaves, mud, rubbish & weird red worm things. Cover up the soil banks, tape...

Insulation finished first DPM going in Stepping away from the project for a couple of weeks, so have filled the DPM with water to weigh down EPS and support the sides. Need to do a tidy when back. I am so glad the digging is over. It's easily been 5 years on and off Come a looong way from...

Stick an Air Admittance Valve (AAV) at the top. it's basically a check valve that allows air in when there is negative pressure in the pipe. Be careful with waste pipe flow directions. Having a Cross with two horizontal (ish) intakes can lead to poop coming back up the pipe. Always stagger...

I'm a little alarmed that you say the stack just ends. Do you have any ventilation to prevent syphoning when you flush the loo?

The digging is finally done and I'm now building. Woop

Also, if it has algae, put some natural yoghurt on the new stuff to accelerate the coverage over ned concrete

Try and find an aggregate that matches, mix that up with some soft sand and cement & patch. Once done, you'll need to artificially age it, a soft brush after 24 hours should clean most of the surface cement off and expose the aggregate

Thanks cdbe. Ultimately, I'm quite far down the route of my original plan with respect to layout, dig and materials which is the main drive to continue. It is *just* a worry that I'll get some odd-ball heave and it'll be a very big, very heavy mistake (although a rather excellent DIY disaster...

Why do you say better off. Is it a technical issue or a cost/effort issue? I'm keen to pour slab as it involves less soil removal. However if it's unable to take the load, of the build or movement I need to change plans. I agree it's over engineered for such a short height, but between the...

Following excavations, thinking, research, re-reading comments from y'all and more thinking... I'm leaning towards this as a solution: There are three main things that have added to the design... 1) The whole slab and retaining wall will be insulated with 50mm of EPS. This will act as heave...