Russell griffiths

Oops, that’s going to be inconvenient. or could de-rail the whole application.

Can you tell us why you want a floating timber floor. is this a new build house or just a garden room or something.

Absolutely pointless, use the proper braces. you are not holding 2.7m high walls plumb with some 2x1 battens and then pouring wet concrete in them. there is absolutely no need to put the screws into the centre concrete on icf, that’s why the blocks are designed to be screwed into, either woodcrete or eps / xps versions.

Can you use a led strip with a controller to adjust the colour. we have these, has a little keypad you keep in the drawer to change the settings.

Build the opening smaller then, stick to around 5m. having built two new houses and multiple renovations with this type of extension on the back I can’t think of a reason for such a big door. we where going to have two sets of 5m wide doors in the back, but went for one and a picture window, and our view out the back is probably better than 95% of peoples, we just couldn’t see it being used fully, and the impracticalities were many. A 6.5m wide opening looks good on the fancy architects plans. but that is all. pros and cons of such a big opening. CONS. future deflection effects door working properly Expensive steel more calculations very expensive door problems with such a door in the future how many days in England will you actually want it fully open smaller reveals on the inside restricts furniture and kitchen layout. PROS. You can show your friends what a big door you have.

I’m going to throw something out there. have you built the opening yet. if not make it smaller. if you haven’t built it yet let us know.

If it’s oak. YOU need to tape them up thoroughly don’t leave the plasterer to do it, pink plaster in the grain is impossible to remove, or get a coat of whatever you are putting on the oak, then tape them.

No silly idea, the cost of the plywood would be dearer than getting a plasterer for a day. get all the paper off and make it easy for him. Get a reasonable finish then hang lining paper and paint.

If your in the west mids, go and see mark at archital or something like that, I’ve had a couple of grands worth from him, spot on service.

By the time it’s tiled and a flashing installed you won’t be able to see any brickwork, that will all be lead. tiles need to come off original roof and new flashing dressed under the cloaking and cement fillet. then re lay original verge tiles on original roof.

Look up, GUTTERCREST, they fabricate this sort of stuff. if you go for aluminium it will look the best, but cost the most. zinc coated steel is available, but will have a bit of a wave effect as it’s relatively thin. there’s a company in the midlands who also fabricate these in aluminium, I’ve had all my window cills from them, very nice stuff, but I cannot remember the name, something like ARCHITAL.

Nope, don’t go there unless you are the type that just likes to do stuff just to prove it can be done. there are many proven ways to build a house, looking for something new is just silly, you will struggle to get trades to do it, you will struggle to get a mortgage, and also to insure it, as well as structural engineer to design other bits around it. im aware of the product as it’s used extensively to build commercial buildings, and I did a bit of that previously.

I did this.

I suppose this depends on what you contract states, are you responsible for getting the duct to the pole. the lads that came to mine where really helpful, and I had an excavator there already. they may well have called out an excavator if needed. the pole definitely went in to an augured hole though.

They use an auger, not an excavator dig your trench and lay the duct, leave the last 2m open they can cut the duct back and fit a swept bend on the end up the pole.

By the time you are near to finishing your build you probably wish you had a crack pipe.

No norrsken

If you are having a joint, get a detailed drawing of how they join them. we have two windows that join and they have a joining strip that fits into a routered out channel in both windows, loads of sealer applied and screwed together. a friend had a similar thing fitted and he could actually see through the gap between the two windows, no method of sealing at all just a couple of screws 🤬.

You will need next to sod all fall if using box profile sheets.

Do your research would need to be a very special frame in aluminium to get those kind of u values. I believe there’s a fair bit of fibbing going around.

With regards to buying power I wish we could set up some sort of buying group. when I started this build I had 3 builders merchants send a rep to mine to have a look, they made all the right noises and said they would help me out on prices. come the day of ordering stuff, I still found they couldn’t get close to online orders, I wasn’t ordering small amounts either. 5 full pallets of plasterboard and the cheapest merchant was still £400 dearer than I could get it delivered online.

this is my driveway, which looks huge in width compared with those pics of yours. building control walked up and down it for half an hour checking the width, it was one thing they where sticky about.

I think the problem is with your commercial background your used to calling the shots. in this self build world your a very small fish, you will only be ordering one set of windows, not a continuous stream. they don’t really need to be that flexible. but also you will be having bespoke windows that only fit your house, nobody is going to make these without full payment. I personally would find good quality windows by doing your own research, don’t go by opinions on here, lots recommended rational, I went to two different rational showrooms and hated them, so down to your opinion on what you like really. with fitting I would employ a couple of fitters, or even better a good carpenter or similar trade, and then discuss what you would like doing and how you want it done. the problem with the fitters from the window company is they are used to chucking them in a certain way and at a certain speed. you want somebody to work to your schedule not theirs.

Don’t use mortar, it will crumble under the constant deflection of the joists, just a tiny amount of movement magnified many times a day times days a week will result in the mortar wearing or crumbling ever so slightly leading to the gap increasing. either slate packing or a nice timber to spread the load. work out your wall courses, you could get a nice 4x1 fitted to the joists sitting on top of the blockwork, or an equivalent depending on the gap. buy it a bit bigger and run a plane over it until you get a snug fit.

Norrsken but you have to pay for them before install. isn’t this a bit like buying sausages and not wanting to pay for them in case they don’t taste good. you can probably pay for installation separately, but windows will need payment in full before release from the factory. to get a good install YOU need to know how it’s done, do your research find out the right and wrong ways, then question how they intend to do it, question them again until you know exactly what they intend doing and you are happy with it. there are hundreds of posts on here with people being unhappy about something, but they did zero research and then got a surprise when the install wasn’t done as expected.