Leaderboard

If anyone needs to do this, I found this company- http://www.steel-fire-paint.co.uk You give them the size of each beam and they come back ad tell you how thick the paint needs to be and then how much paint you need to buy. A really excellent service, ordering from them and the builder will do the painting on a per hour rate. Should save a good 6-7000.

What photographic trickery is this? Dug and built back in days!!!

My windows are Rehau Geneo and are made from RAU-FIPRO which is a fibre reinforced uPVC. They can be painted any RAL colour and most people think mine are aluminium. Excuse the dirt.

Thanks for everyone's help. I gave the Latham door details to the builder to order.

Better without the backdrop though. . Im with @PeterW, that example ( pic ) isn't great, you just don't bury an equal tee like that .

I wish there was trickery involved lol I wouldn't be so [ever so slightly tired] ! ???

so finished insulating and got all my pipework laid.

I've cut granite worktop in the past, if it's out of sight then I'd use an angle grinder with a diamond tipped blade. Ttheres a few videos on youtube. Might be worth a watch.

You want some concrete coursing bricks. They are the same size as bricks, but made of the same material as your concrete blocks. Alternatively use engineering bricks, which are generally a bit cheaper. 10mm mortar block laid flat 10mm mortar block laid flat 10mm mortar 65mm brick = 285mm with no cutting

Prints out in 25cm high bright red letters. Sticks on wall.

Its all good, the doors open outwards and we have a tolerance built in for the floor make up of tiles into the doors.

Ok. Topps recommending that you put additives in the adhesive to make it 'waterproof'....total waste of time and money. Water should never be getting TO the adhesive so that's not even a consideration imo unless it's a wetroom where you have to allow for that eventuality. For wall tiling in any wet / splash area it's a no brainer, you just use cementitious adhesive ( powder mix ) which is impervious to water / moisture ingress. I'll still use acrylic ready made stuff but only really for kitchen splash backs or large areas in bathrooms which are outside of the splash areas and if there's no tanking. Save yourself any confusion and just stick to slow setting powder adhesive . These are called 'standard' or 'extended' set and will stay workable in the tub for up to an hour. Mix enough for a couple of m2 at a time if your a novice, and only mix more if you feel comfortable that your going to use it up in time. With ceramic you don't need the adhesive to be flexible, so use the cheaper regular stuff. @Ferdinand is 100% right about these additives being problematic with cleaning up / off, and I've only used an additive once, and never again. A nightmare to clean off tools, hands and anything else ( including the face / edges of the tiles themselves ). Avoid it like the plague. I've done enough full-on wetrooms to know that you don't need to put this crap into your adhesive, even more so if it's a regular bathroom not a wetroom . Grouting properly is the most important part of any tiling job. Mix it carefully so it just start to 'stand' on its own, eg when you remove the mixing stick / whisk the grout should just slowly slump back down, rather than fall flat. That way you can force it deep into the groutlines which is the right thing to do. A lot of novices just swipe the grout over the top of the groutlines and that's not good enough. Ram in as much as you can, and using a proper full handle grout float make that easy work. Don't use the little flat DIY grout spreader / scraper thingy as they're crap. Also, as I've told @Onoff, don't leave the spacers in. Use them end on to space, like you'd do with tile spacer pegs, so you can pull them out when the adhesive has set.

@MikeSharp01 Indeed.

If it is a specialist tile shop used by the Trade, then you are probably safe asking the storekeeper what his tradesmen use and for their recommendations. As a rule of thumb, the powderered stuff in bags that sets in a chemical reaction is 10x better than the stuff that comes in tubs from DIY sheds - especially for moist areas. If you are buying to use not store, then they may let you take a bag extra and return if not used. Think about your sinks. Waterproofing agents and so on are b****y difficult to remove afterwards (being waterproof ) - so do not wash anything in even a poor sink. A couple of years later I still have a couple of globs of turquoise PrimePlus screed pre-treatment in my utility room sink which I cannot get off short of sanding or using something like a pickerawl. Use disposable containers. You have a paddle mixer, I trust - either one of those things that goes on your drill or a cheapie bought from LiDL etc. They need a surprising amount of torque. And remember to switch the drill to "slow" :-) . F

We're using dense concrete blocks for our external skin on the TF. Then traditional render with old fashioned paint. I'm now thinking the blocks are overkill as it obviously has no structural purpose. Another example of being talked into 'old Skool' building methods by the old boys. I guess though the "thermal mass" will be an advantage .....me runs

Ours was submitted electronically as a set of PDFs all bound into one document. Sadly Milton Keynes is a bit out my way - I am in Kent otherwise I would have given you a hand for a day. I have a total station and have taught myself to use it so it ain't hard, I paid £650 for it but I was looking on ebay / gumtree for 6+ months before the one I wanted came along at a price I was prepared to pay.

How accurate do they have to be? Couldn't you get away with a horizontal laser line and dawn/dusk and a stick?

I believe the correct verb is Shat...

Is the land that has the Planning permission on part of your garden? We are in the same position in that we are building one for ourselves and one building plot for sale. If we built on the building plot and sold the house we would have been liable for CGT but we decided to just sell the plot as the value of the plot is the same as may be the profit we would make without all the work of building. The reason I ask is it part of your garden as you are not liable to pay CGT if you sell part of your garden while you live in the main residence. We will need to sell the building plot before we move into our new build otherwise we would be liable for CGT.

You do not say roughly where you are - county? You should probably have taken advice before getting PP, but taking advice from a property-knowledgeable accountant would be wise now. There are many things that the system seeks to encourage you to do, which could involve pensions (or back contributions) or keeping money in the company, or potentially use your Entrepreneur's Allowance. I think holding actual property in a pension fund can be complex involving much buggeration ... not allowed in a SiP, for example. Potentially 2 of you can take the max annual employer pension contribution of is it 40k x several years of current and back payments minus your existing contributions into say a SiP. That could be significant before you even start. then depending on age you could draw down as allowed and park the rest somewhere conservative for your pension. Plus the value of what you put in can come out again. It is also worth considering a separate Ltd for the company built house to walk away clean.That may help with your isolating payments etc. The cardinal rule is talk to somebody who knows where the regulatory kaleidoscope has stopped for now, KISS, and follow the rules. Being too clever is not worth the candle afaik, because the admin overheads will be ££££££, and you are builders not bankers. Obviously, this is just personal opinion not advice and I am a layman who is not up to date. F

Welcome and what a lovely situation to be in. I only know what I have picked up in along the paths of life but you could perhaps look at putting the 2nd property into your company pension fund, assuming you have a self administered fund, this might be tax efficient but won't allow you to realise instant profits for the staff. If its a true part of the business you will be liable for corporation tax on the profit not capital gains (a tax for individuals) unless you are keeping the property privately - in which case you will need to ensure traceable payments are very carefully made by private individuals and on the VAT reclaim side you will need to declare your relationship to a VAT registered company when you make your return to claim back the VAT on the first house IIRC. There is is also a possibility of setting aspects of the build off against tax if you handle parts of it as R&D (EG Developing innovative energy systems), training and development of the staff (EG air tightness skills perhaps - wholly and exclusively naturally..) and possibly apprenticeship(s) unless you are big enough to be paying your CiTB contribution already! Given all the options your accountant would perhaps be best to provide insights.