Dunc

I installed an external type door between the garage and house on the basis that its insulative properties and seals would likely be as good as the house's front door. GRP, solid core, FD30, SBD, self closer supplied. Just asked them to not fit the letterbox or knocker. Available online from various suppliers, manufacturered by Unity. Self install was pretty straightforward. Unless you're aiming for Passive house certification I suspect it'll only be a minor component of the overall structure's performance. Will be interesting to see if I can persuade the air tightness tester to do 2 tests, one via the hose door and one via the garage door.

I had a consultation/planning session with Velux directly (its a free service) and they produced a detailed quote including all part numbers for the various insulation and flashing kits as well as links to installation instructions. The list price was eye watering and they advised me to take the quote to my preferred supplier who would offer discount it. My local builders merchant beat all the internet prices by a good margin.

I have some small aluminium sheets 2mm thick about 200mm x 75mm. I want to make it into an L-shape with the bend paralell to the long side and the tail being about 20mm (to make a cosmetic capping for a couple of corners). Any tips and tricks? An initial attempt with the sheet clamped to a bit of 2x4 required a mallet to bend it - I'm not strong enough to make it bend by hand. The radius is a little large, but acceptable. However it's difficult to create a flat surface having battered it with a mallet - there are a few bulges where it doesn't sit quite flat.

Worrying on the wasps @saveasteading. The plastic eaves vents I have are about a 3-4mm gap. Given they're sold as eaves vents I'd rather hoped they were fit for purpose in keeping unwanted beasties out. Now feeling paranoid that they may not do the job! Having said that, round here I'm much more concerned about rodents and weasels which we know nest in the neigbours' lofts than insects: not much will keep out the midgies 🤣. Problem is as the weave of the mesh reduces so does the air flow.

I have plastic eaves vents to go ontop of the fascia board. At cladding voids (bottom of the cladding, top & bottom of windows, verges, anywhere a mouse could think looks interesting) I'm using stainless steel woven mesh, 8 count. 150mm x15m rolls from Robinson Wire Cloth were the cheapest I could find, even with a surcharge for delivery to Scotland. Listed as "rodent mesh". Wear gloves, cut to size with tin snips, bend to shape by hand no problem, fix with button head stainless screws or just trap behind battens, as appropriate. I must have got through 150m of the stuff and I'm still not done. You definitely need mesh! How this partridge thought it would squeeze up a 50mm gap is beyond me....I shall be re-prioritizing getting the eves vents sorted 🙄

Timber for vertical. CV strip was the least expensive intumescent that I found for horizontal. Good service from lifeline fire protection who advised on which size product to use.

I just said: This is my proposal for fire stopping. Are you happy? They said "nearly" just don't forget the eaves. simples.

I ended up just putting a proposal to my BCO and asking if they were happy. They required horizontal fire stops (intumescent strips) between floors (though couldn't specify if this should be at ceiling plasterboard level, or at upper floor level), at the eaves, and above/below windows/doors

+1. I'm about to do this on my MBC larsen truss frame, though I don't have any inner lining (ply or plasterboard to worry about) and it's before the cellulose fill. I sourced some very cheap 600mm long auger bits from Amazon and intend to use a jigsaw. Just need to buy a couple of airtight grommet/patch things to slide over the duct to provide a seal against the propassive board. I'm curious how easy (or otherwise) it will be to push the duct through, or dig through, the insulation if its installed before you put the ducts in. There is an old thread where @Jeremy Harris described putting a small (~30mm) duct through his (similar construction) wall after insulation. My recollection is he described it as quite tight, but I can't find the thread now.

+1 to lapping down. Our breather membrane is not 100% watertight. If I'd lapped up behind it it the dpm could have collected the small amounts of water that sometimes penetrate in high winds (no cladding yet). Trimmed DPM off about 50mm below sole plate. Left the breather membremane long enough to cover this. Used the stainless steel mesh that is at the base of the cladding battens to stop it flapping about.

+1 on butt joints with biscuits (not glued) and 2 or 3 bolts recessed in the underside. Just a bit of CT1/OB1 at the top of the connecting faces before clamping up. Worked fine on my previous kitchen which had 3 joints in oak worktops. Stainless steel screws in slotted brackets to hold it to the wall or units underneath.

Will have to wait until its all in and get the laser level on it, but looks like +/- 5mm at the moment, so not disastrous!

I'm well aware of the arguments around thin and thick screeds. There are many excellent discussions on this forum covering the subject. We're going at 50mm (architect was pushing for 40mm!). The PIR is already on site and the first layer (120mm) installed so rightly or wrongly, we're fully committed. I would, in retrospect, have preferred 70mm to allow better tolerance of the uneven slab but we are where we are and I'm sure it'll work out. Everyones thoughts and recommendations have been much appreciated as always!

@Gus Potter thanks for looking at the other details. The load transfer is on the inner leaf, aparantly. Vertical timber cladding has 20mm vertical battens then 42mm horizontal so there should be plenty ventilation.

Hopefully a quick one: When installing the PIR floor insulation a 50mm perimeter upstand is specified. In one of the architects diagrams the upstand stops level with the screed and the final floor covering oversails this to butt up aginst the wall. In another diagram the perimeter upstand extends high enough for the floor covering to be separated from the outisde wall. As this is a larsen truss frame, the inner sole plate is effectively insulated from the outside as it doesn't span the full width of the wall. The blockwork underneath the sole plate has a course of Marmox blocks below the top block and this will overlap with the 220mm PIR, so the top block is thermally broken from the ground....so I *think* it's OK to oversail the upstand? Top to bottom: Tiles 50mm screed with UFH. Top of screed is level with the bottom of the sole plate slip membrane 220mm PIR 150mm reinforced slab.