Tony L

I don't want my garage to be completely airtight, but I was thinking, if it was a lot more airtight than most garages then I could run a PIV in there to pressurise the room & dry out the cars when they need it - some of my cars are old & may be left for weeks at a time without being used. Also, I might heat the garage if I'm working on one of the cars during the winter. I have the PIV that was rescued from my bungalow before it was demolished. I'm thinking the best solution may be to have a regular garage door, for security, then some king of curtain arrangement inside to increase the air tightness.

No, but I'm planning this (that's if I have any money left when the build nears completion). I discussed my plan with my SE, & my drawings show standard 7N blocks laid flat - so my wall that the stairs will hang off is 215 thick (+ finish) rather than 100.

These were my first thoughts. If you've identified an affordable, reasonably airtight garage door, I'd be interested to hear about it, please.

Just confirming AeroBarrier is indeed zero rated for new builds. & their responses to two emails I sent were very helpful, although they weren't prepared to say, "If we come along & your building is already at x ACH, we'll guarantee to get it down to 0.6 or better.". That's not a big surprise really, although a guaranteed result would certainly mean I'd be more likely to go ahead with them.

There are different ways of dealing with this problem & each way carries different risks. If it were me, I’d be saying he’s broken the contract because he didn’t, “provide a high quality outcome for the works”, (that’s a quote from your contract), so there’s no reason the client should be bound by a contract that the builder broke; he’s off the job, & he’s not getting any more money. If you want to carry on fulfilling your side of the contract, so the builder has no opportunity to say you’re in the wrong then you need to write to him, if you haven’t done so already, to tell him the work is no good. Just two or three sentences should be enough. Do not mention anything he’s done wrong other than the Posis & the steels – you don’t want to give him the opportunity to argue, at length, over some trivial matter. It’s highly unlikely he will order, pay for, & wait for delivery of a full set of Posis & steels, & have them all installed & looking as they should do, within 14 days of receipt of your email/letter. & if he tells you he's going to fix his work, as @saveasteading says, you should insist on a formal proposal for a schedule of the remedial works, so he'll have that to squeeze into his 14 days timeframe as well. Also, your contract says mediation should take place. Your contract isn’t specific about the kind of mediation, so this would just need to be a short meeting with you, the builder & a mediator – it doesn’t even matter if the builder chooses the mediator – you don’t have to agree to the mediator’s suggestions. So if you want to still be seen to be upholding your contractual obligations (even though he broke the contract), email him to offer mediation, at your site, one day this week. As I say, if it were me, I'd not be even giving him these opportunities.

Good luck, @Nick Laslett, & thanks for your airtightness details. You certainly sound as though you know what you're doing, so I have saved a copy of your post in my "Airtighness" folder, which I will hopefully remember to look at when I start to select (or others start to propose) which products will be used in my build.

I should think you're right. Email sent. I'll report back.

I'd worry about my lungs. Do the AeroBarrier team zero rate their invoice, @Nickfromwales?

Don't say this until you know the cost of correcting the work is a lot less than the amount he's going to say you owe him. If he's going to get nasty with you, your starting point for negotiation should be: He's broken the contract, by consistently undertaking poor quality work & overcharging, so you're going to force him to pay a competent builder to undertake the required remedial works, because he has demonstrated over the course of several weeks, he's incapable of doing the work to an adequate standard himself.

Well done. You're managing this situation well. Keep us updated. I'm following with interest, as I had similar problems with my first builder (& I'm still only just out of the ground with my build). I also had to defend myself against threats from his solicitor, so don't be surprised or concerned if that's your builder's next move. He will concede once he realises that you're more capable & robust than his usual clients.

Congratulations. That looks like a splendid location. I'm looking forward to hearing more, as work progresses.

Good point. The office/gym wouldn't even need to be behind the house to fall within PD - just no closer to the road than the front of the house. However, I'm sure OP will have a good reason for wanting it by the road & if it's going to be there for the next 20+ years then it's worth a few months arguing with the planning department, if that's what it takes.

@ProDave The site entrance is on the plan, but the drive isn't shown @neqinox I think I'd build the garage first - it's PD (unless PD has already been removed for this property, perhaps as a condition of a previous successful application). Then put in a planning application for a bigger than you want gym (some LA's love to say, "no"). Then you can negotiate down to the size you want, & the LA will feel like they have a win, because they think they stopped you doing what you wanted to do - that's the way it seems to work where I am, anyway. You've already got your garage, so if they remove PD when they grant permission for the gym, it doesn't matter.

Congratulations on your purchase, & welcome to Build Hub. What's the first big thing on your to do list?

That looks good to me @Tom, but then again, I know nothing about building. Please update this thread as your work progresses. I am considering having a go at mine when the time comes, although, in my case, I think I might build temporary stairs (so they won't need to look perfect) then if there's any money left when the house is just about done, I may be able to have floating stairs, hanging off my block wall, which is spec'd to look like the wall in your picture.