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Standard dense blocks 7.5N is the norm in Ireland. Thermalites really add almost no insulation compared to making the cavity just a few mm wider. They're lighter to lift but crack easier and don't take wet plaster as well. Swings and roundabouts. 100mm dense blocks 175mm cavity batt 36 100mm Thermalite (0.18) will get you to 0.18W/m²K. Blocks and insulation~£65.14/m² If you used 100mm dense block 175mm cavity batt 36 100mm dense block ~£48.12 per m² You'd be at 0.174W/m²K

Glad you're in agreement, of its prestigious nature The bastards are climbing in under the cover of darkness, using the webbing under the Severn Bridge as their cradle to the next level. I'm driving over it in the opposite direction hoping to get a better wage. Que sera!

I was wondering why they shouldn't be named and shamed in words. They'd hardly sue would they. with this going all over local media? But I think I've worked out who it is, and which sex of county it is.. Well done. It's shocking lack of judgment / knowledge among buyers. mostly fleeing London. Much better older houses in better locations are dropping in value because of all this junk development flooding the market. Is there a dislike among younger buyers in buying 'used'?

1.8 is horrendous for a wall (you don't mean 0.18 do you?) but improving your existing walls is much harder than retrofitting better windows. None of this is rocket science. It comes down to surface area and u value.

You can get a good idea of the difference by going on ubakus or similar, configuring your wall build up and swapping the block type and seeing how the u value changes. Switching out thermalite for something like fibolite could take you from say 0.18 to 0.19 and if you switched to a dense block even worse. Might sound a small difference for SAP but houses have a lot of wall area so it will suffer. If you're talking about dense blocks, you'll save on materials but lose some of the difference paying more for labour.

I forget the detail, but someone locally installed 6ft electric gates within about 2m of the highway. They were caught out and had to apply for retrospective permission. They successfully argued that the gates could be operated by remote control on the approach so that no road obstruction would occur. Utter bull$hit, but they got it passed...

But a motorhome could well be, and car towing any form of trailer. You don't want to be stuck with the a**e end of your vehicle stuck out on the road while waiting for your gates to open.

Yes sorry I was speaking in a general sence. Talk to the SE on this case. From further research and it might have some favourable qualities for a raft foundation. Flows well around complex reinforcement. Less heavy work with rakes and boots ducting the pour would mean less chance of damaging the UFH pipes.

What have you agreed with the Architect? Some contracts are limited to getting Building Control Approval, others include construction drawings. These are sometimes the same drawings but not always. The minimum required by Building Control is less than required for construction drawings. On our house we had to use denser blocks in a few key areas like pillars supporting steel beams and between two windows where loads were higher than normal.

Let your fingers do the walking?

Depends on who's wearing the Principal Designer hat? How could you think there was £8k of meat to shave of this role???

Not quite true… PD rights exist when house is substantially complete. It doesn’t need to be signed off. I think if your gates are above 1m in height (when next to a road) you need planning otherwise they are PD.

But isn't that what the technical architect is supposed to do? Building control have signed off the drawings, but still so many questions. Now I'm beginning to understand why the original architects wanted 10k and this guy only charged 2k

Perhaps the OP could approach the SE to ask what would mitigate against their objections, and weigh up the effort vs rewards.

Cover the expensive membrane with cheap visqueen and dispose of it later. Zero UV getting through that.

Plus structural engineer says NO. Interesting product, but if the structural engineer isn't onboard, how do you have a structural design certificate, that worth even the paper its written on? Have a structural engineer says YES, fill your boots, so to speak

We used plasmor fibolite blocks , don’t seem to be bad blocks to be fair!

No one could answer your questions without more information. Ideally your wall build-up drawings are needed, but you sound like you don't have the drawings down to a detailed enough spec, to even consider buying let alone building yet.

Would suspect it's down to the wall to window ratio and that will vary by room and by house. Example Our living room has nearly 30m2 of glazing and about 10m2 of external wall in total. So going for high performance 3G wins the day, every day. For clarity our living room has more heat loss than the rest of the house in total. So we upgraded to to 3G. I's all a balancing act something's make sense in one build and no sense in another. Generalising is choice decision.

Ain’t got any . Using abs

With windows and doors is there a ballpark figure per m2 with mid range 2g vs. mid range 3g? @craig Do you run into a similar issue with glazing and payback periods some of these top spec windows costing a lot. Especially as they wouldn't last as long as a wall. If having a house with average wall u value 1.8 there must be a certain u value window you can go for before it becomes uneconomical. Excluding the benefits of reduced noise etc etc. Average 4 bed with 30m2 glazing I bet ai could work it out.

Our vague regs drawings just state the walls will achieve a U value of 0.18W/m2k and consist of high strength 7 concrete blocks. I went back to the TA, who wasn't much help and he said "when you know what blocks you you are using, I'll run it back through the SAP calcs". I can't be bothered with the faff and want to know if 7N blocks can be used across the whole build. Thermalites are expensive and will they really reduce the U values, or would another layer of insulation in the loft offset their better thermal performance. I need to get materials ordered as footings are scheduled to be pulled in 3 weeks time.

And he comes from a very prestige part of the country too.

I can only tell you from experience. Ive poured quite a few house slabs with it. My perimeter blockwork is always level at dpc with insulation and the dpm wrapped up over top. Lorry/lorries turn up, 2 or 3 of us with rakes spread it about in less than an hour, much easier than standard concrete. You fill it up till its to top of blocks all around. Someone goes over it with a dapple bar both ways. Spray it with sealer from outside the slab. Job done, cut joints next day. It's the consistency of runny porridge. Ive never had any big dips or uneven areas in it.

Does anyone have any experience, comments or advice on cavity closers? We are building a 2 storey masonry 200mm cavity, low energy house. Regulations suggest that any building over 18 metres tall, (ours is 5.86m) or those with higher occupancy and fire risk, should use fire-rated materials in cavity barriers for sealing cavities around window and door openings. Our architect has recommended Manthorpe G240. A similar product search has come up with Timloc cavity closures that are fire rated. https://timloc.co.uk/products/thermo-loc-30-minute-fire-rated-cavity-barriers/ https://timloc.co.uk/products/thermo-loc-60-minute-fire-rated-cavity-barriers/ thanks