Tel: 01 945 880 091
Great showroom. We went to look at their aluminium options but ended up going with the composite upvc Residence 9 system with eclectic grey outside and Irish oak inside. Matched with a Solidor Italia Turin door.
Overall rating: 9/10. Very competitive pricing. Fitting very good but as with many of these things, could have been a little less messy (inside of house no problem, outside was a mess).
Ian McCannoch | Tiler | Werrington PE4 6QY
Tel: 01 733 321 435 | 07 771 513 909
After having two different lots of the builders do our previous tiling (bathroom, shower-room and kitchen) with mixed results, we finally found a tiler we can trust 100%. Ian is a real professional. Meticulous and very skilled. He also has that rare commodity among workmen - he communicates! Can't rate him highly enough.
Overall rating: 10/10. Faultless.
PRB Plumbing & Heating | Whittlesey PE7 1TY
Tel: 07 721 040 047
Phil re-plumbed the entire rebuild in 2008 and has been back since to service our two boilers and install two new ensuite bathrooms.
Excellent workmanship. Always left site tidy. His boiler installations were said to be the "some of the best work I have ever seen" by a Ferroli boiler engineer.
Overall rating: 9/10. Near faultless. Can be difficult to pin down at times. But he's worth waiting for.
Jon Avory & Sons | Carpenters and Builders | Werrington PE4 6LT
Tel. 07 729 263 335
After finally getting rid of Hampton Construction (Max Williamson, Vas, Danny/Stamper and Pete - DO NOT USE THEM!!! - rating 0/10 - we had to redo 95% of the work they undertook inc. replacing the slate roof they put on, rebuilding all the extensions they put up, underpin the new supports they put in without adequate footings, etc, etc - see here for the state they left us in - hey cost us tens of thousands), we finally got back on track, and quickly, with local and well-established firm Jon Avory & Sons (Matt and Sean and occasionally Josh) and team (Ging and Kevin).
Overall rating: 7/10. We think there construction skills are excellent but their overall internal finishing skills let them down. A big downer has been they have not not been back since they left to snag despite many phone calls. We've given up on them and moved on.
Rod Mepham | Chartered Building Survey | Ramsey, PE26 1DQ
Rod took our basic design for the two cottages and brought them to life on the plans. His trained eye meant he was able to tweak some areas, but we're pleased that the overall design remains about 90% our own. Rod also oversaw our planning applications (one for the building work and the second for our solar panel) and the building regs.
Overall rating: 8/10. Improved on my own plans. Slight black mark for not spotting something which ended up costing us money unnecessarily.
Dendura (previously called Lamwood) windows and external doors
Lamwood make stabilized oak windows and doors from wood sourced from sustainable woodlands in Germany and Europe. We found them at the Homebuilding & Renovation Show at the NEC in March. They make seriously nice windows. We went up to their factory near Uttoxeter yesterday for a guided tour of how our windows will be made. The jobs they had going through are mega compared to ours. We plan to do use Lamwood in two phases, 1) during the course of the renovation for all new windows and doors for the rear and gable end elevations, and 2) when we have saved up some more pennies, we'll replace the nasty uPVC front windows and doors with oak sashes and doors.
Overall rating: 10/10. Simply brilliant windows and doors and fabulous service.
Overall rating: roof windows 10/10, sun tunnel 7/10 - a week link in insulating the roofspace.
Thermafleece
A natural insulation made from British sheep wool. It has a great thermal (0.039 W/mK) so will keep us snug in winter and help to keep the heat out of the rooms in summer.
Overall rating: 7/10 - I think we could have done better with one of those super-thin foils which we will probably add as a retro-fit from the outside when we come to replace the outer cladding in 10+ years.
We couldn't resist some of Jaga's fab Knockonwood low H2O models for our new living room.
They just look so cool! Check one of ours out here.
Overall rating: 10/10. Stunning, efficient and effective room heating.
Isolair
We're using Isolair as our insulating sarking boards for the new roof areas and to board the first floor extension. Isolair is made from 99.5% waste wood from Swiss forest/timber yards (where it is made). It has great thermal conductivity (0.047 W/m.K) so helps to keep us warm in winter and cool in summer.
Overall rating: 9/10. Seemed to work well and were easy to cut to fit.
Freewater UK water harvesting
We're using Freewater UK's Rainman Standard T.
Overall rating: its not yet working and Freewater haven't been very helpful. I woudn't use them again. Eventually got the thing up and running although the cut off to stop the thing isn't working but no big deal. The system I'd rate as 8/10 but Freewater UK only 3/10 - they were eager to sell us the thing but the backup service is non-existent.
Having done our comparisons, we're going to run our new woodburning stove on these heat logs. They are basically bricks made from 100% sawmill waste. No glues or resins to bind them, just dense sawdust. They have are much denser than wood so burn slower and give off a higher heat output and per tonne is significantly higher than wood. They also burn much purer so leave virtually no soot residue on the stove glass or flue and reduce to much less ash than wood. They also fit our eco drive brilliantly. Unless you happen to have your own sustainable wood source growing outside the house, whatever wood we bought to fuel the stove had to be transported. At least this way we are using a by product which would otherwise go to waste and not require any trees to be cut just for our needs. Great!
Overall rating: 10/10. Great heat output and they create a great flame.
and here it is!
We owned no. 3 (left) and in August 2006 we managed to buy no.4 (yippee!).
This is the not-so-attractive dormer extension thats gonna be ripped down to make way for a new first floor extension that will run across the full length of the back.
Dendura (previously called Lamwood) windows and external doors
At the front, the main change will be the removal of the existing hideous porches, reinstate an original type canopy over the main door (no.3 on left), and add a false door to no.4.
Its all change at the back! The current eyesore that is the dormer extension on no.4 goes and is replaced with a new first floor extension across the back of the entire property. This will house three bathrooms, a large double bedroom and our dressing room.
Here you can see the extent of the first floor extension, the extension of the current roofline to form a canopy along the rear of the house to the back door, and the new gable end windows for the main reception (ground) and study.
The new kitchen/diner replaces the kitchen, utility and bathroom of the current no.3. Receptions 2 and 3 are pretty much as they are now, but in no.4, the existing reception and kitchen are combined to form a great new large reception room with open staircase. The shower-room will serve reception 2 which doubles as a ground floor bedroom.
Upstairs, bedrooms 1 and 2 are as they are now, but with the addition of ensuite bathrooms and a dressing room for bedroom 1. The study is formed out of two existing bedrooms (and will double as another spare bedroom) whilst bedroom 3 and the bathroom are formed by the new extension.
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