jack

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.

One thing that annoys me a bit about aluminium cills is that they're noisy when it rains. Big drops fall off the head of the window onto the cill. They're more annoying than the general sound of rain because they're a lot louder, and they're intermittent.

I have a 5kW Panasonic Aquarea that's about 6 years old. You can't hear it when it's doing UFH. There's a slight noise when it's doing DHW, but it's still pretty quiet. To minimise noise, it's important that you mount it properly (ground mounting much better than wall mounting for noise) and connect it with flexible connectors to avoid vibration transmission to the house.

Hmm, can't find it at the moment. Pretty sure it was a video about Mike Whitfield building something designed by Janet Cotterell (who co-wrote "The Passivhaus Handbook"). Saw it around 2014 or 2015, but it might have been a year or two older than that. He showed how he built up a passive raft using just sheets of EPS. It was something like these: https://tdscustomconstruction.com/blog/passive-house/the-foundation-system/ https://terrahaus.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/frost-protected-shallow-foundations/

While you wait for @Bitpipe to reply, one thing to keep in mind about ICF basements is that you can't inspect the concrete to ensure it's continuous and void free. Not such a big deal when it's above ground and covered in cladding, but potentially an issue if it's underground and potentially in long-term contact with water.

I remember reading about a builder who did this years ago. Let me see if I can find the site.

It may be to do with power limiting. We have a Siemens hob and one pair of adjacent rings (the two smallest) has some sort of power-sharing arrangement. If I try to, say, boil water on both, they will alternately pulse as they share power. The other rings aren't affected by this, and other than this issue, all others modulate down fine without pulsing.

I think you'd get away with 12mm given how well-supported it is. Re plastering up to it, you could perhaps put a stop for the plasterer to skim up to then install the plywood and caulk the remaining gap. I'm sure a couple of people on here have done that when skimming up to windows and door frames. Not sure about fixing. Glue would work, although it'll be a devil to get off of you ever want to replace it. Perhaps just use a minimal amount?

Committees aren't required to go along with recommendations. Politely, you're focusing on the wrong issues. You need to focus on the three words used in the rejection. You then need to decide whether an appeal is the right response, rather than resubmitting while taking these issues into account.

I know, but I don't think that's the only question you should be asking. You did ask for comments. You say this information "was presented to the committee in the councils written and verbal presentation as being 11m long and 6.2 meters high along its entire length". Did they use the term "entire length"? Or did they just say something like the wall was 8m long and 6.2m high? Either way, I suspect you're not in a strong position. You're the applicant, it's your site, and presumably there's no-one better placed to pick up an error like this, assuming you had view of this information before it was relied upon. If you didn't spot it, why is it reasonable to expect that the consultant should have? Also, the drawings very clearly show that the wall height varies along its length. No reasonable person would just ignore the drawings. To win at appeal on this ground you'll need to show that the error was a material factor in the decision. I suspect that will be difficult.

Even at 4.8m high, that's still 2.5 times higher than an ordinary garden fence. Is there a reason the wall is so tall?