Russdl

We have two floor to ceiling pocket doors that are pretty much permanently open, to my mind that is the best use of a pocket door i.e. where it's seldom used. If it's a door that will be opened and closed frequently then noise of the door opening/closing may be an issue. If the doors are painted (ours are) then repainting the doors, especially for the system we have (Portman pocket doors) will be pretty much impossible, I think with the Eclisse system the door can be removed from the pocket after installation so that problem would go away. As already highlighted but obviously depending on the pocket build up, services will be tricky on the pocket side of the door. If pocket doors are not essential for space saving I would recommend against them.

So the hinged bit opens open and the desk bit comes down by the looks of things, a strip of veneer (with something behind it for strength) attached to the bottom of the hinged bit would mask the gap. Kinda agree with the boss, those hinges shouldn’t be visible.

@SlivenClod Our sub base was the remnants of a building site (type 1, gravel, sand etc). All manner of stuff that was well compacted and not particularly level. I levelled the spot that each pedestal sat on before placing the tiles on top. It all looks nice but if you were to lift the tiles up it’s as rough as a badgers arse underneath.

@SelfbuildNovice have you got someone onboard with passive house experience? If you do still plan to go down the route of Passive Haus certification then the PHPP will greatly inform the design. Currently your east elevation has a lot of glazing which will lead to significant overheating without suitable shading as will the roof lights over the kitchen/snug (that is likely to be a very light/bright room, do you need those roof lights?) Regarding the garage, I’m guessing it’s never going to have a car in it so is it necessary? The garage door is not the only problem regarding passive house, it’s also how you get from outside to inside without creating a huge thermal bridge at the floor. Good luck revisiting the plans. 👍

That explains the size, how come it’s not named accurately? Is that something you’re happy with or feel you have no choice over? Which is the south facing part of the roof?

@SelfbuildNovice As a new build I would have expected it to look a bit more contemporary but each to their own. In all honesty it looks like an extension/renovation project of an 80's "Executive House" where a checklist of desired rooms have been thrown in anywhere they can be made to fit but in this case it looks like most of those rooms don't actually fit or work very well. As a starter, on the ground floor; is that a garage door to access the pantry from outside? What's all that about? If that really is meant to be a garage door then that will make your passive target more difficult. Why is the pantry/utility so huge (what do people keep in pantries?) The Snug won't be that snug as it's in the kitchen and you have to go through the Snug to access the dining room. The living room looks very narrow but can be kind of expanded by opening it up to the hallway/stairs. Is that really something you're likely to do?? If you're going for passive you won't need that fireplace. Which way is south? The shadows on the elevations are contradictory.

For our Quooker the ‘hot’ water comes from the Sunamp which is a softened supply and only provides the hot water. The ‘cold’ is direct from the mains via a Combimate water conditioner and provides the cold water. That conditioned cold supply is what gets heated for the boiling tap and cooled/fizzed for the cold/fizzy tap. No scale build up from either supply and we’re not drinking softened water.

If the en-suite is tight will there be room for the pocket for the door to slide in to or will there be plumbing and stuff in the way?

Asking for a friend who asked what I knew about this company, Welink Homes. I know nothing, never heard of them and I can’t find any technical data on their website. Does anyone know anything about them?

You need to do it. There’s almost certainly an issue somewhere and you need to find out where in time for the snagging.

@pocster we do refer to it as the ‘Upstairs Basement’. I guess it’s a sign of my sheltered upbringing that ‘Hidden Pleasure Dungeon’ didn’t spring to mind when it came to the naming ceremony.

I did something very similar in our loft with a similar frame work but used timber top rail as well. It’s not decorative in any way shape or form. We used 9mm MDF for the doors which has proved more than adequate.

Can you make 1220mm doors work as that is the width of a sheet of MDF, at 1250+ there will be lots of waste and more expense I suspect. A thin strip across the top of the doors of 30-40mm would let 1220mm doors work and may give a neater finish.

I’d say so. Do that shopping around and find someone who at least knows something about one of the disciplines, preferably both.

The scenario you describe I can’t imagine it’s anything other than a water leak from somewhere, somehow. My experience is that a tiny water leak takes quite a while to manifest itself and the water is coming from nowhere near where the damp patch is appearing. Our similar damp patch was half a meter from the slow and steady drip drip and not under the wall where the drip was coming from.

Could the stud wall, where it is fixed to the ceiling, have gone through a pipe, water dripping down behind the plasterboard and appearing at the floor?

No idea. Ours were double glazed velux, one in the en-suite and one in the hallway outside the main bedroom and only listened to at night when it was quiet.

I second what @JohnMo says. We had a velux in our previous place, never again, it was a bit like being inside a kettle drum when it rained.

The skylight in the living room seems unnecessary. It looks like that room is planned for TV watching and you’ll probably be wanting it dark in there, the skylight will defeat that. There is already more than enough glazing if you want it light. I like the master suite (probably because ours is similar) in the fact that the en-suite can be used without entering the bedroom making it almost a second family bathroom. Rename the ‘dressing room’ to ‘walk through wardrobe’ and make sure there are wardrobe doors fitted you won’t have any problem with clutter. How much time do you envisage sitting on the bed looking out of the corner glazing? Will it actually be worth the expense? Most of the water usage will be on the west side of the house, I’d move the plant room to that side, combined with the utility room, to shorten pipe runs (and bin the pantry, what actually goes in there?) if you go with MBC you really have to aim for a passive level of build as that is what they will start you off with.

Great advice from @MikeSharp01 re the PV. Currently it looks like your longest roof spans will be facing north east and north west, if you can spin that round so they face south east and south west and pop some PV on there you’ll reap the benefits (depending on the shading). That would I suspect put the garage in jeopardy though.

@Adsibob That’s all new plumbing isn’t it? Our new shower drains slowed down after a very short period of use, one of the drain runs were pretty convoluted to put it mildly, but they didn’t really have any other way to go. What fixed it for us was using the hand held shower thingy and blasting that down the drain on every shower cleaning session, so once a week or so. Not had an issue since.

@PeterW way too late for me but hopefully that nugget of info will save someone else the almighty tug-o-war that we had!

That should be fine for getting any of the services into the house but a long radius bend would of course make it slightly easier, especially for the water. We did have a struggle getting the BT cable to the vicinity of the house. It came down a pole and into BT ducting which was about 25m long and included 3 ninety degree bends before it got to the entry to the house. That thin cable in a long narrow duct with the three bends was a bitch to pull through.

@Garald our experience is the same as @JohnMo we have 10mm gaps under all doors. I thought there would be an issue with noise leaking under the doors but the reality has been that it is not an issue. Not at all.

Holy crap. That first neighbour doesn’t look like he’s planning on being friends.