All Activity

Howden Joinery Group has agreed to acquire the parent company of DIY Kitchens for an enterprise value of £390 million https://www.google.com/gasearch?devloc=0&hl=en-GB&aep=40&cs=0&notifcid=6526735463040355563&q=Howdens acquired DIY Kitchens for three hundred ninety million pounds&notiffp=UI2mXfnXafA3-bQ-j63gXQ&nsource=and.now.n.ge.co&udm=50&astidl=F8GkCWjd9Ik&source=px.sh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm8%2F4&mstk=AUtExfClmK317pa63DXIyC30IcPAZKCLbWaEBNbxBcpEp0rXLIrSJdlRDT_0FiutH4_CtlXLMzxrmp-W-cFiVlI9WTh-oksqtLI4g1AffA9ryQgi6yDr1F44Z9Uce2F7EZ67EAGciFWqhETAOx8nJhd5og2ZL7zueC6w2fA&csuir=1&mtid=kgQgarTjLsbXhbIP__HS2A8

Great idea, the lamp charges the solar panel.

With pretty much all makes, it's very easy to go back to copper or plastic as they sell them everywhere. For example: https://naturalgreenheat.co.uk/product-category/wras-approved-press-fittings/transitions-mlcp-to-copper-pipe/ I've used Tweetop, Maincor, Riifo, Uni-Press, etc. etc. They are all pretty much the same. The only thing you need to be aware of is what press jaws the brand uses. Some are available that can accept both TH and U, some are only TH or U and some brands have their own. So when you invest in a set of jaws, just make sure you use the compatible fittings. I have both U and TH as I had one supplier who was very good with one brand and then seriously let me down one time by supplying a huge coil of 32mm that was damaged in transit because they couldn't be bothered to package it properly and made it a nightmare to return it, so I had to switch to something else with reliable supply. But for me it's useful to have both sets of jaws because I use the stuff on all my installs. With all the systems you have to plan out your job carefully to ensure access. Having a set of angled jaws helps but obviously adds to your setup costs significantly. The advantage with MLCP is you can often bend the pipe to give yourself access, but sometimes you need to use your imagination in tight spaces - e.g. crimp and then thread pipe into place.

I think our architect specified this as well - can't find the specs on this that he sent through to the roofer - I'll ask him if he can resend it to me. Also worth checking suppliers sites like Cladco, to see if they have any useful pointers.

I've not used MLCP before so I have some questions. I've looked at videos of Multipipe and Geberit MLCP systems and the Geberit system looks good for access in tight spaces. Can anyone give me some advice about makes they have used and how easy it is to use an adapter to go back to existing copper or plastic pipe.

It's a street lamp. You can see the lamp above the solar panel (maybe it is self powering at night 🙂)

Not just boilers. When I finished with the solar industry (which by then was was full of cowboys - shocking installs in the literal sense) I moved into stairlifts. It was supposed to be a temporary job but I ended up doing it for 5 years. The most depressing 5 years of my life. Anything to do with the elderly or infirm seems to be a licence to print money by unscrupulous salesmen and uncaring stairlift 'engineers'. If you thing BG is bad, try dealing with Acorn. I could tell you so many stories...

If you think it's where the sheets overlap you could run a strip of roofing membrane in between the sheets at these points (cut just shy of the edges so you don't see it. This might allow some slight movement between the sheets without the noise. Actually, thinking about it, when we put our sheets on the roof (same as yours, 13/3 black corrugated) we used a mastic strip where they overlap to effectively stick them together but allow some movement. Did you do this? Our roof isn't that noisy at all, though we do have a ton of PV covering most of it.

It's basically UK standard v's European DIN standard. To confuse matters, European entrance doors are usually viewed from the external side.

You speak truth. They can be a bit cosy. They all charge the same and can't be hurried. They really don't like being told to try harder. Having done this in Scotland and England, I've found Scottish agents to be much more proactive, energetic, truthful, straightforward and... well professional. And then they charge a lower percentage on what is already probably a cheaper prurchase.

To continue the essay. Intumescence means swelling. Let's stick to the paint context. When the paint gets very hot it expands and ends up as a skin of ash, which acts as insulator. A common problem I've seen is painters thinking they are clever in making it go further (it is expensive) whereas it must have the thickness specified. It must also receive a final seal coat for strength and protection. A properly professional supplier will assist with appropriate certification. But if you just buy some from a merchant you can get a wordy but meaningless 'certificate'. Heavy steel sections can be sufficiently fire resistant without protection, and light constructions need most. Thousands of buildings I'm sure are grossly under-protected.

Thank you for the suggestions so far. It's hard to tell exactly where the noises come from but my best guess is that it is from where the sheets overlap each other, as standing on the overlaps can produce a similar sound. There are some sheets that overlap quite a bit so that i didn't need to cut down the length of the sheet, which may also be an issue. Maybe a test setup is required... I'm also wondering if it could be to with wind as there is currently a lot of airflow as I haven't done the soffits or fascias yet- (there's a bit of pressure to move out of my mother-in-law's house and into ours so was hoping to leave this till later!) I did wonder about this @Mr Punter but could this cause condensation problems for the timber or the roofing sheets? Would the rockwool be laid on to top of the horizontal battens and the tin on top? I wouldn't mind refitting them if it would help. Thanks

Not just the elderly. I went to service a customer's boiler that I had installed and was under a 12 year manufacturer's warranty. Over an Easter weekend the husband was at home alone and the boiler didn't work and instead of contacting the manufacturer or me, he called in an emergency company who charged him £1200 for the pleasure and didn't even specify what parts had been changed. When I inspected the boiler, I couldn't see any evidence of anything having been swapped out from new.

You lost my assistance there. Shame as I've designed and built hundreds. You are lucky @Gus Potterhasn't said the same. OK. Its BH, so: Likely it is a fixed rather than pinned base condition because of the boundarycondition.so heavier steel. You say trusses. Portal frames don't have trusses. Plus an agricultural spec is completely unsuitable, so of course this is much more expensive. It's great you are studying the subject but there is a risk this turns into dabbling. Out.

Obviously it has its limitations, but this is exactly the sort of question that AI very good at answering. I just put the following prompt into Claude: This was the reply: Try modifying the prompt if you want something different. I just bunged in what I thought were some reasonable assumptions.

Gus, look at the picture, the condensate pipe is not sealed into the rain water pipe so if there's a buildup in the rain pipe it'll piss out where the condensate pipe is resting in the tee. Whilst it is 'okay' to have a sealed pipe connection into the down pipe, best practise is to install it with an air gap as a just in case measure. I'm kind of a bit bemused. I'm trying to explain the typical set up, not have an argument. It seems a little ridiculous that the conversation even begins to lean towards an internal BH argument when it's fundamentally about helping an op with a poor installation. For the record I'm Gas Safe registered and have, up until January when I moved to exclusively install heat pumps, installed gas boilers for a living. Yes, there's a single discharge pipe that comes from the boiler that combines both, e.g. Viessmann 100-W, and that gets connected to a standard plastic drain pipe that carries it away. To make life easy for the installer, Viessmann also provides a nice bit of flexible pipe to run from the boiler to the pipework to carry this. It is also permissible to plumb in a PRV from the boiler into the condensate pipework using a tundish, providing that the plastic pipe can be shown to handle the required temperatures of discharge water.

It is not just British Gas unfortunately. 88 year old family member with dementia had a boiler breakdown with a service contract. As his boiler was old he asked them for a new one and was passed onto the sales team. Next thing they send a salesman around to his house, who then sends him a quote to replace his UVC system with a combi boiler. Was a hell of a job for us to get things unwound and sorted for him - endless phone calls, emails, medical documents, LPA documents. Fortunately the subcontract maintenance plumber (who had once been a carer) knew what they were like and was very helpful. Too many companies are happy to rip off the elderly it seems.

Last job I was called to, was by an electrician friend who sub-contracted to British Gas. He asked if I could go to a job he was being called out to (old to new combi conversion) as he took one look and walked off as BG had specified using whatever original infrastructure that could he reused to save time and money. BG plumbers, and not subbed out (rare occurrence as once you’ve been woo’d by the sales folk you’re lucky if you ever see BG again, other than on a bill or standing order…..). Anyways, these ‘plumbers’ had hacked into the wiring centre and got the system running, but had requested that an electrician attend site to “tidy it up”. I arrived, introduced myself to the 82 and 83 year old, one deaf and one with bad cataracts, and my jaw hit the floor when I saw the aftermath. Bear in mind that at this stage BG were paid up front, and had left, job declared as “complete” and these pensioners had been left for multiples of days without a working heating or hot water system, that they just accepted as part of the upheaval. IIRC the bill was over £5k for removing a Baxi 551 and screwing some bits of cement board over the opening, and they installed a Glowworm heat only boiler on the outside wall, on show in the dining room. Fecking horrific looking install. I ventured into the depths of the airing cupboard (ground floor flat btw) and located the wiring centre. It had loose wires sticking out of the poorly squeezed on lid, screw half done up. I got my tester out and found that there were live wires projecting from the side and top. I shit you not. I told the couple I had serious concerns, and asked for the sales pack. I asked the lady of the house to ring the sales support number and to speak to them to authorise myself to act on their behalf. She did. Whilst on hold (forever) I walked to rest of the job. I found the blowoff turned back on itself and in complete contact with the render of the wall, as in nearly fully sealed; there must be open gaps here so the water cannot form ice build up and block the PRV. Terrible. Also, the condensate had been drilled through the wall in 21.5mm pipe, and this had simply had a bend added (both of these immediately out of the rear if the boiler jig, at chest height) and it was just dripping onto the concrete pathway between them and the neighbour who shared the access. Set in place to slowly erode the pathway and house foundation over time. No flush had been done, 30 year old system! Guys were on site less than a day. I got given the phone to speak to some jumped up Scottish BG woman who was asking me who I was, to which I replied “your worst enemy, love”. I said they had an hour to get a BG van pulling up outside or I was going to the local press and the GSR, and told her that countdown started when the lady was put on hold; that gave them 40 mins to attend. BG employee got proper shitty with me, continued to demand to know who I was, and what business of mine was it of mine to be involved in their job etc etc. I just kept saying “now you've now got 38 minutes and counting, love, I hope you’re typing and talking as you’re about to go public for endangering the lives of two pensioners, and may also get BG struck off by the GSR”. Eventually she said the best they could do was call out in 2-3 days and she promised everything would be sorted out without fail. I said “you now have 35 minutes, keep chatting shit for as long as you like. BTW, I’m parked close to this house and I’ve cancelled my next job to sit here and see this through. Your move, love”. 2 vans arrived about 30 mins after she hung up on me lol. Wankers. I left my phone number with the couple and told them to call me if they didn’t have heating and hot water that day. Did I say wankers? Once more, for completeness, British Gas are pensioner robbing, unscrupulous, useless, underperforming, over-charging, responsibility-dodging, wankers.

That’s a fantastic offer from @Gus Potter. I love steelwork, so designed and fabricated and erected my part-portal garage/man-cave. Roof is 100mm kingspan but why o why did I go for valley’s 🙈. They look great but we’re a pain to make work especially keeping headroom to max by putting purlins between the rafters.

Maybe 5.7 ? 🤔or 5.8 ? . Definitely 6.0 “ ChatGPT now fixes previous chat code “ - yeah - that’ll do .

You’re better off with it going into the downpipe, but it needs to be done better. Refuse to settle until the fitting is a white one, theres a rubber bung reducer to accept the round pipe into the square fitting, and its set back to the wall and clipped; minimum of 2 clips here. A soakaway needs lime chippings in it to neutralise the condensate, and these will need changing periodically. If not, that can eat into the foundations, worst case. Do you want to post some pics of the boiler install here? Just in case the faux pas extends to the boiler and pipework. If theres now a combi, is the shower mixer a thermostatic valve vs a manual mixer valve? Gas Safe is another cartel run by muppets, so I doubt they’ll show much interest in an install which they will decide is not “immediately dangerous”. Show some more pics before paying is my advice.

Thanks for the replies. It was the black joint sticking out like a sore thumb that I saw, otherwise might not have paid much attention. I have since found out that she was quoted and charged for a soak away. Luckily my sister picked this up and they deducted an amount from the bill (221.64). It has not yet been paid. Should I insist that they install the soak away, would this solve the problem. Contacting gas safe seems like a plan.

I was generalising. I makes no difference as you should know. The condensate seal trap works the same way. It does not matter if it is internal or external to the boiler. The fact is that if water backs up in the rain water pipe it's going to piss out inside the house big time and wet all the electrics for example. . Of course it triggers a cut out of the boiler but where does the over pressure from the rain water pipe go then. If the rain water pipe backs up then the pressure head is at gutter level say that is 2.5 to 3.0m head. In the round the thing stinks. This sounds like a bit of a straw man argument. Are you serious? A Pressure relief valve into a condensate pipe? Can you explain in lay terms?

The condensate drain doesn't really work like this. The condensate pipework is technically part of the boiler flue, so it has a 75mm condensate seal trap built into the boiler. In the event of freezing the condensate backs up into the the trap, and then into the boiler heat exchanger and triggers an ignition lock out in the boiler. Depending on the manufacturer's instructions, the condensate drain may not require an air gap where it connects into the drain pipe. Unless the system has a UVC, it's unlikely to use a tundish as there will be a blow off pipe for the pressure relief valve. This should be directed to the outside, or a suitable drain. There's a chance the installer here might have installed the prv into this condensate drain pipe in which case it would need a tundish, but I'd wouldn't expect BG to do something like this - usually they drill a whole and stick a 15mm copper pipe through. Only a couple of manufacturers, like Viessmann have a combined prv and condensate drain, which is again unlikely with BG installations. Best thing to do is for @Babybirddog to call Gas Safe to start a complaint, sending over a picture and then ask for an inspector to come and have a look at the whole installation - basically start the call with a nice question about whether it's correct or not. Then contact BG armed with Gas Safe info. With Gas Safe they will only allow the home owner to submit the complaint. The last one I had was when a customer of mine, an elderly lady who was mostly chair and bed bound, asked me to come and service her boiler. When I tested gas operating pressure with the gas fire running it was below the safe minimum for the fire. I asked her when the fire had been installed, and got the full story on a crap installation that included badly laid out coals which meant the gas fire wasn't combusting correctly either. The installer hadn't registered the installation with Gas Safe. I called them but they wouldn't accept my complaint as a Gas Safe registered engineer even though I told them the installation was unsafe. Sadly, whoever did it, didn't! It could have been a sub-contractor too.

Hiya. To provide a bit of context, much of my initial SE training and Masters research was on portal frames. I know enough to make a contribution on this type of design. Here is my offer. You can call me on the phone on 0771 308 1597 for a 15 -30 min chat. It's free for BH folks! This forms part of my pro bono work that is good for my soul, my primary qualification is in Civil Engineering, you work for the public. Text me first so I know it's you. I'm pretty deaf so sometimes miss calls. I use my own name and can be easily found on the internet.. I get some interesting calls and offers, these range from "massages" to lots of "financial" offers and other "stuff" that actually breaks up my day, hence me filtering calls. The section sizes you quote might be dependent on your eaves height, wind loading and the types of finishes. That the best I can do for now.