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Changing the pump looks easy, when it is at normal level. Usually by the time you know the pump has failed, the level is way above normal, and you need to get it pumped out somewhere before you can even see the fittings to disconnect the pump. Been there, done that, don't wish to do it again. If asked again it is a "plumbers job" and I decline.

Had friends who had a quote for a kitchen in the Wickes Summer sale - kitchen was £3300 and fitting £1450. Had another quote during the January sale for same kitchen layout just with different doors, and the kitchen was £3600 and fitting was £2700, with "50% off" making it £1350.... Salesman didn't know where to look when they pulled the original quote out...

There be dragons.... check the small print in Wrens contract as I'm pretty sure the cabinet warranty is a limited cover if they don't install them.

When you say committed what do you mean??? In your head you have found the right kitchen or you have paid a deposit.

I have bought DIY kitchens in the past and they were fine. Units averaged out at £2,700 plus VAT per kitchen, £2,200 worktops, appliances sinks and taps from various £4,280 fitting £700. Howdens are a PITA to deal with and do a double glazing style discount and endless telesales calls.

Wren is probably the most questionable quality product you will buy. Very poor value. The quality is no better than Howdens and you will buy Howdens (sensibly priced) better than Wren.

To true if your employing a joiner for your build Who has good attention to detail Get the kitchen supply only and ask him to fit Though Wickes and wren are not keen on supply only we called in Wickes over Christmas to match two replacement units to one of our rentals We were told that they couldn’t give prices for indidual units Though there was a sign stating 50% of fitting I asked if the fitters where on half money for January

The Building Construction Handbook 11th Edition page 953. By my calcs a modern insulated B&B floor will exceed this, [Edit] though I note the OP is discussing an insulated raft. The diagram in the book shows the rest bend connecting to the vertical stack just below the floor concrete. If say from FFL you have 80mm screed + 150mm insulation + 100mm block + long rest bend radius of 280mm = 610mm

Yep! And often those who are available are available for a reason.

Problem with that is that they all say we have our own fitters But the reality is that they use whoever is available and pay a fraction of what you are being charged

Maybe you could get the names of the fitters before they arrive and do a search to see if you can find any reviews? My husband fitted my kitchen (apart from the granite worktop) and whilst he wasn’t massively experienced (had just fitted one kitchen prior to this one) he did spend lots of time getting things right. A commercial fitter will need to work much faster so they’ll need to be pretty decent for it to look right.

Also had a Howdens - really hate the way they price and then discount by 80% but ultimately worked out really well. I agree with what was said earlier - the fitter is so important, our builder did ours and he used a new chippie that was hopeless we had to get so much re-fitted. As long as you like the look of the cabinets/interiors etc etc then do what you can to check that the fitters are experienced with Wren and that they read fitting instructions for each appliance.

We got the kitchen, bar and utility room from Wren. Didn't have any issues at all. Love the kitchen. I'm sure there are better quality kitchens out there but you might only know if you are the type of person to tap the backs of cupboards or inspect the sides of cover panels

I agree Ian There are some really good fitters out there But it is pot luck who you get I fitted ours myself as I thought it was a lot of money to spend to have it messed up Our last kitchen I fitted about seven years ago It cost 5k from BQ My wife assembled all the units and it looks as good today as when it was fitted Fitting and more important the finishing are everything

Pea gravel around the pipes. But it doesn't compact so will be no good for paths. As far paths any kind of crushed stone will do. Type 1 or 3 will do. Get the cheaper one.

Wren arnt Great But in saying that we spent £18000 on a German kitchen and quarts worktops Supply only While the kitchen looks great several items arrived damaged four weeks for replacements to arrive from Germany Somthing worth considering I’ve fitted quite a few Howden kitchens Very rate to have anything missing and most things are stock items Though there sales technique for a one off requires a bit of patience

You like the kitchen: you would not have bought it otherwise. The key thing is the fitter(s). Attention to detail? Careful? Experienced? Competent?

My foundations are open at the moment and in the wet weather running up to Christmas the trenches partially filled. I currently have 600mm x 600mm of poured concrete and two courses of blocks which brings the blockwork up to ground level on one side and 1/2 block below ground level on the other side of the house due to a gradient. The trenches filled to about 1.25 blocks deep at worse but following some pumping I realized this was caused by surface run off external to the oversite and also some run off from the contained oversite. The good news is that following a less wet period I have discovered that the winter water table is much lower than the flooding indicated after digging some drainage sumps 400mm below the poured concrete top. I have not used the sump pump for 3 weeks and have found the sub soil (silt plus some clay) has a natural self draining capacity after moderate periods of rain. During the most sustained wet periods the trench pooling did not overtop the oversite so your situation might be worse. I am less concerned about the over all situation because once the roof is on that will eliminate one source of foundation flooding. Like you I might consider a drain where the foundations face the uphill plot gradient just to encourage surface water to take a faster route around the property footprint and down to a soak away on the lower side of the plot.

We have similar ground and my builder backfilled with 50mm drainage stone, no membrane (as he reckons it clogs with clay silt) and this was linked to the rainwater drainage to get all surface water away from the build. We did the same with the garage and it has worked very well. I also talked to a land drainage company about our field which is like a bog in places and he said the same about membrane or pipes blocking and stone in a French drain worked best.

I went to Wren and various other companies who were all quoting around 20k. I decided to order our kitchen from DIY kitchens who will supply worktop and cabinets (including doors) and I will source all appliances myself. This has saved us around 5-6k

I know a couple of people who had bad experiences with Wren but not sure whether they were just unlucky. DIY Kitchens often seems to come up as good value, although they don’t do installations I believe. Howdens also seem quite popular.

Seems OK. Looking back we have spent £4,500 for 1 bed flats up to £11,000 for 4 bed houses.

Crushed concrete is cheap and works fine. You may want to top it off with a bit of proper type 1 to get a smoother finish for the final paving or tarmac.

? https://www.tradetiler.com/consumables/grout-colorant.html

where I live and about to build new house --s/w scotland it would be a no brainer --composite every time -- its a damp climate with clean air and everything not in direct sun goes green --so easy to hit it with the power wash to clean up real wood to me is not on my list for those reasons and why I will probably clad and not render more expensive now maybe --cheap in 10 years time there are cement board cladding types that looks like wood as well as plastic types .

I was in a glass lift in a very smart hotel in Dortmund The lift was packed with German businessmen and me It stoped between floors and there was that Elephant in the room moment I learned forward looked down at the logo and Said in my best German Ah made in the U.K. It certainly broke the ice

Would look better with 2 in each tile.

Be careful as very wide treads start to get expensive in anything but white wood.

They need to be a bit wider in Scotland. I measured the gap and made them as wide as would fit, at 930mm wide.

@Weebles I would build it before plasterboarding, my treads are (rushes out with tape measure) 820mm and 480mm between up and down risers (dictated by distance between walls). ?

£1000.00 ? I have decided on a clear coat lacquer, I prefer the natural colour. Our windows are borderline too orange coloured for my liking.

Whatever band they allocate, it is worth appealing, you will often get it down a band.

Pear Stairs provide the half landing if you ask and it’s not expensive.

It is textured not smooth, the other samples I had yesterday were Rockpanel and smooth, though I quite like these too.

I've had a sample today of something called Vulcan Weathertone. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong profile samples and ended up with the shiplap profile which isn't the one we need but it's quite an interesting product compared with some of the other products as it's textured. The darker sample is the Dark Oak and the lighter sample is the Natural Cedar. For anyone wondering what it's made of the brochure says it's production process 'premium fibres of mixed hardwoods using the entire tree, breaks these down into 100% natural wood fibres, combines them with a 6% mix of resin, wax and alum and compresses them under extreme heat and pressure. The surface treatment consists of 5 separate coats of acrylic paint baked on a high temperature'. I've tried to upload some pictures so you can see it as I've not seen it mentioned before. One pic of each colour and me holding them both together so you can see the different colours.

I remember our basement looking like that - wan't much point clearing it until the rest of the house was watertight. At the end it resembled the trash compactor from Star Wars...

Same bell but driven by a relay controlled by Raspberry pi monitoring two infrared sensors on my gates. The only trouble is the bell can not be heard in all parts of the house so using Home Assistant and a MQTT broker, I intend for the Raspberry Pi to publish a topic to the MQTT broker when ever the infrared beams are broken and a wifi Sonoff running Tasomota will be subscribed to that topic and will ring a bell, make a buzz elsewhere in the house. Still working on getting the C program on the Pi to call the MQTT broker though.

Saw a Howdens designed kitchen a few months back - didn't fit, despite them coming and measuring twice for the design. And you sign off that you accept their dimensions and they aren't responsible if it doesn't fit ! The spec was for soft close drawers on all units, and they supplied the wrong soft closers 3 timed before finally admitting the provided drawer types couldn't have them retrofitted and they had supplied the wrong carcasses.... Has put me off for life !