Big Jimbo

Either girls or boys. The boys thesedays seem to preen as much as the girls I am always incharge of the remote control ? Slightly better, but not stupid because i don't want to end up with walls 3ft thick. However, happy to hear options with block and block build ?

@Carrerahill That is a seriously neat job.

I am going to be building a new house from Block and Block. I will aim to try and get the insulation levels slightly better than building regs. I have some understanding of air tightness, and have previously achieved 1.8 on an airtest on a simple block construction. This time i will try to do better on the air test. I would like to think that if i do a decent job that the heating requirement would not be too high. In my mind the problem will be supplying enough hot water to supply a Kitchen, Utility, Downstairs toilet, and 4 Bathrooms. The bathrooms will all have showers, and as in the previous house, if you have got 3 teenagers, It is quite easy to have all 4 showers in use at One time. Any smart ideas, or am i just going to have to have a huge store of hot water ? In the last house i did electric showers in 2 of the bathrooms, but im not sure that would be acceptable in a new, expensive house ? Any good ideas ? Thanks as always for any advice.

The house i am proposing to build will require 7 extractors. I hated pumping all of that paid for heat out of my last house, and to add i'm not a fan of trickle vents. Would it be possible to have a simple HVMR that had 7 collection points for the stale, moist air, and only Two points where the fresh air could be returned. Say upstairs landing, and downstairs hall ? Would this be a bad idea ? Would i need gaps under all the internal doors ? I'm just trying to consider how many pipe runs i might need, and how feasable that might be. Thanks in advance for any help.

I think i am going to end up building from block and block. The outside will be rendered on the bottom half, and cement clad planks on the top half (ventilated). I would like to achieve better than regs insulation levels if poss, and not to expensive. I am not sure im keen on the rigid type cavity insulation. No offence to any bricklayers on here, but it's hard enough to get the cavity batts fitted well, let alone tounge and groove ridged panels. I could live with perhaps battens on the inside leaf, with insulation in between, if that could also provide me with a cavity for electrics. Any ideas from the smart, and helpful people on here ? Thanks in advance.

@SteamyTea Ilike that.

I wouldn't seek permission to swap out the existing mobile home for a newer one. It is very easy to trip yourself up when it comes to planning. I would get a lawful certificate for the existing mobile home before anything else. Better still speak to a good planning consultant, spend a couple of grand doing that before anything else.

@joe90.Did you wet plaster, or dot and dab.

The ability to churn them out without the land to put them on. Big investment at 175million.

+1 to @ProDave The council, or the locals won't be keen on you building anything in Bucks. So very important to get the fall-back in place before you rattle the cage.

Quite a lot i would imagine....

I did use about 100 tubes of silicone, but it was only about a quid a tube.

I built a couple of houses for a client about 10 years ago. It was a brick and block build. People were scaremongering a bit and saying, oh, wait till you get to the Air test. I did a cement slurry coat on the inside of the blockwork. Ran a bead of silicone around the blockwork to floor screed. I put a load of silicone around the socket boxes before they were fitted and stuck silicone up the wall cappings where the wires came down. It was dot and dab with a skim coat, and i doubt it got a full bead of adhesive top or bottom. The windows were fitted with straps, and the gaps filled with foam. I siliconed around the inside of the windows, and doors, and stuck the cavity closers on with silicone. Any pipes got a load of silicone around them where they went through the wall. When i got the Air test bloke in i was crapping myself. The first thing he said to me while setting up was that he had just come from a test that had failed with a score of 27. I got a score of 1.8 for 1 house, and 1.7 for the other. I am considering building again in Block and Block. Are there other things that i could do better this time around ?

Indeed @Katie AG Or some great photo's of the planning officer. Get the right one's and they will get whatever you want through planning.

Ẁhat a great bunch on here. I love some of the alternative ideas. Either way, i hope at the end of the day that the Lab likes it.

Only thing to do now, is to tell your neighbour you want it sorted by a proper roofer. Get a couple of quotes yourself, and advise your neighbour that they will be paying.

You don't have a fight on your hands. You need to tell the builder to put it right. Remember you are paying. From our previous conversation what did the builder say when you pointed out that he had fxxxxd it up ?

@ETC Great job.

The neighbours new roof is going to leak. That cut tile nearest the guttering is tipping up to the point that any water ingress is never going to reach the gutter. The neighbours new roof does not look like it has been done by a propper roofer. More like somebody chancing it. I am not a roofer, so i dont know if your tiles should have been mucked in.

Bloody love that. Fair play, you smart cookie.

I have, over my lifetime met a few judges, and a good few baristers. I have also known a few magistrates personally. The judges, seem to fall into my Knob heads with no grasp of real life. Baristers not much better, bloody expensive, and quite often perform badly. Magistrates. Normal people, lived a normal, real life, and in general make good decisions. I would rather have a magistrate decide my fate any day of the week. I expect that both of these couples behaved like knobs.

I have worked in a posh house where they had Two toilets in the master en-suite. Both within there own cubicles. A Mr POO, and Mrs POO. I have also worked in a super posh house, where the master suite was 2000sq ft, and had Two en-suites. A his and hers. Both bloody massive.

I think you will be shocked at the build cost. Large amount of exterior walls for heat loss. I have done the master bedroom on the top floor a few times. Now i try to avoid it. Several estate agents, and mothers, (in excess of 10) have told me that mothers don't like it. Would there be a chance to talk to the planning dept, about reducing the footprint and building Two story. Reduced bulk and mass etc. I sound horid, but i just think you might be shocked at the build costs.

As @JohnMo not a fan. Expensive to build, and odd shape. The only important thing is that you like it.

Dont worry about that. Not your problem. Nothing in life is perfect, but that is way too far out. Make them sort it out. I doubt the builder would put up with that at his own house. You don't have to get nasty. Just simply say that you can't put up with that much of mistake, and ask him if he would be happy to put up with that at his house. They have done it to save having any work to do around the manhole cover. Lazy gits. Builders like that, give all builders a bad reputation.