lizzie

Ive got exactly that shower arrangement going in with a 1600x900 flat floor wetroom (tiled over) tray. I got all my bathroom stuff and tiles from Porcelanosa in the 40% off sale. Very good value and you pay just 50% on order and the balance on delivery ...and they keep it in the warehouse until you are ready for it which in my case was 11 months. Happy bunny all round......I had the same brand same style in my last house so I know it works. Sale on until this Sunday I believe next one due in the summer.

@Vision Of HeavenAllergic to all things willow......I had massive 40ft+ high ones in stands of 4 or 5 along my riverbank and going back into my woodland. I must have had 40 or 50 all together. Many years ago when I was first planting out my native woodland on a piece of rubbish flood plain all I had to start with was a dozen or so self seeded willows so I used to leave fallen boughs on the ground (great for insect habitat) and they would sprout up and make wonderful screens on their own. As my health condition progressed I became allergic to them big time. When they flowered it was a snowstorm. There were weeks when I could not go into my garden even with a mask. For a gardener it was very difficult. I am now allergic to so many things life is different and part of the reason for the new house was to be healthy. Life in a bubble! I need to choose my new garden plants with extreme care so many options now closed to me. I agree willows are beautiful, and wondefully versatile , enjoy them for me.

This is the stuff I have been looking at - this one is in B&Q

I’ve used living willow in the past and it is amazing and it would suit my new garden very well but sadly I developed a severe allergy to willows a few years ago so its a no no for me. Envy you if you can use it. It looks fabulous. If you have willows growing around wet areas near you go and cut branches stick them in the ground and make yout own fedge for nothing but your time. Any old willow stick will sprout which is what makes them a nightmare to get rid of if you have them and dont want them LOL

Some good ideas here thanks chaps....I think we have some offcuts from the flashings lying about, I will investigate. That cable cover is a neat idea.

My outside tap has been put on the side of the garage just where I wanted it however the water pipe comes up out of the ground and runs up the brick wall in full view. Not a pretty sight. I need to find some easy on the eye and pocket way to insulate and cover it up whilst keeping it accessible for use. In other areas I am already covering meter boxes in a larch box and building a bin store in larch....a construction in larch would be a simple answer but it will be starting to look like I have odd little larch constructions all over the place if I am not careful Any bright ideas?

Hello David and welcome. Look forward to following progress

Wow head like a sieve these days...why didnt I think of those. I used to have some set into the ground here and there as a random pathway into my woodland at the last house. They were brilliant! Off for a look tomorrow. Thank you.

as always @JSHarris your comments are very useful. thanks

Plastic looking better by the minute here guys LOL

@ryder72 thank you. That is as I thought hence looking at new and know they don't last as well. Sadly I cannot have the chemicals in proximity to me I have severe allergies and a lung condition, that is part of the reason for building a healthy clean house. Back to the drawing board!

I chanced on these while googling, my normal self has an aversion to plastic but thought maybe worth a look. Our original thought was new sleepers rather than reclaimed as I don't want any chemicals leaching out and I'm not sure if reclaimed have creosote or such like in them. My friends reclaimed ones were awful they stank. Do you know of a good source of reclaimed ones that are chemically clean? Reclaimed would be my preference I like to reuse where I can.

Now thats a good idea! Thank you

I need to do a bit of retaining around the boundary and garden only low less than 1m generally. I was considering sleepers as for various reasons gabions not suitable. The areas of retaining will not be in the main garden but are at the sides so not generally visible. I have chanced upon an eco product - recycled plastic made into 'sleepers' .......and all manner of other garden stuff. I've sent for some samples but wonder if anyone has any experience of them. https://www.kedel.co.uk/recycled-plastic-lumber-mixed-plastic/recycled-mixed-plastic-beams-sleepers-160-x-80.html

Only a washer and dryer and I have no idea! Oh dear what have I started here.....help please. Not even run this by my chippie yet....who will be fitting it all LOL

maybe I don't but I am not an idiot and I am building a bungalow and we did not fill gaps at the top or round the skirtings with foam. Our 'shell' ...timber framed of course....is an airtight box so why would I need foam. If I hadnt covered my walls with plasterboard and skim I would still have been airtight. I think maybe you don't understand how to build a good quality airtight house, perhaps you should look at how the people on here build their houses there may be lessons to be learnt. Reading your posts makes me very glad that I have been through 2 years of hard work and stress to get a good quality house and not a cheap spec build sold on at big profit that I would have to spend years and £££'s bringing up to a decent standard. I might add that our previous house build 30 years ago whilst not up to current energy standards of course was a good quality solid build and we didnt resort to bunging foam in here and there we built it right at the start.

I only want one straight 3m run in my utility room with cut out for sit on sink nothing fancy. No joins. Thats possible for fitter surely? Is it any more difficult to cut than the quartz faced board (maxtop or similar)....starting to sound like a lot of hassle for one little utility room!

Why on earth would you use that awful foam on your plasterboarded walls? If you need to do that must be a really shoddy build!

I think there is an edging strip if you dont like the black. I’m sure the one I saw in b&q had a matching egde but for me the black would be fine and would work with my grey doors, looking at either the very dark Caldera or possibly the grey concrete one. Note the cutting issues thank you., I may not be popular, will investigate further. These certainly look the nicest I have seen so far in the laminate style tops and the most durable.

I have splashed out on my beautiful kitchen with honed granite and now I need to save a few bob doing the utility so Howdens units but not having had a laminate worktop in more than 20 years (and dont have fond memories) I have been looking around at whats available. I have seen the Wilson art Zenith 12.5mm (b&q, wickes, magnet etc), looks good and sounds just the thing 100% waterproof etc. Good prices on line too. Anyone any experience of these? link

Should we all ignore him now?

Ask me in a couple of months LOL. I am a laughing stock with the plumbers...i have bought a water conditioner at huge cost LOL its esentianlly 4 inch piece of pipe that goes on the incoming main. Supposed to ‘condition’ the water and remove limescale. I went for this because I thought better than a great big softener and salt and all that. We will be fitting the Halcyon device shortly so watch this space.........you may hear the sounds of plumbers laughing reverberating around the county or it may just work!

Well Fredd we went the frame route because I wanted it to be different from my previous brick and block house (which we had built for us 30 years ago). I wanted to be environmentally light, I wanted to leave nothing but footprints if you see what I mean. For me the choices were a frame package or a full package house from one of the prefab suppliers. We chose the frame as I am not really the sort of person to be in the prefab machine, far too independent and maybe even eclectic. We chose our frame supplier after much consideration and with due regard to all their excellent reviews. I had favoured another frame company but they did not do the frame and slab package and I was told that was the best way to go then no issues with one company blaming another if it didnt fit together. Hey ho! I think we had a really unfortunate experience with our frame and slab and as has been said earlier rookies on the job and the company has now sorted those issues going forward. Too late for us but if lessons learnt and no one else has the same problems then thats something. So we have sorted our issues and moved on. I have the best carpenter in the world and without him I do not know where we would have ended up. He is a magician with wood and has rectified problems where required and disguised cosmetic issues with it not being straight. Leaving aside the nightmare of frame/slab (which impacted on so much else) other than my leaking Internorm sliders I am thrilled to bits with my house. I am totally happy with my choice of timber frame construction. The insulation and airtightness are fantastic, it is so warm and we are not even moved in yet. I love my house aleady and wouldnt change my method of construction although I would have wished for a few less problems along the way. Thats not the scientific builder response that you may have been hoping for but it is my genuine from the heart feeling about my lovely wooden house I leave the technical stuff to all the wonderfully helpful and knowledgeable chaps on this forum who have been so generous with their time and advice to this rookie!

Thats why our frame doesnt sit right beacuse the slab was such a nigtmare! Hopefully we have it covered now by sorting it ourselves. The people who put the frame up were as bad as the slab layers. We obviously got rookies on everything, not what you want when building a house!

@Declan52 have a look at my experience of the slab pour .......I must have got the rookie team!