G and J

Loads and nothing. I need to do another entry to clear out my head but my head’s too full to do a blog entry…. Plus I need a milestone like some visible progress to make me feel like it’s reasonable to do one. When you’re there every day it feels like so little changes.

Have you looked at part O yet? That may throw some changes into the mix

Aka an element of control freakism. I think we all try (try being the operative word) to stay within bounds of what we can/should do, when we don't ......there be dragons....stretch not stress and all that. Looking at your blog, you're motoring, so whatever you're doing/have done....it's working.

Not at the moment, but that's a great offer, thanks.....will keep in mind

Maybe someone should invent wallpaper with post it note glue already on it. It could be marketed as reusable and hence eco.

Top tip, thanks johnMo Not a grand design by any means but "clean" modern house, with aluminium windows/porch canopy/parapet capping,silvered (not everyone's cuppa I know) so kind of fits.......if could get it square in ral colour then....... oh and specified on planning (could of course seek a change) but in the end budget may have something to say anyway Sound like it'll be a "project" but will give satisfaction if we do it. Thanks for info.....site restrictions would make even 6m lengths difficult and we have 4 x 12m runs if we did in one piece 😞

Just started looking to where we will source guttering. Not going lindlab, very nice but galvanised and were having larch cladding Nearly fell off chair at marley alutec quote. Guttercrest look more "reasonable" cost wise and I see that @Russell griffiths has used and looked good, so 3 questions Russell how's it looking a few years on? Has anyone had more recent dealing with Guttercrest? Who else should I be looking at? Thnx

As the female of the partnership and the one who could be claimed to deliver "the look" (although in all honesty I think we can and do both deliver it) I would say a big no to wallpaper.....choose the most outrageous colour or colours you like, but leave the wall surface unblemished Sp edit

Ummm, is this buzzword bingo?

Presumably with a mains sewer connection one still needs a soil stack onsite.

Presumably that means the thinner PIR insulation layer means the oversite is higher and thus can accommodate your poo pipes. We’ve very tight invert levels so I’ve been round and round and round and round this one.

2.5m, so roughly a 40mm fall. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Ok that didn’t work. Try this!

Two storey, two beds upstairs, one down. Each with an egress window planned so we are covered anyway. It's wild (and feels random) how varying opinions are about such things. I kinda feel the need for a fire escape window should be pretty cut and dried. I’ve posted our plans on our blog. I’ll paste a link in a mo.

‘My friend’s posijoists are 253mm high. The diagrams of them show that I, erm, he can easily get a 110 mm pipe through but exact routing and fall etc are a source of concern to the persistent worryguts. Thus knowing that there’s a slightly smaller bore option is comforting.

Which means that none of our bedrooms require emergency escape windows as they are all directly connected with the front door via a landing, stairs and a hall. I've been worrying over nothing!

What a fabulous bit of info sharing. Well done and thank you (as one who has had the gas removed and has been wrestling with the details of my ASHP setup - corroborating evidence is very much appreciated ).

What does “inner room” actually mean? One without a door opening directly to the outside?

Even downstairs bedrooms need an egress window. I think.

As a young child (though in truth I’ve never really changed) I would ask me mum what I had to wash. The answer was always the same, “the parts that show and the parts that smell”. Apart from paint very little that I do will be seen. Much safer that way. So the “parts that show” will be done properly by dudes that can. I translate “the parts that smell” into the bits that are vital to the structural integrity of our new pad. I won’t be doing those either. Grown ups will (though I’m on hand to ask dumb questions and do really important stuff like making tea). But the rest I’ll happily toddle away doing. So mum knew best all along.

So if a friend of mine (not me, obviously, I never worry about anything) was laying awake at night thinking about how he’d get his poo pipes through his metal web joists to serve an upstairs potty, the connection from said potty could, if need be, be done in 82mm pipe till it hits the 110mm soil stack. That run would only carry waste from my, I mean his potty. I’m asking for a friend you see.

I know from my own agonising how tempting it is to shave every mm to achieve a perceived vital statistic. But standing back from my design is something I find hard sometimes, so I feel for you. You've a brilliantly insulated wall design, so the potential heat loss through the floor to the ventilated void is unfortunate. If you are consciously trading UFH running cost for height then that’s your right. (But best done consciously though). By a rough calculation adding the extra 50mm PIR in the floor will achieve a similar u value to your walls. I’d be tempted.

Small weights (part barrow loads) X Many reps (lots of trips) = Enhanced strength (or for us in our later years a reduced loss of power over time). Ear buds and tunes you love can help. Not convinced that a battery wheelbarrow will though.

Methinks that one benefits from taking multiple inputs and comparing and contrasting. Perhaps trying in some cases to look behind the statements. As a society we aren’t always as kind to peeps who say “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” as we could be so perhaps we discourage honesty. I think our SE is brilliant. When meeting him prior to engaging him he set out his stall and was fully open about the fact that he had very limited experience in achieving airtightness. I’m a nerd that reads and overthinks way too much so I didn’t need him to bring that to the party. But his openness has helped us work together very well. I can easily imagine architects reading in their periodicals about disgruntled clients where newish stuff hadn’t worked so well which then encourages them to steer peeps towards the tried and tested and low moan options. I was initially put off by very poorly designed heat pumps in social housing in our area. Hopefully your architect has got lots of other things dead right.