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FYI there are v few oak frame builds on Buildhub. We have one (not an off-the-shelf design) from Carpenter Oak which we’re really pleased with. Oakwrights are another big player, also Welsh Oak I think. I don’t think there much saving on off-the-shelf vs. custom btw except for a bit of architect’s fees.

Yeah, they didn’t bother to check Companies House when making Covid loans.

Solicitors are a whole new playing field. £500 for a local firm to write a simple letter seems to be par. in principle, quotes for work like this are based on no of hours expected x (outrageous) hourly rate. Things that bump the rate significantly are (a) specialist work that not many lawyers understand and therefore can do, (b) critical advice on high ticket items, (c) practice brand name recognition. An easy ask is ‘what’s the process’ and ‘how many hours do you think it would take’ (+ ‘what’s your billing rate’). They will be very open about their billing rate. Also, what skills they have. It’s unusual to just get a fixed number unless that’s what you asked for or the work is so standard (e.g. conveyancing) everyone knows how long it usually takes. Maybe the £9.5K number means ‘we’ve never done this before and we’re not particularly interested in finding out how unless you make us a stupid offer’.

Not me. I would spec it on external render though.

Ah joined up government! You'd have thought they would be plugged in to the land registry and could see if you are the registered owner there before writing that email. Costs everyone more time to deal with the email and response.

Jeepers, that's a lot of invoices! We finally got an initial response from HMRC just over a month after the initial submission: "You are not named on the planning permission. Please provide evidence such as your Building Agreement, Purchase Contract, handover documents, land transfer documentation etc; to show when you acquired the Property/Land." This is because our planning consultant was sent the planning approval. Anyway, we've now uploaded several further docs to show we own the plot, we're the actual planning applicant etc. So we wait another month, I guess...

For future reference, these are a fantastic way of getting around bad edges. Several on the market, but these 'skim over' ones are loved by the plasterers I've fitted them with. As they can just go straight over. They even make downlighters ones

Do people really mesh internally? Id be interested to know if blockwork or plaster cracked. Can you hack some off below skirting line?

The thing with thermal bridge calculations is a high psi just tells you that the bridge is much worse than the surrounding structure at keeping the heat in. This means that if your house is otherwise very well insulated then you will get a higher psi. If you decide to mitigate your thermal bridge by increasing insualtion adjacent to it, you increase the psi - counterintuitive. A high psi is (imo) not an issue provided that the building taken as a whole is sufficiently insulated and your thermal bridges are good enough to prevent condensation and mould, so the lowest internal temperature at the bridge is more illuminating.

Forgot about this on my doorstep. 3MW electric and some thermal. I think they are selling on the back of lithium extraction. https://gel.energy/about/united-downs/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewzg77k721o

As suggested by @ADLIan and @IanR, it is probably the thermal bridge calculations that are the issue. You are far better off using existing calcs than having custom ones. The default psi values are unbelievably negative and these are probably the ones that were used.

If you haven't decorated yet and it's something you plan to sub out then I expect many decorators will be used to doing this work and it might not be a huge deal just to get them to do the filling.

Bed joint reinforcement (the train track stuff) above and below the openings may have helped. I have only specified it on rendered walls or brickwork feature panels like stack bond. Mesh in the render also helps. You best option now is filler.

This is down to detail. Is this "plaster on the hard" or plasterboard? If plaster to brick or block the back boxes need to be well fitted and deep enough to reach almost the finished level of the plaster. If too deep the spread has to do his best forming an edge in free space. One of the reasons I hate plaster direct to brick or block. If you don't want surrounds as suggested above, you need to build up the gaps and form a corner with a good quality ready mixed plaster.

To add, one of the great potential use cases of a technology like this is if it works you could go to the site of an old coal/gas power plant. Drill a deep hole and then start using the heat to drive the existing turbines using the existing power lines. It has potential to be an excellent solution to base load. Again not something to wait for, but if it materialises in say 5 years as viable, then it could seriously reduce time to net zero for planet earth if it can be rolled out at scale.

My parents would probably have used plastic surrounds (used to be common to stop grubby fingerprints on walls/expensive wallpaper) First hit (not recommending) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390878577772 Having said that, I think our standards have moved on and you probably want to unscrew the sockets, fill and paint. But that's a lot more work.

100% The worry with something like this is that the sceptics see this and start using it as a reason to not spend money now on existing solutions.

What's the best way to fix this? Time machine? A dozen or so sockets are like this. 😕

First floor, underneath windows at front (SW) side are the worst. Diagonally down from corners. Tops of most doors the same. Diagonally upwards.

Which bit. Here is the radio active decay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_internal_heat_budget Here is the tidal heating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_heating About 0.0073 W/m2 most in the oceans, so not really relevant. All these thermal forcings are generally measured at the mW/m2 scale. As much as I line innovation and large engineering projects, we currently do not have time to wait for the Golden Goose. We need to crack on with Wind, Solar, Hydro, Storage and Demand Management. We have everything we need to do that, and have actually had it for the last 30 years.

That doesn't sound right to me. Got a source? I thought it was mostly caused by the effect of the moon compressing earth as it orbits. Like the moon causes tides, it causes relatively small changes in the earths shape as it orbits. This produces heat. Edit: Either way, our actions aren't going to affect either of these energy sources (at our current and foreseeable future demand) I thought the main selling point of this millimetre wave stuff was that it would dramatically lower the cost of drilling and if their calculations held would end up cheaper than solar as a way of generating electricity.

I have forgotten an awful lot. But I kind of remember that there is an absolute limit to the height of a pump, regardless of size. Because of the sheer head of water mostly. In a mine there is tunnelling and it could be done in stages.

A bit, most is radioactive decay There is some tidal warming. It is a bit strange to go to all this trouble when there are easier alternatives to develop. https://goexplorer.org/using-the-ocean-to-power-tropical-islands/ They spent, I think, £1.5m on the Jubilee Swimming Pool geothermal project. It failed and they put a heat pump in. Seems strange when they have a warm ocean literally 10 feet from it and a local firm that makes Water Source Heat Pumps. I am sure I could get an AI to write up a gushing proposition for just about any energy source, present it to some greedy, but ignorant, investors, and laugh.

I think I saw this discussed in the past. Iffy recall but I think the jist is that the amount of energy in the core is massive and any level of human extraction is likely inconsequential to that. More locally you obviously have similar problem to fracking in that if you disturb the local geology you may have water and other things going places they weren't before which may be problematic. The heat in the core is caused by rotation of the planet and is linked to orbital mechanics (IIRC). On those scales current human endeavour is almost nothing. The comparison is climate change where through our actions over 150/200 years we have made a meaningful difference in atmospheric concentrations of potent gases.

I'm surprised you haven't had more contributions on this thread. There have been in the past some people on here who might be able to answer but I guess they aren't around ATM. Not a lawyer but I think in general the bigger, better reputation, firms charge more. If they are a bigger firm they can handle bigger cases and therefore people with bigger wallets and thus don't want to lower their fees for smaller stuff. Going to a smaller firm (even one man band) might not be a detriment if you are dealing with someone who has fairly specialised knowledge in your area of concern. But if they are more of a generalist and you need a specialist then you would be at a disadvantage. So question is does this describe the difference between the firms? Have you asked the more expensive firm why their price is so much higher? (Not haggling, but asking them to justify the price). In terms of the £1600, that sounds about as low as is reasonable given this job is maybe a little unusual. Doubt the above is anything you haven't already thought about but maybe it triggers some more useful conversation?