Gone West

What roughly is the thickness of the steel. The only flat steel lintel in my old bungalow was around 1/4" thick and the opening only about 2' wide.

I have that fitting on top of my waste stand pipe and it doesn't cause any problems. I can only think that the resistance of the S bend allows the fitting to fill up and vent water through the air vent.

@Home Farm Do you use the chimney now or are you likely to want to in the future. A friend of ours removed one of his completely.

I can't see the problem. It's a total of 2150-920=1230mm difference. 600mm each side or the whole 1230mm on one side. It can still be blocked up without ties or put some noggins in the frame and tie onto those if necessary.

Ask your builder if he can do what @PeterW has suggested. Edit : Sorry cross posted.

If the difference is only 25mm can't the window be made 25mm wider or am I not understanding this very well.

I think that is what I was trying to say. The opening in the block outer skin can be made narrower with blocks and an equivalent opening in the timber frame made by adding timberwork. Then insulation added to the area around the opening. Whereabouts in the depth of the wall are your windows being fitted?

On my system there are four ventilation levels. #1 for when the house is unoccupied #2 normal ventilation #3 increased ventilation #4 boost So I set it up for level 2. The supply and extract motors can be set up independently for all levels. Level 4 is 100%. I set level 3 to be halfway between 2 and 4 and level 1 to be halfway between zero and level 2. I put an entry in my blog about commissioning the MVHR system.

This is how I set mine up for PH levels. MVHR Calculation.pdf

Hi Al. It seems everyone is welcome here as long as they don't use the forum to advertise their business.

@SamuelBombero Welcome to the forum, sorry your hopes have been dashed. I don't know why but maybe someone will explain the reason.

Shouldn't the lead flashing go over the fascia rather than under it?

In my case yes. Having dutifully set it up for SAP and produced all the paperwork he wasn't interested. So after it was signed off I reset it all for PH levels.

In my case absolutely nothing.

Am I correct in thinking that you are saying that an extra piece of timber has been added to the timber frame to reduce the width of the window opening and that as a result there is a void in the timber frame. If so all the timber frame should be filled with insulation including the new void.

Yes either would be ok as long as the lintel is correctly supported.

It can be narrower because it's the length of the lintel that determines the maximum width. If there isn't an actual opening yet then it's just a case of cutting the blocks to create the width that you want. The opening has to have enough of the lintel supported each side so ideally put your opening in the centre of the lintel. The window could be triple glazed or be double glazed with secondary glazing to reduce sound.

In the end we bought our Western Red Cedar from the local timber yard and had it machined to our own profile. We had 4.8m lengths, no. 2 clear and better only, lovely stuff.

When I was researching cedar cladding for our house I found specification documents which showed a reasonably clear way of grading the timber. I guess the same doesn't exist for larch. Guide to Western Red Cedar.pdf

@Roz The one on the left is much closer grain and should therefore be better.

Unfortunately there are always extra costs associated with building work, things crop up. At least the main part of the building work is ok.

If the height difference is around 350mm you would need at least two steps down so a 600mm wide 'trench' is probably about right. There are a lot of companies selling recycled railway sleepers which would give a rustic look. https://www.uksleepers.co.uk/product/Reclaimed_Oak_Sleeper

There shouldn't be hardcore up to the DPC because the finished ground level should be 150mm below the DPC. This is to prevent splashback above the DPC when raining hard. My BCO sometimes allows 20mm shingle to be the finished ground level and be closer to the DPC than 150mm because rain won't settle on it and cause splashback.

Normally there is a requirement that the finished ground level should be 150mm below the DPC. My BCO allows some or all of that height difference to be filled with 20mm shingle in certain circumstances, but the shingle is never above the DPC.

For (1) I would have thought the builder could render it when he renders the block skin of the extension. For (2) the BCO around here allows the 150mm from DPC to finished ground level to be filled with 20mm shingle if necessary. If your BCO allows it then the depth of your 'trench' could be reduced by 150mm and by another 150mm if the builder scrapes off the level of your drive. This would mean a step of only 200mm which could be done with a railway sleeper. It wouldn't be ideal because walking on deep shingle isn't that easy but it would be relatively cheap. I must say again, you live in a very attractive setting.