Mulberry View

@Nick Laslett I am always grateful for your words of encouragement. I know you're right, I need to move on, if for no other reason than to complete some rewarding tasks. It is only really the fear of worsening the depth of the hole we're in, but, as @Russell griffiths has alluded to, we have to mentally prepare for every possible outcome and not pin our hopes on the most ideal one. I really cannot see how we don't have a great case and the way our Solicitor has articulated it so far is a very good sign. We are close to some big decisions and I am famous for panicking just as the trigger is about to be pulled, so this isn't abnormal for me, but there is no doubt, the collective clusterf**k has really snowballed for us. I hope you manage to sort all your issues, it's a dread of mine to have lasting problems as the very reason we took this project on was because I could never get over the weaknesses in the fabric of the 1920's bungalow we renovated before this and hoped we could achieve perfection, which I now know to be an unrealistic expectation!

You are right, the roof is largely water-tight, but we do have 3 large rooflight openings that have plastic sheeted frames over them that I battle to keep true and in place. The rabbit-hole scenario with the roof could be that if the Zinc is deemed to be beyond economic repair and has to be removed, then the Insulation would also be written off because the clips fasten through thick plastic plugs, so the Celotex is peppered with significant holes (probably around 15mm diameter). Once the Insulation is removed and the VCL is revealed we run the risk of the next installer not being happy with the way the VCL was fitted and wanting that off too, god only knows how you remove that stuff without writing the Plywood off. You see how my mind works?! I am very grateful for your advice though, I do want to keep moving on I am just a chronic over-thinker who is worried about getting even deeper in the proverbial you-know-what. There's no doubt that I could not have got as far as I have without the good people of Buildhub. I have plenty more headscratchers in front of me yet, so brace yourselves for more! I ought to post some photos of my work so far as there are some positives hidden amongst all of this.

The initial problem was the way the upstands were detailed, preventing £11k worth of Velux rooflights being fitted and this is quite serious in the sense that the only real way to remedy it is to raise the upstands, but this is a monstrous job that would involve cutting the VCL even if it was practical to achieve. As time has gone on, other defects have emerged. There is a lack of any expansion room behind the rooflights, which, I am told is pretty serious. Especially as one of them has 11m of Zinc above it with a potential expansion of 15mm+ over that length. There is also an integral 5m long box gutter with only 100mm upstand along it's length, which, according to VM Zinc should be 200mm. The box gutter went in first, so it can't be remedied without drastic work.

We're totally minded on getting an Expert Witness, but have been advised to get a bit further into the legal action first. Which we hope will be within a few weeks. Whether that expert will be the one who we rely on for Zinc roof specifics I don't really know, but I do think it will cross over in any case. As for a Governing body, we were told it's the FTMRC (Federation of Traditional Metal Roofing Contractors), but it turns out they're not really a proper governing body, so who knows. Hopefully that will emerge in the legal journey.

That's totally the conversation the Wife and I have just had. At this point, we have two choices, pay for the roof to be stripped and done again (that would consume about a quarter of our remaining already tight budget), or chance it in court. What would you do?! ☠️

Some of you know the woes we face with our Zinc Roof. The first major contractor on site and it all ended in disaster. You can read more about it here. It's trundling slowly down the legal pathway and is likely to take a long time because the contractor is simply not cooperating at all. But I need to be able establish a plan to progress as it's causing me a lot of anxiety. The house build is my occupation and to not be able to move on at any pace is giving me a sense of failure and not helping my self esteem at all. I'm finding bits and pieces to do, but we certainly face ANOTHER winter in the Caravan after SWMBO saying that Christmas 2024 was the last she'd do in the Caravan. In a nutshell, we paid £20k for an Architectural package that got us to RIBA Stage 4a (Building Regs Plans), but the relationship with our Architect broke right down towards the end of that and, in some ways, we were glad because it was the biggest stressor. However, I do attribute the lack of an Architect as to why the roof went the way it did. Had I known how hard our roof would be to detail and how many worrying elements we would be stuck with, we would have pushed back. But what would that have meant for the design we were overall happy with and we had planning approval on? Maybe a total redesign. So we went for it, we trusted an expert who assured us that any missing details would be taken care of by their "superior experience". He had so much to say about how it wouldn't have mattered if the Architect had detailed it, they know best where Zinc is concerned. We felt confident. Cutting a long story short, I honestly think the whole lot heeds to come off and a different system used. VM Zinc just don't offer a nice detail for rooflights in a 5° Monopitch without a tonne of solder. My question is, what did we do wrong? Should we have had an Architect produce a full set of technical details ahead of tender? Should we have relied on a specialist installer but with drawings to sign off before work started? I'm trying to foresee how to get out of the hole we're in because the problems have to be fixed, regardless of the court outcome. The advice I'm seeking is not about what to do with the legal stuff, but how we can get things moving on site again. Should I be trying to get another Architect or Architectural Technician onto the project to re-design and detail the roof? Or can I rely on a metal roof installation company to provide the full detail package within their quote? In essence, I need to know that a good outcome is guaranteed because it feels hard to commit to the big ticket items (Windows etc) without knowing where we stand and that the design can even be roofed reliably. I also realise that if we go any further with the internal works (Insulation/UFH/Screed), the scaffolding for the re-roof might then have to be a top-hat (££££££££). A part of me knows that we eventually need to take the original Architect to court, but with the roof action going on and the project as a whole, there's no way I can contend with that at the moment, even though I know that if it was to swing in our favour, the outcome could mean an answer to all this mess. Hoping for some rational and practical help from the good chaps and chapesses of Buildhub!

All very well, but there's about 60 metres to do. It'd have a lot of joins too.

I'm fighting for my life trying to get our house water-tight, after the relationship with our Architect broke down, hemorrhaging money trying to get other Architects to fill in the blanks. I built the shell as per the plans and sadly didn't think hard enough about the next steps. This is what I have at my roofline... That's a 200mm timber hard-edge upstand, it contains the Celotex for the warm room. This is how the Architect detailed it... Clearly we cannot render directly onto Timber. I spotted it after the shell was built and so added an extra 50mm around the perimeter of the roof in a late-stage adhoc amendment, to enable an overhang big enough to take a secondary layer of EPS that I would add to the whole building to cover everything up and give a single layer to render onto. However, I'm now second-guessing it, does the timber need ventilating? Would I be better to utilise a rain-screen system here? I'm thinking of vertical tile-battens with render board attached and render onto that with an airflow passage behind it. Any help is VERY much appreciated.

They look neat, but what stops the rainwater going in?

I know Dave, as would I. My Father-in-Law is mid 70's and the guy they sent to discuss this was somewhat of a 'Salesman'. Everything will be OK, nothing for you to worry about kind of guy. It's a good job he's given up his caravan as there'd be no hope of getting that in there now, but I'm more worried about when it comes to selling the house, can you imagine that being your first view as you arrive to view the house?

I'm trying to help my Father-in-Law out at the moment. He has an Electric Pole in the entrance of his driveway, it's stood there since before they were there, but never really caused an issue. UKPN sent a friendly man round to talk about replacing the pole, which he thought nothing of and agreed to, because he's a lovely man himself. The trouble is, not only did they move the pole a fair way out from the fence that it previously sat hard up against, but they also fitted a HUGE replacement pole (280mm diameter). The net result is that he has lost 500mm of what was already a fairly tight driveway. We've been arguing backwards and forwards since June last year. I asked them to relocate it onto the pavement on the left of the concrete post in the photo which they won't do and we've pretty much reached stalemate. They do have a legal deed for the pole to exist in his land, but not in that exact position. I've tried asking them to put it back to where the deeds show it (on the opposite side and further down), but they want to put it into a metre-cube, which would destroy the neighbours hedge that runs down the right-hand side in the photo. Would you put up with this? Am I making a fuss over nothing?

The whole RPA thing drives me crazy. We had to install a £10k Geocell driveway before we were permitted to commence, but the Garage demolition that formed part of the approved plans (and thus the commencement) stood in front of everything with no route past until it was demolished. We just got on with it, we had no choice. We were told that we would have to hand-dig our multi-service trench which sat in the outer 5% of the RPA of a pair of unprotected Scots Pines and we have a 70foot Hornbeam with a 10 metre radius RPA that has controlled the entire size and shape of the house we're building. We're not allowed to store any materials within that RPA and even a 1-tonne digger would need an engineered ground protection solution before being able to pass over it. Meanwhile, Cadent have carved a trench 2 feet away from the trunk of an ancient (200 year old I'd guess) Oak tree beside a road near me and in a City Centre urban furniture project, they were diggering up to and around all the mature trees with a 5T machine, with only the trunks protected.

The 4 vents in that photo will all be affected, as the area was planned to be level with the large front door opening on the left and be some sort of hard standing falling away left-to-right... Providing I can use some rectangular ducting to 'periscope' them up another 150mm, buried in the EPS, then I think that's the way I'll go. I'll put it down to another failure by my expensive Architect.

Yes, in a nutshell. If you looks at the side-on photo and imagine a hard standing area (for example) level with the front door opening and falling away from left to right, all of those vents are going to be tricky, even the furthest away one will probably still be close. Luckily, with the building having a 68mm outer layer, I could bury a sleeve in the EPS to effectively move the vents up 150mm It's a bit of a bodge, but it'll be buried behind the brick slips, so I think I'll just suck it up and get on with it.

I can potentially still remedy my situation if needed, but I'm trying to see where, if anywhere, I've gone wrong.

We have a 'courtyard' area in the lead up to our Front Door. There are a few vents in this area. This is the approach to the Front Door... This is the side-on view. I'm pretty sure I'll lose the vent closest to the door, but they are beneath FFL so the whole area cannot be a level hard-standing.

Yes, so although I don't have a DPC in the conventional sense, that's in essence what I have. So, back to my original point, how would we provide a paved level access around a front door area if there are vents that sit level with internal FFL? In the picture you've posted, you patio area is presumably 150mm below the internal floor level?

In the ever-growing list of c'ockups, I'm fearful of another. This is how our Architect detailed our Foundation build-up, I'm specifically thinking about the sub-floor vents at this stage. Is it normal for them to be positioned at this height? (i.e. the top of the vent level with FFL) We have various ground-levels around the building, but that's the height I put all of ours relative to the levels in that part of the building. So, what is the intention where level access is needed?

That's quite cool. Is it an alternative to a crated soakaway or something completely different?

I don't have the crates yet, I didn't realise they'll supply this?!

We've gone for Norrsken Alu-clad windows for the majority of the glazing for our 200m2 build. We're not Passivhaus, but hoping to get near that level of performance (sub 1.0 air-tightness ideally). For those that have them, did you go for the 2 gasket profile (P31a) or the 3 gasket profile (P41a)?

I'm hoping to start digging my 20m3 Soakaway this weekend. I'm going for 6m x 3.6m x 0.84m. 1. Pea Shingle or Sharp Sand to surround the crates? 2. Geotextile wrap for the crates yes, but should I also provide another separation layer between the backfill layer and the surrounding soil? I'm grateful for you guys, so any help here is appreciated as always.

What is the usual process for ascertaining heating need? Does an Underfloor Heating designer take care of this? Or is it down to who specifies the Heat Pump? We have upped the specification of several of our thermal elements (Floor insulation thickness, Roof insulation thickness, Window u-Value and expected Air-tightness to name a few), I think I need to get my original 'as designed' SAP updated to include the changes so I have something upon which the heat loss calcs can be taken from, does this sound like the right approach?

Any further input on this? If I have to add, say, 100mm of material to an opening to reduce it's size, is 150mm of EPS too much to screw through to attach the windows? I could remove the original EPS closer and replace it with timber, before adding the additional EPS over the top, that would give a nice fixing, any implications in this?

Grrrrreat! Well, fingers crossed and we'll find out soon I guess.