ProDave

You can buy a thermal anemometer from about £80 You can get "wind vane" ones for as little as £10 but I guess they only work for higher flow rates (like measuring wind speed outside) I keep meaning to buy one to keep on my boat, so I would then have it for setting up the mvhr when the time comes. Question for anyone that has used one (or seen one being used) Would the wind vane ones work? my gut feeling is the flow rates are too low and the reading would vary enormously if it wasn't close enough to the vent.

I have just had a read. The 3 things I got from it are: Renovate all the empty existing homes. Concentrate new builds in town and city centres. Raise the council tax for larger homes to tax "the rich" I don't see anything there for the self builder unless you love living in a small house crammed in a city centre. I suspect a lot of folk on here don't aspore to that way of living? I guess i will carry on being a "rich" dinosaur prefering to live in a modest detached house in the peace, quiet and clean air of the countryside. And the fact I have scrimped and saved all my life to afford this goal makes me a "rich" target to pay more than my fair share of council tax. (A topic for another thread perhaps? "Council Tax Poverty", where 10% of your income goes to pay your council tax bill, that is about to get bigger still next year)

I had a similar reverse convection flow problem in a previous house, the moral of that excercise was NEVER fit a combined return pipe!!!! Have you got a model or picture of the insides of the boiler? Is it a Grant by any chance? I wire quite a few Grant boilers that my friendly plumber installs, and we had a problem with one that just kept on running. We called Grant in the end and it was a known fault with that model (it was a new model at the time) the flow sensor switch had a sliding shuttle inside it, and at one end of it's travel a pip of plastic stuck out of the end. the "fix" was file a bit off so it no longer stuck out of the end of the fitting. The obvious question has to be has it ever worked properly since being installed?

Our floorboards "creak" and I am convinces that's because they are nailed with smooth thank nails and they have pulled as the boards flex. the "creak" could perhaps be described as a "crack" noise instead. I haven't tried fixing it as I can't be bothered to completely empty the rooms to lift the carpets. If I do ever fix it, it will be remove each nail and replace with a decent screw in exactly the same place (we have UFH so would not want to risk screws in new places)

Well Jack, I wish I had your architects here. The only ones I could find quoted on a percentage of build cost, and were not open to any negotiation, take it or leave it (I left it) I tried arguing their estimate of the cost was way to high (I could not afford to build it if it actually cost that much) and i tried arguing I don't need them to oversee the build, but again they would not budge. If I had found someone willing to do the design and drawings for a reasonable cost then I would. In fact that is what i did with an architectural technician, not an architect, and he subcontracted a structural engineer to specify some of the technical aspects of the building design.

I don't see how the top thread works? If it's the same thread pitch as the main thread , then if the board is still clear of the (warped) joist when it gets to the top thread, they will screw in together and the gap won't close (no different to a continuous thread) No top thread and the bottom thread will continue to pull in and pull the board tight down to the joist. Unless there is something clever like the top thread is a different picth to the main thread to make it pull in, but it doesn't look like it.

Can I throw in a totally different suggestion? Take the glass off (yes I know you probably don't want to) Cover the wooden joists with something nice looking (like the white vinyl) and put the glass back. Then you leave the lower edge of the glass and it's fixing bolts on show and you see through the glass to a nice finished surface on the joists behind it. Then just the ceiling gets plasterboarded with some form of stop bead to finish in line with the edge of the joists leaving the bottom of the glass exposed. Crisp clean and honest architecture. Nothing to crack or move.

For a start, make sure your self build policy includes employers liability. Mine (from buildstore) does and the builders I contracted to build the shell wanted to see that certificate.

I am planning on aluminium fascias over wood, if I can, painted the same colour as the windows. when the time comes I will look at the company Stones has used. Also note that Marley do an aluminium fascia cladding system that you should be able to get from a builders merchant. I am going to lok at that as well as it may be cheaper than getting a custom made solution, but it only comes in a set number of standard colours.

I would have said slightly warped joists, boards not all sitting tight to the joist and nails creaking as the boards flex. I would have said cure would be remove nails and replace with screws pulling the boards tight to the joists. But you said you have put lots of screws in so kind of blows that theory.

System boiler and hot water tank, or combi boiler? Motorised valve manually locked in the open position?

Pictures appear fine. The wall with the window, the big problem appears to be half the bricks missing on the bottom course. Replace those and pack well and re point the cracked part. The wall with the door, that pocket of blockwork is supported by the door frame and not even keyed into the rest of the wall. I would remove those blocks above the door and replace that bit with studwork and plasterboard.

I would be having a word with the contractor and telling him he put down the wrong boards to be exposed and you expect them to rectify the problem at their expense. Nice looking house by the way.

I would get something over those window openings. while waiting for my windows to arrive, the openings were sheeted with OSB to keep the rain out. That looks just like "ordinary" chipboard to me. Even the green "waterproof" stuff won't stand up to much. the only one that will is something like Weyrock (the name will be clearly printed on it) that has a sort of grey waterproof coating. Get the windows covered, let it dry out and see what it is like. Put a straight edge over it and see if the joints have swelled.

It's not the sag that bothers me so much as why it is soaking (no doubt the cause for the sag?) Unless it's weyrock or similar, I would not have laid the flooring until the building was properly watertight.

It's just a modern take on hanging tiles. That is fine if you like that finish, but it is so out of touch with the local vernacular here that I would be surprised if the planners allowed it.

All insignificant compared to the cost of the toothpaste.

I always thought there was a switch, activated by putting a plug in, that energised the transformer. Certainly all the ones we have are like that, so nothing plugged in = no power. That doesn't help though as one or other toothbrush is always on charge. To check, with nothing plugged in, put your ear to the socket and I will bet you cannot hear the hum of the transformer.

Poured a large dram of the GOOD single malt.

In which case you will be glad to hear the OSB I laid over the floor this afternoon was previously used to temporarily close the window openings in the house last year before the windows arrived. It might be slightly swelled at the edges but nothing serious. And I connected the electricity to the shed as well this afternoon. Of course it's a recycled consumer unit.

If you have a neighbour that you dislike, put it on the side facing their garden.

Begin by costing the build on a cost per square metre basis. I am hoping to get mine for £1000 per square metre but that is with me doing a lot of the work myself.

You are approaching your spare garage door problem from the wrong angle. You have the door, so you obviously need to build a garage. All you need is 3 walls and a roof to complete it.

At £1K for a building that size, that you know will be sturdy, that appears to be good value per square foot compared to a matchwood ready made shed.

Hi and welcome to the forum. I am one that bypassed an architect, because my experience was they based their fees on a percentage of the estimated build cost. I don't know where they got their figures from but their estimate of the build cost was about double what it actually cost us (so of course that means their fees were double what they should be), but others have had better experiences and there are some architects on this forum who may be able to help.