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I tried that a while back, but with no joy

Progress!!! An Openreach surveyor came out this morning to check out the site. The long and short of it is that they can't go direct to the house above ground from the pole on the opposite side of the road as there are electrical cables in the way. As they can only go under, not over, these electric cables (apparently) and they would then be too low, then the only option is underground (result!). It might take 4-8 weeks to get connected but it looks like I've got what I wanted at zero cost - quite some difference to the £7k they originally wanted So the moral of the story appears to be don't go direct to OR but instead get your house address registered and then get an order in with BT for them to provide you with a line/service

I'm sure this has been asked before but despite searching I haven't found what I'm looking for, so apologies if I'm repeating a theme What I want to know is how others have protected the EPS plinth on their MBC slab. Our house will be rendered to DPC level (or thereabouts) but I'm unsure about what to do below that or when it should be done (before or after render). Our house is modern rather than traditional, if that makes a difference

The Elica is not a patch on the Bora

We are getting a Bora. Seen them in action and they are brilliant things. The Basic is about £2200 and the Classic another £1800-2000

I've just bought some Dukkaboard ones from here: http://www.tilingsuppliesdirect.co.uk/product/dukkaboard-channel-drain-shower-tray I think they go up to 1650 x 1000.

Well I'm trying another approach now. I registered our house name a while back so it now appears on (most of) BT's systems. I called up the FTTP team on 0800 587 4787 and placed an order for a new connection, although I may have slightly over-stated how close we were to moving in... I was supposed to be getting a call from an (OR) engineer to book in a survey but after 4 days hadn't had one so I called back to be told that the 'install' is due in just over a week. Ok, "but what if it's not quite ready?", I asked. The essence of the reply was that they'd just assess the job and get the works booked in. Now I might have the same battle as before but I think it is now slightly different. Initially, when speaking with OR I was just looking for a new line, but now I'm actually looking for someone (BT) to provide a service and this subtle difference apparently makes a huge difference. I'll keep the thread updated on what actually happens

Cheers, Terry. I've never had UFH (nor lived in an efficient house!) so it's a bit of a leap into the unknown for me. The bigger worry is spending £20k on a floor and finding it fails due to the heat

Thanks for the replies chaps. Out of interest, do you take readings in areas where you may have a concentration of UFH pipework (such as doorway into the plant room for example)? I wondered whether it was possible to see significantly higher readings there.

Looking at engineered wood flooring options and the spec sheets give a maximum allowable surface temperature of the slab. What would be considered normal or high? It's an MBC slab if that makes a difference

2 pack epoxy. A mate has just done this in a 100m2 garage for about £900 and it looks great. He runs a bodyshop and is always working on cars so wouldn't put something down that wasn't up to the job

Ah, no none at all

I know Darren has had better recently. He thought we'd get about 0.4 and we were all pretty amazed at the result, especially as we know the doors are leaking and need sorting out. I can't really comment on the amount of taping as I don't know what 'normal' might look like. I know I didn't do any extra work that I was planning on doing though

Well, the air-test was performed this afternoon and we achieved 0.27 air-changes per hour. BOOM!

I'll take another look at them but previously they seemed quite expensive Thats's what I seem to read. I looked at the RWA45 but they only do it in 600mm widths

Doing a bit of planning ahead (although I might actually put some in now) I wondered what others had used for the acoustic insulation in internal walls and floors (MBC build for the record). I was thinking of 400mm wide x 100mm thick (both floors and walls) and saw Rockwool Flexi-slab at 12.33 + vat from Insulation Superstore (2.88m2) last night (although POA tonight!). This seemed to be as good a price as I could find it, but are there any other options I should consider? Obviously there is a trade-off between cost, performance and ease of handling but only 1 of those 3 seem easy to compare!!!

We were approached a few times to appear on Building The Dream. Would have gone ahead with it too but we were too far down the line to make it worth it. We have agreed to be one of their 'inspirational homes' in the future though

Slate prices have shot up in the past 2 months. Unfortunately I timed it as bad as I could have! £1.55/slate doesn't sound too bad tbh - what make of slate is it? There is good and bad grade 1 We ended up with Cupa R12 which the roofer was quite impressed with. Aside from the quality of the slate itself they were also flat - it would appear from speaking with him that this isn't always the case and it's quite common to end up with many that are curved, leading to a poor job. We did have some like this, but they formed part of our 'wastage' In case you need it, here is a link to the required headlap http://www.sigaslate.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Minimum-Recommended-Headlaps-For-England.pdf

I'm going to be first fixing the MVHR ducting this week - well, that's the plan anyway! I'm using the Quiet-Vent ducting which was supplied by BPC (and great service from those guys I have to say) Anyway, I have a few plenums that will be located within stud walls as we don't have normal flat ceilings in the bedrooms. The studs are 89mm (I think) CLS (MBC house) and the plenums just about fit in the void. What I'd like to know is whether anyone else has done the same and if so, how did you secure the plenum within the wall?

I have a question that I'd normally go straight to MBC with but they're now out of the office until January so I'm hoping someone here has the answer. What size of cavity should be employed between the timber frame and the render board? MBC had quoted a cavity of 50mm between TF and blockwork so I'd assumed it would be the same for the render board, but more than 1 renderer has said they've never seen anything that large so I'm wondering whether my assumption is wrong. Anyone care to help clear up the confusion for me?

So an update... I spoke with the chaps on site today and they showed me a schematic of how the two elements should connect. First, there is a connecting profile which connects the timber of the two elements together - we are guessing that this wasn't fitted for some reason as if it had been then we wouldn't have been able to see daylight! Secondly, there is a rubber seal which sits behind the aluminium trim - this has been delivered in white rather than dark grey and it was decided not to fit this as it would have shown up between the two elements. The guys were very helpful and made it very clear that this would be sorted without question. They are going to remove the door and window and check/fit the connecting profile and then also fit the rubber seal. They are then going to run a thin bead of dark grey sealant between the elements so that the white seal doesn't show - this will look fine and I'm happy with that. Hopefully this will be done tomorrow (or at latest Wednesday) but I have to say I'm pretty happy with how they dealt with it all.

So what did you do? Who was the supplier/installer?

The windows and the door are Internorm HF310 Studio. Looking at the manufacturing schedule, it does show that there is a coupling profile, so thanks for pointing out that there should be one, but I'm guessing that this hasn't been fitted for whatever reason. I'm going to speak with them in the morning and see what they say - at least I know that what has been done isn't what should have been done. By the way, they are all supplied and installed by Spectrum Architectural who are an Internorm First Partner

We're having our Internorm windows fitted at the moment and I have a query that I want to be better informed about before I discuss it with the installers. They've installed the door at the side of the house which has an attached window and I noticed late last week that I could see daylight between the frame of the door and the frame of the window! Obviously this can be sorted easy enough but what I want to know is how should these two elements be joined. I'm guessing that they are bolted together in some fashion but what actually provides the seal? Is it simply a sealant of some sort or a rubber/foam seal for example?

Thanks Terry, great advice. Just need to get my hands on some Sika tape as none was left when the guys vacated the site