Big Jimbo

Tapered when i am doing dry lining, and square edge when i am doing wet plaster skim.

Show us some pics Roz

As a starting point you might want to consider keeping all of the tall cabinets on One wall. If you have them on all the walls then tend to close the room in.

I think most of the manufacturers use an extrusion that has a thermal break. Usually plastic extrusion that is hollow in the middle. Warmcore is the same but it looks like the hollow plastic bit is filled with some sort of foam which i expect gives them a better overall U value. I have also read a few not very good reviews on the net.

If you are going to have wall mounted pipes, make sure some careful planning is done, or when your kitchen fitter comes to fit your nice new dishwasher, it wont go back to the wall due to the pipes that will be in the way. How many times over the years have we all seen people's dishwashers, washing machines etc sticking out a bit, and not quite flush with the cupboard doors either side. The reason is because the plug socket, and a load of pipes supplying the sink, anr behind the appliances. Bad planning.

As for having to work a lot of things out yourself. That would be because your spec, and drawings are not up to scratch. Sorry. There will always be things that will have been missed, and things that crop up during the project, and decisions will have to be made. Say i was project managing your project. I would be ringing you up abroad in your villa, and saying, " The sparky has arrived, and i've picked him up on the fact that he wants to run his wires across the floor. (Easiest route) " He says that there was nothing in the spec that he quoted from, that you wanted ceiling wires with drops, and that is going to cost you more. I would be telling you that unless you want to bin him off, (at the risk of being sued due to breaking his contract) and start getting new quotes from sparkies, (and delay the job) then you hav'nt get much option other than to pay him.

That is why planning is so important. you have the drawings, and spec. You knew what the floor build up was going to be, and now you are asking all the other trades to work around the fact that the floor make up is causing an issue. If you had said to the sparky at the quote stage, that you wanted all of the wires run through the ceiling and dropped down the walls, then he would have quoted you for that. If you did'nt tell him that, and it was not on any spec, or drawings that you gave him to quote from, then i'm afraid that's called bad planning.

That is going to be a few bob then.

How much off the work will you be doing ?

Not me i'm afraid, but it's looks good. Cost ???

If you are going to use an Architect, and a main local contractor, there goes £20k of your money. The Architect will have to make several visits to ensure that your main contractor is doing what is being asked of him £££££ Your main contractor will be subbing out a lot of your work and will want 20% mark up on whatever he is being charged.

The thing is, you might get away with it, if you have got very good extraction. I just would'nt do it because, because i did'nt want to take your hard earned off you, only to have you ring me up in 12 months to say that the stuff had started to fall apart.

In my opinion expanding foam will be better than trying to cut, and stuff anything else in there.

personally, i think you are light on your bathroom, showeroom, and kitchen if you are expecting to do no work yourself. especially down south. I would imagine that in Walton on Thames, you would want a fairly high spec.

Travis perkins are the biggest robbers out there in my opinion.

I made bespoke furniture for years. i would never use solid wood in a bathroom. It would either be mrMDF sprayed in any colour, or veneered MDF heavily lacquered, if they wanted a wood finish. Don't use solid wood.

Sensus. Sometimes you do just because you can. When we give away every bit of power we have left, we become sheep. I would never use the council's building control, always a private company. These days you would be hard pressed to find a council that has not farmed it out to a private company.

i have had several conversation with the enforcement teams on various projects over the years. If you do let him onto your land. (I never have, and have never had the old bill turn up with them) then they have no right whatsoever, to force entry, into your locked caravan/ mobile home to see if you are actually living in it. I would also ask them to sign a disclaimer that they accept responsibility for any accidents that may occur while they are on my land including my very hard to control large dog taking chunks out of them. The old bill won't enter my land either unless they suspect that a crime is, or has been committed. I'm standing at the gate, having a nice friendly chat. No breach of the peace here fella. You want to come in. Go and see the magistrate, and get yourself a warrant. Bye Bye. Remember, you get bullied, because you allow yourself to be bullied.

P.S. Do i hate councils. Yes. Do i think that most people who work for them are tossers . Yes. The above won't cost you a penny.

Don't all shout at me. There is another way, Live in your caravan/ mobile home on site. If/when you get a neighbour reporting you to the council, you might eventually get a guy wearing a woolly tie come to visit you (planning enforcement) Tell him very little, and don't let him on site. Tell him that you neither confirm, or deny that you are living on site. Then tell him to bugger off. If the neighbours continue to moan about you living on site the woolly tie geezer, might pop back after a month or so. Tell him to bugger off again. You might then get an enforcement notice. It will normally give you a couple of months to clear off site and take your caravan with you. Wait untill the two months is almost up, and then put in for an appeal against the enforcement notice. That will take about another 10 months or so, and when you lose the appeal the council will write to you several times over a period of a few months, and eventually they will write to tell you that they will take direct action to remove and bill you for the cost. During the passage of time, you will be finished your house to the point where you will have got sick of living in your caravan, and will be living in your house. Either get rid of the mobile, or write and advised the woolly tie fella that you are not living in your caravan, and that it will be staying parked on your land till your next holiday...... Bye bye council.

The above by Bouch is so true. If you gave my daughter a tractor manual and an evening, she would read it, and the next day without a manual, she would be able to strip the tractor, and rebuild it without any help. (I kid you not) I on the other hand would just rip it to bits, and then go and look for the manual.

Roz. If you were going to do it with soffit board you could prob get it in the same colour that you were going to paint your exposed rafter feet. Ie; if you were going to paint them black, then get black plastic 9mm soffit board to save you having to paint it to match.

The selt adhesive ali tape will do a good job for you.

Just a handsaw will cut that for you no prob.

Patrick, i'm going to watch that later. But i see that in the first 30 seconds, he said the words, Science, and Physics. I am going to have to stock up on chrisps, choc, and fizzy pop for later berore i tackle it.