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I did wonder about the joists. And TBH the space above the walls between rooms that sits below the ceiling insulation. We are putting it everywhere we can so hope the sound is deadened, as you say. Finished the walls this weekend. I am fed up of Rockwool now. Still got to finish the ceiling......

Out of interest, what widths are everyone's treads and are you happy with the width? Just debating tread width vs gap between stair runs.....

Looks like our weekend job is building a half landing (before the plasterboarders cover everything - due next week). Is that a sensible order to do things? Or leave a hole in the pb and fix after plastering?? What size coach bolts please? Ours is also between two walls. Need also to get some joist hangers...... Thanks @joe90 for the photos - looks good and we are looking to do exactly the same as you and @ProDave have done. Looks like MBC have left a handy fixing place for one of the 6x2s. This is evidently deliberate though we need to check the height. We just didn't spot it sooner. Duh. Will also check out Jeldwen. Thanks everyone.

Makes sense. What did you do about the vertical supports and fixing the half landing to the wall?

We are trying to order a staircase and it’s proving harder than I thought as it has a half landing. Stairbox say they won’t provide a half landing. Did you build your own? Or something else? Any tips on making our own half landing please? Ours needs to be about 2.1m across, maybe 1m wide.... how many supports for the rectangular box? Am I biting off too much here?

We are cutting Rockwool on site. It isn’t compressible enough to squeeze 600 into 560. Easy to cut though but takes time. The offcuts all find a home though...... And our stud walls are all slightly different size gaps - some 570, some 550 and some much smaller. It’s like a big jigsaw and is taking weeks.......

Move the electricity supply to a permanent kiosk outside the current and future home. Somewhere near where the supply comes in on the boundary. Fit external power points to the kiosk. You will need electricity for all the work you will be doing and a permanent supply can be routed from the kiosk to the house eventually. Locate the water supply at the edge of the plot. Sounds easy. Took us months to find ours..... you will need to be able to isolate it at the boundary when you demolish. Licate where the current rent house drains to mains drainage. You will need to block it up when demolishing to stop debris heading to mains drains. Do do as much site clearance as you can. Cut back stuff. Put up fencing if needed. Have fun!

We’re sharing our static caravan with our 14 year old son (as tall as us) and 12 year old daughter. Both hormonal ? But we are genuinely enjoying it most of the time. Helps that we are all used to camping and helps a lot when at least one person is out ? Occasionally the 14 year old loses the plot in his tiny room with 2 foot 3 bed, sitting doing homework on his bed with his sports kit everywhere, and shouts “This caravan is too small!” We all agree with him and move on.......

We also need some temporary stairs. Anyone got any to sell (not burn!) near to South Oxon? also have considered pallets / building our own. But so many other jobs to do that have to focus on those jobs instead. Got to get the scaffold stairs down soon to fit the front door, telescopic pocket door and a stud wall (they are in the way of progress). But they have meant we have been able to first fix upstairs a lot more easily and haven’t been lugging kit up ladders as much as we might have been. Still got 6 sheets of ply to cut and fit this weekend and more insulation to the stud walls so will be grateful for stairs...... @recoveringacademic I have been ill for the last month (and have effectively spent my stairs budget on prescription medicines) and it has definitely hampered progress on the house. But am starting to feel better and it is joyous. Imagine if you got injured......soooo frustrating and best avoided IMO.

We got quotes in from CRL, Buildzone, Protek and LABC. CRL were over £7K. Warranty plus BC. Went with Protek, the cheapest. Paid just under £2.5K for warranty plus BC. Likely to need the warranty for re-mortgage purposes at some stage. Our building inspector has visited once so far. He has done the foundations / groundworks inspection via Facetime. And his office are pretty diligent about staying in touch. And I am diligent about sending updates and photos. Next inspection will be drainage, probably in the Spring. By then though all the insulation will be done and he won't have seen that. He requested photos. We are happy with him so far though as he has been as responsive as we have needed him to be and gets back to us when asked.

Our reveal is 200mm deep and we have the same plans I think. We are also looking at a Hormann sectional door so this rubber weather stop sounds like a plan. Thanks ? I guess this water just has to be mopped off your floor surface? We were looking at these floor tile things but not sure they are going to stop water getting through the gaps? https://duramat.co.uk/product/discplate-black/ We will eventually be using the back of the garage as a games room so definitely want to ensure it has a watertight floor.

I have a related question so will, for the moment, keep it on this thread. What does the "join" between driveway and garage floor look like? Any photos out there to help explain it? I am planning a garage door behind the piers of the garage so there will be a bit of "floor" sticking outside the door (or a bit of driveway running into the revealed area?). It seems to make sense to join at the rear of the reveals. But I want to make sure that no water can get through my driveway onto the concrete slab that is then under the rest of the garage. We can create a slight incline to make sure that water runs away...... Any advice please?

I have read @Nickfromwales comprehensive post but was confused as we aren’t doing a wet room so wasn’t going to tank it. Just a shower tray and floor tiles. Will waterproof taping the joints of the insulation board under the UFH mat under the tiles, which should provide a splash proof sealed floor (?), be sufficient? Shouldn’t be water lying on the tiles for long at all as it hopefully will all stay in the tray...... same issue for the walls - wasn’t going to tank those either as not a wet room...... Thoughts?

First floor bathrooms. On Egger board flooring at present. Pipework in the ground floor ceiling void. So tray can go directly onto floor provided tile and insulation board depth isn’t greater than the tray I guess.

Under shower trays too? Borrowing alarm box thing sounds good thanks. Will message when we get to that bit. Thanks

Help needed please. We are about to order electric UFH mats for bathrooms. We need some insulation boards to go under the electric mat. Do we put the insulation boards and/ or the tiles under the bath? (a back to wall bath, no panel - it’s all one unit so sort of free standing). The basin and toilet are wall hung so the boards will go under those. Sorry, prob a daft question ?

We are looking at putting in shower recesses into our showers. Are these prefab boxes worth it? https://www.kerdi-board.co.uk/shower-niche.aspx https://www.pureadhesion.co.uk/marmox-niche-300x400x100mm.html If so, anyone got any preference? Thanks

We are using pallets and then nail OSB on them where needed. Could put carpet or paint / sand to stop slipping though ours isn't slippy (but also not too slopey). Just used stuff lying around on site so cheap as chips to put together. Seems pretty effective. Been in place for 6 months and hopefully will last the duration of the build. Keeps us out of the mud / lumps of concrete / extra hardcore lying around.

Is it right that the front door is the other side of the house to the parking? I am just thinking of the inevitable unloading of shopping to the kitchen........maybe through the back door / utility? How are you going to actually use the house / garage / parking? We had stepped levels between our kitchen / diner in our first planning application. Removed them at the second stage because was causing additional construction costs and complications and we felt they removed flexibility if we ever needed to seat more people at an extended table. Does your partition between kitchen and dining room go full height?

The render is the SAS ProWall Rainscreen system in white. Had render board, base coats, mesh and top coats - still not finished. The cladding is the Cedral Click cement board mounted vertically. In "Dark Brown". We chose this because it is low / no maintenance and wouldn't weather like a natural wood. Should hopefully look like this for a long time to come. The joint between the render and cladding will be siliconed I believe but I will post more on that as things progress.

Yes, a hot return. On advice from plumber and @Bitpipe who is pleased with his.

We were told by MBC it was a firm called Lewers Firth. The guy that was running it on site was Sean with another guy. All from Wales. Top team. I have a mobile number if you want to PM me.

Here is our partially completed render / clad combination. Not yet blogged about it as it has been complicated and very stressful. Have mixed feelings about the company we have used so am waiting until then end when I can be a little more objective. We are pleased with the overall effect though. The cladding and render butt up against each other. Happy to PM if that is helpful at this stage. Will fully report publicly in a few weeks when finished.....

We scraped in with 0.59. With a temporary external door too, sealed as best they could. Sliders leaking - couldn't stop that. And we subsequently found two small pipes from the plant room to the outside that hadn't been fully sealed. So could maybe have been better but its a pass and it will do nicely.

That's alot of insulation - over 600 bags of the stuff. They cut a load of holes in the MBC vapour layer ply. More holes than we ever imagined. Then they pump the insulation into the holes to fill up the walls (300mm deep) and ceilings (400mm deep). Some of it escapes. Easy to vacuum up though. Then they put the ply discs back in and tape over the holes. They have left us with some patches for areas of the ceiling they can't reach and for any they might have missed. Only found one so far. Sean and his firm - works subcontracted for MBC for alot of the pumped cellulose insulation for them - was fantastic. The house is definitely warmer inside now, and the echo is now deadened. It is so quiet in there. Can't wait to move in........