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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/22/19 in all areas

  1. What are you meaning by "plumbers pipes"? Surely you are not talking about the under floor heating pipes? And you can't blame the trades for chasing the floor to get services to an island. Just what else do you expect them to do?
    2 points
  2. I can't see it matters for a VAT claim. You could quite legitimately be living on site in a caravan and using the site address during the build.
    2 points
  3. As for having to work a lot of things out yourself. That would be because your spec, and drawings are not up to scratch. Sorry. There will always be things that will have been missed, and things that crop up during the project, and decisions will have to be made. Say i was project managing your project. I would be ringing you up abroad in your villa, and saying, " The sparky has arrived, and i've picked him up on the fact that he wants to run his wires across the floor. (Easiest route) " He says that there was nothing in the spec that he quoted from, that you wanted ceiling wires with drops, and that is going to cost you more. I would be telling you that unless you want to bin him off, (at the risk of being sued due to breaking his contract) and start getting new quotes from sparkies, (and delay the job) then you hav'nt get much option other than to pay him.
    1 point
  4. That is why planning is so important. you have the drawings, and spec. You knew what the floor build up was going to be, and now you are asking all the other trades to work around the fact that the floor make up is causing an issue. If you had said to the sparky at the quote stage, that you wanted all of the wires run through the ceiling and dropped down the walls, then he would have quoted you for that. If you did'nt tell him that, and it was not on any spec, or drawings that you gave him to quote from, then i'm afraid that's called bad planning.
    1 point
  5. Good job I'm no longer a Parish Councillor then... FWIW, my reasons for resigning as a councillor were because I got fed up with the PC repeatedly ignoring everything from laws to policies.
    1 point
  6. My lead flashing came with a suitable "Chinaman's Hat" that slides over the flue, slides down onto the top of the flashing and clamps to it. I also sealed the gap between the flue and the "hat"
    1 point
  7. One potential snag with raising the level may be the maximum allowable gradient at the initial part of the access road. We were initially given a standard condition that the initial gradient of our drive at the approach to the lane would not exceed 1:15 for the first 4.5m back from the lane. We couldn't achieve this, due to a conflict with the minimum level AOD of the garage and parking area, but our planning officer just allowed the steeper gradient, on the basis that conditions from the EA apparently trump those from highways. Whether this was just his opinion, or whether it's embedded in policy somewhere, I've no idea, I was just grateful to see common sense being used.
    1 point
  8. You may have trouble arguing that over a 20 year period. Policy changes and tightens. Though pointing out that a busy Antiques Business would generate many times more traffic might help ? .
    1 point
  9. You can sometimes get lucky with the highways people. Our plot originally had an entrance on to a very narrow section of single track lane, in a location that made getting the house, drive etc on to the plot challenging. A local parish councillor mentioned that he knew the highways chap fairly well, and suggested I call him to see what he could suggest. The highways chap turned out to be really helpful, agreed to meet me on site when he was next in the village looking at something related to speed limits, and spent about ten minutes or so looking at options and making suggestions. At the end of this short meeting he gave me his email address and told me to email him when we put the application in, with a reminder of what we'd discussed. The result was, that despite the relatively poor visibility, he raised no objections. Doesn't make getting out of our drive any easier, but as cars can't really do more than a few miles an hour along the lane it's not really an issue. The slow speed of traffic along the lane was the thing that I think swung it for us, together with the chap being just one of those "can do" helpful characters that wanted to help us find a solution.
    1 point
  10. Latest place has a 25mm PIR upstand all around perimeter of slab finishing flush at FFL. I think the slab is specced at around .15 U value so you know what i'm working with. At the minute my french doors are set to sit ontop of DPC brickwork with around 50mm sticking up. 30mm cill blues 20mm ally threshold. Door frame set back 30mm into cavity so effectively bridging this PIR at floor level. I am considering ripping out 1 course of brickwork below french doors and having them made 75mm higher. I can then use a 30mm cill and bigger section (70mm ish) PVC bottom rail. I think using the PVC bottom rail gives better performance as not relying on the draught seal under the doors, it's against the face as the rebate is all around. Only snag is I will be ripping out the 25mm PIR behind the door to achieve the setback. The edge of the slab will be upto the PVC cill. In practice would this scenario be any worse than the pvc cill bridging over the PIR as per original way? I suspect not but looking for advice. Don't need any calls done just your opinions please. Obviously I prefer option 2 because it gives be that better draught seal performance and a lower profile cill as it is effectively set 75mm down. Cheers
    1 point
  11. Yes, I thought it would have been lime mortar, but the damage to the bricks incurred when chipping it off suggests maybe not... I'm pretty sure a jet wash isn't going to get the mortar off. These bricks I'm attempting to re-use are from an old wall elsewhere on site, so the mortar is on the top, bottom and sides of the brick, not the face. I was under the impression it all needs to come off before they're re-laid... unless anyone knows if brickies can live with a bit of old mortar here or there when re-using old bricks?
    1 point
  12. We lived in our bungalow while we built the replacement house in the garden. We have always used the same address throughout the build.
    1 point
  13. Part M does not apply as this is an extension. They can only kick off if you make it worse.
    1 point
  14. I don’t agree with that, the utility can double as a “mud room” as the Americans call it. A place to come in with muddy boots, wet dog (if you have one) hang wet coats etc, wish we had one.
    1 point
  15. Hi Onoff- yes this is the right frame of mind, as it goes into final exterior xyz all exciting etc, it'll help subdue my H concerns for now. Builder being extra nice now, communicating, slate window sill, another for door sill. Roof slates are canadian (not spanish cheapos I assumed) something cool about a seam running from wales under atlantic up to canada.. he told me. Quality overall is all very good. Scratch coat monday. I'm not sure of Part M.. but I don't need to know. B. regs, & planning (considering I got the balcony ok'd via an NMA) shows things are just done different out here in the wild west to england I think.
    1 point
  16. We opted for a half-way house, decent MDF carcases with solid oak doors. We had the same units for ~10 years in our old house and they stood up well. Not that expensive, either. Worth getting decent hinges, though, as a bathroom environment can be tough on cheaper "kitchen quality" hinges. At our old house I found the plain steel springs inside the hinges corroded fairly quickly. The units we have in the house have Blum hinges that seem to use plated springs, so they are probably less susceptible to getting a bit of condensation. The MVHR probably helps, too, as the bathrooms dry out very quickly here.
    1 point
  17. Make sure the box is secure as building sites and empty houses tend to attract thieves.
    1 point
  18. Thanks Ferdinand. Since this is our first eve bathroom, I think we will be a bit OTT on the waterproofing. The vinyl tiles are 100% water proof and made for bathrooms so we should ok on that front. Your advice is sound. We’ve experienced minor water leaks, and that was bad enough, so we will go the extra distance to make it as water tight was possible.
    1 point
  19. In another thread: @JSHarris wrote: On reflection I'm beginning to think relating airtightness to floor area would make sense, which is probably why nobody does it. Ideally, it'd be done per person (m³/h/peep, or better l/s/peep) but you can't really determine the number of people who will occupy the house. Passivhaus does some other measures using finished-floor area as a proxy for the number of people, e.g., heat load, total heating and primary energy use. Apart from this tending to encourage larger houses with wasted space, I don't think it'd be completely mad to treat air leakage in the same way. Using air permeability (m³/m²·h, as per building regs in the UK) fails to penalise awkward shaped houses (e.g., long and thin) which leak more air for the same permeability and internal area just because they have a larger envelope area. Using AC/h fails to penalise unnecessarily large houses. Say you have a 10 m x 10 m bungalow with a room height of 2.4 metres, then the envelope area is 296 m². If the leakage is 1 m³/m²·h then that's 296 m³/h and the air change rate is 296/240 = 1.233 AC/h. If you increase the ceilings to 3 metres the envelope increases to 320 m² and so the air change rate becomes 320/300 = 1.0667 AC/h. I.e., better even though the house is actually leaking more air. I doubt this makes a huge difference in practice (other than it being very difficult to build tiny houses to Passivhaus standards) and there isn't really a single right answer I do think it's worth being aware of the tradeoffs between the different methods of measurement.
    1 point
  20. It'll be only just over 1m from side boundary, so close! I'm not sure if I really need to ammend application just to add ASHP (mixed messages from council). We will be submitting an ammended for something else though, so I was wondering if it made sense to add it into this ammendment, or not bother and go ahead anyway.. That's a good idea!
    1 point
  21. A few observations: If the FRONT (which I take to be the bottom on the plans) faces south, then you have put the most important rooms, facing north where they will get no sun. I wold put Family / kitchen /diner down one side of the house with dual aspect to get the sun at the front and open out to the garden at the back. I would put the lounge at the front the other side to get the sun, and utiliy and bedroom at the back. We had a very similar staircase in the middle with a gallery landing. It certainly gave a wow factor but it uses up a LOT of space. That does not fit with cheap to build? I am not saying change it, as it was a feature we liked, but I was always conscious of just how much space it used up. I suspect you are going to have to do a LOT more work than you are expecting to get down to your price.
    1 point
  22. Inside roof etc. You can see two big 9.5" steps that had to be as compromise due to the low H 'discrepency'. H here will be ok.. but the width 850mm on the plan, is made 820mm block to block (so will need ? on the surface as a finish narrowing it to ?). Nothing I can do about it/ I've only just been able to get in here & measure. You can see the existing roof felt: this area is as the rest of house is/ 2 brick courses with no insulation then roof air in the big voids between inner brick & pB.. hence freezing cold bedrooms. Will be a great sized room. If only floor & ceiling were this damn 1ft higher they should be tho..
    1 point
  23. Good to make sure - don't want your sewage going to Sydney, even more rules then ?
    1 point
  24. I think he meant 12.5mm
    1 point
  25. Builder put a nice bit of slate sill on for me, & window will be set back ~level with the start of block. Good suggestion re. ties/ blocking the side to narrow..
    1 point
  26. Is the best/only design resource needed Approved document H. Most of the pipe manufacturers have design guides. The vertical distance below the FFL of the house that the foul drain can start moving to the side from the stack location (ADH has this at 1.3m in some situations). No comprende The minimum internal diameter of the pipe (75mm?) required. 110mm O/D plastic pipe is standard The minimum fall of pipe (ADH seems to have this at 1:80 / 12.5cm every 1m) required. Yes. 1:60 even better minimum depth of pipe under ground level (ADH seems to 150mm from the crown of the pipe) As long as it is protected and pedestrian only area Man hole covers at every junction point Preferred but not always essential rodding access points? Not always needed if you have inspection chambers
    1 point
  27. How much off the work will you be doing ?
    1 point
  28. If you don't want to make your own (not hard or expensive, and can be very flexiable). Then consider iButtons and a reader. https://uk.farnell.com/c/semiconductors-ics/memory/ibuttons-accessories/ibuttons
    1 point
  29. Also how is / does the insulation detail look as the block work might be part of the insulation detail.
    1 point
  30. CIL was never, ever meant to be applied like this by the zealots of LAPD - it was to mitigate the impact of development on the local infrastructure But give pipsqueaks power and they squeeze till the pips squeak (LAPD = Local Authority Planning Dept) :-)
    1 point
  31. Mortar at the base of the cavity is not usually a problem on open cavities unless the is a gas/pollution membrane at the foot of the cavity (at floor level). If there isn't this in place then mortar will just drop down to the oversite level and not a big issue acoustically. The big issue acoustically comes where there is a gas/pollution membrane at the foot of the cavity and the mortar gets trapped and the brickies don't clear it out. A way around this is to keep blocks out at the base of the cavity to allow cleaning of mortar droppings.
    1 point
  32. I mean that normal laminate will curl up like brown paper if it floods. So you need a moisture resistant one. I had been planning vinyl or vinyl tile for my bathroom to be extra safe, but got 20 packs of Quick-Step flooring at an excellent discount from B&Q so used that for the bathroom. I was pointing out that it is worth thinking about what happens in the more humid environment, and also where a flood will go. I have a personal penchant for overengineering, though. One of my thumbrules is that I like a waterproof floor in the room with the washing machine to be able to contain a washing machine full of water. Probably meaningless, but makes me feel comfortable and is probably a useful habit of thought. Ferdinand
    1 point
  33. Well Monday's phone call from Building control never happened. I take it they either don't know the figures or don't determine it important enough to tell me. So on that basis I have just amended the spreadsheet to remove references to "Part F" but otherwise leaving the compliance values the same. If I am asked at completion for any documentation with regards the MVHR it will be met by "show me the figures stated in the 2013 Scottish building regs that I have to comply to"
    1 point
  34. Indeed, almost impossible to define sensibly. But it's worth remembering that m² is really just a proxy for people kept comfy. One or two people living in an enormous house is likely wasteful even if it's a creditably low W/m². On the other hand, the W bit doesn't make much sense either. For example, sunlight coming in through a window is counted as free energy but sunlight falling on a PV panel, converted to electricity used to heat water (for space heating or DHW) does count which seems totally arbitrary to me. I get that sunlight in July shouldn't offset electricity in January but sunlight in March which is used instantly shouldn't be included in you W/m² All reasons why getting too precious about which m² count is not overly productive.
    1 point
  35. The very definition of passive house is <= 15kWh/m2 per year heating load. PHPP uses the concept of annual energy use per "total treated floor area" pretty much equivalent to useful floor area. I always think of our house as 160m2 but it's actually 151 when I subtract the area used by internal walls, first floor void (above stairs and hallway) etc. which slightly penalises the efficiency
    1 point
  36. I looked into this a bit and came to the conclusion the wildlife type remote cameras was best for this given long battery life, light conditions, waterproof, etc. Some support streaming over the mobile network as well.
    1 point
  37. I have paid the deposit on 2 structural kits from Alexander Timber Design in Troon. Hoping to take delivery 1st week in December. They were the most competitive and have been good to deal with so far. Can't comment much further until I get the kits on site and see how they fit but I would certainly recommend the structural option. That way you do not have as big an outlay at the start. You will need to supply your own doors/windows, plasterboard, flooring etc. Using this option gives you good flexibility as you buy materials when they are needed (and can usually pick up a few bargains from sales/builders merchants/gumtree/ebay etc I bought a kit from Scotframe before and through no fault of theirs the project ran on a bit but they deliver to a set date for each phase and although there was some flexibility it was not really enough for what I needed so if you go down the full kit option make sure you keep to schedule as material will be turning up to pre determined dates. With the structural kit you can include all the internal partitions and this gives you pretty much a clean slate to work from once erected and as mentioned before gives you greater flexibility regarding the flow of materials. Hope that helps.
    1 point
  38. Presumably they don't do any assembly of the kit on site themselves? If they did their labour and the kit should be zero rated.
    1 point
  39. I've been really taken by Scotframe, Ray Waite spent ages with us, he was really informative and had great insight. I did feel a sting though when I saw the VAT, realising I would have to carry that liability through the entire build.
    1 point
  40. Forgot to update you with the finished result. Very happy!!!
    1 point
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