Evs

Yeah I’ll keep the thread updated with how I get on. The calculations look daunting at first but after studying them for a bit it doesn’t seem as bad as I first thought. The bit that may be tricky is adding glass balustrade to the stair case that is also supported by the wall fixture, but the weight of the glass is shared between however many treads each piece of glass spans. I can imagine loads of people have had them made without doing any structual analysis. Its if BC ask for it and you haven’t got it there’ll be a bit of trouble.

Has anyone designed or made their own cantilever stairs? I’ve been looking at how they’re made and it doesn’t seem too difficult. I’m sure if I get the dimensions of everything I could take it to a good fabricating shop and they could cut and weld all the steel for me. Then its just getting the treads made to slide over the top of the steel. I was thinking of getting something like this made up instead of having a 10mm thick plate anchored to the full the full length of the stairs from top to bottom. The wall is made of standard concrete block and is load bearing so will be fine to anchor to. Other than getting my own made I’ve looked online on Fontanot but they don’t seem to be able to do the colour I’m after. Has anyone got any experience with any other websites that you can buy them from that are not stupidly expensive? I’ve looked on a couple of sites and prices were starting from £10,000-£12,000 which I don’t intend paying that much. I also need 2 of these stair cases. Found this website which is very informative. https://homedesigntutorials.com/2017/08/12/how-to-design-a-cantilevered-staircase/

I’m using buildstore for our self build but our lender is Hanley. I would try other options next time, mainly because of their fee’s and they’re slow when trying to get things done. For example although taking the Christmas period into account, I applied for our last stage release on 18th November and didn’t receive the money until 7th January. Any emails you send them usually take a minimum of 48 hours for a response and if you’re firing a few emails back and forth, a short conversation which could be sorted in an hour, can take over a week. There are positives. We had no issues getting our mortgage. That was all pretty straight forward and we didn’t have to go to the nth degree in regards to our projected costings. Everyone we’ve dealt with have been helpful, but they’re turnover of staff is tremendous. We’ve dealt with over 20 advisors since applying and our case has been passed from one person to the next due to employees leaving. Overall I wouldn’t say I’ve had a particularly bad experience so far, they’re just slow when getting things done which can be frustrating and their fee’s are high. I know people that have had excellent and bad experiences with both Buildstore and Ecology. I’m applying for our next draw off this coming week so I’ll let you know if they’re any quicker this time.

Hi mate, I appreciate the reply. All the other low-profile systems I’ve received quotes for have all had to be screwed down. Most say to put a 3mm adhesive underneath then screw them down with 40mm screws and insulation washers. They all wanted £250+ just for the screws and washers and I can get them on ebay for £115. Funnily they’ve all quoted me for 1600 screws & washers too... there is no way I’m installing 1600 screws. What are you installing them on top of? If you’re on 22mm floor boards and the low-profile panels are 20mm then if you stick to 40mm screws and don’t drive them too far into the panels then you’ll be fine for the pipes underneath as the screws won’t protrude below the floor. Or you could go down to 30-35mm screws to ensure they 100% won’t protrude below floor boards but you’d be fine either way. I’ve been looking online for any feedback or reviews of the manifolds and valves they supply. I’ve only been able to find one comment and the guy said that they were not good quality components, but thats all I’ve been able to find. I expected far more information on them considering they say they are one of the biggest suppliers of underfloor heating equipment in the UK. I’m really on the fence as to whether to bite the bullet and buy it from them. The other option I considered was buying the manifolds and valves from a different supplier and just use them for everything else as it would still work out far cheaper that way. Edit: Just seen your other topic and you’re using the trays rather than the 20mm insulated panels I got quoted for.

I’m in the same boat and have also been told that k rend is more likely to be affected by algae. But the 2 people that have said this to me have no theory to back it up so I’m still swaying towards K rend.

Beautiful house! We have gone for anthracite external and internal with a quartz sill in the kitchen to match the work top and all the rest of the house have white sills.

Has anyone used this company to supply their underfloor heating systems before? I’ve just had a quote through at 22:30 at night I might add, and its almost half the price of the best quote I’ve had elsewhere. The only thing I can see that is not on there is the tile adhesive which will add about £500 on, but its still far cheaper than any other quotes I’ve had. It just seems a litte too good to be true.

Ah right ok. I haven’t layed the insulation on the floor yet so I’ll measure it tomorrow so see if I have any room to increase it.

We used buildstore/buildloan for our self build mortgage. Wouldn’t use them again unless I had to, terribly slow and constantly had to chase them for updates. I’ve also noticed their turn over of staff is incredible! We’ve dealt with over 20 different advisors since first applying and 9 times out of 10 its down to the last advisor leaving the company. We’re half way through our build now and we still have issues with their communication times. Send an email and its a minimum of 48 hours before they reply, its very frustrating.

I’m ordering 6 velux’s in a few weeks, so glad I came across this post as I never knew about the velux rewards.

Thank you Joe. I’ve spent a couple of hours on here tonight reading a few topics and I’ve picked up loads of useful information already. Seems like a brilliant community on here and some very knowledgeable people.

This is what my architect has put on my drawings. Would you go with 150mm? Only problem now is I think it may be too late, as all my door openings have been blocked adhering to the drawings which state 100mm insulation and 50mm screed. Therefor if I was to go with 150mm I’ll be increasing my floor height by 50mm.

Just been thinking about this, if I use the loflo boards will I still need to insulate inbetween the joists with rockwool? My building regs require 100mm rockwool inbetween joisted floors but if I use the loflo boards does anyone know if I’ll still have to use the rockwool?

Why the hell didn’t I think of that! ? Thank you Dave.

Hi guys, I’m currently doing a self build and am going to be installing UFH on the ground and first floor. The ground floor is pretty straight forwards as its constructed from beam and block, so ontop of that is my 100mm insulation, ufh pipes will clip into that and then 50mm of screed poured on top. The house is an upside down layout with the bedrooms on the ground floor and the kitchen, dining, living room etc on the first floor. This first floor is a suspended floor sat on easi-joists so spreader plates can’t be used for the under floor heating (well, so I’m told). Therefor I was going to put 22m floor boards down ontop of the easi joists, then 20mm thick loflo lite panels. According to the suppliers I need to put a 3mm adhesive layer below the panels and a 5-6mm adhesive layer ontop of the panels to allow me to tile directly on top of the panels. I just wondered if there is another option that would work out cheaper as the panels and adhesive are coming in at £2300 alone. I thought about using 18mm floor boards, then stick foiled back insulation down on that, batten the floor with 25mm batten and clip the ufh pipes inbetween the battens and ontop of the foil backed insulation. Then I’d have to put floor boards ontop of the battens and a layer of adhesive ontop to be able to tile over this, as the whole ground floor is being tiled. The only problem with this is raising my floor height too much, I’d be rasing it 60 odd mm as apposed to 40 odd when using the loflo panels. The brickies have allowed for 45mm increase in floor level when constructing the door openings.

Hi everyone, my name is Nathan and I’m 30 years age and I’m in the middle of my first self build. Infact I’d say I’m probably quite unique as its my first ever house too lol. My fiance and I have always had the dream to build our own home, fueled by her parents who also built at a young age. After looking at many houses on the market nothing came close to what we really wanted and it was always in the back of our minds what house we could build for the same value of the houses we were looking at. From there we decided to stay at home a few extra years to save up more money and go for a self build straight off the bat. We’re building in South Wales and are just entering the wind and water tight stage, roof should be going on the first week of March hopefully. I came across this forum while researching different things so thought I’d introduce myself as I’ve found myself on here more and more recently.