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Some day rate builders are epic, time served, been in the game most of their working lives, know all the building regs, and can run the job for you and advise every step of the way. Some day rate builders aren't worth a day rate.

Looking at this the way you are and putting these tight times on things , I think you are in for a world of hurt and disappointment. Do you think there’s a big gang of chippies out there just waiting for you to call them and offer them 45mins to cut and fit your window boards. Unless you are very lucky I think they will come in and tell you exactly what it’s going to cost. Putting a time and cost on each item you will get a site chippy who wants to run in and smash it out as fast as he can, which won’t achieve the finish you want. Window boards will depend greatly on the finish that they are going onto, flat and level timberframe with the cavity all closed then lovely. Unlevel block work, or wonky icf, then what method do you want for fixing down or levelling. If you are tight on the time they will pack them up on old bits of crap they find laying about. If you have multiple cills in one room you will want them all level with each other. I have 5 windows all in the same room that need to all be the same height, I think it took a good day to get the laser shooting nicely across them all. Ive been on a job recently where we took out two sets of patio doors and reinstalled them because they where different heights to each other, both sets in the same room. Pay peanuts you will get monkeys. Im on another forum just for builders and the going rate for an internal door hanging and furniture is about £80 a door.

An observation for those that need to heat a work/office shed during the self build process. We have a timber garden buiding, 5mx6m, that we used as a lounge room duing our restoration while living in the caravan. This had a 6kw log(s) burner which worked very well over a couple of winters provided it was lit early, had more than one log on it, didn't let it go out and had plenty of logs ready. Last winter this fire was moved into the main building inplace of the intended log burner that was now out of scope for the budget. I was intending to use part of the garden room as my hobby shed. With a budget of around 200 quid, we had a choice of either finding another log burner, using an electic fan heater, staying in bed or finding something else. The something else is a 8kw Chinese diesel cab heater. I put the heater on the inside with the burner air intake and the exhaust through a couple of proctected and sealed holes to the outside. The 10 ltr fuel tank and pump also on the outside. These heaters are 12v (24v available), I used a 240v to 12v 20A supply set at 13.8V foating a used mobility scooter battery. These heaters require a shutdown process, the battery provideds that should we lose power. It will also run the heater for a few hours. Key thing for here though and the reason for this post is the cost of running it. It says 8kw on the box but it is not. It is six at the most. From 5 degrees C it will get the temp to 19 in about an hour. I have run it on heating oil (kerosene) for just over 100 hours and it has used 0.505 ltrs per hour avarage over that period. The oil cost £1 per ltr. So 50p for 6kw per hour does not seem bad given 34p kw of electric would have been £2.04. All in cost has been less that £160. The power unit, a fuel cutoff and second filter included in this cost. Much better than a LPG heater as it does not fill the air with water.

Thanks @MJNewton for this, that's great.

So just to be 100% - no cill required at all? Track directly onto outer blockwork with an acro channel/slot drain/aquabocci directly in front of it?Just got a bit confused as you mentioned Raynaers do a flush cill (which I can't, now, see the point of)

We used these for level threshold: https://www.aquabocci.co.uk/products/r-47-x-blade-drain Looks like you need to order your sliders with a different cill type, or with an additional profile that can be added on to create a flush finnish. With the sliders we got @craig made sure they were supplied with the correct level-threshold cill.

Even posher people had a gap in the wall for the VCR to go in. My uncle had a top-loading Betamax and he had to slide it out to access it!! (Not ours I hasten to add!)

BC might insist you paint it with a fire retardant paint.

If there is drainage on site or you put it in early, it is worth looking at a loo that can discharge to it. saves a lot of emptying. We once bought a saniflo to get to a more distant drain. Or when the roof is on, knock up a room around a future toilet. A wc only costs about £60

Well, it is much better than nothing. Not having that, they use the ground or disappear to cafes, garages and pubs. The rules are common sense and civility really. Think of yourself as the contractor and allow for their safety and comfort within reason. If he is the only contractor then you can offload the responsibility to him to some extent. But what if the van is away collecting materials? As to safety, what would be the plan if workers got soaked? could they dry off? And very importantly what if someone was injured? where would the first aid kit and treatment space be? And if someone is covered in concrete they must be able to wash it off thoroughly and quickly. If there isn't a comfortable space to rest, or a decent toilet, then they will disappear to somewhere more pleasant, and you will lose some time. Can we get away with inferior facilities. Usually: depends on the workers. Should you? No. Will I get in trouble? Yes if there is an incident or complaint. Even using existing facilities on site (or next door or down the road at the garage) can be dubious. A safety inspection often includes the inspector asking the workers (not a boss) where they go for toilet, hand-washing etc. If they can't take the inspector to it, and get access, then there are issues. If it involves taking boots and coats off and traversing a beige carpet to an immaculate toilet, you aren't believed. But if there is a utility wc, more likely. The chance of a visit is very low, but these are the principles, and I would follow them as good practice and civility.

Just in the process of making a start on the garage. 50mm celotex and then plasterboard going over the top

Mayday, mayday, ravers in the UK...

Does it look better now? Unfortunately I haven't found any precious items, dead bodies or mummies. Just a big Black Spider of The Tomb. Now I have on sale solid prefabricated corners and walls. Let me know if interested.

We got some very nice XL Joinery half glazed oak doors but they are over your budget. Howdens do a range of Oak doors with the vertical pattern you mention for under £100

Quite right, but that was my take on the OP's particular situation. I should have phrased it differently. Indeed my own boiler is heat-only but it says it's suitable for use in both vented and unvented systems.

When I suggested to my builder that he needed a new site van he whispered to me that it wasn't a good idea because trades would just sit in it all day drinking tea.

I'd mask up and inject with a closed cell foam such as Illbruck and then fit a strip of 25mm PVC D-section LINK from cill to frame to cover it over.

If the curve is set correctly the room temps manage themselves, with UFH the response is so slow feedback on room temp is pretty much meaningless for room compensation. As the flow temp is constantly being adjusted but floor takes hours to respond, when it the control changes the settings and it just chases its tail. Your thermostat just needs setting a degree or so over your target temp. If room temps are getting to high, compensation curve needs lowering, if individual room are getting too hot the UFH loop flow needs to be reduced.

Stop difference allows the inverter to wind down more progressively, lessening the chance of / ignoring an overshoot (lack of buffer capacity eg) and reduces short-cycling in my experience.

Look at the NEC suite of contracts. The concept can be quite simple and can work like a shopping list of what you want a contractor to do.

In the bedrooms I go a bit OTT, as once this is in it is in for good. So I would do 1x duct to 1x terminal ( x2 ) in there. Sleep is precious, so is sanity. I would not bust this down to 2x ducts to 1x terminal ( x1 ) in there as the flow rates will be a bit higher in there due to the volume of the room.

Search for 'stairs drawers', 27million hits, very popular way of using that space. I'll be doing this too at some stage.

My garage will be an insulated steel building and the first thing going up so will use that as the office initially. The house is a timber kit and will be up and weather tight quickly so will transfer to that.

Better off with a 10x8 shed, kettle, toaster, and a table to lay out drawings.

You need proper hanswashing facilities and a place for people sit and eat etc. We had portaloo and a separate caravan that was the office. The main thing is lots of signage and documentation. Need to write down who is designer, contractor and client. And a H&S plan, emergency procedures etc.

Yes a cheap old touring caravan will give you a chemical loo, a sink, a heater if you are lucky and somewhere to sit.

When I bought my flue pipes the manufacturer sold an insulating sleeve for this purpose. That's a test run with the angle cut to match the roof. The sleeve is obviously non combustible or it would not be sold for that purpose and the outside is >50mm from the flue so your insulation or combustible materials can touch the outside of the sleeve.

I recently did the render on a massive self build home The lady provided a very large caravan to double as a office - brew cabin With a loo in there Far to good for a building site After a few weeks it became a tool store and very large smelly loo 💩

If he is there everyday then fine, otherwise get a non-mobile portaloo. Caravan toilets tend to be too small, you might end up with various corners of site or even the house used as a convenience 💩 I have seen it on top of scaffolding

You should have a separate loo on site But there’s nothing to say you need to have a site office On this and our last build we erected a simple garden shed for drawings and bits and bought a porta loo

Do you mean I could find there a dead body or some gold bars?

Yes, and if you're lucky, empty. Please tell me you're going to take it out; you'll be amazed at how much bigger the room looks when you do.

Don't need HEX. Only real reason to use one is if you have glycol in your heat pump circuit, but not in your internal circuits. But even in this case it's easy just to use Glycol everywhere rather than adding costs/complexity and loosing efficiency. That said, as @HughF says, with anti-freeze valves you don't need glycol. I have a Vaillant install with no glycol, no HEX and a 25L buffer.

You don’t need the mixed pump groups. The weather comp curve can be set for the radiators and then you can use a standard ufh blending manifold and pump for the ufh loops. Pick a brand that doesn’t require a hex module for a start, and choose one that includes the room controller in the box. There’s really no need to go spending all that much.

Tropical fish tank's another 70's fave.....

yes it does door and frame. https://trenddirectuk.com/trend-h-jig-c-hinge-jig-skeleton-two-part-in-case.html if you have a router you can make one yourself in 30 mins out of some scrap mdf.

Looks like my mum's old house. All the rage in the 70's. Agreed - masonry TV stand. Edit: to be fair to dear old mum & dad, theirs was real sandstone and had a superb chunk of teak on top - about 1.5" thick...

To stand your great big heavy 26" CRT television on. Yes seriously. Posh people had a matching one the other side for the gramophone to sit on.

Great, thank you both!

This sounds like a case of "it wasn't broke why did you mess with it" What part of the casing? Is it really a serious fault (gas or combustion products leaking) or just an outer case? I would seriously look at getting it welded to patch it up if it does not have to last long.

Sheetmaterialswholesale.co.uk - Delivery is £70 and only to local area of which im outside :-(

Do you know if your cavity walls are filled with insulation material?

Exactly Long gong are the days of chipping away with a chisel I even have a jig for the latch An hour for the lining an hour for the door should be a breeze for someone who does it as there day job

I'm going by the drawing provided that shows the outside surface of the Portal frame level with outside surface of the wall. I had assumed the profile sheeting is just in the upper areas, a short distance down from the eaves, as is typical with agricultural portal frames. Even if the profile sheeting went from eaves to floor, the 40mm that gives you, outside the portal frame is insufficient to stop a thermal bridge. You still need a rain screen on the outside of any insulation. The wording in Class Q is that you can't extend beyond the existing envelope at any point. How I dealt with that was to have an upper cladding outside of the portal frame, in the same way the original profile sheeting was, but have the lower cladding inset, level with the portal frame, in the same position the original walls were, which means the portal frame is still visible externally at the lower level, as it was on the original building. It is now recognised in the planning guidance that a Class Q Approval should be taken as material for a full planning. However that doesn't necessarily get you to a knock down and re-build. But it should at least allow the Class Q rule of not exceeding the existing building envelope at any point to be ignored, leading to the chance of brining the portal frame within the thermal envelope, and it should open up additional building works that are otherwise restricted by the Class Q.

I wouldn't count on that. BCO turned up at the end of my builds, have not shown up yet for my parents build (its just internal fit out to do now) and they are really only looking at a finished stages, there is plenty room for stuff to get fudged and the BCO would never know. I recently went to do the electrical snagging visit of a commercial building I did the design for, my colleague doing the mechanical where he found issues, this building had been signed off by a major cities BC department, things I pulled the contractor up on were, no interface units on door access control units with the fire alarm, so on alarm none of the doors automatically released, emergency lighting not working, it was even flashing the charge indicator red, missing covers on panel boards and DB's, no labelling and in some instances the ON-OFF stickers were reversed so it looked like things were in the off position when in fact they were on, fire exit signs missing or installed incorrectly, inadequate cable support or saddles on conduit - I will not list them all, however, my point is, you cannot count on BCO to check and snag your build.

By the way that's the weep vent - they should not be blocked right?