ProDave

Glad you like them. I didn't realise you hadn't seen them before. I know them as I have worked in houses with them before, and the local rep also visited our site with his normal small demonstration window to show us the details. I like them as apart from being good windows, they are a very clean profile from both inside and outside, and of course the bonus being they were the cheapest of all the ones we had quotes for. Also only Internorm offered a very slightly better UW value, but at twice the price!!! We also have a few 4, 20, 4, 18, 6.8 windows. Those are mainly the doors and a few of the bigger windows that have toughened glass that's a bit thicker, so they narrow the inner gap slightly to keep the overall glass unit thickness the same. P.S what make of roof window have you used?

I would be interested in seeing the upstairs floor plan. the downstairs doesn't look particularly big so I am guessing 2 bedrooms upstairs. Stair position looks a little odd so not a normal layout. Also the plot layout would be interesting. What I am getting at, is making the best of the plot. Would a 2 storey side extension make more sense to give more bedrooms, or a single storey scheme that could later have a second floor added if you need more bedrooms? Is the extension set back because that's the only parking and the house is to close to the road to offer parking in front instead of alongside the house (plot layout would show that) What's your budget and long term aims? is this a house for the long term, or just wanting to maximise it's potential and sell on?

Have a look at the Conder (the one I have) and the Vortex as well.

Looks like a garage to me. Anyway, welcome to the forum.

It's a Scottish building reg. I would have to look up the minimum size of shower and the "activity space" it needs next to it. In our case it will be the space we are going to use for the the pull down clothes dryer that will be allocated for a future shower. You can also meet that requirement by saying you will knock through into an adjacent cupboard should you need to fit a shower. Both the downstairs toilet and future shower provision need to be "accessible" so need all the right amount of activity space. One issue with that is the activity space in front of the toilet. You are not allowed to have a door opening across that activity space. But out combined wc 7 utility will also have the door through to the garage. I couldn't find a way to avoid the garage door crossing the activity space unless it opened into the garage. but discussing with my BC officer he agreed that is not an issue as nobody in a wheelchair would be negotiating the step up from the garage so that door did not matter. As long as the dor from the main house met the accessibility requirements they are happy.

I assume you are talking mixer tap with two tap holes through the bath half way along one side of the bath? A house I am wiring at the moment has that. My immediate thought is HOW the bloody hell would you ever get to the under side of that tap if it ever needs replacing? you can't without removing the bath. So from a simple "I like to be able to fix things" point of view, I would never consider that in my house * * unless the bath backed on to say a cupboard in another room where you could have an access hatch

The trouble with a plant room, is usually it's a mess of odd sized "things" connected by lots of pipes and cables, which even if done neatly, is still some industrial eyesore to most people. So no I would not have that in a WC. But in our case we are having a combined utility room and WC. I thought BR might have something to say, but they are happy with it. all they want is an accessible toilet and space to fit a shower in the future. They don't care if it also has a washing machine and a tumble dryer in the same room, and they don't care if instead of a wash hand basin I have a kitchen type sink in a kitchen base unit instead.

I was cladding my last gable end with the wood fibre board. I came back up the scaffold and there were two wasps trying to get in where I had just fitted a sheet. and more and more of the bu99ers arrived looking for a way in. I suspect a nest between the sarking and the roof tiles. I emptied a whole can of raid squirting it into any crack or minute gap I could find.

Put another log on the fire. SORRY.

That's a good question. The metal CU thing is just for "domestic" you can still fit a plastic CU in say an office or a shop. Mine are all plastic but fitted before the 3rd ammemdment came into force.

My set up is like your first picture. BUT you don't want just an isolator switch, you want a switch fuse. The reason being is the DNO's regs only alllow "their" fuse to protect up to 3 metres of cable. Your house supply will be a LOT longer than 3 metres so it needs it's own fuse. I fitted an 80A fuse into mine in the hope that will blow before their 100A fuse in the event of a fault. Some DNO's (e.g. SSE) fit meters with an inbuilt isolator switch so isolating to work on the consumer unit is not a problem.

For the bathroom, I would have a conventional flat ceiling. for the bedrom, I would give it a vaulted ceiling, but not just right up to the extreme top of the roof, that would leave a lopsided vaulted ceiling if you see what I mean. Instead, on the wall between a bedroom and bathroom, I would start another "false" vaulted ceiling starting at the same level and going up at the same angle to meet the main roof. like this:

1. I would use grey, same as telecoms 2: flexi is fine, avoid sharp bends and install a draw string ready to pull the cables. 3. Yes single exit duct is fine, but it gets harder to add a new cable as it fills up so best to plan ahead and pull them all through together. SWA does not need to be in duct in the ground it is suitable for direct burying. 4: I would exit the house with 1 pipe and put a number of boundary box stopcocks to make your own distribution system to feed water to wherever you need it. (that is exactly what I did, one to feed the stand pipe, one to feed the static 'van, one to feed the house) Don't forget "other stuff" e.g in my case the satellite dish will have to be remote from the house (too many trees) so I have a duct for aerial cables etc.

Time to try a few others I think.

Don't give me ideas. I have a pile of hardcore building up that when it gets to a trailer full I was going to put on freecycle (would save me loading it up and taking it to the tip). Perhaps I'll try it on ebay first?

SSE specified 110mm for the electricity duct but did not question when presented with she smaller 65 (or was it 56?)mm duct. I only needed short lengths so bought some leftovers from ebay.

But finish one job before you start yet another.

What staggers me is the length some people go to, to sell worthless tat. They will probably get 99p for it and a lot of hassle getting the buyer to come and actually pay for it.

Check carefully your council's replacement dwellings policy. There have been cases where if it has been derelict for a very long time that permission is refused. If it has only just burned down you are probably okay

I have mentioned before, we didn't provide anything. we live just 2 doors away from the new build so told the builders the toilet there was available. Only two ever took up that offer (presumably for a "No 2") otherwise they "made their own arrangements" no doubt taking advantage of all the trees on site. That's actually quite common up here, the new build I am wiring at the moment has nothing. You just walk into the woods for a pee, and remember to do your No 2 at home before going to site. None of the trades seem bothered with this arrangement. It's only now that the house is nearly finished outside that I fnally have the treatment plant connected and can use the toilet in the static 'van at last.

That's not what I used, but at £16 per square metre for everything including the insulation panels it does sound very cheap.

I can't help you directly as although my ground floor joists are 300mm JJI's, I am only making "provision" for a downstairs shower not actually fitting one. So I am just going to provide a 4" branch off the main stack with it plugged off. The 4" pipe will be just under the JJI joists so I guess if I ever fit a shower it will have the trap in the normal place then out if the trap into a 90 degree bend and straight down to a reducer into the 4" pipe.

Speaking as a sailor, MAB = Manky Auld Boat.

Bit low for a bedside table. Is that the result of sawing a bit of each bed leg in turn to stop the bed wobbling?

Here's my "scaffold stairs" that are serving me at the moment. I think part of the reason for me not wanting to fit a temporary set of real stairs, is mine will have a half landing and return, so it's a lot more complicated than just bang in a cheap set of mdf stairs. But here is what you can make cheaply. These are my garage stairs in my present house. the upstairs of the garage is technically only a storage platform so these are not meant to comply with regulations. they are in effect a permanent ladder. they are made from leftover bits of 8 by 2, and (you can tell I am not a joiner) each tread is just fixed to the stringer with three 6" nails.