nod

Now that a lot I may have to rethink the heat pump on our next build We are at £240 gas for the last three months and just over £232 electric for the same period Our house is 260m2 traditional built I thought going to the extra expense of a heat pump would had bills

If only self assembly drawings where so clear

It’s a good feeling getting the pre stuff out of the way A lot less stressful once you break ground and saving some money along the way well done

I think the problem is that so many are off with COVID or isolating At least the tests can be done in ten minutes now

Yes they have there own factory in Canvy Great product Great price and fantastic after sales No I’m not there rep ?

On our previous build we where required to fit Solar panels on the back of the house The plot seller had done the original design and included them Neither my wife or myself like the look of them But could have learned to live with them on the back of the house With the Sap predicting a yearly saving of £200-300 There seamed little point My question is Is it mandatory to include solar panels in the design for our build We have two plots and have noticed two that have been build locally One has PV and other is without

We used slate for the same reasons as you The size is down to preference the larger slate is more expensive but quicker to lay Expect your roofing cost to be at least a third more than large tiles I would stay away from Brazilian We looked at reclaimed But settle on Spanish A1 grade It’s important that you have a grading certificate as both BC and and warranty asked for it Which was the reason we didn’t go for reclaimed

We have a BB floor I laid the screed myself (20ton) definitely no bounce Flow screed is fine at 50 mil

As P has pointed out Sealing the inside is the most important Pro and cons Just cost If you have it in the budget You could do both My mate was on a tight budget and hasn’t got round to paying me for the render He did say he’d take me for a pint Still waiting ?

Your fabricator is correct Your SE is lazy The Fabricator will follow your drawing without knowing or carrying what the steel is for The drawing should show exactly where the holes should be and the size of the bolts needed It’s a ten minute job for your SE to sort this out

I would leave the cavity open The EWI is an excellent insulator I recently rendered a house for a friend who had a similar dilemma

I wouldn’t have thought so Sorry I meant the bottom pic special order brick

We had the second picture at a previous house They had been payed for over 30 years Can’t remember there being any issues The top one looks better but more cost

The home we lived in previously was on a new build site and was plagued with this problem Mostly exposed areas such as chimney stacks They replaced effected bricks and sprayed these areas which seemed to slow things down But eventually most stacks and effected areas where replaced The site was made up of three colours of brick All by the same manufacture Red Buff brown Out of the 145 houses only the Buff was effected Not sure why

For what it’s worth I think your design would look great in any setting Even suburban ? Its certainly not so different to the above pictures It looks like an upscaled version of the bottom right Without any real objections it seems unlikely that HIS opinion will count for much in the end

You will certainly need drawings to submit to your local Authority for building regs Probably worth having a word with your neighbor

A couple of years on we haven’t had any complaints

You will find this will clear in the summer months and not harm the render

Use Algicide mixed 4-1 Let the rain do the rest

Plus one I never thought that TP could be the cheapest for anything I bought two for a job just after the first lockdown TP had the short test lead time and beat the others by a few quid

There’s not much between both Face brick and Labour more than block and block Though the added render will take you to a similar cost As you say Block and Block is quicker to watertight And a week of decent weather will see off most 200-300 m2 jobs Monocouche render is easy to apply and problem and maintenance free As a render contractor I would advise you to get an experienced company to do the render not just the guy who’s going to skim the internal walls and go and have a look at there previous work

Thank you everyone for all the info While I fitted out the plumbing on ours With the exception of the boiler and commissioning which was done by a friend BM After reading all the above I feel confident that I will be able to install an ASHP system With Dave’s advise ringing in my ears Read the Bloody instructions ? Probably m ok re a man thing than a plumbing thing Great starting point Thanks again

S&C will seal the blocks You will more likely be 15 to 20 mil thick Put on in two layers on the same day You will need to use river sand which should be a little cheaper than boards But the Labour will be more expensive Not a job for a novice

I think it’s more opportunity Though more builders are starting to use air pumps