Our current client who’s a woman who deals with guys in her work enviroment and is not a football fan painted a picture for us wise old boys. ‘The cat needs to get in and out whilst I’m away at work all day. I do not want a cat litter tray in my lovely new garden room and want to know the cat can get in for it’s food.’

This has made me realise that requests as odd as they seem to us wise-all-at-one-with-the-world builders and authorities on the beautiful game, need to be considered and actioned. So we have now designed a cat flap that comes through the wall and numbered it 16 C; and yes the first client did also get the cat flap and joined us in the morning meetings even though he supports Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It’s all in the detail as they say.

We have been carrying out SAP calculations (heatloss calcs) since we began creating our rooms. I can say that in almost every instance our clients are well aware of energy costs and employ numerous forms for decreasing their energy output; increased loft insulation, higher rated windows and boilers, water harvesting all spring to mind. Our rooms conform to the latest building regulations and we have no impact on the energy requirements of the existing house.

One simple regulation that could help reduce energy output in an instant, that the wise ministers should employ, would be to make conservatories conform to building regulations and to not deny that people use these as habital rooms. It really makes me wild that slick sales guys sell these products and avoid telling the whole story of the conservatory. Customers are left with a room that they will eventually turn off and close the doors to when they get their latest quarterly meter readings.

To my mind customers are way ahead of the government as energy costs increase. The last government dogged the issue of conservatories in the last round of building regulations. It seems the lobbyists from the conservatory companies had another escape. Customers do not need legislation to save energy they need knowledge and legislation that protects vulnerability.

As an aside, to carry on this I have linked in these guys AECB who talk a great deal of sense when dealing with energy consumption. Is it really in the interests for energy companies and their shareholders to sell less of their product?

Got that of my chest

We started another Garden room this week in Old Stratford Milton Keynes with another project starting just after the easter break.

By Tuesday we will have decorated and prepared the skirting. We will be fitting the folding doors towards the end of the week and finishing off the small details which cannot be completed until the doors are installed.

Our client is now ready for the next phase of the project with which we have been offering help and advice. A new kitchen is to be installed and the garden is having a design and planting scheme produced. Once complete I feel that this will be yet another amazing space that we have helped create.

http://www.12gardendesign.co.uk

I’ve linked in the garden design company who have produced the design as their work is impressive; the successful flow of indoor and outdoor rooms employing the infinity threshold will make a stunning living space once completed.

First fix electrics were installed with the client liasing closely with the electrician to ensure light switches, lights and plug points are where they’re required. We invite clients to consider their electrical requirements carefully taking in consideration audio visual, lighting and lamps etc. Experience tells us that this stage is very important and as much thought as possible should be made towards this.

Insulation boarding and plastering has been completed and the room is starting to open up.

Our tasks next week are to finish off the external walls with the self colured render system, complete the sub floor and start getting the first coats of paint on the walls for second fix.

We now have a date for the doors which is the end of this month (March 2012). Each set of doors are completely bespoke to each project. We only ever install Sunflex doors as we believe they are the best. We have been installing these since we started 5 years ago and have yet to ever be called back with a concern or problem. With so much mechanics and weight in these doors I find it a complete false economy to consider anything other. My tangent mind reminds me of a John Ruskin quote about taking risks with cost and the gamble… see quote below ‘The Common Law of Business Balance’

We have secured the new room and this week taken out the back of house to open up the whole of the existing house giving us a 6.3m x 4.5m kitchen dining and seating area, this will also feel bigger once we have the infinity thresholds from the doors and the floor continues out in to the garden.

This open plan is achievable due to the compliance and regulations we carry out and adhere to. Structural calculations for the steels in place of the wall and SAP calculations for insulation to ensure we have no impact on the house. This gives the room the ability to be integral to the house and not just a bolt on nasty nasty too hot too cold C word.

We are now ready to first fix electrics and start insulating and boarding up the walls and plastering.

It is unwise to pay too much but it’s unwise to pay too little.
When you pay too much you lose a little money that is all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was not capable of doing the thing you bought it to do.
The common law of business prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.
It can’t be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better!

We tile all our roofs to compliment the original house, it’s not often we can’t match the existing tiles.

We create a vaulted ceiling as opposed to flat. We believe this gives the room a much more open feel with the height created. We fit almost as standard, Velux roof lights. We use a square roof light that’s electrically operated. With certain products we only fit the best on the market as the products are well tested and the after sales are fantastic. Saying this we have in the time we’ve been installing the Velux product not had one breakdown on us.

I have included a link from Velux that shows off their range of products that we install. On the Velux site there’s a great download about bringing your ideas to life http://www.velux.co.uk/