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He had actually already bought them when I raised it again this morning. Two flashing kits and two insulation collars for two of Velux’s largest windows. £240. I apologised and said I would pay him for it.

Done. Mortar was a bit sloppy on the second cap so the bed is a bit thin (but we were rushing cos of the lightning! ? ) Drip bead feature seems to work! Waiting for the storm to pass as so we can wheel the scaffold up the road back to my neighbour.

Good move; much respect! For that gesture, you’ll get your money back many times over I think.

The time to ask was before you plasterboarded. 2 core & earth to first alarm, then 3 core and earth from that to the next, and the next and the next etc. No need for radio linking. The radio linking bit costs more than the basic alarms. Another vote for Aico. If they are too expensive look on ebay but CHECK the "replace by" date if buying from ebay, lots of old stock about.

Well make him un change it then?

"Is that a timber frame above ground level? Looks like very thick walls" It's block cavity walls, with 240mm cavity. Yes, nice and thick.

To answer your original question: Gyproc Easifill 60

I built my own half landing, used 6x2 bolted to the walls, and joist hangers, oak boards to match the stairs i mounted the manifold on a board (old piece of laminate on ply) because I Mounted it all before the plastering was done, plastering then up to the thickness of the board.

Cheers. Just setting up now for the first one.

Get that sorted you rough git. if you dont that is going to bug you forever. IMO to big to leave buddy.

I remember reading this some time ago which kind of tackles a similar issue...

We must of just been lucky because we ordered a bookcase and bathroom cabinet a couple of weeks ago with four day delivery.

It won’t squash out - you need it to be wet to bond otherwise it will just sit on the mortar and not bond to it and stay loose. You’ll lose some down the sides but if you’re worried just wrap some cardboard around the tops first.

I asked and never got an answer about this from the Thermabeam guys Seems like everyone does some form of bodge where they rely on the screed to cantilever over the cavity a bit. LABC drawings call for a structural cavity closer or a reinforced cavity closer, but talking to cavity closer manufacturers there doesn't appear to be such a thing. This drawing shows a way of doing it, but still relies on the flexural strength of the screed as the cavity closer isn't structural: https://www.slideandfold.co.uk/alumina-low-threshold-with-cill.pdf Good luck drilling the 'External Brick Work' that close to its edge.

builders merchants, jewsns, travis etc stock them. Not worth losing the good will of the builder over a £60 flashing kit. wood for the trees mate.

Some reading... Noise survey on 9 ASHP systems.. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48204/3307-acoustic-noise-air-source-heat-pumps-1.pdf Page 24 suggests some ASHP were 5db louder than the makers spec. Out of 9 sites only one was quieter than the makers spec. On page 27 they calculate how far away you have to be (eg from neighbours) before the noise level fell below the limit for Permitted Development Rights (eg <42db). It ranged from 4 to 28 meters. More if they make "tonal" noise. In one case 45m.

Yep

The render beads should come with there own expansion built in joint Hopefully you haven’t had it done yet

@ZacP This still requiring more information? Thought I would add our two peneth...... Supply & install of an EPS, pre made(no on site assembly) ICF £100-£200/M2. The closer to a four sided single storey box, the closer to £100. Probably works out at a labour only rate of £34/M2. At that rate, price through the windows. Covers labour and ancillary materials. Includes, bracing, pump, equipment hire. Basically everything. The time is actually less important. You might, and a lot do, think that a quick job is a less expensive job. It's quick because we're experienced. It's not cheap because the end product is higher quality (generally speaking) than any alternatives. And we're experienced. 60 person hours to get a bungalow from slab to wall plate, with two gables, poured and then stripped out. 68 linear metre and about 190m2 of wall. You might get someone in to work for day rate or £20/h and a total of £1200 labour sounds like a dream. We'd have to do 1000+ units per year just to pay our insurance premiums on those rates. And then you have all the capital expenditure, training, H&S, tool provision, alignment systems etc etc. So at 40/M2, your looking at £10,400, or supplied and fitted a minimum of £26,000. You can also find people who will come and pour it for you after you've done the donkey work. Our insurance doesn't cover us for that, we pour our own work with full backing or someone else's with no backing. We can't guarantee someone elses work in the same way a sparks or plumber can't. I've just scanned what I've written and hear the groans already. But experience, especially regarding H&S, means we can't be cheap. I'm not sure most self builders realise that if you get someone in on day rate to help out, the self builder is liable for the HSE requirements. And should something go wrong, your dream home will become a nightmare. And what could possibly go wrong with inexperienced people pouring 60t of concrete into a non solid formwork?!? And to the groaners, you're right, it probably won't happen to you. Be thankful, not condescending. If the HSE get you, it'll be 4 years of grief for a paper cut. Rant over. Thanks, good therapy session!

put the buffer on the return.

Sat on brick cills with Stainless angle brackets and screws , put foam tape between brick and frame, squished to provide seal, expanding foam around (more airtightness). Very pleased with the results.

Sorry I thought they were rebated. @Mr Punter solution might be better if you're re decorating anyway

this tells me that the position of the door stops is not the problem but the door to frame width (gap between frame and door), @steveoelliott can you confirm?

Would it be easier to move the stops a small amount? Run a Stanley knife down the paint, block of wood and hammer them into submission?

Think he's more worried about binding. Loosen screws off and set him he bit further back plug holes if needed

I like to see a 3mm gap around each door (I grew up in a house where most doors stuck in the frames). Can be done by resetting the hinges if the gap hinge side is too great, or planing whichever side is tight, simple job fir a (good) chippie.

He might ease and adjust each door for you. It wouldn't take too long to sort that.

No-one has said anything of the sort ..!! All the responses above give facts, house sizes and run costs. How about you quote the facts on your experience and it becomes more balanced ..?? @Moonshine ASHP isn’t for every scenario especially where there are high heat loads due to poor insulation etc. A lot of social housing had them fitted where previously they had storage heaters and the tenants saw significant increases in costs as they went from using electricity off peak to peak for heating when the ASHP was used during the day as a standard heating system with rads. It is most ideally suited to UFH as you can create a thermal store type load using the floor slab overnight (huge storage heater in effect) but rads do work. You get a lot of emotive type statements around the technology (look at this article for example https://utilityweek.co.uk/concerns-raised-over-headlong-rush-to-air-source-heat-pumps/) where if you read the first few paragraphs you find it’s not entirely true : “They have high maintenance costs; they have a lot of moving parts that can go wrong; they are external; they make a lot of noise,” OK - so, they aren’t high maintenance as there is very little to maintain. Cleaning the coils takes 5 minutes with an air line and that’s about it. Unlike a fuel boiler there are no combustion products to deal with so nothing to corrode. They have around the same or less number of moving parts to a gas boiler - modern gas boilers are complex beasts and have a lot of parts that are constantly high temperature cycled that causes fatigue. They are external is an odd statement and not sure why it’s a problem …! And they make “a lot” of noise…. A WB 30i Combi has a sound rating of 50dB, the Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5kW has a sound power rating of 58dB and a sound pressure of 45dB at 1m…. There are a lot of badly installed heat pumps that do cause issues and it is this that causes most of the problems. Just by siting a heat pump at 90 degrees to a wall for example rather than facing a neighbours wall in a narrow gap between two houses can substantially reduce noise and there are other basic install issues that cause problems further down the line such as not using flexible hoses or under sizing the units that will create a lot noiser installation both internally and externally.

Cheaper insulation is climaflex. It’s not UV stabilised but if it’s in a duct it’s not getting UV so your shout. make sure the ducts are sealed. proprietary duct sealing kits such as rise. or expanding foam below the lip of the duct and then a weak mortar mix to infill

If you have not signed up with them yet, why not just normal beam and block? Could save a fair bit.

Yes it’s normal to knock the internal skin out in doorways and add insulation in its place and run the floor insulation into it

Probably unknown beyond about 25 years. There's no real change to the roof structure needed to fit in-roof PV, though. Our roof was just battened at the pitch needed for the slates: and then the GSE frames were fitted to the battens (with a few extra battens added where needed): The roof was then slated and when that was completed the PV panels were installed.

Our solar PV array has been up for four months and I thought it was a good time to have a look at their performance providing an unbiased report, based on real life experiences, illustrating power output on overcast, rainy and sunny days. More info is available here about our array: https://myhomefarm.co.uk/solar-pv-and-inverter-review Would be very interested to hear comments and how our array compares to yours.

Some that I looked at are: MBC Timberframe - quite a few people on this site have used them for constructing to passive standards SIPS industries - Dalgety Bay THCL SIPS Scotland - perthshire Rob Roy Homes - perthshire Claymore homes - can't remember where Angus Homes - Turriff I have just signed contract with Angus homes. I have gone with them because: They do injected foam closed panel 0.15 u-value system (the also do rigid foam and open panel) So far the customer service has been very good and they have been very accomodating Price has been better than most of the other quotes Lead times, only 4 weeks for the main frame (I didn't check what the other companies are) Also remember when comparing SIPS with more traditional timber frame companies that they may not be supplying as many items as the traditional companies. SIPS tend to be just the structural elements, so potentially no facias, soffits, windows, external/internal doors, internal partitions, skirting board, internal insulation etc. My advice would be first work out what sort of u-value you want to achieve as this may rule out some companies. Also do you want to timber frame company to erect the frame, so do and some don't. How much or how little do you want the timber frame company to provide, again this may help narrow the options. as @newhomehas also mentioned, do you want the timber frame company to produce the designs and get building warrant etc as again some companies may not offer this service.

Think you've just hit on the house name here!

It looks like those sockets were cut out with a pocket squirrel.

You might regret that act of kindness @joe90!