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Hmmm. Seems to me that a first fix nailer would not be suitable for cladding as it uses larger nails and leaves a larger hole! What I am after is a nailer that uses smaller fixings that don't need any further finishing work on the timber once nailed.

Thank you @saveasteading. I thought the risk would be from warm moist air in the kitchen finding its way past the insulation to reach the (now colder) plywood deck. It would be a hybrid roof, which are sometimes seen as a bad idea. Particularly if the insulation was permeable like Rockwool. Even with PIR, gaps might appear over time as foil tape delaminates slightly, sealants shrink etc ?

For a door handle, plug, switch etc I'd think in terms of swapping one out from the least used room rather than preemptively buy spares. Kitchen door/drawer is probably the one that worries me a bit and if I was having a custom colour or finish would worry more. Expensive to buy just for spares though. It's always reassuring to have a couple of full tiles or flooring planks left over, but generally from a planned %wastage rather than buying a whole extra pack for spares

Amazing quality of finish - excellent job 👏

I have been an SQL server & MYSQL user until about a month ago when one of my students was showing me some work they were doing on a knowledge hub with Postgres and I thought I should give it a go for my next mini project idea and I found it very good all kinds of ways the pgAdmin software is excellent.

Yes This 👆 I have an air coil nailer, and for cladding and featheredge it is just so much better. My 1st fix Hitachi just explodes the featheredge if attempting 'hidden fixing' on the leading thinner edge. Coil nailer fires a full round head too vs a clipped head, so offers the benefit of less penetration into the wood.

Ah well

I've got a DeWalt first fix as well and it's f'ing huge. Never used it, got it at work but I'd only ever use that for framing.

I fitted a Texecom Elite system in our self build into house, annexe and garage. House and annexe are treated as independent areas, each with is own keypad with a RFID sensor. Steep learning curve to program it using their PC application, but doable. It monitors via PIRs, plus smoke and fire detectors. Also drives my door-bell. I agree that this is old fashioned tech, but it's now in year 10 and I've only had to change one backup battery in that time - the panel alerted me to the pending failure of the old battery. I abandoned their android app a long time ago, but I believe they have upgraded that tech a bit. I use home assistant integration for remote monitoring and management. I wanted to avoid reliance on wireless and battery powered devices, so everything is wired to the central unit. All devices, internal and external sounders etc take power from this centre which has is own fused spur. Solid steel cabinet and well built. Their corner PIR sensors are pet friendly, however I have one 360 sensor that is not. I'd use then again based on this experience, though I'd probably see what other companies are doing and what progress the tech has made first.

I bought a spare handle set when changing all the handles on the doors in our house. The previous handles had all been on for twentyish years and I'd never had to replace one. Less than a year in with the new ones and a bunch of stuff fell over in the garage, against the handle, and bent it badly. Now, the handles are still available to buy, but the moral of the story is these things do happen sometimes, and it's a small price to pay for a little peace of mind. I have a spare handle set (or more accurately, one side of a door now!), spare catches, a couple of spare hinges, a spare LED spot for the ones used across the whole of downstairs, and a few other bits and pieces. Never had to use anything other than a handle yet, and I'm sure some things like the hinges wouldn't be really difficult to replace, even if I had to do all three per door, but it's just a lot easier and my mind is a lot more peaceful knowing I have some spares to hand to fix issues almost immediately. I do make a habit of very meticulously keeping things like part numbers and supplier information when I do projects, so I don't always keep duplicates of everything, more so the things that I'd feel forced to change as a set if one failed and I couldn't source an identical replacement. I've thought the same thing about larger items and don't know where I'll end up for some of those in the future. Solar panels are a good example. Do you buy an extra one just in case one fails in an array of eight identical panels or end up with one looking slightly different to all the others if you have to replace it with something different because they are no longer available?

Well you have answered your own question, as you have already sorted out your storage of the bits. Why build that big, you must rattle about in there

You put them in one of the 3 spare bedrooms that nobody uses.

And the spares, where did I put them? Bugger I've looked everywhere?

When buying your door furniture, led ceiling lights, light switches etc, do you buy extra for breakages down the line? Just thinking about situations where you only bought enough door handles to get the interior done but you have a breakage 3 years in. Your door handles are nowhere to be found again so end up changing them all. Is this something people do?

"Proper DIY" did a video on YouTube of it, which looked pretty DIYable for a smallish area! Can't find the link as on phone, but will dig it out later if you don't find it.

Having looked at this a bit more it seems that a 1st fix nailer is better for timber cladding? Thoughts?

Thanks guys - most helpful For the record, it doesn't have to be Texecom by any means. I only selected it due to what i'd read online, but happy to consider anything reliable and cost effective. What we're after is: Alarm & Sounder - wired to mains for power Separate keypad - wired or battery for power, wireless connectivity to panel 4 or 5 Wireless motion sensors and maybe similar for door/window sensors One motion sensor will be 20m away from the alarm, in an outbuilding Pet friendly 2 or more areas If it has a free app, then great - but not a biggie if not No subscription fees Reliable / well built We just want a decent system for a normal home, rather than Fort Knox

I brought 63/50mm flexible conduit into the house from the garage recently. Inside that is a 16mm² SWA along with two 20mm flexible conduits for data etc. With hindsight I should have gone for 100mm especially as I'm now considering another EV charger. I was mind (still am) tight for money so the 63/50mm came off FB marketplace cheap. Ah well!

Update regarding our Vent Axia Kinetic Plus B R/H. Worth checking the condition of the fans. Installed 6 years ago, cleaned the filters and checked the summer bypass, louvres stuck in open position. Have screwed the louvres in the closed position for now and disconnected the actuator. Fan covered in thick mould. Not difficult but front, back and side panel need to be removed. Then fan. All bearings fine.

Local Authorities have no idea what things should cost, so selling them a £300 wind turbine made for a boat, a fifty quid PV panel, a small battery system for say £500 and a person to put it all together, should probably be about £1000. Councils will probably pay 5 to 6 times that amount. Then, where there is a meeting to fit renewables to council buildings, someone in accounts, will drag out the £5000/kW number and say 'it is too expensive'.

@SteamyTea I'm not grasping your meaning. I noticed in Spain that all new street lights appear to be solar. At first it seemed to be on commercial estate but now on dual carriageways. The weather helps of course. Must be much cheaper to install than mains, with no trench or cable.

Singular or plural, squire? 100mm duct is the easiest, as you only need a hockey stick when outside afaik. 2 will come up that with ease.

I used stainless brads for larch cladding. Got a Dewalt second fix, as @Super_Paulie said it’s quite big but works well.

25mm2 The cable will be from the meter to the CU in the house.

What fixings are you planning to use? This will guide you more in terms of type of nailer. I presume you want full round head stainless steel nails? In that case you'll want either a coil, 21 degree or 34 degree framing nailer with a no mark tip, not a second fix nailer that uses brads.