Declan52

Not me.

They are well designed as in they use the least amount of the cheapest materials possible to build a house. And they look really good in the brochure but after living in them for a few months and having tried your best to rearrange your beds and furniture you realise that no matter what way you do it it just doesn't work. That is unless you buy the cut down beds and furniture the show house had.

I was in my new build 2 years at the start of this month so don't have far to go!! I notice it as my last joint was very humid my nose was always congested which eventually ended up with a headache and same goes with itchy eyes.

I am by no means clued up in the whole science behind mould but the vast majority of it in houses is caused by condensation. So you get damp air that settles on a cold spot on a wall where it condenses and eventually forms the mould. Every house will have damp air from cooking, breathing etc so what makes most of our self builds apart from the developer option is the use and maintained use of mhrv. By having the air constantly changed and clean air coming in the humidity can't get high enough to cause the issue. Same goes for cold spots as most of us have spent more time and effort detailing the insulation levels so you are down to either none or very few cold spots. Compare this to the litany of reports like the guy Luke on twitter who bought from Taylor wimpey where his whole house was a cold spot due to no insulation at all in the cavity or attic and it's easy to see why you get mould in some new builds. I took a complete shot the dark 3 years ago when I installed mhrv as I knew no one who had it and never seen it installed in any house we ever built, grand designs and the build shows where all I seen. From the day we moved we have never had any condensation on any window even when house was drying out. The air is always clean and fresh and from someone who has sinus problems in the past it has helped me. So in essence by building it right and using mhrv and maintaining the system mould should be a non runner.

I had 27 pallets by the time I moved in. Made a shed for my logs and then cut the rest up for my wbs. Between pallets and cardboard I was running out of room. Had one large bonfire that sorted the cardboard out and still have maybe 10 odd pallets still to burn.

Just price all the options up and compare them with whatever the u values will be and make your choice. Just remember the thicker the pir the longer the fixings you will need, Ask your building control how much he will let you fill with the frametherm. If you use breathable felt and cross batten the roof he should let you fully fill it but check with him before you proceed. Not sure why that quote has appeared here maybe the mods can remove it!!!

Approx 0.15. I only had 150mm rafters so was at my limit. If you can go to 180mm and put a min of 50mm underneath then your looking at 0.13. the thicker pir underneath the better it will be. It wasn't called frametherm when I done mine, was just rafter roll 32 as from then knauf has done a rebranding but it is more or less the same stuff. Can get in thermal conductivity of 0.040, 0.035 and 0.032 .It is dense enough to stand up straight between truss with out sinking.

I have a room in the roof build and I went the knauf route. Much easier to cut and while it mightn't be as good on paper u value wise by the time you cut the pir up and go round foaming and tapping they will be not far apart. I have 140mm high density between my rafters then 50mm pir underneath. Pir has all the joints taped up then I have an airtightness membrane and then the plasterboard. Didn't need a service cavity as I made sure all the plugs etc where on the inside block walls.

Think you might need a new plumber as if he can't get his head round it now it's not going to get any better. I heat my 350l ts for half the year roughly using the pellet stove. The other half the PV does it via excess electric. PV just for washing machines my God that's some statement. Works the very best. Use the wbs just to heat the living room but if I open all the doors the heat goes round the house. In order to get the rhi payments I wasnt allowed a back boiler in my wbs. When my 7 years are up I will look into changing the wbs to one that has a back boiler. I know that I will have to add a heat dump in the attic and a few extra bits but I can live with that. Would your truss hold the weight of a 500l ts as that would be a heavy. Is there any way to split the system so the ashp looks after the heating so is on low heating the water to 40 degrees and the stove and excess PV looks after the dhw side. Or is this too complicated a setup???

Scaffolders are just monkeys that can use a wrench. Can count the amount of times on one hand I walked on scaffold and went my god this steady instead of the usual holy shit this is like walking on a ship going to Scotland in a storm.

The only holes there should be in any walls are for doors and windows. Get the bolster out and start hammering.

The inner leaf is more important as it carries the roof. Shouldn't be any gaps in any wall. If it can come down i think you will have to bite the bullet and replace with stud.

Could the pad stone have sunk under the weight if the brickwork is not great. Measure the four corners floor to ceiling and see what the difference is. Ceiling should be the same the whole way along so your just checking both bad corners against the other two good ones.

Block work upstairs sitting on a sole plate is pretty common, had it on my old house. Same goes with walls not tied in properly, they more than likely have used 4 inch nails to tie them in. Put carpet on the tiles and lay a plank on it. Put the accrows on the plank with another plank across the joists to support it so it won't sink any more. How is the steel work supported at the bottom as in its there any chance it could have settled and sunk a few mm causing the joists the move and crack. If the steel's are ok the you can use the accrows to lift the joists up and pack the few inches between it and the steel.

It's all a matter of who you know. I worked on sites for years so knew everyone that I needed to do jobs on my house and who I could trust. If you know nobody at all then it's probably better to employ a main contractor who will run the show and just leave you to sign the cheques. Most people are in between where they will let a builder do certain jobs and then they will either get friends and family in or do it themselves. So how much you end up paying basically depends on who you know.

Sap means diddly squat. Just something you have to do to get your house passed by building control. As long it's a pass then that's all that matters.

That looks super. Are you doing anything with the base to keep the rain away to stop it getting grubby, French drain or nice gravel bed. How much of an area do you get out of the £100 tub???

While my house ain't at pH standard its close enough for me. In my last pad, a 1960 council townhouse, the air quality was terrible. It was stuffy and generally in winter had damp patches due to the high amount of condensation. The change to what my new house is like now is night and day. No condensation and no stuffy air. My wife always opens the windows to let fresh air in even though I explained that is what the mhrv is doing. Now I just let her work away. People get too wrapped up in trying to make sure your house has no cold bridges and has thick insulation everywhere and airtightness tape on everything. Me I have a large wrap around window that is as big a cold bridge as you could get. Does it bother me, not a bit. It lets an unreal amount of light in and is nice to look out at. I even have two stoves, one pellet and one wbs. I love sitting in front of them on a cold day looking out the big window watching the world go by. Remember that at the end of the day you have to live in the house when it's done so have nice big windows and even let the wife open them. Enjoy the time you spend in the house instead of obsessing over the minute details that pH requires.

I went with block cavity as I could build it myself so saved money. The width of the cavity will determine the u value you end up with. The wider it is the more insulation you can get in so the lower the u value you end up with. You can also use lightweight blocks on the inside skin to improve the u value. Get the beads blown in if you go down that route instead of cavity boards/batts that the brickie build in as he goes. Modern timber framed houses aren't the hollow echo build of the past. Yes the walls will be stud but with them being well insulated they are more solid. Plus you can use heavy type plasterboard like fermacell type sheets that will give you that solid feel.

Cheapest option will be the cavity wall. All the components are readily available and are of a standard nature. Blocks with ewi while more simple to do as its not a standard method here it carries a specialist tag for no real reason so the render system and fixings tend to be more expensive. There was a post on Ebuild a while back where some one went through the different options for ewi and some of the prices where very high. The concrete wall as it requires shuttering and steel will be the most expensive. You shouldn't base your choice just on price but compare each one with regards the u values each system is likely to get you plus how much work is involved afterwards when you come to put in all the services and how you deal with airtightness. Each will have aspects that are better than the others. Also factor in can you get trades in to do the work locally or will you be paying higher labour costs due to the skills needed. What about timber frame ???

Make them atleast 500mm long so you have plenty of scope to move the line. Start of just by getting one gable and either the front or back wall square. Good old pythgoras will do this. Then you can do the other gable using the front or back that you know is square and parallel. Then it's just the missing front or back wall. Check all the diagonals to make sure they are whatever they are supposed to be. Depending on the length and what your tape stretches like it they are within 5-10mm it will be fine. That should give you a basic rectangle/square so from here you can easily parallel of the inside walls.

The pressure of the wet concrete would cause the bottom row to move out. It's only held in place my the weight of the wall and friction. Have seen many a retaining wall burst out that where thicker than that.

Unless you have a lot of tiling to do the Rubi tile cutter is the rolls Royce of tile cutters. As nick does it for living it will make is money in no time. You would be better hiring one out if it's a use once tool as at that money you won't want to lend it out to friends.

You couldn't pour concrete into that wall if it was built both skins to the top as it would burst out. The wall would need to be 225mm wide min with extra thick piers built in every 4-5m. What are the guys using to ensure the concrete is fully filling the gap, a vibrating poker or a long stick???