Bitpipe

Ish, we laid the perforated yellow duct to the utility wall and then refined the position of the box when it was being installed. Plumbers advised to wait until the box was in place before drilling holes in the wall.

Yep, a lot of the waste since the 'big work' has been plastic wrapping, packaging and waste from plumbing and electrical first fix. It's bulky but not heavy so the bin men don't seem to pay too much attention. I'd say if I put a bag of rubble in the wheelie bin they'd notice... I also leave cardboard out in the rain which makes it easier to tear up and put in the recycle bin - I'm also pretty obsessive to ensure the workers plastic bottles, cans, Daily Stars etc get recycled.

I salvaged the empty MBC insulation bags from the skip (nearly filled it on their own) and fill a few a week with general site waste. I pop 2 or 3 a week into the regular wheelie bin with a bag of household waste in the top. Saves on having a skip hanging around site slowly filling up...

And here are links to guides / regs http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Builders/Technicaladviceandsupport/TechnicalGuidance/68/filedownload,37238,en.pdf http://support.ambirad.co.uk/article.aspx?id=10724

We have a similar arrangement - the MVHR intake / extract is on the south wall of the utility, 1.5m apart and about 4-500mm above ground from the outside. The gas flue is on the west wall and from memory needed to be 300mm away from the door opening to meet regs and 2000mm above the external finished ground level to avoid an ugly cage around it. The gas flue was quite tricky to locate as the MBC studs kept getting in the way. Big tip - get your MVHR penetrations and flue sleeve (we used 150mm PVC duct) in the wall ahead of blowing the insulation and any external wall finish such as render etc. as it makes life much easier. Darren from MBC did ours in return for a bacon sandwich - I find this this is the preferred MBC currency for doing 'favours' It's also good practice to get your electrical penetrations (usually short sections of 22mm PVC ducting) in at this stage too so they can be taped for the airtightness and nicely rendered from outside. We left the gas main penetration until after the gas was re-connected as it needed to be close to where the meter box was. Be warned, the MBC erection stage will go very quickly so you need to have your sparky geared up and have made all of these decisions in advance! Also ask for a few left over rolls of Sika tape to airtight any follow on penetrations and repair any rips to the yellow paper or holes in the green board - i.e. if you remove a piece of batten.

Do check the ex rates of the money transfer services as they usually beat the card rates. Less protection but for reputable sites like Megabad, you're pretty safe.

I'd only agreed an 8 week hire period in the erection price, MBC covered some over-run as they were late starting but it was costing me 5% of the hire cost per week for over-runs so as soon as the render was done, I wanted shot of it. I know HerbJ negotiated a much better arrangement and had his in place for much longer. Even with scaff in place, it's still a bit hairy clambering over a roof, especially wet slate !

We've gone with Geberit throughout, the frame needs to sit dead flush with the timber frame as the WC will bite into the wall if there is any gap. Just remember to order a set of wall anchors per loo (they come in packs of 2) as they don't come with the basic kit. We forgot and had to get them last minute from Amazon, about twice the Megabad price! https://www.megabad.com/hersteller-geberit-zubehoer-montageelemente-duofix-set-a-2878.htm

MBC formed the parapet, fasica and soffit on the main roof in OSB and built a frame for the utility and garage, they don't fit any finish such as uPVC or Alu. Working with large (3m) alu sheets at that height is not trivial and was a lot more involved that I expected, making cuts to get the detailing right, expansion gaps etc. Glad I left it to the professionals.

I'll add to what is now the "Readers Houses' section. We used a Parex render system, window blinds were supplied in the wrong colour so are being changed for RAL 7012. I was surprised at the amount of fitting required for the coping and other trim, like Herb, MBC left me with timber (OSB) soffits & facias but still a reasonable amount of work getting it up - the scaff had come down at that stage so it was done from ladders which makes it more tricky - be aware if you're considering DIY.

Beautiful houses guys. We used a guttering firm as we have alu-clad parapets, they then also did alu fascia, soffits and barges for the house and garage at a reasonable rate, as well as the guttering & downpipes - all powder coated in the same RAL as the windows (7012). Most of it was fabricated on site (mitered joints) but some elements were welded off site (such as the boxes where fascia, barge and soffit meet). Looks very smart and glad we upgraded from the planned white UPVC, however I would perhaps have gone for more welded joints than cut mitres as they look sharper. I'd be surprised if a roofer would take this on as it's not really in their realm, but you never know. Guttercrest.co.uk is a good place to source materials but I'm glad I didn't go down the DIY route as it looked very fiddley to get it right. Will post a pic later.

I think it just needs a few old sofas and some discarded white goods and you have the urban jungle look sorted Agree that a good general tidy will work wonders, and help you see more potential. Hire a skip (experience has taught me to go one size bigger than you think you need) and get to work !

Ian, a beam lifter may be an alternative for that, needs more room to expand as it has a scissor action rather than the straight vertical Genie. I made sure to watch this instructional video first

We had this dilemma with our balconies and a GRP roof. I wasn't confident that there would enough support to attach the glass from the side and did not want to penetrate the GRP. Elite Ballustrades have come up with a neat solution, they build an aluminium deck frame on the balcony and attach at corner points to the wall. The balustrade hangs on the side of the deck, which is covered in plastic wood. Obviously increased cost but couldn't see any other way of doing it. http://www.elitebalustrade.com/composite-decking/qwickbuild.html

I put some spare 200mm thick EPS 70 under my garage raft, not expensive and should help keep the garage warm.

This was bath number two, 180kg each in their crates - luckily the atrium was more or less the same size as the bath. Didn't dare try and take them up the temp site stairs (held in by a few screws through the MDF). A three man job and a few beers for the lads afterwards. Those Genie lifts don't half creak and groan though...

I got caught out on the transfer process as it varies from company to company - I've signed up with 3 or 4 and shop around for the best rate. When you create a new account, it can take a few days to get it activated so do it ahead of time. The way to avoid ex rate fluctuations is to upload the GB first (takes a day to register) and then buy your required Euro amount. Only then instigate the transfer and you'll be sure that Megabad or whoever gets the exact amount. If you transfer and exchange as one, the rate can change and you can end up a few euro under (or over). This happened to us but as it turned out, we needed to make an additional payment for the split shipment so just added the shortfall to that. I've used both currencyfair and ukforex, transferwise is very easy to understand but rates not as keen as the others.

We bought almost all of our bathroom fittings from Megabad, including Hansgrohe showers, Grohe taps, V&B loos and sinks etc . Their website is not the easiest to navigate (google translate plugin helps) but their prices are great, even after including shipping and the low euro exchange rate at present. Reutershop.de is easier to naivgate and has a few items cheaper so best to compare, it uses the same product codes so easy to find same stuff on Megabad. Use one of the many online currency transfer people to dump the cash into the MB bank account and your gear is shipped immediately - you can also split shipments (for a small fee) if you have out of stock items - they will automatically follow on. But the real reason I love them is their Germanic packing - uber efficient. The outer box was millimeter perfectly sized for the contents...

It wasn't even that messy, few piles of scrap wood and EPS. By chance, the groundworkers arrived the next day to finish some drainage works so cleared the area anyway and graded the ground with a machine. If I didn't hate leylandi so much I would seriously consider that

In the middle of organising this myself now and the routine seems to be spray mist and base coat, then do 2nd fix electrical and plumbing and then do the finish coat (protecting sockets etc by bagging). Not sure yet when the (pre-primed) skirting and architrave goes on, think this is done after the base coat but obv. before the finish coat as it will need caulked.

There are two L shaped balconies, one for main and one for guest beds. Neighbours are to each side so we have full height glazing panel on the exterior side of each balcony and the condition says it must be obscure. The regular height glazing to the front part that overlooks the garden is clear. Funnily enough, the old '50s house did not sit square on the plot and was turned about 15o to the south, probably to maximise solar gain. Down side of this was that the view from our old bedroom was directly into the neighbour's garden and not down our own 200'+ garden! So when we rebuilt, we made sure the house sat in the centre of the plot and faced straight down the garden. However, the neighbour to our left has his house to the same orientation to ours so can see into our garden. He texted me a few pics a while back complaining that the site was very messy and it was spoiling his bedroom window view

I need to lay a subfloor for a resin floor on top of the 22mm OSB laid by MBC. The spec is one layer of WBP 9mm ply and one of WBP 12mm ply, cross laid, screwed & glued with the 6mm flex resin layer on top of that. So, I need to source about 100m2 of each (that's about 38 sheets). Could use a little more 12mm to line the interior of the garage. Anyone recommend a good supplier - I already have a keen price from the joiner of £17.40 per sheet for the 12mm and £12.25 for the 9mm.

HerbJ has just had his house sprayed and I am getting quotes for the same. Decorator says that in an empty new build, it's the fastest method to get the mist and base coat on so you save time and labour costs but pay a bit of a premium for the decorator as only the more professional guys seem to have the necessary kit and large compressors. Once base coat is on, you can commence second fix, our electrician will leave sockets bagged for the final top coat

The electric UFH is going in each bathroom - per the other thread I have been issued a 'no cold feet' directive. Jack has also experienced cold tiles in his MBC house so better safe than sorry, even if it's only used for an hour at shower time. So, tank floor to ceiling in the showers and on the floor for the former and just beyond where the enclosures will be, basically anywhere that will get a good soaking from the shower. We're using Hansgrohe kit (sourced from Megabad) and the iBoxes installed came with a fabric collar - looks like this is used to in the tanking to form a nice seal around the box? One other thought - the ensuite and second bathroom have pencil shower attachments for washing hair in the free standing baths, I expect that there will be occasional spray to the walls so we will be tiling fairly high around the baths also. Sounds like I should also tank those walls and the floor under the bath just to be bomb proof. As these are not wet rooms (the floor drains are only in the enclosed showers), any splashes will just puddle on the floor and will need dried up but this should be manageable.

Perfect Nick! Now need to persuade my plumber's lads to play along - they will want to put in both showers (former and tray) plus wastes in one visit so I need to prep the shower tray area in advance by tanking the walls to create a good surface for the Sikaflex. Then when both are in, get the tiler to tank the rest of the rooms as required prior to tiling. We're having electric UFH for the floors - do I tank below this prior to laying the backer board?