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I had hoped we would be finished by now and I would do a photoshoot of the house, but it is dragging along. We are mainly doing landscaping and snagging. We finally have a driveway, the resin bound top still has to go on. They seem very intent on us taking a specific colour and we are suspicious that is just what they have readily available so have refused to install it until we see more samples. I hated the untidy bush along the road in front of the house, I thought it really let the place down, so I applied to build a new fence and then we tarmaced the pavement. Hopefully the neighbours are enjoying their nice new pavement. The lights are connected up on the stairs and I think they just look fantastic. Driveway, gates are also going in. Pavement and hedge before we tidied it up New pavement and fence Stairs

Well the inside of my house regularly looks like a bomb's gone off, so maybe you're onto something.

This one reminds of the pictures that the Americans put out Showing their missile strikes

Instead of varnish consider Osmo hardwax oil. It's more like a varnish than an oil but its said to be easier to recoat or repair than varnish. Its intended for wood floors. May come in different colours but I've not checked. We used the standard version. Not as glossy as varnish.

My neighbour has just built a large extension, his 11 year old has used the mini digger and was instrumental in the roofing as the neighbour decided the lad was safer up there, than he was as son is light, fearless and had great balance. He also uses all the power tools. This was all done with great supervision and builds the kid's confidence and respect. I was very impressed. This kid won't be a snowflake. He has skills, is confident and I am sure will be successful. Too many kids today are wrapped in cotton wool until the day they are given the keys to a car at 17 without ever learning that their actions have consequences and that, unlike their screen games, they don't get another life. I think, at 12, a kid is old enough to be responsible and not yet at an age where he thinks he knows everything and is invincible.

the house looked warm and cosy, could see someone with a heavy cold tucked up with a hot drink feeling a fuzzy warmth emanating from their new home. woudn't it look glorious at christmas, big family gathering, lots of decorations...........

you're just not the target market, Dave. Me neither.

Stairs are stunning!

Love the stairs!

Yes SIG are excellent and deal with many different systems and will take full design responsibility. You can deal with accredited contractors and get a proper design by and install at reduced risk (although at a price - but at least it will work).

Thinking of calling these http://www.singleply.co.uk/resources/roof-refurbishment-cpd/ Because they design a system to suit

Asphalt...

Those industrial pan scourers should be OK. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Stainless-Steel-Scourer-Tough-Wire-Cleaning-Pads-Washing-Up-Scrubbers-10pk/302825614647

FWIW, it's vapour tightness that is far more critical than airtightness, as the very last thing you want is water vapour from inside the warm house migrating through the VCL and into the colder timber structure, where it may condense and cause rot. We ran all cables and pipes that went down outside walls alongside a counterbatten, with none fastened to the VCL board (ours used Spano Durelis, rather than Smart Ply, but it also has a green vapour tight coating). Where back boxes has to be fixed to the board, I glued pieces of thin ply to it with quick setting PU adhesive and also applied sealant behind every back box around the screws (easy to do, just blob sealant on the holes and screw through it). This was all down after the air test, but frankly a few screw holes on the board aren't going to make a blind bit of difference to airtightness, what they may do is let water vapour migrate out over a period of years, though, which isn't at all a good thing.

Wot I said wasn't it?

Good news I found a house nearby in exactly the same situation. B-listed house splitting up garden, new house is 22% of the plot. It is also considerably larger than the listed house and 1.5 storeys. It looks like it will be approved next week. This is the second instance of a listed house splitting its garden and permission being granted for a larger house than the original listed house in the last 4 years.

I would leave it a couple of weeks, provided there is no way they can chew their way out. If you still hear them it may be time for some bait.

i don't think that cavity is sealed anymore! ?

@lizzie you only need one adapter as the other end is already 40mm

That varnish is pretty bomb proof. I have solid oak window boards and they are oiled so protected from stains but not got any kids about the place though

Two suppliers I have spoken to have warned me away from internal timber finishes in that they are more difficult to rectify in the case of scratching (to be fair, we do have young kids and a several kickable prospective doors). Similarly, stains when someone spill something on the window board? Just thinking...

Fingers crossed you get a bit more progress made with your new guy.

It will be fine. Tile over it and forget it.

You could have a look at using the steel grating in place of the pavers. Some of them look pretty good, and it would be one less expense. There are systems made that have only narrow slots, that can even be walked on in stilettos, should you be minded to...

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Don’t give up! She went away knowing that you had done some research and wasn’t going to be put off by her pessimistic view. You really have to be resilient as there will be several knock backs and disappointments I’m sure. Keep your eye on the end goal and work towards it.

We would be disqualified from GD as SWMBO is beyond "child bearing age"

Now we're cooking. Subfloor poured today, so one row of quinnlites on their edge and we're at FFL. Provisionally looking at 3rd wek of October for the kit to arrive, scaffolder is booked on standby today, it's all moving on now.

Yes perfectly normal It shows how little heat is escaping through the 3G glass meaning the outside pane is cold enough for condensation to form. Oddly it's only our north facing windows that do this, the south facing ones don't (yet)

Sorry to bump up an old thread but I found this as I am considering fitting a key safe. I rang my insurance company (Halifax) and they confirmed that I would still be covered if someone broke into the key safe as it counts as forceable entry. She said they were popular if you have a carer or a cleaner for example. If someone accesses the safe without forcing it then I imagine you won’t be covered so be careful who you give the code to. I asked if I needed a specific type and she said ‘the safer the better’ but there is no standard it needs to comply with. She has also put a note on my policy that I have contacted them to inform them that I will have a key safe so my advice is to always tell your insurance company as they don’t all have the same requirements.

From my experience I'd say the boundary between trade waste and domestic waste seems to be completely arbitrary and depends on the particular staff on duty at the recycling centre. I've not been able to find a specific definition that applies here, other than if you are operating a business you are supposed to register, and pay for, a trade waste licence (which seems fine to me). The problem I encountered was that reasonably small scale renovation (just DIY refurbishment of a bathroom and WC) was considered to be "trade waste" by our local centre, despite me turning up in a hatchback saloon car with the stuff. I've adopted a similar technique to @ProDave now, and try and cut waste that cannot be recycled into small pieces and hide it in the bottom of our wheelie bin. Seems to work, and as we are paying council tax for both the old house (in the middle of being sold) and the new build, I have two lots of recycling and wheelie bins I can use. Luckily the collections for each house are on alternating weeks, so the recycling collection week at one house will be the refuse collection week at the other house. Makes it a bit easier to not over-fill any of the bins and attract attention.

My dad, a self employed carpenter, once removed a customers front door after they wouldn’t pay him. They threatened him with the Police, he said fine, call them, he had the paid invoice from the builders merchant and the T&Cs on the back of his invoice to the customer clearly stating the door belonged to him until fully paid for. After explaining this to the customer they paid there and then in cash and the door was refitted.

Our general household waste bin is emptied once a fourtnight and being only two of us leaves plenty of room for black bin bags. So every 2 weeks I walk around site with bin bags and so far I’ve managed to get rd of most of our general site waste.

The local one that I’m not allowed to use has a big shed to put ‘too good to throw away’ items. It’s part of an initiative called zero waste. They have a large warehouse where it all ends up and they sell to the public. They also partner with various businesses so often have weird and wonderful things on sale. They cleared the entire map room at Edinburgh uni for example and sold them off for £2 each. There were some very weird and wonderful maps to look at and buy. They also collect items of school uniform and give away free of charge. Much better than so much stuff ending up in landfill. Zero waste

At our tip if you're dumping any form of copper containing cable they have a "special" area away from the designated ones for it. Same place all the too good to throw away kids bikes and garden equipment seems to end up... Amazing how if you ask to take anything that you see; "Not allowed mate, rules you see, Health & Safety.....". I always feel the place is run by an extended family who's primary dwelling is on wheels...

I think there is a bit of virtue signalling and PR involved, but it saves I think around 1%. Still worth having. Here is a vid of Ladybower in wetter times last year - by Dean Read of peakroutes.com . One of my favourite bike routes when extended a little.

Hi Christine, soothing to know you still encounter problems on your 3rd build...

So after a no show again this morning after they promised to be here yesterday and didn’t turn up we decided to call them and tell them they were off the job, the main man had the audacity to say I’m not here to come whenever you call! No but you’re supposed to be finishing off a job you took on! At the time of writing this they are here picking up the remainder of their tools and we have a joiner who we know and trust starting next Monday. He wouldn’t take the job on initially as he works alone and it was too big for him but he was coming to do flooring so he now has a bit more to do.