Pete

Thanks for the above info chaps. I fully endorse and what you are saying Terry as we did the same and the only noticeable leak was the Internorm sliding doors. Now you know my installation has been a nightmare but on this occasion the reason for the leak is the missing trim. I went and had a look at the single sliding doors which showed no sign of leakage to try and compare the two to determine the fault. When you look at doors when they are open you will see that when closed they drop down and engage two flexible seals onto corrersponding edges and this is the problem with my large sliders in that the missing trim has a neoprene gasket on it which engages with the flexible seal on the door so I am hoping that when this turns up and is fitted it will stop the air leaks. I am gutted now as my air test would have been lower as it was sucking air like mad through the whole of the sliding door gap which is about 6m in length. I will take 0.6 any day of the week though.

I must admit I was really chuffed with our result especially as I know we could improve with the known leaks that need fixing. I am waiting for my B/insp to respond as to whether he wants me to have another test done as the test company said I needed another one prior to moving in which to be honest with you although I would like to improve on the 0.6ach I have other things to spend my money on. How many tests did you have done Jeremy?

Saw the Paslode one of these at the Tool show in Manchester last year. A lot of money for a dedicated tool but if needs must. This years show is in March so we are nearly there!!

You need to buy a good quality hammer tacker mate otherwise it will jam and cause you no end of problems.

If space available build out of 6 x 2 and line with osb. When fixing to floor stagger fixings so they do not run in straight line to counteract the wobble factor. Belt and braces.

Did you actually have a second test? The guy doing the testing said we need to do another one before we will get the certificate but it seems a waste of time as I only have to fit the MVHR ducting and I will not be penetrating the airtightness membrane at all in any other place. How many tests have people had done?

Found a leak the other day and started to think what have I missed and that the render may have to come off to rectify. Upon further investigation it looks like the sealant that is used to seal the glass units in place has failed and is allowing water to get behind the aluclad exterior frame (I hope). So only another fault with our Internorm installation which is definitely the installation teams fault.

Just had the air test done and we achieved 0.6ach. This is with a temp front door albeit sealed as best we could and the Internorm sliding doors leaking like a sieve. We have one large set that did not leak at all and the two sliders joined together where atrocious. We are obviously very pleased with this result and hope to improve on that as we need to do another one at the end.

I cut my discs out of some eps insulation I had left over.

Just wondered which cable people have used for the tv signal for Freeview

We had loads of ivy to remove and found the best way to remove was to cut a section out near the bottom right the way across and leave for a few months. This way seemed to let it die back and release itself from the wall and came away in quite satisfyingly large chunks as opposed to fighting it when it was still green. Plus you could then start a fire on the day you pull it from the wall and it burned really well without creating a lot of smoke.

I have just fitted two Horman sectional doors and you need to fit them before plasterboarding to ensure solid fixings to carry the weight of the door when it is open. It will look alot neater when it is finished as well. As @Nickfromwalessays just drop one bracket at a time to plasterboard then re-attach afterwards. The other way I have seen it done was to plasterboard/skim and then attach a fairly decent timber the width of the garage opening to the joists/trusses above and then attach the brackets of the Horman door to this timber.

Karndean does show the contours of the floor in certain light. In our previous house it was a floating floor of chipboard on Kingspan insulation. Over the years as the chipboard cupped as it does you could see the ripple in the floor even though the Kingspan was sat on a b&b floor.

The right hand of the four circles has been omitted and incorporated into the wall structure, but yes they are the columns that I am on about. It was a case of do you want round or square columns when we dealt with the timber frame chap and square it was. From the side of the columns nearest to the front door is exactly 7 full tiles, give or take a few mill, but as I have said earlier it means the corridor will be a 1200mm tile running down the exterior wall and then a 400mm at the narrowest point to complete the corridor if you get what I mean.

Do not put yourself down mate, he would let you buy him a beer!

It is a bit hard to explain but with the tiles being so large i will need to cut out the bits where the columns are located. If I start and get the corridor right I will have a piece to cut out in the middle of a tile so will have to fit a small piece round the back of the column to complete the full tile if you get my drift. If I start at the columns I will just cut a square out for the column and it will look neater. I should do a drawing really.

I do not like to leave you out mate. Master tilers apprentice!!

Just a query for the resident tilers out there, @Nickfromwales, @nod, @Onoff, trying to decide which way to design my floor tile layout. I will be laying 1200 x 1200 floor tiles and most of the layout is pretty straight forward except for one area. I have tiled quite a few times before and I know the setting out is very important and worth the time it takes to get the right look but I have a long corridor which would look great with the tile joint down the middle and an even sized tile each side approx 800mm. If I go down this route it creates a problem on the other side of the house in the large lounge/kitchen/dining room area. In this area I have three columns that I need to tile around, these are approx 200mm square and would mean having to tile round them with small pieces round the back next to the sliding doors. If I started my tiling in a straight line immediately next to the columns this would mean the cuts would then look right as it would be a tile 350mm x 1200mm with the square for the column cut out of it but would look better in my opinion. If I went down this route it would then throw out the corridor area which would be a tile of approx 400mm against the internal wall and a full tile against the exterior wall if this makes sense. I realise tiling is sometimes about compromise and you cannot always get the desired look in all parts of the area to be tiled but this dilemma is proving one I am not sure which is the best way to proceed.Creamery Floor Plans - Archive.pdf

+1 on Karndean but be careful if you or somebody wears stiletto heels as when that person has had a few drinks and sends all their weight directly through the vinyl it can leave perfect shaped indents in the floor. You can change the damaged pieces but it is a pain and will always look different as it does fade quite badly as @Nickfromwales mentioned.

First of all thank you for your comments and with the interests of keeping things civil I would like to say you seem to know a lot more about my window installation than I do, it seems! I think the trim you are refering to is a window cill or bottom as some people call it. I am refering to a TRIM, am aluminium TRIM that fits above the opening of the two sets of sliding doors that have been joined together to form a large opening. This TRIM covers the Spruce wood of the frames and covers the joining of the two frames and has been powder coated the same as the rest of the exterior of the sliding doors so if you think this is the installers fault, who as it happens have not been here today when the damaged TRIM was delivered and has not been touched by them, I find it hard to think how they can be blamed for this part of my installation. The dropped glazing bar should have picked up on quality control and if you think it would drop in transit then who am I to question your knowledge although I find it hard to believe they move when you see how they have been stuck in position. I had glass units that had scratches all over them because they had not been adequately separated from each other in transit, yet again I struggle to comprehend how the installer should be blamed for this fault. I had another aluminium TRIM, that joins the faulty TRIM that arrived today that has already been replaced as that also arrived damaged from the initial delivery back in January , kinked in exactly the same way. My large aluminium corner post looked like it had come via Syria and this had to replaced, same thing again, it was just bubble wrapped and left to roll around the back of an articulated lorry. I know your response to this one will be to blame the delivery people but as it turns out they are the company that Internorm use all the time so I will not bother telling you who they are as you are quite knowledgeable with the Internorm product. When we had the initial delivery we had missing items as well and it took Internorm ages to accept responsibility. All they kept saying was you need to follow protocol and provide evidence. I still do not know how to provide evidence of a missing item in a photograph. I know the installation company are to blame for a lot of our issues but believe you me Internorm have a lot to answer as well. You would feel different if this your own installation and not one of your clients. I have spoken to many people regarding our issues and I although I agree to a certain extent to some of what you are saying, I also could tell you some nightmares that I have been informed of regarding mistakes from Internorm as I have been dealing with different installers on our build and as you say Internorm never say sorry. I will not name people on here but I have had a kind of "sorry" from an Internorm individual who is highly respected at Internorm. I have had to deal with Internorm directly as my installation has been so poor and I am project managing it myself. Due to the fact my window installation company are no longer dealing with Internorm and I would like my windows completed in 2019 as 2018 was a complete disaster for us then I have had to get involved a lot more than most. Anyway I think the majority of people on here would do no different as the amount of mistakes has been appalling in our eyes for such an expensive product. I am sorry for my rant but please do not make matters any worse for us when you do not know the full story.

Just an update on our Internorm window debacle. Opened door this morning to a driver trying to deliver our outstanding window trim on the back of an articulated lorry in a really small village without notice of their impending arrival. This trim measures 5.3 metres in length, 30mm high and approx 5mm thick and is made of aluminium so is really slight and was missing from the original order. We have already had damaged items from Internorm during our experience of dealing with Internorm and they do not seem learn from their mistakes. The trim was attached to a piece of wood, 75mm x 10mm to provide some support and then wrapped in bubble wrap. Now when I first saw the item in question I was thinking that looks flimsy and only hope that they have taken great care of it due to our nightmare installation so far. I opened the wrapping and guess what, it was damaged. (Loud scream and the wish to take my frustration out on something/someone.) There was no way that this item was not going to get damaged as you would have to pick this item up and hold it vertically to at least prevent it flexing along its length and that is assuming you knew what was inside the bubble warp, which is exactly what happened in that somebody has picked up the trim and it has snapped the wooden support where it was finger jointed. I immediately contacted Internorm and they say they will order another one and will try and get it here asap but we have been down this route before and it has always taken 10/12 weeks to alter or replace items. The problem is further compounded by the fact the Internorm dealer that we placed the order with is no longer having anything to do with Internorm after they have finished all outstanding Internorm installations and Internorm are being very difficult to deal with (Dealer's words not mine) now that they are aware of the situation. And so the saga continues.?

Takes me back to when we used to act as casualties for training purposes when people get stuck in mud/sand. When that stuff gets hold of you you are normally in BIG trouble. We all have taken chances when self-building but it is right what people have said above.

A fire engine has 120m of hose reel on the appliance that is used for the initial attack at any house fire. The object is to control the fire using the least amount of water as this is converted into steam and anybody trapped inside or the firefighters doing the rescue do not want to cook themselves. By the time you need the larger size hose it is a point and shoot exercise and you are trying to contain that fire to one house and not set other houses on fire .

Think was my link Nick??

I have to run about 7 plastic pipes from plant room down a corridor to bathrooms etc. I will build a stud frame in the ceiling approx 100mm in depth and this will accommodate my MVHR ducting, plastic pipes and cable runs. Due to the nature of the area above the stud detail and not wanting to bring the ceiling down any lower I just want to place the plastic pipes between the MVHR ducting (in the gap at the bottom) without clipping down to the timber. Is this ok as the pipe will be well supported by the 4 x 1 battens that I will fix the plasterboard to or does it need to be clipped? TIA