ProDave

We have just spent a year living in the static caravan which has a "family room" with everything (apart from sleeping washing and s******g) all in the one space. That has been plenty to convince me when I want to watch television * or listen to music, it must be away from all the noise etc of a kitchen. * unless you are watching tv at meal times which is generally considered impolite. I suppose if the OP can't join the kitchen to the dining room, he could put a serving hatch in that wall.

Dishwashers do NOT end washing up, they just reduce it. My criticism of the big "familly room" is I don't want to spend a "quiet" evening watching telly with the fridge and the dishwasher churning away. I want somewhere quiet away from all that noise. That is why we are having both.

The first thing you need is a reference to work from that will not change throughout the build. If you have something you can reference to on Ordnance Survey level that is great. Otherwise you create a Temporary Bench Mark that remains in place and everything is referenced to that. In my case there was a substantial fence post at the highest corner of the plot so I created a permanent "mark" on that by banging in a row of horizontal large head (roofing felt) nails about 100mm above ground. That became my Temporary Bench Mark and is still there now. All my planning drawings referenced site and building levels relative to that TBM In your case depending how your ridge height limit is defined, you must "callibrate" your TBM so you know how far above it is your ridge height limit. Once you have the TBM you take all your levels from there by any means you like including the water level.

DEFINITELY No 2 The thing is, even id we move in by the end of the year, it will NOT be finished by a long way. There is the snug living room and utility room downstairs not even started. Small matter of no doors, door liners or skirting boards anywhere. And when the house is finished, still plenty to do outside. I think I still have Biscay to cross, on a stormy day.

No Wrong. Supply AND FIT should be charged to you at 0% VAT. You are not able to reclaim VAT paid on labour for a new build as all labour should be zero rated, and as the windows are being fitted they should be zero rated. Someone will post the actual wording from the VAT people which you can show to the supplier.

^^ I expected him to stagger off and fall over at the end, like on YBF.

It's all too disjointed. Make the current kitchen, dining and snug all one big "familly room" (kitchen dining and living on one) Then make the Lounge your snug to get away somewhere quiet. Laundty and boot to become the playroom, near everyone else. Playroom to become boot, laundry, planr etc out of the way. Upstairs, 2 right hand bedrooms to share jack & jill bathroom but you need a familly bathroom so make that one or both of the stores? Big gallary landing is a wow feature, but boy what a waste of space. Can't comment further until I know which way is North.

We are having engineered Oak as that's all you can have with UFH. At the last house we had solid Maple as the only solid wood anyone would guarantee for UFH and then only in 90mm wide planks. This time we wanted wider planks so engineered was the only choice. All the doors and windows are RAL7032 Pebble Grey

25mm by 50mm battens following the joists. Then engineered oak flooring, with the UFH in the gap. The OSB that has been our temporary floor for well over a year remains with the sole job of supporting the UFH pipes. That will be the next job. Kitchen choosing starts soon.

The main kitchen / living room downstairs is progressing well. Now plastered and painted. More on the blog at http://www.willowburn.net/ Look for the entry Main living room / kitchen Next step under floor heating and Oak flooring. Then a kitchen and we move in........

That is quite similar to our burn. Thoughts, in no particular order. Don't build too close. The area under the cabin will be dry and will get no sunlight = no vegatation will grow = dry bare ground that will wash away easilly in flood (assumint like outs it sometimes floods) Piles of some sort are what you want. A neigbhour here built a complete house on ground like this. They hd to dig quite deep to get to firm soil, removing a lot of soft top soil in the process. Then big square concrete pads. They built up from those concrete pillars using large plastic drainage pipe as formers.

I have just come off the phone from speaking to Trading Standards. On their advice my next move is a recorded delivery letter stating it is not of satisfactory quality (because it does not work) and I am requesting a free repair or replacement within a reasonable time. I then have to give them 14 days to respond and if no response or non favourable, continue with trading standards who now have this complaint logged.

No nothing like that. A very brief description in the listing, then a link to item details which gave the full specification including reference to the 7 years warranty. I have found several other references to the 7 year warranty on line and am storing all these away as evidence. Not that the 7 year warranty is important to this as it's all within 1 year.

The CEO of which company are you referring? The supplier? The "company" that badged it, or the original manufacturer. Yes Trading standards will be my next contact if I get another unsatisfactory response from the supplier. Re the no win no fee thing, if it went to small claims court and won, the defendant would pay their costs. I think the main advantage of employing such a company, is a letter from a solicitor stating the matter might end in court is more likely to result in it getting settled before it goes that far.

I know the name on the unit, but I am choosing not to post it here at the moment. I know the name of the supplier (which is not the same as the name it is badged) but again am choosing not to mention it. I can't find ANY reference to the "manufacturer" that badged it on the internet, other than the fact the supplier I bought if from used to sell that make. I know the manufacturer who's make and model number is on labels inside he unit, and who also used to sell an idenical looking unit under their own name.

I can. Look above the middle sleeper wall.

I have done that in my reply to them. As a 2 pronged attack, I have also sent an email to the actual manufacturer asking them how I get a warranty service. In the end I don't care which one repairs it. What is starting to puzzle me, taking the boiler example as a comparison, is why the supplier does not just contact the manufacturer to ask for a service visit. That alone makes me wonder what else I do not know. I might contact the local trading standards to discuss it with them. If it went to court, I wonder if that would be a local court here under Scottish law, or a court local to the supplier under English law? I guess it was sold under English law? I might even start looking for someone to take this on as a no win no fee basis if it came to court action.

To be honest the issue is not who pays to return it, but should you return it? If I bought a boiler from say a builders merchant on line, and it did not work, they would not say "return it and we will fix it" they would appoint a representative of the manufacturer to come to my house and fix it. I actually did this in my last house when the oil boiler failed at 11 months old, and in that case the manufacturer sent a plumber, who diagnosed it as unrepairable, and they paid for a replacement boiler and the labour of the plumber to remove the faulty one and fit the replacement. It gets complicated that this is a re badged unit, but inside there is a model number of the actual manufacturer, so should I be contacting them? Looking for some case history how is the best way to proceed?

Oh dear. As I feared this might get messy. This is the response I have had (edited to preserve anonimity) How would you respond to that?

Is that done by just turning the pump on and off on a timer? I notice the Graff units do that on a roughly 50% duty cycle. It seems you could probably do that to any air blower treatment plant.

It would be neater if you extended he hoses and put it in the chicken shed.

Missus just wants it FINISHED

+1 to get a plasterer. Even I, who has been doing most jobs myself got a spread in to do it for me, and he did a damned good job. He used multi finish. One interesting thing he said (would be interested to hear if this is true or not) was you need to get it skimmed soon after fixing the board. He swears if you leave ordinary grey board 6 months before skimming it will have trouble adhering. Truth or wives tale?

Use some telephone or cat5 cable instead. The colours will be different but as long as the same cable ends up in the same place that won't matter.

Get out on that boat. Been some fantastic sailing weather of late.