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An update - photos speak for themselves........

@Nickfromwales is an accommodating chap. He just traveled up to Scotland to sort my heating disaster

MBC Timberframe.

We built a timber frame house with 300mm pumped cellulose insulation. For me, I found: Pros: - Quick - factory built panels meant the whole thing went up in a matter of days. - Accurate - internal walls etc are square, and rooms are exactly as shown on plan. - Quiet - external noise is damped very well. Part of the quietness definitely comes down to decent windows though. - High decrement delay. Cons: - Internal noise transmission. This is the big one for me - I find it frustrating how noise makes its way between rooms. This might have been improved if the chancers who did my drywalling had installed the insulation better, but I'm not sure how much better it would have been. - Internal well strength - we used fermacell anywhere we thought we might like to hang something, but even so, whenever I want to put something on a wall, I need to check whether it's fermacell, and if not, go about finding a stud (oo er vicar). Block walls would have been better. - Vibration - again, maybe something that doesn't bother others, but slamming our (admittedly fairly large) front door causes windows in adjacent rooms to rattle. No big deal, but it constantly reminds me of the construction method. I suspect most others wouldn't find this as distracting as I do (I'm the guy who'll lie awake at night distracted by a mosquito three rooms away). Overall, I'm happy enough with timber frame, but if I were doing it again I'd at least consider using some form of masonry-based construction.

Do you WANT them left open? If so stick some half risers on with silicone then remove them after sign off

It may be worth checking with all the various utilities that you can connect in easily. Quite a number of BH members gave commented recently about getting expensive surprises in the form of having to pay for new connections as the existing ones were full or too old to allow an addition. This seems to have cropped up with mains sewers and electricity. Good luck with the project!

All the info is here: https://www.geberit.co.uk/products/bathroom/geberit-flush-plates/ Tbh I got my two Kappa ones on eBay for £25 ea. Worth looking on Gumtree too.

Well fingers crossed! Chamfered the timber to give better spanner access to the hot in: 25 turns and a smear of Jet Blue Plus. I tried a file to get rid of the PTFE on the end of the fitting but didn't get on with it: Found a new Stanley blade the answer:

Please please ensure that you have no asbestos anywhere.

Pulling down old ceilings, the worse job ever. My last renovation had been a farm store at some point in its life, the ground floor ceiling was full of soil as the first floor had been a root veg store, the first floor ceiling was full of grain husks as the top floor had been the grain store. We we decided to pull the whole lot down in one go, we suited up in white disposable overall with elasticed wrists, ankles and hood. We wore full face respirators. We had the windows open and the dust was billowing out making it look like the placec as on fire!

The little pegs are all the same height, ie the thickness of the concrete. Gives the site team some5h8ng to work to when levelling the concrete.

What's all the little posts on the bottom of the trenches? No mesh or rebar needed? Very tidy job and well done the dumper driver?

Luckily we can provide all of those... hope he doesn't mind my pants?

Just been into Lidls, they have mini incinerator bind, you could start small! https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/mini-incinerator-899-rrp-1499-13l-capacity-lidl-heritage-gardening-2922240

Yep he just wears his pants (or yours when you’re out) over his trousers and his coat like a cape .... His real superpower is making things disappear .... like bacon sandwiches, tunnocks tea cakes, beer.....

@oranjeboom I have sent you a PM with the pricing

No way!!! He's like a bloody real life superhero or something!

Only 'coz you were a choir boy!

Well that just became very expensive ..!! If no gas work to do - ie in the same place as existing or above the gas meter then there isn’t that much to do other than core for the flue and connect pipe and controls. @Nickfromwales thoughts ..?

Go get an incinerator bin - that will control the size of the fire and makes it easier to control

Make sure you pack the bottom chord tight to the wall plate otherwise it will bounce and flex.

I have to have a practise everytime I do it to figure which way!

Maybe see if BC pick it up. They really should but I often see stuff which doesn't comply. Not sure if they were modified after BC final.

I use the thicker gas PTFE and put six turns on. First time I ever put it on I wound it on the wrong way and proceeded to unwind the tape as I did it up! Numpty

You can buy expensive hood covers that sit on top of the plasterboard. Or I used clay plant pots from b&q. They where under a £1 each when I bought them. Think mine are about 30cm tall so plenty of room so the light never overheats. Try to get the pots without the drainage holes but if they have none then a squirt of silicone and some of your tape covers the hole. You will need a grinder to cut a notch in the rim for any cables. A good bead of sealant will hold it in place and keep it sealed with extra around where the cables come out.

Perv! I just meant there's lots of bits of PIR being used to fill the gaps. Tbh I think I'm going to run out of scraps. To think there's been a few people on here desperate to get rid of their offcuts before now. Doesn't help it's all different depths.

I also treat my new build as a day job, I start at 8am sharp and finish at around 5pm, I might work an extra hour to finish something. I have a mid morning and mid afternoon brew and don’t work weekends, that’s for family and friends. I’m not averse to taking a day off now and again to do interesting stuff or taking up the offer of a weekend away with friends. I’m with @joe90 I have no intention of getting stresssed about the build, I set the pace, I’m not on performance related pay.

I seem to see them more in developments than single builds, along with McCavana and Unique. I don't think any are "worse" than any one else but the devil is very much in the detail. Do try Leadon for a price- don't be put off by the out-of-date website, they're a very progressive company with a very cost-effective closed-panel 0.15 wall. Kieran is a true gent to deal with. He's certainly our choice for when the time comes...

Always happy to learn

The prob with those 90deg fittings is if they leak you cant give them a little tweak - its got to be a 360 turn. I put loads of ptfe - as @Nickfromwales says - fill those valleys. If I did it again i'd bend the pipe 90 / use 90deg joint and then go into the valve with a straight joint, you can then tighten it up a bit more if necessary. All looks good so far. Cant wait to see the tiling....

The house will be put under excessive duress during the test, nothing like what it'll be ticking over at when your just at a trickle. Block it off for the tests and panic about global warming instead.

For the excess ptfe over the face of the thread, simply run it flat over an engineers file and clean off the waste bits.

I think you know the answer to that

They do one test pressurising, and one depressurising. So it will average out at "half a leak" I have just fitted the standard tundish and D2 pipe to outside. I have not yet experimented with ways of enclosing it. For an air test, I could just tape all over it. In fact thinking of just wwapping the tundish in clear tape, that would seal it, and let you see if anything is discharging.

Me too. This has been a bit of a journey hasn't it !!!

@Yzzy, use the lath to start the fire, it burns fiercely, i had a pile about 4' high from our first house and the flames were about 12' high and you couldn't get near it. certainly get the figs going

Ring an architectural salvage place and get them to come and take it out ..!!! That’s probably worth £4-500 as a minimum, in bits it’s worth nothing ... let the experts do it.

SWMBO said she would like something "bigger and wider, in black" in the kitchen. She says she means a fridge but really she means Dwayne Johnson...

Looks a nice shell to be getting on with that. Weird ref gables. It's mix down here, some places have gables viewed head on from the road. I understand it was a planning condition of our garage (we didn't build it) to have a hip facing the road. All that wasted space! Our ridge is parallel to the road and we have hips. I'd love to change to gables.

Brickwork looks great, very nice?

try... up and on/off together for 5 secs. press superfreeze twice.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2018/04/09/avios-travel-rewards-programme-closing/ Rob Burgess always provides decent articles / advice.

I can only talk of the Liebherr wine fridge I have which is enormous and seemingly very well made. They always seem to do well in energy efficiency ratings.

I have had a Liebherr fridge freezer. The only issue was the handles broke. Instead of just being fixed to the door, they worked by levering against the the appliance when opening to make the magnetic seal open more easily but this made for a weakness and the replacements were expensive.