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ProDave is right on this one. From the leak side, the height matters much less than having the isolator somewhere you can actually reach. When a machine hose lets go, the difference between a puddle and a wrecked kitchen is whether someone can turn that valve off in seconds rather than dragging the machine out first.

the switch location by the entrance is a good point. it is much easier to control everything when you come in or leave, especially in an open-plan room. shame about the downlights being discontinued though, that is always a risk when you have a lot of the same fittings.

planning for the extra lighting from the start was a good idea. even if you do not use all the cables straight away, it saves the hassle of adding them later if you decide to change things.

nice, that sounds like a handy way to set it up. you get the option to run everything together or just use the beam lights on their own when you want a different feel.

That makes sense, having separate switches gives you more flexibility, especially when the kitchen and dining area share the same space. wall lights are a good option too for a softer light in the evening.

Soon, we will be starting phase 3 of our rebuild. First we need to demolish and clear existing walls as they have no foundations, but that's easy :-) Then we need to dig the trenches for this phase. Straight forward in theory, but this bit of the land has clay so SE has specified 2.4m depth or deeper until we get 'good ground' where they is clay. These may well be stepped as the existing part of the build is on sand and there is probably another 10m of sand before we hit this pesky bit of clay. This is a corner to join up with the rest of the walls already rebuilt. Long wall is 18m (south), shorter wall is 9m (west) There are also some internal walls that will need foundations, but these are very unlikely to be on the clay bit unless it's more extensive than our original trial digs showed. This means that we will have to get someone in as our excavator is only little and won't go that deep. Still all okay so far. Now, what I need to know is how to shutter and brace. All our previous trenches have been 1m so didn't need anything. Do said shutters need to be removed before, during or after pour and how manageable is this for 2 people. So, please advise on shuttering and will BCO be happy to look at trench with shutters in place or does he need to see the sides. In the worse case scenario that we get rain after we've dug the trenches then do we need to wait for them to dry before we pour. SE has specified type3 concrete, will this 'settle' or do we need to vibrate as it's poured. Is there anything else that I have totally forgotten that is obvious to consider.

Yep and multiple switch locations as well if you have open-plan. You don't want to schelp over from one zone to another. One thing we thought was a good idea is to have one of your multi-switch locations at the main of ingress/egress to the room. Ours is by the door leading to the stairs so that you can turn any/every-thing on/off as soon as you enter/leave the room Regards Tet PS We went massively overboard with lighting to preserve symmettry, but they remain very adjustable. My only issue is that my main downlights are now discontinued so I am bu##erered if replacements are needed

My insurance company provided a water leakage device at no cost and I know many insurance companies offer the same device or similar. It's a LEAKBOT. See details https://leakbot.io/support/ Unfortunately, it doesn't automatically disconnect the water supply but it does send notifications if it detects water leaks via an App, which also shows water usage, not accurately but useful none the less. They are easy to fit and set up. It does work...... I have had one incident. A toilet failed to stop flushing and I received a notification advising " high water usage" after 50 minutes. I was in the garden, so I was able to check and stop the continuous flushing .

That's what I'm assuming

Seems the 13p rate isn't available to me as I don't become an import customer for another few days......I should have realised but did get a pleasant apology from EDF for the confusion!!

Good advice from everyone. When we did our kitchen, we installed cabling for all eventualities and took it back to a 47mm double backbox that has four light switches on it. At the moment, we only use three (dining area, main kitchen, and above-cabinet LEDs), but we also have cables for under-cabinet lighting and plinth lighting should we ever change our minds.

My only advice would be to lay out where everything physically goes. I did the "right" thing with my tile layout, but I ended up with a grout line millimetres above the silicone around the bath, which isn't ideal and becomes a pain in the arse to keep clean! At some point I'm going to take it all out and lift the bath slightly so that it is below the silicone, but laying everything out accurately would have highlighted this in the beginning. It looks like you are doing this, but just in case anything is missing from the images or is an estimate rather than the actual fitting/furniture.

Well given the age of the building, I guess these were. Northern Spain and no visible mortar. If you drive round enough, you'll find new buildings being constructed with the same type of block. No idea how the manouver such large blocks these days.

Sodium silicate will bind it to a degree, but I'd steer clear on old brick and lime. It leaves sodium salts behind as it cures, and those come out as white bloom and can do more harm than good in a wall that's already handling salts and moisture. The conservation route is either potassium silicate (the base of the mineral paint systems) or an ethyl silicate consolidant, which deposits silica in the pores without any salt residue and stays breathable. Both work best sprayed at low pressure, flooding the surface until it stops taking it up. Before buying anything I'd go over the whole lot with a knuckle or the handle of a screwdriver. Any hollow sounding areas have lost their bond and no consolidant will hold them on; they want cutting out and patching in a lime mix with a matching dash thrown on. Stormdry and Thompson's are water repellents rather than consolidants. They'll stop the surface soaking up rain but won't glue loose pebbles back, and if there are hairline cracks water can still get in behind and then dries out more slowly. If you do use one, do it after the consolidant and after any cracks are dealt with. Mask the windows well, as silicates etch glass and are hard to get off, and pick a dry, mild spell with no frost forecast. Do a test patch round the back first.

I was sitting in a bar last week enjoying my pint looking at the huge stone blocks that made up the wall, the largest being the fireplace lintel. Those were most certainly not manhandled into place.

Agreed 100%… we’re aiming to minimise the number of wireless connections for this reason. If future wireless options become more robust, we’ve not really lost anything… just a bit of my time and a small outlay for cables. Having spent some time playing with the Atios, it would seem to be quite straightforward 🤞😁

Just switched. Go tariff went live yesterday 6.66p import from 23.00 to 6.00 which is useful as my car charger is currently only 4.8kw. I need to upgrade my wiring to get the full 7kw Previously was briefly on the E7 tariff which was 14p. Seems like a no brainer compared with octopus. I wonder if EDF can keep their night rate low because they run the nuclear stations. They would have reliable surplus every night at a known cost whilst octopus etc would have to average their costs with some zero cost energy on a windy night and sometimes higher cost gas on a still night As an aside - for the geeks - I am experimenting with controlling my charger (a portable 32a "de charger" granny charger) so I can use surplus solar. It turns out a load of the smart granny chargers you see for sale at the mo use the "tuya" smart home system which you can control locally. So far I have been able to set the charging current and start/stop the charger over my local wireless network. I can also read the voltage/current/power delivered. Next step is to integrate it into my homebrew solar display unit to turn the charger on and set the appropriate current when there is enough surplus power

None of which are used by the guys in the background wearing flip flops on site.....

You could try Stormdry. I have used it on porous brickwork and it has been very effective at preventing penetrating damp. http://www.stormdry.com/questions/can-stormdry-waterproof-render-roughcast-or-pebbledash

These will work fine. If you are concerned you could get a hose or bucket and pour water over it. It will come straight out of the weeps.

The videos are fake. Even if you could get a machine to lay bricks, what about wall ties, openings, insulation, cutting, scaffold poles?

They can have my jobs. I still find it odd that we make some buildings out of relatively (to the whole) small pieces. I suspect much of that is because they have to me manually handled, but those days are gone, we have machines now and have had good ones for over 200 years. https://youtu.be/a3agwmbuZKM?t=59

I used a mix of four bags of sharp sand, one bag cement, 100g V12 glass fibres and 4 litres of water in a conventional electric concrete mixer. I experimented with the amount of water to get what I thought was wet enough to just hold together. The problems were with the order the materials were added to the mixer and if over mixed then lumps formed in the mix which got bigger. The professionals used a drum paddle mixer, which probably would be better, as I had to frequently stop to dig out and loosen the mix from the bottom of the mixer. Doing a normal wet mix is straightforward and I had never used a semi-dry mix before. The floor is now flat and level, but not smooth. I'm not bothered as it will be tiled anyway and it is hard enough to walk on already. Just have to wait for it to cure. Against what the professionals say, if I did it again I would replace one of the bags of sharp sand, with soft sand, as I did an experiment with that mix, at the end, and it was a lot more workable and no lumps!

This won't decide that it has made enough money by Thursday, or needs £350/ day to go to work. I won't publish the video that came through on Facebook as I don't trust them but here is a still. It probably isn't that easy. Hard running surface, mortar is prelaid, refilling, pointing.

Anyway post some pics of the issue. I've not used the thermally broken lintels before but have used deep cavity lintels before. Imagine same issue?