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Hi all, Just to introduce myself. We are just about to finalise our renovation/extension project in the West End of Glasgow. Detached bungalow which we have pushed out the back 6m and also added another storey to it. The last two years, to be quite frank, have been pretty hellish, not only in terms of financial outlay (budgets - lol, aye ok) but, personal energy investment. I don't think we really realised how big an undertaking it was until one day, standing with my brother in law and we had no roof and it was just basically a shell. My brother in law looked around and went "fk me" and then it kind of hit me, square in the face or what we have taken on! We would have been quicker and cheaper, flattening the house and doing a fresh build but we weren't allowed to do that (a story for another day). Anyway, external wall insulation has just been completed and we are about to to start the roughcasting externally. Because we look at the building everyday we don't kind of realise how impressive it is and its totally out of context with the neighbours single storey 85m2 detached bungalows(we have 18 objection letters from the neighbours and even neighbours as far as 1.5 miles away, councillors, mp's the lot) as ours rises 6.2m at the back (the neighbour calls the wall facing him The Berlin Wall!). I work in the insulation industry but to be honest, I have learned so much more about insulation, insulation u values, lambda values - the works. We have made mistakes yes but fixed them. At the end of the day, we have built a house in which we are only temporary custodians but this house will stand proudly (Berlin Wall-esque) for a long long time and with excellent insulation and air tightness values, solar panel power generation and we are really proud of what we have achieved. Incidentally - never again!

I am planning on building a single storey building 12m by 6m by 3.25m (approx 0.7m underground) at the bottom of my garden in London. Whilst the building will be South facing it will receive very little direct sunlight in the winter as the sun will be obscured by the House and other houses on the Street. The North, East and West facing walls receieve minimal light due to neighbouring properties or fencing and will therefore not have any windows. Whilst I woud want a very low U value for the winter months my concern is that could lead to overheating in the Summer. Am I right to be concerned or can this be dealt with by the MVHR unit, install awnings that can be rolled out in the summer to shade the windows and opening the windows over night. In escence should I still be aiming for a low U value. Connected to this is the question as to whether there would be any benefit in removing the inner eps of the ICF to allow for the concrete wall to help with temperature regulation. As an aside I quite like the idea of have a concrete wall as the wall finish. Thanks Andy

I have any number of these left over from the build. I'd like to stick them in my roof between the rafters.... but I have a dreadful feeling Mr @JSHarris will say ' No you can't ' . I think we've had this conversation before but for the life of me I can't find it. Wasn't it the small gaps between the blocks that'll prove too hard to seal off? Please tell me I can use them. It's such a huge waste not to....