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Indeed. Given the amount of money people are spending on windows it’s surprising that the installation detailing appears to be an afterthought in many instances. IMHO the hierarchy of requirements for a window installation should be 1. robustness of installation - window stays in place 2. robust detailing - it keeps the water out 3. thermal robustness - thermal optimisation This is particularly so in areas of severe and very severe exposure to wind-driven rain ie large parts of the British Isles - http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Builders/ProductsandServices/Standardsplus2016/#135 What I would describe as THERM fetishists spend an inordinate amount of effort ensuring that the window installation is thermally optimised to the detriment of the weathering and physical robustness. All well and good for a Passive House in central Europe where the winters are not only a lot colder but they have less 'horizontal' rain. Pretty isotherms on a computer screen may not look so good in situ on the western seaboard in the middle of January. Furthermore, the simpler the detailing the easier it will be to execute on site. As you’ve pointed out in an earlier post the ‘compressible fill’ underneath the window is daft - as it is in the original Nordan detail. I would only envisage it being effectively used underneath a window to allow for differential movement between a timber frame and a masonry outer-leaf, and even then it would only be between the masonry and the window cill - http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00479931.pdf - detail 3.08 (E3) on page 9

If a supplier gives money off just for the asking then one ought to ask oneself; 1. Why was it 'over-priced' in the first place 2. Could I have got even more off if I pushed a bit harder On reflection neither scenario is particularly edifying.

It's not voodoo. It's an extremely common part of sound proofing but generally it's used in conjunction with other measures like insulation, green goo and multiple layers of board.

You 2 sound just like typical tradesmen I understood that sound resilient bars were a de facto sound insulation technique but like most things require to be correctly installed to truly be effective.

Just wanted to say hello. I am from London. I will post another thread with a potential house/plot I may be going to buy. Shah.

Nope. It's spot on. Hot goes in the top and as heat dissipates it gets cooler towards the bottom and the cooler water leaves via the lower valve. Have you thought about running a pair of pipes from the towel rad to the Ufh manifold and putting it on it's own zone? I can't remember if your planing a buffer for the Ufh or not, but if your on oil then I'd not recommend running any such 'short' circuit from the heating system as it'll short cycle like crazy. If no buffer then I'd only run all these in unison, eg rads, Ufh and towel rad all on together so as to compact short cycling. Dont run single pipe, just run two 15mm pipes up to the 1st floor and pick up off the heating ( flow and rerun ) for the interim and then jump to the manifold later on if required. There is no practical way to convert single pipe to F&R later down the line so forget that IMO. If you want to go super flashy, make a single circuit kit for the towel rad alone and then you can set the temp via a dedicated TMV . Just needs a pump and a TMV. Simples.

Probably a bit late for the OP but might save some others going with jerry-built details in a similar situation.... http://www.nordan.no/vindu/vis http://www.nordan.no/vindu/vis/vaeggkonstruktioner It doesn't have to be slavishly copied but if it's good enough for the west coast of Norway the principle should be good enough for anywhere in the UK.

Four weeks seems a long time to wait to do the grinding and polishing on hard concrete. Our guys suggested ten days to ensure it wasn't completely hard, and in the end did it starting on the 8th day if I remember correctly. I'd need to check my notes, but I believe it only took the two of them two days to grind down to "pepper pot" (some aggregate showing randomly in patches, rather than across the entire floor). You're taking quite a bit more than that off, so I guess that's part of what's taking the time. Yours looks a similar shade to ours - very nice!

I have been getting quotes for structural warranty for a 280 m2 house. LABC declined to quote. They dont like the KORE passive slab system that MBC supply. Has anyone managed to get LABC to provide a warranty for an MBC frame with the passive slab? CRL - 4000. Buildstore - £3350 Waiting to hear from Protek. Have I missed anyone? Do these sound reasonable?

My experience was pretty grim with Buildstore. I initially insured with them for 18 months, thinking that would be long enough. We then had the borehole problem and overran, so I got a 6 month extension from them (far more expensive than 6 months worth of the original policy). I still hadn't finished at the end of the extension, and rather stupidly (although to be fair I was having some health problems at the time) I let the policy lapse for three weeks (so we had no insurance at all - worrying, and I'm glad nothing happened). I then asked for another extension and was quoted a really silly price by Buildstore, like double the original premium, so I started shopping around online. The first quote was refused as soon as I answered the question "have you ever had insurance on this project before?" and I answered "yes". This happened three or four times with online insurers, so I rang one up. He quite openly told me that they all had a policy of never insuring anyone that had been insured by another company, so ensuring that you went back and paid the extra-high premium for renewal. This annoyed me, as I'm not even sure it's legal, it seemed very much as if a cartel was operating, to keep premiums high. I found a broker that specialised if self build and renovation insurance and they put together a tailor-made policy to suit our needs. It was a lot cheaper, because it recognised that the house was secure, weatherproof and had safe access, with no remaining "building site" risks externally. It can also be converted to buildings cover when we complete, at no additional cost, for the remaining period of cover. As above, read the small print VERY carefully. My experience has been that there are some potential problems with some standard policies. Finally, to end on another insurance-related point that may be of interest, our house contents insurance renewal arrived earlier this week. The premium was much the same as it has been for the past goodness knows how many years (I'm lazy and haven't bothered to shop around). It includes a maximum no claims discount (we've never ever claimed on a contents policy if over 30 years). The odd thing was that the renewal notice had loads of errors, and they ask you to check this as it forms the basis for your cover. The errors were serious and included "unknown" by things like construction, roof covering, security systems, age, number of occupants, whether they were smokers, etc, and some really odd things, like it said we had lodgers (no idea where that came from, we've never ever had a lodger). So, I rang them (the usual nightmare of being on the phone for half an hour before you eventually find a way to speak to a human being). I explained that we'd been insured by them for around 15 years (they didn't know this!) and that the renewal notice had more errors on it than facts. They tried to say that these weren't important, so I read the heading of the notice, that starts by saying that if any of the information below is in error your insurance may not be valid, they may not pay any claim and they may choose to just cancel the policy without notice. At that point the chap asked if I'd like to give him the missing or erroneous information, all the time assuring me that it wasn't really important. At this stage I said that yes I would, but given the fact that I'd (by then) spent 40 mins on the phone trying to sort this out, I was sorely tempted to just not renew with them and find an insurer who was half way competent. This induced a sudden attitude change, with an apology, a sort of vague muttering about their computer system having some problems (how many times have we all heard that one!) and that he'd try and see what he could do to put things right as quickly as possible. I gave him the details, and said I wanted a new renewal notice in writing, so that I could check the details were correct before renewing (it runs out at the end of this month). Imagine my "surprise" when the new premium turned out to be 40% cheaper than the renewal one we'd originally been quoted................. And some wonder just why I'm just a bit cynical about insurance and finance organisations.