ProDave

I think it was size that decided ours, GluLam would have been a very big beam, Kerto was smaller for the same strength. We never discussed price. But then when the builder came to buy it, we ended up with a wider Kerto than was specified as that was all they could get. Ours came over length and was cut to length on site. Better than getting your measurements wrong and it ending up a bit short.

In my case a timber Kerto beam, which for the same strength is smaller than a Glulam. It could also be done with steel. Here is an idea of the nice open roof structure you get

AND to start drilling CAMBO. Yes we need to move away from fossil fuel, but to not drill our own and instead buy from "abroad" is not proving to be such a good idea is it? I note many of the mothballed drilling rigs that have been in storage in the Cromarty Firth for years have departed. Have they actually gone out to do some drilling? Nothing would give me more pleasure right now than if we (the whole of Europe) were able to say no we don't need Russian oil or gas any more.

To me it's all detail that makes a house good or bad. I like to see good quality finishings, nice flat walls, nice crisp corners, good well finished joinery, everything fits just right ANY kitchen worktop apart from cheap laminate with those horrible corner joining strips etc. Good doors and door furniture. Nice stairs and balustrades. Switches and sockets, anything can look good if well fitted, what always stands out to me as "tacky" is expensive flat plate ultra thin sockets fitted to a tatty old wall that is anything but flat, and with gaps in the plaster around the socket. I guess most think of lots of glass, big sliding doors or bi folds, glass balustrades and "pointy gable end windows" as things that make it a "grand design"

I see dark days ahead. Double digit inflation, but without the double digit interest rates we need so your savings stand a little bit of a chance keeping up. Energy crisis (as if we don't have one already) FOOD shortage. Yes seriously. Ukraine is a major food exporter. Nobody likes uncertainty, it would not surprise me if the housing market in the UK tanked now. (and we still haven't sold our old house yet) The move to green energy and CO2 reduction will take a back seat. ANY energy will do even if it is not green. From a personal point of view my main worries now are I don't think i am yet above the age for conscription if it all really goes bad, and my comfortable planned retirement soon is looking less comfortable and less certain. I am more worried now than at any point in the cold war. Sorry to sound a sombre tone, I don't see much to give me optimism.

Have a serious look at re designing the roof as a cut roof suspended on a ridge beam without using trusses of any sort, and doing that as a warm roof. It is what we did and I maintain was one of the best design decisions. It puts the entire roof inside the heated and air tight space with no trusses intruding anywhere, is easy to detail well. It then either gives you a warm dry roof space for storage or an easy space to convert later for accommodation. Obviously use floor joists capable of taking a proper load. Apart from getting the ridge beam made, everything else is standard timbers that any decent joiner can fit.

I rarely use a wholesaler. I dislike the non transparent pricing, variable discounts, and even having to haggle over each purchase like you are trying to buy a kitchen. What did it for me was one job I was trying to buy some downlights, they only had half what I needed and their best price seemed high. In disgust I went next door to toolstation and got the lot for half what the wholesaler wanted. I have hardly been back since. So 90% of my stuff comes from Screweys, toolstation, CPC and TLC. SWA I have got some good deals sometimes from random sellers on ebay.

If we are worried about shrouded (or not) pins on a 5A plug, then I have to ask WHY do we still allow the sale of light fittings with BC or ES lamp holders that have NOTHING to stop fingers touching live parts with the lamp removed? We do lots of things in the name of electrical safety, yet we ignore this one totally outdated, totally unsafe design, and carry on allowing it to be used in new installs.

The landing window had been missing it's glass. that was originally planned to be a stained glass unit until the reality dawned and we shelved that. It had been for3 years boarded up with OSB and a slab of insulation. Getting a 3G glass unit properly fitted in it no doubt reduced a bit of heat leakage. The wall to the sun room had been incomplete and although sheltered from rain was still open to the cold. Getting that complete and the sun room to encase it no doubt saved a bit more heat loss.

1.4, which frankly I was disappointed with, but the tester was nearly wetting himself with how good it was. What i am finding interesting is this winter, now the house is finished and the last few bits that might have been resulting in a bit of heat leakage are finished, I am finding my heating use is less than previous winters, and lower than the heat loss spreadsheet suggests it should be. I am of course not complaining.

Window pricing is very much like kitchen pricing, a random number generator followed by negotiating. I like a few others found Rationel to give the cheapest of the quotes we received and then they negotiated down a but from that. I am certainly happy with their ali clad windows and it should mean no painting.

For most of mine, if the taped joint did not line up with one of the battens forming the service void, then I screwed a strip of OSB offcut over the taped joint to maintain it squashed together.

Well my air test was done at completion, something like 4 years after all the air tight membranes and tapes were applied, so it had plenty of time to settle.

Hi and welcome. I know that area well having lived there for 16 years. Building plots there are simply rare. In the time I was there the only ones i ever saw were knock down and rebuilds and the prices they went for were way above my means. It wasn't until we decided to move a long way north that I finally realised the self build dream (just completed No 2) Don't let that put you off, but you face an uphill battle finding a plot.

Okay if it's HEP2O then it's this one https://www.screwfix.com/p/hep2o-hx38-15ws-hot-cold-appliance-valve-15mm/6737f With a tee and a short bit of pipe. One of the proper plumbers will have to come and say if that thread cutting clamp on one would work with HEP2O

That's for copper. I am not sure it will work with what looks like a plastic push fit system?

I am not familliar with which pipe system that is, but you will want to tee into that pipe then something like this https://www.screwfix.com/p/jg-speedfit-15aptp-washing-machine-tap-15mm-x/18908 Ovbiously the one that matches the pipe system you have there.

Let the mass builders churn out whatever rubbish they want. For your OWN house, take the time and trouble to do it properly is what I am saying.

Indeed. the lead flashing around my chimney flue, one corner has folded up in the gales. When the weather gets better I need to get up there to flatten it down again and stick it down with something to stop it happening again.

What air tightness did they assume? I take it this is the design SAP? Our design SAP was similar at mid 80's with an assumed air test of 4. By the time we got the as built air test and entered actual as built door and window U values, the as built SAP came out as A94 If this is the design SAP and you are planning to do the air tightness properly, ask them to use a better assumed air tightness. Or look to improve the design door or window U values etc.

Yes that pylon is not going anywhere. If there are deficiencies in any wayleave agreement, they will sort them out with some ££££ which I am sure is what happened with our neighbour.

You are totally missing the point here. If you rely on the plaster and skim for your air tightness, then EVERY penetration, light fitting (especially downlights) switch, socket etc is a hole in your air tightness layer. The point of an air tight layer and then a service void, is it makes a completely air tight building and then ALL your services run INSIDE the air tight layer, without penetrating it. so it matters not one bit what holes you cut in the plasterboard for downlights etc, it will not degrade your air tightness and there is nothing to seal up to try and stop leaks. I am convinced that the air tight membrane and the decision to have a warm vaulted roof are the 2 best design features that made out house so energy efficient. Of course that and a good level of insulation, decent doors and windows etc, and MVHR.

If the water table has reached the surface, no amount of drains will drain it anywhere. If it is just one bit, do as we do and avoid walking there in the winter and it dries up in the summer. Moss needs removing with a lawn rake annually, if you actually find a way to stop it, you will probably become a wealthy man.

Howdens very cheapest flat pack range. Advantage of Howdens over B&Q is if something is wrong or missing, they sort it very quickly, usually next day at worst. but B&Q often get everything to order so a missing bit can take ages to arrive and delay the job.

Hold on, are you talking about just the soakaway for waste water from a treatment plant? Or SUDS drainage to dispose of rainwater? or BOTH?