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Hi all. From time to time I commission a CCTV drain survey to get build over permission. It comes with a report and a video, attached. Once the works are complete we do another survey which shows we have not damaged the water board assets when executing the works. As an SE I'm responsible for designing the foundations so they don't damage the drains in the long term. Now, there are more explicit videos... but as BH is a family site... The video goes blank at times, even the camera has moral fibre. We can see quite a lot of ground water ingress at one of the joints, the water board still passed this as the structural integrity of the pipe was ok, I think. If they had admitted their joints were failing that could have opened them up to claims.. it's a weird world. Build over permissions can be serious if you come to later sell your house. Drain Survey 1 (Subclip #1).mp4

I got timed out on adding a bit more so here it is which should be apended to my last post: To add a bit! Lots of younger designers, Architects included, have great ideas, some have good old common sense. But they lack the strength and depth of experience to comminicate that to you and then be able to present the business case to you and then explain how they are going to present a planning application, they forget who is paying thier wages... you! One fundamental that you need to instill in young designers is that.. you can be as talented as you like, but if non of your stuff can be affordably built then you are on a sticky wicket! But on the other hand if you sell yourself too cheep then that also leads to a hiding to nothing. I'm ah.. a little older, my problem is keeping ahead of the game as all these young folk are taking no prisoners! The rules change regularly, I have to keep up.. I can't claim grandfathers rights, it's an open competition. @SilverShadow Have confidence in your own ability. From experience I can tell you that many desingers will embrace an informed Client, builders also!. Yes, they may ask you for a bit more fee money but that is a fair days work for fair days pay. Builders like certainty.. if you have Client that keeps changing thier mind the cost often goes up, then they have the hassle of try to get paid for the extras. If the Architect /Designer has not done a detailed job then it all becomes tricky. Builders know this, I used to be one so sometimes added on a "fanny" factor if I though the Client could be a dick head. If I got the job and they turned out to be great I would often do some extras for free, then I stood a better chance of getting recommendation as.. everyone loves a builder that comes in under budget! Now if you think ahead to the build. By going through this process you'll possibly identify other potential savings. A good trades man costs say £ 250.00 - £300.00 a day. If you hit it off with your designer they could easily wash their face fee wise. Think strategically.

I've got a couple of projects on my books at the moment, one is a new build the other is a refurb / extension. The planners on the new build have opened the gambit by saying, they think the garden will be over shadowed, the planning officer said they had just been promoted, but here were initial comments essencially pre the formal application ( it's complicated at the council admin went of piste) it was a can kicking excercise. One the other project I have a privacy issue as I'm relocating a conservatory. Below is the kind of extra work I've put into my planning submission. Don't forget I had to survey the site so I could produce a drawing that will become part of the legal planning submission, that takes time and a lot of thought as the levels are not horizontal. One part of the art here is to recognise the obvious things the planners will clock, but not be too technical and indavertantly introduce things they have not thought of which can then invite them to use you as a "free training " excercise, part of their CPD. What I do in these cases is to lead and inform my Clients, each time I say, "I think this might work" I back it up by evidence. I provide info such as the attached so the Client can read and see for themselves the aguements I might want to put forward. I've attached two typical documents I sent to my Clients, one is Scottish based, don't knock it! It's easy to get your head round. This "easy document is based on the UK guidance, BRE 209 which is quite technical so to get your head round that you need to read the easy document first. Now all this does not come for free. There is mention of say getting an Architect for a few grand. But many desingers have special skill sets you need to be prepared to pay for and recognise that this strength and depth of design skill takes many years to develop. Best thing you can do is to read through what I've attached, use AI to help you on terminology, but always check? it's not always right! It's incorrect as it seems no one has spent the time or effort to put together and evidenced based design. At the end of the day you will probably kick youselves if you later find out you chucked in the towel before you even got started. You designers should know enough to say, this has got no chance, if so then why are you taking the risk. OR they should say we think this can be justified, there is latent risk and, refer to the documents I've attached. Now don't forget the Planners can't just run around being loose cannons. Some planning decisions go to appeal, this costs the councils lots of money in hours spent. If they keep losing appeals then their bosses hold their feet to the fire. In summary if you inform yourself a bit more then you'll find a design that embraces your enthusiasm and you'll likely make great progress. All the best and keep your heads up! Daylight and Sunlight guidance 17-06-21.pdf BRE 209 Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight BRE 2022.pdf

The only supplier I have found with good info on modulation is Viessmann where they show a shaded 'output area' for min and max output at each OAT temperature, possibly even different charts for different flow temps.

Havn't read all the posts but a 22L EV should be OK for a 248L UV cylinder. Assuming a (now) cold mains temp of 10C and a final HW temp of 60C and a full cylinder reheat each time, then...... precharge/filling pressures of 3.0/3.448bar = final pressure of 4.63bar. No problem. precharge/filling pressures of 3.0/4.25bar = final pressure of 6.0bar. Assumes PRV is passing and rises to 4.25bar precharge/filling pressures of 1.31/3.448bar = final pressure of 6.0bar. Assumes EV air end pressure (precharge) has fallen to 1.31bar. (50psi = 3.448bar) If the TPRV is set to 6.0bar, then the expansion relief valve should be set lower and should have lifted first, what is this set to??, it should be stamped on the end of it (red). Is the pipe from the EV connected in at the "bottom" of this expansion relief valve??. Also what is the Caleffi PRV model, it may not be drop tight. The Caleffi 535 is drop tight The Caleffi 533 is not drop tight

In a fit of hopefulness about finishing my build (or insanity, I'm not sure...) I bought a couple of Acrimo motorised curtain tracks in a Black Friday sale so I could evaluate them. For the price I am quite impressed - the whole thing cost not much more than a similar length manual pull cord rail. The curtain rails themselves are designed nicely and implemented well. The battery built in to the motor and supplied small solar panel and is a nice feature to avoid running power (I already have power there, so that was a waste of wire...). The instructions however are less good unless you understand Spanish because the translation to English has some comedy moments. That said, the product doesn't really need too many instructions because the basic set up is fairly intuituve. Of course motorised curtains are silly unless they are automatically controlled somehow. The instructions claim the motors have two RS485 connections via a RJ45 connector, but then don't explain much more about these. The RJ45 connector also has some logical connections to trigger opening and closing. I could use a micro controller connected to Ethernet (Pi Pico or similar since these are cheap enough) to operate the curtains according to the home automation system's commands but it would be fewer components and therefore better if I could work out how the RS485 bus works. I am waiting for a couple of USB RS485 interfaces to arrive in the post, but in the mean time does anyone have experience of these motors?

Progress, Option 1. Huge improvement. Great to see a contemporary new build design instead of rehashing the existing vernacular. Personally, it is a tricky site with minimal parking for both properties, I think a 3 bed with attached garage would be acceptable.

Hi @Doz, a lot depends on what is underground, well or borehole. Also what you are wanting the water for? And how often. converting your existing pump isn’t practical, motor, crank connecting to the arm etc. but a submersible or bore hole pump are pretty straight forward and could pup out through your existing fuxture with a bit of modification

Not sure about grab rails but tile and stone over 12mm Hardiebacker board seems to hold things like soap dishes and shower head rails well without needing to find studs. I think 12mm of anything might be marginal for grab rails? Can you drill through into the brick?

Just a few thoughts…..

We have a 15kW Aerotherm plus. It's the same hardware as the 10kw as far as I can tell - min modulations are the same etc. They also do a three phase version of this.

From our window experience it was all such a disappointment, especially the fitting which they do everyday! I think an independent report would be advisable to move forward. Lovely looking home, btw.

Some random thoughts, not a professional but built a house with 4 bathrooms. A level threshold to the bedroom would be very critical for me, within a few mm. I fitted wet UFH in foiled EPS boards under the 6mm Hardie Backer and electric cable in a 50mm sand & cement screed. You could use 18mm P5 or 12mm Hardie Backer above the insulation and slab but would need to be fixed well, no movement. I think fixed battens to the slab would work. Electric, (is it self adhesive matting) fitted to one of the above then apply thin layer of self levelling to encapsulate heating elements. Then tank and tile. What the Boss @Nickfromwales said.

Hello, long time lurker and kinda first time poster looking for advice on bathroom planning. TL;DR: Will tile backer board fixed over brickwork hold grab rails or is WBP better? My bathroom currently has been lined with plywood and then tiled. I am looking to remove the tiles and reconfigure so I have a larger shower and a Japanese style sit bath. The shower and bath will run along an internal party wall which might be brick (assuming it is the same as in the kitchen. Previously the original lime plaster was chopped out and at least half the wall replaced with ply and then tiled over. The other end of the wall looks like it might be plasterboard. As this wall is where the shower (with concealed piping) and bath will be, it is going to be tiled to about a foot above the shower head (ceilings are 3.4m) and the shower opening will be at one end of the bathroom, with the bath accessed via steps built into the other end of the shower. These steps will create a shower seat as well. I want to attach a couple of really strong grab rails at the transition between shower and bath. I'm not convinced that tile backing boards are up to the job of holding a grab rail and I'm not sure where the rail will go to put studs in place. I can drill all the way through to the brickwork, but if I hit mortar, then I'm not convinced that is going to be safe. Whatever I use, I plan on completely tanking the shower/bath area. I have attached a rough plan but it's not to scale and I struggle toggling this kind of stuff. For the record the bath is 100cm high and I have checked I can get a Gerberit wall cistern in there which will service a washlet.

Thank you for your help with this. My two worries about that would be the low amount of insulation for the electric ufh (xps a worse insulator and the self levelling eating into an already shallow buildup), and that when the ufh breaks, I'd need to cut into the tanking and self levelling, not just the tiles. Would the chipboard idea (either with battens, or without and bonded to the slab) definitely not work? I'd also looked at gypdeck 18, but it's expensive and presumably wouldn't connect into the 22mm bedroom chipboard.

Hi guys, thanks for your input, its much appreciated. Ive attached some elevation photos as requested. One of those is early on in the build, so you can see the large steel beam that spans the bifold, on which the exterior bricks rest. We havent had any further work done to the house since it was signed off, no alterations etc. I dont have a lazer, but i can see no signs of movement in the brickwork, around windows etc. When looking back through photos of the build, there seems to be plenty of insulation visible around the window apertures in the cavity walls, but cannot see any type of cavity closures in the pics i have available?

I can't easily see how the bricks are supported over the bifold doors. Again here if defending the glazing contractor I would want to know about this and cavity tray design. I would also want to know if you have made later alterations since you moved in, have you done something that could compromise the building performance that has cuased the building to move and over stressed the glazing and this has resulted in the problems manifest. If you have not done any of the above then the glazing provider seems to be on a sticky wicket! I agree Craig. It could be that the window frames are absolutely fixed to the main frame of the house and as that moves about it's causing overstress in the windows and doors. By the sound of it the workmanship appeares shoddy, not maintaining air tighntess for example. In the round though there are so many issues it apears to me that the product could just be faulty and the installation is poor. Hi guys, thanks for your input, its much appreciated. Ive attached some elevation photos as requested. One of those is early on in the build, so you can see the large steel beam that spans the bifold, on which the exterior bricks rest. We havent had any further work done to the house since it was signed off, no alterations etc. I dont have a lazer, but i can see no signs of movement in the brickwork, around windows etc. When looking back through photos of the build, there seems to be plenty of insulation visible around the window apertures in the cavity walls, but cannot see any type of cavity closures in the pics i have available?

Yes. Stop listening to the manufacturers and go with the bonded XPS (Wedi / Jackoboard) type material. You’ll need to self level over them as they follow to subfloor, but that’s your opportunity to bury the electric UFH. 👍 Then tank and tile.

Thank you both. It's a renovation that previously had 50mm polystyrene on the slab, topped with 22mm chipboard, so I don't feel I have much choice about it being floating. My thinking was that the battens would provide more stability for tiling. I would screw the battens to the slab, then screw the chipboard to the battens. I'd originally thought about XPS tile backer boards adhesively stuck to the slab, but manufacturers seemed to think tongue and groove was essential. Would there be a better way, do you think?

What Nick said, A tiled floating floor wet room does not work for me, I would want it all fixed with zero movement. When I tiled our wet room I fixed Hardie backer board through to the P5 Caberdek which is fixed to the floor joists.

The latest Viessmann ASHP do it slightly differently - on approach to defrost, they move an internal valve and charge a small buffer to about 50-60 degs and the whole defrost energy comes from that. Slightly more efficient to the normal.

You're either floating or not. Fixing the chipboard to the battens would cause a conflict. Why floating? Seems added uncertainty with a mixture of bedroom > bathroom wetroom flooring.

Thanks for that, as nowt beats a bit of raw data! Interesting to see how it's still performing admirably, even immediately before deciding it's time for a defrost. The ASHP that's just gone in at one of my current projects defrosts by using some of the buffer volume, I believe. When we had the bitter cold snap recently it defrosted in probably 30-45 seconds; just a big cloud of steam and an almost instant runoff of water from the melted ice. A few minutes at not much more energy consumption doesn't seem to be the worst thing, so your graph offers some assurances, so 👍. The hat's got a few holes in it, may not have taken another hit tbh......

Floating so battens not fixed to the slab?