Triassic

I’ve been quoted £15,000 to install the 44 windows and doors in our new build. This equates to 35 days of labour for 3.5 joiners, including the hire of a telihandler for a week and all necessary foam gaskets, tapes and fitting straps etc. Is this a fair price, how much did yours cost to fit?

Mine aren’t

I bought second hand kwikstage, the company I bought it off wouldn’t sell me second hand boards, I had to buy new. You just don’t know where the second hand boards have been, or how they’ve been abused.

I’m about to start fixing my render board and the manufacturer strongly recommends non rust fixings. What did you use to fix your render boards? ps. Did you drill holes in the render board before driving the fixing home?

What surprises me is how expensive these trims are, £21.50 per 2.4m length. Adding up to £723 for what I need!

You use the good, nice looking stone on the outside and the top, the places that can not be seen, you use the cheapest stone you can buy to fill the rest of the void space! You know the cubic capacity of each gabion, and you can usually find the volume per tonne of stone online.

@jonM what are the flashings made of ? How did you deal with corners? Prefabricated corners or folded on site?

As the forum contents are added to day after day, I’m finding it harder to search and find previous discussions. Could someone share the best ways to search, either using the Buildhub search engine or an external search engine, such as Google or Firefox? Could someone explain how and, or, +, and brackets work in a search?

Oh well, looks like I’ll just have to pay up for my 44 windows and hope they turn up and fit. Mind you, the local distributor has had two guys here all day measuring up, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

I could live with paying the 50% on placing the order, it’s the 50% to be paid two weeks before delivery. I’d be paying before I’ve even seen the goods.

I’ll have to look at the small print of my self Build policy and see if they cover the risk in the event of any of those in the supply chain going bust and me looking money and or windows fail to turn up!

But wait a moment, taking a small deposit via a credit card must move the risk to the credit card company. At the moment the risk is all mine!

So if Rationel and “most window companies” don’t offer credit card facilities, what sort of position am I left I left in? How do insure against loss?

How would I know this? Who am I double checking with?

I have talked to them (Rationel Windows) via their local supplier. Rationel is adamant that want 50% on order and 50% two weeks prior to delivery, they say they'll provide a Vesting Certificate on final payment confirming I own the windows?!! The local supplier tells me that Rationel has withdrawn all credit facilities from smaller suppliers?

I’m about to press the go button on my windows and the payment terms were presented, 50% on order and 50% 2 weeks before delivery! Are these terms normal? I assume if I pay part on credit card and the rest via BACs i’ll protect myself from the manufacturer and/or the local supplier going bust? This is a significant amount of money and I can’t afford to loose it!

@janelondon the walls and roof have 145mm of Kingspan in them. Keeps the place warm in winter and cool in summer.

According to the report, iron was present at 275 µg Fe/dm3 (micrograms iron per litre) against a limit of 200 µg Fe/dm3. What is an acceptable limit for drinking water?

Having obtained further information, the toilet block is fed by a borehole water supply and the supply is high in iron. Any thought about how to treat this problem, given that the water is used for drinking and washing, maybe one for @JSHarris

I’m involved in Scouts, occasionally I get dragged into giving advice on building matters, usually when things go wrong! So to the latest problem. Volunteers built a toilet block with the help of a local builder, Building Regs sign off was never obtained. Questions have been asked at “committee” and it looks like although built to the required standard, it’s not quite constructed to the approved plans. Do we need to worry about not getting Builfing Regs sign off?

Welcome to the world of self Build lol !

Don’t you just love it when someone local helpfully keeps the planners informed of such things! You should stir stir the pot a little yourself next time your down the local pub, maybe something along the lines of “how helpful the planner was in suggesting that you’ve got a great infill plot for few more houses”!

There as an article in the news last week, apparently the place in your bathroom containing the most bacteria isn’t to the loo, it’s the toothbrush. You need a self cleaning toothbrush ! http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/mythbusters-database/fecal-matter-on-toothbrush/

The repair isn’t a problem, just make sure you fix a temporary timber brace behind it during the pour or else it might bow out, being a bit on the thin side!

We’ve put our bedrooms in a basement cut into the hillside, they look fine in terms of light.