DownSouth

Weirdly Victorian Plumbing do 800,900 and 1100 pentangle showers - but no 100 🤷‍♂️ But QS Supplies have this one https://www.qssupplies.co.uk/bathroom-furniture-shower-taps/274018.htm?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17336560494&gbraid=0AAAAAD-qEFAo1RFcjedyK7pN6d5A7-JDy&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzLrEqIjZlAMVfo1QBh3FaBeBEAQYBCABEgIb8_D_BwE

@Super_Paulie Any reason not just go for a quadrant shower? The curve doesn’t take a lot more out of the room.

@junglejim Do your heat calculations say you need a pump that size? If it’s close to passive I’m assuming it must be a massive house you are building to need that sort of size.

Did you replace the trim yourselves or get someone in? I haven’t tried pulling the strip out yet but I’m assuming it’s a cosmetic thing, rather than anything we need to tackle urgently. We’ve moved in, still loads to do - could have done without another job and more expense ☹️ Hoping it’s a simple fix…

I’m so upset. Something is nibbling my window seals, my first guess was a mouse but not sure they’d be able to balance on the ‘ledge’. So maybe squirrels? I’ll get on to the window guys next week to see how we can fix it. Anyone got advice on stopping it happening again? I’ve done a search and the only google advice is spraying chilli spray on windows, not exactly a long term solution. Has this happened to any buildhubbers before? Any words of wisdom for me? Thanks

Our approach: We had crush which got muddy / sticky with clay over the course of the build. When we were ready to do the drive we scraped back the top, put mot3 and ragstone on top. It’s slightly elevated from the house, there’s a 1.5-3m planting bed between it and the house. It often puddled during the build. Now there’s no issues with drainage on the drive, even after Storm Dave. If it did need to run off there’s the plants first and then an aco drain round the house which collects to a rainwater tank 5000litres. This needs to be able to flow out somewhere else - we have a pond - so if there’s a deluge and it’s already full it can flow into that. So far it hasn’t needed to…

Fleming Homes took us through design and building regs, built into their package. They did our ‘as planned’ SAP and will get the ‘as built’ SAP / EPC sorted too.

Do you need to remove them? Could you put a sleeper wall in front, cut the top third of the rotten wood off, stick it in the gap you’ve made and cover it with soil and just top it up after the wood eventually rots down. If you plant in front of it you won’t see the sleeper angles.

We gave up on acoustic panels because of the cost and found that lots of little things made it less echoey - like cork place mats or cork roll over the table, tablecloths with a heat mat under it, curtains, cushion pads made from acoustic foam (foam factory does made to measure), thin acoustic foam or felt behind large pictures, small rug as a wall hanging, plants, books on a shelf. It all adds up.

We used charred wood cladding and can’t use abrasive cleaners without exposing the wood underneath, which then removes the weather protective properties. The very heavy charred wood is soft and flakes really easily. I’ve seen very light charred wood decks on websites which look ok for low traffic areas that get sunshine - so they don’t get mossy. If you’ve got some left try a light power wash to see what happens. It does have a residue even once brushed - so how do you stop mucky footprints? I think it might be one of those things that looks great but ends up being hard work to maintain it. Be interested to know how you get on…

It’d be brighter with windows on 3 aspects wouldn’t it?

Is the moral of the story don’t live in a rain forest? Or beware trolls?

We dumped our first MCS Certified ASHP designer - they refused to factor in MVHR ‘in case it failed’ as the BUS apparently required a single heat source calculation. So finding someone who is certified but also understands the reality of ASHP + MVHR and won’t oversize the heat pump because of the ASHP only calculation is key.

With you on that - last place we used white mosaics in the bathroom. Every time I went in I could see every single uneven tile. This time it’s 600x600 tiles for us. High end of quality isn’t about where you shop for your kitchen to my mind, it’s about how thoughtfully the room is designed and how skillfully everything in it is fitted. Buying things that won’t date too - I never want to refit the kitchen again in the new house. I think quality is things that feel solid to touch too - so fire doors throughout with decent metal handles, quality taps that feel tactile. Just finished geeking out looking at Hansgrohe catalogues and working out what bathroom taps to get.

We have 200sqm total, zone 1 ground floor, zone 2 on the first floor, a controller / temp probe in the hallway on each floor. We’ve switched them to 19, from 21 degrees and it’s comfortably warm to work in. It might need to go back up when we are eventually just sitting around 😊 but while we’re still working away inside it’s nice and warm. We parted company with our original ASHP heating system designer because they refused to do 2 zones, wanted trv in every room and wouldn’t factor MVHR into their calculations. BC were happy with the two zones so that’s what we’ve got.