Adsibob

So I ordered various Marley samples. They arrived pretty quickly and I found one that could work. I go to order it and the Marley rep tells me their lead time is 14 weeks!!! That is just crazy. These are tiles which presumably take a day or two to manufacture. Are they manufacturing them in Australia and importing them by a raft boat????

Well there was a £60k car parked in the driveway at the time, so I’m guessing they had hoped of stealing its keys.

@zoothorn that looks fantastic, well done. If your door swells in the summer, just take it off and take some off with a wood plane (incrementally... you don't want to take too much off).

I'm refurbing an old house. It has awful security. The area is fairly safe, or at least we thought so until about 2.5 years ago the neighbours were burgled in broad daylight. I actually witnessed it and it was pretty scary. Two guys in balaclavas turned up and managed to force open a top hung window at the front which looked pretty new but was either uPVC or white painted aluminium, whilst a third guy waited outside in a brand new audi getaway car (which obviously turned out to have fake plates). I did quite a lot of research into ways of securing my house and concluded that a burglar alarm doesn't really deter professional burglars because they also tell burglars that there are valuables inside worth protecting and that having good window and door security is key, as well as possibly some video cameras (although video cameras wouldn't have really helped with the burglary i describe above). At the time we did nothing to upgrade our (pretty poor) security on the basis that our house looked like such a wreck, that that would be a better deterrent (e.g. the 1m high overgrown weeds in the front yard and our crappy car parked outside it, vs our neighbours' cars). Now that we are redoing the house, it won't look like a wreck anymore and although there have been no burglaries in the area since (and our neighbours tell us that before the burglary in 2018 there had been no burglaries for many many years) we are keen to upgrade security. I was therefore planning on specifying PAS24 windows with multipoint locking for all of the ground floor, as well as getting high quality locks for the front door etc. The front door will actually be made of steel and laminated glass that will comply with PAS24. However, on specifying this, the window company has said that adding PAS24 to just the ground floor will make the windows look different to the other floors. On the front elevation the solution is to make the upstairs windows PAS24 as well. On the side elevation I don't care about the mismatch because we'll never see it. On the rear elevation, I can live with the mismatch because the ground floor is extended anyway, so it forms a different "volume" (my architect's favourite word) to the rest of the house, so one slightly thicker framed windows won't really matter. However, the sliding door I was about to order for the rear is not PAS24. The manufacturer says it's made from toughened glass, but is not PAS24 compliant. So I'm now thinking that spending the extra 15% on PAS24 for the other ground floor windows might be a bit pointless, although I guess the burglar won't know that the back slider doesn't have as much security as the rest of the ground floor. Another solution is to add some steel security gates to the side passage to make it that much harder to access the back, but if I'm doing that query whether I need PAS24 on the window at the back. What are people's thoughts on PAS24? Is it worth it and would you install it at the back even if your sliding/bifolding door didn't have it?

Absolutely agree with @joe90 on this one. Even if regs don’t apply, this is an example where regs are really quite sensible. If you don’t have three equal steps, it will be a trip hazard for any guests that aren’t familiar with your unusual steps. You don’t want to have to remind everyone who visits every time they go up and down those steps that there is unequal one. Unless this is into a space that your guests would never go, eg a utility or private dungeon.

Different insureds. E.g. all mortgages require the mortgagor (i.e. the borrower) to insure the mortgaged property adequately. I would be in breach of my mortgage contract if I didn't notify my insurer that I was having building work done and amend the policy accordingly. That is very different to the situation when I need to make sure the builder is insured; i.e. say he's negligent - there is not much point suing him (actually it, as the contractor is a private limited company) unless it is adequately insured. Otherwise I'm relying on the asset position of the limited company the builder is operating through, and most small to medium builders don't have a significant asset position. Also, I'm fairly sure that my buildings policy won't cover the situation where one of the builder's employees has an accident during the building work. Whereas one of the builder's two policies does cover that.

Yes, all good. I made it a condition precedent of our contract that he provide me with his insurance policies. He did and I checked them and they are all in good order. My buildings insurer is also aware and has charged me an additional (and extortionate, in my view) premium for the additional cover. Anyway, I spoke to the builder this morning and they aren't ready to do the actual demolition yet. Still have some further supports to erect.

Yea, he’s insured and experienced. I just have OCD.

What constitutes proper footing?

Just to clarify, I don’t know whether or not they have finished the preparatory work. But based on the helpful comments here, I definitely need to check first thing tomorrow morning!

I’m knocking down the full width of the rear ground floor of my house. Have a good structural engineer who has done a detailed design which impressed the architect. But he didn’t specify how to knock down the rear wall, which I guess is normal. No need to teach an experienced builder how to suck eggs. At least that’s what I saw until I saw this. This is a view from upstairs and shows how they have temporary supports coming from the ground up through the first floor and supporting each side of six short RSJs that in turn supports the rear upstairs wall of the house. It is not how I was expecting them to do it, but what do I know. What do you think? Presumably they will add a seventh pair of supports for a seventh RSJ in between the two on the left and middle of the photo so the supports are all more or less equidistant. Thoughts?

This does look good, although appears a little slower than the Netgear Orbi system which gives a 3Gbps connection in the RBK50 model, versus the Deco M4's 1.16Gbps speed. Might not actually make a noticeable difference though, and this is significantly cheaper than the RBK50. I see Deco also does an M5. Did you consider other brands/models and if so why did you go with the Deco M4 over those?

Yeah, i just can't help thinking that if there are problems after installation - not aesthetic problems, but functional issues, such as the window not being water tight or difficulties opening and closing, there could still be a "pass the buck" type situation. I'm going to ask Duration for their list of recommended installers in my area and see what Duration say about this issue.

So the good news is they can meet my timing requirements. But... they only supply, they don't install. I'm generally averse to a situation where I contract with one company to supply a product and another company to install it, as if something goes wrong there's a tendency to play "pass the buck".

Thanks @nod I’ve sent them my window schedule and asked for a quote. Hopefully they can install within 12 weeks as I’m on a tight timescale.

Towards the end of this thread there was a fairly detailed discussion of various window companies that offer imitation steel windows in aluminium. Some good companies mentioned there, but a bit out of my price range. Duration Windows in Canvey Island seem to be slightly more affordable. Just wondering if anybody has any experience of Duration Windows? Good or bad.

By way of update, surveyor came last week and I received his report today. He has found about 5 different sources of the damp: 1) external floor level too high and very close to DPC 2) nothing protecting the wall from splashback off the external floor 3) external pebbledash cracked in places 4) drainpipes being broken and needing replacing 5) slow leak from sewage pipe/toilet causing internal subfloor to be damp 6)blocked drain I knew about most of these issues, and had planned on ameliorating those that I knew of with the necessary replacements, but this last issue has surprised me. We noticed the drains were blocked about two months after we moved into the place. (Which was about 2.5 years ago.) We had them unblocked by a guy I’ve used before and I thought he did a good job. He said there was a lot of congealed fat and some plastic that had clogged things up. We blamed the previous owners. About a year later the problem reoccurred, even though we obviously had always been very careful not to throw anything inappropriate down the sinks toilets. In the last year we have had a lot of sulphur smells in the ground floor, and suspected the sewage pipe was broken. Eventually we discovered a slow leak from the downstairs toilet, so assumed this was causing the sulphur smell. I’m now wondering whether this could also be related to the blocked drain. Surveyor has suggested getting a camera survey done to get to the bottom of the drain issue. I’m due to get a further report from the surveyor detailing how to fix/improve the damp, but pending that I’m concerned I won’t be able to get the wall dry in time before we need to progress our works and plaster the walls. I was surprised by how damp it was. I asked the surveyor whether getting heaters or dehumidifiers in would help, but he pointed out that until the builders finish the rear extension and get the sliding doors, roof and windows in, I’d effectively be trying to heat/dry the outdoors! He is looking at the detail of the limecrete subfloor somebody here posted. He thought it could work, but pointed out it doesn’t incorporate a DPC. This has just made a difficult and long project slightly more difficult and slightly longer, so I’m trying not to worry too much about it, but it is somewhat disconcerting being so early on in the project (week 2 of what was meant to be a 38 week project). Any words of wisdom/encouragement gratefully received.

I asked BPC to quote me for a MVHR system for my home and I was offered a Vent Axia Sentinel Kinetic Plus B or a Komfovent Domekt R-450-V. The former has a 5 yr warranty and the latter only has a 1 year warranty. Ever since a mate at management consultancy McKinsey told me that his job was to advise companies how to save money by reducing the longevity of their components so that the machine they manufactured failed shortly after the warranty period expired, I've placed a lot of weight on the warranty period of anything I buy. One solitary year is very poor! I've also never rated Vent Axia as a particular impressive fabricator. At least one it comes to their extractor fans, they are pretty basic.

Not entirely sure if that's achievable. The facing brick is cuboidal so it only has right angles. Unless I'm really clueless with 3D visualisation (which may well be the case!) there is no way of creating a 45 degree angle by cutting it without exposing the inside of the brick. Also, I'm a bit concerned these bricks won't cut too cleanly. Just unwrapping the bubble wrapped dozen the manufacturer sent me so that I could play try different mortar colours with them, some of the edges have already crumbled off. Is that normal? It's a sand faced brick, not sure if that changes anything.

Thanks @nod but with the top style, isn't there less brick between the inside and the outside at that corner. Won't it diminish the U value of the wall? Also, why do you say the top one is more cost?

I have two angles, so I think that would be about 160-200 cuts. Quite a lot of cutting!

Extension works are underway and my builders will start the brick laying in about 2-3 weeks. I need to order the bricks and have only just found out that the bricks we were going to go with might not be available in the special "dogleg" shape that helps with laying bricks over a 45 degree angle. I have two 45 degree angles on my project so it's quite important we get this right. Are there any structural/damp/longevity issues to consider or is this purely an aesthetic choice? I've uploaded some photos of the different options, as I understand them to be.

I'm comparing two Velux pitched roof windows, the GGL 206821U and the GGL 206621U. The 206821U has "rain noise reduction", whereas the "206621U" has anti-dew and easy to clean coating and has a marginally better U-value of 1.0 vs the 206821U's 1.1 U value. The anti dew apparently "reduces number of hours external condensation is present". The difference is about £80. Is the anti-dew coating worth it? I have seen the thread here which concluded the self-cleaning coating is only worth it if you have a window that gets lots of sun and I am assuming that is what "easy to clean" coating means in the description of the GGL 206621U, but just wondered if anyone had any issues with veluxes and dew? I've never had a rooflight before, so not sure whether avoiding dew/external condensation is something worth spending money on.

@gravelld what did you end up applying to your house? I'm facing similar issue now: I have a 1930s semi covered in pebbledash that has been painted white. I'm not keen on the rough finish of the pebbledash and it has lots of cracks and some bits are causing damp patches on the inside of the house, so the whole thing needs something doing to it. Surveyor looked at it today and identified various sources of damp and said the ideal solution, if affordable, would be to remove it completely and then apply a new product, but he hasn't made any recommendations yet. I'm still to find out from the builder how much it's going to cost to remove the existing. If too expensive, the surveyor did say I could apply a mesh and then render over that, but he said that wouldn't be as good as removing the old stuff. But my situation might be different to yours as you don't sounds like you had damp patches.

Thanks @Iceverge. Just to clarify, are you saying avoid the example pictured in white, but go for the example pictured in blue, or avoid both?