divorcingjack

I love negotiating, it's my favourite hobby! If I could make a business out of doing other people's negotiating for them - buying cars and the like, I'd be delighted. As far as the build has gone, I think it really helps to know your stuff (as much as you can anyway) and drop in technical bits and pieces where you can. I think it warned some of the salesmen that I wasn't about to be taken in with any old nonsense. I also always told an anecdote about another salesman that made assumptions about my level of knowledge and lost a lot of business through it. Bribery always helps too, of course As does charm and banter.

We had to provide one to get our JCT insurance for close-to-next-door excavation. Our structural engineer had to do a full soil investigation, report, drawings and specifications of the way he wanted it done (excavation hit and miss pattern, type of hardcore, compaction methods and number of layers etc). It was very detailed, and correspondingly expensive. If your wall has been designed by an engineer, then ask them. It'll cost you, but means that your public liability should pay up (if necessary) as you have a document to refer to as the blueprint of "how it should be done".

@Trw144 Can I ask where you got those tiles? I've been looking for similar ones without too much success. Beautiful.

It's difficult to say as he's doing all the work for our whole build, but I'm sure when the quote came in a site visit was charged at £400. I'm assuming that includes travel, a report, as well as some email/phone correspondence back and forth with us/the architect.

Our Structural engineer site visit and follow up work is certainly not £100/hr. Definitely more in the 2-400 range suggested. And he doesn't even say that much!

Let me know how your floor goes too! That's the hope for our build. Is it a slab, or a polished screed? Looks lovely

Has anyone successfully managed to engineer a cantilevered element into their timber frame build? We have a design feature of a cantilevered "pod" section to the house - about 750mm wide, which brings extra light into both floors with a full height window and provides a section of seating area (downstairs) and a bath location (upstairs). The reason it was originally cantilevered was that it sits next to a neighbours dug-down flat (about 2.4m below our current site level), and this allowed the foundation to avoid loading the neighbours basement wall. However, I've not been able to find a detail that allows for a cantilever (balcony/structural element) in a passive house. If we have to bring it to ground, it potentially introduces a world of problems with their neighbours basement. Our engineer (not MBC) is now not keen on the passive slab and wants standard foundations. Obviously, I don't! Any suggestions? I have attached the plans FYI. The "pod" is on the east side of the building, adjoining the kitchen. PL004-910139-1.pdf PL003-910138-1.pdf

I just wanted to thank you all for your input, I have now got a suggested detail from MBC Can't say that I understand it 100%, but at least they've had some other info to look at!

I didn't mean the timescale, I meant the fact that the fitters damaged all his windows! Surely that's not standard Our architect is very good and I have every faith in his details - but the lack of a prime contractor is why I'm on here, to try and educate myself as to how things should be. I was just pointing out that when you pay professionals, it's a shame that we feel the need to double-check their advice and look out for errors, you should be able to rely on them. That goes for everything in life though, buying a house, getting financial advice, buying a car etc. The amount of simply incorrect information I have come across in the financial arena is terrifying. dj

I think we're going to have our gutters/downpipes in zinc to match the cladding. I can't recall the exact figure, but when added into the already massive zinc quote, it wasn't too horrendous. I deliberately didn't find out the cost in plastic, otherwise I'd never have been able to justify having the zinc. Should be long lasting, but it's more for the look. Excuse my ignorance, but what's a hedgehog? I'm assuming some useful gutter-cleaning device as opposed to a well trained spiky thing.

The comments about the fitting and service are so disappointing and has been my experience with a lot of companies and professionals so far, although a few notable exceptions - my architect and MBC being two. I'm by no means an expert, but there's been lack of communication, mistake after mistake, lack of listening to what I actually asked for, patronising, blatant lies etc etc. You pay a fortune, you expect people to be professional and do a good job! Cheap windows I could understand paying your money and taking your chance, but Internorm are definitely NOT cheap! I wonder if the parent company are aware of the antics of some of their dealers. Alex, that sounds a nightmare! I hope you managed to get it sorted out in the end, but not without cost, I imagine. Terry, thanks for the info, the pictures are so helpful dj

Ours is 5m wide too, it's not easy Thinking of rigging up some kind of outdoor arrangement with sailcloth!

Thanks Ian, is your build timber frame as well? Where did you source the GRP profile? I'd be interested in the blinds too - our window is about the same height as yours and directly south facing. Although we have an overhanging canopy, I definitely want to have the option for tracked blinds too, but getting the width and drop for the group is neither easy nor cheap

Thanks for the replies both. Alex - thank you so much for those details, I will pass them along to our architect for him to have a look at. By approved detail, I just meant one that is reasonably robust and thermally efficient, not "officially" approved. I unfortunately don't know enough to assess how good a threshold detail is, so was looking for a "pretty good" example to show to MBC and my architect as a shortcut for my preferred option. This forum is so useful as everyone understands the issues with airtightness and thermal bridging, so I tend to use it as something of a "hive mind". Barney - perhaps my wording put across an incorrect impression. MBC have been nothing but helpful, but I had an email the other day asking if I'd like a recessed threshold or not, and I'm doing this more for my own curiosity. I haven't received the drawings from MBC yet, so I'm sure their detail will be great. They also told me that they have worked with Internorm before, but there is an added complexity with our case that our dealer has gone under, so we don't have a local contact to chase for approved internorm details etc. I am concerned about providing sufficient support for the big sliders though and what sill to use, as I was just told that Interterm don't provide sills?! Mind you, I wouldn't trust our original salesman as far as I could spit, so who knows what incorrect info I have been given.

Hi all, Does anyone have a thermally efficient, close to level door threshold detail that will work with an MBC insulated slab and timber frame? We have one door in an area which is brick clad, one in a timber clad section and a very big lift and slide internorm door as well. We also have 3 tilt and slide windows as well, and MBC have just asked me what threshold we'd like. I'm concerned about supporting the weight of the lift and slide, as I presume any sill/threshold will act as a thermal bridge? Is there an approved detail that will work? Thanks for any advice, dj

The one we saw was called Neolith, by TheSize. Spanish, I believe. I think there's a couple of manufacturers that do a similar thing. If you're made of money, you can use it for wall panelling and flooring too! I'll see if I can find the video that I saw initially. It's probably uneconomic if you've a lot of worktop space, but we're just using one slab to do an island, they guy said it's approx 10-15% over a silestone type material and approx level with high quality granite. vfrdave - we first saw it in a showroom in Belfast, so I wonder if it was the same company? nickfromwales - unfortunately the only images we have are of a muddy square and an worryingly empty bank account just now Not started yet, but we tried to choose everything now. https://youtu.be/UOV2-8RaOVM

I had a look at this as well, I'm not a fan of the weathered look either. From what I remember, whatever treatment you use must have an effective UV screen, otherwise it will grey, albeit more evenly. As mentioned above OSMO came out as a brand to look at. Thanks for the info about Sioo, I'll demo have a look - I'll buy any of your leftovers if you like, we've only got a relatively small amount of larch to do.

I love the thinner look, it does look much more modern. We're going for an extreme version of this scenario, ours are a 5mm ceramic! Saw them in a showroom and fell in love with the material. Heatproof, scratchproof, totally impervious. Excellent for the careless cook like myself Love the colour of your cabinets by the way, gorgeous and very restful.

Thanks Crofter, We're still investigating the possibility of adding it to our contractors insurance as we are coming up with minimum premiums of £1000 for a weeks cover, plus our site insurance The nightmare scenario is that we destabilise one of the neighbouring flats as our house is so tight to the boundary - the perils of developing an urban site.

Building a 4 bed detached passive-ish modern home in the centre of beautiful St. Andrews, Fife Hopefully starting properly in September/early October.

Hi all, I'm currently wading through the nightmare that is getting site insurance set up and have hit a wall with Zurich. We will be building/digging next to neighbours (blocks of flats) on two sides and some prefab garages at the back, all within 3m, some under 1m away. All specified by an engineer, but still ... We are in Scotland, so we don't have party wall agreements but I am worried about the possibility of damage occurring to other properties. So, I got a quote from SelfbuildUK (zurich policy) and then phoned them up to see about the possibility of adding JCT cover for non negligent damage. The Zurich lady INSISTS that they cannot give me JCT cover as I am not a contractor and the accidental damage section of my self build policy will cover it, as the wording below: So my question is - what is the difference between public liability cover for accidental damage and JCT cover? Sub-section 1 – Public Liability a) accidental death of or accidental Personal Injury to any person other than an Employee where such death or Personal Injury arises out of and in the course of the employment b) accidental loss of or accidental damage to material property So this outlines that ANY accidental damage to a property will be covered under this section. The limit of indemnity is £5,000,000.