Thorfun

very useful, thanks @Mr Punter

did you get the Idealcombi or choose another manufacturer for the front door?

I'm a long way off being ready to paint (not even broken ground yet) but I'm interested in what spray paint machine gizmo thingy you'll be using so I can store that information away and retrieve it at a later date.

for those on the forum that have bought an Idealcombi front door are you able to comment on the quality of it? the quote we have for the front door is about £2k and the Internorm front door is about £5k! I was just wondering if you can notice it's a £3k cheaper door? from my reading so far I think I've found @Moira Niedzwiecka, @RandAbuild, @mvincentd, @Mr Punter and @Fallingditch have first hand experience of IdealCombi.

this is interesting as our windows include multiple of a larger size, including 2000x2100 single pane fixed windows and they've quoted for that size. we've also got a 1800x2600 and other large windows. the only thing it seems they can't do is large width sliding doors.

Hi @Dreadnaught. I've been reading your blog with interest and I look forward to following the rest of your journey! we're not a million miles behind you in our plans and I have a few questions for you if you don't mind. 1. what is the government grant for your fibre all about? we've had our quote from Openreach to put a new fibre connection in running from a pole, under the road and on to our plot. here's their scope of works: Description of works Second Stage of Work Full Scope of Works Property is to remain and lived in while they build a new house in the garden which they would like via an underground feed. When the property is completed they will move into the new property and would like to fibre if available. The current property will then be demolished at a later date. REQUIREMENTS PHASE 1 Civils to dig in approx. 15m (metre) duct 56 from CP (carrier pole) 1A to boundary of xxxxxxxxxxxx. Customer requires 1 x fibre to property – Openreach to supply details of nearest node to use. THIS QUOTE DOES NOT INCLUDE FIBRE IN ADVANCE. TM (traffic management) – ROAD CLOSURE REQUIRED DUE TO WIDTH OF ROAD N.B - Please note that this survey return is as seen during the survey and that these works may be subject to additional excess costs if any unforeseen or unobserved variations are determined during the execution of those works, or if there has been scope creep or changes to planned work after this survey was produced. for this they're charging us almost £6k inc. VAT We already have a phone line to the existing bungalow which will eventually be demolished but require the new connection to the new location on the plot. can you offer any advice on where I can go to look up this government grant you received? 2. We've shortlisted IdealCombi as a window supplier but due to Covid-19 haven't been able to get to see them in the flesh. I assume you did. if so, what do you think of the quality of the windows and, more specifically, the front door? the price difference between the IC front door and an Internorm equivalent is huge! I was just wondering if you'd seen the front door and physically touched it etc to compare the differences with other more expensive front doors. thanks in advance. Tom

yeah, cheers guys. this is where my thinking is coming from. we have a garden room where the whole corner of it will open. one slider is 5m and the other is 2.5m so it's a pretty wide opening when both sliders are open like this. but I can't help thinking that bifold would make a bigger impact and a better job of 'bringing the outside in' as they say. anyone know if bi-folds are generally cheaper than sliders when you get to this size of triple glazed sliders?

cheers. I read your blog btw. the new place looks stunning! looking forward to reading how it develops.

You see lots of photos with them open and they look lovely. But as @timsk said, this is the UK and they’d be closed most of the year and you’ll lose a lot of the view from the frame at those times. Do you find that is the case?

Think I’ll follow this thread with interest as we discounted bifolds due to possible degradation in airtightness over time (if that’s even a thing) and are looking at sliders instead. But I’m interested in the responses to see if I can be persuaded to look at them. (full disclosure; I’ve not researched this area in detail yet and I’m sure there’s a bifold vs slider thread on here somewhere which I’ll definitely get around to reading at some point soon! My reading list just keeps growing.)

https://www.google.com/search?q=home+cinema+pelmet&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjW6LONjJbqAhWP0YUKHUWgD8cQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=home+cinema+pelmet&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQDFAAWABg8IgBaABwAHgAgAEAiAEAkgEAmAEAqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWc&sclient=img&ei=IP7wXtbYJI-jlwTFwL64DA&bih=1056&biw=1890&client=safari

my plan was to build a pelmet and put nice downlights in it but in the end I couldn't be bothered. in the end I'm glad I didn't as I would've had to take it down and make good when selling the house. but they do look good.

sadly it's long gone but once the new house is finished a new setup will be planned!

I had a motorised AT screen with a nice Plasma TV also on the wall. once the projector and screen were installed the TV never got turned on.....ever! we had blackout blinds in the room and even if we were watching TV/film during the day the projector and screen were used. once you get used to the big screen size the TV just doesn't cut it. couple of photos to help visualise what I'm talking about.

looks amazing! I look forward to reading the progress.

we've had a quote from idealcombi and it's very competitive. I like the idea of all the profiles being the same regardless of being inward, outward or fixed windows. they're definitely going on the shortlist and we'll probably end up having a showroom visit to see them in the flesh. oh, and for us Rationel couldn't do the large size panes of glass for our entrance hall, nor the large sliders so they quoted for Solarlux for the slider which were astronomical! as such, Rationel are no longer being considered for us.

welcome! there are lots of experts on lots of topics. I don't mean me though!

our architect produced a design and access statement for our application. I don't know if it had any effect or not but I still look at it now and again to remind myself of what will hopefully soon be! we put some nice sketch-up images in and also some photos of the model we created as well as the usual gubbins. it was all included as part of the flat fee to get us to planning that our architect offered us.

nice one @joth. thanks. ?

ok, thanks. sounds like great advice! I'll give BT a call and see what they say. it can't hurt.

West Sussex. maybe as it's a new development they just see £££ in their eyes and as they have us over a barrel there's not a lot we can do. or maybe I made the wrong call in contacting Openreach about this instead of speaking to BT first. Although, I'm sure that to run the new line under the road would be out of scope for BT and so they'd just refer me to Openreach. I honestly don't know and I'm definitely learning as I go. my nativity will most definitely cost me quite a bit of money but hopefully it'll be ok in the end. fortunately, there's a fibre box on the pole opposite us so getting FTTP is easy and shouldn't be too expensive. I guess I'll just have to pay for the digging up of the road and the license that's required for that. I guess I'll find out in about 4 weeks when I get the paperwork through.

maybe they saw me coming when they charged for the survey! or maybe it's because they now sub-contract out to Kelly Communications. either way it was 'this is the price if you want it'. the BT/Kelly guy is providing me with the ducting but was pretty adamant that they had to dig up the road. I did ask if our ground-workers could do it as they'll be creating a new entrance off the road which will need a road closure anyway but he wasn't sure that would be possible. The other issue with putting all the utilities in the same hole is that their poles aren't in the same place, so the cable would need to be run from one of the poles to meet up with the other cables from the other pole along the edge of the road and the BT/Kelly guy said that utilities like to take the shortest route possible. I will do my best to try and coordinate them all (the water mains stop cock for all the properties around us is already on our property so I'm sure we can just feed off that but I'll speak to the water company as well to make sure as it might be cheaper to bring that in the new entrance as well rather than run a pipe up the length of the garden from the existing connection) but I'm not holding out much hope. I'm sure it'll end up being just like the movie you mention.

just had the BT engineer out to do their survey (which they charge for but the UKPN survey is free, nice one BT ?) and things never work out how you want do they. the BT pole is about 20m away from the nearest electricity pole and according to the BT guy the road will need to be dug up twice to run each utility. is it too much to ask for them to work together to reduce costs and road closure time? But, that's a question I'm going to pose to the UK Power Network guy next week. Can you co-ordinate with BT? pretty sure the answer will be 'no' but I guess it's worth a question!

Background: we have full planning approval for a replacement dwelling on our plot and will be living in the existing building while the new build is done. the new building is going to be built where the existing swimming pool is and next to that is an old pool house with an RCD from the house installed for running the pool pump and other electrics. I am planning on using that RCD for the electrics for the build so I don't need a new supply for the build. The existing electrics come to the existing house via a cable from a pole on the other side of our road (a single track type affair). We have one electric car at the moment (Tesla Model 3) and hopefully in the near future my wife's diesel SUV gas-guzzler will be swapped for another EV. Also, my wife works from home making toys and other fabric type creations like bags, cushions etc (currently busy making face masks) so she has a number of sewing machines, embroidery machines, overlockers and the like. I don't think any of them are major power drainers and are domestic type affairs but if her business gets busier then she might invest in more commercial grade machinery. Requirements: In the new house I would like the electrics to come in underground rather than an overhead cable and, as we're living in the existing property, I figured it'd be easier to get a new connection put in to the new property and then when we demolish the existing property the old connection can be removed. This also means that there's no rush on getting the new connection in before we start building. I have applied for a new connection with UK Power Networks and have a survey booked for next week. I have said that we'd need 3-phase power but, to be brutally honest, I don't really know if I do! but I would like to try and plan for future requirements and as it's a new connection then it seems strange not to get it now rather than in 15 years time. We are planning at least 4KWh solar PV array and, if prices drop and budget allows, some form of battery so we can power our evenings entertainment from that rather than the grid. not for financial reasons but for a smug feeling that we're self-sufficient for electricity as much as possible. So, to the reason for my post.... what should I be asking the engineer when they visit? are there burning questions that I should pose or should I let them dictate the path of the conversation? is there any information I should know before hand for the visit so I don't look like a complete idiot? any other pearls of wisdom or just general advice that people that know more than me can give?