laurenco

We're about to start battening, renderboarding and rendering our timber frame... the renderer has been pushing the structural engineer on whether or not we're required to incorporate compression joints into our huge swaths of render, and, having been somewhat vague about the issue, the engineer now advised compression/movement joints ought to go in. I've not found much online, but what I've come across is lines that run down or across the render which would tarnish the design of the house. Has anyone had to incorporate these into their build? Would you share pictures? and does anyone know what the guidance is on these? And whether they're necessary?

Yes, we changed our window positioning about a bit with a non-material amendment; even added rooflights with a NMA and it went through quite quickly. But that's assuming you have planning consent. You mentioned an appeal. Do this mean your planning application was rejected? If so, on what grounds? Can you make the window amendment as part of the appeal? Alternatively can you re-submit your planning application as a fresh new application with this smaller window, rather than an appeal? The council don't charge an application fee for this and they have to reply within 8 weeks which is a lot shorter than a 28 week appeal. We got planning permission and then threw it into the wind and applied all over again for a totally different style house, and this planning application fee was free, provided we applied within 12 months of the planning decision, which we did. If so, rather than appeal, might a re-submission be a viable option?

Thanks @Thedreamer. We're just finalising the quote to clad in cedarwood. Our render guy is talking about CP / render boarding behind the cedar to make it weathertight, but if we can board straight to the batten, this will save a job. Is the breather membrane just the foil protector that comes wrapped around the TF?

Thanks @Weebles

This looks great and what a striking design @Weebles Pleased you got there in the end. Did you affix the cladding straight to the battens? and therefore not use any renderboard or anything else to waterproof the area?

Hi @Thedreamer Can I ask whether you put battens / render board /CP board behind the cladding to provide a cavity and a waterproof later? If not, how are you waterproofing this section of the build?

Hi @Moira Niedzwiecka Sorry for jumping on the post. I love the photo of your house and am wondering what to ask for to get this type of gutter? It looks brilliant.

Thanks @JSHarris The rooflights are south westerly facing so yes, this could be an issue....

We're planning on using our attic space as a playroom and I can't work out whether the temperature will be balanced or if it's going to be too hot up there in the summer and too cold in the winter. The house is an MBC build (0.11 walls, insulated roof and slab) which is currently in build, with triple glazed alu-clad windows (which are fixed apex windows in the attic). We're putting UFH on the ground and first floor but nothing in the attic. The MVHR unit is going up here so we can add vents into this space and there will be a number of rooflights, probably double glazed. Will this be enough to create a usable temperature up here? If the whole house is 3G, are we made to put double glazed up here (to cut costs)?

Velux don't do unvented, Fakro do. Infuriatingly this drives the price up considerably. Beers Building Supplies have offered a decent discount off Fakro RRP, so perhaps try them. I'm afraid the lead-in time won't change though. They suggested 21 days for unvented as this is a special order product, whereas they have thousands of vented ones on the shelf, which can be dispatched immediately. For the u-value debate (if this is of any use to anyone) on 118x78cm rooflights we're looking at a u-value of 0.97w/m2k (centre pane value 0.5w/m2k) for triple glazed and 1.3w2K (glass u-value 1.0W.m2K) on double glazed, the latter of which is probably the option we'll end up with. I don't know what they're like, but have just come across YARDLITE unvented off the peg rooflights with delivery in 3-5 days and a next day option available. https://www.yarddirect.com/yardlite-aax-centre-pivot-unvented-white-pine-roof-window I wonder if anyone has used this brand before and can vouch for it?

@Dreadnaught good luck with the planning permission. It's been too cold to pour the slab. We need 48 hours with the temperature not dropping below 5 degrees, so that's a lesson for doing foundations in the middle of winter. For now, the wall panels are holed up at the factory ?

@Sue B We went with an MBC passive slab on 1m-1.8m of Made Ground on top of sand, and we learnt the hard way... if you have Made Ground you must either remove it or pile around it, even with a passive slab going on top. Terrified of the expense of mini-piles, we opted to remove circa 700 TONNES of Made Ground, which we were lucky we could dump into our [lower] garden. We then replaced the land with MOT Hardcore Type 1. In all it cost around £9k in hardcore plus say £2k labour. When the Building Inspector came, he delayed the foundations install by a week whilst we commissioned a Plate Test (£300+vat) to determine the absolute force of the Hardcore, which thankfully was fine. But I'd get this done asap if I was doing it again, and I wouldn't wait to be told by MBC as their engineer (Hilliard Tanner) waited until the run up to Christmas to advise us to get this done for a January install. I'm sorry this doesn't help with the water table question - I expect a drainage engineer could advise better on this..? @vivienz Can I ask how much the mini-piles ended up being? Ballpark figures. I still don't know if we made the right decision removing the Made Ground in favour of mini piles.

@Dreadnaught back to the original question - which wall thickness did you go for? We opted for 0.11 (for cost reasons, else would have loved passive) and here are some of our external walls wrapped in foil in their factory

I don't think we can / will hide the downpipes (unfortunately). The walls are timber frame and MBC have designed the roof detail (posi joist roof) to accommodate the box gutter on the pitched roof with concrete slate-effect roof tiles. I have found a fabricator who will make and install the gutter so fingers crossed!

@AliG I love the aluminium. Your gable looks striking

@AliG I love this, thank you. Will probably be very expensive, but lets see..

brilliant @RussdlThanks for this. I'm sorry you bottled it. Were you happy with what you went for in the end?

I hadn't thought about condensation at all! What does your architect advise about this? Are you having a warm roof? And wouldn't flashing mitigate the condensation? i'd love to see your architect's detailing if you're open to sharing it? Has he done working drawings yet?

I'm thinking parapet downpipes (from out of the side of the house)

some pictures would be great ?

Our house design is similar to a house I saw once in Prestbury (see pic of the house I saw, and our design). Fully concealed gutters and aluminium cappings for the gables have been designed and the materials sourced. The only thing I'm struggling to find is a roofer who has experience doing this. My roofer (who is to lay the slates and fit the rooflights) said he'll have a go with bespoke alu lengths, but given any errors in the installation of concealed gutters will most likely put rainwater down the inside of our property, I'm keen to take an any advice from people who have gone down this route, before we mess up. Has anyone else installed concealed gutters and/or aluminium cappings onto the gables in this way? (please, no advice telling me not to go down this route - it's fundamental to the design, and ultimately, it's too late to change nowl!)

Can you contact the original architect who is familiar with the project? I've found Architects hate taking on other people's work, but the original guy might be more amenable?

I suspect you're right @scottishjohn about it leaking and then being filled in. I've had a quote to disc cut the top of the walls and lay them on the pool floor which sounds like the cheapest way forward. I'm waiting to hear back from MBC on whether we can sink a sewer pipe in the 'deep end' and access it through the floor of the house without ruining our insulated foundations.

amazing thanks @lizzie

ah I see..