lizzie

@Christine Walker cry away, howl and scream as much as you need. I didn't know I had so many tears, this wretched build absolutely broke me into pieces and not recovered yet. There is nothing practical we can do to help you but shoulders are here for you. I was in a similar situation with water this time last year (18 months from application to water on). These faceless companies have no idea of the stress they cause. Chin up you will get therexx

@Hecateh Feel for you. Took me 2 months to get someone to do that trap on the MVHR. Still trying to get someone to relocate the thermostat for the UFH....and so it goes on. I'm sure the flooring will be fine you wont even notice once you are in. Is it just the gas cert you need the plumbers to do?

@daiking I have a bio ethanol kit used it inside a log burner in another house, wanted impression of logs burning without the pollution of real wood. It is a stainless steel reservoir that you put the fuel in, then hide with decorative bits etc. They are all the same principle no matter what housing they are in. This is what I would say about bio ethanol There is a slight smell There is not a huge amount of heat It needs oxygen It uses quite a bit of fuel and its not that cheap They are real flames and could cause a fire if circumstances were right...unlikely of course but looking at worse case scenario Personally I would be reluctant to put this in a TF house with MVHR unless you have provisioned for it, it will upset the MVHR balance. If you are passing my way welcome to borrow my kit (have loads of fuel) to try it out. I am only going to use mine outdoors in future...fire pit type set up.

We used Dulux weathershield had it mixed to ral colour - your grey looks similar to ours. Ours mix was for Ral 7012. We had 7016 on windows etc but roof a lighter grey...lead grey which is 7012.

Great news I finally persuaded a plumber to come and fit the waterless trap (I rang 5 before i got one that turned up). He has fitted it on the straigt run after the mvhr condensate junction so it catches both boiler and mvhr condensate as suggested here. He said it should be ok but has left me the cut piece of pipe in case it doesnt work and so we can fit it back on with adaptors. He was a lovely man, knows nothing about these type of houses but was fascinated, 5 minute job and an hour talking house......he refused to take any money for doing the job either. What a star and what a rare find. Thank you all for the help on it, another thing ticked off the list (installer still not materialised)

@NSS we bought the view and the private but not isolated location without much thought other than it was exactly what we wanted just about 5 miles outside our preferred area so not too bad. I can see clear to Malvern 40 miles away no buildings in between, on a good day I can pick out the buildings of Malvern town just with eye not binoculars. Swinging round we see all the way to Clee Hill in Shropshire (Ludlow is behind the hill) and that is a long way again no buildings to impede. Going the other way back up the private road which leads down to us (we had to put in 70 metres of tarmac road to get down to the plot) it is about 10 minutes walk to the butchers, post office pub etc. It was a hugely lucky plot find but expensive on groundworks.

I use my cordless dyson on mine works a treat!

It is we are very lucky. Thank you.

Finally got a weather window and the film is going on. For comparison on slider one pane with and one without in pic

@Barney12 @JamesP @Pete Thanks guys. Its terrible that these really expensive top notch windows are let down so badly by the installers. Internorm really ought to have a better training and supervision plan for installers. Some of the team that did mine said they not installed them before and said one window install was the same as another........shuddered at the time, seems now that shudder was justified. @JSHarris thank you are you able to expand a bit on that for me. Sounds interesting I welcome any potential solutions. There is no possibility to drain into the ground below the thresholds its solid concrete and porcelain now. I have now established that the lift and slides have both mullion and transom drainage.............please don't ask me any tech questions on that because I don't have the answers I'm just repeating what I have been told LOL

Fingers crossed for you!

perfect pictures of the drainage thank you and actually it is showing some more holes on the underside I have not yet seen on mine...I have to lie on floor with torch to spot them. Will go out tomorrow and see if I can get them all marked up. Your is very neat mine is extremely battered and rough underneath. See you got the membrane on too. Must have had decent installers!

Thank you @Barney12 You have it in one where you say the slabs will sit flush with the bottom of the silver threshold and there will be a micro drainage slot. That is how it should be and that is what I do not have. Because there was no provision for the drop in the slab for the threshold to sit in and it was just plonked on top we ended up having to cut away eps and slab to give an area for drainage in front of the threshold and slightly under it but not all the way as we could not destabilise the window.. What then happened is that because of various technical issues (builder talk for too difficult) we did not get our micro drainage in and paving slab has had to sit under the drain hole rather than above it. So I am left with a threshold that is designed to drain into an underground chamber and that drainage should be hidden from view but I do not have the drainage chamber as they couldn't get it in so I will have water discharging from drainage holes at surface level. I need to fill the gap between underside of threshold and slab in some way that makes this b mess look neat whilst still allowing water to drain out. If I block those weep holes under the threshold then any water draining via the frame into the runner area of the threshold will just back up and come inside. My carpenter had thought maybe a piece of fabricated aluminium to match thresholds and perforated to drain would do it and that certainly would have looked nicer but in trying to find someone to do that for me I have been told that was not really a recommended solution as weather could drive water back up (its on the weather side of the building). I am told the only sensible solution is a clear silicone in the circa 10mm space between threshold and slab (with packers to strengthen threshold as it is not on a firm base but is 'floating'). My own back stop solution as a sort of diy job was to shove a load of grout in there and keep the drain holes open with sticks while I did it. The silicone solution is really just a bit more of a sophisticated (and expensive) version of that really. TBH I am at the end of my tether with this whole debacle. It is clear that from the window supplier right down the chain no joined up thinking was used, I have reams of emails about it and I can see I am asking the same questions over and over right from the start. All to no avail, just kept being told it would be sorted and now they have all gone and I am left with the mess to sort out. At least the cutting away of eps and slab and insertion of a membrane stopped water coming inside. Sorry its been 12 months or more of hell on these windows and it has been buck passing of unsurpassed skill on the part of all concerned. There is a great utube video of some germans fitting an Internorm lift and slide level threshold door. It shows exactly how the drainage works. Searched utube cant find it now. I have HS330 model. Got tech drawings of all sorts if you need them. All just wallpaper for me as once the fundamental error was made at slab pour/window install there was no real way back to get them as they should be short of dismantling the house. I think you must have some drainage - from inside look in the silver bit of the threshold where the doors run, on the small lip facing you are a series of small holes, you may have to get down on floor and look. Those weep holes feed out through the slot holes under the threshold that are meant to be underground. I know it doesnt seem likely for water to get in anywhere on frames but they have made provision for drainage in case it does. Thorough Austrian engineering its just a shame their Uk installers let them down so badly.

There is very little you can do about this, you need the concrete for the edge but the grass cannot establish roots in such shallow soil. If you look around most places have the same. Just live with it for now and the grass may knit across a bit in time but it will always be a slightly balder patch than the rest.

Would this link offer any suggestions? https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200135/approved_documents/74/part_l_-_conservation_of_fuel_and_power/6

@joe90 any sign of ratty today?

Mine was never supposed to be diy we are over 60 and not fit or practical. We would never have gone into it if there had been possibility of DIY as we know we cannot do it however it has now turned into a degree of diy for me rectifying cock ups etc.....it is very challenging and I am limited with the physical side of it no matter how many utubes etc I watch. I am currently trying to find plumber and electrician to rectify install issues on ufh and mvhr. Not easy as local bods shy away when you mention mvhr passive house etc.......trying to get plumber by stealth just saying its a waste and not mentioning mvhr, going to ask my hairdresser if her husband (electrician) will come and help me on ufh.......install electrician has put stat for en suite next to manifold board inside cupboard (yes I did query at the time) so it wont kick on as temp inside cupboard is over 30......you couldnt make it up! When last house was built (by builder who is still a good friend) we had snagging and I had input on loads of stuff but I never had to crawl around on the floor trying to seal gaps, screw things up, stop leaks et al......maybe the quality of british workmanship has gone down or the expensive bods who style themselves as specialist in this type of build are just stetson wearers who have identified a good earner from people who dont know any better.......me! So yes I am now a DIY but with severe limitations on the practical side and it will take me an age to get it all finished. I did find a lovely old boy in the village last week, carpenter, came and sorted out a few issues for me hasnt even sent me his bill yet.

@RendallI have to say having had a couple of listed buildings I agree wholeheartedly with @Ferdinand

Thanks @Barney12 my problem stems from incorrect fitting. They made no provision for a dip in the slab to take the sliders (4 of them) so they just plonked them down on top and screwed them to walls. I had water ingress from the day they went in, no one would take responsibility they all kept blaming each other, We carried on with the build with water coming in all over, even the new plaster was wet. Window installers kept saying it was because our cladding was not finsished etc...I kept telling them it was coming in from underneath no one would listen. This went on from August to March. Useless PM shiftier than a cart load of monkeys by then because I think he had worked out what the problem was and that he had cocked up at slab pour stage. He never admitted it this is just my surmising. By the time I think he had worked it out he was working for MBC as their client problem troubleshooter and and I think he must have seen the way others had done it when visiting his MBC clients and the penny dropped but he never admitted anything to me and even though still being paid by me whilst also working for MBC I had to work it out myself.It is not an MBC problem they poured the slab to window drawing he gave them, it may have been signed off by me but it was his drawing and he told me this was correct I just had to sign as the client. I trusted his professional knowledge and expertise as that was what I was paying him for. i got on to Internorm myself in March because through many hours of internet trawling, you tube etc I had worked out that my install was not done correctly. Internorm would not intercede with their installer (who by that time was on a temp suspension due to ‘issues’) but they did put me in touch with another installer in another part of the country. Thomas Hagen was very busy at the time and cancelled his booked visit and could not come for weeks ahead so we went with Internorm suggestion of other experienced installer to inspect and after a site visit a method of semi rectification was agreed. I had to pay for his time but he was great, came and supervised my men who had to cut away sections of the overhang of the slab. This cutting away allowed water to drain out of the weep holes and get away instead of just sitting on the slab and running back in and under. This has left me with level thresholds that sit around 10mm off the ground and the drainage holes that would be below ground level draining into a channel are above ground. These are the drainage holes you would not see they are in the fibreglass underside of the threshold they should not be above ground in a correct install. Because I cannot now sink the thresholds into the slab as they were designed to be installed I have a situation where the underside of the threshold is exposed. I need to cover and protect this whilst still allowing the drainage also because the thresholds are unsupported and off the ground they flex when you step on them. We need to pack them to stop the flexing and possible longer term implications with bowing. If you look at your slider thresholds when open in the runner channel there are a series of small holes, these drain out via what should be the underground holes but in my case are left hanging in mid air. Really difficult to photograph but I have tried my best. Wish I had chosen different windows and different installer LOL Bet you feel like that somedays too!

Ah expensive then.......

Would any of you that have Internorm lift and slide doors know if they have Mullion and Transom drainage please. The company that are looking at trying to rectify my threshold problem have asked ...this is what they say

How swanky is that...a heated drive Oh would love that.

I saw a fabulous one recently in a 1960’s house (house is listed) was metal of some sort and the treads were terazzo looked ageless and very nice.

Very nice.I am exposed high on a ridge. I have larch on s & sw too lovely stuff but can be lively, room to move needed. Think most of us have mvhr and ufh, good combo to have.

@Rendall nice building lovely setting so many of these still scattered around Wales (and probably Scotland). Its a big job but hopefully worthwhile. Presumably no listing on it.