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That pays for one beam design. For that sort of fee you are not going to get a site visit, anything other than basic calculations, any suggestions, or any follow up.

Too big for one contractor but too small for others? They are not quoting for fun, as it takes time, during which they could be earning a great deal by your account. They may be bound to quote by the supplier as an approved installer, they may price high because there is a lot of perceived risk or they aren't specially skilled at this , perhaps having trouble attracting skilled workers, or they may be the one who does it properly. Or they may be making lots of money and see this as the going rate, Best don't take it personally, and find someone else. Materials £6,000 plus waste and sundries £7k labour 4 x 4 x £200 x 5 = £16k management £2k sundries and access £2k Vans etc £1k Manager's shogun and merc £1k sub-total £29k 5% risk 20% overhead subtotal £36k 10% profit in these times = £4k and a big company may think that is too little. Grand total £40k If they are short of staff they may subcontract. Add another 10% Maybe you can talk them down to that. If it was me I would redesign to something that was going to cost a lot less.

Yes they are. An aluminium window with the same U value as a timber or upvc window has the same thermal efficiency. There is a thermal break in the construction so that the aluminium on the inside is joined to a separate section on the outside by a plastic link....there is no continuity. Some are better than others. That is much easier to achieve with upvc, which is a very large factor in the cost. Wood is not great at thermal resistance so a good timber window also needs complex construction. Check the U values for the type of window you want. Nod, what is that roughly £/m2 if you don't mind?

No I had not noticed the revised proposal, which seems much more tolerant to movement. You will have to find a way of wedging the glass in tight to keep it in place as well as the weather out. Also, a minor detail , is not to drill so close to brick edge. I admire your enthusiasm and acceptance of challenge and risk. But isn't there some small standard window section that would do the same?

Unlikely unless you can break up what is there to become more porous. Digging it over would have more effect but short term. Another thing that helps is trees and shrubs. They don't drink the water in winter but the roots can make channels for the water to run away to deeper levels. Not scientific though. ie it probably helps but as an extra,

They shouldn't. The recent floods are not only climate change, but fast runoff from land and buildings. For a new development the runoff is usually limited to (from memory) 5 litres/second/ hectare, (including the house drains so that would have to be retained too) which for a normal garden is very little. I always aim for zero and you probably can too.

Most buildings move more than people imagine, or like to think, mostly seasonally. Some movement allowance from brick to frame and then frame to glass allows for this. Your proposal looks very solid.

Yes if by some chance the price suits. Professional builders don't want to modernise or take on risks. So they will be interested in the start again sites. Non-professionals usually don't see potential and want a good quality building with just some minor refurb required, or a new p;ot. I think many of us on this site are in the middle, as there are affordable old buildings which the above don't want, , but the aggro and risk and timescale have to be accepted.

Agreed. if the water table is permanently high then that is a problem and no amount of drains will help. However if the water table is below the ground then a pond is a likely option. It is somewhere for you to divert the water, has a big ground surface and some head to drain into the ground, and a top surface to encourage evaporation. Plants will help in the summer. When you dig a pond you get surplus earth, which can be used to raise all or some of the remaining ground above the wet area.

If you buy single sized stone, such as gravel, at least 2/3 is stone and only 1/3 is gaps for the water. So you need a lot of it, gravel isn't good under a drive, other crushed stone is expensive, and you also need a porous top surface, Over time even this 1/3 tends to fill with silt. I don't know your builder but it is unlikely he knows all this. Crates can take artics as long as you get the right ones. The shallow ones allow the water to disperse into a greater area of ground, but are more expensive, and depend on porous surface. The boxy ones are fed from drains. Whichever method, you have to allow for the amount of rain and the percolation. The builders merchants (especially the drainage ones) can get the sums done for you, if you know the input numbers.

My experience is with huge roofs, The main point was the very substantial extra cost for secret fix, but was not noticeable, then you cut holes in it which really are difficult to seal. BUT this was self-spanning between purlins, and so maybe is different for small scale and screwed to wood. 25m2 of roof without deducting skylights, and 35m of edges to form? For profiled cladding my keen (perhaps optimistic) estimate would have been 25m2 x £35, + 35mx £15, so about £2,500 plus access and perhaps an extra margin for the main contractor. £3k to £3.5k approx. Similar cost for Sarnafil (but I am totally guessing) as there is no waste and edges are easier. Standing seam, add at least 50%? BUT this is dependant on finding skilled workers interested in this small job. Do not let anyone practice on your roof: metal cladding is highly skilled, and should not depend on tubes of mastic as it often ends up with beginners. You are even turning me towards considering Sarnafil for ours.....we will see what skills are available nearer the time. Building inspector won't mind (but tell them), your planners/neighbours might.

There's a thought.... a lot of our timber, and not usually the best, comes from Russia. Not any longer! I worked with a few timber merchants (building for them) and heard some bad stories about bundles of timber with rubbish and barked lengths hidden in the middle, coming from Russia and deliberately packed to conceal illegal bits.

I would say that ply this will work perfectly well without the seams, which are for show to simulate the corrugated appearance. I am surprised it is half the price though so would quotation the material choice. If it is a high-tech product then good. If a modern equivalent of felt then no. Do you mind indicating the price level? My own preference is for non standing seam metal. I don't mind the screw heads, and it is usually stronger and with less 'oil canning' effect. Genuinely half the cost, especially if not by a rolled-on-site supplier. It is also very much easier to adapt to openings and to seal at any tricky joints. And if ever damaged, standing seam is not easy to repair/replace. But the screws are the thing....you may not like them.

The BCO may not have noticed that it is structural. Their job is not to do 100% check. What does the stud wall sit on?

The 'right' computer programme is expensive. However it is simply a spreadsheet that iterates the rainfall possibilities and then the volume required is the worst case. A cheaper alternative is available online, or you can even make your own, but they may not be accepted unless you have the credentials yourself. Using the recognised programme shows the Building inspector that the information is likely to be accurate. However, garbage in/garbage out apples, and I have seen proposals that are simply wrong. By all means, do your own assessment for comfort, and to pre-consider the most practical solution., but I think you need expert presentation. BTW in some areas of mass house building but where the drainage is inadequate, building inspectors are forced to agree lower standards for rainwater.

I meant who decided to propose 9mm in the first place? The building inspector only has an overview and has not necessarily approved this element. As there is no wind then that is a major element removed. The lining is still helping to stop buckling or domino-ing. Other than that, we don't know your construction in any detail so can't say much more.

If this has been formally designed, then the sheathing material and fixings should have been specified already.

That will be up to the Officer. If the Architect has 'winged it' with calculations, you should ask him to resolve it and within his fee. It is not just a matter of ticking it off, as it does have to work. It does need to be right as nobody wants overflow, especially from the treatment tank however clean it is supposed to be. On the matter of being an appropriate person, who knows?. I have the qualifications but am not registered in Scotland, and our Warrant application was responded to that we needed a registered SE for the structure. However my drainage proposal appears to have been accepted.....as they have no further questions. So yes post it here. Perhaps privately tell one or more correspondents of any concerns you have , as this page is public,

Of course some of us are still interested. Thanks. Thanks for this. It is not easy reading, and I have had to read some of the recommendations more than once. Only 2 buildings in UK and one in Ireland, but the variation of circumstances might be informative....I have only read the intro properly. I like it as I think it is mostly good news for our project, I think. But the Executive Summary is perhaps all we need to know. (My Executive Executive Summary is...keep the rain out, but let it evaporate back out if it does get in.) Here it is, if interested.....mostly seems obvious (or accurate). In general, the following conclusions and recommendations can be derived about the hygrothermal performance from the measurement and simulation results in the present case study report:  The thinner the existing wall, the lower is the possible damage-risk free thermal resistance resp. thickness of the added insulation system. A thin wall increases the condensation risk and the impact of driving rain on the construction.  The lower the driving rain load (driving rain protection of façade or low driving rain load at the specific location), the more insulation systems are possible to use.  The dryer and warmer the indoor air, the more insulation systems are possible to use. Especially the performance of capillary active systems (aka. condensate-tolerating systems) improves as these show a strong interaction with the indoor climate. Opposed to this, the behaviour of vapour-tight insulation systems (aka. condensate-preventing systems) (e.g. VIP) is only marginally depending on indoor climate conditions.  A humidification potential from one side of the construction (e.g. moist indoor air or driving rain) requires an equivalent drying potential on, at least, the opposite side of the construction. This could be provided with a condensate-tolerating internal insulation system or avoided with a reduction of the moisture load (improved driving rain protection).  The higher the built-in moisture, the higher is the required drying potential of the construction. Insulation systems with a high build-in moisture should therefore at the best be vapour-open and capillary active.  The more vapour tight the insulation systems are, the more caution should be paid on proper workmanship at constructive details, connection jointing etc.

That was always the case. We had 22t deliveries of steel, regularly, and needed 2 copies to reach us (us and bank). Sometimes the driver would have ours and 2 or 3 spares simply because they had not been asked for along the way. Other times he had only one left because they got taken at each side of the channel, by ferry and by customs. I would think that the ferry operator and UK customs would take one each every time. Make sure it starts the journey with all 6 or you may run out on the wrong side of the channel. Beware of unofficial 'arrangements' across borders. We tried to get holoriib type shuttering from France as it was 1/3 cheaper....until someone told them it was for UK and suddenly they couldn't do it any more. In other words be sure you don't turn up with a lorry and find that there aren't any bricks after all, especially with a major manufacturer who can control the market. Have you tried a brick factor? They will take a commission but may remove the risk, or have an alternative supplier.

Car batteries, when replaced through being 'worn out' , get taken to big sheds which do exactly this and store power from power stations through the night. Don't batteries 'wear out' in a predictable number of cycles? And they cost what....£5 to £10k? I am guessing that a car battery is more expensive to replace than one in a box in the plant room.

I once went to the local TP with an urgent need for drain pipe fittings, lots of them. They were reluctant to give me a price , but eventually quoted about £15 each less 10%. I knew the price at TS was about £5. They weren't best pleased that I knew and then admitted that they were being squeezed out of a lot of business by their own joint owner. They must have made enough of these £10 additions from the local builders to justify the policy. Benchmarx bottom of the range used to overlap with Wickes top of the range kitchens. I don't know the current situation. You all get the 10% discount from Wickes I trust.

To all interested parties, these reference documents from SimonD are excellent and I recommend some study . Have now started on this one and even the introduction shows that they are a good balance of academic and practical. https://www.changeworks.org.uk/sites/default/files/Solid_Wall_Insulation_in_Scotland.pdf the first page starts thus: Solid walls perform thermally better than current energy modelling assumes (i.e. they have lower U-values when measured in situ). This means that the potential financial and CO2 savings from SWI are often less than predicted – the implications of this could be considerable. Then it goes into the conflicting subjects discussed above..... one of .the main lessons seems to be how different constructions and exposures will perform. Everyone is correct, and now we have to juggle the relevant factors. Again from the document: More research is needed into the impact of SWI in increasing risk of moisture and condensation, and how this differs with different types of insulation, property construction and location I wish I had found these docs a year ago...................I found other good ones but these are ideal. I am now thinking that referring to these documents should be helpful in convincing the Building Officer of the chosen construction methods, where no standard exists.

Agreed . There are gaps at all PIR joints and the panels are likely to joggle a bit in windy conditions. Sticky tape will likely lose its stick over years, Plastic sheet can harden and crack...I know it shouldn't in the dark, warm conditions but I've seen enough inappropriate plastic failure to doubt quality.. We are doing much the same and I am planning on investing in a reinforced aluminised membrane. that will need tape over joints too, but at some stage we have to say 'enough' the scrim will keep the membrane intact, and is also easier to handle. Under £1/m2 I recall with some shopping around.

They can't if you can show that 100 suffices. who does the calculations?