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@SimonD Well done, and not just on the MCS stuff. I come from an engineering background, but moved over to education 3 decades ago. Public funded education services have totally lost their appeal to me so ended up in hospitality. May seem a strange 'career' but they all have a lot of similarities. The main ones is dealing with people, attention to detail and cost. I find dealing with people terrifying, but put some self created strategies in place, these help me cope. Building anything, be it a skyscraper or lasagna, is about detail at all stages, usually it is the early stages that make the difference. Cost, as opposed to price, is really about value, while those words are often used interchangeably, they need to be used correctly, with the interactions between them understood. Now none of that is of any help when you are down in the dumps, with the holes filling up with shit, so be careful about digging another hole, it may cause a bigger problem later on. Essence of most building is to keep it simple, that does not mean a basic, just that the processes has to be broken down into achievable tasks. If the task requires an extra pair of hand, ask for that help. Also, when undertaking just about any task, make sure you have room to work. This is usually an area of easily clearable space that you put your tools on, or your tea: your mind needs a similar space. If you feel there is no space left, stop. Making a bit more room is not waste, it is part of the efficiency process. The weather. You can't control that, but you can manage the effects. I do not claim to have any SAD (I actually think, with no knowledge, that it is a combination of things), but I know I hate the cold and getting wet (I grew up in the tropics). it is the rain that causes the biggest problems in my opinion. Hammering in a nail becomes hard work when you are dressed up like fisherman, with hammer that is slippy wet and a nail that has fallen into the mud. Sometimes it is just best to stop. So what are the solutions. For me it is to go out to a cafe and read (usually on the phone these days). It is amazing, if you do it on a regular basis, the people you meet. I now know an electrician, a retired book shop owner, a dog trainer (security not pets), a recent graduate mechanical engineer, a highly intelligent young mother, and a couple that look after their grand children. We are all in the cafe for the same reasons, it gives us a space that has noting to do with our everyday work. There are twats there as well, but we all just tut tut about them. So in conclusion, make things simpler, ask for help, occasionally accept you have to stop for a while and accept that you need a bit of clear space (physical or emotional). Oh, and drink tea.

I fitted a couple of these in my last place and still got great air test result so they must be good. https://www.jupiterblue.co.uk/loft-hatches-c2/standard-range-c9/airtight-loft-hatch-560-x-640mm-hinged-short-side-p221/s5093 In reality we never stored anything up there so very rarely opened them. The ariel was in the loft so handy to have and just for general inspection pov

Right, I’ve a thought, but you might not like it…. Can the inner habito section be dismantled? If so, get that out the way so you can get a good access to the block work, then mechanically fix a length of timber to it. Or perhaps a 15mm*25mm angle but flipped inwards so you have the 15mm facing inwards, bond or mechanically fix to the frame. The reveal board when plastered will cover the metal. me, I’d look to my first option. I think @Iceverge may have had solutions for tricky reveals in the past? And @Nickfromwales may have seen a situation like this out in the wild. Sorry for tagging you chaps, this one needs more than my willing head!

How thick for what? Wall or lintel? The reference to 100mm is for each end of the concrete (pre-stressed) lintel to be sat over 100mm masonry the same thickness as the lintel. For this, you’d be using a 3” x 4” lintel https://www.diy.com/departments/expamet-concrete-lintel-l-1050mm-w-100mm/150790_BQ.prd

@Mattg4321 Not quoting what you said because I'm not directly replying to your points but this is in response. Firstly, this I find this topic difficult to discuss, both because it is an emotive one with lots of strongly held views which means I want to be careful not to be misunderstood and also it's one where I have more casual knowledge. With some topics I dive into the detail and can feel relatively confident talking about them (I have a reasonable idea of what I know and what I don't). Here I don't. I've had to look up the definition of 'racist' and 'ethnicity' and neither precisely aligns with the common usage of the terms in my experience. Frankly from my perspective the precise definition doesn't matter but it's difficult to have the discussion without that. Looking at the definitions I still don't feel I can talk confidently about what an ethnic group is (the word is often used linked to race but the definitions focus far more on culture). My statement on english ethnicity doesn't necessarily stand up and should be read as a statement that there is no defining genetic/biological grouping for 'English'. Because I can't talk confidently about the topic I can only talk from my personal perspective. From that perspective Rishi Sunak was born in England and has a British passport, therefore he is English (and also British). Someone who says that because he has brown skin he is not English is being racist. I know KK is talking ethnicity and could argue that my definition above is about nationality but that doesn't hold up if you deny someone the ability to call themselves English or claim English nationality because of the colour of their skin which KK is effectively doing by saying Sunak can only be British. In my book, you can say Rishi Sunak is not 'White English' as per that form but you can't say he is not English. This is also quite off-topic and I've gone beyond my comfort level talking about this subject so this will be my last contribution here. It's debatable whether this adds anything of value and I almost didn't post but I didn't want to leave my previous statement without further explanation.

Lots of words. Ignores my point entirely. When will my electricity prices go down? Odd you ignored my generous offer. I wonder why?

I was dead set against not making good use of the loft from a ‘wasting so much space’ point of view. Why go to so much effort to build a quality, individual house and then have a loft space that’s kind of part of the house and kind of not, and largely useless… …until the next owner spends multi thousands doing a loft conversion and finally bringing the loft into the fold. Christmas decorations (you may have a point). Some gym equipment and a couple of SUP’s (you may have a point again). Suitcases. MVHR. House battery. Kids LEGO and train sets in storage for grandkids (I’m back in the lead).

How thick would you say it needs to be minimum?

I was dead set against it from an air tightness and hoarding point of view. I have never seen anything in an attic that didn't belong in a skip. I even found a timber box of gelignite explosive in my parents one from the 1950's. It's a place where people who can't organize their brains stick their crap. Rant over, I did include one, only for access to inspect. I might visit once a year to check the roof and to say hello to my insulation. Airtight(ish) + insulated(ish) attic hatch and 500mm OSB upstand to keep the cellulose in situ. I added 500mm of a PIR "plug" that fits into the OSB upstand box to keep in the heat. I reckon it comes with a U value of 0.05W/m²K. No storage allowed thank you very much.

There is a link in this thread already to a report on the levlised cost of generation for various technologies. It shows that solar and onshore wind are already the cheapest only matched by high utilisation ccgt assuming central or lower future gas prices (andignieing the carbon cost). If we are looking further out (1 to 2 decades) then solar and onshore are the cheapest full stop. Gas still has it's place as last generator but as capacity increaces the times when we run with no gas at all will become more frequent. In 2012 coal was the largest electricity source 40% In 2015, gas overtook it. In 2017 we had our first coal free day In 2024 we closed out last coal plant. Now gas is unlikely to totally disappear. It is an excellent backup for dark still times, but I think it likely we will see a gas free day before the end of the decade and they will become more and more common after that whilst the overall % of gas will fall even further

War. It's a cult. Let's get back to weather compensation.

If you want to sell at some point, a surveyor might want to look up there. I can't really envisage loft access not being a good idea.

Ethnicity is something relatively clear cut. Sunak clearly has (very recent) ancestry from the Indian subcontinent region. But skin tone, hair, eyes etc are not reliable indicators of enthicity. My sister can (and regularly does) pass for ethnically 100% white whilst I do not. We both have the same ethnic background yet look very different. The circles KK moves in are apt to tie nationality hence citizenship and hence rights to ethnicity. No, I dislike KK because of his views on race and other things. I disagree with his views on NZ because I think his arguments are unsound.

Nope, quite happy to engage facts, KK really shouldn't be given any space. To address (factually) his arguments which I distill as (feel free to correct me if you think I misrepresented them) - some of these argument chain together but I have split them. 1. Net zero destroys our industry, we cannot do both 2. It does 1 because power is expensive (he doesn't say this but he implies it is why NZ destroys industry) 3. NZ is pointless because uk is only 1% of CO2 globally and... 4... We ship activities (implied as manufacturing) to China where they are dirtier. 5. China isn't stupid so they aren't doing NZ and so are beating us. The central argument is 1. Argument 2 is evidence for 1. 1 and 3 are seperate arguments 4 is a statement intended to back up 3 and 1 First off, 3 and 4 China is taking net zero pretty seriously. They are the biggest installers of renewable on the world by miles. At this point someone raises the fac ttgier carbon emissions are rising (which thry are just) or that they are still commissioning coal. So yes they are rising but thry are close to the top - their economy is still in the growth phase and that lead to rising energy use and (for now) rising carbon. However the carbon intensity of the grid (which I argue is a better measure of intent) is falling. It is currently around 550g/kwh,which is about where the UK was in the mid 00's and falling. Yes they are building coal plants, but as cleaner replacements for older ones that are being decommissioned and, crucially, the utilisation of coal is dropping ie they are being used less. And, they are adding renewables at a much greater rate than coal (or other fossil fuels) - of the 540Gw of capacity added in 2025, 430Gw were wind and solar. So China is expanding with a renewables first approach whilst still building out some fossil fuel (mainly coal). The sheer size of China means it's total carbon output will always be huge in comparison to the Uk's. To move onto 2: power is expensive in the UK but not because of NZ, or specifically not because of the underlying technology of wind and solar. There are issues around the pricing structure (electricity price basically being thr gas generated price even though most of the electricity generated is from cheaper wind and a tiny bit of solar). There are also issues with policy costs around (say) insualating homes being loaded onto electricity prices which drive UK the cost. So there is a grain of truth in "High prices because of NZ" - but these are not things intrinsic to NZ, they are the result of specific approaches to NZ. Now to 1. Which is more on this thread topic. Our manufacturing industry has shrunk but it is still very large. It is just less visible now and employs fewer people. Gone are the days of giant factories employing thousands of overall clad men to bash metal making pots and pans. Now we have anonymous industrial units employing a couple of dozen people to churn out industrial machines most of us will never see. We are still in (and this does depend a bit on how you measure it) the top 10 countries being China, Japan, USA, Germany, S Korea, India, Mexico and mixing it with Italy and France. Our economy isn't focused on manufacturing we major in services, particularly financial. Now you can argue this isn't necessarily a good thing (I argue it isn't) - but this focus is another reason put manufacturing isn't as large a portion of our economy as Germany, Japan and Skorea who have all explicitly targeted this sector. High energy prices are bad for manufacturers though. But thr point I argue in this thread that abandoning NZ to focus on fossil fuels as our main power source will ultimately result in greater supply uncertainty and higher energy costs which will have a knock on effect to industry (and households)

Need to see a section drawing, then it'll make sense I guess.

They've not blown cellulose over the Finks on the last two of their projects I worked on. All of the CAT6 network gear and TV runs, plus feeds for all the blinds etc went up there on the most recent, and we boarded it out so it could provide quite a bit of useful, additional storage.

100mm in concrete is fine.

The pencil line shows the chosen plaster line to be achieved, so the plaster board edge will cover the edge of the frame and the 25mm angle would need to be fixed to the concrete rather than the frame. How would I attach the 25mm angle to the concrete block ? It would be adjacent to the edge of the concrete block so screws would be likely to break out. Is there some other adhesive that could be used and be stronger than the resin ?

No it wont. Not in any meaningful timeframe. If you genuinely believe that, lets bet on it. 6 years from now, proceeds to charity of your choice. As for reform of levy and taxes, Ed just added £300 per household per year with his latest grant harvesting scheme. That will help!!!!

Good summary right there! And pretty reflective of a large chunk of society now. Net zero seems to have created a significant sized cult. No idea how it ends though..............................bankruptcy?

Well worded aka "life". Good to hear the builders already on it though.

Thanks for all the info. As always, hard to know what to do. The cavity AND IWI gives a wall that meets current standard, which i hadnt thought was realistically achievable. Im more keen on heavily insulating the extension and do rather less in the old part which is 2 ft thick stone walls, so lots of unknowns and variables. Good news is, floor is concrete, albeit uninsulated (as far as i know, laid in 19080.) And yes the rainscreen will be ventilated. All pretty conventional.

I don't think anyone's here for purely altruistic motives. I'm sure everyone gets something out of the place and tries to give back. Even the pros who are here might pick up some work or get some insight into what competitors are doing.

The never-ending challenge of getting work done. The flashing done on the garage rooflights looked far better. There are other bits of lead work that look much better, but these bits are not pretty at all. I’d love to do some lead work myself tbh, but then I’d have no insurance guarantee to fall back on and if I did some bits and they did others, it would only introduce the inevitable argument/challenge if anything was wrong. Fortunately, the roofer team is a sub-contractor through my builder who is of the same opinion as me, and it turns out he has already snagged this with the roofer, and will make sure it’s sorted (doubt this will address the folds etc. though). I’m choosing which battles to pick and working on the basis of: 1. Functions as required 2. Insurance / warranty supported 3. Aesthetically important 4. How much is it going to bug me if I don’t resolve it (unfortunately sometimes this one jumps to position 1 🤣)

Here’s the longer version of the argument. It’s interesting to watch and both make good points. A quarter of my family is Arab Muslim and my mum was born in Baghdad and only came here when she was 7 years old. So what does she tick on the form? Probably whatever she feels comfortable with. Is she ‘English’? My friend was born in Kenya to white British parents. He lived there for the first 15 years of his life. Can he call himself ‘Kenyan’? It’s a grey area really and it people can obviously describe themselves as whatever they want, but other people are probably going to judge for themselves. Rishi Sunak is clearly not ethnically English, but if he wants to call himself English I have no problem with that. What this really seems to be about is that Kisin has a different view to you on net zero so you smear him as racist/sexist or some other ‘ist’. It’s been going on for so long now and it doesn’t really work anymore. Play the ball, not the man.