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They do indeed. However, ive worked flatout for 40 years, so, i will soon be trying enjoy the limited time i have left enjoying myself, not wasting ut in parish council meetings.

Id agree, plenty of competemt people at the bottom. Like the road crew that came to patch up the road by my house. Again. Talking to them, they know what they are doing there is pointless. The old guy who has bern there since the dawn of time is the first to admit its depressing. Im not so sure where these highley competent top administrators are though? Agree however, its clear its near impossoble to get rid of useless people. Which is of course self fulfilling. These aee people that simply wouldnt survive in the real world.

A frustrating tale - I hope you get a good outcome. If you can get it sorted correctly for £54, that's a bargain*. Do let us know how it goes. *A 2026 EPC survey here in France found prices of €100-130 for a 30m² studio, to €300-400 for a house >200m², with discounts if combined with other mandatory surveys (and, I guess, extra to trawl through a big file). Prices went up by 15 to 20 % after the certificates became legally enforceable in 2021.

No ones complained about what i do. Because im not a moron.

No thanks. Parish councils are mostly pointless talking shops with little power, see my previous post. They dont "do" anything much. My friend is the chair of the parish council, ive discussed. Conclusion was, dont do it. For some reason you believe we should just accept nothing much works anymore. Odd.

I do feel free to criticise, they are spending our money. And as such shuold be held accountable for their actions. Thats hows its supposed to wotk. Can you imagine how bad things would be if only those in the system were allowed to comment? Which is what you appear to be proposing.

I am approaching the start of the refurbishment of my old 1850 listed cottage and I would like to hear your experience regarding the insulation of solid stone walls. Mine are made of 500mm of solid Welsh stone covered with about 20mm lime plaster, entirely substituted or patched in some rooms with gypsum plaster(pink one). Everything is covered by glued paper that has been painted over the years (clearly the walls are not so breathable). On the external, 3 sides are exposed to external weather, one is sheltered by a neighbouring building. The only exposed gable wall is covered by 20mm of cement plaster (not perfectly adherent to the wall) which should offer a degree of protection from rain. This layer will be removed in the refurbishment to expose the rubble stones. Our architect suggests repointing all walls (wise) and using an insulated plasterboard with integrated VCL directly attached to the wall, with 30 mm insulation + 12.5mm plasterboard. I am not sure about this method since it could lead to potential future issues especially when we remove the external plaster on the gable end. Which insulation type would you suggest for those external walls to avoid or mitigate any potential condesation/infiltration risks? Would you suggest removing the plaster before applying any insulation?

15mm Hep2o, simple and effective, and way less of a ballache to terminate etc. Why go OTT?

The overall objective is to replace the damaged stuff and at the same time increase the weatherproofing, whilst having something that is low maintenance. There are sections where the oak is deformed to the point of the hornets find every gap and nest in the walls…

This is suddenly really interesting for me right now. We completed our EnerPHit plus retro fit in 2021. It included a heat pump installed with the (brief and spectacular failure) "Green Homes Grant" and topped up with RHI. The RHI was audited a few months ago, and they raised a complaint that the EPC used in the application (mid-renovation) didn't reflect the building quality at the moment I applied. i.e. I'd spent my own hard-earned money on improvements to the house (paying VAT on it all too, of course) and hence should be granted less RHI than my neighbour that hadn't improved my house. The EPC had been specifically done a few months before for the Green Home Grant (with the newly topped up loft insulated mandated by that scheme, even though we knew we were adding new external insulation to roof and making a warm loft in months soon to come, but the process is the process). But of course mid-renovation is a silly time to pay for an EPC (solar, battery, light bulbs, and even windows not yet complete). So now 5 years own I got one done, and it came out at 89 grade B, for an energy positive house! So yeah now going through all the hoops needed to get the EPC surveyor to include correct U-values, airtightness, MVHR, waste water heat recovery, solar battery, etc. Which involves them going through hundreds of pages of evidence, and then again when they themselves are inevitably audited. They're only charging £54 for the whole certificate process, which can barely cover the cost of the site visit let alone the hours of office work this will need. And you have to love the irony that an audit on the sub-£3k RHI grant (on a build where I spent over £150k + VAT reducing energy use) will itself trigger another audit for whoever I chose for the EPC. All on top of already paying £x000 for the passivhaus certification process. It's almost like someone somewhere would rather we didn't make well performing houses, isn't it??

Yes, they did.

Unfortunately, we only have Cemex and Heidelberg near us. Reading is slightly too far and was warned by another concrete supplier in Woking that when it comes to SCC you want to source it from a plant near to the site. I subsequently discovered yesterday after Heidelberg requested the ticket from the batching plant, that the operative had entered a slump of 75 and not 750. Having know understood the error, I stupidly got them to send another batch today as I have to get these slabs done. After they had put in over 1m3 it became apparent that they had messed up again as the concrete just wasn't flowing like SCC should. I raked like a man possessed and thought I was going to have a heart attack. I had no choice though as I was on my own and thought "wtf do you do with so more concrete already in. I can't stop and leave it, so water had to be added. The driver didn't speak hardly any English and couldn't understand what I was asking him. I've requested full details from them as I am completely conscious that water should not be added. I know individuals on here will be thinking. "stupid xxxx, why didn't he carry out a slump test on site ...". But how many people actually do that for a residential house build. I worked in construction for a few years and even spent time doing factory floors and not once did I see a slump cone. It's not rocket science and I'm just pxxxxed off dealing with such incompetent fools.

For aesthetics, why not put the light switches on the same axis as the sockets?

If were me, I might replace any v dodgy wood like for like and maybe consider a coat of Bedec barn paint. Maybe I’m biased as we’re just about to clad our place with oak featheredge. What’s your overall objective - aesthetics? Better insulation? Reduced maintenance?

I don’t think there’s that much difference. About the same U-value, both have basic fire retardant. Mostly installed by the same crews with the same equipment. We went wood fibre, from memory slightly more expensive. Mainly because ‘wood’ rather than ‘paper’ - the wood fibre resembles the stuff that mdf is made of. The installation for both needs to be done well. I’ll write up our unfortunate experience and some recommendations when I get some time.

16mm alpex, as long as it’s wras approved….

I’m considering my options for replacing the square edge oak cladding on my ‘shack’ (see attached photo)… the wall construction is 4x2 on 16” centers, with building paper on the outside and wood fibre insulation board on the inside. What would people do in this instance, 11mm OSB -> house wrap -> batten -> cladding? I’ve been considering going straight over the top of the 4x2 with insulated industrial wall panels, I’ve also considered importing half a container load of 16mm metal/pu cladding from China, and I’ve considered going for regular wriggly tin… I’ve also considered whether the coated OSB from the US (zip system) is available here, as that would be an ideal product to go underneath whatever surface finish I apply. The current square edge oak is warped in places, and rotting in other places. Is render board and render the correct answer here? Open to ideas and options. *yes, I’m replacing the windows soon

Have a play with this, 5m clear span gives a few possibilities. and as it is a garage the loads can be reduced and maybe plain timber will work. That assumes that it is and always will be a garage! https://www.jamesjones.co.uk/products-and-services/engineered-timber/jji-joists/interactive-span-table

I’m wondering what folks use for manifold water system. I like the way it’s done in Scandinavia and they seem to use pex-a. Local merchant has suggested easy lay but I’m not sure of the differences, advantages etc or best system to couple either with for connections etc. Any experience/advice/photos appreciated. Thank you

I don't have the same expertise as the other contributors to this thread, but I'd have thought buying in some ready made trusses, to give a low angle dual pitch roof would be the best solution. If you tell the truss company what your roof finish will be, they'll work out the truss spec' for you.

Thanks John sorry I wasn’t clear enough…internal face of external wall.

It could be better as a ridge beam on a low pitched roof.

I just used a 25mm to 22mm stop cock. Been installed 6 years - no issues at all.

Do you have to have a flat roof? If not simple roof rafters at a low angle, then you most likely need zero steel or glulam. You just trying hard to make it more complicated and expensive than it needs to be

Just do external waterproof surface mounted. If your not doing waterproof how are you keeping the water out?