Leaderboard

I thought I would put a post together for those that are looking for windows, replacement or new build. As someone who deals with final order placing / final quote discussions. One of the things that crosses my desk on regular basis, is that the "other supplier" is more cost effective. Which leads me to ask myself "more cost effective against what" are you comparing apples for apples? When I ask people to compare, what we generally explain is to look at the following (see below) if they are not willing to supply a copy of the quote without prices. Product - is the product similar. For example are you comparing a Timber Aluminium cladded window with a Timber Aluminium cladded window? Glazing - Is the glazing on offer from both suppliers comparable? Is it double glazed v's triple glazed for example or is it float glass v's toughened or laminate? Check that doors have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows within 300mm of a door have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows below 800mm from the finish floor have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows that are 1400mm in height or above for toughened/laminated glazing. Most suppliers will start to consider toughened / laminated from 1400mm onwards, some will still be float glass. Check triple glazed glass units. Some suppliers will only toughen the inner and outer panes and leave the middle pane as float glass, others will toughen all 3 panes (I recommend all 3 panes as toughened) when required. Why? quick example is from experience, a customer in the north west of Scotland had the middle pane as float glass in french doors, the doors are recessed with wall on either side. It effectively became a wind tunnel. What happened is during high winds, the door sashes had that much wind pressure constantnly, that the door sash was pushed away from the frame slightly and a rattle effect occurred (only thing I could think would cause this to happen). As a result the middle pane (float glass) shattered. This required the whole sash to be replaced, as the glass was glued into the frame on that particular product. Timber - Is the timber comparable, are both using spruce/larch/oak/pine etc.? Are any of the products finger jointed as standard (which is more cost effective versus fixed timber, but not as aesphetically pleasing). Is the timber cut from from one section of wood or is it individually glue laminated timber? Ug values - A 0.5Ug can be quoted by suppliers but the costs vary dramatically. One of the reasons for this can be the glass make up and the gas that is being used. Some quotes won't tell the gas being used but it's safe to assume that if it's 48mm glazing it is Argon. Pay attention to the spacer distance also, not for cost but if the spacer is above 18mm, convection can occur of the gas filling (gas moves around in the unit). Hinging - Are the hinges concealed or are they exposed? Door Hinging - Pay close attention as suppliers will have quoted standard framing on doors, others may have increased the widths of the jambs to increase the space available at the hinging for plastering behind. RAL Colours externally - are the quoted RAL colours the same? Internal colours - have they quoted the same? Some will offer the standard colours such as a clear lacquer, others will have them painted - does this have any impact on price comparison. Sizes - have any of the units been split, due to not being able to achieve the size required? Some suppliers will not be able to do large sizes, others will be. Look out for compromises. Don't always look at the end figure and immediately reject a quote as being to high, compared to the others. Most suppliers will have the supply price first, then additional items such as window cills, compriband, membrane, installation etc. which are optional to the quote and not necessarily required but may be included in the total cost at the end. Most self builders like to take on the mantra of doing the whole build, others would like to leave this to the supplier or builder and or source their own materials if supply only. What is being offered with the installation service, are the installation options / costs comparible to each other? Who takes responsibility for the windows upon arrival? Generally speaking most suppliers who are installing, should be taken responsibility from the moment the windows leave the factory, to the moment the windows/doors have been installed, sign off. If supply only, the responsibilitygenerally passes to the client once the offload commences. So it is important to document the windows before offload, during offload and once offloaded. The manufacturer will normally have documentation / pictures before departing the factory, it makes life easier on whether a claim with the haulage company or whether a claim with the supplier is required (both should go to the supplier who should deal with it). Warranty - how long is the warranty, what does it cover? Last but not least, is the quote comparible? Have the suppliers referenced things the same way or are have the drawings been scaled and then referenced by the supplier (this happens a lot when no window schedule exists)? A lot of architects don't create window schedules for some reason (one the major parts of a build and most costly aspects) and problems of missing windows can be encountered, due to the elevations not always showing "hidden" windows which can be seen on floor plans. Some suppliers can miss this, which then impacts that quote. Hopefully some people find this useful, of not apologies for the long read

In tins.

Copper Beech would work and if you top it out at 4-5m it will soon create a decent canopy. Looks nice through the winter and has a fairly small root ball for a large tree to be transported. If you can stagger the trees it looks better as a line will cause canopy restriction - placing a larger one 2-3m behind the others also gives a nice change in view as you move round. If you have a site plan and rough idea of heights / spread needed I can give you some ideas

Well I've finally started putting the Marley Cedral Click cladding up and thought I'd post a shot of progress. Really pleased with how it looks and seems very easy to use.

I use B A MILES IN Sutton at Hone - 10 mins from God's side of the Dart Crossing. http://www.bandamilesassociatesltd.co.uk Watch out for speed cameras on the road they're on!

3 minutes 10 seconds into this video. This bloke does make me smile. Check out from 10 minutes (just at the end) where he recommends his chosen tool for a straight edge marker

Thanks but a bit late for me, whole house ordered from internorm now.....eye wateringly expensive but they are very nice, well the demo ones are so hope ours are too, Liz

The ONLY reason for fitting laminate is cost. Actually the second reason is if you like tap dancing. Its got a lovely hollow clickity clack noise as you walk across it

With yours and Fay's initials on each head

Slightly surprised you aren't making your own :-)

sorry it really has got to be copper

My roofer mate always uses JJ roofing https://www.jjroofingsupplies.co.uk/

+1 for roofing superstore, nit sure if that's the same as Stirling build, but that's worth a look, however my favourite is Ashbrook roofing. Having said that if you have an SIG roofing nearby they will match prices

Try https://www.roofingsuperstore.co.uk/

FWIW, our roofers were the same, copper over aluminium for the reasons given above.

Do not go with aluminium as they are really soft and if you hit a knot or even hard bit of wood they bend, you then try and get them out and the heads rip right off...... i got given a load as the local roofers will not use them..... copper every time.

Very helpful and insightful.

I just fitted a energy/power meter to the electrical input and as a part of the house data logging I have temperature sensors on the flow and return pipes that are logged every 6 minutes. The flow rate is constant when the system is running, so it's fairly easy to calculate the power output at any time. The COP never drops below 3.2 and most of the time it's around 3.8, peaking at a bit over 4 occasionally. The energy/power meter I used is a standard DIN rail mounting one, that measures power, energy, frequency, power factor, voltage and current, and was pretty cheap, around £20 I think.

Steel trays would be my choice - e.g. Bette or Kaldewei via megabad.com for keen prices (but still more expensive than your BM acrylic trays). We have Bette flush-to-floor trays which are excellent, heavy and will not flex if mounted correctly. Yours look like they are slightly above the floor, I believe both types are available from both suppliers.

Copper nails or stainless hooks

love it

@JSHarrisif you want evergreen and height then consider something such as Elaeagnus (Silverberry) that stays a nice evergreen and is easily trained to an espalier or pleached. Grasslands do a lot of topiary at 3/4 standard that would give you a 1.2m base to a 2.4m top - give them a call as they have a lot of stock normally. http://www.grasslands.co.uk/topiary/standards.html?gclid=CNrqjf_ct9QCFdeRGwod4D4O8w

Another good tree place is Majestic Trees - the website is also very good with a section about how to use trees for screening which you should read here. It's were we got 5 hornbeam to add some height to the garden and to give some privacy from the original house before we built in the back garden. We got carpinus betulus fastigiata which is an upright 'tulip' shaped tree, we had looked at the pleeched hornbeam but the prices would make your eyes water! A point to note is that now being now the proud owner of 8 fastigiata and 50m of hornbeam hedge I can tell you they don't hold their leaves as well as I thought they would, none of the fastigiata still have leaves after the autumn winds and only parts of the hedge does and its got a fence at one side of it. I'll add a photo of my trees when I get home. Finally I was surprised at how small the pots are on the trees, the Majestic Trees current stock list gives the size in litres, but even for the big tree I got it the hole was dug out by hand in a few minutes.

Our roofer, with 40 years experience, insisted on copper nails for the slates on our cabin roof. They were expensive, but so were the slates.

We had fibre cement slates on the garage and the builders used copper spacer type things but I think it was a galvanised steel (or aluminium) nails. Didnt give it any thought.

More of the first side done (will need a tower to finish the last few pieces) and have started the opposite side today.

Welcome Jack. Awesome name

Have moved around to the back today.

The actual reality is that with a pan connector and its immediate connective pipework there is a lot of velocity ( flow / force ) to hammer said items through the first metre or so of pretty much whatever you like to 'throw' at it. Ive seen such things, as in the "dogshit" pic afore-posted, which have been working for decades without a single complaint. "I ? you not"

Building two icf houses with a passive Slab in Aberdeenshire. targeting high insulation and air tightness. It's been a steep learning curve!