All Activity

I fitted over 90 metres of Lindab Majestic gutters and assorted outlets, brackets, joints etc and thought the quality was very good though a bit surprised the leaf trap was plastic. Obviously looks great but the cost!

5ft long screw piles will not be long enough to make up your 1m. You'd need 9ft long piles to get stability IMHO (not a structural engineer). I'd be putting in some concrete piles (as per above) and building up from those. A builder friend of mine is sold on these screw piles, but did say they have their place for small extensions, garden rooms etc.

The massive crack circled in yellow would have me concerned: Even with a drip edge along the underside of the coping stones, there's a discontinuity at each join that could let water track away from the edge. The one at the yellow arrow seems particularly bad. Could you temporarily cover the render on your neighbour's side with some plastic sheet that goes right up under the coping stone overhang, ideally with a continuous bead of silicone to make sure water can't track through? That might let you at least rule out the neighbour's render.

Thanks for the feedback. I have since advised the architect (I won’t use the acronym above just in case he or she browses this site!) that we should crack ok in a sympathetic manner with the rest of the application. We are submitting additional proposals for a side single storey extension and a new porch etc but none of it should in anyway prompt a bat survey. The most disappointing aspect is that this architect (owner of an architectural company) is experienced and has completed major commercial projects. I’m still not sure why when permitted development has been approved he deemed it necessary to look into proactively getting bat surveys done.

I have used a chop saw. One of the Evolution multi material ones. Goggles are a must.

Thanks Jack! There are actually a drip groove (small carved-out channel) underneath the coping stones to direct water away from the parapet wall. I think the DPC is just under each coping stones (not visible though, so I cannot confirm). The render of the parapet wall is new (on our side) so there is no crack where water could get in. However, yes I agree that the brickwork looks very "gappy" and any water getting in could use a number of pathways to get out... Maybe we should look at our neighbours cracked render despite the fact that our roofer said that it is highly unlikely to cause an issue to our property unless they have the same issue in the same place... Hmmm, I don't know, I am very confused...

There was some lindlab on a house I looked at the other week and I was distinctly unimpressed. Is this stuff expensive? It didn't look bad but it didn't strike me as looking any better than pvc. Perhaps the guy used a rubbish range

Sorry, I meant 'water starts'. 🫠 I see the little hole (photo attached). Will try and find time to test later, if not tomorrow. Still in nursing mode. Thanks again for the help.

No when it starts, air will come out first. It should collect at the high point. The flow indicator will start to move You need a screwdriver turn the brass bit. Water/air will come out the plastic bit - there should be hole.

Have you checked the anti-freeze valves? Big puddle of water around them?

Hi, I've a Vaillant Arotherm heat pump system that's been in and working for about 18 months. During that time we have experienced 3 cases of total loss of pressure in the system. The last was whilst we were away abroad last week and I had to talk my daughter through topping up the system using the filling loop, and re-setting the pump- isn't WhatsApp wonderful! There is no water in the tundish and the loss is sudden not a gradual creep. This suggests there isn't a leak in a loop because one would expect the pressure to degrade over time. It's almost as if the system is initiating an irregular process that involves using a particular valve or suchlike which when used, dumps the pressure and causes the system to shut down. I am about to start the process of taking this up with the installer but thought I would put the problem out there so I can approach them with a bit more knowledge.

You were correct about the pin. After I raised the height, the pin moves freely. I set it back to how it was calibrated. The red flow marker didn’t move though. I’m going to try this next. Couple of questions (sure they’ll sound daft): You say I may have to open and close the bleed a few times. Will it be obvious when to stop? Guessing it’s when the water stops? Regarding the loop starting running. How will I know? Because the actuator is already warm & lifted. Am I looking to the flow marker? Also, I’ve attached a top down photo of the bleed. I've turned the plastic white part left & right 360 degrees but nothing happened, so I assume I need to turn the brass part shown instead?

If the planning approval for the barn conversion has a condition removing the permitted development rights then you will require planning approval for the siting of the caravan post completion of the works to the barn. A caravan act licence (which I doubt the LA will issue as one is not required for a caravan within a residential property) will not override the planning requirements. The caravan act is more about operating a site in a proper manner than the principle of whether a caravan should be there from a land use point of view. A lot of the act has been repealed now anyway.

Have a look at D-Line. They claim to be softer material and may work for you. https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-tsb35w-2-2-gang-surface-pattress-box-35mm-2-pack/143cy#product_additional_details_container

I was sold on the need to shift as much from fossil fuels to renewables as possible because of the climate arguments but the real clincher was the declining production. I had thought that it was a straight pick between 2 options: A) continue a fossil fuel economy (and co2 emissions) dependant on UK sourced fuels B) transition away from fossil fuels (and lower co2) towards electricity that we get from wind and solar (which are also UK sourced) And you can argue back and forth about the choice between A and B depending on your views on CO2, the costs, the effect on the economy. But actually because of declining production, option A doesn't really exist Option A) is actually "to continue a fossil fuel economy (and co2 emissions) dependant on foreign sourced fuels" - in a Union Jack coat. And B) is your only option if you really care about the UK's energy security.

To me you don't want Willis on without pump on. So drive a suitably rated multi pin relay from pump switch in wiring centre. Drive and Willis from relay. How you control zones doesn't matter after that. Your flow temperature will be by inbuilt thermostat, but add overheat protection with a pipe stat downstream of Willis interlocked to pump Willis power. So mains to pipe stat, then relay, input. So if pipe too hot Willis is off.

Most boxes are just too hard and brittle to drill. You can cut them with an Abra file in a hacksaw blade, but you have to start at an existing hole and cut from there.

I tried drilling new holes in the new boxes and managed it with 1 of them but 3 others just shattered. I didn't know you could get some with softer plastic, I'll look into that thanks. Might heat up a nail and try melting a new hole too.

OK, so i'm adding wet UFH to our outbuilding, slab and pipes are in, manifold is set up and i'm now at the stage of getting it up and running, but I have some questions, which while not insurmountable, I'd definitely benefit from some more sensible/learned opinions on. First one is the Willis. I'm planning on using it to heat two relatively small spaces (approx 25sqm each) and i'd be super surprised if they ever both needed heating at the same time, so I think i'm going to be OK with a single Willis. However, what i've not figured out, is how people are switching them on/off depending on the system needs. As far as I understand, there's no switched live on the unit, so I assume i'd need a relay/switch of sorts between the (always on) spur and the unit. Is this what people generally do? If not, how are you guys controlling the on off of the Willis? Not sure if it makes a difference, but the whole thing is going to be controlled via the heatmiser UH4. Secondly, because I already have them, I was planning on using Hive to control the two rooms in two separate zones. Which in my mind, makes perfect sense, one receiver and one thermostat for each zone. Has anyone else done this already and how did it go? I still have the possibility to switch to something more easily integrated, but i'd definitely rather use something I already have.

Saw something the other day. The BBC has cut its news budget by 40% in real terms in recent years. Given the big names command high salaries it seems likely that they are consuming a greater and greater amount of the budget with back ground research/beat journalists getting massively cut. Papers are similar. Their business model is crippled by social media and the lack of money in adverts these days.

But don't you find the reporting and investigation behind the reporting is lacking. Most nights you get two news articles that should feed into each other, but never do. The other night, one article was about new doctors not being able to find jobs in NHS, being paid for by the NHS, the next not enough doctors to reduce backlog. Why aren't they questioning this state of affairs? Same is true for every sector including energy security. They let people off with news grabbing headlines, that may or not be true, and they just report it without due diligence.

IF those points were argued clearly and correctly by the main stream media, I strongly suspect the declining oil reserves would be a far more compelling reason to adopt more renewable generation and a great deal more people would support that, than some mythical suggestion that if we don't the world will end in climate disaster.

you say "strawman" alot but i don't believe I have "Substituting a person’s actual position or argument with a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented version of the position of the argument" I say your argument is that "Net Zero is bad for the UK and we should improve our energy security by increasing the production of our oil & gas" as evidenced by and... Is my summary of your position incorrect? My counter argument is that we cannot increase our oil and gas production levels because our resources are mature and declining. The other arguments about refinery capacity, ease of extraction and world market prices are secondary to this. As evidence I showed graphs from a government source and, just in case anyone were to say "well they would say that", an industry source. (industry source shown) Bear in mind that today (2025) we only produce about 50% of the O&G products we consume. If we go out a decade to 2035 we can see production will be at most about half today's, ie 25% of demand. The "at most" is important because that includes opening up new fields. You mentioned Rosebank and the optimistic production forecasts are in the region of 70,000 boe per day. As you can see from the graph that isn't even 10% of today's production, or 5% of today's demand. There is no scenario where we double O&G production from today's levels. Are you arguing that increasing our production by 5% in 10 years time will give us energy security? I argue that, to reduce our reliance on foreign (and often hostile) energy sources we need to: a) reduce demand - basically energy efficiency for heating, industry, transport b) reduce our consumption of the energy we cannot produce domestically (oil and gas) in favour of ones we can (electric from renewables but also nuclear) This coincides with the "net zero" policy. Far from stifling UK innovation, it will allow it to flourish in a new sector which is rapidly growing globally (renewables). Our expertise in hostile environment offshore operations will be very useful to the offshore wind industry. The O&G we do produce should be kept for things where it cannot be substituted (chemicals, some industry and aviation) - as has been pointed out the stuff is vital for the modern world, which is why we should be lighting it on fire unless we absolutely need to.

Theres another benefit to starting now, even if you initially see minimal gain. It chips away at a bigger project, getting you closer to the goal. Once this is up and running, your list of things to do will be less daunting and more approachable. Plus theres always the chance that once the inverter is generating it provides you the data to justify more upgrades.

I used a holesaw for the gutters and a 5" grinder for cutting downpipes. I rotate the gutter by hand whilst cutting. I struggle using a hacksaw, the blade is to fine and narrow even using a mitre box.