peekay

For our almost complete knock down and rebuild, our BCO said that we would be fine with lower sockets. We chose to put them in at the higher position. At some point we may appreciate not needing to get on our knees to plug things in. I've also not once looked at them and thought that they look high, or considered the plugs to be at an inconvenient height on walls. My general view on most things is that Building Regs are there for a good reason, and should be a guide rather than something to rely and get around.

For a large hand built using good quality birch ply (mix of oak veneered and Fenix veneer), good quality hinges, feet and drawer runners, worktops a mix of Fenix NTM and Valchromat, we paid about £8.5k in materials (cabinet maker built the materials orders with his supplier, who then invoiced me directly for VAT savings), and about £7k in labour for the time in his workshop to build the units, deliver and fit. I sorted sink, tap and appliances myself, but they came to about £6.5k I am doing some of the finishing work to save cost, such as sanding and oiling the cabinets, putting in back splashes. My electrician and plumber did their own bits. Total cost of about £22-25k. The cost for the equivalent from wren was about £15-20k, the Germans were about £35-45k

We are only a few miles away from you and used a cabinet maker based in Brighton. Happy to share details if interested. Have you looked at Schmidt kitchens? They have a branch near you in Dorking.

If you want handle less, with solid doors, have you thought about getting a local cabinet maker who specialises in kitchens to help? Most decent kitchens use high quality hardware such as Blum or Haeffle for the drawers, hinges etc, so a good cabinet maker should be able to use the same bits and hit the same quality as a German manufacturer for a lesser price whilst being bespoke to your layout/design. There are loads of really interesting materials that you can use, ply, valchromat, Fenix NTM, and an almost endless list of different veneers that you can have applied to ply such Formica, various wood veneer, Fenix etc. Not sure where you are in the country, but take a look at the sort of thing this company do, there will be similar companies nationwide https://www.instagram.com/woodworksbrighton/

Yes, or at the point when it is added back on by the Valuation Office if you get it removed from the Register to avoid paying Council Tax during the work.

Have you considered that if you do remove it from the register, then it might be re rated at a higher council tax rate once completed? We chose to keep paying council tax for the 18 months of our large renovation/build, as looking at similar size properties in a similar location we could have expected to go up by two council tax bands when it is re rated and added back on the the register by the Valuation Office. Our break even point for paying 18 months of unnecessary council tax is 6 years of living in the house of paying the lower rate tax band. We expect the house will be re-rated to the higher tax band when we sell it.

Thanks Will have a read about the BC Condo Crisis. I've just checked with the builders, and the breather membrane definitely overlaps the external masonry wall on the ground floor. Their plan was to fix a concrete board to the external studwork, and then fix the EPS/EWI on top of this. Going right up to the soffit and sealing at the top. I'll discuss your proposal with them, thanks for the detailed knowledgeable responses.

If the top of the EWI is under the soffit (regardless of whether there is an attempt to close the cavity behind it or not), where could water come from? Are you thinking of just condensation? Thanks

Here are some photos of the gables taken at various stages over the last few months. I'm not around until tomorrow morning to take new photos of specific details

@Iceverge (and others)thanks for the replies. I'll upload some photos and annotate your sketch over the next couple of hours The membrane that can be seen from my photo is fixed underneath the studwork that can also be seen in the photo. Unless there are any tears that I haven't seen, whist it has been exposed any rain water hitting it has not entered the cavity below. More info to follow....

Here is a photo of the gable. You can see the external line of studwork. VCL laid over 22mm OSB set behind this. Behind that is the 150mm PIR set within the internal stud wall, and faced with 50mm insulated plaster board. The cheeks of the dormers are tile hung. You can just make one out in the photo. The external insulation has already begun being fitted to the ground floor and can be seen in the photo. The plan was for a silicone render over all of this.

Haha. Good spot. It should have read 7.3N blocks! There is no detail on the drawings to say whether the cavity should be ventilated or not. I had similar thoughts, that if the cavity was open at the top under the roof, then the external EPS is not adding any value, therefore I have asked the builders to make sure that there is a good seal at the top. Maybe I should not have asked them to do this.

Hello. We are nearly finished with a renovation (that is an almost new build). Large dormer bungalow shaped building. Ground floor 7.3kn blocks with Isover filled cavity and 90mm EPS covered in render. First floor gable walls and low stub walls below the pitch of skeiling starts, working outward: 50mm insulated plaster board, 150mm PIR board set within studwork, OSB, membrane, 100mm cavity, then external wall studwork on to which 90mm EPS will be fixed and rendered. We had a late design change from tile hanging the gables to render, hence bringing the gables slightly further out to allow a continuous render line. This has created the additional cavity at first floor level in the gables and stub walls. These will have the EPS board fitted by the builder on Monday. I have the weekend free. It would be about £250 in materials for me to stick some Isover 100mm Spacesaver within this extra cavity/within the secondary studwork line. Money is tight at this stage of the build, but it would be a lot more expensive to add more insulation at a later date. Is this overkill? Our SAP calcs don't require it, but is more always better

4 guys x 3-4 days to erect. Similar to remove. Equipment hire, disposables, vehicles, fuel, insurances, inspections. How much do you think it should cost?

When I looked at these a couple of years ago, I understood that they are in effect two small dishwashers rather than a single split dishwasher. I thought that felt like a lot of doubling both the risk and consequences of it breaking. I'm toying with the idea of having two full sized dishwashers in our kitchen. We have a space either side of the sink that would suit it, just struggling to justify the expense at the moment, so we might just save the space for the second.