PeterW

Ok so switch to 30mm clout nails as they won’t pull out

8mm are too short and will just pull out as you are finding.

What sort of staples ..?? And what length ..?? May be worth investing in an air stapler and some glue/resin coated staples as they won’t pull out as easy

For horizontal steels get your steel supplier to tack weld on a 75mm wide strip of diamond mesh along the beam tops prior to dipping or painting and this will bond your mortar to the steels. For vertical joints you want to use welded tabs or frame cramps screwed or bolted to the flanges as the mortar is in sheer and will not grip.

Decent 1-8 Wilo Yonos for those needing the more powerful circulators is reduced in BES this week - less than £130 https://www.bes.co.uk/wilo-yonos-pico-25-1-8-central-heating-pump-21903/

Ahh sorry .. Link should work now too… buy it, it’s a good read …

@CharlieKLP Can I suggest that when you meet the client you want to work with who says we can only afford £500k, we have £300k for the build and the place needs to give us our forever home with 4 decent beds but we live in the South so this is going to max out the plot as we can only get something for £200k, can you pass it on to someone in your practice who has read this book, and didn’t miss the charm lectures at architecture school ..? It will probably save everyone some heartache.

go on then … plot that is 8.5m wide but 24m long, house can cover 50% but must be aligned to the road edge. client wants 250sqm of floor space, cannot have a basement due to ground conditions and the planners insist the roof can be no higher than 8m in line with adjacent properties. client is not prepared to have more than 20% flat roof. Let’s see a few quick pencil sketches

50 items at £2.2k exc is £44 per item. With a 50mm black 92.5° push fit branch costing £3.20, unless there is a very nice unvented cylinder in there I would say you’re being taken for a ride …

what is wrong with a mansard roof done properly ..?? They actually allow for more internal space when roof height is restricted and doesn’t allow for the use of flat roofing.

Welcome ! I did see a few end up on GBF and Camelot (??) but lots of the ex-Nav lot seem to have vanished off the grid if you pardon the pun …

@Makeitstop this is what @Nickfromwales and myself are saying - check the system first before removing as it could be down to the control group filter which is easily serviceable. Has anyone done the basic checks on the cylinder first ..?

Plasterboard on the walls too..?? If so you need to get a good way up the wall otherwise those walls will be a soggy mess as the water from the screed is sucked into the plaster. Decent DPM down and then it’s tape and hope time.

How much can you afford to lose off a mortgage offer if the bank say they want to reduce their part by £30k to cover remediation costs ..? You also need to bear that in mind.

+1 to the plume kit although I would want to see where it’s installed and how the vent has been done first.

The junction box worries me here - what sort is it as it should be accessible unless it is WAGOs or similar. Also, if you’re putting the sockets in, why not just exend the ring through them all and do it properly..? It’s 2 runs of cable not 1..??

I’m not talking your large scale devs - even your spec builders (so less than 5 houses a year) are seeing price decreases now. Blocks are coming down on 1st April from one merchant I know, others will follow.

Not required and a waste of money OK so this is your real reason…!! Time to blend the materials here to get to your target and reduce costs, but I would think carefully about PIR here as you will need 230mm fixings through both battens and into the joist behind. That will take a lot of skill, and a fair chunk of cash to do properly. I would be getting creative here and creating a ceiling off the main rafters using 3x2 and OSB gussets so that the 3x2 is level with the bottom of the purlins. I’m guessing this would give 300mm of airspace below the roof, so it would then be full fill with Frametherm 35, and then a stapled VCL to hold all that in. Then add a 62.5mm plasterboard / insulation layer over the lot and you have a very good thermal and acoustic performing roof for probably 2/3rd of the price of the thick PIR and fixings etc.

Quickest way is send off the plans to one of the online estimators and then play with the outputs when you get it. Without seeing your plans it is impossible to tell you what you may - or may not - miss out as all quantities and materials will be unique to your build.

No but Center Parcs used to in their villas in the non-essential areas and it looks like sh#t … At £35 ish for the same coverage as your standard board and skim, it is probably double the cost. It also isn’t fire resistant so would need an (expensive) intumescent coating

For a main build developer or a one property type developer..? Most companies haven’t seen internal costs increase, just subbies and materials in part but they are coming down now anyway.

One of the issues with self building and professionals is that the cost of decent advice (and what should be taken) is above what people want to pay and it is usually a nice to have rather than seen as something essential. Primarily, your fixed engagement costs are higher on single property builds and sometimes you don’t get the basics (topo, CAD etc) so there are extra set up costs in dealing with bespoke designs. This drives clients to reduce the amount of time spent on actual design decisions or those sorts of things, and consequently you get less for your money and ultimately gaps are found. A good example of this is during any M&E design is the locations for sockets. Sockets however need ring mains or radial supplies; these need to be routed through structures and back to distribution boards. Modern structures may have steels in place, and subsequently these need to be drilled for cables. Drilled steels needs to be engineered for strength, and therefore the structural engineer needs to be aware so the fabricators create the correct openings. So when the client wanders on site and says to the electrician “but we want 3 more double sockets in that room” they are surprised at the additional cost of 3 sockets. When we used to advise clients on this, it could be that there is an additional zero added at design time to focus the mind - it’s £50 per additional socket when it’s being done on paper, and £500 when it’s being done on the ground for example ..! It is surprising the amount of people who don’t think about layouts and basically how they will use the house to define where things need to go. And professionals can’t do this for them as they won’t live there, so the fact you’ve got 3 table lamps you want in a room, or you will have a mirror next to the en-suite door to use a hair dryer is not communicated. Building professionals aren’t telepathic, and ultimately time is money so it is up to you where you spend any contingency or design costs as it will pay dividends when it comes to the build process but you need to start with the basics of your requirements as a client.

Yep - let’s see ..!!

But 10 to 8 is woeful - it’s still the equivalent of a window being open !!! I’ll see if I can find it but I’m pretty sure the consultation said 5, although the big players had a pop at the gov and it looks like they watered down the regs accordingly.

No such requirement unless it is the accessible WC under Part M of building regs where it applies. And that’s not the worst I have seen…