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Yes it was a straight question. I was just asking as I design insulated rafts as part of my day job. Some of the stuff I do has a lot of my intellectual property built in. I'm happy to share some of my knowledge on BH, just don't want folk ripping it off whole sale for commercial advantage. As an offer if you want to have a chat on the phone then give me a call on 0771 308 1597, text me first so I know it's you, I'm also a bit deaf! We can chew the fat for a bit, happy to chat with you for up to an hour.. and you can pick my brains for free. If you want to take up my offer then send me some drawings and so on first. These of course will be kept confidential at my end. Great approach. I enjoy teaching and informing Clients. I find it a lot of fun actually. My starting point is to listen to you find out what you know and don't, then fill in the gaps in your knowledge and explain what often can be quite technical things in terms a lay person can understand. The objective is to give you enough information to allow you to make informed decisions. This sort of thing gives me a bit of a refreshing break, from drawing details / to structural calculations etc. once you have designed your first few hundred beams the novelty kind of wears off. You still have to concentrate though. In my day job I do this when pitching for business. If you inform a Client and explain the issues, how you might deal with them, highlight the things they may not have thought about, put forward other solutions, buildability cost and risk then it makes it hard for your competitors, you set the bench mark. If my competitors come in at lower fee rate, the Client is often now aware of what constitutes value for money. It works most of the time but some Clients are really stupid / just don't listen and go with the lowest price without valuing the service, ongoing support etc They will also then go with the lowest builders tender and end up nine times out of ten getting truly ripped off.

You have opened another can of worms here! At first glance the EA are saying to defer to the BS! The cost implications are potentially huge, the difference between a site being viable or not! This is a key point that contradict the English regs. I'll try and respond once had time to digest. Thanks David for joining the discussion.

The wall on the left in with the jagardy crack is the internal chimney breast that joins the main chimney in the loft. They arch up join then go vertical in the loft . The wall on the right is hollow not structural. Is this the only concern I need a structural engineer for, or are the others in need of attention? I cannot give you any more pictures as i'm not there for a few days. Can an internal chimney wall move? There hs an alcove on the left of the fireplace and one on the right. This is the one on the right.

I found the video below and interesting watch from a UK perspective. I'm not knocking it in any way, but it highlights the difference between UK building regulations and the US. It's worth noting that they build much larger homes in the US and are much more likely to have AC. There are also many more homes in the US. In the UK, we go a long way to make our houses perform more effectively in deference to the climate impact, but we all share one atmosphere and a single US home may have an impact 3-4 times as large as a UK one and there are probably 6 times as many. It's easy to start to doubt our approach in the UK, but worth keeping an eye on the personal financial impact as well as the environmental benefit. As an example, at 13:28 they show the floor insulation which is US R10 and looks to be about 50mm of XPS. R10 in UK units is a U-value of 0.57 W/m2K. Air interfaces etc may lower that to something like 0.5 W/m2K, but the limiting value for building regulations in the UK is 0.18 W/m2K and the notional value is 0.13 W/m2K. Just considering that and the larger footprint area in the US makes a huge difference. Various Google searches suggest that the average footprint in the US is over twice that in the UK. If you assume the same weather, that means they pass about 6 times a much heat through the floor as a UK house. The roof and walls also wouldn't come close to meeting UK building regulations values and are of much greater area. Are we over doing it in the UK?

My bad. 600mm sheets for stitching, so 300 a side. I’ll go and kneel on some pencils. Been a long week…….

The wax sticks are good too.

Like Nick says, is what I did. Those bolt from each side things that came with DIY kitchens I simply didn't use, just screws behind the hinges or if I couldn't do that I just counter sunk and used the colour coded stickers.

I've got the thumb turner on my porch inside composite door. No letterbox so it was a no-brainer. Never lock the "front door" to the porch as we get deliveries to it all the time, but that's a normal key lock each side.

Best tool in the box when you're in a scrape. I've got a corded one but also a battery one at work which is significantly easier to use without the daft cable. For reference I've used it loads this week to cut waste pipes, plasterboard cut outs, small adjustments to timber, floorboard removal and sanding. Really is a "multi" device.

You need to bury below deep plow depth. Although sheep today, you have no idea what will occur in year. So that is 910mm to 1000mm

For at least some of the run they will go across an agricultural field (sheep) that is occasionally flail mown and then also across a lawn which is regularly mown and trafficked. Also across a tarmac drive. It's (hopefully) a single ground mounted array that serves several houses. The other alternative is overhead poles but that has issues too.

Thought they were a bodgers tool before I bought one. Great bits of kit.

I bought a DeWalt main powered - during the build I used it loads. Great tools.

Mortice is the minimum. Modern euro cylinder locks (assuming you get the right spec) are considered superior (and accepted by insurers in all locations AFAIK) especially if it's installed in a multipoint lock. I would always prefer the eurocylinder as they are easy to change if you ever need to change the keys. Can be keyed alike all round the house and if you want to get really fancy you can get a master keyed set with grouped or independent locks for the doors (allowing you to give some people limited access and others full access). Obviously the more sophisticated setups are more for commercial use but there are uses at home and you can order sets online for not huge money.

Insurers generally want a 5 lever mortice. So as long as you dont leave it within reach through letter box or broken window, they wont be able to use it. I like to have a 'yale' too just for night time security and ease, but use the mortice when going out.

I clicked 'send' too early and have now said much more. I don't trust them to use a meter properly.

They should be using a floor moisture tester.

If it's an issue you could always get a letter box that contains the post (prevents access to the turn cylinder). Will stop stuff dropping on the floor as well which saves bending down to get it. These have downsides too so depends on your circumstances whether it works for you but is an option.

Inside turn for us. Can't be bothered fiddling with a key to lock doors from inside. (if I had to the key would remain in the lock) If the weakest link to entry is breaking a triple glazed glass unit, you are not doing bad.

Based on the parts I have (2no. 22F x 3/4M full bore valves and 1no. 22F x 22F isolation valve) the best would be a 22M x 22M x 22M tee. In other words, a tee with all connections as plain 22mm pipe. I know I could make such a thing using a conventional tee and soldering, but it would be nice if there was a premade one since each connection made has a chance of failure.

I'm just sharing today's annoyance. Perhaps it will help someone else. We will be using engineered timber over a large area and have it in storage because it was a bargain. We recently got a reference to a contractor to lay it. The price was ok so we said go. Now they are saying that we need to prove that the screed is dry enough. It is, and will be beyond dry come September when it is to be done. Even when we use the ludicrously conservative 1mm/ day we have double that time since it was laid, and the wind has been whistling through at 25 to 30 C. Having told them that, they now say (without reference) that it must be 19C all the time and actually 0.5mm/ day is correct. Even that means that it is dry. So they are either charlatans, or ignorant. From long experience I know floorers always try this because they want to sell an upgrade of sealing and even over-screeding, and/or lose any liability in case of any future problem. so 1. we explain why it is dry. Very civilly quoting the material used and the time it's been down. 2. we then emphasise that their sudden doubling of the time required isn't relevant. 3. Now they say that if they turn up and test the screed in September and it isn't to their dryness satisfaction then they will refuse to do it and charge £500 aborted visit. I'm thinking this is perhaps all they do... turn up, charge £500 and go away. It would appear that they are used to getting this extra pay, and are somewhat annoyed that we are daring to answer back. Obv I don't trust them at all and would like to tell them to go cheat elsewhere. But maybe they are just ignorant. They only do one thing, so they should not be ignorant and thus I suspect the other option. If you cheat in one way, you are cheats generally, so who knows if they are any good. That they were recommended by a well known supplier bothers me. Maybe it's all too easy for them. In the past I've presumably convinced the floorers that there is no issue and just to get on with it. I may have signed papers to that effect. But this is on a different level. It's about 250m2 of flooring , so a nice job for someone.

How usefull are these tools? Not sure whether i need one( would only be getting a cheaper end makita one)

Hi All, I hope you are well. I am thinking about replacing the locks and have a big dilemma regarding what kind of cylinder to go for. I think for the front and back doors key & turn cylinder makes more sense however is this secure considering that someone clever could turn it through the letter hole? Also for a clear glass back doors if burglars manage to break in by smashing the glass turn cylinder would make their life easier as then they can open the doors from the inside without a key. What do you think?

That is a lovely tip and one I would never have thought of - Thanks for sharing New Kitchen being delivered in Oct so very useful and timely

Yes Spinny, that is all in place and nothing overhanging or over looking windows. Pro Dave, the owners are in their late 80’s and we think that at the moment they are just going to leave it!!! The issue then I suppose will pass to the next owners but it will be un unmortgageable so will potentially massively reduce its sale value…… might but it myself should this be the case 😂