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Hi @four_candles Sounds interesting. In my humble opinion: You should start with client requirements. Before you go looking at what someone else thinks you want, draw up a list of the items you typically find in a 4 bed house and divide between what you do want and what you don't want. If this is your forever home you'd better be thinking about level access from the street, through the house and out into the garden, a little bit wider internal doors and a down stairs loo and shower. If this is your forever home you should spend more money installing insulation than on installing heating. Lots of help on BH. Good luck. Marvin

Site tidied up too, don't ask how many lorry loads had to go. Got brickies lined up for Tuesday.

Founds finished. All drainage in. MOT all around and general tidy up. Garage arrives next week snd timber kit from the 17/4. Couldn’t be happier with the groundswork guys. Professional, easy to work with and very fair minded. They’ll come back after the kit is up to concrete the steels in place. Then back for 3 weeks in July after the scaffold is down to build soakaways, connect drainage, install the PTP and some initial landscaping.

Crikey. That is something else. I do wonder if ICF is over engineered somewhat for low rise houses. Lots have 200mm 40N concrete cores with a mountain of rebar to boot. Meanwhile most houses are made from 2*100mm 7N block leafs with no reinforcement at all.

if your doing a big project needing lots of different sizes get case full like TurboGold PZ Double-Countersunk Woodscrews Expert Trade Case 2800 Pcs - Screwfix And fill up when you're short. Single boxes have a habit of hiding, and only show their face when you have bought a replacement, just like tape measures.

I agree with @Nickfromwales based on a sample size of one. Our architect has been poor at answering any questions about insulation approaches and related items so much so I stopped asking. There’s a good website here where can model your fabric build up.

I work on clients' bulds, and speak from what I've seen on pretty much every project, not just "chatting shit" here, me old china mug Bad experience, should read expectations either not met, or worse. Not just my words, clients words also. On the flip side, some great architects ( and keen architectural technicians ) out there, who seem to be struggling to get recognition and a foothold in the industry. Only my own opinion from hard evidence on live projects, so don't worry about me having too much of an impact on the poor architects They'll be just fine.

Yes to moisture resistant board for the reveals. Remember to undercoat/paint the underside and edges of your window boards to stop them absorbing the inevitable deluge or moisture after plastering.

@AD1 We used Portman frames, almost to ceiling height. Got fire door blanks from Howdens (I think they were around £30 each) and had them sprayed. It all looks very nice. However, The Portman system is expensive and it proved difficult to fit, the pocket is made of what almost looks like wriggly tin and when you screw the plasterboard to it, it’s almost impossible to not distort the frame making the pocket narrower in the middle and a bit of a squeeze to get the door in. In fact for us it was so much of a squeeze that we had to, er, re-engineer the whole pocket to make it a wee bit wider. This meant the intumescent strip either side of the blank in the pocket was pointless. We bluffed the inspector by fitting brushes to conceal the gap but he never bothered to look anyway. Like I suspect with the vast majority of pocket fire doors, they remain open 99% of the time. Another downside to the Portman frames is that once the door blank is in, it’s in for ever, I think with the Eclisse there is a way of getting the blank out after the whole thing is finished? Redecorating the blank for us is not an option which is another good reason to keep them tucked in their pocket pretty much all the time and out of harms way.

Right, the good news is that we went with the larger size gravel and laid it and it's fine to walk on. Ultimately we realised we'd be more bothered by small bits of gravel getting stuck to boots or flying over the edging strip onto the lawn then the minor discomfort of walking on thicker gauge stones. But it's fine. The less good news is that the 200g sample, though perfectly representative of the gravel which was eventually purchased and delivered, was not really enough of a quantity to get an idea of what it would look like installed. Now that we've laid 850kg of it, it looks much brighter in colour than the 200g scattered across a paving stone which was how we checked the colours would go well together. We're idiots. Anyone should have realised that a few pixels look different to a densely pixelled image. Fortunately, we were short on gravel, and still need to buy another 400kg to 500kg or so to finish the path. This therefore creates a possible opportunity to fix the colour issue. The 2/3 of the path that has been laid is too light. We could spread that out across the whole path area, and then buy the remaining gravel of a slightly darker grey and top up the thinly spread gravel with that grey. Is that likely to darken the appearance of the path or is this not going to work. The mix is a mix of grey, white, pink and beige, but there is too much white in it really. I had thought about removing the white stones by hand and topping up with more of the same mix (of which I would remove the white stones as well) but I think that is super made way of wasting time. There must be thousands of white stones. I sometimes think I'm going mad. Then i have to remind myself I already went mad... long ago. Does that mean I'm getting madder and madder?

Thanks for your reply. Here's a pic from a few weeks ago. It's still a bit of a mess.

No just the standard blocks. Don't think xr35 was available, or at least we weren't made aware of them, when we purchased which is a few years ago now. Would defintely of considered them.

I'm pretty sure they've forcibly fitted prepayment meters where people havent paid their bills, not because someone's drawn a load they dont like

I put in a month contingency between groundworks finishing and timber kit arriving and we used 2 weeks of that. The clock has reset for the kit obviously. They are saying 10 days to complete. I have 2 weeks contingency planned in for the kit. I spoke to all the follow on trades this week to update them and they are still on to start mid May with the roofers planned middle of June. The joiner has a bit of pre-work to do on the roof plus fit the rooflights which will be the first task. But yes expecting delays of course.

Well if British Gas have already exercised their powers of entry to have their agents fit prepayment meters - against OFGEM rules and the wishes of the householder - you can imagine how much more likely they are to remotely disconnect customers at will if they can do so without leaving their heated offices. One of the reasons I do not want a smart meter. And given that MCS standards are already part of the BUS and Permitted Development rules I can forsee that the remote control of the HP will be incorporated into the MCS rules and disabling it will be made impossible - just as the capability to use HPs for air conditioniing in summer is disabled on MCS listed HPs already.

We could start a thread of ‘things which ought to be hidden whilst we ‘think about it’. ‘ I think an under shelf light is a good idea tho! Better my first thought of threading it through a hole in the shelf and jug….

It's far better to avoid getting into the hole in the first place. Engage with the ecologist prior to instructing them, even if they have been recommended Discuss the potential issues with the site and how they suggest they could be mitigated. Probe for pragmatism and be aware of sticklers for rules. Do all this before instructing them. However, if mitigation is required, push back on unrealistic/unreasonable proposals of impact. My first attempts at push back were rejected by NE. It took a formal complaint before NE gave any ground at all, and then they moved all the way to my original position. My communication with the complaints department, and with the NE site assessor were always polite and non-aggressive. This approach was effective, and made me feel I had behaved decently. I'd be very happy to help anyone who finds themselves in a similar position.

Either leave them as they are - or take them up and relay them tight together, and find a length (or two) of matching old timber to make up the gap against the final wall.

Absolutely. But doing it with physical control like a fat contactor switch in the submeter is very 1970s E7 thinking. 21st century IoT will have each controlled device individually managed in the logical plane, not via killing the power to them. Reasons I believe this: - E7 tariffs themselves have moved away from using a central contractor - smart meters already have ability to kill the power but it's considered to be unsafe for use in the UK, as (a) there could be life support equipment in the house that mustnt be disconnected and (b) a remote re-enable of power may occur when it's unsafe to do so (worse case someone has their finger in the power line trying to figure out why it's not working). - you can get much more granular control via logical plane e.g. only turn off certain devices, or disable certain operations (comfort heating off, but DHW and eco heating on, etc) - you get better monitoring and maintenance reporting - it's less harsh on an electromechanical device to have it manage it's own power off/on cycle then regularly killing the main power to it. - logical control still works even if the home owner messes about with the wiring topology (e.g. renovation moves appliances around and connects them to different circuits). Obviously IoT brings a plethora of its own challenges, plus the who ethic of revenue sharing for this needs figuring out however it's done, but seems highly probable if it happens at all it will be via digital control of devices.

No don't. It will look rubbish. You get proper filler for the job, which is just the same as car body filler, that is tinted to the colour you want. You could also router the gaps straight and in fill with wood, but that's a lot of work. A rug over the worst bits?

First and only time I’ve read that statement.

We’ve an identical stair layout in our previous build Contact the guys that are making the stairs They will feed your measurements into cad Which will work everything out for you and BC

No need to use moister boards on reveals Except for bathrooms Im guessing the wall arnt dabbed and are wet plaster backing If that’s the case He should set the reveals then bead after the backing plaster goes on the walls No need for Scrim Just use the wider skim beads 40 mil

Take a deep breath, a glass of your favourite giggle water, and read your signature. Perhaps if you don't sing to his tune he will say well you should not be living in it until sign off? At least in Scotland we have a formal temporary habitation process that has a less stringent list of things that need to be in place than final completion.

You can get a composite geotextile which doesn't take up much space but creates a vertical drain at the sides. Often used in basements but also good for planters or retaining walls. .

The unconnected cables are likely to be the only safety issue youve got and I cant see NICEIC being particularly interested in the other issues including 2 (presumibly) qualified sparks arguing over whether an RCD is needed. Suggest you send NICEIC the photos of the live unconnected cables

Oh, dear lord!! No. Try the opposite. Architects draw great pictures, and then say "oh, it's 5 o'clock, bye" when it gets down to anything regarding technical detail / insulation / airtightness / and any slight hint that they may need to calculate or consider plant space and mechanical thoroughfares etc, and they're gone faster than you can say " where's the architects car gone?" when you spot their oversights / omissions. Wrong professional for this I'm afraid. You'll be able to get bags of info from here tbh, just start bashing away at the search facility and topics and get stuck in . Put the time and effort in doing your own research and then you won't need these people. Ask questions here and the answers will soon follow

I had a property I rented out, the letting agent wanted me to have fully managed service, so the tenant would call one number and everything would be sorted out. Asked who they used for plumbing and electrical work, and they were located nearly a 3 hour drive away. Not only would I be paying premium rates, I would be saddled with 6 hours travel time. The tenant would get a rubbish service, I declined their offer. Managed service are a get rich quick scheme, by letting agents, the owner gets saddled with big bills and a bad reputation, the tenant gets a rubbish service.

Some of these agents really suck. We rented a house while building our own. When we moved in the agent told us the shower was going to be re-tiled. The man they sent made a total mess of it. I called the agent when he was half way through and told them if it was my house I'd throw him out the work was so bad. They told me to just let him carry on. The tiler didn't even know how to plan a tile layout. He ended up needing to cut a tapered 10mm wide strips of tiles the full height of the room. Near impossible to cut such narrow strips so he gave up and filled the missing strip with adhesive ! Felt sorry for the owner who was in the armed force.

Busy few days. Shuttering off the garage floor. Final finish could have been a little better but I’m covering it anyway. Drainage and ducting mostly complete, retaining wall built but we are going to go 200mm higher. Starting to get final MOT down. Site has dried up really quickly after all the pissing rain.

You are in the right place to start making plans. As above. An Architect is probably not the place to find the solutions to reducing energy usage. Thermally, houses are quite simple. Stop the air leaking out, then insulate, a lot. As it has cavity wall insulation, make sure it has not failed anywhere. Unexplained damp on walls is a giveaway. Probably worth getting hold of a thermal camera, overheating the place, then take pictures all around it, late at night. Don't get bogged down with 'eco' technology at this stage. Find out what is easy and effective to do first. Then you will know what needs to be done second, third ....

Architects often excel at the utility and asthetics of buildings. Some treat insulation etc as an inconvenience and just copy and paste manafactuers details with little further thought. Pictures please would help. The more the better. I quite like brutalism. Welcome also!

Get a price for 300mm EPS for the floor. Shouldn't be much in it cost wise. It's a cheap place to add insulation and the UFH pipes will be the hottest thing in the building, hence loosing the most heat, important to have them well insulated. That plumbing quote sounds bananas. How large is the house? Lots of us have done our own, I did after the plumber made a mess of it. The Hep2O parts and a 300l direct UVC were about €2000. Add UFH for the ground floor and provision for a future ASHP and the total for parts would be still less than 4k. Then source an ASHP yourself. Reasonable monoblocks come up on eBay for about £2k regularly enough.

In my experience: Spax are excellent. UltiMate / Ultimate II are very good. Reisser are good. The 'Tite' range from screwys, I have found the exterior 'tite' to be excellent but a bit expensive (although not as expensive as Spax!) Timco are great for general work where tolerances, of all sorts, are sacker, their range is good and you can buy them in vast bulk and not feel the pinch too much. After that the world is your oyster. The thing that bugs me about most of them is the 'real' diameter measure. To me a 4mm screw should drop through a 4mm hole but they generally don't so you can get jacking if you are not very careful and get the hold size just right. Too big and the head sinks in a mile, too small and the joint is not pulled up as tight as you would want. I now keep drills 0.2, 0.4, 0.5 bigger than the screw spec to be sure I have the right size for every screw.

Another one for turbo gold from Screwfix 👍 (having a good hard driver bit make a big difference too).

I mostly bought the Screwfix easy drive or turbo gold. Never had any issues. There's over 2000 holding my EWI in place. The concrete screws are particularly good. Of other brands, bought a few timco velocities for our ceiling counter battens as the easy drive wouldn't screw into the steel channels very well. And I'm a big fan of the screwtite 2 screws for lighter work as they drive really well and never split the wood.

Buy screws by make, cheap ones either will not drive in without out rounding the head or don't come out either they break or round the heads. As with all things you get what you pay for. Buy cheap spend an hour swearing at the f****** screw you wish you hadn't bought. Been there, done that.

The cheapest screws aren't worth having as they will be made from inferior metal which may not 1. Have the hardness to grip the screwdriver head 2. Cut into the material 3. Resist corrosion 4. Have the strength for the job. What function do you want the screws for?

No reason for it not to work if it's designed and sized properly. Stick with the MVHR though, still want controlled ventilation.

Through wall in 28 mm copper for <10 kW. You'd core through larger (say 70-80 mm), lag the pipes through the hole with the watertight/airtight lagging, then foam between the lagging and the masonry.

Not sure of your flow rates, but a flexible hose to 28mm then through wall.

I would copper pipe through wall airtight expanding foam and the a bead of sealant between pipe and wall.

I think with the ASHP being on the same wall as the plant room, a pipe connection through this route would be the more simple option. I have the 32mm insulated pipe under the foundation, and its bend radius makes locating it in the ideal location a real challenge. Air tightness is easily covered. You might even struggle to get the insulated pipe to fit looking at your floor plan.

Another option might be to forgo the PIR on the window jambs and use something like MDF which has a thermal conductivity of about 0.1 W/mK. Not as good as PIR but not terrible. Screw one layer into the jamb and tape it to the window and inner face of the PIR as your airtight layer. Then glue another layer over the top and paint. It might be easier to work with and get a good finish than UPVC which always cracks when I try cutting it. (Might be my ham fists! )

the lady that came out to value us said their managers would only agree to that if it was still a shell. Habitable? Full rates.

Most if not all are insurance backed

True. And that is where the problem lies. There is an assumption that CO2 levels over a set limit are a cause of drowsiness. High humidity, and high temperatures can cause the same. As can low temperatures, low light levels, time of day etc etc. I wish there was some decent research, but doing large scale, quantitive, public health surveys is expensive, and the usual medial standard of proof in pretty low (1 in 20). There is also the problem of collecting too much data that may show conflicting results, why is the most important part. CO2 sensors need regular calibrating or replacing as well.

Most will be put out round your house by the delivery lorry if you have provided a good stoned drive capable of taking the weight of the lorry with it's load. They have a hiab that should reach most of what you need. You might need to use the digger to lift the odd one if the hiab can't reach. They will run the shortest route from wall to wall.

I thought I would put a post together for those that are looking for windows, replacement or new build. As someone who deals with final order placing / final quote discussions. One of the things that crosses my desk on regular basis, is that the "other supplier" is more cost effective. Which leads me to ask myself "more cost effective against what" are you comparing apples for apples? When I ask people to compare, what we generally explain is to look at the following (see below) if they are not willing to supply a copy of the quote without prices. Product - is the product similar. For example are you comparing a Timber Aluminium cladded window with a Timber Aluminium cladded window? Glazing - Is the glazing on offer from both suppliers comparable? Is it double glazed v's triple glazed for example or is it float glass v's toughened or laminate? Check that doors have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows within 300mm of a door have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows below 800mm from the finish floor have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows that are 1400mm in height or above for toughened/laminated glazing. Most suppliers will start to consider toughened / laminated from 1400mm onwards, some will still be float glass. Check triple glazed glass units. Some suppliers will only toughen the inner and outer panes and leave the middle pane as float glass, others will toughen all 3 panes (I recommend all 3 panes as toughened) when required. Why? quick example is from experience, a customer in the north west of Scotland had the middle pane as float glass in french doors, the doors are recessed with wall on either side. It effectively became a wind tunnel. What happened is during high winds, the door sashes had that much wind pressure constantnly, that the door sash was pushed away from the frame slightly and a rattle effect occurred (only thing I could think would cause this to happen). As a result the middle pane (float glass) shattered. This required the whole sash to be replaced, as the glass was glued into the frame on that particular product. Timber - Is the timber comparable, are both using spruce/larch/oak/pine etc.? Are any of the products finger jointed as standard (which is more cost effective versus fixed timber, but not as aesphetically pleasing). Is the timber cut from from one section of wood or is it individually glue laminated timber? Ug values - A 0.5Ug can be quoted by suppliers but the costs vary dramatically. One of the reasons for this can be the glass make up and the gas that is being used. Some quotes won't tell the gas being used but it's safe to assume that if it's 48mm glazing it is Argon. Pay attention to the spacer distance also, not for cost but if the spacer is above 18mm, convection can occur of the gas filling (gas moves around in the unit). Hinging - Are the hinges concealed or are they exposed? Door Hinging - Pay close attention as suppliers will have quoted standard framing on doors, others may have increased the widths of the jambs to increase the space available at the hinging for plastering behind. RAL Colours externally - are the quoted RAL colours the same? Internal colours - have they quoted the same? Some will offer the standard colours such as a clear lacquer, others will have them painted - does this have any impact on price comparison. Sizes - have any of the units been split, due to not being able to achieve the size required? Some suppliers will not be able to do large sizes, others will be. Look out for compromises. Don't always look at the end figure and immediately reject a quote as being to high, compared to the others. Most suppliers will have the supply price first, then additional items such as window cills, compriband, membrane, installation etc. which are optional to the quote and not necessarily required but may be included in the total cost at the end. Most self builders like to take on the mantra of doing the whole build, others would like to leave this to the supplier or builder and or source their own materials if supply only. What is being offered with the installation service, are the installation options / costs comparible to each other? Who takes responsibility for the windows upon arrival? Generally speaking most suppliers who are installing, should be taken responsibility from the moment the windows leave the factory, to the moment the windows/doors have been installed, sign off. If supply only, the responsibilitygenerally passes to the client once the offload commences. So it is important to document the windows before offload, during offload and once offloaded. The manufacturer will normally have documentation / pictures before departing the factory, it makes life easier on whether a claim with the haulage company or whether a claim with the supplier is required (both should go to the supplier who should deal with it). Warranty - how long is the warranty, what does it cover? Last but not least, is the quote comparible? Have the suppliers referenced things the same way or are have the drawings been scaled and then referenced by the supplier (this happens a lot when no window schedule exists)? A lot of architects don't create window schedules for some reason (one the major parts of a build and most costly aspects) and problems of missing windows can be encountered, due to the elevations not always showing "hidden" windows which can be seen on floor plans. Some suppliers can miss this, which then impacts that quote. Hopefully some people find this useful, of not apologies for the long read

Thanks @Barney12 @Construction Channel The post was made with the best of intentions and as help for quote checking. I wholeheartedly expected for others to come in and ask question or say things may have been missed. I didn't expect for someone to come in and descend it into chaos for no apparent reason other than an ego trip. Thank you for the support, my profession is windows and Passive House including steps towards certification (I'm not a certifier). This is where I can offer advice in an independent way, obviously my interests are towards the business but not here. Im not a fountain of all knowledge but I certainly have above average knowledge when it comes to windows and installation details etc. @JSHarris I fully understand what you are saying, I have owned/run forums using IPS in fact for nearly 20 years (since the days of Ikonboard) and still run/own a large forum. Forum etiquette is something I'm fully aware of. I'm also aware of a newbie rubbing long term members backs up. Which is part of the reason for the introduction and declaring immediately. Some on this forum will know me, wasn't any point trying to hide that fact (not that I would have anyway). If anyone had an issue with how I have posted then that's for them to advise why and for me to learn and understand how. Before posting I read all the relevant topics about how the site became to be, I understand the ethos of the site and I've understood the feel good friendly nature of the site from browsing the topics in every section. I know some clever people are present here and from all aspects of life. So I'm not trying to tell people this is how it is and what you must do. Just friendly advice on what I would do as someone who checks quotes, trains staff on window systems, differences between systems, manufacturers, processes orders, deals with technical drawings, detailing, service related issues and so forth. I've been in the industry now for nearly 9 years and understand others with greater knowledge exist and willing to learn from them. However when someone tries to call me out or tries to make me look like a fool. That's a different matter. I have and will continue to contribute in other areas but I'm not going to just spam across the forum, if I have something to contribute I will.