Tom

Thanks both. James, pic below. Green wall on right is Nudura. Joist goes over one block wall and hangs off the other. Timber wall plates in blue. Hope it makes sense!

Hi all - quick question, blockwork internal walls going up now and will in the near future reach mezzanine height, so I need to think about the floor structure for this. Plans indicate 75x200mm joists at 400mm centres. At one end of the joist will be an internal blockwork wall that come up to the height of the floor and stops, the other end will be the exterior Nudura wall. I'm planning on using the same 75x200mm timber to attach to the Nudura wall (insulation taken back and fixed directly to the concrete) and the internal blockwork wall, then hangers nailed to these. Is this right? What fixings should I use to fix the timber to the walls? These things? https://www.toolstation.com/rawlplug-r-lx-zinc-plated-concrete-screw-anchor/p83182 Thanks all

How well would the PIR have worked with the open web joists anyway? Sounds like it would be a pain to fit to ensure no gaps - and chances are, left to their own devices, the builders would have done it badly. So perhaps mineral wool isn't such a bad substitute after all.

We've got 4 layers of A393 in our 200mm slab!

I think probably 2x narrower lintels for ease of getting them in position. I don't quite follow your idea for the linings - are you suggesting doing away with the architrave? This would leave 10mm of the compriband visible - not sure re the longevity/practicalities of cleaning, dust collecting etc - though I do like the idea of deleting the architrave, cleaner look to it.

Like the idea but would need architrave to cover the carcassing timber on the hinge side of the opening - assuming 18mnm ply not thick enough on it's own? I was planning on glueing strips of ply to the outside edge of the ply linings to cover the junction with the carcass/blocks, in essence making the lining look like even thicker ply. As above, some margin for error if I add ply strips for architrave I guess. The blocklayer comes highly recommended so I hope he can make the opening accurately without frames to work to.

Thanks both. The openings will have a depth of 215mm, as the blocks are being laid on their flats, and will be fair-faced/painted (no render). I can screw a 25mm x 215mm carcassing timber to the hinge side of the opening then put ply over this and on the header and opposite side/vertical. This would mean the timber would have a thickness of 25mm + 18mm + 18mm = 61mm, plus 3mm + 3mm gap = 67mm. Giving myself an additional 10mm each side to allow for adjustment/packing gets to pretty much 90mm. Does this sound reasonable? Do I need "carcassing" all round or would the 18mm ply be sufficient on the header and one side? Is 10mm all round for packing overly generous?

So, blockwork starts for the internal walls in the next few days and just setting out now. I'm going for 826mm wide doors - how wide should I be making the apertures? I plan to line the openings with birch ply. The plans show an aperture of 916mm - so 90mm wider than the doors. Is this right? I was guesing I'd line with 18mm ply - is this thick enough to take a rebated hinge? Two layes of ply would be 36mm so would leave a 9mm gap each side - which still seems a little much. Or perhaps should I line with a cheaper/thicker bit of timber first then a final lining of say 12mm ply? Any advice gratfeully received!

TBH I always thought you shouldn't use wire wool on oak - something about microscopic shards of the wool left in the wood rusting or reacting with the tannins or something. I might be completely talking out of my arse though

Pretty sure you can get UVCs with multiple heating elements at different levels to avoid this - correct me if I'm wrong though

I'm kinda with Spacey73 here, in that resistance heating seems just a whole lot more simple way of doing things - if the numbers stack up. Sure, 100% vs 300% efficiency for a heat pump can certainly sway the argument, but it would depend largely on how much PV you have that you could dump in to a store - whether thats a Sunamp or a UVC. We have a 12kW array and think that we would probably get away with resitance heating for hot water and our UFH (via a Willis or two) - but those all-in-one units you link to above Mark do look pretty neat. The heat pumps are only relatively small units buy the look of them (1300W for the Dimplex), so I wonder what the real-world cost of running one would be as I guess the immersion would have to take up the slack a lot of the time - and then of course you have the standby draw for the pump itself, servicing costs etc etc

We're having our slab as the final floor finish too - it will be powerfloated on the day it's poured, but will then be ground back/polished about 6 weeks later I believe. How long you do the grinding will dictate the finish on the floor. We want a relatively satin/matt finish so I guess this will be minimal.

Three voices of reason, Buildhub hath spoken. I'll keep it simple and worry about other things. Thanks all 👍

Hi All - we are going to start putting up internal walls in the next few weeks and so need to set the internal door sizes, which isn't clear on our architects plans. Ceilings in a few areas are going to be 2.4m, but in the majority of the build there are going to be vaulted ceilings - so we don't want doors that look to small and out of place. Looking at various places online I can see standard door sizes are either 2040 or 1981mm high and a variety of widths. I guess I was thinking along the lines of a 2200mm high doors in most areas. Our internal joinery (window reveals, skirting etc) is going to be in birch ply and I have been thinking about simply getting cheap doors and facing either side in birch ply to the required size. Is this a dumb idea? Am I making things more difficult for myself further down the line and should I be sticking with off-the-shelf sizes? Thanks all

Aha! Definitely an opportunity there, tap in to the neurotic-self-builder market...

Sure, but being pragmatic I guess it's not just about overall thermal performance. Cold bridging in certain areas/circumstances might lead to condensation, corrosion etc

Yes! Especially as I only needed one piece but the minimum order possible was £100!

I bought two pieces about that size and it came to about £100 iirc

you get little washers made of the same stuff to use to reduce the bridging with the fixings, but of course can never fully eliminate it

we used some armatherm to sit a vertical steel on. Ridiculously expensive for what it is really and will probably make no difference to anything other than my wallet

No, any PP granted on the land in a 20yr period will trigger the overage clause. Payment is made a short while after each overage is triggered. Re valuation, this is why you mutually appoint a surveyor: you need to find someone who has some knowledge of the specific market and some expertise in the field. Not just a fat tie and too much aftershave!

The land will accrue in value over time, with or without planning permission. So you don't want that to be factored in to any uplift in value that you have to pay a percentage of - hence why the uplift in value is calculated on the day PP is granted and based on the value of the site on that day if it did or didn't have PP. How else do you expect the site to be valued other than by a surveyor? Put it on eBay?

Sure, but it should be level with your finished floor covering - whatever you choose that to be. They clearly realise it's been fitted wrong and are grasping as straws to avoid having to replace the door (which they will need to do as they won't be able to shave anything off the lintel). Stick your heels in and hold your ground!

We bought our site with an overage of 25% over 20 years, risk was on us but we got PP and more than happy to pay only 25% of the uplift in value. Just be careful with the wording of any overage clause and make sure you run it past a solicitor who knows what they are doing. In the example you quote above "above the base purchase price" would mean you paying overage not just on the uplift in value from getting PP, but also on the increase in base value of the land which will happen anyway, because, well, they're not making any more of it. Usually the caluclation is based on the day PP is granted and you mutually employ a surveyor to value the land on that day with and without PP, and pay a percentage of that.

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