Comments by "Tony L" (@tlangdon12) on "Dad builds a house" channel.

@jepulis6674 The sewage pipes were not placed in the slab, but under it and brought up through insulation and the concrete slab. You saw underfloor heating pipes being set into the slab. I tend to agree that the design of the slab makes this a problem if/when the pex pipes start to fail. PEX has a potential lifespan of 100+ years, but when it does fail, the whole house will have to be torn down to replace the pipes. The Supergrud/Aeroground system (and others that seperate the foundations for the walls from the floor slab) doesn't have this problem. You could also lay the UFH pipes in a screed laid over a slip membrane on top of the slab. Then you just have to lift the screed while leaving the slab undisturbed.
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@yves1551 There's no cement in it. It is just a crushed stone, usually the stones in the mix ranges from 0-40mm, but here they seems to be using a smaller maximum size. Compacting it causes the mixture to interlock and become quite solid, and certainly load bearing even on relatively soft ground.
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The cost of MVHR is usually less than £5,000 in the UK, and the benefits of having a house that can be heated and ventilated in the winter with 1kW of power is well worth having.
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My guess is that the cost will have been about 2 million Ruble. The cost in the UK would be about £25K, but materials and labour are cheaper in Russia.
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The polystyrene being used in the video will be EPS300 which is rated at 300 kpa (or 43 psi) for a 10% deflection (and 120 kpa or 17psi for 1% deflection). It's not ordinary polystyrene. It will easily support the weight of a two storey house built with a timber frame or aereated concrete block.
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@fernarias It's a very popular way of building foundations across Europe. The slab provides thermal mass and the insulation keeps the heat in the house.
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Yes, most UK houses have very poor thermal insulation. This form of foundation would be a great improvement.
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You can't do so easily. Finding where there is a leak is difficult - you have to start at the damp patch you can find and dig along the pipe until you find the leak, whch might be at the opposite side of the slab! Pressure testing and designing so that there are no connections within the slab is about all you can do to avoid leaks, but the PEX pipes might be worn through after 100 years or so, so I would install the underfloor heating pipes in a floating screed over the slab, and drop the hot and cold water from the upper storey.
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