Nick

Wouldn't bother Fensa as it's not really a building regs issue. Would be GGF guidance or locked away in a British Standard somewhere. Will see if I can locate it.

It is just normal cloth/gaffer/duct tape. It's there for handling reasons / edge protection and isn't part of the primary or secondary seal. Technically you are advised to remove it before installing the sealed unit. In reality everyone always leaves it on as removing it is a pain and it does no observable harm.

I know this has already been mentioned but PLEASE don't attempt to judge window colours based on online images. Between camera exposure, auto white balance and the non colour-managed environment you will be disappointed. I have a RAL 7035 sample in my office and the image above looks much nearer to white than 7035.

Manufacture hundreds of doors a week and have never heard of BC raising this as an issue. Key locking is specifically listed as allowable in Part B. The paragraph in question only talks about windows but that's to clarify that you don't need to have special non-locking handles for fire escape (these are actually an option for window). Doors automatically need key-locking in private dwellings for child safety and insurance reasons amongst other things. If you want the easy way out, just fit a thumb-turn cylinder to the door so it can always be unlocked from inside.

We manufacture windows on a large scale and 7016 / anthracite is now more than 50% of everything people buy. Personally I prefer black (anthracite has a very blue-y tint) but you need the right house design as Russell mentioned. Can look quite stark when you have bright white wall finishes, woodwork, soffits, e.t.c. Black looks great with more rustic or industrial colour schemes where you're combining it with concrete/mid-greys or earthy tones. The safe thing about White, Black & Anthracite is that you'll get them at a lower cost than a bespoke colour. You'll possibly be paying a one-off setup charge if you want a specific RAL colour and If something gets damaged on site and you need to re-make a window later down the line, you'll pay the setup charge all over again as well as waiting weeks for custom powder coating. I see it happen very often - people don't realise how easily other trades destroy windows once they are fitted.

Depends on your priorities of course, but personally I wouldn't like the GF hallway in such a long, narrow strip. It seems to take up a lot of space for circulation and also divides the rooms that shoot off from it into similar long shapes. Would maybe have a think about whether separate, cloak room, boot room and utility rooms are all needed as you would save on wall footprint and cost if any of those could be combined and do double-duty. Upstairs has a nice clean layout.

Have gone upwards of 5 metres tall without intermediate supports before. It's just a case of what wind-load you have to deal with and how much you have to spend. Upwards of 2.5-3m spans is where the cost starts to increase. Certainly if you have a door as part of your gable, you will be wise to have a steel at the head of the door - you can't rely on a fixed window to support the head of the door frame.

Cheers, are you insulating between the joists? Did you look into any of the dry boards with routed slots for the pipework you can get as an alternative to the biscuit screed? Am I'm also planning a pozi joist floor but would rather avoid screed if I can get away with a dry finish.

Would also be interested to hear how you're fitting wet UFH upstairs Conor. What's your first floor construction / heating method and is your manifold also going upstairs?

Gotcha. Suggested best practice is to use nylon shims to pack out the fixings and leave them in situ when you silicone to prevent later movement, but on small windows it's not really a huge deal.

Sorry, ya lost me? I'm asking about parging the outside face of the external block with a view to keeping airflow and water out of the cavity...

Cavity wall, airtightness barrier would be the internal wet plaster finish. Ground floor would be rendered and First floor would need cladding to match existing. If there's no benefit to treating the external face behind the cladding then fair enough - just seems odd to leave it bare when there's so much emphasis generally on sealing up blockwork to keep wind/water out.

uPVC windows are easy enough, you should be OK not having any specialist tools. A glazing knife is always handy but you can do without. If you are deducting from the narrowest point of a square/plumb opening and are very confident in what you're measuring then 5mm tolerance all around is fine. Would recommend nylon wedges and glazing packers over wood - less risk of them swelling / falling apart if they get wet.

Forgive the stupid question but when you're trying to achieve an airtight build, what is the typical thing to do with external blockwork that is going to be covered with cladding (let's say timber cladding over medium aggregate block)? Would you parge/seal the blockwork in any way before putting the battens on to help water resistance / airtightness?

Out of curiosity, how about openers in bathrooms - assuming you have them, do they get used? Another plus of less openers is that you'll have less air leakage. Very easy to seal a fixed compared to an opener.

Hi All Currently looking at a potential conversion that has a good condition, but uninsulated floor slab. I've always wanted a smooth consistent finish across the whole ground floor, and had imagined that would be the floor slab itself if we were building a passive slab from new. Now that this opportunity has come up, I'm looking for something that will do the job of screed in transferring heat from UFH pipes and levelling off the floor, but will be OK installed on top of 150mm PIR as a final floor finish. Searches have brought up the idea of wearing screed / structural topping, but from what I've read, they shouldn't be used over insulation? If i were to go for a thinner concrete pour over the insulation / UFH, would I have issues getting a smooth finish (guessing 50-60mm concrete would need some fibre reinforcing to avoid cracks and would be too thin to power float)? Any suggestions on the simplest solution?

These steel partitions are standard on every big new-build / development I've been to here in the UK (assume because they are faster to fit with less mess) and I've never seen flexible conduit once . Some brands actually have pre-punched and chamfered holes for cables so it's not even common to see cable grommets. If you're drilling your own holes though, I'd definitely use cable grommets at a minimum. 18th Edition, plus your own peace-of-mind.

I take it the cord is on the outside of the building then? Is there a solution for windows higher than the ground floor?

The fabric versions tend to be very strong synthetic fabrics which are really more like a heavy vinyl sheet. They normally have small perforations in them so some air can be allowed through without affecting privacy, and they're tensioned either by steel guide ropes or aluminium side-rails. I'd have no concerns about strength for a typical window/door. they can be be made at ridiculous sizes (4m x 3m for a single blind). The only issue I've seen is that the less-plasticy fabrics on offer can be hard to clean if they get hit with wet mud or something similar that can get right into the weave of the fabric.

Interesting... googled them and although they're a bit clunky looking compared to european roller blinds I'm familiar with, they're not too bad. They've got a separate solar panel which keeps the battery capacity requirements down. In a country without aussie-level sunshine, I'd think they would struggle. At some point, it has to be easier to bite the bullet and run some wiring. I'm sure you can at least get powered blinds with a separate transformer so the only wires you need to run through the facade are low voltage dc ones that would just need a tiny hole....

I wouldn't get your hopes up of finding one. Sadly, there's really no reason for a supplier to develop a system like this. The cost and bulk of the batteries would make it very impractical even if there was enough demand to justify designing it.

I know there are UK suppliers of external roller blinds. Can try to find a list when I'm back in the office but off the top of my head, a company called Shy are a big UK manufacturer and have dealers across the country. I've fitted them. It's pretty simple. Aluminium casing holding the motor / wireless controller and blind material just needs to be either face fixed or top fixed to something.

Concrete screws for me speed-wise.

OK so googled it.. As suspected, "Sieger" is just a made-up / marketing brand comprised of a lot of cheaper products in the market from various companies, rebadged to make them look premium. The "Sieger Slim Casement" is a Cortizo Casement Window. The "Sieger HD Casement" is an Aluk 58BW Casement Window Both are basically low-cost replacement windows so yes, those u-values are probably accurate. Not saying there's anything wrong with either product, but you won't get eco new-build u-values out of either of them.

Very true, but I can't help feel that the fact people continue to buy new-builds sight unseen when there are older properties available means they must be broadly satisfied with them. You'd at least expect to see a premium on older houses with new builds selling for less per m2 if the latter were generally accepted to be lower quality - if anything it was the other way round last time I checked.