tanneja

@Adsibob https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/sheetmetalsales planned to contact them this week for my purposes. I also need balustrades.

@Adsibob did you get the brass sheets in the end? I came across a company in Liverpool yesterday when on Pinterest, I am thinking plinth and reverse of breakfast bar in brushed brass finish for us

We are working our way downstairs with the decoration and need to make some decisions on the staircase. We have the new staircase installed however it is just the stairs themselves (modern oak like the attached, viewable from the side, https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/pictures/staircases/white-oak-staircase-roundabout-studio-inc-img~60d1cf040f4e444d_16-6613-1-a8f70c6.jpg), with a newel post at the top and bottom (these are 100mm square pine posts). We purposefully didn't order handrail and balustrades at the time due to decision fatigue and not sure what vide we would want. Now we really need both a hand rail and balustrade. We have a japandi aesthetic in the house, and were thinking of laser cut steel balustrade infill panels, perhaps in a sakura leaf pattern, and have asked for price quotes on these (not cheap). We are totally lost as to whether there is any nice choice on hand rail, and how it is going to link up to the newel posts. Has anyone got any leads for style of handrail and perhaps even balustrade? The handrail would be on the side that the glass is on in the demo picture.

Thank you @Chachi. I am no expert but hopefully you have made sure these panels are fine for fire regs, it seems to say they should be fitted behind plasterboard, if you aren't doing that then to the laymen that is me I would assume they need a BS class 0 (Euro B) fire rating if they are the finished wall / ceiling material.

@Chachi have you got a link to the panels please? Happy for you that you got a great outcome for yourself with minimal financial sacrifice.

Do regs allow for battery operated in the UK? I have been disappointed that all domestic wired fire alarms are white in colour, some much more pleasant black ones that are wireless but have somehow absorbed that these would fail regs.

Yes they seal when they polish and provide sealer top up fluid. Have been keeping on top of any spills. They do recommend you buy a buffer for £150, I will do it but have not as yet.

@SimonM very happy, I was concerned that the floor would be in bad shape given the workmen and we had issues with rain leaks. I had my builders over board the lazenby corex with 8mm ply and would do it again, the extra cost was very reassuring to keep the floor in good shape with all manner of building works for a good year after. When lazenby come back to the house and polish it, it is really special. It has blemishes and hairline cracks in places, but they are all character. I was concerned too that the initial pour (75m2) would go on until all hours when the relationship with the neighbours wasn't the best at the time, but they started early and were finished by 5pm. I will say the floor is not level, as the kitchen fitters have let me know, but again, all character, and feels like a floor for a lifetime.

Following with interest

@Iceverge Is the loop pile the 100% or 80% please? Would you be able to share a link to the commercial variant for us to see what it looks like and get a feel for pricing? Now that it has been in use for some time, does it look rustic due to stray strangs wanting to poke away from the twist, or everything still very clean and neat?

@Temp I offer my apologies, I was unintentionally missing more information. This is for upstairs and the cinema room, potentially stair runner too. Cinema has UFH but I knew that would need sympathetic underlay and carpet and there is a lot on this site regarding that. This was mainly for upstairs. Plan for a good sounds proofing underlay (presumably low VOC too), and then have same carpet in hallway and through all bedrooms, potentially down the centre of the oak stair treds too. I have seen in store the differences with the backing, thank you for reminding me.

Can't seem to find any historic posts on this. Is there an ideal carpet material which is somehow: - pleasant underfoot and kneeling on, - is VOC free (i.e. not bad for your health), - durable to compression from being trodden on - cleanable, - moth resistant, - kid and pet friendly, - and looks somewhat modern / keeps it's self together / doesn't shed? Vibe in the house is modern japandi (kind japanese and nordic). Am wary of weaved carpets hearing very easy to pull one out with a pet claw or kid toy. Wool doesn't look that modern, usually the samples in the showroom are fraying or shedding. House does have MVHR so hopefully minimal dead air spaces, so maybe the VOC isn't an issue if we also steam clean it when it gets in the house?

http://www.scimasonry.co.uk/ based in Devon but travelling up from there to me in Kent, they have been superb so far, fitting this weekend. Fitting 3 slabs worth of Montblanc

Is that a rendering of the final plan? It sits harmoniously within the grounds and next to the house. Will the side walls make opening and closing the car doors a bit problematic? What size is is planned to be, it seems big enough for a single car? And so what size array will it have? Do you also have panels on the house roof? Our house is L shaped, and so any carport would sit in the middle of the L, essentially not in front of either principal elevation, but I take your point, it is the safer thing to do.

@AliG did you continue to look at a carport? If yes would you mind sharing your decisions? I am considering a carport, 6x6, unsure if I need PP as will be behind the further forward part of the house, but would be relatively close to the boundary edge (within 2 m). I am a corner plot so I am on show to the rest of the neighbours. Used to have a lean-to carport and it was so helpful throughout the years. Being able to integrate solar into the roof where I couldn't to our main roof would be a real bonus, it wouldn't get late evening sun as would get into the shade cast by the house, but uninterrupted the rest of the day. Is there a way to have the roof watertight but it not act like a big sail during strong winds? I would expect a kind of gutter design permitting airflow but prevents rain and sunlight getting through.

@Dan F did you have to get fire rated to satisfy BC?

@Adsibob did you go through with this and find an affordable way to do it?

Is there any way at all of getting black smoke and heat alarms for a residential house without needing to go industrial with panels etc? I saw so many when I did an initial look but after calling a few online stores none know of any domestic sensors that will meet UK regs (i.e. mains powered with battery backup)

I have countered for now with a statement that I won't have signoff from BC any time soon, resent the calculations and photos of the installation from inside the house, and that I would invite them to return if they really want to see in person. I can't see how much more flexible we can be.

I was having a discussion with a friend regarding airtightness and MVHR. It was mainly in the guise of retrofit if one were to do a full or near full strip out of a property. After all the mistakes I feel I made this first time around, we discussed how we would ideally establish the airtight layer around the shell of the house and then build within that. We were also talking about soundproofing meaures too so to reduce sound transmission between rooms. A point raised which left us unsure was how to manage the ground floor to1st floor joist area. In a traditional build this area might get ventilation through the walls of the building or gappy flooring. In a airtight and soundproofed build, it feels like this cavity could end up being sealed off from the rooms. Can anyone explain to a layman like me if this represents an issue for the house health? My hope would be that moisture can still move through the timber floor boards and so while there might not be much air flow, that the chance of a condensation issue is minimal to zero?

Precisely this. Came to inspect EWI install, and found fault with the house ventilation as reason to deny EWI payment. On the refurb question, to be honest I hadn't really considered it, I was clear about my project being a refurb every step of the way with the potential (and eventual) system providers, one would hope the fact that I would be foul of building regs would come up. I have attempted a frantic check online and can't find anything specific. I suppose that could be their angle potentially, but I don't give them that much credit.

My situation has got unnecessarily troublesome. EWI install seems to have gone well, then Trustmark send around a surveyor to see if all done to standard. No issues on the install of the EWI it seems, but the absence of visible trickle vents in windows means the surveyor has said the house has a major failing and so the grant not be payable to the installer. We have whole house MVHR. They surveyor didn't even make their selves known, must have walked around the driveway and shot off without even knocking / asking any questions. I have given the installer the spec sheet, flow rate calculations and proof of purchase from Paul Heat Recovery, share pics showing installation, but that doesn't seem enough. They are saying they want to wait for the building signoff to see all is above board. They will be waiting a while as our build fund has runout so the builders are going off to another job while we save up for jobs as we go along. I don't want to commission the system when the house is full of builder dust. The installer is getting itchy and threatened before that I will need to find the grant money if they have further issues with GHG. We all have enough going on with pandemic making everything more difficult, some people, like this surveyor, really defy belief. A house 2 roads away clearly has MVHR too based on their vents, how has an experienced surveyor made this assumption.

We have provisioned for the washer and dryer to be "integrated" like this, as our utility is in an open plan area. I hope to have a modest sound reduction from the cabinet, perhaps lined in tecosound or something to add mass and cover air gaps in the cabinets. Unsure on HP or Condenser dryer and the impact that has on needing cupboard ventilation at the moment, there is a route to have it vent into an airing cupboard but that probably isn't ideal. I am expecting it to be less convenient to add detergent as the drawer will be set back in the cabinet, I don't really want to remove the drawer to add detergent, might men decanting washing liquids into dispensers with straws / nozzles. We really want noise reduction, but this was the only place for the utility, so hoping it all works out.

@elite I offer my sincere thanks for giving me the confidence to really look at these manuals. Just so I am not misreading, it would seem the RGBW2 also supports dimming of both RGBWW and single colour LED strips?

@elite yes I appreciate a HC isn't essential but didn't want to bite off more than I could chew to begin with, so hoped linking the devices and scenes would be a bit more user frieldy with a HC to begin with, I can always retire it down the line if not needed any more. I'm a bit disappointed with it anyway given it doesn't support zigbee as advertised when i have already bought some zigbee RGBWW GU10s, means another hub. Is that is the case with the RGBW2 modules being appropriate for all strips, that is very valuable information as it allows me to go ahead and buy. Do you expect there to be any caveat to that based on LED strip length?