Gone West

Griselinia is suitable for coastal areas and I think looks great.

The subject of cost per m2 is something I have commented on before on here. How is the area calculated, presumably external area, but does it include balconies, verandahs or garages? What about integrated garages? How are costs calculated, do they include all the paperwork, professional fees and testing. If the work has been done by the owner has the cost of tools been included, and has the VAT refund been included? The cost of ours is difficult to calculate in order to compare costs. When we did our budgeting we were naive and just used a costs estimator at the back of a building magazine. We are pretty close to our budget but can't yet work out accurately a cost/m2.

Soudal flexifoam is pretty airtight. https://ironmongerydirect-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/product-documentation/technical/481292.pdf

My metal web joists hang on a ledger plate from the top chord.

@lizzie We had Self Build Zone site insurance which cost us a fortune. We didn't need site insurance towards the end of the build and we got an unoccupied buildings and contents policy. We did this through Sennocke who are behind Self Build Zone and we were told that policy could be converted to standard buildings and contents cover. We found Sennocke very helpful, we dealt with Jenny Burr on 01732742102

We use the intercom sometimes on ours, between the bungalow and house. Quite useful.

We got ours from IronmongeryDirect. They have a good selection. https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/browse/hinges/door-hinges?fl=type:ball_bearing_hinge finish:polished_stainless_steel finish:satin_stainless_steel

I was warned by a chemist, at an establishment I worked at many ago, never to use hot water to wash hands with cleaners like Swarfega. He was very conscious of the carcinogenic potential of the chemicals in cleaners. Don't know how true it was, as it was back in the early seventies.

Welcome to the forum Ben. Good luck with the conversion. It's a great looking building, should keep you busy for a while.

We had an LPG detector in our last house.

They're aluminium and I got them from Ironmongery Direct, but it was several years ago and unfortunately they don't appear to stock them any longer. SDSLondon still do them but they are more expensive. https://www.sdslondon.co.uk/zig-zag-pattern-vents.html

These are fitted around 2.5m above the ground.

We had a 6m span with a pair of truss rails over the single storey part of our build.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Good luck with your project. Your place looks positively palatial compared to the last house we renovated.

We have a 12mm gap under our doors over a hard floor. I wanted to make sure there weren't any draughts which could be created if the gap is too small. I think we are just used to having very small gaps to prevent draughts but when using MVHR in an airtight house the opposite is true.

Ideally not a cowl as it would restrict air flow a bit. I wanted stainless steel bullnose cowls which look good but because they slot onto the end of the duct I thought the restriction would be too great. I used a 300mm square grill with an insect screen behind which has an airflow greater than the cross sectional area of the duct.

I've been using Devolo dLAN for about 12 or 13 years in two different houses without any problems.

When our neighbours bungalow was demolished they found Chrysotile cement boards. Last week I bought a testing kit to double check the boards in our bungalow as they were built at the same time. I paid £29.99 from Amazon for this. https://www.asbestos-sampling.com/

In the past I syphoned the bottom of my oil tank every couple of years to ensure water didn't build up sufficiently to come out of the outlet. In my tank the sump below the outlet pipe is large and it would take a lot of water before it caused a problem, although that was what happened the first time which led me to do the syphoning.

I stopped using Firefox because at every update it seemed to be trying to look like Chrome and I liked the look of the old Firefox. I started using Xmarks when it was Foxmarks and just carried on when it was commercialised.

I got fed up with Firefox some time ago and now use Pale Moon with Xmarks.

I have seen winch drawn mole ploughs used.

I can't find the link at the moment. For extract I used 2 ACH for bathrooms, 0.7 ACH for the kitchen and 1.1 ACH for the utility room. For supply I used 0.4 ACH for bedrooms, 0.5 ACH for reception rooms and 0.3 ACH for the hall. This gives a balanced total of 101 m3/h on fan speed 2, which can be reduced by using fan speed 1 and adjusting the fan speed percentage accordingly.

When I was researching into how to install MVHR around eight or nine years ago I made a list of rules I found relating to connecting the unit to the outside. I'm sure these are not exhaustive and nor are they prescriptive, but it's what I used to install mine. 1. The inlet and outlet grilles should be 3m apart to prevent cross contamination of air. 3m was the distance I found mentioned most often. 2. The inlet and outlet grilles should be high enough (2m) to prevent interference by animals or children. 3. The inlet and outlet grilles should be on the same wall so they are affected equally by the wind. 4. The free flow area of the grill including insect screen should be at least as great as the cross sectional area of the duct. 5. The duct should be smooth wall to reduce air flow restriction. 6. Any ducting bends should be large radius of curvature or two 45 degree bends to reduce air flow restriction. 7. The ducting should slope downwards slightly to ensure any moisture drains to the outside.

It's normally recommended that there is a minimum 3m space between MVHR inlet and outlet.