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Yes but what was an architect doing putting the shower so far away from the gym??? HE is supposed to be the expert ?‍♂️.

I'm glad that someone has the vision and drive to make a project of that size work. I think people will exist in it, but find it hard to live there. I really hope they are happy there: any house is meaningless without that. That's psychobabble for learning opportunity.

I loved the bit where Kevin McCloud points out that the bins have nowhere to go and, also, was it the bathroom that was miles from the living area? The £120 kitchen was quite compact for the money it cost. No attempt was made to show off any fancy design features other than the work surface and the extractor fan. I think the designer saw them coming.

The external appearance wasn't really to my taste but I did like some of the interior. £120k on a kitchen blows my mind - for me it didn't look 6 times better than a £20k kitchen despite all the fancy finishes and materials. I prefer to watch the Grand Designs where the owner puts in much of the work themselves and are hence much more invested in the building. On last night's episode the guy didn't seem interested in how it was built - his view was if there's a problem just throw some more money at it. Rightly or wrongly the vision definitely belonged solely to the architect.

1. 6mm x 35mm expanding metal fixing pins. don't know the name 2. no, they did all the ceilings first, but ended ceilings where they knew there was a partition and left them short 3. not needed as the top hats are just a few mm from the perimeter. 4. in this section, pink fireboard due to the steels and timber. rest of the house is 12.5mm board. Most of the ceilings are like this with full service void.

It also makes me wonder how the hell they got planning permission in such lovely open countryside with no previous building on site ?‍♂️ When so many of us here struggled to fight planning for far more moderate houses?

I did not watch the show but have seen some of the pictures this morning. It looks like it's clad in standing seam steel with some really bad oil canning and rippling. I would have wanted better for that kind of money. It does look like a "I am considerably richer than you" type of house.

As is in so many instances. And with unjustifiable uplift in cost often without a wink of an eye. It would be a very different profession if they became responsible for creating budgets and were penalised for going over!! The best part is how little useful involvement they have during the build. Instead, it gets left to the likes of general builders to dig them out of the shit as unsung hero’s. And we keep on paying them because the human race is just so lost in its pursuit of this importance of what others will think. Can you imagine if the builder announced this uplift? He would have been launched out of a catapult. Beachside a “god” provoked it, they’re all chuffing smiles ffs. Goons.

Frankly (IMO) it looked horrible (but i am not a fan of modern art). “More money than sense” rang true with me. Glad they like it tho!

Our understanding of materials and chemicals and their impacts on environment / biology are leagues above where they were even a couple decades ago. I'd be surprised if there was anything we currently use that would turn out to be as nasty as asbestos in a few decades. One thing that I do think needs to change is recycling. What happens at then end of the life of a building? He do we deal with all the plastic mixed in with the concrete and wood? E.g. plastic fibres in concrete, or ICF. There's no consideration for end of life logistics in modern building.

I totally agree Architechts are good at spending other people’s money I like how the Architecht insisted on spending 500k on the horrible cladding

At that size of build and budget you would have thought the gym would have had it's own changing room and shower.

I've been getting my head around Partition duty and I think I'll be happy as long as it is Severe duty in certain places. BG Habito is expensive (£20) and only available to me in Pallet quantities (38 @ 2.7m). It's good stuff though and the BG System Selector says a sheet of Habito either side of a 70 S 50 C-Stud is Severe duty rating with Sound Insulation of 38dB. That's with no insulation and they don't give a value with insulation. However, I can deduce from page C04.S02.P04 of the White Book that adding 25mm of acoustic insulation adds 6dB, so would make that combination 44dB. Given the incremental cost, I think I'll go with the Acoustud and SoundBloc upgrades which give Severe duty and 58dB sound insulation, the same as insulation + 2x SoundBloc each side. That gives me some combinations that all have 58dB: Habito + Soundbloc both sides £65/lm Habito + SoundBloc one side, 2x SoundBloc the other side £57/lm 2x SoundBloc both sides £49/lm In less sound and duty sensitive locations, I can go single skin with 50dB: Habito both sides £47/lm Habito one side, SoundBloc the other side £39/lm SoundBloc both sides £31/lm Future proofing with Habito is going to cost me a fair bit, but not as much as if I was to put Plywood or OSB in at their current prices. I may end up with some Habito sheets left over though. I can do this as I don't have many metres of partition to address. For reference, a 40dB 70 S 50 wall (with insulation) would be around about £18/lm I think. On this, SoundBloc each side adds about £8/lm and the Acoustud adds about £5/lm. I don't have any fire requirements above 30 minutes.

For me comfort was more important than payback. I like your levels of insulation and wish others would do similar. energy is only ever going to get more expensive and so payback calculations will go out the window and lots including the regulators will regret that they didn’t go further with hindsight.

What I did was decide on a projected cost of heating ( direct electric in my case, €0.10) and then look for a break even period with the insulation, in our case 25 years. I chose 25 years as it seemed to tie in pretty well with achieving passivhaus targets. Much less would suggest just building to Bregs. To take an example I began by plugging the backstop building regs floor U Value of 0.21W/m2K ( in Ireland) into PHPP. This equated to 150mm EPS at a cost of €1250 euro. To increase to the next step up in insulation was 200mm EPS at a price €415. It reduced our annual heat demand by 175kWh or €17.50 or in other words itwould pay itself back in 23.7 years. ( I didn't take into account the increased cost of credit as the money was likely to be spent elsewhere anyway if the builder didn't get it!) Clearly increasing the insulation in our case to the next step 250mm wouldn't pay back in less than 25 years. I repeated the process for the walls and roof. This allowed me to arrive at a ratio of where money was best spent with regard to insulation in terms of thickness. We ended up at 200mm Graphite EPS in the floor 250mm EPS bonded bead in the walls and 400mm blown cellulose in the roof. Had we dropped to 200mm cavity wall insulation we would have needed 300mm floor insulation and 600mm attic insulation. It would have cost about €2800 more in insulation. Having 2 imperfect airtight layers is a recipe for disappointment. IMO success can only be had by employing very good professionals or else building in a fashion that allows your airtight layer to be remedied before being hidden in the structure of the building. I like the idea of an airtightness layer away from the following trades but if it can't be tested and fixed you're goosed!

Here you go, nice and easy!

yes I remember (when quite young) seeing an American film where wall switches activated standard lamps and table lamps around a room, I asked an electrician how this was done and he explained and I have wired my lounge in the last four of my houses this way, it always gets a comment and frankly very easy to do.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/schneider-electric-ultimate-slimline-5a-unfused-round-pin-plug-white/8216j

Please sir, I do!!, they are 5 amp lighting plugs and sockets for standard lamps etc, socket wired into lighting ring and controlled by wall switch.

Yes but the cardboard says "INSIDE VIEW". Take the top off, turn the plug over as if you are about to connect a flex to it, and then compare the inside terminal markings to those on the cardboard and report back. EDIT: Time was you did not need instructions to put a flex into a plug. At a very young age as a boy, my MOTHER showed me how to put a plug onto a flex. I bet it is not even taught in school now.

It needs more lead so the complete pitch is covered. From the pics it looks like silicone was used and that ain't going to last like that on a roof. Cut into the bed of the bricks over the ridge tile and slide a piece of lead and then hammer it down to form the shape needed to go up and over the tile. To hold it in place cut small pieces of lead, 50*20mm and fold these over and over like a Swiss roll and then hammer them into the cut above where you put the lead in. This will hold the lead strip in place. 3 bits would be plenty. Fill the rest with lead mate. Much better than silicone.

E12 is a standard size bulb, used to be known as SES (Small Edison Screw) so you can get 240V lamps for it. The wiring will be US colours. Caution, black will be L and white N probably, it is important you confirm which connects to the body of the screw thread, that must connect to N.

I noticed the rippled effect too, I am sure that is not what the designer had in mind. Detracts from the look.

Houses not actually designed for the people who live in them, classic. I may have to actually watch this, I'm still surprised at how bad the zinc cladding looks, unless they were going for the dented and rippled look.

I suppose there is a slight risk of problems with your vat reclaim if they were to investigate because they require the work to be legal. Unlikely though. Make sure you have claimed the CIL exemption and got the paperwork done for that.

The Ikea ones slide neatly under the worktop if you leave a void. Too high for your reduced-height Gran - trim the legs.

On the reduced height kitchen, I thought that most "feet" are adjustable, and these days a new set of plinths for when you sell it would cost very little. Could you perhaps slice them 1/3:2/3 so you can make it more normal-height when you come to sell the place? I bet my Ikea one is a smaller quantity of spondulicks. That plus a new bead of silicon on the wall at the back of the worktop. The old one won't show as it would be hidden. Probably just needs some reasonably careful thinking about detail to make that doable.

Keep the planner "warm" by saying how prices are escalating and you want to still deliver the dwelling to add to the local housing stock. Offer to be as helpful as possible, inviting any requests for clarification or information. You are Mr. Helpful. Then 4 weeks after your submission of details do something similar. 6 weeks after your submission send a "Deemed Discharge" notice using the prescribed format. Confirm that you have not appealed. Planner will have 2 weeks in which to respond failing which you will get "Deemed Discharge" automatically. Most planners will ensure that they respond before that happens. Make it easy for them to approve. Provide plenty of convincing info in your submission. Has been known to work.

Slowly! ? insulation?

Your in the same position as we was and are again Waiting for discharge of conditions Whilst summer rapidly disappears Unfortunately your taking a chance if you do Though it’s very unlikely you will receive a visit from planners Though highways may turn up

Metal stud with two layers of 15 mil sound block will out perform block Acoustically and be more cost effective Pictured is today’s job Two layers of fire board

Whilst these are all good suggestions, and ones I will certainly use, I would like to make sure my flayed corpse doesn’t freeze to death. how should I go about insulating the space for it?

With the knowledge we have regarding the damage plastics is doing I cannot believe we still have plastic bags! Was it not Ireland that banned them and re introduced paper bags? What a sensible move. Yes supermarkets are charging more fir plastic bags and call them bags fir life but I still see loads of them thrown away. This move away from plastic needs to move up a notch, and similar with all things polluting.

this sounds like a trapped nerve in your neck, you should try getting one of those triangular pillows using by mothers with babies and sleep at a different angle. Just to see if it makes any difference. Or, of course, it could be those hours of playing squash that's making your arms dead.

‘Reassuringly expensive’ said the owner at one point! And did Kevin say good value for money?! End result is spectacular but can’t help feeling they could have achieved the same for a lot less money.

Sheets of polyurethane insulation. Disgusting stuff to cut. I wore a full suit of armour, had dust extraction on full power and it still got in my throat, eyes , ears , knickers . Ughhhh.

We have gone through many Tefal, John Lewis and M&S non stick pans and consistently the coating has started to flake off after a while despite not using metal utensils. The non stick effect also deteriorates. Almost exactly two years ago we got Circulon pans from their Ultimum range which has a slightly better non stick coating. https://circulon.uk.com/collections/cookware-pan-sets/products/ultimum-stainless-steel-3-piece-saucepan-set I used a frequently available 10% off voucher to get them for £117 and have since added a small frying pan and sauté pan. I found that individual pans can be bought quite a bit cheaper on eBay. I find them vastly better than previous sets of pans. In particular they have a solid steel base as opposed to a lot of cheaper induction pans which stick a steel circle to the bottom of the pan. They get hotter and heat up faster and do not have issues with the base warping of the cheaper pans. As they were a bit more expensive and also as the non stick works very well I always wash them by hand. Stuff basically comes off with hot water and a wipe. I do feel that even if non stick pans are dishwasher safe, as these are, the dishwasher damages the coating. They are still clearly non stick and have not a single chip in the coating, by the same point Tefal pans usually have the coating all chipped around the top edge. I have found sometimes that if you fry stuff and let it totally dry hard onto the pan it is more difficult to clean. Basically when my wife cooks and not me. It definitely works best if you clean them without letting stuff dry hard onto them. They get very heavily used, since the pandemic started we have cooked almost all meals from scratch and often everyone in the house eats different food so the pans can be used multiple times a day. We also have a Circulon wok which we got first and is still like new. It is from the cheaper Momentum range. The only issue I find is that the small base to pan size on the wok means it takes a while to heat up on the induction hob. Edit: Checking the receipt I got a 4 piece set with the frying pan for £130 less 10%. This seems to be no longer available. Like many things prices have gone up materially.

I seriously take my hat off to you mate, a great job under very difficult circumstances, I hope all is well with your tests and future health. You must be very proud ?

Stainless steel "wool" pan scourers from Wilko for example. Jam in and foam in place. In my experience everything from birds to social bees and wasps will have a go at the foam potentially, I've seen it here multiple times. They just seem to sense a nice habitable cavity behind. Best is to then render over the foam.

Steel wool.

Drains have to have a lintel over and be flexible to allow for movement. Why would a rat dig in a specific area to get through a gap underground ..?? And do you have a current rat issue ..??

The building inspector won’t care what your house looks like As long as it meets regs We are part of a farm that is listed Planners tried dictating that The render should be Oatmeal in colour We went ahead and did it Stirling white

how about some pleaching frames ? There is a brand of breathable roofing membrane that is black on onside and white on the other. stapled to a frame you wont really see the black against the tree but the white will be lovely from the other side especially on a sunny day.

one of the greatest ones I heard, and not on 1st Apr, is that the the white mesh covering put on some crops to aid growth should not be allowed. apparently, it ruins the view for photos.

Incomers! Don’t you just love em…. We get it all the time round here, the farms smells, the church bell is too loud, the farmer should stop hay making at 5pm, the sheep are to noisy.

We all f’up tbh but it’s not about the f’ups (although we’d all like for them not to happen) but how they’re dealt with that tells the story.

This sounds like it needs a patent pending ASAP.

what’s that? (Only joking, showing your age ?)

Para 55/79/80. I agree though, it looks as if "exceptional design" doesn't have to mean "nice to look at".

It seems like you can get away with a lot if you have a black polo neck and some trendy glasses.