jack

Welcome to BuildHub! You'll get the best response if you post specific queries in the relevant sub-forums, as not everyone monitors the Introduce Yourself section. Have you checked out the VAT section? There's a particularly useful (to your circumstances) sub-forum in there that only becomes visible when you have, I think, 10 posts. Is that right @newhome? If you want to re-post your questions about VAT and insurance in the relevant subforums, I can edit your original post to direct people to those new posts. I'll monitor this thread, or feel free to drop me a direct message.

Yes, we're starting to look into that now. I think these expensive systems use some quite complex extrusions and hardware, whereas we're happy with something quite basic.

Many things in the building world are "really not difficult to do right", and yet experience says they're often done wrong. People come onto this forum daily and ask for help addressing significant cock-ups by professionals. If it happens so regularly with stuff that's visible, why is it unreasonable to be wary about stuff that isn't going to be visible? I thought the main issue with non-inspectable concrete (as happens in ICF) was the difficulty in getting someone to warranty it when it's used underground, although I can't remember who said that. @Bitpipe, did you ever look into ICF as a possibility?

Jeremy hasn't been around for several months. I'm pretty sure these weren't for a flat rooflight though.

Just checked and it seems the £15k quote was from Crittall.

Take a look at this thread, which references several others that have taken a similar approach.

What look are you trying to achieve? I assumed from your mention of ply that you wanted visible ply on the cut edge - is that not the case? More generally, oak faced ply is certainly available (eg, https://www.atlantictimber.co.uk/crown-cut-oak-veneered-birch-plywood-2440mm-x-1220mm-8-x-4.html), albeit probably not from places like builders' merchants. Probably you'd need to order online and get it delivered unless you live near a suitable supplier. If you want a veneered edge, many of these suppliers will cut and professionally edge-band veneered MDF to order. Unless you have a particular interest in doing this yourself, I'd be tempted to just give a suitable supplier a cut and veneer list and have them make it all up as cut strips for you. All you need to do onsite is cut to length and install.

One or two other members have posted something similar in times past. It'd be amazing if something like this ever got off the ground. Something like a mini Graven Hill would be an awesome thing to follow.

That sounds hideous. Thank very much for sharing - this will really help others.

We'd like to install pairs of steel-framed glass doors across the two entrances to our living room. The apertures are both about 2800 high and 1050 wide. The plan was for a fixed pane at the top, and then a pair of opening doors underneath. Roughly along these lines, although obviously quite a bit narrower: We've started getting quotes. The couple we had for supply only were £5-7k. Then on Friday we had stunning quote of just shy of £15k, although that includes all measuring and installation. I appreciate that bespoke solutions are always going to be more expensive, but various standard sizes seem to be available at a tiny fraction of these costs. Anyone had success with sourcing this sort of thing at a more reasonable price?

Apparently they're called milled or waffle faced hammers: https://homefixated.com/milled-face-vs-smooth-face-hammer-smackdown/

A friend of mine is in the process of getting this done on the Surrey/Hampshire border. I can let you know how he gets on with his installer, but that might be a few weeks from now

That was my experience at my friend's place.

Same. I actually think it's 800 or 850 to avoid the need for protection. We're at about 400 in some places and needed lockable window stays. We should have had a fixed pane to 800 (or whatever it is) and an opener above that.

We have anthracite outside, oak inside. I love the oak where we have white paint, but we have very dark walls in some rooms and the oak is too light. Friends of mine have just self-built and went for anthracite inside and out. I think it looks great, to the point where I'd consider something similar if I ever lost what's left of my mind and decided to build again.

Thanks @craig. No, we definitely don't have anything like that. We just have the strip of "sound-deadening coating".

Scottish or Siberian larch? Our Siberian larch cladding is over 5 years old and mostly looks great. We do have areas of black mould on one elevation where it's under enclosed balconies, which I plan to treat this year. We left samples of Siberian and Scottish larch outside for a couple of months and the Scottish stuff ended up bent like a banana across its width. Virtually no sap. I can think of a couple of boards where there's been a patch, but that's it.

Is it cheap though? Sure, the pipe isn't expensive and is easy enough to self install, but you can't just bung it on top of chipboard. Whether you go for spreader plates, biscuit mix, whatever, it'll add significantly to the amount of effort and cost required. Either way, I wouldn't characterise your "just in case" approach as being a "for" argument in a genuine debate. All that said, I've been thinking a lot lately about what I'd do differently if I built again. I'd consider having tiled floors upstairs with UFH. I'd cool the bedrooms in summer using PV, and get some rugs made up for winter (and probably wouldn't use the UFH much in cold weather, if at all, based on my current experience).

In a well insulated and airtight house, I've seen very little argument for having UFH throughout the upstairs area, other than in bathrooms. One or two people are installing it, but I don't think I've seen a single person argue that they've installed it and used it regularly. What debate have you seen?

They're maybe a metre wide and open to just past 90 degrees, so when they're open, they extend a long way into the room. Where the hinge is close to the adjacent well it isn't too bad, but where it isn't, the window just hangs out into the middle of the room. Also, some of them come down quite low - 400mm from the floor. Naturally there's no way to have furniture anywhere within the swept opening area. It isn't the end of the world. They're all tilt and turn, so cracking them to let a bit of air in is fine. But when you want them wide open for purge cooling, for example, they're obtrusive. We also don't have any form of window stays, so you have to use a chair or something to hold them open if you have a few windows open on a windy day.

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Why should I suffer alone?

Is the dampener a layer of nitrile-rubber-like material stuck to the underside? If so, we have that. Still loud, although I do find noise very distracting in general.

Single sheet. I was really surprised that no-one's ever mentioned this in the past, although it's interesting seeing in this thread how many others apparently have similar issues.

Yes, we have good quality triple glazing.