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So, after seeing another job that our joiner had done (with a much larger budget than us....), we fell in love with Jura grey limestone and decided to use it for all our bathroom walls and floors. They were pricey (although not crazy money) and have been an absolute bugger to seal, cut and fix, but they are absolutely riddled with 150 million year old fossils. They are STUNNING and the tiler has done them proud. The one that looks like a dinosaur is my son's favourite (he is dino mad) and was placed specifically in front of the toilet for admiring. The other special ones are on shower walls, windowsills and bath surrounds. My son also found one that looks like a poo, which is the best thing that has happened in the whole of his 6 year old life. It's in the shower at his height for him to show off to his friends.

Call that a fossil? And as for giant poo: ?

The issue with bifolds is that the geometry of the door fastening system means that it's really difficult to get enough force on the seals to maintain adequate airtightness over time. Usage isn't really the issue, as the seals are in compression all the time that the doors are closed. The best way to see the issue is to look at how the seals are compressed with bifolds, particularly, the means of applying closing force at the intermediate hinged sections, as this is the primary weak point in the geometry, as there is nothing at this point to directly pull the sections either side close to the frame.

Almost a decades work in one very short post. ??

Yep, been there, done that! The floor of my bath is level with the tiled floor in the rest of the bathroom. The pir is directly under this red Poly Pipe panel. I've 150mm pir total. 50mm sitting on top of 100mm. Marine ply tray set into the pir by cutting the Poly Pipe tray and removing the 50mm layer. So my bath has 100mm PIR underneath. Slot cut for 50mm waste too: Waste foamed in: A142 mesh down, ready for concreting: I taped over the ply box with DPM: Concrete in pre floating: Drying, DPM piece removed: A bit of grey floor paint, bath frame going in: Custom made feet! Being tanked: Trap access - should have made a bit easier tbh but didn't account for all the 20mm conduits in there for the lights: Finished.....'ish...

All sorted, no solicitor or conveyancer needed. I had all the deeds dating back to the 1800's and for my specific piece of land dating back to 1950, with every transfer of rights detailed. Somehow it had been wrongly registered when the deeds went digital. I sent in the evidence. They have corrected it. ALL DONE

Letter sent to land registry with copies of original land registry and mine in 2000. They wrote back within a couple of days asking for copies of all other transfer for deeds to ensure a piece hadn't been separated off during the last 70 years. I posted that back to them on Monday of this week (17 sheets). I received a letter back today confirming the title plan had been altered as requested and enclosing an official copy of the registry and plan. Pretty good service I think. One issue done. I've had one viewing since the buyer pulled out (loved the house but didn't like that there were steps down to the garden for the dog) - there is level access at the other side) and I have another one today so fingers crossed

You made a fundamental mistake @Onoff you went to wickes wouldnt use wickes timber if it was free.

We've just finished the ICF work using the JUB block system. This post is to let others know how we got on with the system and hopefully help when comparing the various block systems. Before getting into the detail, we selected the JUB block as it was the only ICF system we found that does not require cutting on site. The house plans get optimised for the block which can mean the structure dimensions change by up to 75mm. At planning submission time we didn't know which building system we would use, yet alone the ICF block type. Ideally you would select the block type and then design to minimise cutting. As a result our block plan was more complex than it needed to be. Pro's Accuracy of build. As it's a kit manufactured at the factory the blocks are cnc'd to the precise dimensions required. All cuts are square and smooth. We have found that the pour process does result in block movement, for example some of our window opening are approximately 10mm wider than they should be. Over a 3M window it's an acceptable level of accuracy and I doubt it would be better with any other block system. More attention to detail when bracing and shuttering would almost certainly reduce the movement. Less mess on site. Not having to cut blocks has a positive effect on the site mess. It does mean that you have to be very careful with the blocks as if you break it you may have to order another. JUB provided us with a set of spare blocks to help with just this kind of problem. We didn't need them to recover from damage, but we did use some to make up a lintel that was not on our original block plan. Little use of foam. The blocks key into each other meaning that very little foam gets used. For a real self build where you are putting the blocks together yourself it would be a blessing as the foam gets everywhere and ruins clothing. Clean openings. All the window and door openings are fully enclosed by the ICF. Fitting out. The blocks have a strong nylon webbing at 75mm intervals that allows battens to be firmly screwed to the ICF without having to drill into the concrete core. Con's Locating the correct block. With so many blocks involved in our build it can take a while to locate the special block you are after. The blocks come on pallets, each with their own manifest so in theory it should just be a case of locating the block on the a manifest, going to that pallet and retrieving the block. But life's not like that the block you want will be buried at the bottom of the pallet. On a small site this can be quite a problem. It does improves with every block you use and in practice takes a lot less time than cutting blocks. Inflexible once you're on site. The kit approach means it's much more difficult to change details, you can't just change windows dimensions or move doors at will. Delivery to site. JUB will only ship on pallets so you need to have a means of offloading the lorry when it gets to site. From our experience with the JUB system, we would certainly use it again. It may involve a lot more up front work in the planning stage but that pays dividends on site. We only built one gable ourselves but based on that it's a good system for the self builder as it's a straight forward assembly. In an ideal world we would have preferred to build the blocks ourselves and hire in help for the pours. From the point of view of minimising risk, having the structure done by and experience ICF builder was probably the smart thing to do. 646-2018 WALL - Assembly plan 1of2 A1.pdf 646-2018 WALL - Assembly plan 2of2 A2.pdf 646-2018 WALL - Cut elements - First floor.pdf 646-2018 WALL - Cut elements - Ground floor.pdf 646-2018 WALL - Bracing plan A2.pdf

I think i've been at this conversion for too long. I'm quite pleased at seeing plain concrete and i needed to share. Behold

I wouldn't get your hopes up of finding one. Sadly, there's really no reason for a supplier to develop a system like this. The cost and bulk of the batteries would make it very impractical even if there was enough demand to justify designing it.

LOL - no idea!! Family have visited for afternoon tea (groupon offers) but we never managed to fit it in before moving away. The decor does seem to be an explosion in bad taste and opulent display.

The Crazy Bear is nice. Did you know it was a knocking shop. although as its a posh knocking shop i bet it is expensive. Champers is £100 + a bottle

Aye, a wise move, tradition has any 'hall' as an indoor/outdoor space ideally with an outdoor surface like York stone. As I mentioned I think the rural Spanish and trad South Korean builders (no doubt amongst other nations) always has an indoor/outdoor transition, as mentioned in the some of the books I reference in my notes to 'Self build home...the last thing you need is an architect'. This is a set of design notes not damning architects but to encourage you to base your design decisions on tried and tested methods from history and often other cultures. Particular reference is made to A pattern Language by Chris Alexander and others, Arthur Martin's guide, The Small House (both recommended) and an article in the Architectural Review, from the 80s journal by Peter Blundell Jones on traditional South Korean Houses....to name three. It'a all down to your (or your designer's) observation and experience. Good luck and happy designing...Jamie

it makes you wonder if everyone did it as they are supposed to and were checked by BC on it if we would have so many TF homes my guess the cost difference between them and ICF or block+hard plaster would dissappear very quickly . does any one really believe that every penetration of the plasterboard eg sockets has a fire stop behind it thats means then your fire stops should be behind the service void and that layer is also fire resistant --. Icf and hard plaster with electrics buried in the foam under the hard plaster sound a better solution fire starts as an electrical one at socket --then set light to the PIR foam insulation-- and the air tightness barrier Am I missing something ??

Depends entirely on the heating (and, perhaps, hot water) requirement. You need to work this out, then you can see what size is needed.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g499482-Amersham_Buckinghamshire_England-Hotels.html

New one for me @Ferdinand and a beauty.

I was just looking at an overage clause for a friend the other day. It was in favour of the Church of England and was 34% of the difference between the original purchase price and the uplifted value after planning consent. Duration was 21 years. I am a layman but it looked tightly worded including the assumption for the revised valuation that all services, rights etc were in place. They paid £30k for a plot which will be worth £250k with consent. They were a monopoly bidder as the site was landlocked, the only access being through land owned by the friend. 50% for 50 years I would tell them to do one.

Above diag only refers to masonry leaves not timber frame.

This is a *topic* for me (gotta have an outlet!), in our new house i have a dedicated cinema and audio room in the basement that is optimised to reduce room modes, sound-proofed (room-within-a-room) and sitting on a floating floor. Also dedicated 40A mains supply with 15A sockets in a spur arrangement. And adding acoustics treatment over time. In a lounge it is about balancing the purposes, the equipment is only a small part and in reality the easy part as you pay the money, plug it in and it works. Some factors that move you from "having equipment" to "cinema experience", roughly in order of importance: room dimensions and shape - lot of info and calculators around, look at Cardas ratio. I leaned heavily on this research http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/acoustics_info/room_sizing/?content=best wall / floor / ceiling materials. e.g. hard (concrete, brick) or resilient (e.g. board) light control - for proper cinema experience you need to block out light, we used cassette blackout blinds in a regular window in our previous lounge, work very well acoustic treatment in room - e.g. to control bass and reduce or scatter reflections. Do not cover all surfaces, you will kill all the high frequencies. E.g. some rugs over a wooden floor, drapes at first reflection points, soft furniture, bookcases. Bass traps are a big help but the WAF is lowest here. Not used these but higher WAF? https://www.gikacoustics.com/?product_cat=acoustic-art-panels&s=&post_type=product acoustic isolation of the room? big topic and expensive to do properly. or get headphones. if using a projector an electric drop-down screen is best BUT, if you want 4k and HDR then most projectors are no good as they are not bright enough for the higher contrast possible with HDR. Unless you spend mega-bucks on 4k laser projectors. I have settled for 1080p (HD) on my 92" (diagonal) screen and happy with it. Your 4m wide screen will mean you need a much brighter projector, will be more of a challenge for HDR. speaker placement is going to be a compromise. for good audio you need them clear of walls but they become very obtrusive seating position - against a wall is worst for audio, in the open space is much better - same compromise as speaker placement multiple subs - 2 small subs are better than 1 large one to avoid lumpy bass wall colour if using a projector - white walls will kill the cinema feel and reduce contrast on the screen due to reflected light, even in a completely light-controlled room A note on the Nvidia Shield - it used to not support auto-switching between different frame rates. This means that you will get visual judder if (e.g.) you stream BBC iPlayer at 50fps vs if you play a Bluray at 24fps. This may have been fixed recently, but was not a few months ago. You might be able to manually switch the frame rate in the shield.

@FerdinandI am at work. When home I will find quote & supplier. It is a company in Kettering.

@Hecateh I am at work & started typing my post hours ago on & off & then just pushed send before I had read rest of thread. So glad all sorted.

Really useful, thanks. @JSHarris you also have active cooling in the downstairs slab, so more chance for the MVHR to "keep up". We are more seriously considering ASHP now (just weeks after I declared it out totally of the question) so the cost of doing that might be offset by the cooling improvements it adds meaning we can save on overly complex automatically opening windows (with 8kW of PV, daytime active cooling can be considered much less of an decadence now too). @jack this is a fantastic point. It's of little consolation to know the rest of the house is cooling down superbly overnight, if the bedrooms are not part of that stack design and stay relatively stuffy and hot. We're getting quotes on Gaulhofer windows, looks like they have an external insect screen option, I'll investigate adding that to the bedroom. Perfect timing! @Ferdinand definitely ... automating the petWalk is not a problem, technically. The concern (that the executive calmly pointed out to me) is it allowing foreign feline visitors into the house. I'm not sure the motor moves the door fast enough to slam it shut if a motion sensor detects an uninvited guest approaching (and if it was fast enough closing, there's a risk of it becoming a bit of a kitty catapult)

Looks very similar to ours, but a bit cheaper. The crates and packing look identical, so if I had to guess I'd say they are probably from the same place originally. The filling will wear down slightly after a few years, but that just gives a nicer texture to them, in our view. We have had a handful of holes appear, where the has been a cavity just beneath the surface that's broken through after a while, but I had some left over cream grout and have just been filling the holes with that as they appear. Seems to do a good job, as it's hard to see where I've made these small repairs.

@Onoff, those photos remind me a bit of Crocodile Dundee: "That's not a fossil, THIS is a FOSSIL" ...

I think my tiling budget has just gone up, I really like them.

We have a 5.4m slider, and to be honest I'd rather have gone for a pair of wide French doors in the middle with horizontal windows along the rest of the space. In our case, such a large window drastically limits our options for furniture placement. That may not be an issue for other layouts.

So your buyer clearly was a knob as it has all been sorted out quite quickly!

We have the stone stacking championships on the beach here ? https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/apr/23/2018-european-stone-stacking-championship-in-pictures

Mine was a small 2 bed 71 sq.m timber frame bungalow on a steeply sloping rural site in Wales with difficult access. Building Regs min compliant with average 0.15 'U' values and 3G windows Getting to a stage of watertight shell c/w insulation, roof and wall cladding and windows and all internal walls (but no internal doors) was 50% of total build budget.

I tried asking a door company who raved about bi-folds about their air tightness warranties. They declined to give any. So might be worth asking any suppliers you look at.

You know it's funny, up to about 5 years ago when we started thinking about building a house an old church door would have sounded great, our previous house was 300+ years old. Now no matter how amazing an old house looks I think, cold, damp repair bills. That's good to know, thanks. That's a good point, we've been a couple of years without dogs but they are on the cards.

As @Temp says even if they objected you would almost certainly win on appeal and the planners know it, just put it there and say you were told it would be ok, IF they object, offer to pay council tax, apologise fir getting it wrong (grovel grovel). I don’t think it would be a problem and worth the gamble. If you get on with the neighbours that would be a good start.

I had bifolds made by the same company that made my windows, they used a German hung slide mech (don’t know the name) and I insisted on compression seals as I don’t like brush seals because of the air leakage issue. They work very well, look good (oak) and yet to have an air test but feel positive it will be fine.

Yes, the problem is with the weight on the hinges over time causing air leaks. Lacuna make the only Ph certified bi-folds I know of - https://www.phstore.co.uk/lacuna-passivhaus-suitable-triple-glazed-bi-fold-doors . How good they are long term I don't know.

I have fitted bifolds over a 4 mtr opening But worked on sites with slide and turn The later are absolutely fantastic and in my opinion worth the extra money

For a complicated project you might need TWO sets of drawing/documents... Building Regs drawings: these provide information the BCO needs to be sure it will meet the regs. Plans will need to be to scale showing things like the interior layout, details of the foundations, cross sections through walls, calculations for structural elements (beams, roof members etc), calculations for insulation, drainage plan, specification for materials (example density of blocks). Construction drawings: these tell a builder what/how to construct the building. They may be based on the building regs drawing plus others. For example they might specify a make of bricks, roof tiles, windows or provide a list of floor coverings or figures that you want the builder to use as place holders in the quote (eg for the kitchen units and appliances). The builder should base his quote on this drawing package. You might even pay a Quantity Surveyor to draw up an estimate for you based on the construction drawings to compare with the builders quotes. Obviously you may not need construction drawings if you are planning to manage the build yourself or it's a simple project with no complications.

OK so googled it.. As suspected, "Sieger" is just a made-up / marketing brand comprised of a lot of cheaper products in the market from various companies, rebadged to make them look premium. The "Sieger Slim Casement" is a Cortizo Casement Window. The "Sieger HD Casement" is an Aluk 58BW Casement Window Both are basically low-cost replacement windows so yes, those u-values are probably accurate. Not saying there's anything wrong with either product, but you won't get eco new-build u-values out of either of them.

So tonight. The "plywood box" home. I see one major flaw, it takes about 6 weeks to get a roof on, And the plywood is the finished internal surface. So doesn't that mean you really need 6 weeks without rain? And the outside, finished with what looks like pallets painted black, vertical boards with huge gaps between them. What stops water and UV getting in between the gaps? Hope the membrane is UV resistant for a long time. And it will be spider and wasp heaven behind that lot? The other house was pretty normal and even appeared to have a BR compliant staircase.

Paul is a great guy and very into his house build, particularly the eco credentials. He way very persuasive in his use of clay as a render, even though it'd have been far easier to get a traditional plasterer in. He was the first one Laura and I met in fact, us wandering onto the street when it was strictly a private area and still being warm and welcoming despite our ignorance. I think his materials first philosophy isn't as far removed as mine or the rest of you, it is just that he values the natural sources and processes above performance which we tend to favour instead. I am not going to fault him after having seen him spend three months hand making and filling in his walls with hempcrete. That is a dedication to a cause irrespective on philosophy.

It's easy with hindsight to say he should have paid someone to do the work, but I bet he never thought for one second things would take as long as they did. I'm definitely guilty of that and I'm sure I'm not the only one lol

Nationwide free detailed advertising on TV, over 11,000 hits on the website and just ONE confirmed sale. That sums it up, that the plots are over priced. I don't know what the answer to making plots available for self build is, but this is certainly not it. Unfortunately. What price do large developers pay for a plot? Certainly not £250K each. If schemes like this cannot deliver affordable plots then perhaps it is time that planning law changed and demands that say for every 100 houses granted permission to the mass developers, one must be sold at the same plot price for self build? Sadly this seems to be turning into a prime example of "never underestimate how badly something can be run if left to local government"

I've spoken to the land registry and have been told I need to send it all via snail mail. (What century are we in?) He also said if it as clear cut as it sounds then it could be sorted within a couple of weeks.

What a goon, CCTV was installed 6 months ago, Boiler was installed today... Dont feel sorry for me, it’s made me laugh quite hard and my Facebook friends laugh even harder!