eandg

£200/day is hardly mega money - after costs if you're earning that you'll be doing well to be on an average wage, while likely working more hours and while taking more risk. Certainly makes you think and I can understand why my cheap plumber spends half his time making phone calls and arranging his next jobs while I'm paying him.

Those images suggest the design will look much better on site than on paper - they look very nice. On plan, a bit too much going on for me with respect to glazing - sometimes less is more.

You might be doing well to find m/any that'll change their processes just for a one off roof ob with birch ply and would expect those that do to charge a premium for the hassle. Would presume you'd need a new assesment of build method etc too as their certification for warranties based on OSB. Likely easier just to get standard SIPS, batten out and sheet as you like.

Currently wrestling with detailing cavity barriers for (vertical) timber cladding. Am I right that vertically (at corners) a 2*2 is fine, horizontally (between floors) it should be some form of intumescant strips (i.e. given the cavity barriers I've erroneously bought will block ventilation event if I could fit battens around) and around windows it should be?

How did you end up doing this Andrew?

How did you work your cavity barriers with your battens for the cladding?

My experience is merchants will at least match what the online places can do. Particularly helpful if you have a credit account.

Did you just use the Robinson stuff at 100mm and bend it? Looking at Cedral and it's awful expensive in comparison.

No it won't.

Someone in a management position at a council or housing association (and in England some private sector providers who are also registered as social landlords to enable them to get development subsidy).

Unless your UFH pipes are made of gold then your price looks about twice or more what it should be.

What did you use? For speed and ease of use I had planned on using rockwool slab stuff which is 600mm wide but all our stud openings are largely 560s so now looking for best alternative. Cheers.

You did it pretty similarly to the guy in the video?

That's my plan, there's no shortcuts - I'm just looking to confirm if there's any value doing it on walls with doors (i.e. do the doors negate the insulation elsewhere in the stud or not)?

Is this (see 50 seconds on) the right way to do it? If so, needing 100mm wide roll for a 50mm cavity?

Looking at the Buildings Regs (for Scotland) and our Building Warrant it looks like we only need 25mm at 10kg/m3 in the studs, though we'll go to 50mm. Query I have is about stud walls with a door in them - I can't see anything in either doc noting exemptions but from reading some stuff online it suggests that sound insulation may not be required (or is of limited value) in walls where there is a door. So questions are 1) is it required? and 2) if not, and of limited value, is going any more than the bare minimum 25mm of any particular value?

My flooring guy charges the same but says LVT easier to work with. From memory for labour he's £12/m2 for straight laid stuff and £20/m2 for herringbone.

Looks great - any spare stone and time on your hands please swing by mine's... I'm not sure there's a big issue in the opening post but Conor's suggestion sounds about right to me - DIY some beech for a much quicker alternative at a fraction of the cost.

Do as much of the planning and costing early on (pre-build if you can) - I also work in a busy F/T job and have a young family, which doesn't leave enough time for project management, particularly as DIYing a lot of it too. Having mostly done my homework and had suppliers and trades lined up in advance makes it much easier - would be even further behind and out of pocket had I not been.

I've largely separated materials and labour so difficult to compare, though we sarked a roof for the cost of materials (c.£700) compared to a quote of over 4k for supply and fit. So far I've shopped about between online and physical merchants and found fair savings by doing so, whereas your trades will just go to their easiest/nearest merchant and they have no incentive to haggle. Quick example is plumbing and bathroom materials - if you're none the wiser your trades might just charge you book price (and take their trade account savings and put it in their pocket) but a quick chat with a plumbing merchant and he's taking 40% off book as a starting point.

Not meant as a criticism - we all know why builders would do that. Point is there's absolutely zero incentive for trades to cut material costs so don't leave it to them, organise yourself and you'll save a lot for not a lot of effort.

Sounds very similar to our build (piled foundation, not far off on size etc) - with a fair bit of DIY (internal joinery, sheeting, electrics) and a reasonable internal fit I think we'll be about £1450-1500m2. If you act as QS you'll come in a fair bit cheaper than estimates based on book prices and lazy contractors picking up materials from the local merchant.

From memory they (ADW) have an approved installer in West Lothian.

Plan is for UFH pipes onto insulation with 55mm screed above. Guide for screed we currently plan to pour suggests anything less than 60mm should be reinforced with D49 mesh or similar. Will this have any impact on the transference of heat to the floor?

@Simon R did you get your plywood online or from a local merchant? Also thinking about using offcuts of larch cladding (which we're using externally) but not sure if that's a bit of a mad idea? I like continuity and a very restrained palette of materials and resumably with a bit of sanding and some oil it should work functionally.