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Anyone thinking this will happen in a few weeks appears likely to be disappointed. The latest NICEIC trade rag just came through and had this to say. It also doesn’t mention the problem of uni or bi directional switchgear. Anyone who has had an RCBO consumer unit fitted in the last decade is very very likely to have it full of uni directional devices. These are not permitted to be used where current potentially flows in both directions. Bi directional rcbos have only been readily available for a couple of years, if that. They are still not standard fit for most people. Usually only fitted to solar pv or EV charging. Europe has very different switchgear to us.

It does do cooling, but have to switch between heating and cooling modes. If you are going down to 20 you are in heating mode.

3 years later Does this take the record for a prolonged topic? @Gus Potter having a catch-up. I've recently done some drypack and some poured and learned even more. But I will relay that if the subject comes up again.

We have this issue. A patio door opens on to an area that has to be low fof drainage. As levelvaccess is desirable anyway we are intending to make the area from slabs or large tiles supported by mapei pedestals. They leave a gap fit drainage. Maximum grade is 5%. I can't say this works for you but it may he an option. There is another manufacturer too.

I won't show them this then. Environment The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away The floating ice shelf of world’s widest glacier – Thwaites glacier in Antarctica – is detaching, with worrying implications for global sea-level rise By Alison George 18 May 2026 The Araon, a South Korean ice-breaker vessel, navigates a bed of sea ice near the Thwaites glacier in January 2026 Chang W. Lee/New York Times/ Redux/eyevine Antarctica’s most threatened glacier is about to be further destabilised, as the floating ice shelf in front of Thwaites glacier is set to break away. “Its final demise could happen suddenly, and to avoid being caught on the hop, we have already prepared an ‘obituary’ press release,” says Rob Larter at the British Antarctic Survey. Dubbed the “doomsday glacier”, Thwaites is about the size of Britain, but it is shrinking rapidly and is already responsible for 4 per cent of all global sea-level rise. Worse still, its collapse is expected to set off a domino effect in the entire West Antarctic ice sheet, ultimately resulting in a calamitous sea-level rise of 3.3 metres and changing the coastline of the entire planet. Many Antarctic glaciers form ice shelves that float out onto the ocean and buttress against the flow of ice from the continent. Thwaites glacier has one on its eastern front, known as Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS), that is about the size of Greater London – 1500 square kilometres – and 350 metres thick. But satellite images show alarming signs that this will imminently detach. In fact, by some measures, this break-up is already under way. “Suddenly, large areas are just falling to pieces,” says Christian Wild at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. “It looks like a windscreen that’s shattering.” Huge fractures are opening up around the pinning point – where the ice shelf’s floating front is held in place by a raised ridge on the ocean floor – and along the grounding line, the point where the glacier meets the ocean and starts to float. “It’s dramatic. I was there in 2019/2020 and when I look at the satellite images now, I don’t recognise the shelf. There are huge gashes where there used to be none,” says Karen Alley at the University of Manitoba in Canada, who has been analysing how this break-up is playing out. For a start, the ice has been thinned by melting due to changes in ocean circulation. Shifts in the ice-flow dynamics also mean that the shelf is now being slammed into the pinning point, tearing the ice apart. “It’s gone from a thick, strong ice shelf that is very well grounded on this pinning point to a thin, weak ice shelf that is now splitting apart around the point that used to stabilise it,” says Alley. The ice shelf’s demise is also signalled by a dramatic speed-up in its flow rate. “It’s tripled from January 2020 to January 2026, to just over 2000 metres per year, which is nuts,” says Wild. And in the past five months, the flow has accelerated further. “It’s essentially in free fall now.” At the same time, new rifts are opening up along the grounding line. “They started appearing in the last few years as the shelf began to accelerate significantly,” says Ted Scambos at the University of Colorado at Boulder. All this means that the ice shelf is tearing away from the glacier. Exactly when the final break-up will occur is hard to determine. “Predicting ice shelf break-off or collapse has similarities to trying to predict earthquakes,” says Larter. “You can tell that an event is on its way, but its timing depends on… processes that are impossible to predict accurately. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next satellite image I see shows the ice shelf breaking up, but neither would I dismiss the possibility that I might still be saying the same thing this time next year.” If you imagine that this will result in a giant iceberg suddenly floating off into the ocean, however, you might be disappointed. The geography of the area means that the detached ice is likely to remain stuck nearby, and the TEIS is unlikely to break off in one huge piece, as it is already quite fractured. Although the break-off of huge icebergs often make front-page news, what really matters for glaciologists is the loss of the ice shelf’s buttressing power. The shelf is “gone” when it stops holding back the upstream flow, says Wild. As a result, the glacier speeds up and flows more quickly into the ocean. In a study soon to be published, Wild and his colleagues show that between January 2020 and 2026, the flow of the glacier ice previously buttressed by the TEIS increased by around 33 per cent. “There is clear evidence that there’s very little buttressing in this area any more,” he says. So, by this measure, the ice shelf has already broken free. This is concerning for future sea levels around the world. “That means more ice unloaded from Antarctica, more ice dumped into the ocean and more sea-level rise,” says Scambos, though he stresses that this isn’t an immediate crisis – rather, a slowly unfolding one that will hit home in decades. “It’s going to influence the way Thwaites evolves and how fast it gets to that point where it’s contributing 10 or 20 per cent to sea-level rise in the future.” By 2067, it is estimated that Thwaites will be losing about 190 gigatonnes of ice per year, according to a study published in January by Daniel Goldberg at the University of Edinburgh and his colleagues. This is a 30 per cent increase from today’s loss from the glacier, and equivalent to the total amount of ice currently being lost from Antarctica. It is important to stress that, while ice shelves calving off icebergs is part of the normal cycle in polar regions, there is now a trend towards increasing loss. “Since the 1990s, we’ve been watching ice shelves destabilise,” says Alley. For instance, Pine Island glacier – adjacent to Thwaites – is experiencing rapid change too, with its ice shelf also disintegrating. “Ice shelves are only really stable when it’s quite cold,” says Alley. “The ocean has to be cold and the atmosphere has to be cold. But we’re warming the world and we’re losing the ice shelves, and that’s exactly what you’d expect.”

It's the old adage of you get what you pay for! ....and don't get me started on the comms 😂

This cognitive bias has been well studied and is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. It describes the systematic tendency of people with low ability in a specific area to give overly positive assessments of their ability. We saw it in the pandemic, "I'm not getting vaccinated. I've done my own research. They don't work and are dangerous". We see it with climate change, "It's probably not happening and if it is it's just natural. Nothing to do with human activity". It's tempting, and somewhat satisfying, to write off people who have these views as fruit cakes. But it's better to recognise it as a cognitive bias to which we are all susceptible. The way to deal with it is not to throw more evidence at them. You won't convince them. Better to ask questions to try and get them to think it through for themselves. You are right about the role of legislation. Before the wearing of seat belts was required by law, many people strongly objected. They said, "I will be less safe. I won't be able to escape if the car catches fire", "In case of an accident, I can brace myself against the dash". Clearly ridiculous. But now most of us feel unsafe and naked if we don't have our seat belts on. The legislation eliminated the cognitive bias. By forcing our behaviours to change, our values and attitudes have come into line with our behaviours.

Sadly not… the boards went up so I will need to take them down and add in the woodscrews 🙄. At least I haven’t paid him yet… that isn’t going to happen now.

What is at the back of the house? Is there another easy way of achieving the access requirements?

I find this kind of feedback / comment really disappointing as an SE /. designer. It's embarrasing to read these kind of comments from the public and folk on BH. At the end of the day myself and others are providing a service, yes we are good at maths, detailing Architectural things, being creative but that does not make us special! I've been in the construction industry for over 40 years, run, most of the time my own business, larger and now smaller. If someone asks me what is the secret to good business I would say.. communication with your customers. It's no big secret! One facet in the self build or extending market. Engage with your Client's.. listen to what they want and use you expert knowledge to guide them on their path, but make sure they don't lose their shirt on the way! Then quietly go about your technical design, tell your Client what you are doing and why, encourage them to get into the "bit behind the curtain" stuff. This is very important as an informed Client leads to the best relationships, it builds trust which we later need when the building work gets under way.

Assuming you put a level platform directly in front of the front door, create the ramp heading left towards the corner of the property. instead of having the ramps sloping side visible build a level wall to its front most side to replicate the 3 courses of black brick and however many courses of yellow brick you have on the existing frontage - we have a similar issue and we are having the ramp to the left handside and steps to the right, the wall itself will be a thin planter that will include trailing plants to soften the wall - thankfully we are helped in that the slope of our plot actually reduces the amount we need to travel downwards over its length - otherwise it would look like an olympic downhill ski slope! from straight on all you would see is the area to the far left where the ramp would turn onto ground level, the rest would appear to match the existing frontage.

Is what you are doing subject to building regs? If so have you checked you are compliant? The thing I wonder is if you have the maneuvering space: A distinct area for moving around must be provided. Best to find out now! Nice looking kitchen but I can see it's fraught with problems, the galley is too tight for two folk. "Wheel chair access is restricted.. BC issues as per the activity space. Check with BC before you go any further!

Seriuosly. I know @saveasteading and he has really done tens of thousands of column bases and has vast expecrience. To delve a little deeper into grouts, but not too far! Traditionally, before these "non shrink" grouts came into being we used to ram in a dry mix of 3 part sand and to 1 cement mix. This would be done with a stick and hammer. Now that takes time and skill to get it right. This skill is now lost mostly in the building trade. But what is a dry mix? Well, you take 1 part cement and 3 parts sand and put just enough water in it so it just makes a ball in your hand and no more. The reduced water content stops is shrinking too much. You'll often see on Architects and SE spec this for packing over lintels and steel beams. A Sika or similar non shrink grout has a chemical in it that expands a bit so it makes it non shrink. You can achieve the same effect pretty much doing the old way.. but the labour cost is less, the material cost more.

1. We have gone for a double drawer dishwasher, so doesn't need so much room to open. 2. we have gone for a handleless kitchen so no knobs reducing the space 3. Everything on both sides is a pull out drawer cupboard of various types 4. Oven is slide and hide 5. Wall cupboards have rising fold upwards doors, not swing out 6. Thinking one person galley 7. 1250 free space at both ends 8, fridge not behind island The other side of the island needs space for a walkway and a dining table and chairs. Going to 870 would give us 2940 on the other side - chair space on wall side 650, table width 900, pushed in chair space 300 = 1850 - leaves 1090 walkway. With someone sat at table needing say 500mm walkway goes down to 890mm See pics. PS that is oversize cardboard, not worktop. Worktop is 650 hob side and 990 island side. How much room do you really need for a dining table ?

Your starting point here is to look at the building regs in terms of kitchen activity spaces. Some regs seem nuts but the activity spaces are really well thought out. I've designed loads of stuff like this and they are a great guide. If you can mark things out with tape on the floor. Be aware.. kitchen designers are not always familiar with the building regs.

Very good point. An SE's job is also to specify things that can be practically built! Fixings into existing masonry need to be detailed so as to maintain edge distances for example. That is the Se's job! There is an SE duty of care to make sure you are not specifying steel to masonry connections for example that will not incurr excessive cost to the Client. If so you should highlight this, to not do so risks folk cutting corners. This is an expected skill of an SE. There is a duty of care by the SE to make reasonable enquiry as to the expected competancy and extent of say a local builders expected knowledge. This enquiry, if not made, is a breach of the regulations and the SE regulations. The SE has an over arching responsibility to review the project, make reasonable enquiry as to who may be involved in the construction and make sure they design accordingly. They must make the Client aware if there is something in their design that is "bespoke" or requires say a level of specialist work. They need to buck up, smell the coffee and provide the information you require to execute the poroject safely. I say that as an SE myself.

Hi @JohnMo My ASHP model is panosonic WH-MXC12J6E5 and does not support cooling, I have just checked this on the controller and the lowest temp it can be set to is 20 deg I am guessing this is now a no go then Cheers

Ok. A few points. You'll see lots of stuff on BH that looks easy until you try and meet all your requirements. Below is a bespoke detail of mine, your detail is more simple on the face of it and I can see you are asking why there is so much timber. I have posted this to let folk see how hard and how much thought and experience you need to have to navigate your way round this and then produce something that is buildable. The screen shot is just that, the drawings are more defined and the colour easier to understand. The key points for you are that I'm using the top sheet and bottom of OSB to cantilever out to support the roof edge. I can prove this works as an SE. But you have to cut your Architect a bit of slack as they can't really be expected to know that you can cantilever OSB for example. I do this stuff a lot and work with informed Clients such as youself. Often we disagree at the outset, then we work our way towards a solution. Disagreement is healthy if managed. You have had a hard time with your roof, I've seen a lot of your posts and know it's not been fun for you. But the Architect in the round should have been more proactive, lifted the phone.. and you could have talked through the detailing and design difficulties. A site visit would have helped? As an aside it astounds me how many folk under the age of say 40 are so poor at communicating, this is prevalent in the SE and Architect profession. Anyway. @Mulberry View keep your head up. At the end of the day you are a domestic Client. If your Architect has not kept you informed and excercised reasonable skill and care then you have a good case not to make any payment to them. I do a lot of bespoke design. That means that lot's of stuff I do I've not done before. I use first principle design, that applies to SE stuff and also Architectural detailing. Now it looks you are going to have to have another go at this? I would try and see if you can mend the bridges with your Architect. If that fails then at least you can show you have made every attempt to resovle the issues you have. This is the thing I love about BH is that folk are innovating and I love chipping in to make it work technically at sensible cost. I hope someone can get something out of my detail that they can use / adapt.

Might be the way the photo is, but its 900mm at that point.

When they respond, post back here.

Can you maneuver a wheel in & out the end of that run?

If your heat pump does cooling - not all do. But how are you going to control it? Do your thermostats do cooling? Would set flow temp to 14.5 to 16, fixed flow temp, you want the heat pump to run long cycles. I would have all loops open, so if your thermostats do not do cooling, you will need to fool the system by winding the thermostats to max setting a few hours before you expect to get hot. Do not be tempted to go below 14.5 otherwise you are likely to condensation issues. Would be looking to simplify that.

@Super_Paulie yes that's great for working space - looks like your pinch point of island and worktop corners is an example of what I mean? Quite a bit narrower but only used for passing through.

They are brittle and have far less tolerance to snapping, vs regular wood screws. If he put plenty in then I think you'd be Ok, but if few and far between, then it could be a problem. Are these still exposed? If so, just pump a woodscrew in next to each one.

If it's a secondary walkway with an occasionally used cupboard and having an island versus say peninsula is important to you then down to about 800 is workable I'd say, as long as there's better access around the rest.