G and J

I agonised over things like the cold bridges with insulated bnb floors then I did the numbers on a solid floor with lots of underfloor insulation. I know bnb floors bypass a lot of underground issues and are often the only option (as in our last house) but if you’ve the choice why not check the relative costs of a solid floor for your build.

Can’t comment on MBC but I can tell you what we’ve done. 140mm frame filled with 0.032 slab mineral wool. VCL 63mm batten with 60mm RWA45 between. 11mm OSB or 18mm ply where needed for stuff to be wall hung. When I played with Jeremy’s spreadsheet it became clear that accepting a slightly higher wall u-value didn’t matter a damn. I think compared to a full PIR equivalent to the same thickness it cost circa £12 per year in extra heating. That was mitigated by upping the underfloor insulation which for us was very cost effective. We have a narrow site so we felt our room sizes were squeezed, so the ‘rent’ we pay of a bit of extra heating seemed more than worth it. Now we are living in the new pad I find myself thinking that maybe I needn’t have been quite so manic about every last mm…

As I (G) am wrinkly I’ve not a clue what a company like that actually does, in my world lighting meant BHS. What do they provide exactly?

+1 to this

Are you letting it go silver? Have you viewed final "colour" with mortar as well? Image of our attached just as eg. Took us a while to choose whole "package"

It is subjective but firstly is your whole frontage brick, may make a difference.... We only have a plinth, (9 at highest where ground slops at back of house) so we chose high contrast mortar that "matched" the cladding. If it had been the whole house, would have been too stark for us, and maybe the planners. Having said all that my vote would be nit no.1 (too warm), no.3 if your looking for high contrast, no.4 if you want it to "blend"

Whatever happened to a licked finger?

We’ve had an awful lot of success over the years by building relationships by using the same peeps repeatedly and once we feel we can trust said dudes we get a feel from them of the scale of the job but then go with day/hourly rates. We’ve found that if one always insists on fixed priced arrangements unless as mentioned above, it’s bog standard stuff then to be safe the person quoting needs to allow for the possible googlies awaiting them. If you look at it from the other end of the contract they may well think ‘I don’t know you or how much of a pain in the bum/slow payer you are so I’m gonna build in contingency’. Kerr-ching. Might be worth an hourly rate discussion with both. I’d certainly investigate further as the £1.6k sounds a bit too good to be true. Oh, and might be worth ensuring that both quotes include necessary disbursements.

I would guess those struts stop the wall falling in or out. It looks like a single block wall with no visible pillars, and I think of such as being very weak. The sort of gable truss that forms the top half of that wall is just sat on top. There is no strength in the wall to stop it bulging in or out and that would result in the gable wall failing. I think. No doubt a grown up will be along soon to clarify.

Wot he said. lol Except I’m a total whimp. I would shut off the feeds to the taps ‘just in case’. I’d expect to be using a fair bit of force and if a tap shifts… who knows. Technically though Welsh Nick is correct, there should be no need to isolate.

I mentioned the war(m batteries) but I think I got away with it! (& yes, if you get the reference then you are indeed, as I am, a wrinkly lol)

We used these. Didn't mesh as will "deter" larger insects, not sure would stop determined ants but 🤞

I’ve had success in such situations both with the bottle viakal dripped on the beastie in question and with the spray version too. Patience needed.

Do you want for looks? We've gone for weep holes, which are much less visible, even though there are lots of them, and vermin proof! (Uninsulated cavity between GF block skin round timber frame).

Can’t help with the connectivity, but I can offer a simple alternative. Rather surprisingly still available…. It saved us over £1k in portaloo rental fees so it really must be worth a few bob…. 😉