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jack

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Everything posted by jack

  1. jack
    Wish we'd heard about the Egger system before doing ours. Knowing how much I've hated the squeaking boards in various places we've lived (the rental place we lived while the build went on was the worst example), I did think about getting MBC to glue to boards down as well as nailing. Unfortunately, by the time I got around to thinking about asking, the flooring was already down! I think we added around 20-25 screws per board, and that took long enough.
  2. jack
    I met Thomas on the way out of ecobuild the year before we started our build. I was tired and annoyed by how useless a lot of suppliers had been. He was literally the last person I spoke to on the way out, and he was an absolute pleasure. From memory, he was a passivhaus certification trainer and spent a good ten minutes looking at our plans and making useful suggestions to help us achieve passivhaus numbers. In the end, the only reason I didn't go with him for our windows was that he mentioned a couple of windows the architect had drawn were too big for them to produce. Much further down the line, we learned that Thomas had spotted this issue at a glance, whereas the UK sales guy for the company we went with completely missed it, and it was only flagged at the factory while working drawings were being produced. I'm so sorry to hear of his passing. From memory, he wasn't that old.
  3. jack
    Way less, actually. We haven't done much furnishing, and even when we do I suspect it'll be a bit quieter than his place. I really, really like it though.
  4. jack
    Just to be clear, that's Trevor Nelson's house, not mine!
  5. jack
    We have a full width window between our bedroom and the double height space above our kitchen/diner. It was inspired by pics we saw of Trevor Nelson's house a few years back: I think the idea can be very interesting if handled well.
  6. jack
    One of our mistakes was being talked in white Corian along one wall of our kitchen. We have marble on our island and wanted something clean and functional for around the sink, which would brighten the area (no nearby windows) and not distract from the marble. This "easy care" product takes stains like no other surface I've ever encountered! Put a cup of tea beside the sink? Stains with minutes. Until we found that baking powder sorts it out just about all stains, I was seriously thinking about tearing it out and getting laminate. I'm very pleased we went for an undermounted stainless steel sink.
  7. jack
    Thanks heavens for being sufficiently depressed! Seriously, if anyone's feeling really stressed, don't let it fester. Take a break if you can, talk to friends and family, get some counselling if you're feeling particularly bad, and slag off the chancers causing you grief on here. It all helps!
  8. jack
    I can think of two specific periods in our build when I felt like that, and in both cases things got better soon afterwards. I think anyone who's built a house will recognise that feeling of despair, although you seem to be getting it big style. I don't know if it helps, but I just kept telling myself that one way or the other we'd get through it, and that once we did, the problems would become distant memories. There are still a few memories from our build that can annoy me if I think too hard about them, but they've faded with time, and left me with mostly good feelings about the process. Is there anything specific we can do to help? Might be advice, but might just be shoulder to cry/shriek on. We're with you, either way.
  9. jack
    I'm sure she'll pick her moment...
  10. jack
    Yours or hers?
  11. jack
    Lovely looking stuff. I'll bet it's satisfying seeing it come together...
  12. jack
    What, finishing a bathroom?
  13. jack
    Yes, what a shame we got distracted before she reached our bedroom! The kids' bedrooms are virtually squeal free!
  14. jack
    I believe all our joists are at 400mm spacing.
  15. jack
    Thanks Peter. The current flexible drain pipe is 10mm OD, I think, but quite thick walled, so probably something like 7mm internal diameter at best. I think that with 10mm pipe and a downward slope the whole way it should be fine. Will check whether there's room for 15mm though. I wasn't aware of that. A portion of the run in clear, or some sort of shallow tray just before the drain that shows evidence of passing water should make that issue visible (helped by the fact it's salty and so will leave some residue). I'm planning this on the wall above the rising main: The water softener will be at the level of the two flexes (to be seen whether I actually use flexes rather than plastic pipework for just that bit. The vertical stuff will be copper).
  16. jack
    Indeed. I was surprised recently when I saw the following comment in a post on a Facebook self build forum: "Our PHPP calcs are showing that our heat demand is above the 15kWh/(m²a) needed to avoid a primary heat source (currently at 21 - probably due to form factor). We don't need to achieve Passivhaus but now conscious that we may need some heat".
  17. jack
    So as usual, it's people that are the problem! Bloody people!
  18. jack
    Every time I look in (twice a year, maybe), that thread is still in the top 10.
  19. jack
    I took it as a pop at the people that couldn't give a toss etc, definitely not a pop at you. I take your point, but an EPC rating of A, B, C etc is supposed to be easy to understand. Maybe people just look at that but it doesn't mean anything to them, whereas digging only a small amount more would let them determine how much the house would cost to heat?
  20. jack
    GBF?
  21. jack
    How long are your spans though? Our bedroom is the room with the noticeable bounce, and has the longest spans in the house at over 5m (no other room has more than 4m). Also, one end of the joists in only that room sit on a steel that's about 7m long. If you walk past the chest of drawers, the mirror on top wobbles, so it isn't just me! There's some bounce in the other rooms, but it's is definitely worse in our room. Noise transmission is bad everywhere though.
  22. jack
    We have a surprising amount of squeaking in those areas where we didn't get around to screwing down the chipboard. Unfortunately, the main place this happens is our bedroom. Drives me mental. Once I finish the more important stuff I'll be pulling the carpet up and adding some screws to try and reduce it. I'm also a little surprised and disappointed by how bouncy the floors are. Again, this is something that no-one else in the house notices or cares about, but I find it distracting (I'm really easily distracted )
  23. jack
    Context Watson, context.
  24. jack
    Christ, what do you want, a Blue Peter badge?
  25. jack
    To be clear, is that what you're saying happened in this thread?
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