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Hi, I am in the middle of building a timber-frame house (awaiting first fix electrics and plumbing). The recent hot spell has convinced me to get brise-soliel on the south facing upstairs windows. I have them planned for downstairs already. But I played around with PHPP and although my overheating reduced it didn't disappear. My phpp consultant has no figures inputted for L31 window ventilation air change rate and P59 Window night ventilation (in summer vent sheet) Has anyone got 'typical' figures for these? I have used 0.35 and 0.15 respectively and my overheating drops down to 3.9% (with all southern windows shaded). Apart from fitted brise-soliel there isn't much else I can do as all doors windows are fitted and insulation is in place - so I just want to check if the ventilation figures are reasonable. Thanks

Two roof gables project outwards from upstairs bedrooms and onto balconies, and these need to have some sort of finish on the inside verticals and underside of the roof. I thought about real timber initially, but I don't want the colour to fade unevenly or have to do any maintenance on it, so I was thinking about some sort of flush weatherboard. There are a couple that I've seen that are okay, but my real dilemma is that we're going to have a brise soleil in front of the high floor to first floor ceiling height window and I would really like them to match as closely as possible to stop the look of the house being too busy with too many textures and colours going on. I can't think of anything other than wood that the brise soleil can be practically made from, but then I know very little about these things. Does anyone have any suggestions re. materials for the brise soleil, who I would approach to have one of these made, and alternatives for the finish on the gable inner sides. Ta very much!

Opposite our house, to the South, there used to be (until today) a 30ft high Leylandii hedge. It was the other side of the lane, and the other side of the stream, and behind it there's a two storey house. Today, the owner of that house had contractors in and they've cut most of the hedge down to just a few feet high. As our house is around 10ft higher than theirs, this means that the windows to the front of our house now look directly into the bedroom windows of the house opposite, which was previously hidden behind the tall hedge. I'm not sorry to see the hedge go, but think it could have been trimmed a lot better than it has been, but that's neither here nor there. One consequence is that we get a great deal more light at the front, and overall that's no bad thing. However, we've always had a slight problem with solar gain from the kitchen window and a small window in the living room, both of which face south. We also had a problem with the big glazed gable, but that was fixed by installing reflective film, which has the added benefit of making that gable into a one-way mirror, so no one can normally look in. Now that the hedge has been cut right down, we need to do something to give some privacy. As I've also been pondering over ways to reduce the solar gain, I'm wondering if I can't do both, by fitting a horizontally slatted brise soleil, with the slats arranged as a sort of projecting canopy of boards on edge, with a slight pitch downwards to provide the required privacy. I've had a look around online, but all the off-the-shelf systems I've been able to find look a bit too contemporary. Our house looks fairly rustic, and anything I fit will need planning approval, so has to be in keeping with the waney edge larch cladding. Has anyone got any good ideas, by any chance?