Thorfun

I'm not 100% convinced of the spray foam as I want the sound insulation and decrement delay qualities of mineral wool (or wood fibre) in between the studs and then the PIR over that to reduce the cold bridging of the timber studs. I'm also trying to reduce our oil based insulation and having 140mm of it in the walls just seems very un-green!

thanks for the response. I'm considering the walls and the roof. we have a vaulted ceiling as well for the entrance hall which is 2.8m wide. 200 man hours, wow. so for me on my own on evenings and weekends I'm looking at about 6 weeks or so just for the walls.

does anyone else have any sort of estimates for this? I'm trying to calculate the time it will take me vs the cost it'll be to get the TF manufacturer to do it.

I know this is a 'piece of string?' type question but I know that a few on here have installed their own insulation (@ProDave is the first name that springs to mind) so I was wondering if anyone could give a rough estimate on how long it'd take one man (with assistance from SWMBO) to install insulation in a timber frame? I'm talking about 140mm mineral wool between the studs and a layer of 50mm or 80mm PIR on top. and then, while I'm at it, how long to then add an air tightness membrane on top of the PIR? obviously it depends on the size of the house but I'm sure an average hr/m2 could be obtained with enough results!

it does look good! did you see that video showing off the new unreal engine on PS5? hang on....I'll dig it out.... watch in on Chrome in 4k (Safari only offers 1080p max). truly stunning! I skipped the PS4 as I preferred the Xbox One X but I think a PS5 might be on my list to Santa this year.

nope. I'm a Unix engineer by trade. don't do Windows unless I really have to. although it is good for gaming!

I have invoice software that only runs on windows. that and makeMKV is what I use it for. hence just having a VM I can spin up when required. otherwise we're an Apple household with a few Google devices thrown in for fun.

I don't want to use wifi. I want hardwired automation as much as possible. besides, it goes without saying that the kids are happy to eat bread and water as long as daddy has his toys to play with.

tbh, I think it's typical of Virtual Box. I used to run a Win 10 VM on virtual box but it was jerky as hell but I lived with it as I just used it to create invoices. and I have an iMac Pro so it's not like I don't have the CPU power to run it in Virtual Box! just never could be bothered to sit down and figure out why as my usage was so low. but it's much better running from the NAS for some reason.

does the software work under Wine? might reduce your stress levels a little bit (just like the real thing!)

yeah, Loxone certainly ticks those boxes and I do love to play but I also need it to just work for SWMBO and the kids and especially for my mum who will be living with us and with me tinkering the chances are that I'll leave something half-done and stuff just won't work properly coz I've been playing again! she's not great with technology and if I have to tell her that she needs to double tap the centre of the switch to turn the lights off or press the top right for blinds etc she'll have no ideas. plus I really like the office looking controllers from C4/Lutron etc. it's one of those things that I'm just going to have to get quotes for both and do loads and loads of research and go visit show homes etc and then make a decision.

was going to mention virtual box but I figured you'd want the VM on all the time so would have to leave your Mac on permanently. whereas a Pi or VM on the NAS could be on 24/7.

thanks @Ferdinand. they certainly do have a lot of tools! I decided to with Ego for my garden tools in the end despite much internal wrangling and debate. the equipment arrived today and I'm just charging the batteries before having a go. build quality looks good so far but the proof will be in the pudding as they say. I am definitely looking to go with Makita for the rest of my tools though. that decision has been made and so I look forward to a lifelong relationship with Makita tools.

and how do you find Loxone? still torn between Loxone and Control-4. i really don't like the Loxone light switches and having to tap a certain number of times to get to the lighting preset you want, whereas Control-4 has switches with many buttons for each preset. but Loxone I can administer myself whereas Control-4 is a closed system. but C-4 is damn sexy and does AV very well whereas Loxone uses iPads for displays and doesn't do AV at all.

the price for home automation I guess!

a VM crash should have no effect on the NAS. rebooting a dead VM on Synology? I don't know! on a Qnap system there's an app called Virtualisation Station. in there you manage and control all of your VMs and can access them through the virtualisation app. how this is done on Synology is beyond me. maybe @joth knows? otherwise, it'll need a google search. I don't have time now but if I get a chance later I'll see if I can find anything on Google about Synology virtualisation.

yeah. we love the bats. I've not got any issues with them being around! keeps the insect population down as well.

Can’t help you there! Good luck with your decision.

create a VM using Windows 10 home and see what happens. then if it's rubbish get the cheap PC. that's what I'd do.

lol. still £99 more than you'd need to spend if you can run a VM on the NAS. Windows 10 (home edition) is free so should be ok for your needs, it's just you can't Remote Desktop to it so would have to administer through the console on the VM software. running windows 10 on a VM is a bit of a dog with only 2GB ram but if you can give it some more then you should be ok. give it a go and see what happens! the only thing you'll lose is a bit of time.

thanks. surprisingly few conditions to be honest. the usual landscaping plan, parking to be completed before occupation, external materials etc. a couple of ecological conditions as there are GCN near and bats in our current property. but nothing that is too major. they did remove our permitted development but I was expecting it and we're not that bothered as we shouldn't need much else after the house is built.

<drum roll>.....we have our planning application approval! yay!! I was really expecting a long drawn out process but pretty much a month after we hired our planning consultant we got our approval. I'm pretty gobsmacked to be honest but we're over the moon. can't believe it all happened so quickly. I had discussions with the planning consultant about what we were willing to compromise on and what we weren't. we also determined what we could potentially build using PD on the existing building and the planning consultant also did some research and found other approvals for applications that were similar in size increase over the existing property as ours. Putting it all together we ended up offering to remove the annexe whilst keeping the rest of the building the same but with increasing the basement to the full size of the main building. A bit of escalation within the department as our planning officer was out of office for a while and we were told to submit the new drawings with the annexe removed and a decision would be made on those new drawings without the need for another consultation period. all of the above equated to us receiving our approval this morning. ? the bubbly is in the fridge chilling and waiting to be opened shortly.

couldn't agree more! although I probably contradicted myself by not going the Makita route but the Ego stuff isn't cheap! it's just not as expensive as Makita/Dewalt. ? although, only time will tell.

bugger.....spent so long procrastinating that I missed the deadline for shipping today! ?‍♂️ but my new Ego multitool should be here by the weekend. I'd just like to take this moment to apologise to all those that suggested I use Makita. I did listen to your advice and it was much appreciated but in the end a few things swayed me elsewhere. availability, price, and needing to use 2 x 18V batteries for the Makita range.

thanks Peter. it's good to know! arrrrggghhhhh! why is this so difficult to choose. I was supposed to be working today but seem to have spent most of my day reading/watching reviews and using spreadsheets to compare. I'm sorely tempted to keep my garden equipment and my household tools separate for no other reason than not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket. Also, the Ego multitool works out about £250 - £350 cheaper (depending on where you buy) and I can get it next day delivery! whereas the Makita multitool body is out of stock most places and SWMBO wants to start in the garden asap. so, I think that's pretty much made my mind up for the garden tools then. I am very impressed with the range of tools that Makita offer though and so I think I'll probably ditch Erbauer and buy Makita for my tools for building with. i can probably sell my Erbauer drill as I've not used it much to recoup some of the costs. thanks for all the advice. it has been (as usual) very helpful.