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A few more fiddly bits. The 3 pocket "sills", quite pleased although all at v.slightly different angles as different depths. Tried to align with the mosaics: The window sill, it's "alright". Had to have the back of one joint at about 4mm rather than 3. And a few tiles on the return by the wc. One tile left out for the loo roll holder. SWMBO, amazingly, is quite taken with my idea for a stacking, inset loo roll holder / dispenser. She did however say to finish the rest first!

So I received the board back from @ProDave on Thursday but wasn’t home until today to fit it. Popped it in and powered the unit up. Turned on the room stat and the ASHP fires up... for 10 seconds, then turns off. The LED is blinking an error code (9), and before I check what it is I’m certain it’s low flow as I turned the pump down when using the willis heaters. So I crank the pump up a level and the ASHP fires up again.... but then I realise the fan isn’t turning and I have a different LED fault code flashing away (24).... it’s the fan. I’m thinking I’ve managed to bugger up the fan motor now! So I try to give it a little help with a screwdriver, kind of hoping a bump start would sort it. But it doesn’t budge, it’s solid! So I take the fan cover off and it appears a bit of foam has come unstuck and fallen down between the fan and the housing. I take it out put the cover back on and, third time lucky ???? Its working great! Thanks @ProDave for diagnosing and replacing the transformer and thanks everyone else for your advice and input!!

Eek! I’m a 20 degree living room and 16 degree bedroom girl! It would be like walking around in a sauna at those temperatures!

That's enough for today: Beer o'clock!

Hello. We are Peter & Julie from East Sussex extending a 1950s cottage which has been poorly extended before, so we are removing part and rebuilding. You can see how we are doing here:

Bolt the last joist to the wall ...

Mine was arranged quite a long time ago but it was £25 per month for buildings and contents for a not yet signed off / completed property. That was without accidental damage. Once it was signed off I converted it to a ‘normal’ policy, added accidental damage and it’s now £23 a month.

Yeah you are so right! Fingers crossed! But at least it’s not essential now that you have the new board.

Sorry I’m lost here ... Are you saying there is an opening at the end of the house so the extension will extend an existing room ..? So you want to support both back walls to create an opening ..? 8m steels to support the back of the house will probably need to be 356x127x39 so they will be 320kg each. Splicing those will need some serious work so you may need to go even deeper... You can just about span the 8m with just roof loads using a 254x146x43 and it may be better just spanning the whole build 3 times and then using timber between the flanges. It would be quicker and possibly cheaper. The SE really needs to get a good idea of what you need as if not, you could end up with some nasty drops in the ceiling where the steels go

Yes, only one fire escape window is needed in any room that doesn't connect to a circulation space that has an external door, or is above ground floor level. One issue is appearance, though. A fixed light next to an opening light can look a bit odd from outside, but if the window is big enough to be divided into three, then a centre opening light can look OK. There are three windows in our build that I wish now I'd made fixed, as they are never opened.

I've not found any problems with using a hall mounted thermostat at all. This might be because it's virtually in the centre of the ground floor, so opening outside doors some distance away has virtually no effect (I've never seen the under floor heating or cooling come on from just opening a door). I do have our air cooling thermostat mounted on the landing on the first floor. I moved it up there because the upstairs was getting to be around 1 or 2 degrees warmer than downstairs in very hot weather, so there is an advantage in having the air cooling triggered a bit earlier, especially as it's neither very powerful and because it's the only means of cooling the upstairs when the outside air temperature is high. I think a great deal depends on the layout of the house, and whether or not a thermostat is placed somewhere where it might be susceptible to a draft when a door or window is opened. Having a wall thermostat near the centre of the house, in a location well shielded from drafts, seems to work very well for us, and may well be a good general solution for those using off-the-shelf controls.

Tricky part out of the way

For the sake of differential movement I would go with brick and block everywhere. Footings will be the same regardless and if you’re building on a boundary it will be quicker as the outer skin can go up at the same time as the inner blockwork. What concerns me is the roof span as there are no internal supports. That is going to need some serious work with either steels or very big timbers. You’re on the edge of the capability of a 373/146 posijoist at that span and potentially need to go to a 416/122 which are huge - and expensive ..! What has your architect / SE planned for the roof ..?

I’ve just done F/T/F on some lounge windows that are 1750x1100 and having the tilt and turn in the middle did save about £90-100 per window and this was 3G uPVC.

The only rules that apply as far as fixed lights are concerned are the means of escape from fire from habitable rooms that are not directly connected to access to an external door. In general, any room that doesn't have a door leading directly to a circulation space that has an outside door, plus all upper floor rooms, need an opening window that meets the escape from fire part of the regs (lower edge not more than 1100mm above the floor, IIRC, plus minimum dimensions that are given in the regs). If trickle ventilation is required, then this is fitted to the outer frame usually, so can be fitted to fixed or opening lights I believe. For some reason, there isn't a massive saving in cost for fixed lights over opening ones. No idea why, but I had both options priced and the saving was pretty small.

Well we are now 4 weeks into the planning process, unfortunately we have had quite a lot of objections but equally we have had virtually the same amount of letters of support. At first when the objections came flying in I took it very personally, losing sleep etc but now I've got used to seeing them being sent in I'm not as bothered. Yep it would be ideal if there were no objections but that would be too easy and from what I have had read so far is that getting planning permission to build in a field is never going to be easy. However some things are going to plan so it's not all bad. I keep telling myself...keep the faith!!

Welcome. Many people only look at the forums they have an interest in so I would ask the questions on the sub forums. Here’s a good place to start the brick and block discussion https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/53-brick-block/ And here for the doors (many people on here have large sliders) https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/143-doors-door-frames/ Or you could put all of your questions here under house extensions. There isn’t really a hard and fast rule. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/60-house-extensions/

We have just been through the glass door pain and have recently placed orders. We are not far from you and happy to talk if you like . Peter

I am reliably informed by my son that the drone is a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus... (He made the video) Apparently the average age for a self builder in the UK is around 51 and we are no exception - a classic case of living here for over 20 years and only now do we have what it takes to sort the house out, just in time to see the kids leave home but before they do they are helping us with the project. Unlike my wise sister who is downsizing we are doing the opposite and the kids worked hard all summer and once finished on the site for the day went on to bake the team cakes etc. Now with the wet weather and university terms started things are a bit different but we are nearing wall plate level so hope to have another video soon. Even though the family has moved onto a different stage from playing with the zip wire and other things we made in the garden, this house has a lot of life left in it for us as. ... I take that back apparently we need to put the zip wire back so nothing has changed really. And oh yes - it looks like none of them want to go now so we are landed with them for a while yet - better build a bigger house then! The aluminium truss is typical of the stage lighting industry and we just used a piece for marking out levels for the steelwork etc of which there is plenty. It was only there for a couple of days and held up by Boss tower outriggers. So not very exciting I'm afraid!

Haha. It is all always different, and it changes with the wind. You may find 3 or 4 different definitions of HMO in one Council or in different areas of the law, License schemes introduced under questionable pretences, and which may require you to commit offences or contravene building regulations to be in compliance. See recent events in Liverpool, for example ?. But that is off-topic, and you are just a mouse dealing with Councils who far too often act as blind, lobotomised elephants. F

Washing machine is not on your list... And the Landlords National Purchasing Group may be worth a look: https://www.propertytribes.com/lnpg-it-worth-it-does-it-save-money-t-10096-2.html

A good place to start is Arbtech who use registered tree surgeons across the country to do surveys and they aren’t stupidly priced. There are a lot of myths about tree surveys and the website is good at clearing a lot of that up too.

No, if anyone asks just say it’s to stop it sucking damp through the wall. Or expansion. Just make it sound convincing

Watch and learn

Ditra decoupling mat.