All Activity

How would the fridge cable here, have been manipulated, in order to insert the plug on it's end, into the adjacent (sink cabinet) socket?? Im tearing my hair out trying to figure out how whoever did this (or indeed any under-the-worktop type appliance, a dishwasher, washing machine/ anything) got it's plug, into the socket. You can see the BLACK plug in the double socket, on the RHS midway above the open door..

Adding a battery potentially changes the dynamics. In the winter panels spread through 180 degrees from E-W will likely generate less than the same panels all facing south and pumping the peak generation into a battery. Run the figures through PVGIS and see how it pans out ie 2kw East + 2kw West versus 4 kw facing south

PS Being a nice fellow with lots of build photos I plan to create a folder of photos and drawings to help any future owner with maintenance needs understand how cables and pipes have been run and where conduit runs have been put in through floor and ceiling voids. Also creating a floor hatch. Hopefully will help someone avoid drilling into underfloor heating pipes etc after I am dead and gone. Interestingly my architects SOW specified M&E design and install documentation was to be provided. But maybe doubtful whether some plumbers & sparkies can even write tbh. Has anyone ever obtained such documentation from a builder or tradesperson ?

So if you are fitting fire rated downlights in the ceiling would a smoke alarm with say an 80mm circular hole above not breach fire requirements ? Or can you get fire rated recessed smokes ? Most smokes would fit onto the p/board with just wires poking through a 10mm hole ? I am fitting LED strip into rooflights and have run cable from the strip location through the ceiling void to a nearby utility room cupboard where I will site the transformers and controllers for ease of access and maintenance. I put flexible conduit through the ceiling and ran the cable through that with a spare cable. So could all be replaced too if ever necessary. Using 24V strip to reduce voltage drop. For LED strip to shelves have fixed open trunking behind plasterboard so holes can be drilled into it at shelf heights to run cable behind p/board to transformer/controllers mounted in cupboard below.

The problem with both proposals is in a few year's time good luck finding it if there's a fault, let alone if there's a new home owner. Personally my preference is to put them all in a somewhat central location per floor, e.g. next to the consumer unit or in a cupboard with (above) ufh manifold, next to the network panel, or something like that, depends on the floor layout. (In my own projects they go in the home automation control panel, of course). People often worry about voltage drop on long lines, but upsizing cable to 1.5mm2 and always use 24V rather than 12V strip. In practice if thought out a bit the cable run will likely be under 10m anyway. You can put isolator switches in that same place for things that don't have any more obvious locations. Just makes it all a bit more maintainable.

Something like this I think. The red is the housewrap stuff. The fascia is that which you can see in the photos,v so I will build outward from that.

Which are the best upvc profiles? They all claim to be! @craig

I think it would give weird results and be hard to get a temperature from. on a different house i had a mixer cartridge that was dying and when you flushed a toilet it would cause the shower head to drip a decent amount of water ( about a mug) as the cold was sucking from the hot side. So i wonder if it would cause some kind of issue that way. I have heard of bathroom fitters getting the supplies mixed up and having issues but cant remember the issues.

I removed all the trim off the inside of the furthest away bay in the picture with the canopy roof and it seems whoever installed it cut the internal wooden window board wrong as the upvc window sill is just floating and does not sit on the wooden sill at all i can see daylight as there is a 5-10mm gap all around the inside of the window from and the wooden sill. The plaster board ceiling for it sits ontop of the window frames, Tap the plasterboard and it sounded hollow, grabbed a screwdriver bored a hole through in seconds, So obviously nothing above that. Scary what you find sometimes.

what did you go with in the end?

just chucking them in yourself might cause an issue when you come to sell it as you wont have a fensa certificate. you can use websites like, modernupvcwindows to get an idea of what you want then an idea of cost before you get some quotes.but dont forget the installer will price in trims/foam/silicone/packers/fixing etc.. i have eurocell in my house because they are round the corner from me and noise reduction Liniar in my garage because i got them off marketplace off some crackhead. I put a crystal from the bargain bin section in wickes in my mates garden room/playhouse because it was £20. These is a quite a bit to it and once you take your old one out you have to get the new one in by the end of the day or it gets chilly.

Probably OTT, but I ran a bead of foam down each batten as I fixed it.

Could we see your version of the above sketch?

Centre is rotary, above and below are levers but all clear of any obstructions. The plate can be rotated back the correct way judging by the technical drawings so that at least isn't an issue. As long as there isn't anything else I'm overlooking think I'll just go for it and see what happens! It'll save a load of demolition and upheaval.

Claude's funny. We can go on for literally hours and not resolve issues and then it says "for whom picks this up....". I take that as a hint!. Open a new session same model same level and off we go again. You would assume bigger context would give better reasoning on a problem but sometimes not it would seem. I let Claude now use "auto" so it can roam more files without approval. Literally just churns away... I have to stop it and ask "WTF are you doing?" - frequently its gone down a pointless rabbit hole. I do swear it has its own agenda within mine!

The builder doesn’t “smell anything” if there are issues wouldn’t it be behind the vcl would I need to cut this open to inspect framing?

Aico are about 150mm Dia, so a 50-60mm hole for hiding/retrieving a driver should give you room for fitting the smoke alarm base, if you cant use the manufacturers holes then I doubt you’ll get shot for making your own fixing holes.

I chased most of my cables in, if I did it again I would batten all the walls out. you will need to test lots of screws out if screwing into the nylon webs, most wood screws won’t grip if you over spin them. I have found the exterior screws in wickes grip perfectly as they have a very course thread. look for the 3inch ones if fitting a 25mm batten. no idea why they are imperial sizes.

Option 3 is how our house was done. They used roof tile battens in our case.

Ah of course I see the point now - I guess I will need to check I can make the hole large enough to pull the driver through but still be able to screw the detector base onto the PB!

With these sorts of issues I can understand why this system has not been adopted by the housebuilders.

I went the max panel and inverter route. Size of inverter was partly determined by desire to cover peaks without drawing from grid i.e. kettle, toaster, air fryer all on at same time. This allowed for a large number of panels (24). This was dictated strongly by my (carport) roof size. I wanted to get it looking neat so fewer panels would look stupid. 24 panels filled the roof really nicely. It also compensated for sub optimal angle and orientation (12 degrees and South West). It also allowed reasonable generation (enough to cover daily demand) in the shoulder months as the panels are badly shaded by trees and the house. All in all we have zero import for 6 months and produce about 25% of demand in deep winter. The array easily saturates my export limit (a measly 3.6kw) so we have alot of potential excess in the summer. One advantage of the big array and inverter in the winter is the charge rate can be really high so you can take advantage of the 2 or 3 hours of sun during an otherwise dull day. 3 hours of good sun is about all I need to top up.

Smell is very difficult to establish and prove. Actual moisture and mould can be measured and photographed. Have you had anyone else in to verify the smell, like a mate or your partner? If it is really obviously bad you should go back to the housebuilder and register it as an official issue, stating that x people have also noticed it.

I had the foreman in and he said he can’t smell anything. So I’d like to gather some evidence. there’s no pipes on that wall I also noticed today I can smell it from my bedroom sockets which is the floor above but a few metres to the right near to the end of the house

A friend has used this company twice & has been pleased both times. They've just fitted a long bi-fold run, separate slide or French patio doors (can't remember which) & 6 or more other doors/windows to his house extension. They supply & fit. https://truglaze.co.uk/ They're in Frimley Green, so probably not far from you. Please let us all know how you get on - I have a rental property that will need new windows within months (assuming the tenant moves out, as expected).