eandg

Was a wee delay in getting the ceiling sheets up, but was on site with the boys putting the sheets up today. They're good joiners and put resilience bars on most of the jobs they do (mix of commercial and residential). "So it's 25mm screws you're using?" "No, we just use 32s" "But you're 16mm for your resilience bars and 15mm sheets, so you'll be going into the joist" "It's only a mil and you'll hardly get any biting across the full place" "Are you not kinda missing the point of resilience bars?" Lunch called early while I ran for some collated 25s. And just the latest in a long line of how decent trades would miss the important details if left to their own devices.

That looks great. We are currently designing on Stairbox and had been looking at something similar to this: How do you set it up with the cut stringer like you have and spec the overhang (it might be that's only possible with closed risers)? On a related note, has anyone used Stairbox and required a landing? We're needing a halflanding c. 2100x100 and want it to match the stairs as closely as possible.

Has anyone used and any general thoughts? We're considering for upstairs (or upstairs kids' bedrooms anyway) for its tactileness and soundproofing qualities. I know there's a risk of damage from dragging/dropping but main query is about its thermal insulating properties - we don't have any heating upstairs with ground floor UFH to heat the house. We have 100m acoustic slab (with decent thermal properties) in the joist, would installing cork flooring too potentially inhibit heat rising through to warm upstairs?

Screed was laid on Monday, quick drying stuff so should be good for floor coverings within 2.5-3 weeks (we'll wait 4). Advised walkable in 48 hours, full site traffic 5-7 days but don't lay stacks of plasterboard on it until it's dried out. I need to build a few stud walls on it - how long should I wait to do this?

There's a Federation of Traditional Metal Roofing Contractors that's worth looking at as a starting point - you should be able to find a few contractors there who do supply and fit in your area. There's also companies that supply panels cut to size for you or a contractor to fit (like Pagurek which imports from Poland and are a fair bit cheaper for supply than the above, in our experience). There's also a wide range of metal/metal style roofing, from the very expensive zinc and copper to plastic alternatives that adopt the same profile and look. We found aluminium a good middle ground - you get the look but not all of the cost.

No comment on the windows but that's a great looking house.

Not my thing from the outside but would make a really nice house. Looks a good, efficient use of space inside but I wouldn't want to build that size of house then find it's a real squeeze to get more than 10 in the dining room at Christmas. And it's be a right pain to be sat down then realise you fancy a condiment all the way across in the pantry. Don't know the orientation but I'd maybe consider swapping the snug and pantry about and playing with the layout.

You'll notice a huge difference with new 3G - I am really surprised how little solar gain appears to come in (only a very marginal temperature difference) through south facing windows in our build compared to the old 2G in current home.

We just had a labourer and apprentice load bricks around the scaffold for us while the brickies set out and started. Brickies had them in the gang mixing mortar (labourer) and helping lay (apprentice) in any case - maybe worth asking as I don't think any hoist would have saved us cash.

If going telehandler route we found small and local much cheaper and far better service than the big nationals.

Do plenty of research and consider your cashflow too - we ruled out using an architect early on as most of their fees would be incurred pre-build commencing, which for us would have killed our cashflow and meant we couldn't progress through the stages to draw down our mortgage (i.e. if we spend £20k on architects fees we'd not have been able to install the windows and doors to get us to weathertight and get the next lot of cash). We've worked pretty hard to cut fat from the budget and did a bit ourselves and will be about £1450/m2 all in with higher than normal groundworks costs. Architectural technician doing our drawings. If you're going the timber kit route you'll find some of the companies will have their own in-house design teams that can take off your own sketches/floorplans to get you through building regs.

I'd need to work out the m2 price we paid for Rationel but they were about 40% cheaper than Norrsken from memory - maybe contact a few distributors and see what they can do? Our slider has a u-value of 1.05 (3m wide if that makes any difference).

That's reassuring, thanks. I'll maybe rip a wee bit of insulation in the morning and fit it at the door thresholds just for comfort.

Thanks - I bought the last two rolls anywhere within a couple of hours drive on Thursday! Should have ordered another just in case for next day but only getting back round to thinking about it. If the 60mm PIR is fine for the vertical upstands I'll steal some off the external walls and fit across the thresholds before the guys get here in the morning. Also wondering about external doors - we have our doors (in situ) sitting on treated timber but I left them out - should these be 'stripped'?

I have put perimeter strips on my internal and external walls (external walls have 60mm PIR, full height, for added insulation acting as vapour layer). Should I swap these out on external walls for PIR? Screed due tomorrow. Also no movement joints on door openings but now reading I perhaps should have - can't find any perimeter strip stuff available within 50 mile radius at merchants. Is there any substitute I could use?

Can't help but that's a fantastic site!

For the relatively small quantity you'll need I'd be inclined to just get the best of gear (Russwood) rather than economise.

When we acquired the land for our site I was prudently budgeting at 2.5. When we complete later this summer it'll be 6% or thereabouts. For us (£275k mortgage over 25 years) that's £538 extra a month we need to find - or an additional £11.3k in pre-tax earnings just to stand still and all just going into the financial services ether.

We used Caledonia Timber for larch. Customer service was good but some of the boards a fair wee bit off straight. They can do Douglas Fir cut to size up to 6/7m lengths which might be a good option. I know others recommend International Timber but they just put us onto Jewsons (which was priced reasonably competitively).

The likelihood is that it's a one off - presuming the guy was in an intoxicated or episodic state - so try not to worry too much. If I were you I'd consider upgrading the security as per the advice above but be careful you don't create a fortress as that might just heighten your feelings of vulnerability. Personally, I'd stick some more lighting and leave a hammer in the wee dookit at the driver's side of the car for a few weeks on the off chance the guy comes back.

Agree on this - I adjusted a bit of scaffolding but there were a few precarious moments when the metal boards (which are much heavier and have a momentum of their own once you lose the balance) went precariously close to windows. I wouldn't want to be removing a full house worth of scaffolding - even doing it in a couple of hour shifts I reckon there'd be a fair risk of some unforeseen damage as you tire. Leave it to the skilled muscle.

From memory our ASHP needs 4 penetrations (2*28mm flow and return pipes, 22mm discharge from the hot water tank and a 4mm cable to external sensor), MVHR needs 2*150mm pipes for bringing air in and out. We also gave 2*22mm pipes for hot and cold taps and 4 cables going through for exterior lighting either side of back and sliding doors (lights at front go out with our temperature sensor). You want to plan it all in early too so you can get some airtight grommets (we are using Pro Clima Roflex in appropriate sizes) fitted before your plasterboard goes on.

I only seriously looked at three aluclad suppliers but they all do clear lacquer finishes internally - not sure the wood would look quite as natural as you're after but the high end ones make sure the grains match etc (think that detail is largely what you pay for).

Thanks all - the Kooltherm is currently sitting on my slab and I'd need to make it up with additional screed (at further cost) in any case.

So just the cheapest stuff about, 200 or so? I had thought we'd be fine with the EPS under the (50mm) structural topping on the slab but UFH company advised we'd need a thermal break between screed and slab otherwise we'd waste a lot of of energy heating the concrete below rather than the screed above. Lovely, can manage that.