lizzie

Hi Moira just noticed you are in East Mids. We used a company from E Mids for our Alumasc. Renuntio - Adrian Gill. Are you using the same people? They were great on ours. LIz

My Alumasc silicon render system was done this week. It was very expensive but it looks great and I think worth the extra cost. At this time of year rain is the enemy, they can work in cold as long as its not near freezing but they need dry certainly for the top coat. We have a single storey house and we have only rendered north and south elevations and a small section of the eastern one. The rest will be larch clad. Meantime the non rendered elevations are still waiting for their larch and are clad only in the mbc finish, the internorm windows are in but we have water ingress. Internorm came back today to fix leaks but ended up saying us was our problem as our building is not weathertight and water is finding its way into the house via the large unfilled gaps between mbc frame and window frame - - we had to make some openings bigger and some smaller for windows as actual windows openings in timber frame were different in some rooms.......and please dont ask why/how this happened its just another one if the very many cock ups that we have had to sort out and yes there is a ‘professional’ on the job its not me guestimating and getting it wrong! Our roof is single ply membrane with standing seam but we have large overhangs and it curves up at either end so enormous fascias and soffits. MBC only provided us with a flat deck we then had to build a second roof on top to get the shape. Trusses custom made but it took weeks to get them all in place and the final watertight finish on. Place was like sieve, we waited until summer to do it but it's been so wet we would have been better off doing it in March. Good luck If it were me coping over the winter with an exposed frame given what we have been through in the last 3 months (and still a bit to go) I would concentrate my efforts on giving the prevailing weather side of the building max protection if you have a more sheltered side it shouldnt be too bad. I would go for dpc rather than plastic if you can, need to keep the place breathing a bit.

Here is CGI of my Italian kitchen, handleless with rails. Have got handles on the large double opening unit. I have honed granite worktop (with bora hob inset) and spekva oak for the breakfast bar. Overall length of island is 5.2m. This build us taking so long its just never ending kitchen is in storage and is now rebooked for January installation. This image keeps me going through the interminable delays and endless problems with this build.

I opted for an Italian kitchen over a German one in the end, just had the style edge and as you say no curved units. Gone for the German Bora induction hob though.

We are using a silicone render...its part of an alumasc vented facade system specially designed for timber frames, its v expensive but has BBA cert and guaranteed for umpteen years. Being fitted by specialist contractors and is currently in the process of being done. Glad we are only doing part of the house in render its massively more expensive than larch! Liz

Thanks guys yes our render compnay said cils first window man adamant cils afterwards and he scribes them in. Cils not here and render company on site so guess they will go ahead without cils now. Just have to hope for the best I suppose, it onky affects 3 windows as all the others are in the larch clad areas.

All looks great, well done. My render due to start this weekend. My cills have not been fitted yet been chasing Internorm supplier as render company said they should be in before render. Today window guy announced that he always fitted cills after render......... Is this yet another b**** up about to happen! Guys any views on when cills should go ob before or after render? Liz

That question is one that will be answered in the not too distant!

Yep I agree on all counts! Thank you

Good morning all and thank you so much for all your help. Couldnt have resolved it without your input. I stood my ground, asked for it to be reboarded in the problem areas, screaming match with plasterer ensued, to my total shock he was yelling at me , very unpleasant and point blank refused to rectify so I told him do it or leave there and then. He decided in the end to do it. I was very glad I had someone there with me because I felt really uncomfortable being yelled at by this man. He is now scimming and his comment about being a better plasterer than a boarder rings true. He has some others coming to do the boarding now and he is concentrating on the plastering. I have said I am inspecting every stage before it is passed for scim now. I did manage to get hold of an experienced contracts manager from a large finishings company and he came out the evening before the confrontation and gave me his opinion (rubbish job) so I felt there really was weight to my argument, gave me a bit of confidence. The local area manager from British Gypsum has also been very helpful and I have his direct phone number and he has said any issues with them and the habito he will be happy to speak to them on the phone there and then. He was as horrified as everyone else at those pictures. I am so grateful for all the help. Thank you once again. Fingers crossed we will get a decent job now. Liz

Thank you all I really appreciate your help. I am struggling with it all. Before they started I asked project mangaer to ensure that they had familiarised themselves with gyproc habito and that we bought the correct screws. I was assured on both counts that all was good. Clearly not, they have only been on site 4 days and are supposed to be there for a few weeks yet. After seeing this shambles over the weekend I asked my pm today about their previous work (I understood he had been and seen them on a job to see the quality if their work) he told me he had gone on the pictures and blurb on their web site and it all looked good! I am beyond distraught with this house, we are months behind.

Thank you so much both. I thought it was awful too. Your comments have decided me. I am going to go to site at 7.30am and ask them to reboard the worst areas. I would sack them but it might take me weeks to find more and then I will lose my tiler (he has been messed about for months) ........but if they dont redo it properly then I will have to sack them and wait for tiling until January. I was supposed to be living in this house months ago but told everything takes time if you do it properly! Liz

Oh Jack if only you all had a week to listen....start with my plasterboarding question! L

Hi all Have had a quick look around but cant find my answer. Plasterboarding is underway (boarders do skim too so all one contractor). We are using regular stuff on the ceilings but Gyproc Habiito on the walls. My chippe and sparky pointed out to me what they considered to be poor workmanship on the boarding. My project manager just says he looks at a finished job not a part done one. He mentioned holes to plasterers who said they would be taped and we would never know but I am worried we have huge holes around sockets, I can put my hand in one, some of the mvhr outlets have been cut far too big and the pipes taped on a skew....I can see into the roof void and the membrane holes are so big. Boards in corners have been damaged when put up and holes taped over. We know nothing about plasterboarding other than having had work done in our previous house it was a much better standard. Should I ask them to re do problem areas before they get to skimming.......and one more thing would you expect a large ceiling to be skimmed in one go or in sections. Some pics attached. Thanks for any help. Liz

Hello guys thanks for all the support. I lost my internet conection and my password as well as the will to live! Good news MBC have been great and we are sorted and signed off now. I am onto new troubles and will go and see if I can find some answers on those in other specific topics. Liz

Ok thanks I will discuss with tiler. I am so fed up with differing views from tilers on this floor and all the other problems! I thought we had carefully plotted the soil pipe locations with the slab people, it only became apparent when the studs went up that the drawings had been misread and they had taken some boxing for cistern on the drawing (now not needed it will go in the stud) as being the wall line, once you know it is very clear where the error occured. I saw it immediately and no one could miss it the soil pipes are in the middle of the room in the w..c you wouldnt get in the door with the pan there! Even if my project manager had been on site at that point it would have been too late as the slab was already poured. Sometimes I wish I had just bought a house ready built and saved all this. I am so fed up with it all.

ours is coming down the drive and round the house and in through the wall. The gas installer did not want to use the conduit we had put in he insisted on a separately run conduit externally and in through the wall. Our boiler will be on the external wall too.

ours was supposed to be power floated too and I assume it was but I have no idea who the lads were who did it, there were just 3 youngish chaps who did the white polystyrene stuff. I was not there when they did the concrete so cant say who was there. We had some nice Irish chaps putting the frame up but no idea of their names I was only there for short visits. One tiler who came to quote for the floor tiling said it would add about a thousand to our bill as he would have a lot to do to try and get the floor level....maybe he was trying it on! Our 3 soil pipes are in the wrong place and we are having to dig out the slab to move them back a foot to where they need to be for the wall hung w.c's At least there is no UFH in that area and I am not trying to apportion blame it is our fault we got the positions wrong. It seems that there was only a 20mm service void allowed for in the ceiling no one picked up that our downlights need 70mm so we are now having to pay for extra battening once insulation and membrane are done and that height difference affects the floor to ceiling kitchen units I have ordered and so on and on it goes......at least the mould is clearing up now the roof is watertight and we can get the place dried out. The complications and costs in sorting everything do make you wonder if it is worth it. I would think twice about doing this whole tf thing again too, last house build was 30 years ago traditional brick and block I understood that a lot better and it seems to be more flexible and forgiving, possibly a whole lot cheaper too!

Thank you we will have some of that packing and rectifying to do I'm sure. Wish I had known all this when it was being done I would have mentioned the dips! Some trepidation now about sliders, windows didnt matter as they are off the floor. Thursday is D day for sliders.......better get over there with bacon sarnies and sweet smiles for the fitters and hope for the best!

Following with interest Barney.......we also have a very bumpy slab, judging by ours I dont think when they lay it they 'level' they just smooth it out. I have no expererience of this so I presumed that was the norm and we are left to try and get it flat afterwards. It is a concern for us too as we are about to take delivery of Internorm level threshold sliders and we are tiling the whole house with 600x600 porcelain. Slab is up and down like the hills around us god knows how the tiler is going to cope but he has seen it so we have to hope he can sort it out without too much hassle or extra expense. We are going for the ditra matting as well as whatever adhesive/levellers needed as ditra may help in getting it flat. We have also had to compensate for dips in the flat deck roof boards above (we are single storey) - most noticeably in the area near one major dip in the floor slab so it may also be that the internal frame is a bit lop sided around the big slab dips. I have not checked it but it looks a bit that way as was really highlighted by the water that collected in those areas. Hopefully all will look straight when boarded and plastered. Thank goodness we have a fantastic carpenter who has been able to 'straighten' it up externally by compensating to lose the dips when putting our roof on top so the pond is gone and the roof drains and the fascias are all level and not up and down like a big dipper!

Bora has the integrated extractor, that is what I went for. Fantastic piece of kit. Think Siemens have brought out a cheaper version now.

Thanks Nick I will explore.I am Welsh love your felinfoel dragon logo?

Like your towel rail. I am just starting to look. Any recommendation for suppliers?

Alu clad timber is a no brainer. Ours are Internorm.

Thank you all. Your advice is very much appreciated. We have torrential rain here again and I don't even want to think what it will be like on site tomorrow. We are on solid clay and water does not go very far!