saveasteading

The more ignorant, the more arrogant and certain?

Call me suspicious. 1. Builder buys stuff worth £1,000 including £100 for your job and £900 for his own. 2. Ditto, £100 worth delivered and £900 'to follow'. Cancel the latter and builder gets credit against his account. 3. Worth £100 but bill me at £1,000 and correction credit note. Customer pays £1,000 and builder keeps all but £100 and a bung for the shop asssistant. 4. Or of course it was a genuine mistake, but by what process i can't imagine.

It is understandable to worry that you have one chance to change this. Hence probably overworrying. When the position was first decided, you were at ground level and no ugly trenches. That surely was thd right time to make the decision. All the above comments are good. Windows prevent you seeing the wide picture anyway. And relax.

BTW our excellent joiner who built our stick built section, (*) does not understand airtightness. Vcl layer not taped, and he had never had to do it before and so wasn't going to do ours. We had to do it. Implication being that lots of new houses are not built properly. So training and qc really will be issues. (*) I watched him doing it and it was highly skilled and efficient, and solved problems, so had done it often. Had been to building college too, so presumably the tutors don't know either.

Thanks for this...I had missed this news. Reading the hyperlinked report is interesting. 6% of respondents objected to the principle. Total objection from Cala homes and Barratt homes....saying the regs are good enough. The extra cost in building properly in the first place will be as much as thd upgrade I'd think. They will have yo start using only skilled builders. Thd easy solution is standard robust detailing, that is easier to build than a bodge. Air test every unit. The owner will save more than the test cost. Thoughts on the extra build cost? £20k??? per unit. Comes straight off the land value.

Ask what they do for this? I suspect they pour in a bucket of water and see if it works, check for rubble or blockages, and the float height. Which you can do. On very fancy big pumps they might do some maintenance, but yours is probably sealed.

And the builder didn't notice? Be suspicious. Potentially the builder could also be issued with a credit note which you wouldn't see.

Yes that would be serious. The noise and vibration could be severe. I fitted a shower pump to a board on joists, with rubber bedding under the board, and fibreglass under, but the noise is still there.

OK. Misread. So an email to the council, confirming what has been done and the expense, and asking them to confirm that the survey is complete. They might not answer but you tried, and that can count.

Stopping or slowing water going to runoff is a very good thing. Do it for the greater good. Water butts, yes. Ponds are good too. Rainwater into the house is not usually justifiable in cost or on sustainability (carbon) grounds.

Never discount the bloody mindedness of housing developers. Trees down, land pinched etc then "our lawyers are bigger than yours". And appeals. The fence discussed earlier may be worth the investment. And photos of the existing.

The brochures are very vague, but no mention of this option. . The windows are sitting on site anyway. No more to be done I think.

You write a polite but firm letter saying that they have had enough time and opportunity, and already been paid £4,500, and that this appears to be not so much a service as an open ended opportunity. And whag is thd process for disputing this? Have a word with their competitors if necessary.

"Slide pir in" confused me. So no need for the very long screws? There are fixings for every purpose. A specialist supplier can advise what will grip osb (a wide screw with a coarse thread i would think) and also seal the hole. Very good roof screws have integrated washers that not only cover the hole, but wind down the thread to make the seal. As to the vcl...the long screw could rip it and you wouldn't know. But if your weight is on the area, the load should keep it all in place.

Ok i see. The grp is already there and the rest is being squeezed in? Why does the grp need new fixings?

In a small garden it is intrusive. Lots of houses don't have land at all. In the attic so accessible. Picks up heat from the roof, (facing south?) Outlet oposite face to avoid short circuit? But stopping it vibrating through the ceiling will be a challenge.

All these warehouses you see have about 10 screws per m2. Occasionally you might see one leak, easily fixed, out of 20,000 or so fixings. They are fully sealed for vapour, water and air. Make sure you use the right screws for the purpose. Roof cladders mark the fixing line on the cladding to ensure they start at the right point. 290mm is a long screw and, yes, likely to miss. What about fixing the top osb to the joists, then the grp to the osb?

The catalogue just shows hollow chambers. "6 chambers and 3 seals" is the proud quote. My special interest is that we are currently putting Rehau in. As we are leaving some stone exposed, this minor bridge is relatively insignificant, but it all adds up.

2cm is a lot more than nothing. How about covering it with a 4mm board (cement board for example) rather than plasterboard? Thicker insulation where you can.

Physically insulated or air cells?

Yes. In the steading we are converting. We have the advantage of not living in it, and also that the ground is dense sand. The main concern was exposing the very shallow footings. There are tales of buildings falling down, and this is a real concern. In your case I would work in small areas, perhaps 1m or 1 .5m wide across the room so as to minimise the exposed area of wall. Then you can dig out to the chosen depth, smooth and compact, lay dpm, lay pir, and screed over. Then move on, taping the dpm at laps. I wouldn't dig below the footing level. However you could jncreaze the depth away from the wall. Loads spreading at 45 degrees is a decent assumption. I would also place pir vertically over the edge of the screed. Even 10mm is worth it, but I would suggest 20mm if a skirting or quadrant can cover it. Meanwhile in my own house with solid concrete floors....I have not done this because of the work and disruption involved. I do have 100mm pir in most of the walls though so am not in your position. How thick are your walls?

Agreed...i looked at the picture again. When brand new, the building was available for industry visits, but I never managed to go. Since then, I think silence.

I agree with Iceverge. I have done many a roof in sensitive locations, using steel, either grey coated, or aluzinc, and the planners have been happy that it looked like traditional zinc. The magic words were 'wide pan, low profile'. I.e. Not crinkly. I never used standing seam either because of the cost, and being difficult at joints and junctions. The screws are visible but a minor thing. Also, if ever damaged, standing seam requires specialist repair, wich simply won't happen, and it gets patched up. Does your design brief cover economical design? That would concentrate your architect's mind on getting this changed. Beware of him being prescious of the zinc, and not being very convincing with the plannners....I have had that and taken the discussion on myself. Don't tell the planner it is about cost though. Sustainability....less material, easier maintenance and repair, longer life...whatever.

There really should be a very simple contract covering the principles. Anybody used 'JCT minor works'? Many years ago there was an 8 page contract (*) that covered all the 'what happens if...' stuff, and listed correspondence. Easy to understand, and just in case of a big issue. Our construction lawyer said it was very sensible, but also best not to use it as it was not industry standard. * Federation of Small Builders, or some such.

I think if we were to draw one of the above windows in the context of masonry outer skin, cavity etc, it would show a weakness, a relativd cold bridge bypassing some of the window construction, so it will be colder round the edges. I think windows are tested in an ideal jig in the laboratory; not in real walls.