lizzie

@Christine Walker sent you details.

@Christine Walker Yes I did get a firm to do it. It would not have been a diy job for me and tbh I think best done by professionals having watched them do it. I had to have a special film as my windows are laminated and the regular film was not suitable. From memory I paid about 2500 for all my windows on west and south. (I didn't do north and east) Thats 4 sets of good size sliders, 3 fixed windows the size of a door and a large picture window. Sorry don't know sq m offhand. I was too late for vat reclaim but you should get vat free if you have not done your claim yet. I used a firm from south of England (Im in midlands) but they operate nationwide. If you want their details let me know I am very happy to recommend them.

@Alex it is working. We have not had the extremes of last summer but have had some fairly fierce sun and it has reduced the heat coming in to the house by quite a bit. I think it was worth doing.

Sounds perfect!

Hard when it hits the back of your head LOL

These are my magnetic latches......privacy bathroom door and ordinary door. I’m not sure how the thumb turn privacy latch works as it looks exactly the same as the ordinary door bar the thumb turn.

concrete without question

Russwood are based in Scotland. Lovely cladding not cheap. They have a web site.

Well the boss man finally surfaced after I think a fairly sharp contact from the council. He has been round this afternoon and professed himself shocked.....mmmmm. Its all going to be redone/rectified apparently. That stub of pipe is not under the basin its in the middle of the wet area wall.....the mind boggles! There were a lot more issues but I didn't want to bore with too many pics. See what happens next. It is truly awful that these council appointed contractors think they can get away with such terrible work. No shame at all.......I thought bodgit and scarper only worked for unsuspecting self builders now we know their cousins are alive and well and working for the council doing disabled facilities. You couldn't make it up! @Onoff if they dont get it right next time maybe you would like a shot at it! All your input helped the lady homeowner stand her ground and not be intimidated by bodger the builder, thank you.

@Alexphd1The Myson ones in the @ultramods link picture are identical to my Heatmiser ones...hard wired, battery back up and app controlled.

Thanks everyone. Company boss avoiding calls and ignoring messages. Relevant dept at council contacted and all work halted for the moment. Really appreciate your input.

I have heatmiser neo. They are ok to look at better than a lot of the others. The heatmiser system Im not so impressed with took ages to get app running properly and it often goes down on the mesh network. Have to go and adjust the old fashioned way by walking to the stat and changing it. Now the system seems to be sorted hopefully there will be less fiddling with stats in future.

@vivienz I had my swan necks elbows downpipes etc made to order at Guttercrest, they are near Telford, We dont have hoppers all our drainage is hidden bar the downpipe. We needed to take 125 round outlets from roof down into 100 square downpipes into round 100drain. They made everything including the adaptors. Not expensive either.

252sq metres plus the separate garage! We asked advice from my bro in law who is a specialist commercial roofing contractor.....he fits both brands. His preferred product was Fatra, he gave us reasons at the time but I cant recall the detail. He did not fit the roof for us (he is not local to us and in any event was very busy on large commercial jobs) just gave us his professional opinion. Its been on about 18 months and (keeping everything crossed!) no problems so far. We went for hidden gutters and they are made with the membrane, there are big drains into the 2 downpipes we have, that amount of roof has a lot of water flow to drain. some pics of work in progress. We did have a smaller commercial roof done by bro in law in this product about 10 years ago and its never given any trouble.

The attached photos are of a ground floor bathroom that is being converted into a fully tiled wet room for a disabled child. It has been totally stripped back to bare (block) walls. The ceiling is to be overboarded. The whole floor has been dug out several inches and had some sort of screed laid and a pump for drainage. IMHO the quality of the work is awful. This is being funded by a grant and is being done by contractors appointed by the local authority (child is long term foster), the property is owned by the foster carer. A full schedule of works was provided to the property owner but seems contractors have not read it.....the ceiling over boarding has been done once all wall tiling complete....plastering of ceiling now being done after 2nd fix, window reveals not boarded or tiled as yet but the rest of the room already grouted. The non slip floor is rucked, it is not bonded to the wall and watertight, the drain is a mess, no extractor fitted....yet....sanitary ware fixed lop sided, shower valve not straight, odd pipe jutting out of wall at floor level, tiles and waterproof floor cut around it....hopefully pics show all this. The plasterer is due to plaster ceiling tomorrow and contractors finishing off tomorrow too. I have said do not allow any more work without boss coming out to look and also advise people paying the bill of the mess. It cant meet building regs never mind be safe for the child not to mention the quality of the work could devalue the property. Meantime poor disabled child is suffering. Your opinions on this work would be very much appreciated.....sorry if pics not in order of work.

Architects always spec Sarnafil...think they are on commission! Ours specced it but we went for Fatra, similar product all the BBA certs and the guarantees. Not much difference on price and both perform well....I believe terminal 5 at Heathrow has Fatra roof.

@Mrs S I feel for you. Wanting tips to cut budget but not wanting them if you see what I mean. I think your budget is low for your house design. My house is not a square house it has all sorts of angles and an angled roof. That all costs a lot more than a square box. I dont want to tell anyone on a public forum what per sq m I spent because I dont want to think about it myself LOL but will say luckily were able to to afford it, just hadn't planned to spend so much, overspend wasn't all on top end finishes either I had factored that into budget. If it were me I would look at areas that I absolutely would not compromise on i.e. your glazing to take in your view, then areas where you cannot compromise i.e. your roof covering due to planning conservation area etc. Then I would take a long hard look at what is left and see where costs (if any) can be cut and see what could be done.

My inspector was a lot more thorough and kindly went round with me on visits where I was present. He told me his job was to ensure the build was sound for the warranty provider but he also wanted to see that I the client was happy with the work done by the builders. He was a nice man. He picked up on things BC didnt and vice versa. I had to provide all the certs for installations and guarantees where applicable, they need the paperwork for the file.

Upstairs laundry not for me. I like a utility room where all the dirty stuff gets done but appreciate the space constraints on some builds. Ditto for me on 2 dishwashers, when I first saw that it was in Jewish households where they kept strict rules. I run my dishwasher every night whether or not its full, I have loads of plates and cutlery so not likely to run out. For me I can think of better things to spend money on in a kitchen than two dishwashers........now 2 fridges is another matter......I have large fridge and smaller freezer in kitchen and American side by side in the utility. Works for me!

+1 for after tiling

about a foot or less if you can....its very tedious and tiring!

@newhome ouch sounds painful hope it fixes it! You can aerate with a garden fork just stab it right down as far as you can and wiggle it a bit.... best done when ground is a bit soft, its hard work!

@newhome wow you have been busy! Can you aerate to aid drainage that will help with moss. I’ve never had rabbits, the odd muntjac but no bunnies, think the ones around here dont like dog. I wouldn't worry about the faster growing stuff just keep it mown and reseed with the seed you looked at and will die down and the nicer stuff will take over. I meant to say sorry to hear crutches soon, hopefully op will be a success.

I had them in last house......we never bothered to use them after a few months. So decision made not to install in this house. FWIW we had them in the centre of the room equidistant from the corners....I didnt have hand in positioning it was done by installers. There are position guides on websites if you google.

Sliders open pretty much all day, most days this last week..... woofer likes it that way...... house temp pretty steady at about 22 day and night, ufh not kicked in for over a week.