Russell griffiths

The cement faced xps board required a specific primer before skimming.

I had two different lads do two rooms both I wasn’t happy with the finish. in the end I had a recommendation from a lad on here, I used the bloke he recommended and he has since gone on and done another buildhub members house. £4 a metre gets you a site plasterer, smash and dash lots of work for the decorators. mine came in around £6 when I added it up, I could see an awkward layout or high ceilings costing a bit more. I seam to recall a conversation with him about £10 a metre for high quality pain in the arse stuff.

Ask your rendering team to take you and show you how they normally finish this area, have a look and see if it fits in with what you’re after. I used the coloured trims and I think it’s very neat, but it takes a good man to run the render up to them neatly. the trims do have a tear off strip that protects the windows while they are being rendered.

Look on Facebook, normally a few sets on there knocking around for half what your quoting, will sell for same money at end.

Don’t you have 6 months to put your vat claim in after bc sign off, so six months after sign off.

Nope. I poured 27 cubic metres on our first pour with me and one helper. there was the owner operator of the pump working that, then just two of us using the vibrator and checking it was all plumb. Icf is very diy friendly your not pouring a flat house floor that needs to be within 3-5 mm tolerance your pouring wet concrete inside form work that you have already plumbed up theres a good few on this forum that have done their own icf including the pours.

Well the concrete comes in a ready mix truck, and you need to hire a pump to get it up to the top of the wall, but that’s about it. like saying you can’t put a timberframe up yourself because you haven’t got a crane.

Do your research first so you know what you want and how will it be achieved you 100% do not want it installed were it pokes out beyond a roof overhang and they simply put a plastic trim on top, I’ve seen it done and it’s very common, I could not believe it was actually a standard thing. look at all the areas it fails, window cills, window reveals, look at what fails and how to do it properly. don’t be someone who comes back on here in a year saying it’s a gone wrong. get to know how it works so you know as much if not more than the installer. there’s a lot of snake oil salesmen out there. good luck.

Buy a couple of cans of illbruck 330 airtight foam, you will need a gun to go with it, so two cans of foam and a gun will set you back £40, but trying to lay on your belly with your arm under the cupboard and use the diy can of foam will be something to see.

Thanks all will have a read up tomorrow on all your suggestions.

Hi looking for a good point and read thermometer gun thing. I would like to point it at mvhr ducts and get an idea of the temp running through them. is it possible to get something that I can point at the fresh air plenum to see what is being blown into the rooms. had a cheap £12 one from e bay and it constantly read 3-4 degrees out all the time, sent it back on principal. would like something better really without spending £300 on one like they have in city plumbing, there must be something middle of the road. cheers.

Reading your reply now I think you have just had the misfortune to appoint a shit builder with poor understanding of insulation and airtightness. this is going to be extremely hard to fix without ripping a lot of stuff out. does it feel cold or is it more a draft, you could try taking the kick boards off the cupboard and see if that pipe hole is allowing a cold draft in.

@bmj1 who said it had ufh. What’s the floor make up what insulation is under it ? what was on the drawings ? what was actually fitted ? do you have any pics. I bet it’s a suspended timber floor with very little insulation.

If you want to do as much as possible yourself then I think there’s a few options. icf you can do everything yourself timber kit, get that put up and then finish it yourself timber built on site, you will probably need a couple of carpenters to help brick block cavity you will need a bricklaying gang. will also depend if you have a large chunk of cash up front, timber frame erected on site will probably be the heaviest up front cost. icf has a large up front cost, but probably 20% of a timberframe then you can drip feed cash into it. brick n block lowest up front cost but large weekly payments for labour.

I just left out big gaps, I hadn’t even looked at doors when I put the foundations in. mine is icf so a bit different, so I didn’t core fill under the doors I just left it low so I could fill with insulation and concrete later. if you have a cavity then do not core fill the area below the doors, leave it as a void it’s easy to fill later and easy to add insulation under the threshold as and when you have the correct design, you can leave a course of face bricks off if you need to and add them in as you get your height sorted. I would always be looking to go full insulation under my doors, it will be hidden on the outside if you are going level threshold, so keep the brickwork low and build up later would be my advice.

There’s loads of good lads out there. This isn’t a dig at bricky’s, but you need to be armed with the knowledge to say what YOU want, then you can weed out the slap dash lads and find a good gang.

Very inconsistent results, it takes only a small mistake in measuring to alter the colour which might not be noticeable until properly dry, I’ve had some horrible results using dark browns which looked brilliant while wet but dried very inconsistent they also tend to not like being wetted after they have dried and tend to look patchy.

Triple glazed lift n slide from norrsken here. the back wall of my place is 90% glass, I can’t recommend them enough -3 outside here and the doors on the inside feel warm, open them up and the outside feel is freezing. a strange thing you notice with this quality is the outside door handles are freezing cold, the inner handle is warm, there is no heat transfer through the door via any lock mechanism.

The mix is not important, getting your bricklaying team to mix it the same every time is the important thing. when you get the colour you want you need to discuss it with the bricky and get it in writing that they will use a gauge box to get it the same every time. any not up to standard gets taken down at their cost. you will need to buy sand in bulk and cement to get the same batch every time. DO NOT USE any form of mortar dye.

Sorry that’s a balls up too far, no matter how good you plaster and fill that it will show up in certain lights, mainly harsh daylight. go and pick some nice architrave. your shadow gap boat has sailed. 🚢. 🙋‍♂️

If you want to claim your vat back you do not need a completion certificate you can prove it’s habitable by a few other methods. valuation form from the valuation office when you start paying council tax, or a habitation certificate issued by the council. have a read up on vat re claim.

Why not build it just like an insulated house slab. I would use xps not pir, rough the surface up, flexible outdoor tile adhesives and tile the bit you can see.

12 loops with 100m a loop give or take a bit.

very bad screen grab, try and zoom in.

Ufh pipes will cost a grand to buy, if you don’t put them in you need a serious word with yourself. I don’t understand the figures like some on here, but I know I’m sitting in the most comfortable house I’ve been in for a long time, just a gentle warmth in the tiles emits to every point of the house. it’s just an absolute pleasure.