All Activity

I've found the blockages in progress to be right in the middle of local authorities' hierarchy. The hands on people who have good ideas find they get passed up the chain then stop. The highly competent top administrators give instructions down the chain until they stop. At the same level and even the same person, who has reached their level of incompetence and wants nothing to change. I imagine it us veey difficult to remove that blockage: in fact one chief executive of a LA pretty well told me as much. We can get rid of the incompetent politicians, at least in theory. As for praise for the people who do something for the community.... it exists but is drowned out by the complainers who expect something for nothing, but don't contribute.

The new garage being built with ICF walls has an internal floor dimensions of about 5m x 6m, with the single pitch (flattish) roof sloping from one 6m side to the other. My current plan is to put in a central 5.5m(ish) beam with joists at right angles (~3m each). Q. Glulam or steel for the central 5.5m beam?

Running a business and local politics/volunteering organisations are different. People don't really understand local politics and what they can and cannot do witness reform candidates running for country council positions on a platform of stopping the small boats - an area in which they have absolutely zero power. I would suggest you try a turn at parish council - with your amazing competence I am sure you'll be able to turn things around and then you won't have to worry about the recycling or potholes or whatever irked you. And in the unlikely event you fail you'll have learned a lesson in how even brilliant people with good intentions can't always succeed.

And i bet everyone marvels at how well run the ville hall is. Absolutely nobody whines about the booking system or the noise or the parking or the sound system or the kitchen not being laid out well or any of the hundreds of reasons people complain about the village hall.

Retired people make up a large % of parish councillors because they have the free time.

Then do it. Stop carping and become a parish councillor. You'll probably find things aren't as easy as you think and then have to endure people calling you useless and saying they could 100% do better.

There is a saying that 'bad things happen when good people do nothing'. You are doing nothing, but feel entitled to criticise. To me there is a disjoint in thinking there.

So where does that leave you? What's the fix/work-round for the Cemex stuff, and what are you going to use instead of the lump of 'clod'? If all orders are detailed, in writing, then wriggling out would arguably be difficult. OTOH total inactivity/failure to engage works for recalcitrant contractors all the time. Also, it just occurs to me that any 'obvious' description, especially in a product name, probably has to be queried. You said '...there is a clue in the name 'Easyflow', but maybe there simply isn't! 'Oh, we call it that, Sir, but it's stiff - and does not flow easily - when we think it should be.'. I am not sure I'd have queried that either, but it's a Life Lesson... Keep us posted on the next steps and, I sincerely hope, the success thereof.

Im retiring, so dont need another job, but regardless, i wouldnt get the job, nor would anyone else precisely for the reason that one may have some competence. Not welcome at the council. I donate some of my time to the village hall instead. Given ive run 3 business's, all of them profitable, all with excellent customer reputation, and one which i sold allowing an earlier retirement, with respect, id suggest i have a reasonable degree of competence that doesnt need further demonstration. You may choose not to believe me, but im pretty confident id not organise a change to bin collections that failed to cosider the 2 most basic aspects of that activity. Aside from demonstrating someones utter stupidity, and dont forget, stupidity with OUR money, it does, however, raise broader questions, probably not for this thread, about how our political system results in totally inappropiate people to rising to the top.

Looks good for haunching up kerbs etc. Tossers.

When taling about ROI, you mention 5kw(kwh) of batteries in several posts so I assumed you're planning on getting some

They look good. I guess that at about £5 each, they won't feature for most plumbers or builders, but may work for high end projects and self build. I think tracpipe gas pipe is a bit like this, but it has a plastic outer sheath.

Real ones do it themselves.

Has anyone got experience with corrugated stainless flexis for water plumbing? They look to solve a lot to the issues with the standard rubber + braided stainless flexi: Improved bore size No kink No perishable rubber tubing https://ridgelinetubes.com/flexis/ https://www.monsterplumb.co.uk/ridgeline-flexible-connectors Ridgeline even sell the pipe to do your whole system in corrugated stainless. I think I have only seen this sort of thing in gas connections before, but I might be mistaken.

But you are not going to do it. Seems like a fear of failure.

Why should i stop criticising useless people? I used to attend parish council meetings. It became evident the whole thing was a farce. Nothing ever got done. Indeed, i moved there in 2016, left in 2022, and looked at the minutes (which are only ever published on the day of the next meeting) recently. Essentially, most of the actions and issues are the same as they were in 2016. It is, literally, the definition of pointless. A couple of good people tried. Usually lasted a year and gave up. You were not supposed to achieve anything. At a higher level, our council here thought it was a good idea to re-arrange the bin collections. Which were working ok. Sadly, increasing collections per truck from 500-600 upto 900 whilst failing to realise the trucks did not have the capacity for the volume of waste, and the operators insufficent time to complete the new routes, was, apparantly an "oversight". We are months down the road and its still not sorted. The councillor responsible has been relieved of this part of her duties. But not her pay. Surprise surprise. This person, and others involved are simply brain dead. So i will critisise them. Because thats the very least they deserve. Is it easy, no probably not, but this level of stupid is inexcusable. Could i do do better. Absolutely, 100%. Most people could. And of course you are not allowed to take the rubbish to the tip (70 min round trip) without pre arranged appointments, and without paying. Even though ive already paid, and just want to dump the stuff they failed to collect! I could carry on for pages of their stupidity and waste.

Not sure i follow the last part? I dont have any batteries yet.

this is to go over 2 bay windows so needs a 'bottom'. Also that type of open beam roof would just fill up with spiders/insects/bird nests. I was going to use 2x4 c16 as its cheap enough. I would be mad to use CLS Nice idea with the solar, I might put it on the main roof when i have some spare money. I already have a knackerd canopy flat roof over one of the bays/front door and the top/horizontal part of the gallow brackets protrude into the masonary so i was going to go with that again. but the old roof partially obscures whats going on so i will have to wait to see once ive ripped it off. I had planned to, Rip the old roof off. screw some old offcuts to the wall temporarily to rest the bottom wall plate on. put my wall plates on with anchor bolts, shimming them level off the old offcuts screw a hand full of joists on screw the facia boards on fill in the rest of the joists anchor bolt the rafter wall plate on screw the rafters on get the breathable membrane and battens Then do the gallows, should i stick these to the wall with anchor bolts too? or can i use concrete bolts/fisher fixing that i used for my upvc windows? I work in the Automotive game Hence my terminology being off etc.. But i know enough to be dangerous...🤣

Things have somewhat improved thanks to the advice on this thread. I am now reasonably happy that I my boiler is working to heat the DHW as best as it is likely to do. The boiler now fires in two firings, the first lasts approximately 15mins, then cools for about 15mins before the second firing which lasts about 4mins, shortly after the second firing cycle the DHW cylinder thermostat is satisfied and the boiler turns off and no longer remains on for the full one hour that the schedule. Thanks for the help with this.

I assume your question relates to what I said about cooker hood? That's what the general advice is here. Use a recirculating cooker hood and use the MVHR on boost to swap the air in the room. I think this is fine for normal cooking smells. Some people have suggested not so great if you fry though. But my thought was more about the heat output of long cooking sessions. In a well insulated home there's nowhere for that to go and the MHVR doesn't shift enough air to do the job AFAIK. Opening is fine though it's less controlled. An externally vented cooker hood with a designed make up air solution would seem the better solution (assuming appropriate air tight shutters are used to seal them up when not in use). Only ideas for me at this point. Not got to the stage of actually planning something. I suspect it's a relatively low cost thing to do but if not then I'd likely stick with the recirc + MVHR + window.

I mean with all the modern ways of sealing up builds how much does the design affect it? What's that loop they spray under pressure gets in all the nooks and crannies

My parents looked at a house for sale, was owned by the son (Michael Telling) of one of the Vesty family. Michael had murdered his wife and dumped the body on Exmore, but kept her head in the freezer at home. House was being sold with all fixtures and fittings.

Not Rick, but no. MVHR doesn't shift enough air to make a big difference. Much better to open the window.

There are several businesses that pivoted to new sectors successfully but that doesn't mean every business is looking for that pivot and often big shareholder companies will find it harder to do so because the senior management team are incentivised to maximise short term profits which rarely means long term investments in things that are not "core".

@-rick- you couldn't achieve the same with MVHR or wouldn't it have enough throughput?