SimonD

What is perverse about this is that the UK privatised north sea oil and gas and we're actually exporting gas right now. Because of the financial arrangements the government has with the oil conglomerates, we don't even benefit finanically from this natural resource. Norway at least has a much better long term strategy by investing its returns into a national wealth fund. All we've done since we found our resources in the north sea is squander it and sell it off for short term one off payments while at the same time paying large subsidies to bank roll decommissioning etc. The volatility and fuel poverty we're experiencing is fundamentally down to poor policy, short termism, value extraction, etc. not fuel and energy resource. Further extraction won't benefit the larger population at all, certainly not long term.

Interestingly gypsum plaster has been used on the ground in places like Italy since Roman times for its moisture buffering capabilities which demonstrates properties of breathability. I now believe that gypsum has been blamed in many cases incorrectly and that it was more the full wall buildup that caused the problem, for example the common use of PVA and also an incorrect categorisation of all gypsum plaster being the same. However, it's also important to understand how gypsum plaster may absorb more moisture following wet-dry cycles due to a change in its structure, whereas lime reduces sorption rate following the same cycle. This points to using the materials where appropriate and in the right environment as well as evaluating materials according to their compatibility with each other as part of a buildup - hence why you might not want to use gypsum plaster directly on a solid damp granite wall that's subject to wind driven rain, but as an internal layer which is removed from this wet/dry cyclicle damp it may very well possess useful moisture buffering properties that benefit air quality within the home and still allow the building to 'breathe.' These are some of the reasons I don't feel the term 'breathable' is particularly helpful. Here are a couple of links to full downloadable PHD theses on the subject: Understanding moisture buffering effects in the indoor environment: https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/understanding-moisture-buffering-effects-in-the-indoor-environmen Measurement and modelling moisture transport processes within porous construction materials: https://uobrep.aws.openrepository.com/handle/10547/622114

I had no specialist building experience but had done some renovation projects. In this project it's easier to list what I have not done: Infill extention blockwork wall (at the beginning just before I decided to do the rest of it myself) Steel frame erection Is this the most efficient way? Definitely not. From a cost perspective it turned out to be the only way we could get anything close to what we wanted - we're not that far off and are so far at about 1/3 of the price we'd had indicated by builders. Round here, builders just seemed to want to fleece us. I reckon that by the time we finish we'll be at about 1/4 of builders cost.

Our BCO has just asked for certificate of treatment using a product like Envirograf or Flametect (there are others). I will most probably be using Flametect https://www.fireproofspray.co.uk/ What you basically need to do is call the company selling the protection product, explain your plans and they will provide the right product and corresponding certificate for BC. I'm not sure whether that will be ok? It was explained to us that the fire treatment is primarily to prevent flame spread which this may not do?

That is true. Impervious is a bit of an exaggeration with cement mortar. It's similar to the popular belief that gypsum plaster isn't breathable where particularly recent research shows that it is both vapour permeable and hygroscopic and more so that lime plaster. As such it performs better as a moisture buffer and allows the whole house to breathe (with the right buildup). I suspect that the historical problems we see are more down to material compatibility within a building system and the common use of other layers that are for all intents and purposes impervious. For example, the airtighness liquid membrane Soudatight LQ I'm using has an Sd value of just under 11m, my primer for porous materials for clay paint Sd value is 10cm. I wonder whether at some point we might eventually see the equivalent to an Sd value for wall buildups and their respective layers.

I'm sure you've done extensive research on this and may already have consulted this stuff, but generally speaking SPAB recommends the removal of all impervious materials used on wall in old buildings. Interestingly, in the linked technical advice by SPAB, it mentions damp rising up a wall due to this kind of material; https://www.spab.org.uk/sites/default/files/SPAB Technical advice note-Need for old buildings to breathe.pdf I think your ventilation strategy using an independent inner wall is the sensible choice as it will allow the wall to have its full breathing space without the bitumen. I can't think of why the bitumen needs to be there - what useful purpose does it serve other than to create a barrier against which the wall cannot breathe? Interestingly SPAB has introduced some guidance to the opposite effect where they suggest using capillary materials: https://www.spab.org.uk/advice/breathability-and-old-buildings I also don't think you need any holes in the wall, you just need to give it potentially a few years to dry out.

Just came across mine - battered and well used. Works well with square twist nails and with the one I've got, you can smack the handle even with a lump hammer to get those stubborn nails out.

The critical detail here is that you are an affected party to the order yet the court has failed to provide you with a statement of your right to make an application concerning the order. Therefore the court has not followed CPR. However, you may find that the court has decided to give the opportuity for the claimant to re submit a different form only for that to be dismissed as either out of time, or on consideration without merit - they're not beyond these shenanigans of getting claimants to jump through hoops and pay for the privilege. I would in any case still be writing to the court to question the order and ask for it to be set aside.

This whole thing stinks to high heaven. @oxoGiven your confusion over the order you received, I suspect you did not receive a statement from the court of your right to make an application to have the order set aside, varied or stayed? If you didn't the court has erred from procedure. See https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part03#3.3 paragraph 4. Or as to quote here: (4) The court may make an order of its own initiative, without hearing the parties or giving them an opportunity to make representations. (5) Where the court has made an order under paragraph (4) – (a) a party affected by the order may apply to have it set aside(GL), varied or stayed(GL); and (b) the order must contain a statement of the right to make such an application. (6) An application under paragraph (5)(a) must be made – (a) within such period as may be specified by the court; or (b) if the court does not specify a period, not more than 7 days after the date on which the order was served on the party making the application. However, what you need to do is contact the court in writing immediately to question the order and lack of direction as per the above paragraphs as then the court cannot then claim you were out of time. I fail to see how you can be defendant in relation to a decision you did not and cannot make which is probably what you need to take up with the court in relation to this order. You are merely an interested party, because you cannot defend the decision!

None of the above, just busy building and sorting out some of my own building related questions ? But you may not have been asking me.. My initial sense is to question the purpose of the bitumen and whether it is really needed given the ventilation and cavity. Also, is the ventilation between the suspended floor and iwi cavity a continuous gap along the junction, similarly at the ceiling?

You'll need to know the gauge for the roof tiles, assuming that's what you're using as roof finish.

As it currently stands for us, we're ahead on financial costs, but way overdrawn on headaches, PIAs, and time... I really do want my life back. ?

Try 3 years and still counting ! ??? Only two boys and I've done everything myself mind you. Not too far off now. As the labour is entirely mine, we're still below that VAT/build cost advantage especially once I take into account the estimated costs of demolition, new foundations etc.

Absolutely, it took me 3 months to get a load of 25 x 50 battens earlier in the year. Because I wasn't a regular trade customer, the local suppliers just said they couldn't supply me because next weeks supply was already promised to the regulars. When I did finaly get some the lad on the phone asked for £1.16/m and I reminded him who I normally dealt with along with how much I'd spent with them the last year and they dropped the price to 76p/m and that was up from 42p. For me, it's not just the product price inflation, but also supply. I've been having problems with everything from silly things like not getting the stainless steel screws I need for several weeks, to many larger things being out of stock so I'm either having to change design to get on with things, or just wait it out. I know some others near me building who ordered some materials for their project last May and have been given estimated fulfilment this coming May, but that's still uncomfirmed. Re labour rates around us, the large developers have had to up their day rates to equivalent of retail rates to get the trades in for their projects, which tightens supply for everyone else, but this has actually been going on since before COVID and Brexit but has experienced an extra squeeze. A mate of mine based in London who does foundation work said business is absolutely booming because so many builders have left the country now.

I do have to say @Iceverge's suggestion is spot on. Having never taken on the scale of building work we're doing, we sought advice and received it from several professionals; surveyor, architects (2), and an architectural technologist. All of them said, don't demolish, extend instead (partly due to the planners). We followed this advice and the architect supposedly designed all the new stuff to keep almost the entire bungalow - we were only supposed to be adding a small infill extension, raising the roof and adding a 1st floor. Yeah, right. When I started demolishing, it just went on and on and on and got to a point where so little was left that I seriously think all the advice we recieved was totally wrong and we should have demolished but by that time is was just too late. It's be a pain to say the least and has ended up taking far longer than it needed to. I think our architect ran away and hid smewhere because he knew he might end up in the new pad foundations otherwise, or hanging from the new steels ? I did tell him so when he finally came for a visit! Sit down and have a really careful think... Here's what was left our our bungalow including the day the new steels went in. And you can see how much I had to repair even of the existing walls. I've learnt a lot, that's for sure!

FWIW that's exactly what I did with my infill extension. Photo attached after basecoat applied with no difference between the parts of the house. The ideal thing about this is that you can then design the house details such as window reveals etc. to fit the design 'theme' of the house. In my photo you'll see that my windows have been moved out from the walls on the house and sit in the ewi to reduce thermal bridging around the frames. The negative side of this is that the depth of the reveals meant I had to make myself a bespoke reveal detail because the normal window/corner beads/ and reveal boards would not fit within such shallow reveals. As you'll see from the image I also curved my reveals as I didn't want the square sharp corners typically found on new ewi. This is where you ideally need someone with experience working with ewi as they'll be able to guide you with the detailing, something you don't want to find out about when it's too late and the renderers are on site. Your architect is merely suggesting what is a more mainstream approach and using the typical system sold by Weber which will be installed on a lot of houses across the UK. He/she may also be reflecting what you already mentioned as a lack of understanding of ewi systems. Like you, it's not the direction I would choose to take although if installed and detailed properly it will probably last the lifetime of the building providing it's maintained correctly too. There's nothing wrong with asking your architect to reconsider and include the works for removing the pebbledash and alternative buildup, but what I would personally strongly recommend is that based on your personal preference of materials you find and then use a complete ewi system and avoid selecting individual layers yourself that aren't part of the system. As mentioned before, get the manufacturer's technical department to complete a condensation risk analysis to demonstrate suitability of the buildup. You can also play with online tools like ubakus.com to get a feel for what you want. As a side note, please do remember to remove the pebbledash before you remove the roof and gut the house - old walls can become terribly unstable when you take the load off them and you don't want to be hammering the existing render off then! ? You're clearly doing your research so I'm sure you'll settle of the right solution for you. Good luck with it.

I'm rapidly becoming a fan of Rubio Monocoat instead of Osmo. It's a dream to apply and as per the tin it only needs one coat - touch up is simple and invisible where needed. I can't personally attest to longevity yet.

I once had to take apart a significant proportion of the roof on an 1840s workers cottage in situe and salvage the timbers for reuse. Two tools I came to love for this are 1, a japanese nail puller, 2, A nail puller similar to this Hultafors version I bought years ago in Sweden https://www.hultafors.com/products/hammers/H0208-nail-puller-atle/79452 - I've rescued a good number of floor joists from metal hangers with this tool too. Both will put out square twists as once they're dislodged, they pull out realy easily. If you go for cutting, then a circular saw with suitable blade for chomping nails work well, providing you can support the truss to avoid pinch.

But we do have a significant amount of feedstock available, if we tried a re-think. And there's current technology and efficient technologt that produces high gas yields. Just like both hydrogen and renewable electicity, we don't make anough of those either. Whatever way we go, there's got to be some form of transformation. Biogas production can provide an additional benefit in that its waste products/solids can be used as fertiliser.

I too suspect gas boilers are going to be around for a lot longer. As you say, the push for ASHPs doesn't fit for much of UK housing, at least as it stands. First I think we need a massive push, including funding, to retrofit the houses we can, and then radically reassess those we can't. We do need to reduce or get rid of our reliance on fossil fuels and I think that one part of the solution is going to be biogas which seems to be much more feasible and cheaper than other solutions, yet it's being kept under the radar. Ecotricity is pushing biogas and Norway's parliament voted to include biogas as equal to the other options of electricity and hydrogen in their future energy strategy.

I think so, it's even more important than before as we're now just finding out how exposed we really are in terms of energy security. And what does the government do? Suggests loans to utility companies and short term grants instead of looking to the long term and dealing with the structural problems they themselves created. Next week they'll probably announce the building of a few new coal fired powerstations, all to be ready by October...

In a previous project, I had a SE, my father in law actually, who spent most of his life designing large steel and concrete buildings, design a steel frame for this. He designed some steel trusses that were tied at the ridge, negating any need for ties anywhere else, so left the whole space open. This solution also got rid of the need for a large ridge beam. In our case we had one large central truss and two smaller ones at each end of the building supporting smaller steel purlins, and cross braced (to provide racking strength) with small steels in tension on a diagonal from ridge to bottom corner. The span was about 7m compared to your 5m and for the length you could just add several steel trusses.

I've done a little test in my house to compare the two on a complete novice DIY basis. At first, I thought tape & joint would be fairly easy and how wrong I was. From only doing a small amount, I prefer skim, but that may be because I've had some practise using pretty much the same tools when rendering. There also seem to be many more UK youtube videos on plastering, which helps. My secret weapons for skim finish are the Carta 101 plasterers trowel and two Refina Plaziflex sputala rules, one long and one short. Sponging can also be helpful as a beginner. You also don't have to do so much sanding, which is just so boring..and takes a long time. My plastering is by no means perfect, but it doesn't have the same regular irregularities as drywall so I find it looks much better overall.

I haven't looked at their current IWI systems so can't really comment on those.

I did this with quite a lot of stuff before Brexit. In one sense I'm happy I did it because it involved a lot of timber and I have saved a massive amount of money on it. The problem is that I've had a load of materials cluttering up my space which has made the process of getting on with building much more difficult and risks inadvertent damage - this week I've got to move 56 sheets of Birch plywood to be able to start making the kitchen. I've also bought a few other items which have being laying around and found that warranty is now compromised because I didn't register within a certain period, or that I didn't fit the item and report a problem with its function within 30 days etc. It makes it a pain. Suppliers are being a little flexible on this due to the current circumstances, but it takes some effort and pressure.. Personally, if it's big ticket items like the ones you're looking at, I would hold off until you know you need them, even if it costs you a few quid. At present there are supply problems so you might find that supply has eased by the time you need them. On the other hand, it might also be worth seeing what current lead times are for the products you want and if they're long enough, you can place an order for delayed delivery? It's worth checking with the manufecturer/supplier what their usual price review periods are as some will already have reviewed prices for Jan, and may not review until Mid year, or even Sept/Oct but with timber it's gone from quarterly to sometimes several changes per month. It's all a frustrating balancing act!