a quandary or two....

We are coming to the end of our bricklaying phase.
Internal walls have been set out and most have now reached head height. External walls of blockwork and Ancaster stone are now up to the height of 'the plate' onto which the roof trusses will sit. The roof trusses are being manufactured and we expect delivery this week.

But now we enter quandary time.

'The library'

First, in our choice of windows. In order for the building to meet Passivhaus standards the windows must have a U value of 0.8 or lower. This reduces the number of suppliers we can use. We have had an initial quote from a Danish company idealCombi and have two more quotations from the Huddersfield-based GreenStore. And at the last minute, a surprise email from Velfac whose windows we had not considered earlier in the process because they could not achieve the necessary U value ... but now their product achieves a U-value of 0.7. So, no decision taken on windows and a lead time of ten weeks. This prevents us doing any of the internal works and effectively puts most of the building work on hold into early December.

The second issue is around secondary sources of heating.

We cannot decide on the size of the log burning stove or the need for additional underfloor heating until we have the windows in and the air-tightness of the building tested. This lack of decision on the underfloor heating prevents us putting in insulation of screeding the floors.

So, more delay .... and to the frustration of all concerned.