lizzie

Can't you just take a bit more on your existing mortgage to fund it? Would be cheaper and easier.

Mine is back at 22 today....cleaner been this morning so plenty of activity to get the heat up!

I have Silvalbp Siberian Larch with new Age Gris sacrificial coating - via Vincent Timber. Its a horizontal secret fix. Stainless steel fixings used. The quality of the larch was far superior to other larch samples I had from Vastern etc I had always thought I would have WRC and had lots of samples, was pretty set on one from Russwood with Siou coating. Last minute unexpected swerve to larch when I saw the Silva lbp Larch sample - it was a coup de foudre! Reason for me dithering on the cedar was really because of the colour variations even from v expensive supplier - Russwood. I was also concerned with what you term bruising...if someone bashed a garden chair into it would not look good all dented. The larch is reassuringly heavy and feels more durable. We are high on a ridge very exposed. Our larch does not appear to have moved much on the house in the last year however my bin store and meter cupboards have had had a lot of swelling and shrinkage. That may have happened on the house but we are just not aware of it. I had a superb carpenter to fit it. Very experienced and took account of timber movement. I wanted the sacrificial coating as I hate the uneven old shed look and blackened bits a no no for me. Ours is crisp and beautiful and we have white render and RAL 706 too. I hope it remains as beautiful as it ages. I can't say anything about the longevity as too new but I would be expecting more than 15 years from it. The pic is last year about this time.

Party sounds good!

My MVHR is working well now it has finally been properly set up. The last couple of months house is staying at +/- 22 degrees day and night with no UFH input. All good. I have been on my own here for a few days (and nights) and noticed that the temp of the house has dropped a bit. Just me and woofer here not creating a lot of heat on my own, not much cooking, just one shower a day etc. Is low occupancy (1) in a reasonable size (200sqm single storey) a factor in this? Not enough heat to recover?

No luck with guttercrest? The Marley Alutec stuff is so expensive but we found they can have a discount of circa 50% if you haggle. We got our pc ali covers for the eps base fabricated...a bit like up side down gutters perhaps. Maybe thats an option.

Mine are inward opening I chose that deliberately, The tilt opening is very useful for ventilation.

I have had e-mails from John Lewis about their tradesmen service. I am considering using this due to the lack of competent and available people in this part of the world!

Going rate in this part of the Mids is circa £250 a day for a general bloke. Daylight robbery really but what can you do.

Its a minefield! We have flattish roof +250sqm our covering has BBA cert and the 20 odd year guarantee. We also have a Premier Guarantee 10 year warranty in case we want to sell...we are old may need a care home in less than 10 years LOL There is no right answer to your question sorry, your choice.

Sounds lovely. Looking forward to following progress.

A drawing could be helpful. I think your lighting should tic what is in the room (as you mention) not just sqm. I have a bigger space than you but I think less lights but differently placed and different types too. Layered lighting is a good idea.

@Mr Punter yep nail on head....we used the suppliers install service and it was utter rubbish, most of the team had little or no experience of fitting Internorm were used to standard upvc but had watched the training videos for Internorm when they were taken on by the suppliers who were themselves Gold standard Internorm dealers. All absolute cobblers!!

At-Eco were the ones that did the Charlie Luxton fit (there is a u tube). Superb install from the video, nothing remotely like ours or others on here with other suppliers.

Wet room no contest and especially if you are doing the elderly/disabled conversion a tray/shower area makes no sense at all. Wet room flat floor all non slip throughout room easy to push a wheelchair or walker right into wet area, changes of surface can be as worrying as changes in levels for elderly, all one surface feels more secure. Easier to clean too. On the cosmetic side wet room looks nicer too.

Mine is passive slab, TF, larch and render clad, flattish roof with single ply membrane cover. No solar as planning did not allow. Technically non standard construction but our insurers did not have a problem with cover.

Same experience on Danwood. It is the USP of MBC that they offer the slab in the package thats part of the reason they get so much business as it takes away a risk and headache factor and not being the cheapest is mitigated by the security of a whole package, if it doesn't fit its their problem not yours......thats ultimately what swayed us other providers offered the same if not better TF but not the package and we were told it was a good bet to have the whole thing as one package.

@Ferdinand I can't find any photos of ours sorry. Our spec developed as we researched and I think what you do needs to take account of the personal circs of the person who will be using it. Our story was aged 88 we moved FIL into a ground floor flat in an over 55's complex close to us as his house was just too far away for us to manage him. He was reasonably fit at that age but we had taken his car away (3 clutches in as many months on brand new car...not faulty either!). For the first year or so he walked to the shops and was independent, his bathroom had a shower over the bath. The bath was a low access one. He never bathed always showered and happily hopped in over the side of the bath. By the time he was 90 his knees were giving out so got him a scooter (nightmare pavement hog- look out pedestrians!) and a daily carer to help with insulin injections and general stuff and keep some independence from us. That was when we decided to remove the bath and make the room into a level access wet room as he was struggling to get over the side of the bath with his knee. There were already some grab rails in place but removed when refurb done. We asked advice from OT and carers on the best way to proceed with new rails/seats etc. At the time we did the refurb he was still able to stand and shower independently (with rails to hang on to) but we knew at over 90 the day would not be far away when he needed a seat and help. The advice we sought took account of this and future proofed it for him. He lived to 95 used it every day right up to his last few weeks which were spent in a hospice. He said his lovely shower and wet room that he could get right into on his walking frame was one of the joys of his last years.....he was a retired semi pro opera singer and used to sing loudly in the shower, serenading his carers in his last years. It pleased me immensely that his wet room refurb gave such pleasure. The wet room was a good feature when we came to sell it after he departed.

We were steered away from those fixed seats because they are restrictive when assistance with bathing is needed by the person using the facilities. We had a stand alone shower chair of the traditional type (suggested by carer and OT), because it was a wetroom with no screens etc we also had a freestanding portable screen at waist height that protected the carer from splashes. Excellent piece of kit suggested by the carer.

Windows & external doors?? My slab and frame alone were a lot more than your price estimates...............as were services, plumbing and electrics

The internorm windows had an opening pane to get at the internal blinds as far as I can remember....having just looked at the web site to refresh my memory I see Internorm are now doing roller shutters too!

When we converted gf bathroom to wetroom for elderly father in law OT came out and gave guidance on the placement of grab rails.....they were not quite where we or our fitter would have chosen to put them. The rails themselves that were suggested were different to the ones we had picked out too.....sizing, diameter etc. The carer was in total agreement with OT person. I have no other experience of this.

Blinds and shutters...two different things. I was looking at shutters for security, couldn’t at the time find any to fit my requirements. The solar gain aspect was another matter and I looked at the integrated blinds and discounted them because we were having laminated glass for security and they are not best suited to that.......I seriously underestimated the over heating from lots of glass in an airtight house.

That was my wish list before starting...couldnt find them and ended up with Internorm.

ah thank you! Knew it wouldn't be that easy!