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MVHR has centralised filtration at the unit. Cleaning or replacing the filters can be done faster than making a cup of tea from scratch. Multiple units in different locations adds to this ‘problem’, as anything that air flows through will attract dust that needs removing, so that is at every trickle vent, plus the fan filters, worse if the fan is in an attic space. MVHR is the better solution, afaic, because of the ease of (self) maintenance and the heat recovery.

Yup. Same as the iBox. 👍👍. Happy days.

Generic - whoever is making your gates

Well you could have a quick read of:

That is how we end up with golf courses claiming good environmental and sustainable credentials when compared to a farmed field. I want a farmed field to have low biodiversity, I don't want slugs, rabbit's feet and deadly nightshades in my cornflakes. There is an economic model to help value nature, been a while since I used it, but was interesting research.

Is this a particular company as i cannot find them online or just a generic concept of a fabrication company can do this. Thanks

I think any of us that have needed to employ "tradesmen" feel your pain. From the plumber that apparently had to deal with an "emergency" on his way to our site virtually everyday so he only turned up just before lunchtime, to the heating engineer who's "early next week" actually meant Thursday afternoon with no time to finish before their next "important job" on Monday (and ours obviously wasn't). It happens project after project, tilers, electricians, plasterers..... Sometimes though you get a diamond among the rough, the guy who turns up on the day as promised, is a pleasure to work with and stays until an excellent job is done. When that happens it makes you realise that there are decent tradesmen out there so don't give up!

Just proving my point. Basic property maintenance doesn't seem to be a thing in the UK. SUDs is a functional componant, just like render, roof tiles, pointing, or any other part of a property that is willfully ignored by most here. My German colleagues find the state of UK properties shocking. They factor in maintenance as part of home ownership and as an extented part of 'spring cleaning'. Mind you, they also build everything properly in the first place...

Same here, I'm too far out of the game to know what's at the forefront. But I do know some people at the research end doing some fascinating work on the renewables side, which if implemented will be both much more environmentally friendly and provide more guaranteed output around the UK - but like all these things the struggle seems to be taking these things from research to implementation.

Regular steel posts will not allow a brick covering, post fabricator will fit extended hinges if needed or you can get it done on site. Also be aware that a lot of steel posts are made as cheap as possible and thinner ones often flex with weight of gate (or kids climbing on them), this often cracks the brick or stone covering. make sure the steel post has been sized not to flex or go with concrete core and brick skin.

I intend to use steel posts for our 2 drive way gates. I would like to use some of our spare facing bricks to provide a decorative pier around them. Question is... the hinge hangers do not appear to protrude far enough to allow this. Have i misunderstood the thing or is there a special post for this application? Thanks in advance as always keith

SWMBO and I have just about had enough now. 6 months ago the kitchen fit was cancelled because the plasterer didn't turn up. When we eventually got the plastering finished in the kitchen, the painter did the dirty on us so we have been painting it ourselves. Was trying to get the sparky to prep some things for the kitchen - he goes incommunicado, then tells me he has a wedding to go to all this week, then says he can come to see what he will need yesterday 08:30 (before the ''all week wedding''), then hasn't showed by 09:30 so chase him, then turns up after 10 saying he forgot. As far as I can see 50% of tradespeople hold their customers in contempt and treat them as victims. Turning up, answering the phone or replying to a text or email is entirely optional, fulfilling an agreed contract entirely optional, timescales entirely flexible. If they fancy a fourth holiday of the year next week, they will go and just fob off a customer. I have had tradies ****ing off at no notice to Las Vegas, New York, turning up in Lotus Sports Cars. Seen a roofer tossing his open stanley knife around on my roof. I have spent 40 years working long hours in stressful business environments surrounded by other professionals - people communicate, people solve and workaround problems, people show personal commitment, work weekends as necessary, burn midnight oil. They don't arrive at 10:00 and disappear to collect their kid at 2:30, attend every school matinee, leave for a 3:30 weekday tee time with the job unfinished, not turn up because the weather is glorious, falsely claim the concrete lorry has crashed and the driver is in hospital etc. Life can be shit, don't spread more, help clean it up. With sincere apologies to all those good trades people also out there making the world a better place.

Late to this party .... What to buy? Any buy into any 'system' that your children don't use. I don't need to go into the reason for that now do I? Exactly what I bought ten years ago now.... doing well ... all sorts of abuse including being left out in the rain... concrete splashes ...

Everything I'd guess. I'm getting very prompt adverts for things we are discussing but absolutely not mentioning in messages or searches. So that's the phone listening? I bought a watch and there were ads for watches the same day and since. Pointless as I now have a watch. Wood burning stoves discussed... ads appear. And other such.

They should be fine. Drills don't use a huge amount of power. I've got 2A, 4A and 6A batteries. 2A fine for drills and jigsaw, and multitool. and lasts for hours. 6A for the SDS drill/breaker , bench saw, vacuum, leaf blower. ( the latter two still need changing after 20 minutes) 4A generally not my first choice as they are a compromise, so are backup.

I'd say so. Most people just see what they see and won't be aware of the other issues. Filling a hole with concrete and steel is the obvious thing to do so that's what happens. They could be bolted down to exposed rock, use piles as support, include voids or mass materials in lower stress areas, reuse the excavated material include recycled aggregate. But with concrete readily available then that's what happens. Actually I don't know. Maybe other methods are already utilised.

I'm all for renewables and a full supporter that we need and must go in that direction. I remember having coffee with a friend about 20 years ago while I was doing a post grad certificate in renewable engineering and technology, telling him that renewables are a no brainer - he thought I was a bit mad. However, like my earlier post, we've got to be very careful about how we measure and assess the environmental impacts of what we're doing. I, personally, have long been a critic of the singular approach using Carbon and rather prefer a measure that takes a much wider approach to consider overall environmental impact. Concrete unfortunately is one of those materials that is made up of non-renewable resources and the extraction of the sands and aggregates are causing widespread environmental damage right across the world - and we know the availability of the raw materials is in decline. What we need to be doing is finding alternative materials that are not single use, but also renewable in their own right, which we know concrete isn't at least not at the same level of 'value' - e.g. it can only be re-used for lower value purposes when recycled. This is a big problem, mostly overlooked. The argument about what is eco friendly is as all these things more complex and nuanced than oft portrayed. I wonder whether this is what @Gus Potter is referring to?

Nice post and I love the pictures but please can we kill the myth that renewables are not eco friendly because of the materials used in their construction. The data speak for themselves. See my earlier post. CO2e, per kWh of energy produced over the life of the asset for your onshore turbine is 12 g CO2e and to produce the same energy from e.g. natural gas it's 458 g. That includes the embedded carbon in the concrete.

I spent yesterday giving them merry hell because after 2 months they still couldn't tell me when they were going to finish levelling the kitchen even though I have told them from the start it has to be done before W/B 18th May as that is when the kitchen is being delivered and fitted. 12 days ago they told me they couldn't do the utility, only the kitchen, 9 days ago they told me they couldn't come last week and hadn't scheduled this week yet. I told them very clearly once again that I have a kitchen fit on 18th, if it is missed, it will be months before another slot is possible. The kitchen floor needs final prep, top coat, hardening time, checking for level and flatness, time to do any final remediation. Therefore must be done early this week. Their 'scheduler' then failed to schedule my job in, went on leave, then took another day off because his kid was sick. Then was told it was 'likely' they would come on Thursday i.e. at 5 to midnight. They are supposed to have a good local reputation and are an Amtico premier partner (doubtless just sales volume based). Not suprisingly I have lost all confidence in them, but with tens of thousands of kitchen stuff arriving next week I have no choice to sack them now. Pray for me.

It might not be terrible hard If it is cleaning of tools slops then it will have been very wet and that makes it weak. It is total ignorance... thinking a drain is a magic thing where stuff goes away. Yes the culprit should pay for a solution. I wouldn't want them bodging a half- hearted improvement. It needs a groundworker who doesn’t mind old-fashioned spade work. £1,000 deduction, some released if it turns out to be easier.

Bit of investigation under the hood, the temp cover plate has stoppers in place, fired out like bullets when I removed the cover. Looks like i have to remove the stoppers and with there arrangement of the rubber edge gasket I can push water through to purge the pipes of any debris. Then I can fit a tap or something on the outlet and test each side with water.

I can only presume so as I didin't see it occur. There were two people, the older experienced guy was in the kitchen pouring and spreading the leveller, and then a monosyllabic youngster preparing tubs outside with water from the outside tap. Work was done at the start of an extended dry spell. Some 7-10 days later we had heavy rain and SWMBO went to empty some waste water down the drain. Noticed the water level was very high near the top of the drain. Opened the main chamber shared with the neighbour but on our property and u-bend water was also high with stick test showing there was something in the bottom of the u-bend there too. Week later plumber finished fitting our water softener and so we investigated further with the help of his water vaccuum. Found leveller blocking the rainwater drain and stuck to bottom of main drain pipe run and in bottom of main drain u-bend. Plumber explained and demonstrated how old clay type drain risers above the u-bend are actually permeable to water. So the drain doesn't necessarily completely overflow, water leaks out into the surrounding soil/ground through the sides. If you suck the water out of it, it refills as water from the adjacent soil/ground drains back into the riser again. I called the manufacturer Bostik in search of some kind of solvent/acid that might attack the leveller but not the clay - he hasn't called back.

I'd be very surprised if there isn't a way. Needs some early collaboration between the parties rather than a linear design process. Having spent a lot of time in such cages, doing qc, I'm left wondering how the steelfixers got out. And how the concrete got to the bottom... how do we know it is well compacted? Doing the site inspections was much easier than the fixers job so it breeds respect for them and the detailer (both the Engineer and their draughts- person)... and my own designing for ease (feasibility) of construction.

That doesn't even happen for gross incompetence with lives lost. To me, the PI I had to pay was firstly an assurance for every client, and secondly it was in case of any inadvertent error by my business or a sub-contractor or engaged specialist designer. It didn't occur to me that we, or anyone, might be incompetent... ie only do what you know and do it well. Part of the training is to appreciate all aspects and know enough that you don't dabble. Eg a surgeon doing hip surgery knows a lot about cardiology but doesn't dabble with heart surgery. Fundamentally a dabbling and overconfident builder or a rogue designer probably goes out of business after a very big mistake, but some poor client is left with the consequences.

What is the context? What is being connected? Materials, and why you are concerned?