lizzie

Thanks Alex. Tiles are top quality Porcelanosa so hopefully no issues there. 600 was a deliberate choice for size I am happy they will look ok in our situations. I am in the Midlands and don't really know what the going rate labour only is...quotes are circa £40-50

thank you I will ask as you suggest

Thank you so much. Sounds like its a try on then.

Hi all I have a standard mbc poured slab with steel, no floor build up ufh in slab. Its 180sq m single storey and I have 600x600 porcelain tiles to run the whole of the floor. I am being told by some tilers that I need a lot of floor prep and its very costly. My slab is up and down variance of up to 20mm in places but that can be sorted with a self leveller. I am told the slab should be 'sanded' prior to any work commencing - this is to remove any calcium carbonate that may be present. This sanding is a dirty and expensive process and is done with a floor sander of the type you would use to sand wooden floors with an appropriate sanding disc. I have to hire the specified machine for their use. It will be a three day job to sand the floor. Slab has been down three weeks so far and there is no evidence of any calcium carbonate on the surface so far so no visible reason for this to be suggested, when asked why we need it they say they do all new slabs this way. We are another five weeks off starting tiling so maybe it will appear. I have never heard of this before, do you know if this is something recommended for slabs? The process continues after sanding with the self leveller going down then a primer then a decoupling mat then adhesive and finally tiles. All this ends up at over £70 sq m plus tiles, adhesive and grout. My floor will end up costing circa £140sqm all in.....I had not budgeted that sort of prep cost. Thank goodness I got the tiles in the sale! Does anyone know if I actually need all that or is a leveller, primer, adhesive and tile with a silicone expansion joint at doors enough? Two tilers have suggested the expensive method and two the simpler method. I don't know which method is what I actually need. Thank you for any help.

trish@MBC......... tel 01452...... (on PM now)

I would talk to Tricia at MBC. She is a superstar.

We are having a 3.5m wide slider to that spec (except we went for laminated glass) .....when it eventually turns up! It was about £4500 ex vat and part of a larger order.

Part of the reason we went with MBC for our frame was that they did a package that included the passive foundation. Less room for error if things were wrong and if the frame didnt fit properly it would be their call not ours plus the engineering, the spec, timing and delivery was all a one stop shop. The price wasnt bad either. Good luck

oh dear :-)

doorsuppliesonline.co.uk

I ended up going with Siberian Larch....I had always said I would have Western Red Cedar but the Larch is much tougher for knocks and dents..... I also found some larch with a nice grain and a scarificial pre weathered coat which I preferred to Sioo which after weathering for 4 months on my WRC sample was so white it looked like balsa. v v happy with the larch and the cost saving was an unexpected bonus

I have been very impressed with them, nothing too much trouble.

yes sorry I got the web address wrong..... in a hurry when I did it. door supplies on line are the people. We decided againt the italian doors from Jenny Moore because they did not give us the flexibility we wanted with the different finishes and different doors within the house. My German doors are quite tall can't remember offhand but taller than the average UK spec. Our hardware is pretty similar. The Italian doors are very nice but not Dueren quality I would say they are comparable to door supplies online premier range.

I had a qui I had a quote from them too

doorsonline in Norfolk. Their prestige range. Sizes to suit and they can finish doors in their own workshop too so the ones I want RAL sprayed can be done by them. The rest are Oak plus I have a couple of pocket doors and they were able to accomodate a recess in one so I can fix a mirror to it (dressing room). doorsonline.co.uk Ryan is the best man to speak to.

cant you use flood boards (not diy ones) they allow you to keep your own doors and just put them out when needed. Our previous house was very close to a river and in highest category flood zone. Because they made us build so high off the ground to compensate we never flooded when all around us did. The extra money was a huge cost at the time and sent us massively over budget but boy were we grateful in 2007 when all around were inundated but we stayed dry. We also had some really good things we stuck over airbricks when water was rising stopped water getting in. There are specialist companies who are recognised and authorised offering all sorts of flood protection devices. Your local council or environment should have lists. There are more options than upvc doors.

I love Dueren but they are hugely expensive. We are having doorsets, quite pricey but not Dueren prices. I think they are German - nice quality with good hinges and magnetic catches, we have chosen Italian handles. I didnt like any if the Jeldwen type ones.

Good luck....its an absolute nightmare. My friend ended up losing 10k because her window company went bust so she lost deposit and had to have cheaper pvc double glazed instead of aluclad triples. I agree so far worst part of build.

Dare I ask if you are having Internorm windows? Ours are overdue. mbc have been great and will allow us to carry on with cladding and render and various other things pending their arrival and airtightness test. Its so annoying I ordered windows in early March for end June delivery. House not being secure really delays what you can do. We are having to extend our rental by a few months too because of 2 month (anticipated) delay on windows.

downlightsdirect.co.uk in the led striplights section

Warm roof. We have mbc frame and are putting on a single ply membrane as final finish. My bro in law is commercial roofing contractor he advised warm roof.

This is a very interesting thread. Following. Thank you

Think we have agreed for them to come back and sort out soil pipes. Not sure about levels yet, fingers crossed we can sort something

fingers crossed!

Thank you. Yes I think we need to look at it and talk to MBC. Its supposed to be level and ready for tiling directly on to it. I cant remember what our quote said about the slab but I certainly uderstood it would be ready to be tiled. We have a further complication in that now the internal walls are up the soil pipes have been put in the wrong places and the slab is going to have to be dug up around them and pipes adjusted...we have wall hung w.c.'s going in and the soil pipes have ended up 300mm out into the room, no way to make that work without serious slab adjustment.