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Yes, won’t it be quite dangerous to be swapping out a glazed unit if you’re above the ground floor? I’d still say this is your best bet tbh. Saves the risks of juggling the glazed unit and (eventually) buggering up the seals / beads.

+1 to using pedestals, we'll probably finish our exposed patio edges with vertical tiles that fix to the pedestal with clips example, which hopefully avoids the risk of vermine getting below

Can I have some buttons to test basic expressions. And there they are....... (expletive deleted)! blows my mind when it does magic. Swear it's some guy in an Indian data centre typing really (expletive deleted)ing quickly!

and then, then there are those magic moments. I need a face for avalon on a round hdmi. SVG so can animate with lipsync etc. Chat says "yeah" . Then a face with blinking eyes just appears in a window....

@Nickfromwales, thanks, as ever. Our window is on the first floor and miles from humanity, so there will be no security risk, but thanks for the thought. The room's exterior is timber-framed, insulation panels, with horizontal boarding, so a bit messy to create a hole beneath the window. Other thoughts?

It would be a serious compromise to security, plus it’s going to kill your window beads from taking in/out seasonally. I’d core drill a hole down low, to match exactly where the outlet exists the AC unit, and just blank the hole off when not in use. Simple blanks with EPS plugs to insulate through winter and be draught-proof would be simple to make, and no unsightly hose or flimsy plastic panel to contend with.

Don’t overheat it. Slow and steady wins the race.

Hmm. I have been doing something similar to what you suggest @Nickfromwales I suspect that as the surface is around 22C, then it might well be that heating the slab to 22C (though it may not be getting to that) has no effect whatsoever on the levelling compound on top. Essentially the heating below is no different from the heating the levelling compound is receving from the environment above it. I shall gradually increase the flow temperature over the coming days.

Not sure I follow? I’m with @Conor pedestals would be a good way to go. If one or two sides of the patio are against the house, the remaining open sides could butt up to a dwarf wall or similar leaving no way in for them there rodents and leaving you with a patio at FFL and no issues with DPC

Contact them. We had similar, 5 weeks and application still not online. Architect contacted them, and they hadn't verified it as there was a mismatch between some text in the form and a drawing... But they never bothered contacting us to correct it.

Yeah, we're hoping for our sounder & main control unit to be wired to the mains. But the keypad and sensors will be wireless. I have an electrician friend, So provided it's not a mare to setup then i'm sure he could do a job for us. From the look of the Orisec site they seem focused on professional installers. I might be wrong, but that might mean limited support (if they don't speak to us peasantry)

Ahh, hadn't thought of that. Yes, go with the aco, and a permeable subbase for good measure.

codex now dead! .

Won't be doing this. as mentioned old decking got chewed up by rats and having the patio on pedestals gives them somewhere to go when it's cold. so need to find the solution to hopefully keep the patio near to internal FFL.

Yeah, my experience has been unfortunate in that the two pre-apps I have been involved in gave results at odds with the later planning application. You might be luckier, but some LPAs treat it as non-serious and non-binding work for the junior planners. +1 for getting a quick heads-up from a consultant.

It was a left over side panel from the kitchen (Wickes)

It is wall hung 🙂 The photo doesn't show the gap between pan and floor 🙂

Every year for a few weeks the bedroom in the timber-framed part of our house is too hot to sleep in. We have a small portable Pifco air-conditioning unit with a flexible (but somewhat unbending) vent which is about one a half metres long. So we ought to use this AC more effectively. So, when it's hot, I'm sold on the following method of air-conditioning: opening the window (our windows are outward-moving casements), attaching a solid panel to the inside of the window-frame (by way of window-clips), inserting one end of the "flexible" hose through a circular hole in the panel, switching on the air-conditioner. There are a few challenges: There will be considerable drag from the weight and pull of the ventilation hose. This drag will pull on the panel. The panel will be kept in place against the window frame by two window-clips along each edge of the panel (the panel will be 82cms high and 44cms wide), but the clips are small things which ought to suffer from as little backward pulling as possible, otherwise they eventually come out of the uPVC frames . Also, if the panel is cut from a sheet of clear acrylic (to let in light during the day), the panel could bend a bit in the area where the vent is dragging on it. It seems that some people use a 4mm acrylic sheet to make such panels, but I'm inclined to pay more and order a 10mm-thick sheet. An alternative would be to order a sheet of plywood and paint it. It wouldn't let light in during the day, but given that the panel would only be in position for a few weeks in summer, that wouldn't be a problem. However, the length of the shaft of available window-clips has to be considered. I've found some on Amazon which would hold a panel which is 10mm thick firmly in place. What is the thickness of the thinnest plywood? Any advice on any of this?

VCL goes at the bottom. Between the insulation and concrete you can put a thin polythene layer, as mentioned above to keep concrete out of the insulation, if it gets in your insulation will float up.

We did above and below - XPS is much better than EPS but still absorbs water a bit and thus loses it’s value as thermal insulation.

Gone back to cut n paste direct into chat ! . Got some stuff actually done this old school way .

If Ajax is a Ukrainian system, do they give the option of adding a drone that will hunt down anyone trying to break into your home? I'd happily upgrade to that option!

Just saw your note re pricing - if you're after something which is under 4 figures, then the strong suggestion would be to go for wireless only, and with integrated keypad/panel/sounder etc. Fewer devices = Lower cost. It does mean changing batteries every year, but it's not that much - usually under £5 for each sensor as long as you can do it yourself. Wired systems will be more expensive due to the higher labour cost plus the marginal cost of wiring etc to be run.

It hasn't been installed yet - I've only just had the first fix cabling done at the start of this week and 2nd fix won't happen until August, once internal plastering/decorating is largely done. I've also gone for a separate control panel (where all the cables terminate) and keypad (by the utility door) - so they're not integrated with each other, though I have to admit I wasn't aware that there were issues with the integrated version. Went with the installer recommendation and the main discussion I had with him was around the number and placement of all the sensors/door contacts/PIRs. We've gone for a system that allows us to either do a 'full set' with all PIRs activated, or a night mode 'perimeter set' which keeps the door and window sensors active but de-activates the internal PIRs, allowing you to roam around inside the house.

I thought you were going wall hung, hence the frame?