SimonD

Yes, I think the article is generally saying that they're wanting to modernise house production - but really they're just talking about pre-fab houses like the ones you can already get from a good few producers across Scandinavia and the rest of northern Europe. I love the terminology: 'learned to get humans and robots working together" as if the robots are social beings that need encouragement, or maybe they just needed protection from jealous humans? The other bit is: " After a home is trucked to its final destination, "Electrical wires and plumbing are installed in both floors and walls as they're built," according to the article." As if those doing it already haven't thought about that and actually constructed the panels with the services already in there. Mind you, by the way they're talking, they'll be getting billions in investment.

Sounds a bit like my story and I'm sure many others too - it is pain that needs offloading! But what irks me is when a desk jockey doesn't believe the BCO and it goes round in cicles.

I think you've got that spot on.

Ours hand drew everything - even did a had drawn colour rendering for planning committee. Not quite revit but definitely full of life 😁

Thanks, yes, that bit I know but they only provide vertical adjustment. I need to reduce the side gap between leaf and frame as it's currently more than 6mm with the bottom gap being less than 4mm. I have noticed a couple of grub screws on the inside of the hinges facing the door leaf but not sure what they do, if anything?

I have a set of French doors. As they are on the first floor, it's only now since installing the bridge deck that I've had proper access to them. Unfortunately the doors are slightly binding at the top. So I've gone through the process of making sure the whole frame is level, plumb and square. Finally, now that I have nothing else to look for, I noticed the gap on one of the doors between frame and leaf is larger at the top than at the bottom, but I have no idea how to adjust the hinges, if I even can. I've attached a photo of the hinges and gap. Can anyone help?

I think that's actually like a lot of things south of the border too - you just need to demonstrate competency. But you have to be careful here because the interpretation in law of a 'competent person' is developing towards a meaning that a competent person is only one who is registered with a competent person scheme - this is indeed the case in gas, for example, and I suspect will be the case for things like G3 and is moving towards this with electrics too.

You would only be able to self-certify the work if you become a member of a competent person's scheme. If you are trained and get a certificate of competence you can do the installation but it must be certified by building control or someone else.

Just call them and ask to go on the course, then you'll know for sure

Yes, you get a lovely little competence achievement card from the awarding body with an expiry date on the back. I never carry both cards, just my Gas Safe card, even when it hadn't been updated. But if you're concerned, you just need to call gas safe to check on the installer. They will confirm if they're registered for G3.

The Gas Safe website is an abomination. I don't understand how they get away with it. Try using it for managing Gas Safe registrations etc. The search is most likely not working as it regularly doesn't. If someone is Gas Safe registered and G3 they will have it on their Gas Safe ID card listed on the back.

You should be grateful you're not with Protek. Their in house assessors are a nightmare and don't even trust the BCO. I just had a defect notice telling me my exterior wall eaves at the back door are a cold bridge because I don't have a separate liner. They've missed the fact that the wall they're referring to isn't an exterior wall anymore and the exterior doors are installed in very thick EWI to prevent the cold bridging. I'm trying to draft a polite email following the other 4 where I've told them each time I've already sent them the information, drawings and documents requested, along with an email from the BCO saying everything complies building regs and Protek are saying the email is unclear!

That's what I did when we were in the middle of Covid lockdown and needed a cylinder - it works very well and will be used to dump excess pv when the time comes. There are two different things here: The G3 training certificate to gain and show competence Being registered with a competent person scheme to self certify You can be G3 trained without being a member of a competence scheme, something that some plumbers are bacause they don't do gas, for example. If you're not registered with a scheme you then pay building control or another plumber to certify. Without training and competency scheme membership, there's a problem, but there seems to be very little come back any way if people do. You can ask the same question about gas and oil boilers.

Me too. It's already very noticeable in the test areaand would make a really nicely muffled acoustics in every room. Maybe I'll be able to convince her when I test spray it in one of the rooms so she can see what it looks like.

Not fitted yet, only the test area. But my wife isn't massively into the look of it as a finish, unfortunately. I was looking forward to just spray painting it.

Yes, panels interlock. They are 1525 x 1525 15mm birch ply sheets - the original intended floor finish design for the upstairs of the house. These are routed with a tongue & groove and glued together. The cork underlay has a supposed 18dB Delta Lw - it makes a difference compared to the uncovered osb subfloor, but not by a huge amount. It is fully floating. I was gifted it as it was excess from another project - lets say it's enough for my whole downstairs ceilings. Given its acoustic properties I thought there's no harm in using it as all it cost me was a journey in the van to collect. Good points. I'd been recommded 150mm by one manufacturer's tech department but was a bit dubious given how thicker doesn't necessarily mean better in walls either. I wondered whether there was a bit of overselling plus an assumption that thicker was better by the tech rep. That's the key here that I'm missing is to add mass. That's going to be another one of those painful jobs just like airtightness where everyone wonders where I've disappeared to for so long and they can't see anything done!

Easy enough to trench with a trim router - it does look and finish nicer, that's how I did all mine as nobody sold liners for my size doors and wall thicknesses.

Just though I'd revive this thread with a link to the current Gyproc white book for floors: https://www.british-gypsum.com/specification/white-book-specification-selector/floors?system[0]=6771&f[0]=system_panel_search_content_block_system_list_view%3A6771 I'm currently looking to sort the impact side. I've currently got a floating ply floor(which will have floor coverings in parts and bare in others) with cork underlay, osb, 175mm solid joists, 50mm counter battens for services, then 25mm wood wool boards. Still deciding on which insulation to use between the joists but on testing 100mm & 75mm Sheepswool, airbourne with either of those seems fine but the impact needs some attention. I will be adding resilient bars and was then thinking I could overboard the wood woolboards with a layer of standard PB and skim. Any thoughts, critiques of this thinking?

Thanks, but I should have said, no Osmo hardwax oil suggestions please 🙂 I have tins of it at home along with Rubio Monocoat. For other applications yes, just not for this.

I don't know about accommodation for many different manufacturers, but I do think that there is some standardisation out there regarding the tracks and fittings. I bought a load of tracks and lights from https://www.lighting-direct.co.uk merely as a test to decide on what kind of lighting we wanted. Personally I've junked them and gone for dimmable led strips as I can hide these more easily. The tracks take up a lot of space and are very visible. What I also found was that the GU10 fittings seemed to burn out the leds very quickly due to what seemed like heat buildup even with quality branded GU10s. So, in conclusion, I found it difficult to get the lighting right with the tracks and found an old ikea 4 spot track light with smart bulbs I had lying around more convenient and effective!

Right, I seem to be going round in circles. I'm looking for a good quality hard wearing lacquer/varnish for both upstairs and downstairs wood flooring. The choices which all the manufacturers tell me are super brilliant tend to differ between urethane/alkyd or polyurethane 2 or 1 pack. I'm trying to understand the difference and if it's even relevant? Prior experience is that polyurethane shows scratches quite easily. A couple of manufacturers say that the urethane/alkyd type remains flexible and therefore more resilient? We had a floor varnish in our last place that lasted perfectly for more than 12 years even with kids but I can't find the same varnish anymore but looking at the updated manufacturer products theirs now contains Acrylic and Ethylene oxide urethane so wonder if this is largely the same as urethane/alkyd? I'm tending towards urethane/alkyd. Can anyone shed some light and personal experience on this yet another mind blowing topic please?

So just to confirm, this is what you pay them? And if you employ a plumber to do the install, you would have to pay for that separately and in addition to this price?

The proposed build up using wood fibre is a standard and acceptable way to install wood fibre, but it isn't well understood here in the UK - trust me, I had to submit loads of technical documents so my BCO and team could learn about these systems! For the OP, I would personally avoid using mixed layers of insulation that behaves differently and look at other ways to make it work. One way to do this is to use counter battens below the rafter and put in a layer of the wood fibre there. One of the behaviours of wood fibre and other natural materials that often gets overlooked is the ability of the insulation to buffer the moisture.In the modelling for my house, the roof showed a small amount on condensation risk at the outer layers, but as the system was analysed by the manufacturer's technical team, it was assured that this small amount, possible in Jan/Feb would be satisfactorily buffered. But this is obviously looking at a buildup that uses the same materials throughout.

The Hep20 guidelines: https://blog.wavin.com/en-gb/push-fit-hep2o-your-plumbing-faqs-answered

Not that I'm aware for domestic installations. The 300Pa/m is just a guideline that along with the flow velocity being below 1m/s is a good ballpark for a system that works well.