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They still outgas VOC, albeit at slightly lower levels than 50 years ago. In France & Belgium they have mandatory VOC warnings on furniture containing PUR and strictly enforce VOC emission limits. Ditto for construction materials. All has to go through mandatory VOC testing (28 day testing). We have had some dealings with this as a supplier of LVL and woodfibre to a major flat pack furniture company. (Even natural wood emits VOC, the difference is that it tails off below safe after a very short period). They couldn't sell furniture already supplied to the UK into Belgium until they had swapped the facing materials and foam padding, (our LVL/woodfibre was fine though 🙂). I personally would not have a resin based floor in a well sealed house unless it met the Belgium standards.

As always... first needs more info Why 3 hatches? How deep is the void? Insulated? What worries you that might need access?

Delays can be overcome, especially in a dictatorship where, not even compulsory purchase, but a dozer would appear and drive through whatever land or houses were in the way. I've a feeling that nimby blamers are generally comfortable that their property, location, lifestyle is safe but some more bypasses would suit their journeys.... but not spoil their view/ convenience/ neighbourhood. Or simply raise taxes. But that won't be on the very rich who have the money guarded.

No 1. Avoid putting services under the floor. I did in my last house and had 2 hatches, one in the office (posh name for odd room next to the stairs) and one in the utility room. Covered with a rug when not needed. The under floor space had access gaps with lintels in the sleeper walls so once under the floor you could crawl around under the entire house. Present house was designed with no services underneath and hence no need for any hatches. Makes air tightness a whole lot easier.

Right now, there is a bit on the radio about local councils and flags. Someone compared the money spent on enforcing and prosecuting people that hang flags on lampposts to the lack of pot hole repairs. Potholes, or flags, are not an indicator of 'better offness'. But this is from worldometer. PPP = Purchasing Power Parity. The figures are in US currency so that it is easier to compare countries. It shows how as the population has got bigger, we have to work less to buy the same 'stuff'.

Me thinks you miss understand me. No the very opposite is true, from proper sources I do trust the figures - ONS is one of them. We are a wealthy society, look at the amount of pretty new cars are on the road these days compared to the 70s. But the money allocated to councils, roads NHS, schools isn't well spent. So as @Indy points out stuff is going in the wrong direction. Your rose tinted specs may not allow you see it. All very true. But certainly in Scotland we have almost the same road system as the 70s. Back to one of my original points, change is way too slow, not helped by continued changing of plans to keep many a NIMBY happy. Which causes delays and additional cost. Aberdeen has a nice peripheral road now, but it only 20+ years to get started on building it.

Neither, just that any figures present to you will not be accepted or the question gets changed. There is the whole of the ONS for you to explore, but I suspect you would not trust the numbers.

Nimbys are other people I don't agree with. Everyone is a nimby to some degree.

Indeed. It's what we hear and some want to believe. The average person has never been so well off, long lived, healthy. Not many thousands killed in wars or crippled by disease. Pot holes are caused by bigger, powerful and numerous cars... into the seventies there were few cars. I do wonder why these invented claims of it being the worst of times are so popular. It seems to sell the Mail and Express though..... what miserable reads, for determinedly unhappy people, sponsored by oligarchs to keep us in our places?

Is that code for I can't be arsed. Or I can't find anything that supports my assumptions?

I am not your secretary.

No, just connect your new supply pipe to the back of the meter box where the builder disconnected the original supply. you'll want 25mm mdpe brought to your plant room. I'm assuming the builder just removed the old pipe to near the meter and stuck in a tempory stand pipe for the build.

If your contractor has set up a water supply for the site from your connection point, assume its a water meter but it may just be a stop cock, then they can do all the other work without the water company being involved - they just need to follow the regs eg double non return valves etc.

Your the man with numbers - show us. Pot holes Waiting lists School success Wealth difference from the rich in society to the rest us. Generally thing that matters to normal people Those are the things I spoke about. Without those being maintained the country slowly goes down the toilet - if you find a public one anymore.

Hi all hope you can help. we have just demolished a bungalow read for rebuilding a 2 storey house. my mains water meter is just on the boundary of my property at the main entrance to the plot. my builder disconnected the water and has setup a temporary water supply from the main supply. We didn’t get the utility company involved in this. the new property is going to be roughly in the same position as the bungalow and we will need to arrange the water reconnection . Will my builder be able to do this? He has asked for details for the reconnection so im guessing I provide him with where I want the new main stop cock to be? he will be able to dig the trench and lay any pipework? do I need to get the utility company involved at any point many thanks

Will do and thanks again for all your input. Received great advice from yourself and other here, and confident I have a good understanding of the principles at work.

Agreed. I will admit that on balance - it still remains one of the best places on the planet despite the doom and gloom that we get blasted from every media outlet. However, I have noticed a real degradation on a number of fronts since 2008. Public services, wage growth, levels of taxation, investment in infrastructure - these are all worse in a material way.

Modern PUs are pretty benign once set. Furniture has used if for cushion for 60+ years.

I have been hearing that all my adult life, numbers don't back it up though.

Love the idea of earthen floors. A far more human material than concrete. An old shed is my total experience with it though. We have a single A2A into for our passive class house. Measuerd 17kWh/annum/m2 space heating demand. It lives in the hall downstairs. The house is comfortable. It needs to run maybe 9-12hrs per day at a low level to achieve this mid winter. Dryness hasn't been an issue. House plants can actually help dryness though transpiration. You cannot bank heat like a slab does with UFH so often use it outside TOU tariffs. It would be annoying in a bedroom re noise as the house is so quiet otherwise. It is simple to use. App on my phone and simple to install apart from here F Gas requirement. Ours cost €1200 from ebay and €300 for install. I drilled holes and did the mounting Daikin Ftxm-25r. If we needed it for cooling I would put another unit on the upstairs landing I think as cool air descends and warm rises. I have never needed it to cool yet but will update when I do. The bathrooms need a fast boost for a shower. Having tried a few types of heater pull chord fan heaters are the fastest and cheapest and work best for a short blast of heat. TLDR. 1. Do a single or possibly double central unit for the absolute cheapest lifetime heating and cooling costs including install cost. 2. If you go down the route of ducting every room or individual wall units for every bedroom you're probable better off going UFH + cheap mono block A2W with slab cooling and electric under tile heating for the bathrooms. It'll be quieter, cheaper to run (banking TOU heat in the slab) and more comfortable (no moving air or noise) .

Top class. That's a pucker job. Keep the pics coming.

Well I have a new HW tank to fit soon but I've been trying to optimise the HW a little more - Average consumption is 4kWh per day to do the water heating for two people occupancy. Flow temp is typically 66 Deg C return temp peaks at 61 Deg C, 115 Litre tank and 30 Min Cycle with the tank ending up at 52 Deg C (I've tried the lower and slower approach and to be honest it actually uses more gas but I think that's because of overshooting the target temp when I did it) However because of the X plan set up it does mean even in the summer I put a slug of 68 deg water into the rads straight after the HW cycle is finished. In winter no issues - it helps make up for the HW cycle time out of CH - summer it contribute to heat gain in the house...... I decided to do an experiment.......... If I run the HW for 30 mins and ten kill the boiler and continue to circulate the HW system with no boiler activity I can get an increase in the tank temp of 2 deg C and the water hitting the rads is down to 50 deg C I'm now thinking about putting a delay timer on the HW valve closing 10 mins after HW cycle is completed to extract the last bit of energy out of boiler and circuit Mad idea?

I will have a look at self compacting concrete. When you say someone to help finish the slab, will a bull float suffice?

I am aware that some manufacturers have had issues with condensation in the walls of their machines it may just be that. Why not look at a dry the panels out solution - drill a pluggable hole, connect a pipe to the hole and a tub of silica gel and see how much moisture you can draw out that way. You can get Silica Gel in volume: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quart-Replacement-Desiccant-Indicating-Silica/dp/B013L31PQ0 that one is indicating - it changes colour as it gets wet and is likely to be toxic if swallowed - IIRC normal, non indicating, silica gel is harmless though

We’ll see how the trials go Some resins are pretty grim and I wouldn’t entertain using them in the house, but for this we’re using a solvent-free polyurethane 👍