joe90

Would electric cables in the floor void be a problem with the insulation?

I am not a fan of all this HSE nonsense, I believe in common sense and taking responsibility, not blame culture. Whilst working on a loft conversion the BI turned up just as I put the ladder up to the scaffolding (took it away at night for safety), the BI climbed the ladder while I was in my van and bollocked me fir not tying the ladder off at the top, I tried to explain that he just saw me put it there and the only way to tie it off was to climb said ladder , he said that was not good enough!!!!!!

I don’t see why not, I am sure the studs can take a compressive load as long as good fixings are used (bolts?). My only worry would be noise, make sure it’s mounted on good rubber mounts and surrounded with sound deadening material. Mine is hung from roof trusses rather than sitting on ceiling joists and no noise can be heard at all.

Not a good move IMO, I would always want a stop cock at the boundary so their pipe and yours could be separated.

Was the water board helpfull?

?good result.

Well I hardly ever break hacksaw blades and here’s why. In school (back in the dark ages) our metalwork master had been a prisoner of war with the Japanese and their saws always cut on the pull rather than on the push, and all hacksaw blades in his workshop were inserted “backwards “, a hacksaw blade snaps because it jams and bends, they cannot bend when cutting on the pull. I have always done this with my hacksaw. It takes a little getting used to but I find it works well.

No mention (apart from aerogel) about increasing levels of insulation rather than smarter heating systems to reduce the use of fossil fuels.?

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Welcome, as we say to all newcomers, there is no such thing as a stupid question, stupid is not asking so ask away.

I guess if you can get them to word the VAT receipt to say they are window frames I don’t see why you cannot reclaim the VAT. Services don’t tend to be zero VAT.

+1 ?

Same as the house, ordinary house bricks, Northumberland red (tumbled), from the way our west elevation soaks up the atlantic rain (bricks are not water proof) I am glad they were frost proof and I am going to seal them when we get a period of dry weather. I would be tempted to use engineering bricks and perhaps waterproofer in the mortar , see below. Engineering bricks have high compressive strength and low water absorption. They are used for their physical characteristics and not their appearance. They were traditionally used in civil engineering and are most suitable for applications where strength and resistance to frost attack and water are important.

Our builder (old school) built ours properly which has a full lead tray before roof to stop damp within the brickwork going around the flashing, just found this........https://www.labcwarranty.co.uk/blog/how-to-ensure-your-chimney-is-constructed-correctly/

Good idea. If it’s not clay you may well be better off with a membrane ?

I tend to disagree, I have to have mechanical ventilation because I don’t have trickle vents and passive would not work very well in a windy location, it also has heat recovery so it’s prime function is the ventilation? ?

It didn’t with me, I started buying stuff from my old address, I just made a note to HMRC saying that’s where I lived when the building work started but not living on site.

I am like @ProDave, cheap unit from Ebay, self designed, self installed (yet to balance it, other things tend to be more important) BCO simply looked at the vents and said “no trickle vents because you have MVHR.” and didn’t ask fir any paperwork ?. We live in a very windy position near the coast and any trickle vents and such would whistle loudly. I am glad I installed mine.

I always look at the delivery time, a good indication of which side of the planet they come from!

Make sure you see the colour “in the flesh “ natural light etc, we picked colours on an iPad and Gosh it was so different to what we thought (luckily it looks ok ?).

Only two years so far, not digging it up inspect it tho ? but it does work well and done by a builder who has been doing it fir years around here.

I have nothing between soil (clay) and 50mm stone in the trench.

The bungalow I replaced with our build used groundwater (very shallow well) and had iron and copper in it but the old fella that lived here lived to a ripe old age with no health problems, later it was fitted with a filtration system to meet regs for it to be rented out. @scottishjohn could you not add rainwater harvesting fir the non potable uses to help cost?

I have found surveys very lacking in the past, even downright wrong and as @ProDave says they have so many get out clauses as to make recourse very difficult. I would list all the things wrong and send it to them asking fir their response and go from there. Regarding building regs building control may be able to help you there.

I would put more soil than that over the stone or the grass will die off in dry weather as @Mr Punter says above. Plus I was told any membrane will clog if you have clay.