Mr Punter

Looks a bit cleaner than earlier. The pocket door looks promising (and expensive).

It would be a big job to replace the suspended timber floor with a suspended concrete floor. Probably easiest with concrete beam and block but will need insulation, then your concrete topping. Allow 150 depth for the beams, 100 for insulation and 75 --100 for the concrete topping. The new bit of floor could be ground bearing if you are not on clay.

140mm wide blocks are widely available.

Also, make the supporting block and Marmox 140mm so it supports the whole of the soleplate as it is currently straddling 3 materials which are unlikely to be completely level with each other.

Cavity tray and weep holes. Holding down details for sole plate. What size is the block under the Marmox? I would want something factory sized here, not cut with a bolster.

I am also bored of grey. I have gone for black on the current property and will do white on the next development. Colours can look really crappy unless very carefully selected and muted.

S3 is the slump. The higher the number the runnier the mix. This sounds a good system. Do you mesh the concrete? Is it 75mm?

I would prefer contractors to read / look at install instructions rather than wing it, which a lot do. I once had some chippies install expensive cement cladding. They decided on a 155mm lap although it should have been 180mm. Cost me an extra £1,800 and some of the junctions looked crap.

Good luck with the curtains and blinds!

If they sued for breach of covenant they would need to establish their losses, which would be minimal. It would cost them a fortune to get to court and they would probably lose.

Be good to get him to detail the pricing eg prelims, foundations, demolition, brick / blockwork, floor, roof structure, roof covering, elecs, plumbing, plastering, carpentry, kitchen fitting, decoration and tiling. You can easily see how much of each is complete and pay accordingly.

Is the staircase open to the rooms below or does it lead to a hallway, with doors?

Are the opening windows the IdealCombi tilt / turns? Do you need to turn the key to get the window into turn mode? If so, they will not be suitable and I do not think they can be easily adapted.

You can buy 6mm treated laths from most roof people.

They normally ask for a fire door between house and garage. You can see why I guess. Make sure the frame is the right spec as well.

No there should be no condensation in the gap, although it is common to have some thinner insulation under the rafters to prevent cold bridging.

If it is black it will not be noticeable. You could just stick it to the top of the vent. I assume this is not a hipped roof, so you can do this bit in isolation. Make sure 6mm is enough.

Yes, enough for a waste pipe. Also space under units.

Where we are almost all the roofers use the same lead man. He is very reasonable and does really neat welding etc. I sometimes ask the roofers to exclude the cost of any specialist leadwork. If they get the job they liaise with him and he bills me. They still do soakers etc.

The upside is no string - if you like the minimalist look. These took ages to finish compared to a timber staircase but like you we had Bison in to do the floors so it was one less thing to consider and straight away we had safe access between floors.

Yes the concrete stairs are expensive. I have clad them in timber before and extra for glass balustraded and stainless handrail. Also lining up treads with floor finishes can be tricky. You often have to screed the hollowcore to take out the camber, as well as batten the underside for plasterboard. Carpeted timber stairs are practical and inexpensive.

The architect on my scheme has put in a pocket door. So annoying, especially as the rest of that level is done in blockwork. AHHH!!! I think I will just leave an opening if BC accept it. It is second only to curved walls as an expensive ball-ache.

In terms of time, good workers on price can earn £400 a day if they graft. I recently had a team of 3 in for 5 days for site preparation at a cost of £5,000. They worked from 7:40AM to 5:00 PM with about 40 mins total break. They did the required demolition, cleared and disposed of all the timber, carefully stacked the paviours I needed to reuse and left the site neat and tidy every evening. The price was a piss take but worth it.

Was it the case that you did not agree a price or rates in advance and just let them tell you how much they wanted when they finished? If this was priced and you agreed, you should just pay.

This sounds like a reasonable fee and it is reassuring that they are trusted and reputable. Some architects I have dealt with have slightly bizarre ideas or agendas and can be difficult to deal with.