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Made hundreds. What timbers (note plural) are you intending to use? White Pine or Teal where our choices for panel saunas and Abachi for the benches. (I have a sauna controller cluttering up the place still, been in a box for over 30 years)

just put some cheap car sun shades on windows (from halfords - cheaper than amazon etc!) - temporary measure until we decide how to build brise soleil. not going to block it completely but should make some difference. if they stay up!

You'll very likely get a secondhand chop saw on Facebook Marketplace for not much money and local to you. The orange Evolution saws often come up. Fine for the level of accuracy you need for that.

I don't rate such low-end table saw - shaped objects very highly. Apart from the obvious H&S concerns: lack of guard, the pile of dust that's a slipping and inhalation hazard and the spaghetti bowl of cables (you don't want to trip and fall on the non-guarded blade ), your support tables look out of true, which probably causes the blade to stick, kick & bind. "Old smoky blade" sounds like a problem in itself. If I had a saw like this, I'd put it in the back of a van and take it to the tip. Never compromise on your safety. I found that sliding mitre saws, light handheld circular saws and plunge track saws are the way to go. Sadly, good table saws (cabinetmaker grade) start from about £2.5k used - anything else is not really worth having unless they are bought and used with jigs for very specialist jobs.

Re: IR camera: Yes. Re: Living in it... Seriously, sheet/seal off each room as you work on it and (it being a bungalow) access each room externally. I would use DPM (Clear if you want to save on elec for lighting!) and good-quality 'Gaffa' tape. Probably don't be tempted to use air-tightness tape as you'll struggle to get it off. Remember to seal also any entries/exits such as pipe and wiring runs. If I were doing it again I would have a basic shower 'room' (shed??) so that I did not bring filth back into the clean areas. (Probably requires more discipline than I have, though!).

Welcome Tetris. Have you considered getting an air source heat pump? Your comment about replacing radiators made me think of it. There's a guy on YouTube called Glyn Hudson that puts them into the sort of buildings that they aren't supposed to work in and actually they do. He's a nice guy who genuinely cares about the environment, rather than a content-creating grifter. Have a look at this video for example - there's also a later follow-up one on his channel where he goes over the stats after the first winter. He also installed one into his friend's cottage renovation project. You might be interested in that one and also the vids from the guy who renovated the cottage. I think his link is at the end of this vid. There's also a follow-up video for that project showing a year's worth of stats I think.

We have a step of about 10mm into the main bathroom. It has a 5mm bevel on it. In 20 years I don't think anyone has tripped on it.

Yes Maybe, but 5-6mm seems like it could be a trip hazard, whereas 2.5-3mm would be safer as well as more aesthetically pleasing. Any experience of using feathering compound under LVT ? Looks like it can have LVT laid over after just 15 minutes...? https://youtu.be/Gp4qxdf6f9w?si=mgLwexHuuJtfTctM

Yes. Several stand-alone TF builds and extensions in last 18 yrs. None of them used treated timber. I take the view that if you design out as far as possible the pre-conditions for rot then using timber treated to resist rot is a bit over-kill. It seems to have worked for me so far. No Qs ever raised by BCO.

Maybe overthinking it, lay it, add a bead of sealant, you will never look at it again, neither will anyone else.

OK, thanks for confirmation. I do not know how much you know about IWI. Is the house cavity walled? If so, get a quote for bonded polystyrene beads (usually subj to min 50mm cavity and no cr*p in it, and other caveats). I would then get someone to do a WUFI (dynamic interstitial condensation -IC- risk analysis) calc to see how much IWI (if any) you could add without falling foul of IC risk. If it is 50mm cavity, un-filled, existing U value will be circa 1.5W/m2K. With poly bead fill, circa 0.45-0.5, and with 50mm rigid wood-fibre IWI approx 0.3W/m2K (again, importantly, subject to a condensation risk analysis)

Our Bifold threshold is designed to provide a levelish threshold with 10-15mm upstand. On the inside it has a bevelled edge. In a perfect world the top of our LVT floor covering would meet the edge of the threshold bevel all along the 3.5m width. Our floor levelling is a little low and comes up about 7mm short of perfect. Our flooring guy did point out going for perfect might go wrong because the floor level may vary somewhat along the length of the threshold, and if too high at any point then look bad. The question now the floor is levelled is whether to have the floor feathered into the threshold to reduce the discrepency ? Flooring guy says he can feather the LVT up a bit along the threshold and inwards for 6 to 8 inches to reduce the discrepency. However it is possible that it might be noticeable in certain lights etc. Photo illustrates what he is talking about where the lower LVT planks illustrate the effect by raising the upper LVT planks (the ones we are using) by 2.5mm against the threshold in a similar manner to feathering. Anyone done this ? Can anyone advise ? What is the likelihood of this working well VS creating a worse eyesore ? (PS Levelled floor does generally undulate 2/3/4mm in places anyway)

Our garage is all Douglas Fir and Scottish larch, none of it is treated, as it all came straight from the mill. All the structural wood being Douglas Fir.

Wondering if treated timber is really a necessity if I will be fully and maticulously wrapping with breather mambrane, counter battening and cladding with T&G. Reason being I am buildiong a sauna and would rather not have treated timber that can offgas even though I will be lining with sauna foil. I will use treated for battens though Has anyone build with just C16/C24 and had it last years without issue ?

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Thank you. External wall insulation would ruin the old cottage look & feel, so that's out of the question unless we're talking single skin extension upgrade, but I haven't even thought about that. On this note, is it worth investing ~£200 into a thermal camera? Probably on of those phone clip-on jobbies. From what I read online, it's the go-to tool for finding drafts, insulation gaps, tracing roof and pipe leaks and can help check hot electrics. Which seems to cover all of my phase 1. Toll budget is very tight, but if it saves time and improves result quality, it's worth having. Also any tips on living in the house that's being renovated are very welcome. Kitchen, one bathroom and one bedroom (will have to be the kids' one for now) are in decent condition to move in, everything else needs to have the interior ripped out.

If you want it on trickle why not out a proper dMEV fan in that is actually almost silent or MEV? Greenwood CV2 or CV3?

I have an MF100T I have been testing and it is pretty noisy on its lowest setting (50 L/s flow). It's comparable to competitors. There are three speed settings via a jumper. I want to use it in a trickle application, ideally with Boost, but just trickle would be fine. As such, I would be happy with about half the flow rate with the associated sound improvement. Manrose do their own remote speed controller (1350), but it is expensive and not to my taste aesthetically. Has anyone else had success with an alternative? The ultimate would be one that could be controlled via Bluetooth/Zigbee/WiFi. In terms of a simple solution, I like the look of the BG 887-01. It's cheap and looks neat, but is only has two terminals (so only LINE) unlike the Manrose which is 4 terminal. I have seen a Tuya fan speed controller for ceiling fans that might work: https://www.google.com/search?q=tmwf02 I may have to change to the Manrose MF100 inline fan to make this work, but that is doable. Manrose 1350: BG 887: https://www.bgelectrical.uk/uk/wiring-devices/800-series/fan-controller/887-01

Wish I understood what all this is for.

Welcome. Think about air-tightness (henceforth A/T) and high-standard insulation as the 1st thing you do, and then worry about the rest (unless doing the insulation would preclude structural work!). I assume 1950s = clear-ish 50mm-ish cavity (the general assumption being that 20's/30s+ = cavity) but, for example no-one told the builders of entire estates in Nottingham that! So inspect; don't assume). Either way, seriously consider external wall insulation (henceforth EWI) rather than internal insulation of the external walls (IWI). *Design* your elecs and pipe runs so that they don't make insulation and A/T difficult. And most of all, have fun!!

Hi All, Excited to join the forum – I hope you don’t mind renovation projects as opposed to a proper self-build. Mrs and I are in the final stages of buying our dream home (1950s bungalow) & just waiting for the paperwork to be finalised by the solicitors – they seem to be taking 5 weeks to do what AI can do in 5 minutes. Good news, the house was so run down, it was within our budget. Even better news – the home report is mainly “2”s, so there’s several years of fun work for me to do to get it into top condition. Bad news – while I have extensive fine woodworking skills, and can do some basic electrics & plumbing, I’m pretty much a newcomer to major home repairs. We’re still in a bit of “what have we done” phase. As a matter of priority for phase 1, I’ll be looking to fix the pitched roofs and repair & replace a couple small flat roofs (porch and bay windows). Trace any leaks & moisture spots. Then consider insulation & window replacement and radiators replacement – so I’m prepared for winter. Any internal decoration works will have to wait for phase 2 I guess, but there’s a major re-wiring on the cards, with a view of getting a modern consumer unit installed within a couple years of moving in. There’s also a (likely) single skin extension that the Mrs wants to eventually turn into a bedroom and there's a garden to overhaul. Phase 3 would include a garden room (I’ve built one from a kit before but will likely do a scratch build this time) and maybe even a garage roof terrace if things are going well. Apologies in advance for daft questions.

Might be worth trying a Patio Sealant, though they are designed to stop stains getting into stone. No idea if it would do what you want, and might only last a season.

Thanks. To elaborate am I trying to just get the central chrome bit out leaving the blue plastic ring behind? I have tried a thin knife blade, perhaps I just need to push harder but I would OH would like to avoid cosmetic damage. The action doesn't feel like a cartridge, more like an old-fashioned washer. In any event it goes round multiple turns. Unfortunately I can't easily change it. The plastic backnut split in two as stupidly I had not swapped it for a brass one so there is now a lash-up holding the tap down hence the broken packing round the base. The whole sink cupboard unit was pre-assembled and then fitted in its final position and a tiled splashback installed above. I don't think there is clearance to change the tap without reversing some of this.