Tony L

Well done @TheMitchells. I have a load of this to deal with, on two separate buildings. I'm kicking the can down the road for now - there's a house to build.

Thanks for sharing your experience @Spinny. It’s not just you & @saveasteading – this would drive me mad too. I had a similar (or you might say opposite) concern when I was doing a single wall, in Carrara tiles, in a bathroom at a previous house. These are natural, so every tile is different, of course, but Iooking at some installations of Carrara tiles that have their flows of grey veins butting up against adjacent tiles with the flow going off at 90 degrees or so looks really unpleasant to me. It’s too random. For my installation, I unpacked all my boxes of 300x300 tiles & fiddled around for a good amount of time, setting them out on the living room floor, to get all the flows going in one direction, with all the whitest tiles on the right top corner of the wall & the tiles with the most grey in the opposite corner at the bottom. The tiler followed my instructions perfectly. The results were well worth the additional effort. I too think the tone of @Nickfromwales' comment was absolutely fine – NFW devotes so much of his free time to posting very useful advice, we really ought not oblige him to spend even more time devising a warm & fluffy translation of whatever he wants to say, before every opinion or piece of advice is posted.

I'm not thinking that's wrong, but I'm interested to know if there's any reason why you made the middle white brick Marmox, rather than the lowest of the three white bricks?

I don't have the same expertise as the other contributors to this thread, but I'd have thought buying in some ready made trusses, to give a low angle dual pitch roof would be the best solution. If you tell the truss company what your roof finish will be, they'll work out the truss spec' for you.

A lot, in my opinion. AeroBarrier

Nor might I either, but paying Devon prices didn't work out well for me, so I'll see what the Surrey quotes look like. I agree, but I don't want to do everything through email & Teams, so it matters to me. Thank you for the Splash tip.

I sacked him via email & I haven't heard back from him yet. He had lots of help from me before he got going & lots more help from me (which I didn't expect to have to provide) over the past several months. I paid £3,600 (50%) before he got going & I've asked him to repay this within seven days.

Does anybody have a recommendation for an architect or architectural technician in the West Surrey/East Berkshire/NE Hampshire area, who’s capable of producing construction drawings for a BuildHub-quality house that’s air tight with MVHR, please? I’ve just sacked the guy who was supposed to do this for me, after more than a year of low quality work, constant excuses & missed deadlines. I think this time, I want somebody who’s close enough to me for face to face meetings & affordable site visits.

The posi joist mfrs call those "cross members" strongbacks.

A friend has used this company twice & has been pleased both times. They've just fitted a long bi-fold run, separate slide or French patio doors (can't remember which) & 6 or more other doors/windows to his house extension. They supply & fit. https://truglaze.co.uk/ They're in Frimley Green, so probably not far from you. Please let us all know how you get on - I have a rental property that will need new windows within months (assuming the tenant moves out, as expected).

For my project (blocks/cavity/blocks), I do wonder whether it might be worth building in little "windows", using concrete lintels, for the the MVHR input & exhaust ducts. This strategy deals with the problem of a load of core drilling dust & debris sitting on the tray at the bottom of the cavity, as well as one less specialist to organise & pay for.

Yes, AI is a lot better than it was a couple of years ago. It's the reason I've been posting less on BH, recently - I've been using Gemini. I don't trust the answers as much as when I hear from the BH experts, but I can get an instant answer & it's helpful to have a conversation in real time, rather than have to wait for each response.

Sorry. I should not have insulted you. I'm careful not to antagonise or upset my friend as I try to steer her away from the information sources that inform her world view & I should have taken the same approach with you.

This is what my friend, Rebecca, says. & she knows a thing or two: she explained to me how the moon landings never actually happened – the US government paid Stanley Kubrick to film them in a studio. & did you know con trails aren’t just water vapour? They’re biological sprays or something that the government use to control us. Something like that - I don’t really understand. I bet @Spinny could explain it to me.

About 5.3m wide & 6.4m deep (external measurement for the slab). I'm planning a ring beam, hung off screw piles then I'll build up the middle with hardcore & 70mm crushed concrete, non-woven membrane then sand blind the middle, get my DPM in, tape it up to prevent leaks around the screw piles & joins (self compacting concrete leaks almost like water, I have learned), rebar mesh on some castles & tied to the screw piles so it doesn't float, then I'll have some ready mix SCC delivered. I'm thinking a chute will do - I don't want to pay for a pump. I'm expecting the SCC will just flow to where it needs to go & won't require too much work to push it around. I could tamp using the top of the shuttering, which I will set with a laser, but I don't think tamping will be required. For SCC, I know I definitely shouldn't work it with a poker, as this would ruin the homogenous nature of the mix, & weaken it considerably. I've decided to forgo a layer of insulation in the slab, so I only have to pay for one concrete delivery. A while ago, I worked out that mixing this volume of concrete myself would not be any cheaper than ready mix (for ordinary concrete), & I'm expecting the SCC to be around £300 more than ordinary concrete, whilst saving a lot of bother. I have very little practical building experience, although I have succeeded in making two concrete garage bases, most recently 20 years ago, & not with SCC, so any critique of my plan will be most welcome, please.

Thanks for bringing my attention to SCC, @Nickfromwales. @flanagaj, according to a conversation I had with Gemini AI, you'd use a dapple bar, rather than a bull float with this. Based on watching one YouTube video, it looks like an easy enough DIY job for my small garage, although I think I'd be inclined to to pay some experts to do this for me if this was my house. The sealant, which goes on soon after the pouring & dappling, is super important.

Very well done, @Captain Scally.

Is bare OSB, or even painted OSB a good idea inside a habitable room, especially a garden room, which could get very warm inside during the summer? I'd be looking into the possible harmful effects of VOC off gassing if I was considering this.

I was thinking I would do the same (assuming I ever get that far with my build, which is not going well) although I am also intending to have a soft outside tap for car washing. The water is very hard in my area.

Yes, although, it can lie a little bit, if half a hose is in the shade & the other half is left in blazing sunshine like we're going to have over the next few days. But it's easily checked, by bringing the two ends of the hose together.

Or have some lovely steps at your front door & make your Part M level access at the back door.

Agreed, @Mr Blobby. That's a good improvement on the computer putty coloured one above. I've always been surprised at how very ugly most of these units are. I suppose the designers have mostly spent years designing units for commercial buildings & ugly is cheap, & it doesn't matter. It hasn't occurred to the designers that their creations blight the appearance of so many homes & many people will pay more for a competitor's less ugly design. Same goes for MVHR units; Zehnder have some nice looking designs, but if I choose something else, I'll have to build a cupboard around it.

This has been my experience so far. Good for you. Show no mercy.

& the current era as well, if the builders & architectural technicians I have employed are representative of today's building industry personnel.

I'm sure you could find out, easily enough. I know where mine is, & it's not very far away, so a personal visit would be easy for me. My approach wouldn't be right for everyone, of course. I don't mind inviting myself into somebody's office & making a nuisance of myself. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. @BTC Builder. If it's any consolation, I am quite envious of your problem. I think I am years away from sign off stage, & I expect to be badly let down by many more people and organisations before I get there. You're at the last hurdle. Well done you.