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Thank you and sorry I should have mentioned that I have done that already. They recommended AB key and Anchor Doors but they said, and I quote, ‘Unfortunately we can’t help with your request‘ ?

As Peter kindly told me that this was a custom unit with a panel and some custom steel work, can anyone suggest how I can go about finding someone who can make this for me? I’ve contacted quite a number of companies and individuals over the past couple of weeks and nobody seems to be able to do it. Any suggestions would be appreciated or even recommendations (provided that is allowed on here) Thank you

Ah that makes so much sense now! Thank you so much Peter, I thought I was going mad when I couldn't find it anywhere haha. We are looking for something almost identical, with a magnetic door entry way system and as you say with a phone and video alerting system for when we are not at home. Although it is going to be expensive in my opinion it's worth it for peace of mind. Now I just need to find someone who can make it! Thank you so much again for taking the time to provide me with examples. You've been a great help

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions. @wozza that's not a bad idea. I will ask our SE and see what he says. @nod i'm not sure what a virtual beam is but yes, we don't want to see the horizontal beam at all. Unfortunately the ceiling height is already quite low. After the plastering we are told that the ceiling height will be 2250mm so sadly there isn't much wiggle room. @PeterW We have a party wall agreement but i'm not sure if our neighbour will agree to us putting the beam underneath her floorboards. If they do, would this not mean that their floorboards will have to be ripped up? Unfortunately the ceiling height is already quite low. The second floor of the extension will be a kitchen, and i've the proposed kitchen design without the beam which I hope can be of some help. @ProDave It is but I think it will be worth it Thank you again everyone!

Thank you temp! I found the property again and saw the name BPT on the side of the box. After a quick search I couldn’t see this exact item so I will email the company. Thank you again everyone for your help.

Hi everyone We are building a double height extension and although we expected that there may be some visible steel work, we did not realise that it would be a 26cm intrusion. In the image i've attached the areas filled in red are our property (including the existing courtyard area) and the parts above and to the left are owned by two other owners. I've tried to mark out the two floor extension we are having with red lines. The green line is where we are told a steel beam needs to be placed to support the bricks to the building above us. We had thought that maybe the beam could sit to the side of the upstairs building/above our new extension and be supported with a thinner beam underneath but this doesn't seem possible. We've been told that the only way we can have the extension is to put a solid beam inside the existing part of our building and this will be visible by 26cm. The look of the kitchen would not suit an exposed beam and having plaster will add even more depth to the beam. We can't push the steel work higher as it will be inside our neighbour's floors. Is this really the only way? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks S

That would have worked but the issue we have is that there is no wall or even a floor to put one on, only a gate. It makes it a bit more difficult for us which is why the one in the image I posted looks great for our purposes.

Thank you guys! I’ve contacted the company Ralph suggested as I couldn’t find the exact model on their website. @joth that’s a great idea. I saw this intercom system in Chelsea so I might have to make a special trip there again and try and find it. I couldn’t make out where it was on google maps. I’ll take a look at doorbird and hikvision too. Thanks again

Hi everyone I've seen a few of these all in one post box/intercom/video camera entryway systems attached to people's gates in London. Unfortunately I couldn't see any company name and i've spent hours on google trying to find it but without any success. Does anyone know the name of the company who makes these or anything similar? Thank you S

I think we do have enough depth but I will leave it to the experts to tell me if there is space when they visit the property. I’m not really good with these sorts of things. I’ve heard accoya is very good as you say but the window company has said this will cost 50% more!

Thank you so much for your replies! @Moonshine I'm slightly concerned about acoustic trickle vents and whether they actually work. I hadn't considered ventilation at all so I will have to look into this and see what else we can do. Perhaps maybe having something in the wall in the hallway. @Temp Yes, i'm not too keen on the design either. Good luck with your son's studies I'm afraid I can't wait that long!

Thank you for your helpful replies! @dreadnaught I would have considered the Apple HomeKit system but I just do not want any cloud services because I don't trust them. @joth Thank you! I will have a look into Amcrest

Thank you so much Moonshine. You’ve been a great help. I put your questions to the window supplier and they have said the following:- “The accoustic glazing that I have suggested is 33.1 accoustic laminated / 12 / 33.1 accoustic laminated 25 mm. It has protection 40 db. I will also add the tricle vents, just to the background right? We have only one kind of trickle vent hidden in frame. If you have any requested type of the trickle vents, please send me the drawing and dimension of them so I will confirm you if we fit them. Our trickle vent are not acoustic they are normal, but if it is from the rear of the house, it should be ok. Please, find attached the drawing of our trickle vent system.” Are normal trickle vents fine or do they have to be acoustic? I’m wondering if maybe we can buy acoustic vents from another supplier or does it have to be from the same company? Thank you so much again. Best wishes S

Hi all I am planning to install cctv at the front and rear of my maisonette. I was considering Ubiquiti as their products are very good but I have learnt that their routers send data back to them. Anonymous and encrypted, but no warning so I’m a bit hesitant. I’ve come across Hikvision as well but their aftercare doesn’t appear to be that good. If you have any suggestions for cctv then please let me know. Thank you S

Hi Moonshine Thank you for your very helpful reply. I think I was mistaken when I said 40db. It is in fact 33db that the supplier said he can offer us. I will contact Bereco and see what they can offer but the idea of having a sash window followed by secondary glazing is a good idea. All 6 windows face the road but we only want 3 of them to be soundproof because they are bedroom windows. The property is in a busy part of town, so there is a lot of road traffic at the front, along with building works, road works...etc. The existing windows are very old, so old that one of them doesn't open anymore! I hadn't thought about ventilation when it came to the windows but we are installing air conditioning in all the rooms so that should be fine I imagine. Thanks again.

We haven't actually. I will check with them to see if this is possible, thank you! I forgot to mention in my initial post but our other main concern is potential break ins. Because of new fire and safety rules we have to remove the bars in front of our existing windows. Although I do prefer this as it makes the property look a lot nicer, I am concerned about our security. Even without the secondary glazing, would these windows be good enough to withstand a break in?

Hi everyone We are having six new windows installed in our maisonette. As it is in a conservation area they all must be sliding sash windows. 4 windows are width x height: 883mm x 1435mm 1 window is width x height: 1139mm x 1852mm 1 window is width x height: 2330mm x 1600mm The widow supplier has told us that the acoustic level for these windows is 40db. My concern is that this is not high enough for the area we live in because the front and rear of the property abut a road. We would have preferred 50 - 60db windows. The supplier has said that the maximum profile for the glazing is 25mm. If they were to fit 51db windows they would need them to have a thickness of 42mm, and therefore need to use a different profile of the windows (tilt & turn windows). They say that the sash windows are impossible to make with such a thick glazing. Is this true, and if so is there anything else we could do to reduce the amount of noise? The windows come in pine/hardwood. We can opt for meranti but this is 10% more expensive than the finger jointed pine. They also have accoya but this is 50% more expensive. Is it worth going for the more expensive frames instead of pine? Will this help with the noise at all? The quote we have for all 6 windows in pine is £8,500 net which includes the transport and fitting cost. Being completely new to this, does it sound reasonable? I have only had one other quote from thesoundproofwindows and they were around £5,000 more so to me it does seem like a good deal. Thank you for all your help. S

Thank you Joth. Yes we have pp but need to get an acoustic report. We have had quotes in excess of £1,000 for the acoustic report so we are shopping around at the moment for other companies. any suggestions would be great. Thank you

Thank you all for your prompt and very helpful replies. I'm not sure why it's 5% VAT either instead of 20%. Our property is being completely refurbished. At the moment our builders are stripping the entire property to the bare bones so we do not expect any labour from the air con company in terms of taking up the floorboards...etc.

Hi all We are planning to install an air conditioning system to feed three rooms. We've been quoted over £13,000 for parts and labour and this is the breakdown we have been given:- UNITS: Dining room Daikin FDXM25F9 Slim Duct 2.5kW Indoor Unit £574.00 Master Bedroom Daikin FDXM25F9 Slim Duct 2.5kW Indoor Unit £574.00 Guest Bedroom Daikin FDXM25F9 Slim Duct 2.5kW Indoor Unit Split System £574.00 Daikin Condenser 3MXM68N Outdoor Unit £2.422.00 DAIKIN TOTAL: £4.144.00 INSTALLATION: Pipework installation £510.00 Ductwork installation Class ‘0’ £1.950.00 3x drainage pump £300.00 1x Outdoor unit Holder (BigFoot) £100.00 Labour work and mounting materials £5.554.00 Subtotal: £12.558.00 5% VAT: £627.90 Total inc. VAT: £13.185.90 After doing a bit of research this seems quite excessive to me. The property is located in central London. Any advice would be greatly appreciated or if anyone has a company they could recommend? Thank you S

Wow thank you everyone, i'm genuinely surprised at how quickly you were able to give me such detailed and accurate information. I think I will look into an air source heat pump and see how it compares with an AC unit. I don't know if an air source heat pump can pump in cool air as well as hot but I don't think the council will allow it if they say it specifically must be for heat only. We've been quoted £950 for an acoustic report which to me seems excessive but i'm not an expert and I don't know what is involved. Thanks again for your help!

Hi everyone We have recently purchased a property in London and have obtained planning permission for an extension. We did not think we needed to include an air conditioning unit in our planning application and now Westminster council have said that we do need to apply for planning permission to install one and also prepare an acoustic report (apparently this is standard practice). From what i've read online i'm rather dubious about whether we need planning permission in the first place. Our property is a terraced house but we only own the LGF and GF whilst our upstairs neighbour owns the top three floors. We were planning to put the AC on the roof of our new extension or on the side of the rear wall. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you S

Thanks everyone for your help and Ferdinand your comment about the door made me laugh! So after weeks and weeks of silence the council have said "the windows need to be smaller and more consistent with the host building and the extension should be set back from the main building, regardless of the materials used". They didn't respond our request for them to visit the site nor did they say why our suggestion to make the extension subservient by using different materials wasn't acceptable. This means we will have to redesign the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Since its taken over a month to get this one line answer, i'm thinking of just going ahead with their approval and then submitting new plans to the council and hopefully getting a new planning officer take a look. Do you think this would be better or going straight to appeal? Thanks for all your help so far.

Update: Hi everyone, There's still no word from the council regarding the 'set back' of the extension. Our architect says that they can't get a hold of them and that the planning officer will not comment on using a contrasting material to show the extension is diminutive so he thinks we will have to accept that this is the policy. On top of this the conservation officer has said: I can understand why they want the windows to match but there are a number of extensions on our road that have mismatched windows. I've asked my architect to go back to them again on this point and show them a video I took of the other extensions on our road. If the council refuses to comment or budge on anything, is it worth going to appeal? Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks S

Wow wow wow!!!! You guys are simply amazing. Thank you so much and thank you temp for that link! What an incredible find. I’m sending it all to my architect who will see what the council have to say. Again I’m so very grateful for your help. I will let you know how it turns out. Fingers crossed ?? Best wishes S