Moira Niedzwiecka

I am having a problem finding bathroom tiles too. Everything looks the same wherever you go. All either beige or grey. Stone or marble effect.

Thats interesting Jeremy. I had planned to put the intake grill on the north elevation venting downwards from the underside of the soffit overhang & the exhaust on the west elevation on the triangle of cedar cladding. The vents would be about 2.5m apart. Would it better to have them both on the north under the soffit overhang? I could still have them about 2.5m apart. What is the max distance the intake & exhaust should be from the MVHR?

Thanks @j_s I was hoping to get away without a bottom rail so the SF40 range looks interesting but probably very expensive. I'll make some enquiries.

Hi Peter, We have visited the Eclisse showroom as it is not far from us. Actually they do not really have anything on show or keep anything in stock. They said we would not be able to have telescopic glass doors with their system. We may end up going for solid doors that look like part of the wall when they are closed. Our joiner has never fitted telescopic pocket doors but I am sure they can't be that difficult. Or can they??

Of course. Sorry for being an idiot. I had just clicked on Jack's link without properly taking in his post. Thought I was going to have to get a cheese eating dog for a minute.

Has anyone installed any telescopic pocket doors? We have an opening from the hallway to the open plan living area. The opening corresponds to the fully glazed front door & glazed skylights so on entering the house you can see straight through the rear sliding patio doors to rear garden & woodland beyond. There will be times when we would like to close this opening with a kind of moving wall or possibly a glazed partition. We do not have the space on one side to allow for centre opening pocket doors so would need a system that telescopes into the wall on one side. We can make the timber stud wall any width to allow for this. In fact I think we are going to duct an SVP (well insulated & soundproofed) through this wall to the upstairs shower room. APP01 Ground floor plan 200717 D A1.pdf

Whats a grommet???

Same here Jeremy. I am still not completely decided on what MVHR & where it will go. I am thinking of going with the Xpelair Natural 180 supplied by BPC. I will need an installer as I am not able to take this on myself but I am concerned that the ducting is done correctly.

@jack & @dogman Good tips, thank you both. @dogman Where did you get your fire collars from? Ours has an ironstone skin, but that is below the cedar cladding. Where the ducts exit the TF is in a roof overhang void. @joe90 Thanks I'll read Jeremy's blog.

Does anyone have any advice with regard to ducting the MVHR intake & extracts through a TF with 300mm cellulose? What did you do with the external membrane? My ducting will go through the wall into a small void in the roof overhang & then a bend in the duct to attach to external grills in the cedar cladding cloaking the underside of the overhang.. Internal wall is airtight OSB (the green stuff). Thanks. M

Hi Lizzie, Good news. Hopefully the damaged materials in the garage will be covered by your site insurance. Just checked mine. Some water ingress from the small shower room velux. It may even have been some condensation that had frozen & has just thawed as not much. The dehumidifier was completely iced up on the back.

@lizzie Fingers crossed it will all be ok. I had the same anxiety in the autumn when it was so wet & no windows or roof covering. I have found the house to be remarkably resilient. As you say it is the underside of the soffits that are not complete. Even if the snow was blowing horizontly it should have just hit the side of the building & you have really deep fascias. I know snow has blown into the cavities where our stonework is not finished and underneath the slates where the sides of the roof are not finished, waiting for the render to be completed. I am just hoping that we get a dry spell with a bit of a breeze to dry it all out soon. It is not being able to get to it to have a look that is really stressful and easy to imagine all sorts of things. Please try not to worry.

Hi Ralph, Welcome. If you have had several estimates from builders & they are consistently above budget it may be that what you are wanting to build cannot be done for the price by using a contractor for all the work. Is a hybrid of sub contractors & DIY possible? It will mean loads of time & work on your part but may be a way forward.

Hi Peter, Your house is inspirational. Congratulations. Is the genvex combi working as you had hoped? I am still undecided about my MVHR & DHW.

The polluting nature of a WB is certainly a consideration but not the main reason we have decided not to fit one. After all I drive a 2004 diesel car (mainly because I have no money, all going into the flaming house) I have mainly decided against a WB because of the overheating issues with the type of house we are building and the cost of a very expensive item that we will get little use from.

Sometimes, as I have learned, it is the only way. Sigh.

Goodness Peter, that is very impressive. You must be so chuffed that all the hard work & detailing has paid off. Something to celebrate. I hope we can do as well.

Our electricity supply was £5000. From a telegraph pole about 50m away. Most of it through soft grass verge. We had to cross a single track carriage way. No road closure was necessary. Took 3 days as the first day the contractors sat in the van from 8am until 2pm waiting for someone to bring some reflective barriers & signage. Apart from this all was very good. I had tried to get quotes for the contestable works from a list of approved contractors. Non were interested as such a small job. I had 1 company respond with a quote that was about the same price as Western Power. I have to say Western Power were very helpful. Their connections chap visited the site on a couple of occasions & was very informative with regard to PV installation. They followed up with a site visit after the work to make sure we were happy with the work & the service. All in all happy but it was very expensive.

Hi Marie, Welcome. Lots of great advice on here from really knowledgeable people. A lot of fun too. We did go off at a bit of a tangent. Do you have a project on the go at the moment?

I find tradesmen can be quite territorial & are more than ready to diss each others work & try to score points. I never thought it would be this way. It is very tiresome.

Comforting in a way to know it is not just us girls that have this problem.

TBF I think it may have been the same if the client had been a man. I am not really that cross, just a bit disappointed. He has made a fantastic job of the cedar cladding & I think has enjoyed working on something a bit different and was enthusiastic to see what an almost finished article looked like.

@recoveringacademic What do mean, MOSTLY

Yeh Lizzie, I know. Hello, am I here, do I exist????

@SteamyTeaTee Hee!! Remember the sketches on The Fast Show where Arabella Weir says something & is totally ignored all the time as if she doesn't actually exist. That is just what it has been like during this build sometimes. Happened again just last Tuesday. I had gone through everything with one of the carpenters on site. Explained that I did not want him to fix an area of the cedar cladding on the roof overhang until I had put in the MVHR exhaust & intake ducts as wanted to make sure I could get at it to seal properly. Returned to site a couple of hours later to find he had done exactly what I had asked him not to do. He told me he thought I was over complicating it & the 150mm gap he had left was perfectly adequate. I explained again, very nicely, what was required & would he please remove 2 of the boards. He then muttered under his breathe & became very sullen. At which point I politely mentioned about the tale wagging the dog, asked him to remove the boards & left him to sort himself out. Guess what. The boards are still up.