Adsibob

What sort of product do you have in mind?

I think it was @jack who did something like this: http://porters-zch.co.uk/door-header/

What happens when a rule about venting by 7600mm2 underneath doors (eg 10mm x 760mm) conflicts with another rule about making certain doors fire doors. I thought fire doors needed intumescent strips. Do they still let enough ventilation through for MVHR (when the house is not on fire, which is the state I will aim for)?

Any builders that are put off your spec are builders you don’t want to work with. Specify what is important: detailed insulation build ups, airtightness measures, roof and wall structure, any soundproofing you want, the floor and wall finishes you want, if tiles whether or not they need sealing, where you are painting how many coats you want etc. Much better to get accurate prices from builders willing to do the work, than to tender for something vague that will only go up in price once you tell them what you really want. We had a very detailed spec (though on reflection it wasn’t detailed enough). We put it out to tender to about 7 companies. It put 3 off, but I saw that as very helpful to assisting me to make my decision. Of the four remaining, one was far to cheap to know what he was doing, one was extortionate, the other two were the ones we entered into detailed negotiations with.

This is what I keep telling myself when I see the big hole in my finances caused by a hell of a lot of Steico wood fibre products.

Thanks @ryder72, which manufacturers would you say are unaffected?

I'd be grateful for any stories of how anyone has built a secure bike shed? I need to build a bike shed that will go at the front of my house on a concrete slab. I think I have planning permission for this as it was included on my plans, although the architect omitted it from the front elevation and side elevation drawings, which is a bit annoying, though I guess even if it didn't have permission it will be so small and low that it would pass as PD. Don't have more than £500 to spend on materials. It needs to be lockable, secure and rain proof. Internal size needs to have a footprint of about 190cm by about 130cm and a height of about 113cm to able to fit 3 - 4 bikes, possibly slightly wider than 130cm. So that's about 6m2 of wall, which if I use breeze blocks and render over to match the house, will come to about £100 to £120 in materials. This leaves £380 to £400 for a pitched roof of sorts (that needs to be secure) and the lockable gate, which ideally would be sliding. Any ideas how I would achieve that?

I bought 150mm width. It comes in 30m lengths. I also bought the spray on primer to make adhesion to brick and other rough surfaces better.

I believe a warranty is the manufacturer/vendor's express contractual promise to be liable in case of a fault. As long as you haven't voided the warranty (by say using something intended for domestic use in a professional catering environment, such as a cafe kitchen - but you would never do that would you @SteamyTea) then there is no argument and they just honour the warranty. What you are referring to is the consumer's statutory rights. These are protections legislated for in the statute books, irrespective of what the contract says. What is reasonable will depend on the circumstances but there is guidance from case law (and I think also in the relevant statute itself). For example, a reasonable time for a 30 pence shoelace for a pair of boots worn in muddy cold conditions everyday might be 4 months. But if the shoelace cost 3 quid and was used only for indoor sports once a week, reasonable might be a few years.

That does sound wise, but how do you deal with not being able to test the item fully works until months after it's been delivered and reducing your warranty period? Or will the supplier hold it for you for free?

The UK banking system now is much more secure than it was in 2008. So a UK bank default is much less likely than it was then, but never say never. In any case though, despite all of its problems, the UK is still a pretty safe debtor, and so as long as all your money is in separate bank accounts, with each balance below £85k and each bank covered by the FCS scheme, you will be fine.

I too have ordered my AEG hob from Marks Electrical. Each week for the past 4 weeks I get an email from them like this: "This status update refers to the following item: AEG IKE95471FB The above item is not currently in stock with us, and we have not yet received an expected dispatch date from the manufacturer. We will continue to chase the manufacturer for this item and will email you as soon as we have an estimated timescale for its arrival at our warehouse. As soon as the item is at our warehouse we will contact you to arrange a delivery date. Best regards, Customer Services Marks Electrical" To be far to them, when I placed my order I enquired about lead teams and they were honest enough to tell me they had no idea. I only went ahead on the basis that if I wanted to cancel my order I could cancel it at any time before delivery, whenever that might be. Not really sure what to do now though, as one month later I really thought I would have a confirmed delivery date at least. If I don't have a guarantee of eventually receiving that item, I can't really template for my worktops, so I can't finish my kitchen, particularly because this is an extra wide hob, so not that many alternatives will fit in the cut out exactly.

Just thought I'd refresh this thread, as more than a year on and I think the situation might be even worse. When I was starting to order my kitchen appliances at the end of September 2021, I had to juggle a lot of options and make a few compromises to be able to secure all my appliances in time for our installation scheduled in December. The suppliers have promised I will get everything I ordered by then, with one exception: an AEG induction hob. No matter what supplier I asked, AEG induction hobs are out of stock with no firm dates for re-stocking from AEG. My alternative was to spend £600 more and get a Siemens or go with a smaller hob. Neither seemed appealing so I thought I'd take a chance an order the AEG. It's been almost a month since I ordered it and still no news from the supplier on dates. I'm starting to wonder if I will have to delay the installation of my worktops... Anyone else finding issues getting AEG appliances? How did you solve it?

I will post pictures in a couple of months. Currently they are all boarded up. MetTherm Ag210, as mentioned above.

So just to update everyone: it still hasn’t ended. Almost all the stud walls are now up, quite a lot of plasterboard has gone up, and first fix electrics is 75% done. Apart from laying the ufh pipes on the ground floor, Plumbing hasn’t started yet, though I’m told it is starting next week. Thames Water are shafting me, playing silly games with dates. Paid the extortion money to get better pressure 2 months ago, still haven’t heard anything re dates. MVHR unit was installed today, apparently. Not seen it yet. It still feels like there is so much to do! Definitely won’t be in by Xmas at this rate.

This is the thread where I mown about my roller wave distortion issue (and a few other gripes). Most issues have now been fixed, it’s just the roller wave issue. On the video clip you can see a couple of my windows:

Have a look at MetTherm. Ag210. They manufacture and install them, though lead times are long. alternatively exactly same windows are supplied and installed by Govette for slightly more. Quicker lead times. Their windows are very nice, but if you specify PAS24 there is a risk you will get some roller wave distortion, as their glass supplier had a problem with this on one of the windows I bought, still not rectified. I bought 12 windows from them.

Take your time on the spec. Be as detailed as possible, specifying exact build ups for every wall, floor and ceiling. Think about all the little details that will increase costs. E.g. If you want everything taped up to achieve a level of airtightness, include that in the spec and work out got many linear metres of taping will be required. Much better to tender on the basis of a very comprehensive detail, then get a price for a project done to a vague standard. i found the RIBA contract much easier to work with than a JCT.

Thanks. The “system 4” of that document relates to MVHR. On page 45 it states that the minimum horizontal distance between extract and supply on the same facade of a building is only 300mm. That seems very low to me.

MVHR unit being installed tomorrow. The original design of the inlet and exhaust was as follows: exhaust was very close, about 20cm below the roofline, though not the ridge of roof as the MVHR is towards the front of the house and the as the pitch of roof is 45 degrees, the ridge of the roof is about 2m higher up than that inlet was 1m directly below the exhaust. I pointed out to the company designing and installing the MVHR system that they could move the inlet 1m to the left so that it would also be closer to the roofline and increase the distance between inlet and exhaust from 1m to 1.414m (imagine a right angle triangle where two sides are 1m each and the hypotenuse is 1.414m). This, I thought would be better for avoiding contamination of fresh air with the exhaust, as the inlet would also be closer the roofline and so have better access to the fresh air above the roof, rather than being constrained to the passageway between my house and the neighbour's house. The company agreed. However, they have now said there isn't really space to do it this way and have drilled the holes in the brick wall as originally designed, i.e. one hole directly above the other with only 1m distance between the two. As the exhaust air will probably always be very fractionally warmed than the fresh air (because no heat exchanger is 100% efficient), the exhaust air should rise upon exiting the house, which should hopefully mean I am worrying about nothing in terms of cross contamination. Or am I? 1m just doesn't seem sufficient in my view.

Not silly at all. The combination of relief, joy and excitement is a wonderful thing. Make the most of it.

Another option which might be a bit cheaper and still give a similar effect is to make your angled window by having an angled insulated upstand and a regular flat rooflight. Most flat rooflights come with an upstand that is about 4 or 5 degrees so that rain water doesn't pool on the rooflight, so it will be straightforward to ask the manufacturer to make the angle of the upstand 15 or 25 degrees.

That's helpful thanks @joth. I think I will chance it.

I was about to purchase this kitchen sink tap made by Abode, when I noticed on another website that it is not WRAS approved. Is this a problem? Seemed surprising given Abode is a relatively well known manufacturer.

Thanks. You've both given me the confidence to buy a composite sink. First time for everything!