GaryM

Yes we painted the back battens black and used UV membrane designed for open cladding

Siberian larch does not need treating, it should last 20 years.

My apologies for the very late reply. I guess it took late now So far no problems with the cladding, no insects or birds. I did get the Siberian larch from Timberulove, overall not too bad, at the time, cheaper than other suppliers. If you haven't started it yet ( my build was year late) let know and I post some thoughts. But I just made a few jigs for even spacing. I calculated the spacing per side, so the battens lined up right at the corners. I used 45 x 45 every where other than base vertical battens, I used treated wood, them for the horizontal the larch chamfered and painted black and then vertical on that.

The anhydrite screed is suppose to have low expansion and the manufactures say no decoupling is needed. Looking at the screed there are no cracks in it so it seems expansion has not been a problem as yet. As you can tell I really don't want to lay decoupling , but if the common consensus is it is needed, then I will.

Hi All, I'm just looking for a bit of advice. The house rebuild has taken longer to finish than planned, so the screed in the hallway has now been down for over two years and used as normal, the house has been water tight for 3 years and ufh in and working for over 2 years The screed is low laitance anhydrite liquid screed with wet UFH under it, around 22 m2 To be fair it seems to wearing very well, with no cracks. 1. Do I still need to do a full sand of the screed ? 2. I'm using a large 800 x 800 porcelain tile, I was intending to prime it first, and then tile, I wasn't intending to use a decoupling mat, does this sound ok? Thanks Gary

My son had a builder in last year to knock out a couple of walls and put steels in. All went apparently ok with Building control was apparently happy with it. Role on 12 months, he is now getting on with more work with a new builder, replacing windows, putting in new patio doors together with replastering and rewiring for whole house. Last weekend I helped gut the 1st floor bathroom which sits at the back of the house with the rear wall over the steel. Plaster was removed and as we took at a cast iron bath, we saw a whole section off the inner leaf brick wall move by 1 or 2cm, on closer inspection large section of the wall had sunk 1cm or more... The new builder came in today, he saw the problem and after talking with my son contacted building control, it turns out, PIR and block pavers was used to fill the gap above the steel!, it was loose and could be moved about by hand, original builder had put a skim or mortar over the top to hide pavers and pir. A Building Inspector came out and said, "I don't know how this got by control", saying this and that is not right. But he was the original inspector! Structural engineer is coming out take a look. All trades are now lined up to do work, current builder is happy to put things right but it will add an extra week or two, son doesn't really want to delay build, as it is just starting However he will want to chase original builder and get compensation/refund for work, it wasn't a big job aorund £5k SO how does he progress? they are taking lots of pictures, should they stay with the same builder control (local authority) or get private building inspector in? He is aware the original builder should be given the chance to put things right, but he doesn't trust him, why should he, he wants it done now, his new builders can. Should he approach original builder? ( they live in the same street) I'm just looking for any advice to give him. Thanks

We wanted it well speced, it's a large vaulted ceiling with a huge gable end window, hence the need for good insulation. Yep, that's what I want to do, but In still want to yell, shout, kick the dog (we don't have a dog) Grrrr and all that, but life is to short

so 4 months afterwards when it become apparent they had a use mineral wall they did reduce the price, but i was still given the impression it was still way above spec. If we had not said anything they would have charged for PIR

This is one of the suggestions from the architect, he said getting a SAP calc done for the whole house and not just the roof. But as you said, the real problem is the poorer insulation. We can't do 75mm as it will be below window frame level, but perhaps 37.5mm insulated plasterboard may be enough

The added complication I should add above is the build is the build, a vaulted ceiling using open web joists, the insulation manufactures are reluctant to supply figures for the performance of there products with open web joists, so i am told

now that's the problem, apparently they will not supply it when put in conjunction with open web joist, the figures are only for timber joist. The architect has phoned a few and currently no one will give figures. All seems very odd to me

I don't have them at hand, but architect is saying it's very close. We have a vaulted ceiling, using open web joists, from the architects point of view he is saying the insulation and joist manufactures are being very cagey on how there product will perform with each other

Thanks for reply. I should clarify we did not split with builder on good terms. His last words to us after departing ways was don't worry we will get the building signed off, we never heard from them again.

Hi All, I can't believed how stressful my build has been, so much for a nice relaxed retirement. I employed a main contractor to remodel my house, which including raising the roof level and adding a second story over a old flat roof. The full set of detailed drawings was produced by a local architect. There was a few issues but the build continued, back in jan 2020 the roof insulation was going in, the builders were putting glass mineral wool, I never thought anything off it, I wasn't the project managing the job and hadn't studied the drawings. Anyway a few months later, May time, we had a few problems with plaster finish, so had a meeting with builder and architect (who at this time was hands off), due to this problem I had started studying the drawings more and seen PIR insulation was specified. In the meeting this was raised, the architect said the mineral insulation would still be above building reg requirement, so the build continued... Since then, the builders and us have departed ways and we are now trying to get building regulations signed off, all is good but Building control want letter from architect to say insulation in roof is above spec. Unfortunately the architect is now saying he can't provide letter as he can't be sure it does meet spec. I believe the builders changed the insulation without consulting the architect, using 200mm of glass mineral wool instead of 200mm of PIR. but the problem was compounded 4 months later by the architect saying it was still above spec. (this was only in passing in a conversation). In retrospect we should have insisted on new calcs being done, but this was my first build, I employed a main contractor who were following detailed drawings, why should I know what should be done? So I'm trying to get letter from architect who is reluctant to supply as it was not built to spec by builders. Me, I just want relax and enjoy retirement, but now may have a 5 - 10k spend on getting my roof up to spec. What do I do? take builders to court? what options do I have? Thanks for any advise.

Thanks for the comments. We have actually lived in the house for over 20 years but only recently been able to afford it. In reality it may have been cheaper to knock it down and start again.