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I've been avoiding this job for about a year. So far @Pocster hasn't seen fit to award me a Procrastination Biscuit though (😐 ) Never mind . Would you look at this drawing, and tell me what you think about the area highlighted in red ..... thanks. This is a section through a Durisol Block: grey = concrete (120mm) and the lightbrown is Celotex insulation. The block itself is a form of woodcrete A threaded M10 SS bar is threaded through a 12mm hole (2mm for the resin chemical anchor) The weight of the glass juliet screen (90 lbs) is supported by 4 anchor points. A Point Fixing 'grips' the glass. That Point Fixing screws into a Threaded Spacer. The Threaded Spacer sits on the M10 SS bar that's poking out of the wall. The M10 bar is fixed into the concrete with some form of chemical anchor. But that bar pokes through all that insulation - which gives the bar no support at all. My suspicion is that the weight of the bar will, over time , tend to push the threaded spacer into the wall. Ruining my render. Should I fit a large SS washer between the spacer and the wall (to distribute the force) or should I use something more substantial?

Here's what I have written about Durisol. There are 189 hits on this search (Search> Durisol > author search> @ToughButterCup ) - so I think it's fair to say I know my way around a Durisol block. I have made every single error there is to make on the system, from simple sloppiness, to under-ordering - to allowing a complete wall collapse. Blow-outs, some spectacular, others piffling. But it's hard to separate my initial incompetence and naivete from the merits or otherwise of the build system. I now - after eight years with the stuff - have absolutley no doubt whatever that an experienced builder who has built a few houses in the system can build a very airtight, highly insulated house with Durisol. No doubt at all. The principal issue is that the system is marketed as suitable for first-time - (and likely once only builders) I was (but am no longer) the very weak link in the chain . The cost of that experience has been bourne by my long-suffering family who have constantly believed in me, grinned and bore the substantial errors and ommissions, and continue to sing

I have never had any water ingress through Durisol ever. And it took a full year between building and covering part of the Durisol blocks. The outside of the most exposed part of our house - last few square metres - was rendered last week. That is four years after it was built. I understand Durisol is mostly air. Like - say- a pullover. On contact with water from the outside, water simply drains downwards. For water to travel through the substance, it would require external pressure to move it from outside to inside.

Ughhh, same here. I would say that most of the trades that worked here ignored Debbie. In the worst case, the MD of DURISOL talked at her while walking away - and faced me instead. When blokes treat her like that, I have come to enjoy the anticipation of the way she brings two verbal bricks sharply together on his withers.

I got a PM from a member who is about to parge his Durisol build. On my build, as usual, I had never done this before. So this is a brief review of what, how, when .... and mostly it demonstrates yet another steep learning curve. Here's what I wrote about it at the time And this is the result ; each photo has a brief annotation to help explain. This photo shows two levels of parging - the RHS parging is thicker, much thicker than the LHS. You can hardly see the blocks I've chosen this photo (of the damaged corner) because it shows clearly the difference in thickness in coating: LHS much thicker Here's the spiel about rendering and airtightness : thing is from experience, I don't think you can get airtightness out of the parge coat alone : well, I can't anyway. Much more airtightness might well be provided by the following covering ( in our case ) Clober Permoforte Quattro. And, at that price, it should provide that. It's excellent by the way. Put an good plaster coat inside and you're well on the way to a decent breathable, airtight wall. Thing is - what happens in way of (behind) the wall plates. I think I've missed a trick there. Here's the point: I should have made the coating thicker.

I'm wun o' they mate : bizzy bodies ... I pick up litter with my 88 year old nearish neighbour every now and then. Ex-builder. Full of words for the wise. Looks at our left-over Durisol, shakes his head. He's got a point.

I've been avoiding this for about 2 years. Admitting the cock-up, that is. There's nowt for it now, it's long past the time to do something about it. Here's a description of the problem and a suggested strategy for sorting it out. Look at this mess. @TerryE warned me years ago - change your mind just in time, not just too late. Trick is, knowing when ' too late ' is. We got the position of the loo window wrong. The shower head would be just next to the window. Stoopid or wot? Nay borra Jimmie , said the Durisol guy, You can move the window - easy. Out with the stone saw, whisked the front of the Durisol blocks off before I could say ' FFS stop will ya? ' Cue gritted teeth, rictus grin, self control and murder in my heart. And lots of displacement activity. Two whole years later, I've cooked up enough courage to repair it. Question is how? First, make yourself a work platform and a closer look at the mess..... The concrete hasn't been compromised. All that's needed then is a quick clear up, and a think. Cue another sleepless night..... What do you think I should do?

I'm getting more used to the range of reactions from visitors to the site. Its the range of reaction that interests me. The thinly veiled sneer. Yer doin what? How much? How yer doing the roof then? Shakes? What, vaulted roof? Haven't done wun o they fer 20 year od. An' ahm a rewfer. Yer wanna trussed rewf mert... Well good luck with that then The visiting BM Driver It takes a BM delivery lorry driver about 10 seconds to say, Whasatt stuff then? Followed by 'Looks like sponge' (Durisol block). The visiting mate Got the keys to yer digger? Need owt lifitin' ? Need an ole dug? Has Debbie got the tea on yet? Ya haven't done much since I was last here. The visiting BH member I'll get my kit out the van, won't take long. The architect Well, the SE will be able to tell you that. The passing cyclist(s) We are on a National Cycle route) I've got no time for NIMBies; seems to me you've just gone and got on with it. JBDI is my motto too. The passing local councillor How come its taking you so long then? The long, slow drive by There are two sorts: the builders' van, and the Sunday driver (every day at least two, never mind if it's not Sunday) Builders: two blokes, one feet on dashboard, 'tother forearm on wheel craning to see of the wall's come down again (UP YOURS pal) Sunday driver: two old biddies, of, though not yet in the grave, ashen-faced smiling. Judder past in the wrong gear because they're driving so slowly. Kindly. Walkers in groups That curious dynamic that makes groups of walkers oblivious of their surroundings, pass by without so much as a flicker. Single walkers How's it going? yabber yabber yabber. Let's have a look then! Cheery, joke-filled minute or two. The precocious child Mummy, what's the man doing, he looks like Darth Vader? (Welding - er sorry writing braille with a welding stick) The local retired super-nerd We chat happily for an hour or so at a time about minutiae, when I repeatedly refer him to read @JSHarris on heat decrement delay, @Temp for planning matters, @Nickfromwales for saucy one-liners. "Well, I have to say (no he didn't) yours is the most over-engineered house I have ever seen". Some locals Studied avoidance of gaze: the sort I used to get in the 1970s as an Officer Cadet when a senior (but arsey) NCO deliberately avoided saluting me. (The NCO was right) Headstrong Old Biddies Well now what are you making the roof out of? What? What's that then? Harumphhhh. I could forgive you if the roof was going to be slate. I may be working on my own at the moment. But there's a committee of watchers out there. I'm starting to sell tickets tomorrow.

Well @SteamyTea, I've yet to see a build where Durisol is the outer skin. In terms of what I have written about it, I think its fair to argue that my own incompetence, inexperience and openness should not be taken as a factor in the criticism of a product. I may be wrong, but I think I might be the only person to have written quite as much about Durisol on this board. One person's musing on one discussion board is hardly a good evidence base on which to make fairly large purchase decisions. I had absolutely no prior experience of building. None. I appointed a company that was over-trading to help build the house. I sacked them far too late. So I (we) just got on with it. And now I'm sitting in a warm house that I've built by my (our) selves. I would have made just as many stupid errors with any other build method. Come to think of it, had we chosen brick and block, the errors would have been worse. A combination of opportunity, Durisol, effort, commitment and guts has constructed a house worth about £500k. And nobody knows or cares what the build method was. But what I find of most value is the learning experience I've had along the way. That's priceless.

That's what Durisol does. (Did)

Thats it the last pour this afternoon. As usual, there's a twist..... We (Debbie and I) had about a tonne of concrete to mix, haul up to the parapet and pour by hand to finish the house. As usual it took longer to prepare for it than to do it. But hey, used to that. All tested, all checked. Thoroughly. It rained last night didn't it? Tidy drop of rain in fact. The rope on the pulley was wet. Hemp rope. Got a suspicion yet? Me, up on the gantry, her indoors hauling the pulley (I'm not stupid) First 50 kilo bucket hauled up by one of the fittest wimmin in Lancashire. Helluva lass. On an Italian pulley system that automatically locks when you let the rope go. Well bugger me, 50 kilos of concrete went straight back down from whence it came. Cue old-fashioned look. Cue lively discussion. Several hours later, it came to me why the brake system wasn't working. The rope was wet. I'm really quick like that. The big big BIG mistake I made was, just as we were finishing the job, to tell her why the pulley brake wasn't working. Anyway, doesn't matter, no more concrete to be lifted. Might have a drop of giggle water tonight.

Wallplate fitted, ridge beam fitted (nearly), rafters up, insulation fitted in between. Who's a clever boy then? ? Maybe over-worried about fixing the wall straps through to the concrete, I chased the Durisol back to the concrete and fitted the wall straps direct to it. This is where we are now (looking up from the floor); I need to make good on top of the wall straps. Which ? Foam, Durisol, Sand and Cement? (Can't Avoid.... )

Back in this thread, I explained how we were going about remedial works to cope with the likelihood of further poor workmanship of our original installer . The strategy relied on installing shuttering: that in turn needed to be tied in with threaded bar. Since that threaded bar was going to be immersed in concrete, those bars needed to be extracted a bit sharpish. Of the 140 odd we installed, a few stuck fast. Today the steep learning curve on how to extract those that remained. The idea was to core from the inside (concrete) from inside - outwards and then just pull the rest of the bar out of the PIR. At first, using a 25mm core, like this I found that I fouled the threaded barrel by drilling slightly off center. So, back to the 38mm core and bingo What did I learn? Don't use a diamond core bit on hammer. You knock the teeth off the core bit. Shutter Durisol no matter what they say on their website. It ain't wurf it, mate, ain't wurf it. ( @jamiehamy, sit back and smile ) Sharp lessons in self-build: at least one or two sharp lessons a week at the current rate.

Hmmm, a common ICF 'worry'. And it needn't be. I built in one particular ICF, sent the design to an SE: his response was (can't remember the detail) - but in essence, you'll need to fetch enough from your local steel mill. Asking colleagues on BH , one response was - ask the ICF producer's own SE: and what does the ICF's published guidance say? The reason for that (apart from the obvious) is that the BCO may well not know. S/he'll want access to the formal documentation about it I rang Durisol's (spits quietly) SE up and had a chat. He listened to what had been specified, and when he'd finished blowing his breakfast out of his nose with laughter, sent me a prpperly certified design. Including his fee, we saved several thousand. In places, I doubled up on his recommendation - a few quid extra. Get the official documentation Ask for Ndura's own SE to specify for your design.

First off, welcome. And good luck with the application. Your plan is exactly the same as ours. I love your design: we nearly chose one very similar. We built in Durisol (DIY Max) And what fun we had ?? As many downs as ups. Nestled inside now, wind whistling round our withers, nice and warm, no heating on at all. Not finished yet - its relentless, and I'm getting a bit fed up - mostly tiredness - after 5 years non-stop work except for the odd weekend in Glasgow. I realise thats a very selfish thing to say - many would donate their eye teeth to have the chance I have been given. Use the search box on this site for DURISOL, that should give you a good insight to the ups and downs of the material and processes. There are other excellent ICFs each with their own characteristics. I would use Durisol again - but mainly because I know what to look for and what the pitfalls are. Good luck with the application, Ian

Just a quick question. Which resin (brand-names please) are suitable for embedding rebar into existing concrete to make it ready to tie into subsequent pours? I have looked at the technical guidance for that in the Durisol technical information, and can't find it. With a bit of luck, we might be completing this phase of the build within a few days. Fingers and toes crossed. Ian

Hello @BristolBuild2020 : you might like to make sure that you order enough blocks to avoid having to re-order - because of breakage. Some users (those on site handling them, but who haven't paid for them) think of Durisol like they think of bricks: easy to discard go and get some more. And while you are closer to the factory than we are, it's still a right pain to realise that you haven't got enough because people aren't taking care of them while cutting them (for example). In the end I made a simple jig which compensated for the flexibility of the sabre saw we were using to cut blocks. Negativity? Some criticism of Durisol is justified; it's how that negativity is expressed that matters. I'd use the product again - because I know what to look for and how to deal with the product. Its a product new to many. I think the negativity has its roots in the steepness of the learning curve that exists with any new process or product. Some just don't want to make the effort. And thats fine.

+ 1000%. In fact it's probably as important as the product itself. I'd ask your supplier what their re-supply situation is: for us with (spits hard) Durisol it was hard work.

The big thing about Durisol UK (for an intending user ) would be the lead time for supply and - worse- re-supply.

@JohnMo, are Durisol-UK still trading? I thought they were (are?) in receivership.

I used 120mm concrete screws into our ICF (Durisol) - drilled to 135mm to allow for concrete dust that gets pushed ahead of the screws. I think part of the answer might be to do with the nature of the wall where you want to put the sink. I went to a lot of trouble to make sure that the brackets keyed into the concrete cores of the Durisol - and avoided the woodcrete type 'cladding' to the concrete lattice. You might want to consider mounting a really thick piece of wood as a shelf to carry the sink perhaps? My mum's house had an arrangement like that - gave you somewhere to put bits and bobs (like dirty boots)

I have about four years experience of one particular ICF : Durisol. There are many other brands of ICF, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. My ' journey ' (?) with Durisol has not been easy - sometimes terrifying (have a read of this) , at others a dream to build with on my own. Its easy to use, but it needs as much care and attention to detail as any other system. Part of the trouble with Durisol is that its marketed as an easy-to-use system. The 'thing' that goes with it in some peoples minds is speed of build. In my case, that was seen -by one or two people- as an excuse not to bother , and excuse not to sweat the detail. Fatal. Stitching the two quotations (above) from your post together - the experience of your mates, and their attitudes to ICF will be a key thing to think about. Almost every trades person setting foot on our site has no - zip, nada, nie, kein, rein -experience with ICF let alone Durisol. And that matters. Some look at it and run (there's loads of work about - "Why should I bother?") , others suck their teeth harder and longer than normal. You'll already have a good deal of sympathy - they're your mates. But, take the plasterers for example: does he have experience of a very highly absorbent / porous substrate? Is he prepared to give it a go? Here's way too much detail about my experience with Durisol. Yes, I would use it again. Yes I would drive a hard bargain by investigating other ICFs. No, I wouldn't self build again. Too damn old.

I know the answer is ours and ours alone to make. Testing my thinking is what this post is about. Am I too involved; missing the wood for the trees, too cross to make a sensible judgement? And if I am minded to go it alone, can I follow through? Writing about it will help me think too. Our builder is being evasive. Over promising. Disorganised or absent paper work. Withholding vital information until a few seconds before disappearing from the site. Some aspects of the work have been excellent, others not. He struggles to retain staff. Some are oafs. (Oaves?) Others the opposite: accurate workers, polite, funny, interesting. We've had some meteorological bad luck. But that hiccup has been overcome to the extent that the replacement blocks are here. Calm analysis and talking to the loss adjuster has been reassuring. I have (until now) had a misplaced faith in the value of a promise. I had a verbal agreement to pay, and did so when I said I would. I accepted that detailed invoices to substantiate the charges would follow. They haven't. In simple terms, we've paid a good deal on account. We are now at least a month behind schedule. "... We'll be down towards the end of the week..." Right. That's been said so often now, it's hollow. I know enough about Durisol to - with the help of this community - to build the shell myself. On my own. Very often there's a gale at the beginning of September. And I do not want the rest of the 'unpoured blocks' on the floor. That's the real driver Do I sack them and get on with it? In an instant I would if I could get one reliable, thoughtful, fit building partner. I'd be pushing it on my own. But it can be done. Just. What needs to be done? Blocks laid to just above first floor: skill level - very easy And then poured. (tricky, but I've seen it done three times now and I am not stupid) Rest of the blocks laid and poured : skill level easy to tricky (trimming the gable will be interesting), but not impossible. If I do it slowly and carefully its well within my fitness and competence level If I do that I will have taken this mess by the scruff of the neck and got on with it. Yes, it's our decision. But poke my thinking, ask uncomfortable questions. My deep instinct is to get on with it, while seeing if I can recruit someone to work with me - for safety as much as anything.

This topic has been done to death. BH has a really good search engine. Here's an example of the kind of thing you can do.... in this case everything I've written about Durisol Search>. Durisol > search in title > search by author > press search.... https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/search/?&q=Durisol&author=ToughButterCup&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&sortby=relevancy Here's one for the term VELOX on its own https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/search/?&q=VELOX&search_and_or=or&sortby=relevancy The more focused the question, the easier it is for members to answer. Your question (above) is open to wide interpretation.

Yes. Durisol. Here's a search listing of everything I have posted on Durisol . Not all good. But the opposite is also true. A great deal of rubbish is posted about ICFs. Outlandish claims are common. Visceral criticism of one or other is also common. The way through that fog of misinformation is to go and look at - visit ‐ a few builds of each type. There'll be good and bad installations in each type of ICF. One will click for you. I'd use Durisol again - but only because I know - mostly - what to look for.