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Enclosed are the drawings of the application for a 2 storey extension at no 33 back in 2006. Was refused. You have also had 11 objection letters from your neighbours. Also the removal of 2 mature oak trees prior to planning does not go down well with the neighbours. Not sure your planning consultant is listening. Good luck.

I'm going to be the devils advocate here and assume that the window installer thinks they are not to blame, they have engaged me to defend them. First I'm going to put my SE hat on. With that hat on I want to see if your house is a bit "flexible" and prone to sideways movement. @Balou can you post some full elevation photos. Now if it turns out that your building is flexible then I would, in the installers defense, start asking the SE type questions.. in other words is the building moving sideways as designed by the SE within limits and also vertically (withing limits) and causing out glazing to fail? as the glazing contractor has not accounted for the SE movement in their installation. I can't easily see how the bricks are supported over the bifold doors. Again here if defending the glazing contractor I would want to know about this and cavity tray design. I would also want to know if you have made later alterations since you moved in, have you done something that could compromise the building performance that has cuased the building to move and over stressed the glazing and this has resulted in the problems manifest. If you have not done any of the above then the glazing provider seems to be on a sticky wicket! I agree Craig. It could be that the window frames are absolutely fixed to the main frame of the house and as that moves about it's causing overstress in the windows and doors. By the sound of it the workmanship appeares shoddy, not maintaining air tighntess for example. In the round though there are so many issues it apears to me that the product could just be faulty and the installation is poor.

You only need a masons mitre if you have a pre formed chamfered or rolled edge. If doing solid top, mitre is great glued and bolted, then if you want a chamfer or rolled edge it can be done with a router after joining.

If you set off at 00:30 you'll be on site for 07:00

Hiya all. This post is intended to provide insight into UFH screeds, the build process and build tolerances.. which drives overall cost. The first part sets the narrative. The last sets out and describes what drives screed thickness. At the end of the day if you are building a new house or just extending then it is vital that you understand how each bit of the design works, how you are going to build it and the tolerances you have to apply to each element so you don't cause a later problem. On self builds few folk have the ability / time to ensure that the contractor is delivering what they say they will! To get round this we need to simplify the design so self builders / extenders can see that they are getting what they paying for, compare builders quotes. We need to build in tolerances that the builder can work to when the rain is pissing down their neck. This is real life in the building trade! With my SE hat on I want to make sure that the slab is thick enough, but buildable, so the slab could be 10-15mm high unless the Client wants to pay extra for the tighter tolerance! "But the Architect told us it would work!" It might but they may not have told you how much extra that would cost to work to a tighter tolerance! Oh no, if the slab is high that can't be as my UFH pipes won't fit! As an SE I want to control the level of the sub base, if sub base is too high the slab is too thin. Now in a stricty controlled enviroment with a traditional Clerk of works we may get this down to 10mm high on the top side, not an SE issue in the main. SE washes their hands at this point, but if they are nice guys like me they will alert you to the problem. Any more tighter tolerances than that and the Contractor will add cost. But the whole idea of self building is to cut out these middle men! The only way you do that is to keep it simple stupid! That statement is based on the what I've learnt from being in this business for 40 years! This is the art of design! See where you can save time on site, make it easily buildable, reduced Contractor risk ( so they don't inflate the price) then you can use the savings to deliver what you actually see as the end result. Many self builders just "hope for the best".. but this is the building trade and there are no friends in the desert. Once you get into this mind set then you are in a good position to "sell yourself " to builders. If you make it simple then the risk to them is less and the price will likely go down. If you take the time to understand what you want to build and how it is going to be executed then you are in a strong position. Your reward will be that you open up the field for the more builders to compete for the work not least. At some point you will find a builder that says, I want this job and can see how I'm going to make a profit as I can see that is is not diffucult and carries less risk. Now I've had a few Clients over the years. If you are smart enough to be able to think about extending / self building and have some funds then you are not daft. My role is to give you the information that you need to make an informed descision. If your advisors are not doing this then you need to ask why. Yes, this post is about screed thickness but it's actually about what is below that drives the equation. I design insulated rafts, a passive raft is just a nuance! have done so for decades, but always having in mind what we need to put on top of the structural slab. The tolerance on a structural slab or just the supporting floor is, having done lots of insulated build raft designs, is about 10mm plus or minus on a good day! I shite you not this is a good day! If you have beam and block then these have a pre camber and that inroduces another aspect. If you assume a flat screed at nomimal 40mm thick then you are likely on a hiding to nothing. DO NOT DO THIS SCREED AT 40mm. Its complete bonkers! Now I know that there are many folk on BH that advocate thin screeds, but my own view is that they may have only done one or two projects at most, some may have done more but have never checked or just put their heads in the sand and never admit they cocked it up! In summary my main gripe is: 1/ That there is a total lack of design coordination and this results in extra cost as many contractors and designers as covering their arses. There is this perception that what you are putting the screed on is going to be flat and level.. that is cloud cuchoo land! Any Architect that wants to dish out advice needs to have practical experience and an understanding of what the SE is doing, the complete process and the tolerances every trade is normally expected to work within...otherwise they are a potential liability. 2/ There are far too many folk poncing about on screed thickness without understanding what they are laying it on, structural slabs have a wide tolerance as do beam and block. 3/ You can use the likes of "Loop cad" as much as you like but in the heat of battle some UFH pipes may have to cross over one another. There is an old saying you can plan for war, but as soon as the war starts the plans go out the window, this happens from time to time when building stuff. That is why I'm advocating for the simple stupid,it at least give you a fighting chance. Please folk try and think about cutting yourself some slack, the tighter the tolerances you ask for the higher the cost.. in reality, I see it so many times unless you make it simple you'll end up paying for something that never gets delivered. Best to pay for something that is achievable, even if you need to make compromises? Good design always involves compromising to get the best overall outcome. This is often missed by novice self builders, its not a bad thing to have that enthusiasm.. what is bad is if they then chuck their money down the drain by not beaing able to recognise that design is about balance / the trade off.

The crack is very likely to be installer error imho. i would tend to agree, welds don’t just crack, that’s to be opposite forced. Fixings should be 150mm from the corner (horizontally & vertically). This. It’s the only way to check, otherwise it has to go down as a manufacturing error. I would also suggest they haven’t packed them properly. As for glass, units fail. That’s just an unfortunate aspect but rare for brand new units to fail like this over a short period without other influences occurring (either that or glass manufacturer is just ****e. Sashes that are difficult to close due to expansion, is nearly always down to poor installation, with packers and fixings not being present or just really poorly done. I would suspect that you have zero insulation between the frame and building. Resulting in the said airflow. I have someone in mind, lives in Lincoln but we haven’t spoken in a year or two. I’ve messaged him and will see what I can do. Otherwise I have someone in Henley or I could do an independent report but Lincolns a 6.5hr drive for me. If you have a laser, run it up the glazing beads (where frame meets glass). It should be straight and if not and you see some pinching. It would indicate further inspection of packers/fixings.

Yep. Best gains are by getting decent modulation, lengthy cycle times and running the minimum flow temp possible. Everything is sh!te in sh!te out. If you don't have plenty of water volume and good flow rates your stuffed anyway, and stand a chance of getting a decent CoP.

The crack is very likely to be installer error imho. They have likely screwed through the frame and into the masonry way too close to the corners; the effect of then overtightening these fixings just places huge force of the welded joints, forcing them to pop open. A way to prove (or disprove) this would be to remove the glazed unit and inspect where the fixings have been placed.

It can be set in behind the PB here as there's 60mm to play with to the back of the PB as above As for the adjustable lug, good point, but if you use a spirit level sat across some long plate screws you can get it spot on with near zero effort.

Hadn’t heard of the FMB until this post. Yet our house is up, building control happy and so are we. My one piece of advice would be ‘go local’ - people who have reputations to protect do good work in our experience. Most of the people we’ve worked with had no websites or brochures. But they did have insurance, good references and lots of local connections to make recommendations for others to work on our house which turned out to be invaluable when we needed support. Actually a second piece of advice - look every company up on Companies House, make sure they’re a viable business and not so stretched they’ll go under before they complete your job.

This is exactly the point. The exact performance of any unit will vary by location even for nominally identical properties. Each manufacturer will optimise for slightly different conditions. Model Y from brand X might be slightly better paper than Model A from Brand B, but in the exact conditions (even down to how thr occupier uses it) of a given install the latter might perform slightly better I think chasing the last few % of efficency by looking at the scant data given by most manufacturers is a bit of a losing battle.

If going for PVC box, then don't fit a surface pattress as it's not only the wrong size (the socket face won't overlap the edges). It doesn't have an adjustable lug. I use these sometimes where walls are very slightly damp in old houses and eventually rot out the metal boxes. No such problem with these. Probably have to order in, nobody keeps them in stock round here at least. https://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/1063228-2-gang-35mm-pvc-flush-pattress-box-round-corners-with-20mm-conduit-ko-white?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23051364679&gbraid=0AAAAADOkMAZCou3JXOW_WiNJ2r4F_Fg3c&gclid=Cj0KCQiA9OnJBhD-ARIsAPV51xNG2MYKTdf6T2rR14bNj17wnkbY5gyAYeFQLZOSGdyOnJgqzd1ZN0UaAoK4EALw_wcB

Make sure you get boom swing if you get one.

Yes. The Liugong machines are cheaper, but not significantly.

I had a very disappointing experience with Stroma Building Control during my home extension. Their inspectors initially accepted my flat roof and firring pieces as compliant. After I sent them photos and measurements showing that the roof fall was far below the minimum 1:80 requirement (around 1:140), they later changed their view and deemed the roof non-compliant. Because the roof had been “passed” at the earlier inspection, my builder demanded final payment and then walked off the job when the roof was rejected. I was left to pay a second contractor to strip and rebuild the entire roof at my own expense. Despite providing all correspondence proving this sequence of events, Stroma have denied any responsibility, stating that their inspections are only “sample checks.” The issue was clear and easily measurable at the time of inspection and should have been flagged. The result was months of delay, financial loss, and huge stress. I would urge anyone appointing Stroma to keep independent oversight of their builders and not rely on Stroma’s inspection reports.

I thought the received wisdom was that defrosting is worst near zero but below that humidity falls off again so efficiency lost from that cause is not at the lowest OAT and so you don't have to account for it separately. Mind you my system is sized for Plymouth (-0.2C) so there is not a lot of difference, OTOH I have never noticed it defrosting either.

Good approach, your efforts will reap rewarded. It's a very tricky detail. You have to balance cleaning with over hang, how you detail out the membrane under the roof cladding, if the gutters are long do you need or not an expansion gutter detail, the fall in the gutter, often over looked! The detail might look good at the gutter high end but what about the low end? Sometimes if I'm discussing gutters in the North of Scotland, Wales where we get iced snow that can rip pretty much any gutter off, but it does not snow that much often enough to warrant snow guards, we just set the gutters a bit lower, so from time to time the rains running down the roof over shoots. Design is about achieving the best compromise at times.

That’s fair. Tbh I can’t afford one either. I’m just curious as to what they’re like! I’ve hired a Liugong 1.8T a couple of times and they seem decent enough but I think they’re on the expensive side of the Chinese diggers.

Those summaries make it all sound very reasonable, compared to my (perhaps deliberately provocative) wording, but they are somewhat misleading. The net profit from the Crown Estate does indeed go to the Treasury. Net profit is of course an interesting concept - an amount of scope to spend money on nice things out of revenue before you get to that figure. The AI summary then mentions the Sovereign Grant "to fund official duties". Sounds fair enough. Except what it doesn't mention is that - unlike almost any other public service, where you start by costing the "official duties" you can justify funding - the Sovereign Grant is a fixed percentage of the net revenue. If the Crown Estate makes more money, the royals do more royalling (or more expensive royalling). There is no mechanism for us to decide that actually we would like the same amount of royalling as last year and to spend the bonus on something else. In fact it's even worse than that. If the net revenue goes down then the Sovereign Grant is set the same level as last year. So we get the same amount of royalling as before, whether we like it or not, and make cuts elsewhere. And this whole situation has been made worse by the unexpected windfall in seabed leases for windfarms (which we are ultimately paying for in our electricity bills) which has delivered close to £500m a year in extra profit. The royals have kindly agreed to reduce their Sovereign Grant % a bit as a result but are still getting an extra £45m this year - again, paid for by us, whatever the mechanism those £ use to get from our pocket to their expenses. No other part of the public finances works this way and IMO regardless of any opinions on the monarchy either way it is bonkers that this is how their budget works.

There is a discprecancy here. Go back and check what parmeters the Larsen truss designer was given. Ask; how do the Larsen trusses cope with the wind load. Larsen truss design is a bit of an art, it's a lot of fun mind and massively elegant, the wind loads get applied in a different way compared with a standard timber frame. The detail you show indicates that the outer and inner flange of the Larsen truss are restrained. It seems that your are on the face of it committed, but if there is an error then no point in compounding this. If I was you I would be confirming in writing to your Architect that a 40 mm screed is achievable, buildable at reasonable cost and it is going to remain serviceable ( i.e) not cause problems with the flooring. I've dabbled with this over the years and I feel that you tolerances are too tight and you are in for a nasty shock At least you'll end up paying for something that does not get delivered on site. My suggestion is that you get together with your Architect.. find out just how much they know about what is deliverable in reality. Give them a way to save face and see if you can change the levels. Bite the bullet now as later it will likely get worse. Well it will be a disater if what you are laying on is 5 - 10mm high? so now the pipe cover will be a bit of a joke. As an SE I'm very careful to set buildable tolerance limits. Ask your Architect how they are going to account for the variation in level and flatness of what you are laying on. In summary you take your chances! As an SE I'm not that fussed if your UFH does not work so well. With my desinger hat on I think this is vital to get it right, even if you have to go back and review the potential desing flaws which I think are there. It does not have to to result in a big falling out!

The Crown Estate is not the private property of the King. Our assets are hereditary possessions of the Sovereign held ‘in right of the Crown’. This means they belong to the Sovereign for the duration of their reign, but cannot be sold by them, nor do revenues from the assets belong to them. The UK government does not own The Crown Estate either. Established by an Act of Parliament in 1961, subsequently amended by The Crown Estate Act 2025, we are an independent, commercial business, managed by a Board (also known as The Crown Estate Commissioners). ...we continue to give all of our net profit to HM Treasury for the benefit of the nation's finances. https://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/about-us/faqs

No not separate runs, just one pipe right across the back wall into the stack. Each toilet will need its own local branch. The other wastes can all individually go into the nearest point on the main 110 pipe using adaptors. Don't really like the sound of a dogleg on the stack - didn't realise that was the implication of moving it into the bathroom. I'd probably leave it straight ... but its no different really to your 110 pipe feeding across from the en-suite so would work.

Hi Sorry I only just got back to this as not used build hub for a while. As far as I can tell yes we are getting modulation using the zone valves and the room stats. However, the guys above are correct, we don't have hot water working properly. As we have the immersion working with solar and cheap night rate we have lived with it so far. It our mission after Christmas to get it fixed which I think with all least involve a new control setup. Maybe even a rewire or replumb.

This says lots in two sentences! It's well worth considering as written by a construction professional with decades of experience. This is great advice. To go into a little detail. If you are a builder and building things, like a self build project / extensions etc for Clients and employing or sub contracting then there three types of insurance that I want you to demonstrate and evidence to me (on behalf of my Client) that you hold. If you as a Client have a mortgage then your lender has in interest, thus you as a Client should make contact with your lender. It can be a bind but to tick all the boxes this is what you should do. 1/ The builder needs to hold Public liability insurance. This is actually quite cheep to obtain for a small builder as the policy terms are really restrictive. It basically covers them for saying leaving a barrow on a public foot path and for some drastic event where no other policy kicks into place. I have this type of cover as an SE, its cheep cf my professional indemnity insurance but if I damage someones BMW with my ladder it could be a sore one. 2/ The next one up is employers liability insurance. This is serious as if you don't protect your employees then you can go to jail.. this is a statutory requirement. So you have to check that when the builder presents this and the extent of thier cover it makes some sense. Even if they say, I only employ my wife and, all the rest are sub contractors you need to do enough due dilligence to say.. can you demonstrate that your sub contractors who may employ ten people are also sufficiently insured. It sounds over the score at first glance but if there is an accident on site the HSE may take a different view! The moral stand point makes it own case. Cost wise employers liability is not massivley expensive unless you have black marks against your past performance and have systems in place to stop folk getting hurt on site. 3/ In terms of cost the last bit a contractor needs is contracts works insurance. This covers most of the things that a Contractor might make a complete pigs ear of and they do from time to time they do. One simple one is say on a house extension; the plumber makes a temporary connection, it fails and floods the house. At the other end they may not follow the SE design, SE pitches up and says.. you need to take that back down and rebuild. Now in context. Before I reinvented myself as an SE I was a Contractor, employed people. There was occasion where I and my employess made a mess, got it wrong. I paid to fix it as that comes with the job. But if I had made too much of a mess then I would have had to pass this onto my contracts works insurer. The key bit here is that contracts works insurance is expensive. Many builders have policies that are written "in aggregate". This means that if they cock up on more than one job at a time then their policy may not pay out the amount you expect. So to sum up. It's worth just asking a few questions.