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Hi all, just joined the forum as I am about to build an extension and thought being a member of this forum would be helpful in helping me through with some of the questions I am going to no doubt have. A little about me, I am a consultant engineer, my discipline is electrical but I am always closely involved with the mechanical and structures and architects so after many years of looking at drawings and visiting building sites you can get an idea of things that are not your area which is helpful. My interests and hobbies include running, walking, all things DIY; from woodwork to automotive repairs. When I have finished our house renovation and build I am not sure what will replace that! I do almost all my own work and hate bodging. We moved into our current 1960's semi 2 years ago and so far we have totally renovated upstairs (except the bathroom but there is a reason connected to the extension), this included things like properly bricking up, venting and capping the fireplace in the master, rewiring small power and lighting circuits with new centralised lighting control which can be tied into a BMS system eventually, running in RF/data/phone etc to all rooms, over-boarding ceilings, plastering and fitting plaster cornices, shaker panelling to the master wall in the master bedroom, walls plastered where needed including the whole ground and 1st hall, all new skirting/window surrounds and architraves, removed the solid balustrade to the stairs and opened it all up, removed the wall to the under-stair cupboard and fitted 2 large drawers and a single cupboard. The living room was gutted and had a wood stove installed, I also built out the chimney breast on either side with plasterboard shelves, again over-boarded the ceiling, plastered, fitted plaster cornice and laid Ted Todd flooring throughout the ground floor. I also rebuilt a column to the front of the drive, someone had opened the wall up a bit to make way for modern sized vehicles, but they had just left the end of the wall cut with no column to match the opposite side. Oh and we had the guttering and soffit and fascia boards replaced to the front of the house. So far the trades I have used are stove man who is also the roofing/gutter man and my plasterers. I am about to build an extension which the kitchen shall move out into and a new garage. On the extension I am able to cheat a bit as I am already out of the ground because there is a large sun room which we will dismantle and build up from. Planning application is in for both garage and ext. and application for building warrant is in for the extension - they have been in about 2 weeks now so hopefully we will have something in about 4 weeks according to my architect. I was studying the warrant drawings and have started to QS the project to get an idea of cost but also to start understanding what I am going to have to build so the questions are building up. I shall start posting; hopefully in the correct sections, my questions on bits and pieces I want to start bottoming out.