vivienz

Have you looked at mini piles? I have them in my build and were well priced, not to mention much quicket than reduced dig and muckaway, etc. I have 34 mini piles for the some 200 sq m of ground floor (includes single storey garage and much smaller upstairs) and it all came to about 14.7k. They will also do the piling layout design in the price. I used Advanced Mini Piling who are in Westbury on Trim, not that far from you.

It could be worth having a look at aliexpress to see if you can get the same or similar thing. I'm waiting for the feature light I'm putting over my kitchen island to arrive at the moment; according to the tracking info it's just arrived in the UK. I had previously seen it in the Conran Shop for just under £1000 but got if for $250 on aliexpress. Even with import duties and handling fees, it will come in well under £250.

I know! Outrageous!

Bats. If there is the slightest hint of any in your area you may well need an ecologist or bat survey.

Has anyone tried these? I was looking at the Eclisse pocket doors sold by Ironmongery Direct and they also sell these. Less than half the price of the Eclisse ones, so I'm suspicious of the reason why!

I bought a set of temporary stairs from Howdens - £140 including delivery. They've stood up to a good soaking from before the flat roof was done and plenty of traffic since.

Wonderful. The speed of timber frame going up still astonishes me. And +1 on the superb geometry.

It's a quality publication, don't you think?!

I've just come across this article in the local rag. Only two of these houses currently, but it's a good start. Turn on your adblockers, by the way, as the local news will take a long time to load up by the time it's done all adverts. Bournemouth Echo council passivhaus article

It's easy to check up on a company via Companies House and I always do it if there's a high value transaction I'm thinking about going into. As well as the company itself, you can follow the trail of the owners and directors themselves to check out their track record - it's free and a worthwhile check.

We bought our plot with a PP already in place and part of the submission was an arboricultural statement along with various other statements concerning flora and fauna. There were no TPOs in place but still requirements for root protection of various trees and hedges (several within the area of the plot rather than on the boundary) and accompanying recommendations on these. None of the trees or hedges were of high ecological value. As part of our new PP application we submitted a plan for the entire site that dramatically increases the ecological value of the site and when the time came for work to begin we took out several trees and several long hedgerows with no difficulties. It's worth noting, though, that we are in a fairly isolated rural area where the neighbours don't spend their time making mischief for others. If you decide to have any trees removed, make sure you get it done before the end of March at the latest, when bird nesting gets going again.

Purple?! Really???!!!! Oh go on, show us a picture!!! It reminds me of two of my sisters in law. When was staying over with the other, the hostess didn't tell her sister that the bottle of shampoo in the shower had red tint in it. The guest sister had completely white hair. Before she used the shampoo. It turned a lovely shade of pink afterwards and lingered for a good two weeks.

The window does sit on the membrane and this is the detail that the window company asked for. Should be all sorted now, a guy will be here in a couple of hours to re-do the seals at the bottom. Once this is done, the membrane will be turned up against the frame and made airtight by MBC. I will take plenty of photos once it's underway as it's all a bit of a dark art as far as I'm concerned and details are helpful for the uninitiated like myself.

Hmm. I think my chances of their taking all the windows out then putting them back again are somewhere between zero and nil. I'll see what they come back with re. the mastic request. Cold bridges - brrr.

Thanks, all. I've emailed the window company today to raise my concerns about the poor seal around the windows. I know that it was a tight fit on a number of them and so they didn't use compriband and instead used what looks like expandable foam to me. I've asked them to return and seal everything from the outside with mastic wherever they were unable to fit the compriband in. I await their reply but I'm optimistic as their service has been good so far.

That's me buggered, then, I can barely get a dribble at ground level. No chance of a decent blast from a hosepipe up at the first floor!

Thanks for the replies, all. @ProDave there is a gully behind the parapet and in front of the window, so the water won't be lapping up against the window. The gully depth is about 100mm. It has a fall on it and drains to a gutter. @lizzie - yes, there is a reflection of the inside screws, none on the outside. The fit of the windows was quite tight on a few of them and the compriband didn't fit into the gap, so they were sealed with foam. My main worry is that this isn't the first window that has had some water ingress after they should have been sealed but, of course, it only comes to light after it has rained and the wind is in the 'right' direction. Other than throwing buckets of water at the windows with a wind machine on it, is there any simple way to check that it's all sealed as it should be?

Thanks, Peter. Plenty of hard work to come but getting inside feels like a real milestone to pass. The panels are LG and the trays are GSE.

We had a little rain last night and the wind is blowing today. I've noticed some water ingress from under the window units so I assume that they arent as well sealed as they should be. This is a 3 pane non opening window, sitting on sarnafil membrane that continues outside to a gully behind a parapet wall. The membrane was completed and made watertight a couple of days ago. What is the best way to seal this and does it need to be done from inside or outside or both?

I think long term fatigue has a lot yo do with it, too, and it wears down your natural resilience. If you can manage it, a few days completely away from things might help. I managed to grab a long weekend spent with a load of girlfriends (our annual sewing jolly in Kent) and even though it was only a long weekend for me rather than a week, it really helped to unwind for a few days. Do whatever you need to recover - a few tears on your keyboard whilst posting here is a start.

MBC are back with me next week so I can ask if it's a BH member.

Thanks chaps, really helpful. I will get some price comparisons in the next week or so.

This is the acoustic board sold by Sydenhams; has anyone used it? Any opinions on this versus Soundbloc?

Following on from the insect mesh query, before I put that up I want to do a bit of cosmetic work on the battens that support the parapet capping. These can be seen from the underside and the untreated timber will be visible even through the insect mesh so I want to paint it dark grey. Is there any particular procedure or paint type that I need to use for this? This a photo of the battens as they were being put on and it's the underside ends that can be seen.

I had a look at these for our worktop but decided on a bank of sockets on the short end of the island facing the appliances, where it's less public. I'm not splashing out on granite but even so, didn't want to cut a hole for sockets - I don't need any encouragement to cover a worksurface with bits and pieces!