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Their T&C's says they may not be able to achieve SP1 = 3mm over 2m. But they have been telling me about laying floors in Paris for sheiks, and their next job is a luxury hotel. My suspended timber joist hallway is more level than a professionally levelled concrete floor ? If a floor is 5mm out over 2m then your dining table is going to rock - on a brand new floor.

3m under a 3m straightedge is the official measurement for industrial floors bug I haven't checked re domestic.... logically it should mob be less stringent. That is in any direction and includes if you press down one end and measure under the opposite end. But finding a 3m straightedge isn't easy. Tiling adhesive will take out minor variations, but for LVT I think it could be a big issue Probably needs local filling.

AI says this... https://www.google.com/search?q=standards+for+floor+levelling&oq=standards+for+floor+levelling&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIICAEQABgWGB4yDQgCEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyCggDEAAYogQYiQUyBwgEEAAY7wUyBwgFEAAY7wUyCggGEAAYgAQYogTSAQoxMTU1NmowajE1qAIIsAIB8QWtHVJdU_RSivEFrR1SXVP0Uoo&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 No laser level was used. They ignored the markings I had put all around the walls using my water level. They stuck down a few self adhesive soldiers with the tops levelled by using a 1.8m spirit level (same level make as mine, not a 'professional' standard level) No spiked roller or squeegy was used at any point. Just a bit of hand trowelling to spread it. One young lad mixing, older guy pouring/spreading. Ran out of compound - it was obvious to me this would happen when they reached halfway and had used 2/3rds. One came back the following day to fill in the edges by hand with a different compound (I'd have thought the first compound should run wall to wall.) The final floor will be adhered LVT plank with no threshold between concrete and suspended floor - i.e. running from the front door through to the rear bifolds, in a continuous 'look through the house' layout. Yes their plan has always been to level out the concrete (max deviation about 30mm), then put smoothing compound of 3/4mm over everything, then stick the LVT to that. So never necessary to achieve a perfect levelling result without surface imperfections, but levelling is levelling.

Did they roll with spiked roller? Looks a bit gash. Remind me whats going ontop?

I think that’s a different company… this is who we’re looking at: https://www.westcoastwindows.com/ The ones doing Veka uPVC have the .co.uk domain.

Is this acceptable ? Should I be complaining ? So from friday we left the floor leveller to dry and so have just taken a quick look. Not impressed really. Not only did they run out of levelling compound and leave a section unfinished, but sections do not appear to be very level (see photos). There is a dip of up to 5mm across a 1.8m level at one point. The surface falls by 10mm into the doorway across a 1.8m level. Where each mix was poured and spread there are some small but noticeable ridge lines at the junction curves. I didn't expect perfection, but I expected something better than this ? Yes the plan has been to put a second coat of 3-4mm across the top and continiously over the suspended floor down hall and utility. But not what I was expecting as the starting point for that. What do people think ? I feel like making them do it again - what would be the implications of two coats where there should be one - would it need roughening to provide a key ?

@Redbeardis correct. Type 1 is designed to be as dense and stonelike as possible, and it follows on that it has low permeability. Crushed bitumen road is much the same mix with added bitumen so is even more so. @Willg you haven't mentioned this and perhaps you have a slope in mind and somwhere for the water to go

Do the circumstances require it to be a permeable sub-base? If so I am not sure MOT will cut the mustard (others on here know more than I). I used between 200 and 400 c40mm crushed limestone, membrane, and finer limestone (but not sand or MOT) as a bedding layer.

Whats the specific issue with the planings?

We did consider PVC, but haven't found many systems appeal aesthetically. One candidate was Rehau Artevo. I've tried for a few months to get pricing from different fabricators... still waiting 🫤 Also liked Aluplast Energeto Neo, but Aluplast don't yet have any UK fabricators. I'll take a look at the two you mention 👍 Is the main issue with aluclad the colour fading? I guess that's mostly due to UV exposure?

It's finally happening: Using unistrut instead of proper channel so had to get creative with some 3D printed spacers:

Recycled tarmac is great as long as it is a coarse mix, and not only fine stuff from toppings and footpaths. Many people don't realise that it is nearly all stone and sand, and the black stuff just glues it together. (5% or so if I recall) If you ask the contractor why it is not acceptable it would be interesting to hear. If well crushed, (not in big lumps) then well laid it can be better than type 1. It's 150mm thick and you have presumably whacked it or rolled it. It will never get that load again. The problem i see is with 30mm sand. That is very thick and will be affected by rain and weeds. Also, with block paving, you can get very local point loading. 30mm sand tends to suggest you need it to adjust to a good plane surface could you use less? Test the surface by driving back and forward many times. Does it show any settlement? Now jack up the car so you have half a ton on a small area. OK? Worst case? If it ever settles locally then blocks can be reset. I've even used it under a factory slab taking very large loads. No problem.

I paid a guy to come and lag it all for me, and he worked mostly in light commercial etc so it’s default there. Not really necessary but the phenolic stuff comes foiled as standard. Not much need in a domestic (but satisfies OCD), and the grey EPS stuff is no better or worse than the neoprene, same values etc, so if you’re inside the heated and airtight envelope then the insulation is mostly relevant if cooling.

Listen to the advice of the new contractors as they will then be liable for longevity etc. If you ignore them then you’d be blamed for any failures. Short cuts take 3 times longer and are always 3 times the cost. Remove the U/S sub base and get it all replaced with type 1, and install ACO drains to manage storm water.

Hi everyone, I am now on my second set of contractors for my drive as the first ones turned out to be clueless and I wasn't happy with the time it was taking or the advice. I'm doing 100 sqm of block paved driveway - new guys have come in done a few days setting out but are now saying they aren't happy laying on top of 150 mil recycled tarmac, this is all I could get hold of a couple months ago following how wet it had been and it was recommended so I went with it, after looking into it it doesn't seem the best sub base and I'm not sure you can use it, would I be better off getting a digger back in scraping it back and adding a 50 mil type 1 layer on top? As it stands at the minute it's 90 mil from the required level and it's been whacked, blocks are 60 mil so I guess they were going to do a sand screed of 30 mil, can anyone advise me what's best to do I don't want to spend all this money and the drive sinks in 6 months.

Do you mean why is the insulation silver, it comes like that, it’s a two piece rockwool lined product you put on and then cover the gaps in foil tape.

I'm glad you've found a good company. That's probably more important than anything. I know I'm banging a PVC drum here but I see they do Veka profiles. I would price Alphaline 90 and Softline 82 and go to see a house with them and alucald both installed after 10 years and compare. You could see a £30k swing the other direction and a lower maintenance better performing window.

I've only had 3 houses in 40 years - only 1 was a new build back in the late 80's. House had no issues was nicely built and good plot but there was one issue - The planners stipulated window frame colour to be brown or white, my house got brown - south facing garden - within the first summer the paint had bubbled up on the windows - I complained and they repainted them brown - I told the builders this is a bit stupid they will just bubble again paint them white and it'll be fine. They bubbled again and they repainted again, brown!!! I was in the house 4 years and at the end of summer every year I got my windows repainted for free - the last time they finally relented and painted them white!!!

Whats the metal tape you have used here wrapped around the insulation and is it worth using?

Working through it (slowly) as some of the terminology is new to me so having to understand what is being asked for (I feel it needs a bit more notation for those who do not work in this space or are more of a lay person like myself). A couple of suggestions... UFH construction to allow different options for different floors. My GF will be screed, FF panels, SF nothing DWH source - sunamp (appreciate though that not applicable for most people) Change the save confirmation window so not a pop up window - a little annoying. Auto-saving feature? Add air permeability target info

Bugger. It would appear that my All-In-One didn’t charge up last night but I only spotted that this morning when we had a brief (1 second) power cut. It looks like that was the battery emptying and the grid picking up. Pretty sure that scenario shouldn’t give us a power cut but it did. All indications I get is that the battery is at 7% and not taking any charge from the excess solar we have at the moment. A quick internet search for resetting the AIO is to press the button on the right hand side of the battery for 5 seconds, the battery will shut down and then 1-2 mins later start up again. Guess what. It hasn’t restarted. Any one have any similar issues? Or any pointers as to how I can get this heavy box of chemicals working as a battery again? ~~~~ It turns out that pressing the button again restarts the battery, so it’s up and running but discharging at max rate when it should be charging from excess solar. I reset to factory defaults and all seems to be well for the time being.

😁👍 It’s not a top performer, but most of our windows are fixed so I think (hope) the openers will be ’good enough’ 🤞 The manufacturer is Westcoast. We really like the appearance of the windows, their pricing is competitive and the installers, very local to us, have been extremely helpful so far. There are still a couple of other options we’re looking at but at the moment these are probably top of the list. It’s quite hard to justify an additional £30k+ for the likes of Internorm, even though they are undoubtedly better windows… it would probably be better spent elsewhere (like the home cinema and games room 😏)

Apologies for my hiberno slang. Just glancing at the section of the window I wouldn't be sure it was a top performer in terms of air sealing and thermal conductivity. I would like to see more seals and insulation. Something like this with 4 seals and thermally broken too. The Uw figure looks fine as a whole but just be cautious of it as large areas of glazing with a low Ug can hide poorer Uf figures.

Yes - this is what I’ve had proposed, but I’m taking it on myself now that I’ve accelerated up a steep learning curve!

The thing is that snagging stuff is mostly at the finishing stage, because that is what is visible. It begs the question of what 'snags' might exist in foundations, drains, structure, electrical cabling etc. New build estates can look good when newly built, go back 10 years later and you can find rainwater stains all down the render, paint/finishing peeling off window frames, rotten fences, cracked kerbs etc. Suddenly it doesn't look like a place you would want to live. As the generations pass, general knowledge and basic skills seem to erode. Most used to have some DIY manuals and knew how to change a plug, a tap washer, put up some shelves, change their car oil, mix cement, and keep house and home together. Usually learned helping out dad as a kid. These days a lot of that seems to have all but disappeared. Contributed to by youngsters in generation rent that have to call the landlord and not fix it themselves.