Declan52

Due to the fact most of the materials used in the building trade are made here, sewer pipes, insulation,loads of concrete companies, how many irish timber frame CV companies are there, cheap and plentiful labour I would say the figure would be maybe 0.5-0.6. they don't include it so not to make all you guys from the mainland a bit jealous!!!

You could do it like this pretty easy. Depending on how you want it to look on the inside you could put a fancy ridge beam in from the new peak to the existing roof on the left and have it exposed or not. Depending on what is at either side of you and depending on planning you could put a skylight or two in.

I made mine out of a stud frame. Was screwed to the joist from below. Mine was then boarded in MDF so was easy to give a light sand to and then paint over it. I made mine the same size of the island. I have a 25mm ledge around mine that the led lights fit. I also put 6 downlights in mine to shine onto the island.

Very nice looking indeed with the mixture of materials but for me the one really outstanding feature is the wind vane/ clock housing on the roof. Never seen that on a house before. Really catches your eye on both pictures.

All stud work, joists and truss I have ever seen in NI have always been 400mm centres.

I sketched my plans out many times before I went to an architect. He had a good look at them changed one wall and that was it. He was very easy to work with and seemed happy enough with how the house turned out. I have met a lot of builders sparks plumbers plasterers etc that I could call much worse than tossers.

I built a block house and all along the way I was aiming to build it to the highest standard that I could afford. I had a set budget and couldn't go 1p over. I spent extra on thermal blocks for the inside skin, put thicker pir on the underside of the roof and extra loft insulation to take it above building regs. Where I really did put the effort in was in getting it airtight. Used membranes where I could and tape around the frames of doors and windows and this has made more of an impact per £ spent than anything else. It's fairly cheap step to take in the grand scheme of building a house, think my bill was £600 for all the membranes and tape I needed and I still have a few rolls left over. As far having a stove I always wanted one but some how ended up with two, a woodburner and a pellet stove that provides all my heat and hot water. Have close on 3t of logs still to go through so maybe 5 years worth. My bill for pellets was £350 last year, thanks Arlene from the dup for covering my bill for years to come, and that is to provide all my hot water and heating. Have pv which takes care of the hot water for maybe 5 months of the year. My last house was half the size of my new build and oil was costing me £500 a year and twice as much in electric than what I am paying now. It's your house build it how you like and put what ever you want in it. Any thing goes in my book with the exception of woodchip wallpaper you definitely will regret that.

I have handless doors in the kitchen, white high gloss and even with my big Mars bar fingers I can open them easily enough. The white doesn't show up finger marks that bad but I have a few plum coloured doors and they would be bad esp the door on the fridge. We priced curved door and it was quickly dropped. On a practical side you can fit very little in a curved cupboard any way. As far as i know the doors where fully sprayed with lots of coats of paint in Italy if the sales man is to be believed. Probably means 2 coats in a shed in Sheffield!!

Most people have a real problem visualizing from plans. My wife must be one of the worst I have ever came across and everything I done I have to draw it out numerous times on 3d software to try to get her to get a grasp what was on the plan. Wasn't until the walls where up that she agreed that the bathroom was massive, I had shrunk it a bit to make our bedroom and the hall a bit wider and she was fretting that it would be too small even though it was still bigger than our bedroom in the previous house.

That would most definitely get a blue Peter badge. I would say the planning committee would have been blown away when they where confronted with this type of approach.

If I was going down the resin route then I would want a real level sub base that wouldn't move any where so would go with either concrete or tarmac. How long will the plastic grid hold up to traffic before you end up with track marks from your car wheels???

If you are handy then there's companies that sell kits for you to do it yourself. https://www.vubasupplies.co.uk/landscaping/resin-surfacing.html

It's in my mum's house and that's what I told her but thought maybe there was some trick I was unaware of

Since we are talking about smoke alarms how do you get one to stop chirping even after a new battery is put in.

Every new house has them on the ceiling now so you don't really notice them walking about.

Can you remove a section that the skirting board will cover and remove the insulation to get a better look.

Mine are all heatmiser and the list is endless. From the basic version with buttons to the all singing dancing one you can control with an app.

Search on YouTube. Loads of videos explaining it all. Navi X ain't one to let the kids at!! As there has been a crack down recently Navi x is gone but there are still loads of builds that will have whatever you need There also videos showing how to install showbox and terrarium TV. Can even put iptv on Kodi now.

You can install Kodi on a pi 3 which would open even more possible options.

Your soffit

Looks dead on.

The guy who inspected my roof was covering for the normal BC person while he was on holiday passed my roof from the top of my drive. Was a muck hole at the time and didn't want his shoes dirty. Could you have your spark on site so he can ask him what qualifies you to examine my electrical work the next time he is due to call.

If you get damp on the 3rd floor you have serious issues. The dpc above the window is there to stop any water that might penetrate the outside skin making its way inside. It hits the dpc then comes out at the top of the window. It's a simple case of you have a drawing showing what needed to be done and are paying to get this done. If it hasn't been done then don't pay up until it's done.

They used a few bits of timber underneath to hold it in place wedged against the worktop.

The guys who fitted my under mounted sink to my quartz worktop used stixall extreme. Hasn't budged in 3 years.