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There’s a few around on period properties, but no idea where I can get one from. Google isn’t helping, which is why I thought of a wall coping. Either that or replace the corbel course with blue engineering bricks

Sounds pretty weak. If you want a stronger version but also insulated use Compacfoam. Make it deeper than 20mm by doing a double layer glued and screwed together.

BOOM! +008845ms Recording command WAV until silence... +012857ms Command WAV: /Users/ultram3/avalon/.out/avalon_command_turn_0001.wav (6.00s, SILENCE_AFTER_SPEECH) +013965ms One-shot command transcript: Avalon. Set chicken timer for 10 minutes and egg timer for 4 minutes. +013966ms Wake residue stripped command transcript: Set chicken timer for 10 minutes and egg timer for 4 minutes. +013967ms Ministral prompt: /Users/ultram3/avalon/prompts/avalon_media_intent_ministral.txt +017112ms Heard phrase: Set chicken timer for 10 minutes and egg timer for 4 minutes. +017112ms Final phrase: Set chicken timer for 10 minutes and egg timer for 4 minutes +017112ms Ministral intent JSON: {"actions": [{"album_hint": null, "artist_hint": null, "confidence": 0.95, "control": null, "domain": "timer", "duration_seconds": 600, "intent": "set_timer", "notes": "set chicken timer for 10 minutes", "query": null, "timer_label": "chicken", "track_hint": null, "value": null}, {"album_hint": null, "artist_hint": null, "confidence": 0.95, "control": null, "domain": "timer", "duration_seconds": 240, "intent": "set_timer", "notes": "set egg timer for 4 minutes", "query": null, "timer_label": "egg", "track_hint": null, "value": null}]} +017113ms Timer action: set_timer label=chicken duration=600 +017113ms Real route: timer.set_timer; Label: chicken; Duration: 600; Execution: yes +017113ms Timer action: set_timer label=egg duration=240 +017113ms Real route: timer.set_timer; Label: egg; Duration: 240; Execution: yes +017113ms TTS af_jessica: Chicken timer set for 10 minutes and egg timer for 4 minutes +022172ms Restore requested volume: 51 +022185ms Restore verified: yes current_volume=51 expected_volume=51 +022190ms Restored: yes +022190ms Listening...

The XPS board goes in the cavity, vertically, bonded to the inside edge of the outer leaf of block. Then you remove the inner leaf for the full width of the opening. Fix a piece of 30mm PIR, or more slices of XPS, as an insulation upstand. Then DPC, and then fill with a strong concrete mix with 10mm aggregate. Delete the cavity!

Natural speech processing is tricky. Originally I went for Alexa simplistic "play coldplay" etc. Deterministic wording. But that's crap and apparently Alexa+ (never used one) allows natural speech. Now we have "Put some coldplay on and set an egg timer for 5 minutes". Wording and phrasing can be loose. "Play coldplay and some nice mumford and sons" Ministral does the parse but it can be funny!. It might do "Play Coldplay." or it might do "play Coldplay" resulting in sometimes an empty JSON . It's random. So empty JSON falls through to Gemma with same prompt. So far this has not failed. I got chat to write a script that tested 1000 phrases with poor spelling or "mould clay" type deliberate wording messes!. Ministral's job is just to get intent i.e. "music", "artist or album". Not to determine if they are real or correct. That goes to jellyfish to fuzzy match against my real LMS library. Regarding wake word openAI/porcupine all crap TBH. Slow and useless. So we have 2 whisper tasks running per microphone. 1 soley transcribing "avalon" (wake word) and its mis heard permutations (frequently "have a long". At the same time we run a rolling 12 second window of wav to text - this is surprisingly accurate. So once wake word has been validated we already have what was said!. Processing all this and ministral and maybe gemma then TTS (Koboros ) is a bit slow. But I cant speed it up much. Models are the smallest reliable ones I can find. Compressing ministrals prompt helps but then we get more "guesses". Another local llm oddity is even if you say "90 minutes" ministral can sometimes convert it to seconds! Other times it's fine! . So timers will enforce minutes (not a real issue tbh). So apart from a complex pipeline thats relatively slow (4 seconds for average prompt) its working well!. 100000% better than home assistant voice shite. Currently offloading rendering to a separate nuc. trying to give m3 as much gpu girth for llm processing.

Your quartz fitters should be pre-aligned to walk through this ‘issue’? They make small cuts in the underside of the quartz to accept stainless L section ‘tabs’. These are done and then the quartz cleaned, dusted and decontaminated. Then clear CT1 (NOT SILICONE) is applied to the mating surfaces of the stainless sink, where it marries up with the underside of the quartz. This should be with the quartz upside down and the sink sat on top. Once aligned the quartz fitters should be making up a mix of 2-part resin bond to set the tabs into the slots, maybe 6 or 8 of them for your sink. This takes no longer than 15-20 mins to cure fully, and then you’ll need a stick of Semtex to get that bowl back off. Very standard stuff, shocking that they’ve not explained this process to you comprehensively….

Threshold details are a right pain. I guess he is concerned that there may be cracking between the different substrates. Who knows if he is right? I guess you either do as he asks if he is willing to take responsibility in the event of it being defective or you leave it as is and you take the responsibility. And maybe stop wearing stilettos around the house.

Yes, undermount sink, quartz going on top. I notice the sink has a couple of bracing pieces attached across the bowls at the side, but still sags under it's own weight. I think the fitter's idea was it could be adjusted forward/backwards as necessary., but fill the bowls with water and what would happen ?

Patching in floor at a doorway. All prepped and now the flooring guy says it won't be strong enough. Was using a strip of 20mm thick XPS backer board. Advice please - is he right or wrong ? See sketch. Backer board strip 200mm wide supported on one side on celcon blocks 100mm wide, and on other side by 30mm XPS resin bonded to blockwork. The XPS backer board is to have levelling compound applied over to about 15-18mm thick. Flooring guy says it won't pass the stilhetto test, and the XPS must be replaced with solid board ? Flooring will be LVT.

Yeah I'm looking at track saws, I hadn't really heard of them, they sound great. A chop/ track saw combo could be a good idea going forward to be able to do most cuts it sounds like.

I think you need to increase the cover. Sadly it will probably significantly increase the premium.

I connected mine from softened water, because that's how @Jeremy Harris did his. (His reasons were to avoid cost of another descaler ,and it makes a better cup of tea, IIRC) After 5 years I've not had any issues with it. Ours is a combi tank so the main kitchen tap is all softened, and we have a dedicated hard water spigot next to it, mostly used for cold drinking water We're in a fairly hard water area - borderline for being within the safe guidelines for drinking the softened water. If I have four mugs of tea (1L water) it's about the same as one bag of crisps. If someone has a medically prescribed low-sodium diet then they should avoid it still.

This is an undermount sink, worktop above ? I fitted a couple of timber horizontals to support the long sides as was fitting a concrete worktop.

when sat into a worktop and supported on all 4 edges it'll be fine.

Photo. It is Franke brand. I don't find it too impressive that they manufacture a sink that deforms under it's own weight when supported at the ends TBH.

A photo would be useful. Mostly sinks are supported all round, either by kitchen unit carcase or by worktop.

That's what we do. We don't know the full background or your experience. We may have forgotten what you explained earlier. I've been in the design and construction business 50 years and get people telling me things I know or am even very expert in. I don't mind. Because there are some valuable nuggets in there. And because others reading behind the scenes might gain from the info. Looking forward to following your progress and teaching you how to suck eggs.

Have a word with CoolEnergy in Grimsby - they might be able to provide the sort of solution you're looking for.

It's relevant for any external pipework. I think this is more common in F-Gas installs as they tend to be retrofits (in domestic installs at least), and tends to be easier by running pipes all over the outside of the building. (Ugly for sure, but easier & cheaper). I expect retrofits to increasingly use a2a for this very reason. This is the key decision point. If you're happy to pay for it, then an a2a (i.e. some sort of refrigerant based) system is the only way to get the "arctic gale" of an aircon system. Whether you combine one system with UFH & DHW or do two systems (potentially one exhaust air for UFH & DHW) comes down to shopping about, supplier selection and what they are comfortable working with. Cost wise it's probably a wash (one complex system vs two more conventional ones). A a2w heat pump with FCUs is likely cheaper to install and can perform very well (comfort and cost wise) if setup correctly. And is much more DIY-able if that's your truck. But it will never give the same frozen air blast of a2a

i inherited a table saw at work. It was totally obvious that i would end up losing a finger by using it every day so i got rid of it and got a dewalt chop saw and a dewalt track saw. Never looked back.

Our stainless steel sink is currently supported at each end only. I notice it is sagging at the divider between the main bowl and side bowl under it's own weight. Doesn't seem good. Should such sinks be supported underneath between the two bowls ? (We will not be having the worktop over the divider)

No havn't got an especially deep sink, just wanting to maximise the remaining cupboard space because IMO you can never have enough cupboard space. Kitchen company have now said there is a metal shelf to be installed which they normally cut to fit around the quooker tap. We are having a boiling water only tap, and have been supplied the pro 3 tank and the quooker descaler. However we also have a whole house water softener and have both mains cold hard water pipe and softened cold water pipe available at the sink unit. Should we use the quooker descaler and connect to cold hard mains ? Or connect to softened cold and try to get money back on the descaler ? It does seem as though the descaler does not add sodium to the water, so maybe we should do the former just for lower sodium ? How exactly does a descaler work then compared with an ion exchange salt water softener ? What have you all done and why ?

countersunk screws in flange fouling on tray mating surface. Use a file to take the tray down in these locations? only a few mm. Why is nowt easy.

i guess im open to offers on which one... the "top hat" one is quite loose fitting around the middle shaft (too tall for the trays depth) unless i add in one of the additional seals underneath the bottom side it to pad it out. So it comes with 3 seals, rough image attached. The first 2 are i guess a set of one for the top and one for underneath. The third one is the one in the picture above, the "all in one" described as "alternative seal H". Bizarrely i cant find any real reference or pictures of the 2 seals, i wonder if they have stopped shipping the trap with the two options now, i got mine from ebay instead of off the shelf, could have been old stock but it is referenced in the paper manual that came with it as "alternative seal H". Ideally id not have a top seal at all to keep the flange as flat as possible but if i need it then so be it, being bombproof takes priority for this. To add further issues, the counter-sunk screw holes in the top metal flange obviously direct down over which means it doesnt drop in totally flat. Id have to file the tray away at the points the countersunk sections sit, just a few mm)

Yes, I had to cut out a section of our cabinet base as we have a massive sink, water filter and waste disposal unit, just no room for the tank. Looks a right mess but there nothing else in there so door is rarely opened.