The stones under the windows and below the outside doors aren't concrete but natural bluestone. Belgium has been using its own bluestones since forever and Vietnam also has a good export of it, but of lesser quality (meaning easier to crack under stress). I work in construction in Belgium and currently have one that's soon to finish. I am the owner and also the builder so if you have questions I can always answer. And yes, my construction looks very similar to this too except a few minor details.
4 місяці тому+4
Granit is better; we use that in Holland. In Belgium also imittion granit is used; probaly kind of cement; looking good though. Bricklaying: at the three country point: Holland: one cement, 4 sand and glue through the mixure (no lime) Germany: one cement 7 sand and lime Belgium: 1 cement and 5 zavel (kind of clay) Ideal for big spaces between bricks/natural stones. Belgium: no finishing bricks at the side walls; taxes..... Once upon a time I was foreman of a group plasterers; we had also Dutch brick layers and carpenters there.
We lived in Belgium for several years. Noticed they point the brickwork after construction. I wondered if the building in the vid hadn't been pointed yet? In general the quality of brickwork we saw in Belgium was better than in the UK.
This was a good example of not letting something go to waste. Throw on a voice over and it actually turned out quite interesting. It is a lesson in itself.
Which is where? I guess, from your surname, that it is, possibly, Netherlands? They are doing a lot of great things there, especially on the railways. All trains are electric, unlike Britain with its preponderance of diesel. And the removal of level crossings, replacing them with underpasses or bridges over the railways, so not impeding any motorist, and making train/vehicle collisions a thing of the past. The management of the excess water, and flooding, is light-years ahead of the rest of the world.
@@leehotspur9679Drawings are not the same as how they are exactly laid down. Won't be the first time a pipe being a meter off. But that is why in the last couple years i have seen construction companies adding a 'House Portfolio' to new house projects, with photo's from start to finish. Need accurate information about a cable or tube, look into the house's portfolio with the images.
The system of Traceability is only as good as the person who is responsible for the input of information Be it the Owner or Builders representative @@Eledore
Too easy. No profit in a simple job. Now some hacking out and fussing around, with a plasterer mate on standby, is a great way to confuse and screw the client.
When rebuilding on my old cottage I ran electrics through pipes where I could ( whilst doing a bit DIY plastering ) Now my electrics are playing up elsewhere and I wish I had asked the electrician to do it on other areas - but when it’s not current practice you are reluctant to ask as a client.
@@girlsdrinkfeck The web is international and indeed this post is about belgium. I find it best to use the simplest language that gets the point across.
I'm an architect from Belgium. This is a very standard example of all details that are important in our trade. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
@@cherrytreegoats3409Mu guess: it's decorative. Modern masonry uses a double wall separated by an isolated spigot avoiding cold bridges (so metal binding hooks are no longer used): an inside wall of prefab elements or half-bonded large quick-laying blocks (typically cemented rather than mortared) and an outside wall of decorative bricks, sometimes layed in decorative patterns (the more complicated the more expensive) or prefab brick-patterned plates.
I built my (off-grid) log house here in Finland. Pipe in pipe is common here and also in my place, and similarly, all electric wiring is in conduit. The house has underfloor radiant, but as it is a log house (with lots of windows) the walls don't have a high U value (even with triple glazed argon gas filled windows) compared to a regular wall. The ceiling and floor however are very well insulated. You may expect it takes a lot of energy to heat a place with essentially no insulation in the walls in a cold climate, but that's actually not the case. It's also fully off-grid, so I make all my own energy. Yes, a wood gasification burner and masonry fireplace is used, but the total amount of wood used is around 35kg per day when it's -30C outside. Outside of extreme cold weather, I make a fire every two days and this provides all the heating and hot water for four people - and the wife likes to keep the house at 23C or higher. Spring and early autumn is when a heat pump is used because at those times I generate enough electricity, while it is still very cold outside.
What do you use for electricity generation from Nov-Jan? Finland's sunshine percentages (even of the small available sunshine) at that time of year are quite dismal
@@upnorthandpersonal Fair play, how many kWh? Is that allowed - I'd looked up biodiesel/vegetable oil as road fuel before, but that needs duty paid! Nuts compared to the UK, we have it so easy
@@kaptinkeiff Yes, allowed - at least to use in a generator - not allowed to use in a car In winter I tend to use at most 5kWh per day, so I run the generator for half a day once a week to recharge the battery. Overall, it's not a lot of fuel for a winter. It helps of course tremendously that this house was designed to be off grid with minimal power use in mind.
Hi, great piece. We lived in Belgium for 5 years. I was particularly impressed by each new building having a “grey water” system. All water falling on the roof was capturered and stored then recycled by using it to flush loos, water the garden and wash the car. I have always been amazed how much it must cost us in the UK to purify all water for drinking then we use it to flush the loo etc.. we need to change our building regs. and collect our grey water. We never had a water shortage even during a summer we had 40+ degrees.
But in the UK, aren't we just all chipping in for this to be done on a greater scale of economics? I am not convinced by lots of small vs. one large system. A good example would be solar panels retrofitted on hundreds of roofs vs. a purpose built solar farm.
Interesting. I think solar is a different issue. But I think we have an issue with our drainage system in some areas. I will never be convinced that watering gardens, washing cars and flushing toilets with potable water is good economics.
@@snapdragogon69 Good job GB does not have cheapskate developers, shoddy builders, heavy rainfall, poorly maintained drainage, continual flooding problems, continual road problems from the substrate being washed away, etc !!! Most European countries require rain water to be collected this way on new construction as part of the obvious need to be prepared for climate change.
@@snapdragogon69we don't purify the rain water that much. There's like 2-3 filters to get rid of odour and colour from leaves getting into the storage tank. The water is only used for the toilet, garden and some use it for their washing machine.
I learnt my trades in France, when I returned to the UK I was shocked at how antiquated our buildings systems were - the victorians knew more about damp avoidance than we currently do, and architecturally we rarely have anything of 'merit'. We are a country focused on low cost rather than quality.
You should see Swedish or Finnish new builds. This building seen in the video would not pass inspection, many code violations in the rising damp prevention.
Yes, politicians boast about the number of houses they intend to build - but it is not just the quantity, it is the quality. The housing stock in the UK is in a parlous state - new build quickly deteriorates. Compare this with Germany, for example, where building standards are high . . .
Hi Roger, thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to investigate building methods in a different country with different expectations and standards. The first thing I notice on the one you show us is the height of the internal floor above the ground outside, that alone will mitigate the rising damp issues, much of which has always been cold wet external masonry draining heat form inside causing cold patches where condensation forms. What is most abundantly clear is that the erosion of standards in this country has lead to severe degradation of standards and quality, what little innovation that has come through has been entirely related to reducing costs to boost short term profits. Fifty years ago i was doing the roofs on a new build site near where I live that was run by an establish and well respected small company, the houses they built always sold at a premium both new and after a few years. The first ones I did had proper built roofs made with good quality sawn timber and the kitchens were all installed on asphalt floors that were throughout the whole ground floor. Over the next few months on of the bigger building companies took over and the next one I did had typical modern flimsy gang nail trusses and the floors were all just cement screed, the houses still looked the same when finished but under the skin were dreadful!. Still on sale at the same old price of course. Cheers, Richard.
@@gurglejug627 We can't have high floors above the outside ground levels because of disabled access regulations. Causes us a few issues from time to time. Also, when building a house in an already developed area, we have roof height restrictions to match exisiting.
@@SilverTrowel631thanks for the explanation. Strange though that some kind of ramp entrance cannot be made, and exceptions for a higher roof - and I know it's extra time and costs but it would offset the flooding risk so much. My personal preference is for lower ceilings anyway - not sure why we don't have them in the UK - far better for energy saving, and I've built quite a few here in Scandinavia like that - but for my own/friends' use mostly - they work well.
@@gurglejug627 We do ramps to doorways but they can be problematic too. Sometimes they can become trip hazards and sometimes there's simply not the space. We don't have the land to build as in some countries. Our health and safety rules here are bloody insane at times. And btw, our standard ceiling height is 2.4m on new builds.
@@SilverTrowel631 yes, some rules in UK are plain daft. German companies are literally refusing to business with the UK sometimes because there are too many regs. I did listen to an interview by the man who drafted access legislation who said it was being over applied where for example word went around that shops had to have physical wheelchair access where what he had actually written was reasonable possibility of access which could include a member of staff pushing a wheelchair up a step. The courts don't help, what with their sue for any sum mentality - who's going to try to push some dietorally challenged person up a step these days? I ran a roofing business in the UK for some years - lost the lot due to a women lying her t**s off in court - thing is, it was easily provable she was lying and the police even saw it repeatedly but wouldn't touch it - gave up with the UK totally after seeing incredible, blatant ineptitude and corruption in police and courts. You never think it will happen to you till it does... bit still interesting to know what's going on there, esp in the building trade. Flood plane issues in UK are always good for a laugh ;)
I love Belgium. Spend five years there. I'm a spark. Worked on all sorts. Very meticulous. We used to be in UK but not now. The things that we are instructed to do is ridiculous. As an apprentice I'd never get away with what is "normal" now. I'm sick and tired of not fabricating my own trunking/conduit/tray work...it's my craft..eventually they are phasing out skilled people who have done their work at college and on site to earn a trade to be able to (flat pack ikea style) basically do things on the cheap. Subbed.
The problem is evidently immigration (from the last word in your message‽). In Southern California the building trades have applied management from the north with labor from the south. You can't get a job on any crew unless you speak Spanish (happens the moment the foreman is Hispanic), and they don't waterproof or otherwise build things right anymore. From data entry, the computer industry learned it's cheaper to pay three people to do the job badly than one person to do the job well. They pay two or three data entry people a small piecework price to enter data without much concern for accuracy. The computer then compares those data sets and adjusts one to what the other two are or spits the data out for correction. In construction, they hand the job to the cheapest guy who couldn't possibly do the job right at the price, and fix whatever leaks or falls apart later. It's far rougher on the building owners (and definitely the buildings) but easier on construction management.
Poland, for as long as I remember (50 years), walls are separated from foundation with a layer of thick tar paper, brushed with molten asphalt/bitumen/tar. I have never experienced any dampness in the buildings or seen any water deterioration.
We, the Dutch, take our hats off to the Belgian builders. I think it has to do with their urge to build their own home. Not renting it. Every time I visit Belgium, I'm amazed by the level of finish. A trick: a few years back, a company built an annexe to our house. I bought a teachers' blackboard ruler (the large white/red ones) from the internet and every evening when the builders went home, I took tons of pics of their work: the plumbing, electrics etc with the ruler next to it and a reference point that would still be visible when the floor and walls would be finished. In a way: mapping out the routing.
Wtf, so you're saying other countries don't always build damp proof? That's crazy. I'm from Belgium btw, just found your channel and this video. Finally someone who talks about stuff that's actually useful. Cheers!
Pipe in pipe! That's what I did for the pipes I laid in our current house, including the pipe from the pavement stopcock into the house and water and central heating pipes to our outbuilding. Wish I'd thought about it and asked my builder and plumber to do it for the house itself. Electric and data cables all in conduit or, when outside, inside barrier pipe. So much easier for modifications
One day I'll do a self-build so some I'm making a note of lots of these methods. I'm British but live in France. One thing I like is the pipe-in-pipe method, to individual shut-off valves. Also the separate fuses. We have a "Technical Room", basically a semi-external utility room, where the shut-off valves come to and all the electrical circuits as well. If only Building Regs would insist on Solar panels, a battery, and rainwater recovery storage (for flushing loos). All those things are cheap at the time of construction but prohibitive afterwards.
'A battery' - you need loads of batteries to come anywhere near having the electrical capacity to run a 'normal' household. Less where you are of course in France than in many places, but remember that no matter how good your charging system and inverter, they will degrade. I do think water heating solar panels should be standard (or at least the house built for an easy retro fit at any point) as well as a double-coil heat exchange boiler: The issue is probably possible liability for Legionnaire's disease.
Solar panels are an evolving technology, with many questionable aspects. Forcing people to pay for something that will be outdated in a few years would be an unjustified intrusion on their freedom of choice.
Lots of things are done a bit different here on the continent, but strangely enough the Poroton blocks also didn't take off in the Netherlands, instead like the UK aerated concrete is mostly used for the inner leaf. Dutch houses in general have more details in common with the UK than in other continental countries. But we do the damp courses and pipe in pipe/wire in pipe like in Belgium and others. Raked out courses and separate pointing is the standard all over here, always wondered why it's done in one go in the UK. The building you are in isn't a flat, it's a 2 story house, at 6:00 you can see the opening for stairs in the ceiling, concrete first story floors is standard here, timber isn't used anymore for floors because concrete offers better fire safety. Older houses pre 1960 often do have timber floors still. Mine from 1932 does.
I think it has to do with the dimension of the bricks? because the height of the bricks is bigger in the UK they use a pointed london style trowel to apply mortar in the upright joints, whereas I see in NL the mortar is applied with a rounded trowel and not specifically to the uprights.
The blocks are actually only used in small projects. If they do a series of (connected) homes the inner walls will be concrete. For me the amazing part is the city heat pipe running over the ground floor to the distribution point inside the house. Guess that must mean that it is a low temp system. In The Netherlands you will usually see these pipes running through the crawl space underneath the floor, carrying temperatures exceeding 70⁰C.
Of course the building will get pointed by a color of choice. Pointing one house like this will take 2-3 days. The cavities in the brick work is to let the space between exterior wall and interior wall breathe. There is no contact between the two walls. There's about 10cm (or more) PIR insulation and an air cavity of a couple of cm's between the two. The black plastics will be taken out once the pointing is done. This is just to make sure the holes don't get filled with mortar. These are houses, not apartments. There's a water barrier in the brickwork and also underneath the complete concrete slab. The screed you are talking about is not screed but the concrete slab/foundations on which they put piping and electricity. Screed will be put on afterwards, then a final floor. 90% of the houses have concrete (first and second) floors since the sixties. Cheers from... Belgium!
In Belgium they use a strong 3/1 mortar mix to lay the bricks. At the end of the day, they rake/scrape the joints out for the pointing which is always done afterwards with a stronger (dryer) mix and a colour to choice. Therefore you don’t have any water absorption in your joints/pointing (because a a weak mix), your cavity stays dry and you don’t have any frost damage as water can’t penetrate through the joints. Unlike in the UK - a weak 5/1 mortar mix, damp cavity and every 10/15years repairing frost damaged bricks & repoint.
But if the mortar is harder than the bricks, the bricks may crack over time and when frost or icy conditions gets into the wall, the bricks will deteriorate before the mortar over time.
@@joreggelt-y7t our buildings have stood lifetimes and they never needed any mortar or brickwork (exept for one that was built in 1901 but i don't know why you'd think we'd have to replace our bricks?
I was in Belgium a year ago, amazing skills designing and building in brick. Great video, as usual. Good to see even a big channel can have technical issues with audio and still recover.
Fantastic video. Ideal for all those American UA-cam videos about how easy it is to run extra network or HDMI cables in walls, not in Belgium. Our houses are made of stone and not plasterboard.
The porotherm blocks have a capacity to carry between 10 and 20 Newton. So yes, you can just lay a concrete floor on top of them. These blocks are produced in Belgium. Putting that local clay to good use. These blocks also allow for 100% machine produced prefab walls. Produced on monday, loaded on tuesday, arrive for installation on the building site on wednesday. Takes about a day to install 1 floor (of your average house) They are prefab produced incl damp proofing, dooropenings, windowsopenings, isolating block in the bottom row, etc...
Nice idea re the manifolds for the domestic water supply (both hot and cold). I did some work (chlorination) at a fast food restaurant in New Brighton, the Wirral, around 5 years ago. The plumber told me the manifold was so all the pipes could be run in plastic to each area, so if there was a leak in one area, the water could be isolated at the manifold and then repaired or replaced. This also minimised the amount of joints needed in each area, joints which invariably end up causing leaks. The manifolds for the domestic hot and cold water supplies were located in an accessible cupboard near the incoming water main.
I absolutely LOVE Belgian brick buildings, the houses you see on the outskirts of Leuven, absolutely stunning. The variation in brick colour/texture is just beautiful. I've been lucky to visit the area for work a few times and have hired a bike for some exploring in my spare time, and no matter where you go you'll see it. I don't know if I'm just luckily always in premium areas or if they just generally have better design.
Belgians are "born with a brick in the stomach". The saying "een baksteen in de maag hebben" is often used in a humorous way, but it also reflects the deep-seated desire of many Belgians to own their own home. Greetings from Leuven!
Nice to see the windows sit in line with the cavity insulation to avoid cold bridging. Even in new builds in the uk I often see the windows set in the external wall
Bs code's of practice are used in a lot of the developed world these days and places that don't use them,well 😂. Anything in this video from Belgium doesn't make the end product anymore efficient eg. Pipe in pipe sounds cleaver but it don't make any difference really because you are not going to apply that method on underfloor heating system and that is the most likely place to have a leak.usually plumbers avoid having connection under concrete when it comes to mains supply and domestic hot and cold if possible and ducting has also been used aswell for many years also air tests are carried out on all pipe work. Can he show us a house that the proper codes of practice has been applied and failed . Dpc up the back of sill standard practice, Dpc draped over top of sill nonsense the only reason that's there is because the brickey couldn't be arsed to get the proper width one out of the container.I would like to see what the guys with the windows will do with the DPC when they eventually arrive, they will cut it out of the way if it's still there, it will more than likely have tripped someone by then and the foreman got some fool to cut it out of there before the guys from health and safety see it. Even if you tried that idiots method you would still have problems with the seal under the threshold in the long term. Look If it's not broken don't fix it.
@@joecurrandoubt British standards are used anywhere developed. Like where? Def not USA Canada Australia New Zealand … def not Asia as Korean and Japanese standards are far far higher… def not Europe as they have their own… so what’s left? If you call rich Arab developed then unlikely to use bs standards just because their requirements are so different. I think I’ve covered the lot?
Another thing I have seen done in Belgium, is to use swimming pool mortar on the first few rows of bricks off the concrete (in addition to the membrane etc).
I was thinking that. If you have a building below sea level there must be a lot of hydrostatic pressure pushing the ground water upwards - especially if you are near to the sea. I would like to know more about the methods they use for preventing rising damp in the Netherlands.
I have a CLT house here (belgium) and the builders did waterproof the whole foundation blocks before the wood was put on top. On top of that they put a membrane over the insolation and they taped the joints between the wood panels. The joints between the bricks are often done at a later stage.
We call it “arduin” in Flemish, or bluestone in English. So it’s definitely not concrete. That’s used only in very low cost or temporary buildings here.
Britain used to lead the world in so many things. Have to say I'd be much happier paying for and living in a house built to these Belgian standards than our piiful excuses for a home. Well thought through and cost-effective, with a good dose of future-proofing. What's not to like? Thanks for shining a light on this.
I was a labourer on a new build sports centre in Lancashire when I was 17 years old (i'm 67 now) . I visited the area a few months ago. The sports centre I worked on only 50 years ago has been demolished (4 years ago) and a new one built next to it ! So that 'modern build' I worked on lasted 46 years ! I think buildings we construct now are not going to last much beyond 50 years. They are not going to be repairable.
when I worked in Germany in the 90s we had to rake the joints back and a team would come in and joint with a dry sand and cement mix would do a few houses in 1 day and the finish was good without any colour differences
2:56 @SkillBuilder I hear you say “district heat system” which I don’t think we have anywhere in Belgium. These are definitely pipes of the heat pump, which every new building being built is obligated to install.
Yes Belgium isn't a former communist country we don't have that AFAIK especially not on newer houses definitely pipes for a heatpump since that's required now.
The pipe-in-a-pipe idea got me, that's the first time I've ever heard of the concept (and so inexpensive?). Here in Australia we have high construction standards with ventilation to the cavity via terracotta bricks that are double the height of a regular brick about the same length each with 15 square holes in it: but that lets insects into the cavity which can be stopped by buying industrial size "scotch-bright pot scourers" from the larger hardware stores cleaning sections, the industrial size allows essentially identical airflow but totally obstructs cockroaches and other bugs. This is a great channel definitely worth a tick and subscribe :)
The systems (water pipes red/blue in conduits and damp proof courses, internal brick block walls and many others ) you talk about albeit unusual in the UK are quite common in several EU countries in some cases going on for decades. Insulation is a different matter and typically the south worries less about thermal insulation albeit they should worry a bit more as it is warranted. Thank you for posting another interesting video
Here in the Netherlands we solve our damp proofing in a different way most of the time. If you have a concrete foundation and put the concrete floor on top of that you won't need damp proofing in most cases. If you don't put the concrete on top of the foundation, but between the load bearing walls you will need damo proofing, but we don't do that often here.
If you are interested in rising damp, come to Central and northern Portugal. It rains more than in the UK, that rain happens in half a year and many houses have no dpc or damp prevention of any kind. Concrete floors were often poured straight on gravel on soil. Traditionally, downstairs was for storage and the family lived upstairs.
My compliments on your voice-over dubbing skills, that is a very difficult thing to do. It ls also very interesting to see alternatives in building practice. The approach to pipework looks great. I remember watching the way wiring up in a big workshop was done in Denmark, very different to the way it's generally done in the UK. It's so useful to learn from practices in an alternative regulatory environment - it really makes one think about how we do things in the UK and perhaps update our thinking.
Pipe in pipe seems a bloody good idea. The brickwork looks like a Dutch Wild Bond. After the war there were thousands of second hand and broken bricks due to the bombing. They rebuilt with what they had, hence the random pattern. Nice three centred arch over the front door, vary rare to see one new these days, probable the prettiest of all arches.
first thing i noticed about he arch is that whoever placed that brick on the right of the center should get his eyes fixed. they can still fix it with a grinder before they put in the joints. but comon, fix that
All houses as well as apartments here in Belgium have been built for decades with concrete floors between storeys to keep noise down & for underfloor heating. Standard practice!
I suppose lumber is a lot cheaper in the US than in Europe. It’s used in all houses between floors and between floors in apartment buildings up to about five stories, with discussion of increasing the upper limit. It is indeed noisy. It’s not so bothersome in a house, but in an apartment it’s incredibly intrusive to hear every footstep of your upstairs neighbor.
In Belgium and the Netherlands as well, the briscks are lais and at the end of the day they are scraped out. At the end, a specific separate craftsman sill do all the poinying in one go with a sepate mix, which can be adjusted in hardness, colour, depth etc. It's ver important not to have the pointing too hard or the bricks will freeze to pieces. If the pointing ever goes bad it can be more easily replaced as well, without damaging the bricks. The mortar is meant for building, the pointing for protection.
District hearing is basically piping hot water coming to your house and you have heat exhanger in your home to reduce it to hot water and forvthe radiators. Charged by volume and temperature delta over your heat exhange(used kWh). Plus monthly basic fee to cover the upkeep of the district heat grid.
It's actually not even luke warm (waste) water which is used by the heatpump to condense into Hot water. I don't mean sewage water but water from industrial processes etc which produce excessive heat.
Self builders in the UK should consider visiting the Batibouw Building Exhibition held in Brussels early each year. Huge show in 13 halls. Biggest show I've been to. Lots of new ideas and construction methods.
Hi. I'm from the Netherlands and we have even more problems with water lol. Half of the Netherlands is below sea level. Amsterdam is completely built on wooden poles. The Amsterdam Palace (built by Napoleon) stands on over 16.000 wooden poles.
Yes I know about the timber poles and have been to Amsterdam many times. We are due to go there in a couple of weeks time to do some fiming and visit a Hydrogen village. We will be pleased to have your recommendations of places to film. We want to know about damp proofing so it would be good to talk to a company specialising in this.
Everybody in The Netherlands builds damp free. We just have to, there is no other way of building houses if your groundwater level is 1 foot. The hydrogen village does not exist. It is an idea, a ludricous idea, to make green gas out of wind and solar and burn this to save the planet. Lol. As an old school trained ingeneer it hurts the brain to even think about the lunacy of this.
I live in Belgium. Not a professional builder but did build my own house. The slab you see over the foundation is a slab that runs through to the inner wall with a step-up. So moist and water is deviated towards the outside and not towards inside. Many things you name was logic to me, the way it should be done. Like pipe-in-pipe is very Common here
I have a house in France that has copper pipe in plastic tube similar to what you are showing here. It is buried in a concrete screed over the floor similar (I think) that will happen in this house in Belgium. The copper pipe is impossible to replace without digging up the floor! Also since the evidence of a leak only shows at the end of the outer tubing, you have no idea where the actual leak occurs and where to start digging. In general I think that not sufficient consideration is given to future maintenance requirements, access etc. It's cheaper just to bury everything.
The pipework in this video is plastic in plastic, so possible to drag through (might need to pre-lube the outer pipe though). Obviously rigid copper can't be pulled out of a buried plastic sleeve. Perhaps copper in plastic is to offer a small amount of protection from rough treatment during construction.
Hi, Thanks for your interest in my comment. However while there is some plastic pipe used I think there is a lot of copper. Also if it were plastic in plastic you would never pull it through the tortuous bendy routes that they have used even if it was lubricated. Look at the following; 1:56 you can just see the copper appearing out of the outer red tube, also there seems to be some brazing on the red pipe, much favoured on the continent where they do not use flow solder joints (how this coexists with the adjacent white piece of plastic I do not know); 2:26 look at the bends you could never pull plastic through these, pre-lubed or not, also on the left hand side going up the wall there is uncovered copper: 3:26 here you can see some plastic pipe, pretty stiff not for pulling through any of the routes I refer to earlier; 6:46 look at the bend on the yellow pipe, I think copper with a taped covering. I have always thought that the use of an outer tubing or tape is to protect the copper from the covering concrete/mortar as a corrosion preventer, they do not co-exist well with each other. Also on the underfloor heating which is plastic there is no outer tube (normal) and is buried directly in the concrete screed. No corrosion problems but a repair nightmare!@@stephen-boddy
@@John-dp8ohDo a Google image search for "pex pip blansol" you will see pipe-in-pipe where the inner "red" is distinctly copper coloured. It looks an exact match for this stuff. The white bit looks like something similar to a sharkbite or push-fit fitting, although I don't recognise the exact brand. As to the ability to pull through? Have you tried it? To quote the Blansol manufacturer website: "Besides, the corrugated duct allows an easy substitution of the pipe if needed. Thanks to the use of corrugated pipes you will just take out the damaged pipe by pulling it out and introduce a new pipe with no need of major work." You mention the copper going up the wall. The pipe-in-pipe is for pipe that runs under a screed. They wouldn't need the ability to pull through on a pipe that isn't encased in concrete. That length of copper looks like it's a feed between two parts of a manifold system - one half feeding the cold supplies downstairs, the other feeding cold supplies upstairs, and the copper linking them. For the UFH, yeah, that stuff pops and you're in a world of hurt. It can't use pip, or you'll be waiting twice as long for a warm floor. The yellow pipe is completely different. Here in the UK that is for mains gas, and I'm pretty sure that is an internationally used colour coding, and that you must also use copper for gas (at least in the UK), not pex. So no, that one is not pipe-in-pipe, nor is it easily replaceable.
@@John-dp8oh the pipes used here in Belgium are called multi layered pipe and indeed contain both metal and plastic, replacing them is not easy and the outer tubing is more for insulation or expansion and contraction purposes. these pipes will never fail if placed correctly, any leaks will always present at couplings, wich should always remain accessible and in the floor only straight, uninterrupted runs should be used.
We really are backward in most general building techniques compared to Europe. When working in Germany in the mid-1980's I would marvel at the fit and finish of the local buildings and their plumbing, electrics and even carpeting and skirtings - if you know, you know.
As someone with years of experience designing buildings like this on the continent, and quite a bit knowledge with water proofing these type of particular, I can confirm that extra bit of DPC hanging over there is a cover protecting the door where the mice can get in and out.
It's worth remembering that damp also will track along horizontally... from a neighbouring wall 🧱 or yard wall etc. Into a wall that has a " rising " dampproof membrane below it. Another thing is many times rising damp is confused with condensing moisture from a warm atmosphere onto a cold North facing wall , especially in cupboards or units
As an architect assistant and former constructionworker I can assure you not everything we do is perfect. Every country could learn from another. As a matter of fact, I prefer the dutch way of the foundation detail instead of the belgian way... Also that rainpipe in the middle of that window, wth whas that XD... I heard you talking about pipe in pipe system with the blue and red pipes, and then you said you could shove another tube in that when you have a leak but that's not possible. Those colored sleaves are just protection for everything that comes on top of it :-).
Roger please do a deep dive on the question of “why”. It’s not as simple as “we could learn a lot” because everyone wants to adopt newer, faster, better, and cheaper way of doing things. So why don’t we? It’s not a question of learning, all the answers are there right in front of our eyes and fingertips.
as a belgian loss adjuster for insurance companies: yes rising damp very much exists in belgium. it's one of the big exclusions of insurance policies so we're always checking if the cause of the water damage is rising damp in order to deny damage claims... older buildings or add-ons against old existing garden walls don't have the damp foil in them, they always cause trouble with rising damp.
In South Africa all floors and stairs are done with concrete, they use scaffolding forms to lay the concrete over the scaffolding forms to lay the floors. Much better construction for sound proofing, they even use that in duplex construction, not just flats.
Some ways to get ground water out of your old building : sometimes ive seen in Belgium : every foot they drill a horizontal hole into the walls a bit above ground level and inject some kind of fluid , that creates a water repelling barrier . Another way but more costly :. Piece by piece they dig some stones at or even below ground level and underbild. It with a concrete layer + a moist screen . 3: I used to live in an old cottage , end of 18 century . Hardly no foundation , floor tiles one sand floor . The entrance silt was only half an inch high , and the street side of the house was actually a foot under street level ! One time there was a severe rain and flood warning . So I picked up some sandbags at the town fire department to be shure . I never got flooded . Maybe the only thing my landlord did good for the house , was to Fill the whole backyard up with stone building rubbish .so the whole garden collected the rain up very quickly … I discovered it because at some places in the garden the grass grew very little ..
Hi I am from US, it was nice to see some alternate approaches. I like the pipe in pipe since I always worry about having to rip up a slab if you get a failure.
My brother lives in Aubange and in a newly built property and i have to say credit to Thomas Piron in the sense the way they build properties unlike UK builders trying to cut cost in every single way and step of the build. No snags, house is energy efficient and triple glaze, external roller shutters/blinds to name a few. And bear in mind, im talking something that was built 10yrs ago!
Belgium houses had wooden roller shutters going back to at least WW2 ! Now PVC of course. Windows opening inwards and large strong doors with no bottom brace.
So what is the purpose of those roller shutters? Crime prevention? You don’t have hurricanes in Europe as far as I know….. Surely the houses are like caves when they are closed.
The pre insulated pipe cannot be altered/replaced once installed, we usually buy it dual red/blue on 50 or 100 m roll in DYI. Still pretty handy though. The non insulated version is indeed two separate pipes but it would be very hard to replace if there are curbs and bents. I think it is there to protect the actual waterpipe from chemicals and frictions when it expands and retracts due to hot and cold water
I have lived in a new build detached house for coming on 50 years. Brick and breeze cavity construction with clay tile roof and plastic guttering with, over the years, excellent loft insulation (two layers of 13 Tog cheap polyester duvets) and cavity insulation (Rock Wool) added plus plastic windows. I am on my second only gas boiler which is now over twenty years old and still going strong. Twelve years ago solar panels were installed under the Fit subsidised system. Energy bills are low thanks in part to having three heating zones each under thermostat and timer control plus radiator stats. We still burn a log and lower emissions coal fire occasionally on our live fire the chimney of which aids slow air changes with judicious use of the window trickle vents. The house cost £17,000 and is now valued at around £500,000, however, now retired and cosy with minimal maintenance from a great British style of house that has kept up with the times there is no need to move to a 'modern' home.
restoring old longuer in central france -- its 500 yrs old walls about half metre thick 14 metres height - limestone rocks and all held together with powdered limestone mix - chaux // holding a very heavy oak beamed roof // bought it to restore // looked a bit rough but solid as a castle -- bearing in mind local farmers picked up natural limestone occurring rocks from the local fields // winter very warm summer like having air con... just bizarre how clever these old builders were ... charente area
@@hoWa3920 Belgium has a big self-build culture, so quality is driven by a huge choice of materials from all over Europe, high training standards and smaller family builders. The basements and lofts that come as standard in Belgium, need adopting in the UK, but UK is the opposite, dominated by greedy cheap corporates and unskilled workers.
What a great video, so much can be learned from seeing what other countries do. The NHS managers need to see how other countries run better services than ours.
Belgian tax rates are some of the highest in the world as the Belgian government uses tax revenues to fund their world-class healthcare etc, it is about funding and demand, not about management .
The NHS is hammered by an aging population who require a lot of care, and not enough cash in the system to cover it. Staff are worked hard, as are managers. Any fat in the system went a long, long time ago.We prefer to spend our money on HS2, and PPE fraud.
UK is too rip off and cheap to do stuff like this. Most new builds I've seen don't even tape the insulation as it's too costly (pennies overall but we still do it).
Many bricks are actually reused from former buildings, as they have Factories cleaning used bricks in Belgium! We of course also use moisture protection in the walls in low, Denmark. When walking in Belgium years ago, I liked looking at the solutions used in Belgian houses, also a single and tall, "Town House" with flat walls on both sides. standing in a Belgian field!!
hi Roger the we have some great systems we can use the only reason we do not is cost simple as that the big builders lead the way and profit is king when we build we build like this ref ( bi -fold doors ) and membrane always will but look at new builds cheap shoddy in general mate , great vlog mate keep it up
We're British but lived in Belgium for some years. We noticed the quality of their brickwork was much better than in the UK. Its possible they haven't pointed the building in the video yet. We also saw several old houses renovated using EWI and brick slips. Why is this so expensive in the UK?
Top video. I’d love more of these. It amazes me how much construction materials and methods can differ, even among areas of Western European with similar climates
I think the gutters are zinc, not steel. Expensive but lasts a long time. The only thing I don't like is the lack of a concrete structure to support the floor slab. I have porotherm blocks in my house, but here in Portugal modern houses are required to have earthquake resistant concrete structure, I guess in Belgium that's not a problem. In Spain I know some clay blocks like porotherm are certified to make 2 floors above ground, but I wouldn't try it. Other than that it's almost the same building techniques, in fact I would bet some of the workers there are Portuguese.
Rising damp is all over in Ghana and people are messing up with solutions that don't work. I've done videos on my channel about it. The problem is homeowners listening to builders who don't know what they're doing.
Rising damp is an issue in parts of Kenya too. I currently live in a ~30 year old house in Nakuru that has rising damp in almost every wall and many of the floors with flaking paint to match. No mould though due to weather and ventilation. It's the same among all our neighbours and we were told about it when we moved to the city. DPC is (at least currently) used here under the slab and again under the walls, I picked some up last week for a friend who is building. Maybe the older houses had a lower quality DPC, or installation problems.
the very old more "bourgeoisie" kind of buildings in Belgium have cellars that reach higher than the outside soil, a meter or more, in order to never get rising damp reaching the ground floor. they even have sewage output level below the cellar ground level. this stuff is sooooooooo and you can buy neglected ones for a loaf of bread
Thanks Roger, always interesting to see how our continental neighbours differ from our techniques, I've always liked those Porotherm blocks, lighter to handle than concrete blocks for sure, and quicker to set too ! Pipe in pipe seems like a great idea !
Having lived in Germany for 25 yrs and having moving over to Flemish Belgium in the past 10yrs. German domestic building code n standards are at least 10 yrs ahead of Belgium. In Belgium they are catching up but still lag behind. We spent about 12 months looking at houses prior to buying and some of the gerry built constructs we viewed made UK building std look state of the art and that takes some doing!!!
You were probably looking at pre war houses. If you look in the basement the early houses had bricks under the hard floors or sometimes poured concrete. Now they use prefab 'Welfsels' Belgium has a great education system for tradesmen and uses German materials and innovation as they come out. Self-build is a huge part of the Belgian economy. You can't own a business there without a degree in your subject + business studies. Rainwater harvesting + pumped fresh air ventilation were part of building regs about 15 years ago, but maybe have been relaxed off.
@@sukotu23 German windows as used in Belgium since forever, are bolted to solid interior walls and open inwards. The windows are more secure, look sleeker and have that recess that allows the nice stone ledges. In the UK the interior wall are too weak to take these windows and doors, hence UK doors often have the bar at the bottom for strength. Belgium has much higher standards due to the education system plus encourages smaller qualified builders and wont let the greedy big corporates take over like in he UK with a lot of failed education and sometimes rogues.
Hello I'm North Italian. My apartment is built similar to this. Pipe in pipe and the pipe for water is multilayer (pholiethylene/cupper/pholiethylene/cupper and so on for 8 layers total). The electrical wires are separated: a circuit for lights and another circuit for sockets. Furthemore, every sockets in the kitchen is covered by forniture has a dedicate thermal switch.
Ah Roger if I’d have know I would have asked you to come and have a look at my basement in Antwerp pal! Might have to do one of those ask a builder videos. It’s an original 1936 basement, damp as a swamp. Enjoy your holidays!
Always wonder why small-scale district heating systems aren't a thing on new-build estates. Couple of industrial heat pumps near the substation, meter each house. Homeowners are happy because they pay pittance and don't have a heat pump making a racket in their garden, developer puts a 10% markup on and makes a steady income, seems a no-brainer..
Worked as a plumber on a new build estate in the Netherlands back in 2000. The houses were heated via a heat exchanger with hot water from the local waste incinerator.
In Naples I saw walls made from 'tufo' a volcanic rock. I'm told it is lightweight with great thermal properties. Trouble is, if you don't render it, the weather erodes it. I saw a lot of crumbly walls there.
Not really... Any house older than 20 years is more or less useless... Massive problems with rising damp, no insulation whatsoever and many people just built whatever they wanted without any permission... And yet people still think their house is worth €300k+ 😅
@@vincentput I think you got lucky! 😅 We've been looking for a house in budget for a while now... Almost all of them have damp issues or permission problems... And of course now you're required to bring them up to EPC standard within 5 years makes it extremely expensive!
@@jordy46682 I must say that surprises me, from outside many look good, and the few I've been it seem pretty good. The houses in UK are often pretty awful these days, but people think they're worth €640+!
Man goes on his holidays and looks at damp proof courses. Top bloke
How else do you pay for a holiday?
Man returns home to empty house 😂
Once upon a time, that was known as a " busman's holiday " ! :-)
Lol
He put his holiday as a business expense. Went to do a bit of work
The stones under the windows and below the outside doors aren't concrete but natural bluestone. Belgium has been using its own bluestones since forever and Vietnam also has a good export of it, but of lesser quality (meaning easier to crack under stress). I work in construction in Belgium and currently have one that's soon to finish. I am the owner and also the builder so if you have questions I can always answer. And yes, my construction looks very similar to this too except a few minor details.
Granit is better; we use that in Holland. In Belgium also imittion granit is used; probaly kind of cement; looking good though.
Bricklaying: at the three country point:
Holland: one cement, 4 sand and glue through the mixure (no lime)
Germany: one cement 7 sand and lime
Belgium: 1 cement and 5 zavel (kind of clay) Ideal for big spaces between bricks/natural stones.
Belgium: no finishing bricks at the side walls; taxes.....
Once upon a time I was foreman of a group plasterers; we had also Dutch brick layers and carpenters there.
What are the blocks used in the interior walls? I didn't quite hear what he said
Some English houses use blue bricks too
We lived in Belgium for several years. Noticed they point the brickwork after construction. I wondered if the building in the vid hadn't been pointed yet? In general the quality of brickwork we saw in Belgium was better than in the UK.
This was a good example of not letting something go to waste. Throw on a voice over and it actually turned out quite interesting. It is a lesson in itself.
Which is where? I guess, from your surname, that it is, possibly, Netherlands? They are doing a lot of great things there, especially on the railways. All trains are electric, unlike Britain with its preponderance of diesel. And the removal of level crossings, replacing them with underpasses or bridges over the railways, so not impeding any motorist, and making train/vehicle collisions a thing of the past.
The management of the excess water, and flooding, is light-years ahead of the rest of the world.
Been saying this for years .should also have a manual for the house .where every cable pipes etc can be located.with add modifications added.
In engineering we have drawings That should be the same in the building industry and amended at the completion of the job
@@leehotspur9679Drawings are not the same as how they are exactly laid down. Won't be the first time a pipe being a meter off.
But that is why in the last couple years i have seen construction companies adding a 'House Portfolio' to new house projects, with photo's from start to finish.
Need accurate information about a cable or tube, look into the house's portfolio with the images.
As built drawings and other BIM stuff is standard in factory new builds.
@Eledore it is mandatory that the pipes are placed exactly like how it is on the drawing.
The system of Traceability is only as good as the person who is responsible for the input of information Be it the Owner or Builders representative @@Eledore
Running the electric through plastic pipes is also normal over here and it’s a great thing , especially when you want to re-wire
conduits
Isn't that the norm for brick/block buildings?
Too easy. No profit in a simple job. Now some hacking out and fussing around, with a plasterer mate on standby, is a great way to confuse and screw the client.
When rebuilding on my old cottage I ran electrics through pipes where I could ( whilst doing a bit DIY plastering ) Now my electrics are playing up elsewhere and I wish I had asked the electrician to do it on other areas - but when it’s not current practice you are reluctant to ask as a client.
@@girlsdrinkfeck The web is international and indeed this post is about belgium. I find it best to use the simplest language that gets the point across.
I'm an architect from Belgium. This is a very standard example of all details that are important in our trade.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Thanks, I would like to record a Zoom call with you to talk about the way you build.
@@SkillBuilder Sure!
@@albex8484 How are level access thresholds done in Belgium? All the doors look about 150mm above external levels.
why is the block work not bonded half bond?
@@cherrytreegoats3409Mu guess: it's decorative. Modern masonry uses a double wall separated by an isolated spigot avoiding cold bridges (so metal binding hooks are no longer used): an inside wall of prefab elements or half-bonded large quick-laying blocks (typically cemented rather than mortared) and an outside wall of decorative bricks, sometimes layed in decorative patterns (the more complicated the more expensive) or prefab brick-patterned plates.
I built my (off-grid) log house here in Finland. Pipe in pipe is common here and also in my place, and similarly, all electric wiring is in conduit. The house has underfloor radiant, but as it is a log house (with lots of windows) the walls don't have a high U value (even with triple glazed argon gas filled windows) compared to a regular wall. The ceiling and floor however are very well insulated. You may expect it takes a lot of energy to heat a place with essentially no insulation in the walls in a cold climate, but that's actually not the case. It's also fully off-grid, so I make all my own energy. Yes, a wood gasification burner and masonry fireplace is used, but the total amount of wood used is around 35kg per day when it's -30C outside. Outside of extreme cold weather, I make a fire every two days and this provides all the heating and hot water for four people - and the wife likes to keep the house at 23C or higher. Spring and early autumn is when a heat pump is used because at those times I generate enough electricity, while it is still very cold outside.
What do you use for electricity generation from Nov-Jan? Finland's sunshine percentages (even of the small available sunshine) at that time of year are quite dismal
@@kaptinkeiff I make biodiesel in summer which I use in a generator (about once a week or so) to charge the batteries in winter.
@@upnorthandpersonal Fair play, how many kWh? Is that allowed - I'd looked up biodiesel/vegetable oil as road fuel before, but that needs duty paid! Nuts compared to the UK, we have it so easy
@@kaptinkeiff Yes, allowed - at least to use in a generator - not allowed to use in a car In winter I tend to use at most 5kWh per day, so I run the generator for half a day once a week to recharge the battery. Overall, it's not a lot of fuel for a winter. It helps of course tremendously that this house was designed to be off grid with minimal power use in mind.
@@donalkinsella4380 U value of wood is still much more compared to a traditional insulated wall, stone or otherwise.
Hi, great piece. We lived in Belgium for 5 years. I was particularly impressed by each new building having a “grey water” system. All water falling on the roof was capturered and stored then recycled by using it to flush loos, water the garden and wash the car. I have always been amazed how much it must cost us in the UK to purify all water for drinking then we use it to flush the loo etc.. we need to change our building regs. and collect our grey water.
We never had a water shortage even during a summer we had 40+ degrees.
But in the UK, aren't we just all chipping in for this to be done on a greater scale of economics?
I am not convinced by lots of small vs. one large system. A good example would be solar panels retrofitted on hundreds of roofs vs. a purpose built solar farm.
Interesting. I think solar is a different issue. But I think we have an issue with our drainage system in some areas. I will never be convinced that watering gardens, washing cars and flushing toilets with potable water is good economics.
@@snapdragogon69 Good job GB does not have cheapskate developers, shoddy builders, heavy rainfall, poorly maintained drainage, continual flooding problems, continual road problems from the substrate being washed away, etc !!!
Most European countries require rain water to be collected this way on new construction as part of the obvious need to be prepared for climate change.
@@Andrew-vx2ls what climate change...
@@snapdragogon69we don't purify the rain water that much. There's like 2-3 filters to get rid of odour and colour from leaves getting into the storage tank. The water is only used for the toilet, garden and some use it for their washing machine.
I learnt my trades in France, when I returned to the UK I was shocked at how antiquated our buildings systems were - the victorians knew more about damp avoidance than we currently do, and architecturally we rarely have anything of 'merit'. We are a country focused on low cost rather than quality.
You should see Swedish or Finnish new builds. This building seen in the video would not pass inspection, many code violations in the rising damp prevention.
Yes, politicians boast about the number of houses they intend to build - but it is not just the quantity, it is the quality. The housing stock in the UK is in a parlous state - new build quickly deteriorates. Compare this with Germany, for example, where building standards are high . . .
go to Switzerland. France norms and techniques are middle aged.😊
Diversity and thus lowering IQ gives you that.
Hi Roger, thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to investigate building methods in a different country with different expectations and standards.
The first thing I notice on the one you show us is the height of the internal floor above the ground outside, that alone will mitigate the rising damp issues, much of which has always been cold wet external masonry draining heat form inside causing cold patches where condensation forms.
What is most abundantly clear is that the erosion of standards in this country has lead to severe degradation of standards and quality, what little innovation that has come through has been entirely related to reducing costs to boost short term profits.
Fifty years ago i was doing the roofs on a new build site near where I live that was run by an establish and well respected small company, the houses they built always sold at a premium both new and after a few years. The first ones I did had proper built roofs made with good quality sawn timber and the kitchens were all installed on asphalt floors that were throughout the whole ground floor. Over the next few months on of the bigger building companies took over and the next one I did had typical modern flimsy gang nail trusses and the floors were all just cement screed, the houses still looked the same when finished but under the skin were dreadful!. Still on sale at the same old price of course.
Cheers, Richard.
very good point - in UK flooding areas a high floor can't be a bad idea if (un)developers really have to build there - and it must be a selling point.
@@gurglejug627 We can't have high floors above the outside ground levels because of disabled access regulations. Causes us a few issues from time to time.
Also, when building a house in an already developed area, we have roof height restrictions to match exisiting.
@@SilverTrowel631thanks for the explanation. Strange though that some kind of ramp entrance cannot be made, and exceptions for a higher roof - and I know it's extra time and costs but it would offset the flooding risk so much. My personal preference is for lower ceilings anyway - not sure why we don't have them in the UK - far better for energy saving, and I've built quite a few here in Scandinavia like that - but for my own/friends' use mostly - they work well.
@@gurglejug627 We do ramps to doorways but they can be problematic too. Sometimes they can become trip hazards and sometimes there's simply not the space. We don't have the land to build as in some countries.
Our health and safety rules here are bloody insane at times.
And btw, our standard ceiling height is 2.4m on new builds.
@@SilverTrowel631 yes, some rules in UK are plain daft. German companies are literally refusing to business with the UK sometimes because there are too many regs. I did listen to an interview by the man who drafted access legislation who said it was being over applied where for example word went around that shops had to have physical wheelchair access where what he had actually written was reasonable possibility of access which could include a member of staff pushing a wheelchair up a step. The courts don't help, what with their sue for any sum mentality - who's going to try to push some dietorally challenged person up a step these days? I ran a roofing business in the UK for some years - lost the lot due to a women lying her t**s off in court - thing is, it was easily provable she was lying and the police even saw it repeatedly but wouldn't touch it - gave up with the UK totally after seeing incredible, blatant ineptitude and corruption in police and courts. You never think it will happen to you till it does... bit still interesting to know what's going on there, esp in the building trade. Flood plane issues in UK are always good for a laugh ;)
I love Belgium. Spend five years there. I'm a spark. Worked on all sorts. Very meticulous. We used to be in UK but not now. The things that we are instructed to do is ridiculous. As an apprentice I'd never get away with what is "normal" now. I'm sick and tired of not fabricating my own trunking/conduit/tray work...it's my craft..eventually they are phasing out skilled people who have done their work at college and on site
to earn a trade to be able to (flat pack ikea style) basically do things on the cheap. Subbed.
The problem is evidently immigration (from the last word in your message‽). In Southern California the building trades have applied management from the north with labor from the south. You can't get a job on any crew unless you speak Spanish (happens the moment the foreman is Hispanic), and they don't waterproof or otherwise build things right anymore.
From data entry, the computer industry learned it's cheaper to pay three people to do the job badly than one person to do the job well. They pay two or three data entry people a small piecework price to enter data without much concern for accuracy. The computer then compares those data sets and adjusts one to what the other two are or spits the data out for correction. In construction, they hand the job to the cheapest guy who couldn't possibly do the job right at the price, and fix whatever leaks or falls apart later. It's far rougher on the building owners (and definitely the buildings) but easier on construction management.
Poland, for as long as I remember (50 years), walls are separated from foundation with a layer of thick tar paper, brushed with molten asphalt/bitumen/tar. I have never experienced any dampness in the buildings or seen any water deterioration.
We, the Dutch, take our hats off to the Belgian builders. I think it has to do with their urge to build their own home. Not renting it. Every time I visit Belgium, I'm amazed by the level of finish. A trick: a few years back, a company built an annexe to our house. I bought a teachers' blackboard ruler (the large white/red ones) from the internet and every evening when the builders went home, I took tons of pics of their work: the plumbing, electrics etc with the ruler next to it and a reference point that would still be visible when the floor and walls would be finished. In a way: mapping out the routing.
Funny..
Because our roads are sh*t.
@@Elketjeable Believe me, many European roads are worse than the Belgian roads.
@@mennovanrij9334 wow, I found a Dutchman with a balanced opinion! Hats off to you :-)
You think their actions are based on their... urges.
Fukkin fantastic brainwork, sherlock
@@mennovanrij9334 I highly doubt it..😅
Wtf, so you're saying other countries don't always build damp proof? That's crazy. I'm from Belgium btw, just found your channel and this video. Finally someone who talks about stuff that's actually useful. Cheers!
Well, I thought that the damp proofing in this video was too simple using a flat mat and no air space to allow moisture to vent.
@@ehsnils What do you mean no airspace? These are cavity wals with vents.
Pipe in pipe! That's what I did for the pipes I laid in our current house, including the pipe from the pavement stopcock into the house and water and central heating pipes to our outbuilding. Wish I'd thought about it and asked my builder and plumber to do it for the house itself. Electric and data cables all in conduit or, when outside, inside barrier pipe. So much easier for modifications
One day I'll do a self-build so some I'm making a note of lots of these methods.
I'm British but live in France. One thing I like is the pipe-in-pipe method, to individual shut-off valves. Also the separate fuses. We have a "Technical Room", basically a semi-external utility room, where the shut-off valves come to and all the electrical circuits as well.
If only Building Regs would insist on Solar panels, a battery, and rainwater recovery storage (for flushing loos). All those things are cheap at the time of construction but prohibitive afterwards.
'A battery' - you need loads of batteries to come anywhere near having the electrical capacity to run a 'normal' household. Less where you are of course in France than in many places, but remember that no matter how good your charging system and inverter, they will degrade. I do think water heating solar panels should be standard (or at least the house built for an easy retro fit at any point) as well as a double-coil heat exchange boiler: The issue is probably possible liability for Legionnaire's disease.
We can even get houses built plumb, level, square etc in this country - what hope do we have of this 😂
Solar panels are an evolving technology, with many questionable aspects. Forcing people to pay for something that will be outdated in a few years would be an unjustified intrusion on their freedom of choice.
Lots of things are done a bit different here on the continent, but strangely enough the Poroton blocks also didn't take off in the Netherlands, instead like the UK aerated concrete is mostly used for the inner leaf. Dutch houses in general have more details in common with the UK than in other continental countries.
But we do the damp courses and pipe in pipe/wire in pipe like in Belgium and others.
Raked out courses and separate pointing is the standard all over here, always wondered why it's done in one go in the UK.
The building you are in isn't a flat, it's a 2 story house, at 6:00 you can see the opening for stairs in the ceiling, concrete first story floors is standard here, timber isn't used anymore for floors because concrete offers better fire safety. Older houses pre 1960 often do have timber floors still. Mine from 1932 does.
So its not the fire that will kill you, it be falling down the ridiculously narrow stairs.
I think it has to do with the dimension of the bricks? because the height of the bricks is bigger in the UK they use a pointed london style trowel to apply mortar in the upright joints, whereas I see in NL the mortar is applied with a rounded trowel and not specifically to the uprights.
@@David-bi6lf The opening you see is not the whole opening, it extends behind the wall, also the stairs are not fitted yet.
Isn't it quicker to do the pointing in one go?
The blocks are actually only used in small projects. If they do a series of (connected) homes the inner walls will be concrete. For me the amazing part is the city heat pipe running over the ground floor to the distribution point inside the house. Guess that must mean that it is a low temp system. In The Netherlands you will usually see these pipes running through the crawl space underneath the floor, carrying temperatures exceeding 70⁰C.
Of course the building will get pointed by a color of choice. Pointing one house like this will take 2-3 days. The cavities in the brick work is to let the space between exterior wall and interior wall breathe. There is no contact between the two walls. There's about 10cm (or more) PIR insulation and an air cavity of a couple of cm's between the two. The black plastics will be taken out once the pointing is done. This is just to make sure the holes don't get filled with mortar. These are houses, not apartments. There's a water barrier in the brickwork and also underneath the complete concrete slab. The screed you are talking about is not screed but the concrete slab/foundations on which they put piping and electricity. Screed will be put on afterwards, then a final floor. 90% of the houses have concrete (first and second) floors since the sixties. Cheers from... Belgium!
Good information, I could have done with a guided tour. I looked them up and found they were houses today but I had voiced the video by then.
They are going to point the brickwork after removing the scaffolding?
Do you think this is a good idea? Is this normal practice in Belgium?
@@johnnyrowley970 Yes because this allows the walls to to dry out faster. Best practice is to leave it that way at least 1 year before finishing it
how is the brick facade tied to the main structure?
@@Foz1 google "spouwanker", metal rods go through the PUR insolation, screwed in the main structure and put in between the bricks
In Belgium they use a strong 3/1 mortar mix to lay the bricks. At the end of the day, they rake/scrape the joints out for the pointing which is always done afterwards with a stronger (dryer) mix and a colour to choice. Therefore you don’t have any water absorption in your joints/pointing (because a a weak mix), your cavity stays dry and you don’t have any frost damage as water can’t penetrate through the joints. Unlike in the UK - a weak 5/1 mortar mix, damp cavity and every 10/15years repairing frost damaged bricks & repoint.
But if the mortar is harder than the bricks, the bricks may crack over time and when frost or icy conditions gets into the wall, the bricks will deteriorate before the mortar over time.
UK houses do not get repointed or need bricks replacing every 10/15 years! Also, if softer bricks are used, mortar should definitely not be 3:1.
In the UK we adjust the mortar mix ratio in relation to the strength/ density of the bricks
@@joreggelt-y7t our buildings have stood lifetimes and they never needed any mortar or brickwork (exept for one that was built in 1901 but i don't know why you'd think we'd have to replace our bricks?
@@istoppedcaring6209 Er, I don't; that's what I said. Think you replied to the wrong person.
I was in Belgium a year ago, amazing skills designing and building in brick. Great video, as usual. Good to see even a big channel can have technical issues with audio and still recover.
Look at that finish !!!! beautiful where the brick texture meets those amazing windows
Beats the heck out of the plastic framed windows, flush with the plastic exterior walls, that are used for pretty much all new construction in the US.
Fantastic video. Ideal for all those American UA-cam videos about how easy it is to run extra network or HDMI cables in walls, not in Belgium. Our houses are made of stone and not plasterboard.
The porotherm blocks have a capacity to carry between 10 and 20 Newton.
So yes, you can just lay a concrete floor on top of them.
These blocks are produced in Belgium. Putting that local clay to good use.
These blocks also allow for 100% machine produced prefab walls. Produced on monday, loaded on tuesday, arrive for installation on the building site on wednesday. Takes about a day to install 1 floor (of your average house) They are prefab produced incl damp proofing, dooropenings, windowsopenings, isolating block in the bottom row, etc...
Nice idea re the manifolds for the domestic water supply (both hot and cold). I did some work (chlorination) at a fast food restaurant in New Brighton, the Wirral, around 5 years ago. The plumber told me the manifold was so all the pipes could be run in plastic to each area, so if there was a leak in one area, the water could be isolated at the manifold and then repaired or replaced. This also minimised the amount of joints needed in each area, joints which invariably end up causing leaks. The manifolds for the domestic hot and cold water supplies were located in an accessible cupboard near the incoming water main.
I absolutely LOVE Belgian brick buildings, the houses you see on the outskirts of Leuven, absolutely stunning. The variation in brick colour/texture is just beautiful. I've been lucky to visit the area for work a few times and have hired a bike for some exploring in my spare time, and no matter where you go you'll see it. I don't know if I'm just luckily always in premium areas or if they just generally have better design.
Belgians are "born with a brick in the stomach". The saying "een baksteen in de maag hebben" is often used in a humorous way, but it also reflects the deep-seated desire of many Belgians to own their own home. Greetings from Leuven!
area around leuven is rich, we have plenty of old shitty houses aswell.
Nice to see the windows sit in line with the cavity insulation to avoid cold bridging. Even in new builds in the uk I often see the windows set in the external wall
We use cavity closers in the UK to prevent cold bridging when fitting windows to the external skin.
Bs code's of practice are used in a lot of the developed world these days and places that don't use them,well 😂. Anything in this video from Belgium doesn't make the end product anymore efficient eg. Pipe in pipe sounds cleaver but it don't make any difference really because you are not going to apply that method on underfloor heating system and that is the most likely place to have a leak.usually plumbers avoid having connection under concrete when it comes to mains supply and domestic hot and cold if possible and ducting has also been used aswell for many years also air tests are carried out on all pipe work. Can he show us a house that the proper codes of practice has been applied and failed . Dpc up the back of sill standard practice, Dpc draped over top of sill nonsense the only reason that's there is because the brickey couldn't be arsed to get the proper width one out of the container.I would like to see what the guys with the windows will do with the DPC when they eventually arrive, they will cut it out of the way if it's still there, it will more than likely have tripped someone by then and the foreman got some fool to cut it out of there before the guys from health and safety see it. Even if you tried that idiots method you would still have problems with the seal under the threshold in the long term. Look If it's not broken don't fix it.
@@joecurrandoubt British standards are used anywhere developed. Like where? Def not USA Canada Australia New Zealand … def not Asia as Korean and Japanese standards are far far higher… def not Europe as they have their own… so what’s left? If you call rich Arab developed then unlikely to use bs standards just because their requirements are so different. I think I’ve covered the lot?
Another thing I have seen done in Belgium, is to use swimming pool mortar on the first few rows of bricks off the concrete (in addition to the membrane etc).
Those white blocks are special kind of ytong block that is hydrophobic as well
Compaktuna
@@Hulkeq2 Gold.
Putzuna
Beautiful neo-classical architecture! Much prefer this over bland and soulless modern exteriors.
in some parts of the Netherlands rising damp is very severe - the parts which were reclaimed from the sea hundreds of years ago are notorious
Digging a hole (kruipruimte) almost down to water table is not helpful either.
I was thinking that. If you have a building below sea level there must be a lot of hydrostatic pressure pushing the ground water upwards - especially if you are near to the sea. I would like to know more about the methods they use for preventing rising damp in the Netherlands.
I have a CLT house here (belgium) and the builders did waterproof the whole foundation blocks before the wood was put on top. On top of that they put a membrane over the insolation and they taped the joints between the wood panels. The joints between the bricks are often done at a later stage.
Those exterior window sills are probably Belgian Blue Stone. Very common and popular there.
It looks lovely
Looks like precast concrete to me
We call it “arduin” in Flemish, or bluestone in English. So it’s definitely not concrete. That’s used only in very low cost or temporary buildings here.
@@HighWealder because it has been sanded
@@alphonsepipo1948 Water cut.
Britain used to lead the world in so many things. Have to say I'd be much happier paying for and living in a house built to these Belgian standards than our piiful excuses for a home.
Well thought through and cost-effective, with a good dose of future-proofing. What's not to like?
Thanks for shining a light on this.
I was a labourer on a new build sports centre in Lancashire when I was 17 years old (i'm 67 now) . I visited the area a few months ago. The sports centre I worked on only 50 years ago has been demolished (4 years ago) and a new one built next to it ! So that 'modern build' I worked on lasted 46 years ! I think buildings we construct now are not going to last much beyond 50 years. They are not going to be repairable.
when I worked in Germany in the 90s we had to rake the joints back and a team would come in and joint with a dry sand and cement mix would do a few houses in 1 day and the finish was good without any colour differences
in Holland they rake the joints, then a pointer comes in and points the whole outside brickwork with the same coloured mortar on new builds.
2:56 @SkillBuilder I hear you say “district heat system” which I don’t think we have anywhere in Belgium. These are definitely pipes of the heat pump, which every new building being built is obligated to install.
Yes I use the term very losely to mean several dwellings supplied by one heat source.
Yes Belgium isn't a former communist country we don't have that AFAIK especially not on newer houses definitely pipes for a heatpump since that's required now.
The pipe-in-a-pipe idea got me, that's the first time I've ever heard of the concept (and so inexpensive?). Here in Australia we have high construction standards with ventilation to the cavity via terracotta bricks that are double the height of a regular brick about the same length each with 15 square holes in it: but that lets insects into the cavity which can be stopped by buying industrial size "scotch-bright pot scourers" from the larger hardware stores cleaning sections, the industrial size allows essentially identical airflow but totally obstructs cockroaches and other bugs. This is a great channel definitely worth a tick and subscribe :)
The systems (water pipes red/blue in conduits and damp proof courses, internal brick block walls and many others ) you talk about albeit unusual in the UK are quite common in several EU countries in some cases going on for decades. Insulation is a different matter and typically the south worries less about thermal insulation albeit they should worry a bit more as it is warranted. Thank you for posting another interesting video
Here in the Netherlands we solve our damp proofing in a different way most of the time. If you have a concrete foundation and put the concrete floor on top of that you won't need damp proofing in most cases. If you don't put the concrete on top of the foundation, but between the load bearing walls you will need damo proofing, but we don't do that often here.
If you are interested in rising damp, come to Central and northern Portugal. It rains more than in the UK, that rain happens in half a year and many houses have no dpc or damp prevention of any kind. Concrete floors were often poured straight on gravel on soil.
Traditionally, downstairs was for storage and the family lived upstairs.
We keep being told about Portugese damp so maybe I will take a look.
My compliments on your voice-over dubbing skills, that is a very difficult thing to do. It ls also very interesting to see alternatives in building practice. The approach to pipework looks great. I remember watching the way wiring up in a big workshop was done in Denmark, very different to the way it's generally done in the UK. It's so useful to learn from practices in an alternative regulatory environment - it really makes one think about how we do things in the UK and perhaps update our thinking.
Pipe in pipe seems a bloody good idea.
The brickwork looks like a Dutch Wild Bond. After the war there were thousands of second hand and broken bricks due to the bombing. They rebuilt with what they had, hence the random pattern.
Nice three centred arch over the front door, vary rare to see one new these days, probable the prettiest of all arches.
first thing i noticed about he arch is that whoever placed that brick on the right of the center should get his eyes fixed. they can still fix it with a grinder before they put in the joints. but comon, fix that
@@maartendetemmerman393 5:00 Oh, thanks loads for that. It can't be unseen.
They've got it all sussed out haven't they. That's a lovely build. Great content Roger. Thank you mate.
Around the world with Skillbuilder ❤ Thank you
I am thinking about it, seriously, it is time.
I didn't even realize these were unique techniques against damp. Great thing the house I bought has all of these already. Good to know.
All houses as well as apartments here in Belgium have been built for decades with concrete floors between storeys to keep noise down & for underfloor heating. Standard practice!
Interesting! This is actually a house, I thought they were flats but that is not the case.
I suppose lumber is a lot cheaper in the US than in Europe. It’s used in all houses between floors and between floors in apartment buildings up to about five stories, with discussion of increasing the upper limit. It is indeed noisy. It’s not so bothersome in a house, but in an apartment it’s incredibly intrusive to hear every footstep of your upstairs neighbor.
We can learn alot from Europe, please do show what they do in Switzerland, their detailing is incredible.
their council flats from 60 years ago, all with underfloor heating and amazing quality:)))
In Belgium and the Netherlands as well, the briscks are lais and at the end of the day they are scraped out. At the end, a specific separate craftsman sill do all the poinying in one go with a sepate mix, which can be adjusted in hardness, colour, depth etc. It's ver important not to have the pointing too hard or the bricks will freeze to pieces. If the pointing ever goes bad it can be more easily replaced as well, without damaging the bricks. The mortar is meant for building, the pointing for protection.
District hearing is basically piping hot water coming to your house and you have heat exhanger in your home to reduce it to hot water and forvthe radiators. Charged by volume and temperature delta over your heat exhange(used kWh). Plus monthly basic fee to cover the upkeep of the district heat grid.
more used in the Netherlands than in Belgium, there are only a few projects using it so far.
It's actually not even luke warm (waste) water which is used by the heatpump to condense into Hot water. I don't mean sewage water but water from industrial processes etc which produce excessive heat.
Self builders in the UK should consider visiting the Batibouw Building Exhibition held in Brussels early each year. Huge show in 13 halls. Biggest show I've been to. Lots of new ideas and construction methods.
Good tip I might go
@@SkillBuilder Sorry I got the name wrong. It called Batibouw not Brico. Next year it's 15-23 Feb but not all days are open public.
Hi. I'm from the Netherlands and we have even more problems with water lol. Half of the Netherlands is below sea level.
Amsterdam is completely built on wooden poles. The Amsterdam Palace (built by Napoleon) stands on over 16.000 wooden poles.
Yes I know about the timber poles and have been to Amsterdam many times. We are due to go there in a couple of weeks time to do some fiming and visit a Hydrogen village. We will be pleased to have your recommendations of places to film. We want to know about damp proofing so it would be good to talk to a company specialising in this.
Everybody in The Netherlands builds damp free. We just have to, there is no other way of building houses if your groundwater level is 1 foot.
The hydrogen village does not exist. It is an idea, a ludricous idea, to make green gas out of wind and solar and burn this to save the planet. Lol.
As an old school trained ingeneer it hurts the brain to even think about the lunacy of this.
I live in Belgium. Not a professional builder but did build my own house. The slab you see over the foundation is a slab that runs through to the inner wall with a step-up. So moist and water is deviated towards the outside and not towards inside.
Many things you name was logic to me, the way it should be done. Like pipe-in-pipe is very Common here
I have a house in France that has copper pipe in plastic tube similar to what you are showing here. It is buried in a concrete screed over the floor similar (I think) that will happen in this house in Belgium. The copper pipe is impossible to replace without digging up the floor! Also since the evidence of a leak only shows at the end of the outer tubing, you have no idea where the actual leak occurs and where to start digging. In general I think that not sufficient consideration is given to future maintenance requirements, access etc. It's cheaper just to bury everything.
The pipework in this video is plastic in plastic, so possible to drag through (might need to pre-lube the outer pipe though). Obviously rigid copper can't be pulled out of a buried plastic sleeve. Perhaps copper in plastic is to offer a small amount of protection from rough treatment during construction.
Hi, Thanks for your interest in my comment. However while there is some plastic pipe used I think there is a lot of copper. Also if it were plastic in plastic you would never pull it through the tortuous bendy routes that they have used even if it was lubricated. Look at the following; 1:56 you can just see the copper appearing out of the outer red tube, also there seems to be some brazing on the red pipe, much favoured on the continent where they do not use flow solder joints (how this coexists with the adjacent white piece of plastic I do not know); 2:26 look at the bends you could never pull plastic through these, pre-lubed or not, also on the left hand side going up the wall there is uncovered copper: 3:26 here you can see some plastic pipe, pretty stiff not for pulling through any of the routes I refer to earlier; 6:46 look at the bend on the yellow pipe, I think copper with a taped covering. I have always thought that the use of an outer tubing or tape is to protect the copper from the covering concrete/mortar as a corrosion preventer, they do not co-exist well with each other. Also on the underfloor heating which is plastic there is no outer tube (normal) and is buried directly in the concrete screed. No corrosion problems but a repair nightmare!@@stephen-boddy
@@John-dp8ohDo a Google image search for "pex pip blansol" you will see pipe-in-pipe where the inner "red" is distinctly copper coloured. It looks an exact match for this stuff. The white bit looks like something similar to a sharkbite or push-fit fitting, although I don't recognise the exact brand.
As to the ability to pull through? Have you tried it? To quote the Blansol manufacturer website:
"Besides, the corrugated duct allows an easy substitution of the pipe if needed. Thanks to the use of corrugated pipes you will just take out the damaged pipe by pulling it out and introduce a new pipe with no need of major work."
You mention the copper going up the wall. The pipe-in-pipe is for pipe that runs under a screed. They wouldn't need the ability to pull through on a pipe that isn't encased in concrete. That length of copper looks like it's a feed between two parts of a manifold system - one half feeding the cold supplies downstairs, the other feeding cold supplies upstairs, and the copper linking them.
For the UFH, yeah, that stuff pops and you're in a world of hurt. It can't use pip, or you'll be waiting twice as long for a warm floor.
The yellow pipe is completely different. Here in the UK that is for mains gas, and I'm pretty sure that is an internationally used colour coding, and that you must also use copper for gas (at least in the UK), not pex. So no, that one is not pipe-in-pipe, nor is it easily replaceable.
@@John-dp8oh the pipes used here in Belgium are called multi layered pipe and indeed contain both metal and plastic, replacing them is not easy and the outer tubing is more for insulation or expansion and contraction purposes. these pipes will never fail if placed correctly, any leaks will always present at couplings, wich should always remain accessible and in the floor only straight, uninterrupted runs should be used.
We really are backward in most general building techniques compared to Europe. When working in Germany in the mid-1980's I would marvel at the fit and finish of the local buildings and their plumbing, electrics and even carpeting and skirtings - if you know, you know.
As someone with years of experience designing buildings like this on the continent, and quite a bit knowledge with water proofing these type of particular, I can confirm that extra bit of DPC hanging over there is a cover protecting the door where the mice can get in and out.
A mouse or rat will chew through plastic
It's worth remembering that damp also will track along horizontally... from a neighbouring wall 🧱 or yard wall etc. Into a wall that has a " rising " dampproof membrane below it.
Another thing is many times rising damp is confused with condensing moisture from a warm atmosphere onto a cold North facing wall , especially in cupboards or units
As an architect assistant and former constructionworker I can assure you not everything we do is perfect. Every country could learn from another. As a matter of fact, I prefer the dutch way of the foundation detail instead of the belgian way... Also that rainpipe in the middle of that window, wth whas that XD... I heard you talking about pipe in pipe system with the blue and red pipes, and then you said you could shove another tube in that when you have a leak but that's not possible. Those colored sleaves are just protection for everything that comes on top of it :-).
They’ve dropped the scaffold so there goes your pointing. Brickwork is that funky “ wild quarter bond “ Random snap queen closures
Roger please do a deep dive on the question of “why”. It’s not as simple as “we could learn a lot” because everyone wants to adopt newer, faster, better, and cheaper way of doing things. So why don’t we? It’s not a question of learning, all the answers are there right in front of our eyes and fingertips.
Why
More profit from shoddy work.
Unethical but common in UK
Belgians are great in building their own houses...many do that i love the houses there and the craftsmanship and knowledge they have
not just Belgians, most Europeans self build, part of the mentality, especially not having every house look the same.
Homebuilders spending a bit more to do things properly? LOL. That'll never fly in the UK.
as a belgian loss adjuster for insurance companies: yes rising damp very much exists in belgium. it's one of the big exclusions of insurance policies so we're always checking if the cause of the water damage is rising damp in order to deny damage claims... older buildings or add-ons against old existing garden walls don't have the damp foil in them, they always cause trouble with rising damp.
In South Africa all floors and stairs are done with concrete, they use scaffolding forms to lay the concrete over the scaffolding forms to lay the floors. Much better construction for sound proofing, they even use that in duplex construction, not just flats.
Same in Belgium, but we lay premade concrete slabs first, and top that off with a concrete poor.
Some ways to get ground water out of your old building : sometimes ive seen in Belgium : every foot they drill a horizontal hole into the walls a bit above ground level and inject some kind of fluid , that creates a water repelling barrier . Another way but more costly :. Piece by piece they dig some stones at or even below ground level and underbild. It with a concrete layer + a moist screen . 3: I used to live in an old cottage , end of 18 century . Hardly no foundation , floor tiles one sand floor . The entrance silt was only half an inch high , and the street side of the house was actually a foot under street level ! One time there was a severe rain and flood warning . So I picked up some sandbags at the town fire department to be shure . I never got flooded . Maybe the only thing my landlord did good for the house , was to Fill the whole backyard up with stone building rubbish .so the whole garden collected the rain up very quickly … I discovered it because at some places in the garden the grass grew very little ..
I worked in brugge for two years as a bricklayer and the Belgian trades are miles ahead of uk trades
Hi I am from US, it was nice to see some alternate approaches. I like the pipe in pipe since I always worry about having to rip up a slab if you get a failure.
My brother lives in Aubange and in a newly built property and i have to say credit to Thomas Piron in the sense the way they build properties unlike UK builders trying to cut cost in every single way and step of the build. No snags, house is energy efficient and triple glaze, external roller shutters/blinds to name a few. And bear in mind, im talking something that was built 10yrs ago!
Belgium houses had wooden roller shutters going back to at least WW2 ! Now PVC of course. Windows opening inwards and large strong doors with no bottom brace.
So what is the purpose of those roller shutters? Crime prevention? You don’t have hurricanes in Europe as far as I know…..
Surely the houses are like caves when they are closed.
The pre insulated pipe cannot be altered/replaced once installed, we usually buy it dual red/blue on 50 or 100 m roll in DYI. Still pretty handy though. The non insulated version is indeed two separate pipes but it would be very hard to replace if there are curbs and bents. I think it is there to protect the actual waterpipe from chemicals and frictions when it expands and retracts due to hot and cold water
Why do we in the UK use plastic gutters! It looks crap and fails!
They can always be changed
My parents plastic guttering has been up for 40 years, that's about 15 years longer than the metal guttering that it replaced.
Price is why
If you used metal the pikeys would nick it!
Mother’s house had flat backed ogee cast iron gutters. Horrible things that rotted at the back. Plastic went up in 1970s. It’s still there.
I have lived in a new build detached house for coming on 50 years. Brick and breeze cavity construction with clay tile roof and plastic guttering with, over the years, excellent loft insulation (two layers of 13 Tog cheap polyester duvets) and cavity insulation (Rock Wool) added plus plastic windows. I am on my second only gas boiler which is now over twenty years old and still going strong. Twelve years ago solar panels were installed under the Fit subsidised system.
Energy bills are low thanks in part to having three heating zones each under thermostat and timer control plus radiator stats. We still burn a log and lower emissions coal fire occasionally on our live fire the chimney of which aids slow air changes with judicious use of the window trickle vents.
The house cost £17,000 and is now valued at around £500,000, however, now retired and cosy with minimal maintenance from a great British style of house that has kept up with the times there is no need to move to a 'modern' home.
restoring old longuer in central france -- its 500 yrs old walls about half metre thick 14 metres height - limestone rocks and all held together with powdered limestone mix - chaux // holding a very heavy oak beamed roof // bought it to restore // looked a bit rough but solid as a castle -- bearing in mind local farmers picked up natural limestone occurring rocks from the local fields // winter very warm summer like having air con... just bizarre how clever these old builders were ... charente area
Great to see “ continental “ building methods . Looks like a quality build . Thanks for sharing
"Looks like a quality build" Nowadays standard in most northern European countries.
@@hoWa3920
Belgium has a big self-build culture, so quality is driven by a huge choice of materials from all over Europe, high training standards and smaller family builders. The basements and lofts that come as standard in Belgium, need adopting in the UK, but UK is the opposite, dominated by greedy cheap corporates and unskilled workers.
Really fascinating. Nice one, thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Hi- Suggestion. Get a laser pointer (pen sized) for showing the details from ground floor.
Thanks for all the knowledge.
What a great video, so much can be learned from seeing what other countries do. The NHS managers need to see how other countries run better services than ours.
Belgian tax rates are some of the highest in the world as the Belgian government uses tax revenues to fund their world-class healthcare etc, it is about funding and demand, not about management .
The NHS is hammered by an aging population who require a lot of care, and not enough cash in the system to cover it. Staff are worked hard, as are managers. Any fat in the system went a long, long time ago.We prefer to spend our money on HS2, and PPE fraud.
Or perhaps we could stop the Tory's asset stripping the UK and our taxes going to rich buggers as dividends etc rather than on services
I think that new build, the brickwork is done that way to give a old building look appearance feel.
UK is too rip off and cheap to do stuff like this. Most new builds I've seen don't even tape the insulation as it's too costly (pennies overall but we still do it).
Many bricks are actually reused from former buildings, as they have Factories cleaning used bricks in Belgium! We of course also use moisture protection in the walls in low, Denmark. When walking in Belgium years ago, I liked looking at the solutions used in Belgian houses, also a single and tall, "Town House" with flat walls on both sides. standing in a Belgian field!!
hi Roger
the we have some great systems we can use the only reason we do not is cost simple as that the big builders lead the way and profit is king
when we build we build like this ref ( bi -fold doors ) and membrane always will but look at new builds cheap shoddy in general mate , great vlog mate keep it up
We're British but lived in Belgium for some years. We noticed the quality of their brickwork was much better than in the UK. Its possible they haven't pointed the building in the video yet. We also saw several old houses renovated using EWI and brick slips. Why is this so expensive in the UK?
thats brilliant pipe in pipe easy fix
Top video. I’d love more of these. It amazes me how much construction materials and methods can differ, even among areas of Western European with similar climates
I think the gutters are zinc, not steel. Expensive but lasts a long time. The only thing I don't like is the lack of a concrete structure to support the floor slab. I have porotherm blocks in my house, but here in Portugal modern houses are required to have earthquake resistant concrete structure, I guess in Belgium that's not a problem. In Spain I know some clay blocks like porotherm are certified to make 2 floors above ground, but I wouldn't try it. Other than that it's almost the same building techniques, in fact I would bet some of the workers there are Portuguese.
I think we had 1 (very light) earthquake in the 40 years that I am old.
Earthquakes is something we don't have to account for.
Watching from USA, Good video even with the audio problems. Great looking building.
Rising damp is all over in Ghana and people are messing up with solutions that don't work. I've done videos on my channel about it. The problem is homeowners listening to builders who don't know what they're doing.
Rising damp is an issue in parts of Kenya too. I currently live in a ~30 year old house in Nakuru that has rising damp in almost every wall and many of the floors with flaking paint to match. No mould though due to weather and ventilation. It's the same among all our neighbours and we were told about it when we moved to the city.
DPC is (at least currently) used here under the slab and again under the walls, I picked some up last week for a friend who is building. Maybe the older houses had a lower quality DPC, or installation problems.
@@russellpengilley5924 in our case, there's mostly no dpc or more recently, they use regular plastic sheets which fails in no time.
The plumbing is very similar in France. Mains water goes to a manifold, which is distributed around the house.
It looks a nice build. You would think we would take the best ideas from around the wold and implement them .
Not invented here is often an issue when looking at global best practices 😮
I know nothing about building, plumbing, construction or damp but found this fascinating.
Often the hot water comes from a combined heat and power plant - powered by burning waste instead of dumping it in landfill.
the very old more "bourgeoisie" kind of buildings in Belgium have cellars that reach higher than the outside soil, a meter or more, in order to never get rising damp reaching the ground floor. they even have sewage output level below the cellar ground level. this stuff is sooooooooo and you can buy neglected ones for a loaf of bread
The reason the audio is out of sync is because you are filming so far away in Belgium and sound travels slower than light. Simples😉
Good to know!
Thanks Roger, always interesting to see how our continental neighbours differ from our techniques, I've always liked those Porotherm blocks, lighter to handle than concrete blocks for sure, and quicker to set too ! Pipe in pipe seems like a great idea !
Ah, in the UK you got a Roger too? Nice.
Anything that does away with gypsum plaster board is a good thing.
Why? Forgive my ignorance. I am not a builder
We really need to learn new stuff like this in uk. And train builders better
Having lived in Germany for 25 yrs and having moving over to Flemish Belgium in the past 10yrs. German domestic building code n standards are at least 10 yrs ahead of Belgium. In Belgium they are catching up but still lag behind.
We spent about 12 months looking at houses prior to buying and some of the gerry built constructs we viewed made UK building std look state of the art and that takes some doing!!!
So how many years ahead of the UK are German standards? And does anyone in the UK build to those higher standards?
A solid exaggeration right there, love it
30-40 years ahead. not many I would say. there are specialist in passive house in IRE/UK,but nowhere near german standards@@sukotu23
You were probably looking at pre war houses. If you look in the basement the early houses had bricks under the hard floors or sometimes poured concrete. Now they use prefab 'Welfsels' Belgium has a great education system for tradesmen and uses German materials and innovation as they come out. Self-build is a huge part of the Belgian economy. You can't own a business there without a degree in your subject + business studies. Rainwater harvesting + pumped fresh air ventilation were part of building regs about 15 years ago, but maybe have been relaxed off.
@@sukotu23
German windows as used in Belgium since forever, are bolted to solid interior walls and open inwards. The windows are more secure, look sleeker and have that recess that allows the nice stone ledges. In the UK the interior wall are too weak to take these windows and doors, hence UK doors often have the bar at the bottom for strength.
Belgium has much higher standards due to the education system plus encourages smaller qualified builders and wont let the greedy big corporates take over like in he UK with a lot of failed education and sometimes rogues.
Hello I'm North Italian. My apartment is built similar to this. Pipe in pipe and the pipe for water is multilayer (pholiethylene/cupper/pholiethylene/cupper and so on for 8 layers total). The electrical wires are separated: a circuit for lights and another circuit for sockets. Furthemore, every sockets in the kitchen is covered by forniture has a dedicate thermal switch.
Spotted the AI Roger right away, looks far too young, has six fingers and the audio was too good.
Ah Roger if I’d have know I would have asked you to come and have a look at my basement in Antwerp pal! Might have to do one of those ask a builder videos. It’s an original 1936 basement, damp as a swamp. Enjoy your holidays!
Always wonder why small-scale district heating systems aren't a thing on new-build estates. Couple of industrial heat pumps near the substation, meter each house. Homeowners are happy because they pay pittance and don't have a heat pump making a racket in their garden, developer puts a 10% markup on and makes a steady income, seems a no-brainer..
Worked as a plumber on a new build estate in the Netherlands back in 2000. The houses were heated via a heat exchanger with hot water from the local waste incinerator.
In Naples I saw walls made from 'tufo' a volcanic rock. I'm told it is lightweight with great thermal properties. Trouble is, if you don't render it, the weather erodes it. I saw a lot of crumbly walls there.
We overbuild things, especially in Flanders. That is our pride and joy ❤
Yes, you do build well. It's nice to see.
Not really... Any house older than 20 years is more or less useless... Massive problems with rising damp, no insulation whatsoever and many people just built whatever they wanted without any permission...
And yet people still think their house is worth €300k+ 😅
@@jordy46682 currently renovating a 1950s home. Yes on insulation but way aturdier than a new build
@@vincentput I think you got lucky! 😅 We've been looking for a house in budget for a while now... Almost all of them have damp issues or permission problems... And of course now you're required to bring them up to EPC standard within 5 years makes it extremely expensive!
@@jordy46682 I must say that surprises me, from outside many look good, and the few I've been it seem pretty good. The houses in UK are often pretty awful these days, but people think they're worth €640+!