Big Jimbo

To be honest the above looks like a cold bridge. Screed, 25mm upstand, then through the block, and into the cavity. That picture above shows the door frame sitting outside the cavity, not within it. Expensive marmox block doing very little.

It's good to see that it was put down with plenty of glue. Will clean up using a wide chisel. It will take you about an hour a room. If you are watertight it might be worth asking your builder if he is planning on doing it.

That is tragic. I have had at least 14 cups today.

Cheers @SteamyTea plenty for me to think about. Sit down and get a cup of tea.

You would have to ask the people writing the Building Regs. Passing part O is a total pain. Using restrictors will usually mean you will fail the ventilation bit of part O. I will be having windows upstairs that will be less than 1100mm from the floor, so they will need guarding. None of my first floor windows will have restrictors fitted. My guarding will be a piece of MDF sat on the window cill and extended to wider than the window reveals. Once passed. MDF will be removed, and restrictors will be fitted. Reminds me of back in the day, cutting the chains on door closers to stop them banging.

If you use a restrictor on an opening window, when you are doing part O regs only the portion of window that opens with the restrictor in place can be used in you ventilation strategy.

No idea. Sorry. But the path edge is going to be nice if that helps.

Good afternoon to all the smart people. I have completed the J.Harris heat loss spreadsheet, and it has given me loads of info, none of which i understand. I know/hope that when i have my pre construction EPC done It will give me actual information that somebody else might be able to use for things like working out what size heating, and hot water generating system i will need for the house ? Because i am still waiting for my proper building regulation drawings i can't as yet have this done. I need these because they should show how i intend to improve many of the thermal leaky areas, such as around windows, door bottoms, roof eaves etc. My method of improving these elements have been drawn up by me and wshould be shown on my building reg drawings. In the meantime i am costing things up. For instance i know that i am going to have 4 en-suite bathrooms, and that equates to 1 bath, 3 showers, 1 shower over bath, and 4 sinks. The house will also have 3 further sinks downstairs. (W.C. kitchen, and utility) I want to potentially have the ability for all 4 showers to be used at the same time in the morning, and because of this i am trying to work out what size hot water storage i might need to make this possible. I was also hoping that using the heat loss calculations that i have obtained from the spreadsheet, i would be able to work out aprox what size of ASHP i might need to provide the hot water, and the heating. Any idea how i might be able to extract the heating requirement from the spreadsheet, and find out the hot water requirement with reference to the above and use both the figures to size an ASHP ? If it ain't simple, than i ain't gonna be able to do it. If it can be done, it would help me at least get some idea of a heat pump and tank size required. Is anybody else going to be able to calculate those things for me prior to getting my Building regulation drawings done, and my pre built EPC ? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Waste of floor space / sense of arrival if an entrance hall. I'm having One.

@ETC They can be lower than 1100mm, but will require guarding

@joe90 I could try. Im waiting for a quote for blown in insulation. One problem is i'm going to have a load of MVHR ducts up there, so i would rather they were under the insulation.

Just wait till all the new builders start getting into Part O. Opening can't be lower than 1100mm or will need guarding. Can't be above 1100mm or wont comply as an escape route. Oh, the fun that is going to be had with Building control officers.

I have a height restriction so i am going to have a pitched roof to flat crown roof at the top. The roof pitch is only 25 degrees. I like a warm roof, but it's just not going to happen. It's going to be a pain to insulate the loft due to the total height of the truss being about 1200mm internally. So the roof is hipped on all sides rising to the crown roof in the middle. I will provide a 50mm airgap up the rafter to above the height of the internal, floor insulation, which will either be fluffy stuff, or blown in insulation. There will also be continuous ventilation equivalent in the soffit of 50mm, and i may even put some ventilation over the facia. I will also ensure that the breather membrane will be a nice air leaky one. My question is do i need to try and do anything in relation to the underside of the flat roof section ? Once the trusses are on, i will use firing pieces above the truss timbers in order to provide a fall on all 4 sides, onto the respective pitch roof sections. The firings will then have 18mm OSB3 on top, and epdm glued on top of this. So providing i can get enough air up into the loft from all 4 sides of the roof will i need to do anything to the underside of the OSB.

@Mr Punter That might not be a bad call. Still a total pain in the arse to do. But might actually be doable. Good call.

Would anybody have any contact details for a blown in loft insulation company, that might cover S.W. Herts. I'm struggling to find anybody. I'm having a cold roof, due to height restrictions. I will obviously protect the 50mm eaves ventilation path. The problem is that thw total height of the loft space will only be about 1200mm. Hipped on all sides, with a large crown roof. I intend having MVHR, and although the unit will not be housed in the loft, the semi rigid duct work will be snaking around the loft to the individual rooms. I will be having a loft hatch, and thinking that having a 400mm layer of blown in insulation, via the loft hatch when all the pipes are completed. It will be a trussed roof so access to get up and lay fluffy stuff afterwards, just ain't gonna happen. Thanks in advance.

Just a word of warning. Putting your complete trust in an architect, or anybody else.......... I used to know of an architect who had several builders on his list. He didn't play them off against each other, he basically used to say it's your turn for the job. The jobs were hugely overpriced, and he was getting a very large kickback from each job. The builders were all happy, as they were getting nice overpriced jobs on rotation. The people paying over the top were the architects clients.

`Could you use the lower level and the existing ground floor level to do a Two story extension? Lower level could provide the granny annex, with the upper level providing an extension to your existing ground floor.

I think that if you were currently building it, you would struggle/ just about bring it in for that cost.

Well done. Looks great.

Yep, tree roots, old coal bunkers. shed and greenhouse footings.

I have One done about 20 meters. Had to be dug out 4 times over that distance. You might be lucky.

Just a shower, to cool you down.

@joe90 Going to be sunny. crack of fella. Obviously a better design than dunster house . Pics later

@nod. That is super neat. I thought you were a plasterer ? ........................Plasterers = mess. Did you just crib that pic off the internet.😜

Morning and welcome. Are you having your house built for you, or is it a developer house that you are waiting to be ready ?