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Unfortunately, I can't knock the 3 courses below down as they already have fat joints. I'll speak with the new brickie on Wednesday to see what options I have.

You said it was hidden behind the acco drain i personally wouldn’t accept it at all. so get 3 courses knocked off and get it built properly. I think you are setting yourself up to fail. if this was my job i would have banged a stake in on each corner that would have 3-4 crucial measurements on them. checking it after it is built is a bit late.

I would not have thought the colour would change that much, but iam no expert, i guess just try it out for yourself, i recon 7 buckets would be annoying,

If you throw sand and cement in a mixer using a shovel, isn't there a risk that each batch will differ slightly, simply because no two shovel loads will contain the same volume of material?

A slight thread hijack if thats ok, how do you prep the marmox board( mine isnt marmox brand but simmilar, ie cement mesh outer layer with foam inner). Ready for gypsum skim, ?? I already did a small patch and i just gave it a coat of pva the night before to help control exessive suction, it seemed to skim up ok.... is it all gona fall off next week? Lol. Thanks carl

Interesting (bit of an issue with the website, but hopefully fine tomorrow). I don't need failsafe operation really since it's a bit of a bonus system. I quite like the ideal of a retrofit approach, but those bolt on ones look a bit weak. There are some stronger looking ones, but still not very satisfactory. I might see if I can 3D print a large cog and pinion arrangement, but that starts to look like a long term project.

If flow doesn't stop for a time within a period then there is a leak. How short the evaluation period is needs tuning. The limitation is that if your evaluation period needs to be multiple hours to avoid false alarms then a large scale leak could do a lot of damage in that time.

Hi folks We have a nasty galvanised pole supporting our porch roof. Our plan is to create a brick pillar around the bottom of the pillar and the top half oak cladding. I am trying to find the best option to transition between the brickwork and the oak, and at the moment it seems to be a split pillar cap on top of the brick pillar, and then leave a small gap between the cap and the oak to stop the water tracking up. The sort of thing in the picture. What do you think? Will this work, where could I get a split cap, any other ideas etc. Thanks

We used standard door linings (jewsons), 12mm door stops...and 838 x 1981 doors. The structural openings in our frame were 916 x 2040

Not necessarily. You have to tell him of the issue (preferably before he starts and with pics), explain your wish to get rid of the step in the 'unseen zone' (behind the ACO as you describe) and ask him to have a think about it before he talks it through with you on site when he arrives. Hopefully then it will feel like a joint strategy. You can perhaps talk about the mortar mix at the same time.

Why would there be a variation in colour?

I'm getting all of the sand for our brickwork delivered in one load and I want to make sure that there is no variation in mortar colour. We are having a 5 sand, 1 cement, 1 lime mix. Should I simply buy 7 buckets to ensure they all get filled before be discharged into the mixer? What have others done / insisted is done?

https://cug.sfs.com/content/files/cd-files/default.aspx?id=f9e49d95-68ca-4c4e-a3a4-02a38fb77005&utm

So I basically have to accept visible non uniform mortar joints above ground?

Suddenly thought I ought to try and put some sealent down where my LVT meets the wall in the laundry appliance bays. In case of leaks. (see pic) What would people suggest that is readily available off the shelf ? Bathroom sealant ? Frame Sealant ? (Just to stop water running down at the edge, without being stuck so hard it would play havoc if you did have to lift some floor in the future.)

Excellent. There are a couple of pairs of my Amtico planks that have grain line features that can be partially matched up if you lay them at the right offset on different rows. Sadly the fitters decision to change all my offsets has removed these. At present the plan now is for me to label selected planks that he has laid. And to select replacement planks. He will then take up the labelled planks and replace them with my alternatives. It won't get back to my own careful arrangement, but will reduce the worst of the problem. Unfortunately this means deferring finishing off the floor as my kitchen fitter is back in on Wednesday. I don't mind @Nickfromwales being so frank. I think doing his job you have to be able to be blunt sometimes - to some tradies, and perhaps sometimes beyond that. I do have to say having my sparky on the same day as the floor fitter was not by choice. The floor fitter gave me Thu/Fri as his only dates available before October for completing my job - so I had to take them. The sparky then told me the only dates he had were Thu/Fri. And with Kitchen fitter only being available this Wed before he goes on holiday for a fortnight next week, there was no alternative except yet more weeks of delay. The fitter admitted he knew what my labelling meant and deliberately changed all the offsets anyway. I suspect as a youngster the older guy has drilled him intensly - YOU MUST DO IT THIS WAY - DO NOT DEVIATE etc As a youngster he is also very quiet and shy of speaking. I have spent 40 years surrounded by bright, communicative people - it is difficult to recognise just how closely some things need to be overlooked. Interesting and helpful to see the variety of responses here on such detail and comforting to see I am not alone in seeking carefully detailed finishes, even if others are not so bothered. I will probably email Amtico on the issue. I really do think they could use a much larger image. I suspect you could even give their image to AI and ask it to generate additional similar oak grain and effects on an image and it would do a good job. If brands want to appeal to affluent buyers with claims of permium product, they ought to be doing better I think. Lots of things seem to me to make incredibly slow progress.

Thanks, I would be able to live with that sort of cost. If it comes to much more the project is not viable for me. Will get in touch with a few contractors.

If you want WRAS motorised valve I'd pay the extra couple of notes for one from here. https://www.solenoid-valve.world/abvm06s Their failsafe valve requires permanent voltage (negligible current) to keep open, and uses a capacitor to run the ball valve closed when power is removed. 9-24v is rather annoying to drive from an ESP32 though, without some additional quiescent current cost

Sounds it. My windows were on time but whilst I had the concept in mind I under thought the solutions for airtight/thermal bridge (or at least didn’t anticipate them to be so fiddly). Such is life.

I'm not sure I understand, how would no flor represent a leak? I'm still going to be drinking the water downstream of the check valve so want something drinking water approved

One alternative approach on leak detection is continuous flow monitoring and trigger an alarm if there are no periods of zero flow - based on experience and log data you could tune alarm thresholds. Also if you have a check valve on the incoming supply does the monitoring equipment need to be WRAS approved? (Not a plumber so don't know).

Thanks all. After reviewing with SWMBO and reading the responses we are thinking we will have to do 3(c). I have checked the drawings which are unfortunately not clear as this detail is obscured by measurement lines and panel number labels. It may be a design error. Although I think the existing panel should really run continuously down to the floor, this would mean replacing the panel. A new panel will take 6 weeks to for them to get. Fitting it will mean taking things apart again at that end of the kitchen. IMO pretty doubtful that they will accept doing all this at their cost. Therefore I think 3(c) is likely the only achievable way of filling the gap between the panel and the floor. Note: The plinth material is identical to the panel in width and colour, so we will end up with the panel having a visible joint line in it 90mm from the floor rather than being completely continuous. Not perfect but... The skirting will be plain square edge board 100mm or so high and as thin as I can reasonably find - 12mm or less - painted white. Possibly might look at that skirting with the kind of shadow gap line effect cut into it. (PS The symmetry of the vertical finger gaps is achieved at a wider level because the finger gap on the right is matched by a finger gap on the left of cupboards on the other side of the adjacent worktop and hob) (PPS I wonder what detail is obscured by the label '26' at the other end of this kitchen unit run - see pic)

@craig I am talking about how to correctly adjust the hinge so after the adjustment(/due to the adjustment), the load is equal between the hinges. So my concern is that my adjustment will create an uneven load on the hinges. Thank you

920 wide 2100 high.

a better finish is achievable, but it doesn’t come flat packed, local company made these 3 doors for me.