lizzie

@Russell griffiths mine is Stourbridge based not too far down the M5. If you want his details let me know.

We knew our house had to be sunk down that was a planning condition hence decision to reduce ground levels before testing. We are solid clay its awful. We did our dig out before we appointed frame and slab contractors so there was no issue with calcs for slab. We have standard mbc slab on clay they provided the detail of what they wanted as the prepared base for their slab and we did that from our excavated and surveyed ground level. If we had done a ground survey and then stripped off circa 3m metres to get down to where we needed to be to start slab it would have been a useless excercise as we would have surveyed mostly ground that was carted away. We then had ground survey done from level we were starting build from. Makes more sense if you have to excavare any depth and I am more confident that we actaully surveyed what the house sits on not what was muck away. If you have a level site that you are just stripping off the top layer then survey but if not and you can sensibly wait and do it once you get down then it is better.....saves a 10m deep survey perhaps.....

£800 inc vat...original quote was £2k inc vat but that was for a 3m depth. We waited until we had excavated our massive hole (house is dropped down) and then had ground survey, if your site has to be excavated to any depth for slab I would wait no point in testing anything you are going to dig up and cart away. We had to drop a couple of meters from original ground level to where we needed to be for slab. Vat not able to be reclaimed on prof fees either ...makes it more painful!

I have a wall mounted overhead rain shower and separate one on riser. I have similar pressure to you (no pumps) and a 3 way thermostatic valve but with 2 knobs and it is placed more than a metre away from the shower so I dont have to get wet putting it on. Maintained from the front. We are part way through second fix. Not got a photo but can get one tomorrow if you are interested. All from Porcelanosa

Agree on Swindon......I wouldnt bother unless it was a specific open day/exhibition etc otherwise its dead no one to talk to other than a few centre staff who are not there to help with questions on exhibitors products. We went to a pre arranged supplier meet there which was ok but basically its just a huge building full of mostly unmanned stalls. You can use a scanner and scan barcodes for info to be sent to you.........I scanned all sorts of weird things, our postie was weighed down for weeks LOL. NEC etc a much better bet.

That is about average for a senior at Scottish rates I believe. It seems they are generally more expensive than English.

@Moira Niedzwiecka so glad to hear all is well. I had a couple of beads of moisture in one of the sun pipes I thought must be condensation with it being so cold outside. Fingers crossed yours is condensation. Our house is so warm I am amazed, ufh only in for short period overnight and house is holding at about 21 without MVHR. Hopefully when you get some heat you can do away with dehumdifier. Not thought about site insurance! Thank you must be at least £500 of plasterboard without the other stuff.

Agree Fb is by far the best

Made it there and happy to report house itself stood up pretty well. Unclad walls are wet (blue paper feels wet and battens are saturated) and lots of water in from leaking window thresholds but apart from that house itself seems good. Not so in garage many hundreds of £’s of expensive gyproc habito plasterboard, ply soffits for garage, bags of cement etc all saturated and unlikely to be fit for anything but skip but if thats the worst after the few days we have had then I wil take that. Phew ...sleep tonight I hope! Fingers crossed for everyone else.

Thanks all somehow comforting to know I am not alone in my worries......understand exactly what you mean about that click of fhe door........ Very slow thaw starting here (we had more snow overnight) and now fog has come. Not sure we will be able to get down to ours....not on a road and local fb pictures from nearby are still showing 8ft drifts firmly in place in the lanes around. .........I almost dont want to go, too scared........good luck everyone I hope all will find everything well.....keeps us posted.

Has anyone suffered any damage from the snow? I have not been able to get to ours since Wednesday due to snow. I am reading of people locally who have had water coming through the ceiling and thinking burst pipe only to find it is roof full of snow driven in by the wind. We have essentially 2 roofs on ours, the flat deck on the timber frame topped with our own shaped roof trusses forming our sloping roof all topped off with rubber. Great watertight etc but I have just realised that our soffits are not complete and parts of the underside is open to elements. Given the way the wind has blown the snow around its entirely possible for snow to have blown in under the open areas and be in the void between the two roofs on top of the deck. All that deck consists of is OSB on top of the pumped insulation then vapour barrier and plasterboard.............this is stretching imagination and creating worries (hope all unfounded)......... if snow got in and melted and came through OSB into insulation etc how on earth would we ever dry it out. Replacing ceilings one thing but......oh I just dont wat to think about it! I am already very worried about the place due to badly leaking windows but now have this hypothetical worry to add. May be Monday before we can get there and I am dreading it. Pictures of nearby lanes have 8ft high snow drifts.......our cladding is not 100% complete on the eastern side either...........just too stressful!

Do you know what they are doing? Is it potential development land. Not that it alters anything just curious as to why the sudden activity and heavy hand by the company

Have you found the clause in your documents specifying the noitce period? Something like that is usually very clear. If you have correspondence from your original lawyers setting this out then it should be easy to find. Do you have legal expenses as part of your home insurance? If so might be worth a call to see if they will take up your case in defending the access notice point, dont think they would get involved in negligence cases in relation to your previous lawyers though. Litigation of any sort is very costly. If it is a negligence claim against your former solicitor then there should still be professional indemnity insurance of some form in place, if your former solicitor was an employee or partner then the continuing firm would be the responsible party or otherwise either what is termed ‘run off cover’ if they just simply closed down or via the insurance of any successor practice. A call to the helpline of the Scottish Law Society to explain your situation may prove helpful in pointing you in the right direction to. begin your action.

I recall from our discussions with Beattie the beads are BBA cert, fireproof and rot proof as well as acceptable for NHBC etc Beattie uses this system in all the social housing it does and its big in that sector. Think it is a tried and tested system. They say they have a patented system, that patent is not on the bead system but in some part of the joint to create the continous insulation envelope that they offer as their USP. Beads can used by anyone........ checking back on my beattie notes try looking at.......www.springvale.com .......think they are Derby area and website lists certs for the product. If I remember correctly they supply Beattie

Looks fabulous James, well done.

Hi James and welcome. Any pics.....from your title I am surmising larch cladding......I have used larch cladding, always interested to see others and how it is weathering

@newhome looks a good product. Noted thank you. I have porcelain tiles and a dog!

I think that is the system beattie passive use Cavity Insulation Beattie Passive is the only company to have a continuous Passivhaus system (from ground floor, to walls to roof). Our patented system enables the insulation to flow around the whole structure and means there are no gaps or joints. High performance cavity insulation is applied on-site by skilled installers to guarantee the delivery of a continuous insulated building that is tested by thermal imaging. Due to our unique patent we are the only company who can deliver continuous insulation around a building. The injected EPS Eco-bead insulation is made up of small round balls stuck together with a water based additive – beads: 98% steam and 2% recycled oil). We used Eco-bead as it doesn’t slump when wet, has high thermal properties and is A rated in the Green. Air Tightness Beattie Passive's design methodology details each junction for air tightness and achieves levels of 0.60m3/hm2 (@50pa). The system has continuous insulation within the walls, floor and roof, guaranteeing Passivhaus standards and significantly outperforming SIPs and other build systems. All structures are independently air tested and thermally imaged to provide clients the peace of mind that we have delivered the designed performance.

I have been looking at a good web site for wine racks....have a look here.....https://www.winerack-plus.co.uk/ lots of options I think I will be building mine with components from here...lots of oak if thats what you like https://www.winerack-plus.co.uk/wine-racks/wooden-wine-racks.html

I am very worried about my floor grout. I am very particular about grout, dirty stained grout is a very big no no for me.............. mud and muck has got in around antinox mats and builders are in and out in muddy boots and not now taking as much care as they really should I fear....not a good combo for pale beige grout but I cant be there 24/7 to watch them! I asked at Porcelanosa if there would be problem cleaning it up and they said no it should clean up......I am not convinced and won't know until I start to clean the floor up. Question - if dirty best way to clean it? Mechanical scrub, bleach????? Hopefully when cleaned up then just put sealer on?

We had quote from Beattie. Spent a lot of time with them saw various projects of theirs. Lovely people, really liked their product but what made the decision for us (and it was the only reason) was that the company we went with offered a slab and frame package and Beattie didnt. We were advised it was a safer and easier route to have frame and slab from same provider and so that made the decision. No experience of Beattle beyond that but I really liked them and regretted we had to say no.

yep she is long gone. I was out most of the time she was there, she came recommended too! It didn't take long to cause the damage either.

Yes agree but any overages are quantified and discussed in advance as you say and so can be better budgeted on to your 'base' price so less surprises lurking rather than my route as having no choice but to have guesstimates for things in the budget - in my experience you cant get proper quotes e.g. plastering, tiling etc whilst still at plan stage. Individual trades all want to 'see' the job before pricing and the on line £psqm guides for various things were way out as far as I was concerned. There is also supply and demand too no work about cheaper prices lots of work waiting list higher prices........main contractor has all his trades on board and can cost and schedule more accurately.

Ok. I too always used specialist cleaners on my engineered oak. I had a problem appear in one area with clouding - eventually it turned out that my cleaning lady had been leaving mops standing on the floor and moisture had penetrated and got under the lacquer finish. She had also been using the steam mop on it without my knowledge. On advice I got a special product that stripped off all residue and took it right back to the base lacquer that cleared the clouding and I refinished the floor. I did not sand it. If you have a flooring company that supplies wood floors near to you then I would go and see them and ask them for help. You need to be careful not to make it worse.

Hi Ralph and welcome to the forum. We are using trades for all work excluding timber frame and slab which were supplied as a package by same company. I had some fixed price quotes from builders for whole job (brick built house) they were very expensive but the timber frame house we have ended up building piecemeal has come out massively more than the builders quotes we had as we have had so very many unexpected expenses, some extra costs are down to us upping spec and some just unexpected and not budgeted for items ....way above any 'contingency' ......When not using main contractor on fixed price you are open to costs escalating on individual items. You have very little control beyond getting quotes and sometimes even that is difficult and you can be hostage to some of these people who know you need them. I would not do it this way again I would have a main contractor so budgets could be better controlled. We are nearing the end and I still don't have a real idea of how much more money I need, it just runs away like water. Its almost 2 years since we started on the journey and we have had to pay rent for all that time too, thats a cost I have not included in my figures either. If I were you I would get a QS to go through your plans and requirements to properly cost it and look where you can cut cost if you need to and then consider inviting tenders from selected builders. Your QS/architect should be able to suggest some to invite to tender if you don't have a preferred list yourself. Otherwise as Moira says be prepared to roll your sleeves up and do work yourself to keep costs down. I have not been able to do work myself so have had to pay contractors for everything. Good luck