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Sorry but I can't see ANYTHING in that kitchen that will make it £55K. Howdens could replicate that, or any other kitchen supplier for that matter. Choose the best of their range, and fit yourself, Get good stone worktops and splashbacks, and buy the same top end ovens and hobs and other appliances as the German supplier is proposing. (yes this is an answer from a man)

Thanks to the relatively mild weather this winter i decided to start chipping away at the bathroom project, which is being extended into part of the extension which was finished over a year ago. This gave me the opportunity to install the bath, sink and toilet in the new bit, at which time I’d totally disconnected the old bathroom allowing me to strip it out and that’s worked really well for my as I struggle to do more than 4hours in a single day so I could keep doing a bit and stopping when I’d had enough. didn’t fancy tackling the ceiling for plastering in the new bit so got a pro in to do this bit for me, all done in a couple of hours which was nice. and made the most of the space and got the painting done after putting a layer of 10mm marmox board down ready to accept the underfloor heating mat Next job was to start making a frame to hold the toilet frame and the sink and cabinet Decided on making my own cabinet rather than paying silly money for an MFC one, got pine furniture boards, a pocket hole jig and a new router and came out with this which I’m pretty happy with that all got painted and the sink installed, wall mounted tap and the wet room panels that I’m using both for this and for the walk in shower area all installed. got to work cutting the OSB backing and wet room panel for the toilet in prep for the final big push to disconnect the old and commission the new, that was a hard days work! And then bath and toilet all installed once the shower area is complete the bath will be disconnected again to lay the underfloor heating, self leveller and the flooring before being put back in place, and eventually building the wall and plastering it. Made a start on stripping the old bathroom out Next job is to patch up the loft insulation where the old spotlights were, new wiring in place for a single light fitting this time, airtight membrane adhered to the walls and then battens before reboarding it ready for plastering. Floor is coming up also to be replaced with 22mm chipboard to match new bit.

+1 To be honest I never use the flexible tile adhesive but I do always use the tile adhesive for shower areas. I run the waste pipe and trap to the correct level for the trap base to be level with the underside of the tray before starting. I always seal the floor area before using adhesive on it. (PVA or wood glue watered down or Acrylic primer). This helps to stop the adhesive from drying out too quickly. I use a big notched trowel and trowel the mix on the floor 1 way, trowel on the underside of the tray the other. Lay the tray gently down and lift it up again to see if there's any places where the crossing adhesive doesn't touch. Adjust the adhesive as required to make the bond uniform. The final push is when I check the tray is level, silicone both sides of the rubber ring between the trap base and insert, silicone the underside of the part of the trap to be screwed in from above, and fit all these together and tighten, and clean off all the mess I have created. Checking the tray stays level I usually place some tubs in the tray or a couple of boxes of tiles Once set - usually one to two days I silicone between the edges of the shower tray and the walls squeezing the silicone so it is not proud of the top of the tray before tiling. (If installing a quadrant shower tray the same as above.) Once the adhesive has gone off, with the silicone, in your case, to 3 walls/sides. It isn't going anywhere. Especially after being tiled in and sealed again with the shower door in as well. Good luck M

Passive and high bills seams to be a bit of a contradiction

They follow GGR guidelines, they’re the same in Europe basically.

Another point, I stayed in a passive house many years ago before I knew much about them. And like you, thought it was stuffy. The house was empty and we were offered it as workers accommodation for a few days. It was well into the stay that we realised the mvhr unit was turned off, probably because the house was empty before we were given the keys.

Also worth knowing that there is an official rating for how well hoods filter the grease, from A (>95%) to G (> or = to 45%). You may have to dig to find it - some manufacturers don't seem keen to make it easy to find in their literature.

Further... Leave the the SBR to dry out. No need to do the underside of the tray with sealant. Its all about stopping the moisture from being sucked into the timber causing the adhesive to shrink... I use spacers in the corners on a dry run and work out how deep I need to be where to make the tray level. Then after sealing but before coating the floor I re fit the spacers. Then when coating the floor I use timbers or straight edges to scrape the coat of adhesive on the floor to the required level before removing the spacers. then notch the adhesive to the underside of the shower tray. If the spacers are where I can remove them later, I leave them in to help. I still sit the tray down and lift it up again to ensure an even bonding. Sometimes the trays are not flat and as long as there is a fall to the drain hole I ensure the shower tray edge that the shower enclosure sits on is always level which sometimes mean the wall sides are not so level. If your not going to put the trap in until later make sure the area is free of adhesive ( most of my shower trays are fitted on to the floor, not raised so has to be done at the same time. Here's a shower room I did last month. Hope this helps M

It shouldn't feel stuffy at all. If this is the case then it hasn't been commissioned correctly IMHO. A CO2 reading is the quickest way to confirm this. Every home should have one.

Mortar is no good As you are finding out Use a flexible tile adhesive

We don't weather watch, everything just controls itself with the magic of thermostats. We often have our bedroom window open, we like a cool bedroom. No issues.

Don't get hung up on the density of insulation for sound proofing. The main job of fluffy insulation is to dampen the reverberations or "drum effect" in a cavity. Concentrate on sealing each and every air path. Perimeter, board to board, wiring holes. Downlights are a disaster. The add some fluffy insulation for reverberation. Then add mass. Denser insulation of course helps but it's an expensive way to add those extra kgs. Standard plasterboard, soundbloc and OSB are all about the same price per kg and mug cheaper than insulation. If you're feeling really cheap sand in bags or plasterboard off cuts will all help if shoved between joists above the ceiling. Finally decouple the floors although this is more important for impact noises. Strips of carpet or rubber above the joists and resilient bars underneath.

I’ve had a pp3 type of these usb lithium cells in a smoke detector. Thought it was great at first, then found it has high self discharge (not normally an issue with lithium), and lower energy store. Upshot was it only lasted a couple of months in a smoke detector, while a non usb rechargeable lithium lasts years before it squarks. Don’t flatten them tho, no bms inside cheapie pp3 lithium.

In my research notes, I have electric (wired) blinds mostly favouring left-hand side cabling, and for pre-cabling to cover most bases, to run 1.5mm2 Twin and Earth and a CAT6 cable.

If the vendor carries on like that, they could end up in a tricky position without any functioning drainage if an unsuspecting buyer just buys the plot and digs up their drainage field. Then the man with the paddock could charge what he likes to give them a drainage solution and make their house habitable again. The logical solution to make this plot viable is design a drainage solution for both houses, possibly shared, and the vendor to install it. The cost is probably a small fraction of the plot value? Out of interest @flanagaj how would you deal with the drainage if you bought the plot?

We debated for some time about whether to extract to outside or use a recirculating hob but this was more about air quality in an open plan design than air tightness. Because of some aesthetic design decisions we decided on a recirculating hob with the caveat that we hardly ever fry food. We will also need to ensure we replace/clean the filters much more regularly than any other house we’ve lived it. Most cooker extraction hoods are far too high above the cooker to be effective anyway even if they are extracting externally. If you look at commercial kitchens you’ll often see the hood is much closer to the bob than in domestic kitchens.

So you go ahead, buy the plot, start digging for the house and find their drainage field. You will have to dig all that up which is likely to be a lot of foul ground, dispose of it, and build up and re fill from good ground. And then what? Just cap off their pipe feeding it? That will get nasty and messy both physically and legally very quickly. The only way this is ever going to work is alternative drainage for the existing house installed first and you still expecting to find at least some foul ground to remove and replace.

I am confused what thermal bridge you are trying to fix. Are they really? How is your roof insulated?

So basically they have a large garden to accommodate their drainage. They want to sell a big chunk of that large garden that probably accommodates their drainage field so they will need to pay someone to allow them alternative drainage under a paddock. Their motivation for selling is no doubt a lot of £££ so if I were the paddock owner I would bt asking for quite a lot of ££ to allow that. It would almost be a ransom situation.

Funny you say that the was a comparison done in a football ground, where they installed an industrial sized air fryer. The air fryer chips didn't go down any worse than the traditional oil fried chips in a blind test with the football fans. As I said took a long time to be converted but if you like crispy chips they are great.

If your having an MBC frame then get MBC to do the insulated slab, unless for any structural reason you can’t have it. you won’t save a lot by changing spec, Just use the full package because its extremely good. being a bit harsh here, you need to go and do some home work, go and look at some houses being built, learn what each thing is called, if you don’t know what your buying you are going to get your pants pulled down.

QUOTE: "that wouldn't provide a sufficient connection as we'd be relying on nails through a plywood web of the beam and also the fixings would be running parallel to the grain/laminate of the packer which could lead to the packer splitting. The rafter must be vertically supported and laterally restrained to effectively prevent the roof from dropping or spreading."

We have a nice 800mm entry to loft room with stairs - use it as a den for my lad, door off that to ' plant room '

Get an air fryer - way better chips. Took me awhile to be converted

Excellent links, thanks. So hitting this issue ourselves. We do a lot of stir frying and I have a well used chip pan, in the past recirculaing hood have proved miserable and inadequate for our usage. Rather than undoing everything with effectively a hole in the wall, what about this? https://luxairhoods.com/Cooker-Hood-Ducting-150mm/cooker-hoods-outside-vents-grilles-external/Airtight-Ducting-System-Kits/New-ducting-Thermobox-150mm-heat-retention

Brick/block makes more sense here…. Easily available materials, easily understood, easily tied into existing structure.

Yes - this is what we are doing for a stone barn conversion too. The reason we chose it was similar to your thoughts in that with every quote there were so many caveats and exclusions due to the age and complexity of the project. It doesn't stop you worrying about how you are going to afford it but it does give you a high degree of transparency. For the conversion of an old barn, no matter how detailed and careful you are in estimating or how brilliant a group of engineers and architects are in creating the original tender document, on my current experience there is absolutely no way that any estimate could capture the variables that we are seeing in this build. For example we surveyed the roof and timbers and estimated that 30% might need replacing - In reality the roof timbers were in far worse shape than the original survey suggested and we had to replace and repair a huge amount more than was planned. All in all, the roof finally came in at 125% of the highest estimate range (including the 25% contingency we used) which whilst not great, at least this was not 'an extra cost' over and above the tender quotes that we would have had and we did have some choice in the way things were done. I don't for a minute think that the cost+ is a perfect model, particularly as the contractor is not incentivised to find the cheapest materials so I do tend to get involved with larger purchases. As i see it, I am employing the contractor to build a property not manage my expenditure, and I do get a little concerned that the model relies on the accurate reporting of the teams time on site. We live in a cottage on site so we are able to be involved in making any and all key decisions and this also plays to what works for us. I would rather be over-asked than under-asked and with the cost+ everything is double checked

The ONS has some numbers on heating types. Here is a quick analysis for England. Type of central heating in household (13 categories) Number No central heating 367119 Mains gas only 18298730 Tank or bottled gas only 260108 Electric only 2113123 Oil only 865944 Wood only 35720 Solid fuel only 49469 Renewable energy only 98729 District or communal heat networks only 220893 Other central heating only 225399 Two or more types of central heating (not including renewable energy) 2113324 Two or more types of central heating (including renewable energy) 134659

Nope. Just adding balance to some of the stuff your saying

Our previous build and hopefully this one is very well insulated and cheap to heat via a gas boiler and hopefully the HP will work out the same or a little bit more expensive What I don’t understand on here Is people installing UFH in the bedrooms on the upper floors While we have small rads in the bedrooms We have never needed to use them A well insulated home shouldn’t need much heating

Not sure of your set up but if your using unistrut why not fix your panels directly to the unistrut using M8 chanel nuts(zebs) and any panel clamp using an M8 bolt.

You must get to the bottom of this before parting with your cash. I see this a lot.. the vendor claims no knowledge.. but I know they know that they are not offering a clean sale. Ask this.. are you the first punter that has pitched up or have there been others who have clocked that the vendor is not playing the game? I have seen this over the last 40 years.. If you can't get a rural plot soakaway or similar to work etc then the plot is often only worth the agricultural value.. it's a fact folks and there is usually no magic bullet. It may be that the plot is worthless.. you don't want to be the idiot that buys it. It may be that you can do a deal where they give up more of their land and you share the soakaway say, now the plot has value. It's time to say to them.. look we need to sort this out or we are off. If you are not firm now you could lose your shirt. Forget CCTV survey for now and get the big stuff sorted. Who owns what and what rights of servitude exist. Understand that first.

Bit of over thinking going on I think most have a combination of GF UFH and rads in the bedrooms

Recirculating cooker hood with carbon filters and MVHR extract vent nearby but not directly coupled. Boost the MVHR rate while cooking if you want to.

Gosh you have not had it very long (IMO), as you want to stay there (I presume) buying a new motor and servicing the existing one as a spare sounds like a plan.

Don't forget to plan how to get cables through the roof, as that needs to be stitched into the fabric of the build before the roof membrane goes in / on. Cable snorkels are available which can be made airtight and are water-weather proof.

Underneath the floor its a proper rest bend but above this there are two 45deg bends to bring the soil pipe up close to a corner - this is the problem since these bends are above the B&B floor and its not far for the sound to transmit through. Going to very gently dig up the floor (got ufh pipes in that area) - its not a big area (prob 8" x 10") - hopefully I won't damage a pipe & if one is in the way I can ease it to one side. Worst case scenario is I will have to put a joint in. Hopefully it will all be OK. Lesson learnt. Experience gained.

Our previous build took my wife six months to decide on a kitchen With Junes moving date approaching Its looking unlikely that I’ll have a kitchen to fit I fitted a Nolte Kitchen last time So likely to be German again With Hacker a front runner The company that supplied our original kitchen has quoted 55k plus vat Which would take us over our final build budget of 350k Weve gone round in circles to finish up with a design that looks identical to what we already have I’ve reluctantly approached a friend who is a German kitchen supplier to try and get this over the line Conscious that the Continentals shut down for a month soon The downside is he will do most of it at cost He’s running a busy business and doesn’t need this People asked what was the the most stressful part of the build I always answered The fit out Which should be easy Trying not to found chauvinistic here But blokes arnt bothered if a fridge is on the left or the right Or a drawer is double or single We called at the door supplier yesterday The pairs of rebates fours Always have the dead man on the right But one pair has to be made up so can be easy I said just put it on the right My wife woke this morning and said I think we should have it on the left Can you ring them WHY? Rant over One bathroom to tile today before I go home Hopefully I can get that right 👍 our current kitchen Watch this space

no job yet, lots of interviews (no age on CV), then when they meet me I get, you are too experienced, you wouldn't be the right fit for the team, you would probably get bored with your experience, your qualifications are out of date, even 'we want someone who will stay 10+ years - as if they can guarantee anyone will do that, and the last one this week, we are a small company / team and we are concerned you wouldn't fit in. Nothing overtly about my age as that's illegal, but lots of vailed hints to that end. I tried to talk to the dept of stealth and total obscurity yesterday, total loss, not entitled to anything as we have savings.

Thank you, he looks to be suffering greatly at the moment, 1st bowel cancer around 17 years ago, which recurred another 3 times, now has a stoma but it’s spread to a kidney and he’s lymphoma too, horrible to see, he didn’t even have the energy to talk to me other day when I was visiting 😞 he’s done so so well bless him. I’ve got him to thank for my interest in DIY and building, he was a builder back in the day before the cancer got him

£360 per panel

Bear in mind blown in cavity insulation (new build or refurb) is notifiable under the Building Regs. Product should carry 3rd party certification (BBA or similar) and be installed by approved contractor.

Stand by!

Passive or "Passive". About 2 years ago, at a stag party, I was looking forward to an in depth chat about thermal bridging with and airtightness details with a man who introduced himself as a passive house self builder. Imagine my dismay when I learned he had double glazing, hadn't done an airtightness test, had no idea what insulation levels were at. Turned out his living room was almost unliveable with all the glazing for most of the year. Too hot or too cold.

Didn't Caractacus Potts already invent one of those for his father to use in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?