Bitpipe

I found that the bog standard stuff in the merchants was not as nice as the decking supplied by our balcony manufacturer - colour, finish etc.

We have compost decking (http://www.outdure.com/resortdeck) on our bedroom balconies and in a mezzanine deck outside looks very sharp, really pleased with it. Looks great but was quite heavy, also came in 4.5m lengths so spanned quite a few pallets on the truck - maybe this increases the delivery cost?

We used Canadian slate which is apparently closer in colour & quality to Welsh.

We used these https://skirtingboardsdirect.com/products/270mm-x-30mm-oak-windowsill/ . with our Gaulhofer windows which have a 50% translucent painted spruce finish. Just used a bit of wood oil to finish and they look great. Looks like 3M is the max length so you'll need to join two pieces.

Looks great ! I'll see your 200mm thick basement walls and raise you a 300mm thick wall and slab with 12.5 tonnes of rebar and 111m3 waterproof concrete

Even hardcore will eventually go muddy in rain as the fines work their way to the top - it's inescapable! Worse, when it dries out inside it reverts to a fine grit which can scuff floors - we had a strict shoes off at door policy since moving in which we maintain today. They day we finished our resin bound driveway was glorious - I could walk from door to road in my socks

There you go then, see how you feel about it in 5 years

My recommendation with these sort of events (something turning out an unexpected shade etc..) is to leave it for a few months and then see if you still notice or care. Very tempting to try and fix it in the moment when you're focused on it ....

I worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster but even He kneels at the feet of the LA planning officer.

Welcome - I'm east Berks. Very impressive and ambitious!

I kept muttering about cold bridges .. Through the ply finish inside was beautiful. Are they going to complete the look by reversing a Ferrari out the back of the garage?

Shame, you could have worn a set of groucho fake glasses / nose / moustache all the way through the filming to maintain your anonymity.

We have pocket sliding doors to all bathrooms and they work great. Sound will travel under the door anyway as you need an air gap for MVHR. Our spare room backs onto the ensuite (bath and sink on the shared wall) - on the few times I've slept in there, the noise from the drains etc is quite noticeable. We only used standard PB - probably should have used soundblock (blue) for that wall as we did elsewhere.

Glad to be of service. Always good to pass on a snag that someone else can avoid! We have a small flat roof area at the front of the house (about 7m x 3m) and it does puddle after heavy rain. It's GRP so no concerns about leaks but obviously the fall was not sufficient and there seems to be a bit of a lip at the edge of the GRP. My thought was to add another few mm to the roof itself by overcoating with the GRP topcoat paint to see if this makes it work better.

Yep, that's who I used. No complaints.

I bought the cheapest mat kits off eBay and they worked fine - you can bin the controllers they supply by default and get something nicer. They tend to come with primer, rollers, conduit, tape etc. Got the 6mm backer boards and fixings from UFH superstore. Mats are ordered by size and can be cut to go around obstacles, you only need heating where you would stand so not under sinks, baths, WCs etc. We went for the lowest wattage wire (100W I think) and it has been fine. Make sure you get a multimeter to check (& remember to record) the voltage of each mat when still wrapped up, after unwrapping and after laying - the alarm units are good also for peace of mind during fitting. Once the mats are down (and supply / stat cables pulled through to stat back box), you make up the floor level to just over the top of the wires with latex and then tile on top of this. Spark then wires them up as second fix, you need a separate fused connection for each mat.

I'm going to build one of these so they can get parcels over the house and into the back garden...

I shamelessly went for aesthetic over utility We chose it primarily as it was depth adjustable and has a nice large door at the back. Has fitted nicely into a double skin block wall. Really no idea what to do about parcels. I fully expect them to be flung over the hedge ....

35mm x 220mm - fine for A4 letters but too thin for parcels. I need to figure what to do about parcels, amazon etc once I get the gates fitted....

Does your waterproofing system lap over the parapets? In which case f you're doing a U channel that the glass will slot into you'll have to penetrate the top of the parapet plus need a very solid substrate to bolt the channel on to. Looking at the buildup above, your parapet looks to be CLS either edge and I presume will have OSB on top - meaning your glass channel will need to either be on outside or inside edge and one course of CLS may not be enough to hold the channel and glass securely (imagine someone leaning on the top edge if the glass, making the balcony want to pivot at the bottom. Easy to beef this up now but not when you have a finished wall / roof

Oops, I misread the original post. Our postbox is in the garden wall next to gates so does not need to be airtight or thermally efficient.

Looks great. On your balconies, have you given thought as to how the balustrade (assuming glass) will be mechanically supported? If they're being attached to the outer edge of the wall, ensure you've got sufficient support for the fixings (and photo everything). If they're being supported by the roof edge, make sure you know how this will work with your waterproofing system. I did neither of the above and ended up with a cool, but more expensive, alu framed decking system that sits on the GRP (tied back into wall) and supports the glass. Also, don;t be too shy with your flat roof falls, we have a puddle on one of our roofs as the fall was too gentle and whatever happened with the GRP means there's a few mm too much at the edge and all the water won't drain. Evaporates eventually but doesn't look great.

We bought the F-04 model from these guys (via Amazon or eBay, can't recall). https://www.letterbox24.de/ Well made unit and was easy to build into the block wall.

The surveyor who did the valuation just asked if we had a warranty. I said yes but he never asked for details. Didn't even mention completion. I was upfront with the broker and he was pretty chilled out also. Obviously dependent on the diligence of the surveyor!

Yes, will be opening the shoe box this weekend and cracking on!