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So I did apply it correctly. Maybe not enough or should have used a Wax or Resin based agent.

Glad you ignored any naysayers. Its lovely stuff.

But would say big grant, but you pay big admin fees to get grant and installer adds a premium - or it's a rip-off You pay 2x standing charge, been there son went direct heat pump. Solar is great in summer a d rubbish in winter 0 That's why you do full heat loss calculations, so you know they can. I just heat our DHW via immersion, that leaves the heat pump to do what it wants to keep house warm. Current only pay 10p per kWh off peak, by the time you factor in all the inefficiency of gas it not far off the same price in real terms, maybe cheaper if you factored in standing charge in the summer months.

Well done. If it is hard and flat you will be OK. Thousands of tiny cracks will be better than a few big ones. Even with fibre you would have cracks. Photo of the surface please?

Can you post a pic of the ends of the hot and cold union please. For the shower outlet this is simple. This goes into the top. Then this goes into that. Likely 2 of these for hot & cold. The bush simply gets 21 turns of PTFE tape, same with the 1/2” male thread, or buy liquid PTFE like pipe superglue if you’re not confident. Those 3/4” fittings should be just a bit over hand tight and a little pinch with a spanner and all good. Make off stubs of 15mm into them before mounting them onto the shower, so you’re not swinging off them and putting the rubber seals under undue stress / movement etc

Tell them you are without water and they'll escalate this and get to you pronto. When they arrive simply say you managed to get it back open ‘slightly’

Your architect should have already produced GA’s (general arrangements) and some basin storey rods. Your builder is right, no recipe book, no cake, otherwise the design onus is on him whereas it should be on your architect aka principal designer (it is they who will underwrite everything). Have you tried saving money with architect fees? Prob the worst saving; subject to you having a good architect.

The lads I watched were literally spraying immediately behind the dapple, as it was being worked along. Absolutely zero delay, and the stuff cured on top of the concrete like clingfilm PDQ.

4.2 and 5.4 spans, or width? If spans, then you’ll need minimum 5x2 even foe a temporary offering, or you could install a perpendicular ‘spine’ mid span made of 2x 6x2’s bolted together, then you can use 4x2 to span wall > spine > wall easily. By the time you sheath this, minimum 18mm OSB, there will be a lot of weight up there. And most self builders mean 3 or more years when they say 2 .

I have gas as well. Will be trying to switch to full electric soon with a use of a heatpump. Been a bit nervous about if a heat pump could provide enough heating/hot water for the whole house at the same time or if during peak use it would struggle. I'm having solar installed over the next few weeks which is making me want to switch to at least try it out. It's a bit annoying because there's a big grant in the UK for switching to heat pumps right now but it has to be a full replacement can't be a hybrid solution where you can fall back onto to gas if your heat pump struggles. I've not done deep research into it yet but will do once i got the solar up and running and seeing how it goes. For the monitoring stuff I'm with octopus energy so they provide me with a octopus mini https://octopus.energy/blog/octopus-home-mini/ which gives you near real time monitoring. Water i've not managed to tackle yet. My water meter is in an awkward poisition. I've heard how water companies read the meters is that they drive by and pick up RF signals that the smart meters give out. It's possible for you to read those as well but i've not been successful in doing it.

So feel free to have a chuckle to yourself, but the SCC pour went really well and the stuff is absolutely amazing. Slabs level to 2mm. What didn't go well and this was partly due to a lack of information available and me not appreciating the associated risks of trying to pour slabs in weather that is so hot, was the curing. Slabs unfortunately look like crazy paving. Curing agent was applied, but when it states "immediately after finishing" they don't mean dappling and when the concrete is still fluid. Cemex also advised that microfibers should be added, but then somehow didn't adjust the order (yes! I should have double checked) so that didn't help. Having A252 mesh has probably saved me from having to condemn them. But I would still recommend this can be done as DIY. So long as you can use a laser level and set up screed levelling tripods, then you will be amazed at how flat and level you can get slabs just by using a dapple bar. Just be careful of doing it in hot weather, as SCC has low water and a high cement content so not as forgiving as normal concrete. Note - I purposely didn't dapple a shallow pass on this slab as the finish from the first pass was perfectly good enough for below PIR As to pouring the remaining slabs. Well. I'm too nervous now. Especially, given the weather and previous attempt. Was considering using Hessian and water curing, but even then I am unsure. It's 15c at 8am when I poured and by 10am it's absolutely roasting and probably 26c VID-20260801-WA0007.mp4

Welcome. Is your home all electric or do you also have gas? What are you doing for energy and water monitoring?

If you haven't paid for construction drawings you will not get them. It's more normal for the architect to do them, again you pay extra.

Hi i have a main contractor and SE. SE has provided a package for all my steel calcs and also the construction drawings for BC. the builder is asking for working drawings for the build. The SE is stating some of these are out of the scope of his work and are the builders responsibility. an example being we have bay windows…. the builder wants a full working drawings of the bay windows how to attached to the structure and the roof etc. the SE has provided details of the load and lintels and specs and also Given a cross sectional view of the window with insulation details etc. builder saying not detailed enough need info on how to build the dormer out and link roof to structure? SE saying any builder worth there salt should be able to do this ? And the builder can use him for Clarification if unsure but it’s not his scope of work to go into such details ? Are the both correct? Is one being more pedantic than the other i?

In case we get another heatwave, I can wholeheartedly recommend foil emergency blankets. Put them on three sets of east-facing patio doors and the difference is amazing. Even better, you can see through it (to a degree). Less than a quid each too 👍👍

Tell her to go shopping if you're trying to get stuff done.

welcome to the daylight.

Welcome. Sorry I'm the polar opposite, had some home automation and basically stripped it all out, preferring simple light switches etc. use home assistant only to monitor stuff now, but generally it controls nothing that matters.

Well i got the tool, seems very very handy, been using it plasterboarding and even ended up using a scraper blade to cut fiberglass batt insulation that i was struggling to cut with a stanley knife. As far as the makita machine i got is concerned it seems fine but i havent used any others. I ve just been using blades from a cheap set i got in lidls. Thanks for the advice, glad i got one. Only downside is its a particularly annoying noise , but i wear eardeffenders a lot so no biggie. Thanks carl

Hi all, I'm Sepehr. Been lurking here for a while and finally signing up properly. About 3 years ago we knocked down an old bungalow and rebuilt from the ground up. Being able to plan the wiring and infrastructure from scratch rather than retrofitting meant I could go a lot further with the smart home side than most people manage — cabling, sensors, lighting and heating control all designed in from first fix, running on Home Assistant. The automation side turned into a proper hobby rather than a one-off job — it didn't stop once the build finished. I'm still tinkering: writing automations, adding presence detection, playing with dashboards, chasing down the odd flaky Zigbee device, that sort of thing. It's the kind of hobby where there's always one more sensor to add or one more automation to refine, and I've learned as much from breaking things and fixing them as from getting it right first time. Learned a huge amount along the way about the building side too (a lot of it from lurking here, if I'm honest) — insulation, airtightness, first fix planning, all the stuff that isn't obvious until you're actually doing it. Happy to chip in on the smart home / automation side where it's useful, and looking forward to learning more from everyone here on the building side.

Phone Scottish water and they will send somebody out to sort it.

Gave it some big welly. In both directions to the extent the tool remains firm on the lug but the T-bar is at 45° and the rod mental is in full twist but it won't budge a midges ball hair. I'm right (am I not) that to turn OFF you screw clockwise? Zoom in its a flat bar connection, standard stuff...

Nice fella at the garage near work extended the stop cok key. Asked how much, don't be daft he said, wonderful that some folk are just so nice

What do your plans actually say about roof angle? Big difference between 12 degs and pretty much flat. Our 12 degs roof is 2.5 block work one side of the building and closer to 3.5 to 4m at the other (staggered wall).

I have been driven up the wall trying to figure out how to connect pipework to a Crosswater Fusion concealed shower valve. To my mind the installation instructions contradict themselves and I'd appreciate to hear a more qualified interpretation than my own (I'm a Carpenter not a Engineer of any description) The valve has: G 3/4" (BSPP) female shower head port. There is no seat for a rubber seal to sit in this port (and none show on the diagram) G 3/4" (BSPP) male H&C inlet ports. Rubber edged gauze washer/filter are required to be installed on the ports The instruction specifically state: Make all pipe connections using a proprietary thread sealer Do not use tapered threaded adaptors My understanding is that a female port (where a rubber seal and seat for that seal is absent) requires the mating male to be tapered thread (BSPT) and wrapped with thread sealer to make the joint; and where the male ports have a rubber edge filter provides the seal then using thread sealer (Locktight 55 cord for example) may hinder making the joint. If that understanding is correct then the instruction are surely contradictory?