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Yep..! Two things to bear in mind - these things drink diesel like a paddy with a thirst, and they are VERY desirable by our traveling tarmac fraternity.... insure it, then take the wheels off it and make it impossible to get to..! Ideally get one with an underslung bowser or tank, or get one you can tow to a filling station unless you know a good cheap source of red diesel in 56 gallon drums..!

............nope..........il just leave that one........

There is only 1 real deterrent here and that is a simple one. Drive a shitbox. 1) you are less likely to be targeted and 2) even if you are you would be far less bothered by losing said shitbox i wish I could say I was following this advice by choice but I'm not. im following it because I have no money. There's a lesson for us all in there somewhere.

Standard quoting terms for that sort of thing - get it on light columns too. The 60hr rate is based on you running the unit for 60hrs per 7 days hire - if you go over it then they charge you £1.30 per hour. Every gennie has an hour meter so they will check it out and check it back in again. Unlimited is just that - you can run it 24x7 and just pay for the week,

As an aside, If you have a CU being used as a CU, ie, main switch and MCB or RCBO feeding circuits, then you can't just fit a generic time clock or contactor in it, you are not allowed to mix and match. in real life, is it a problem,? Not that I can see of, Legally,? It's a massive NO. It's to do with a manufacturer only certifies their cu for use with their products, so in reality, unless it's been certified for use with anyone elses product then you are not permitted to fit it, it could be an insurance get out clause. And will be picked up on any future EICR by a competent person, In other words, if you fit a Hager CU you have to fit a Hager time clock/contactor, same with most other manufacturers.

Quick guide to give a taste of Draftsight. Later version now out but should give the gist. (Last two pics are the wrong way round I think). Quick Guide To Using DraftSight.pdf

How many goes did it take you to change buckets. Quick hitch is the best invention for fat digger drivers.

But,!!!! Don't call them pricks, I can, it's not my house they are building, If it comes to it, with loads like that, then hire is probably the way to go with loading like that, if it breaks down, get hire company to exchange it.

Tbh, I think your builders are being pricks demanding 10kva Genny on a private build, they should have propane heaters or similar, yes, they put a little bit of moisture in the air, but the heat they generate soon moves that, The loads it seems these guys want are iro 2kw each x4 , you'll have any Genny you get on its knees think.

i can only assume they are talking about hours put on the machine, the cheap one you linked had an hour meter so i suppose it makes sense, never seen it offered like this before though if I'm honest

Think of all those extra things to break in a petrol, If you really must, as I said, but 3 (or 4) cheap 3kva Gennys, keep one at the end, and if you've looked after them half decent and not bashed them about, you'll get most of your money back for the others, and, if one breaks down, you've still got others to use.

Helps that my Mum's from Stab City! Still says "lurry" for lorry.

OK, Hire vs Buy It's the 13 week rule, On week 14 you could have bought whatever it was you hired for the same money, Try it,?

You can buy a cheapish (but still decent enough) 3kva Genny for £300ish, If you must buy a couple or 3 of those, a whole lot easier to sell on afterwards too.

i saw it /cross posted. this all sounds very expensive just so they can use heaters to dry plaster. gut feeling says buy a 3-5 KVA Jenny and just hire another couple when they are plastering for a week or 2

Machine Mart, Tell the builders to get some propane blow heaters,!!!!!

You'll be able to get a dedicated cooker control switch that matches the grid finish. Put it separate to the grid imo. Anyway, don't forget anyway the switch needs to be within 2m of the cooking appliance. If you use the one switch to control two appliances neither should be more than two metres away. You can feed 2 or more cooking appliances via a single circuit >15A / <50A but they need to be in the same room. EDIT: I would implore anyone embarking on such work to buy a copy of the IET guide to the building regs. Full of info. http://electrical.theiet.org/books/amendment-no3/egbr-4ed.cfm

This is a 5 year project for me so more than happy to leave them on site as they'll have paid for themselves easily

What I actually said, The socket should have been wired as a radial in the first place, then the oven could have been plugged into a correctly designed circuit. I didn't advocate cutting the plug off anything, as @Onoff said Then when the 16a oven arrived the socket could simply have been changed to a 20a DP switch. No need to cut any plugs off, and I doubt any domestic appliance is going to come with a 16a plug on it. And yes, you are correct, MIs must always be followed, BS7671 actually has a statement to that effect.

I live in such a remote location that there are not even locks on the doors...... My main landrover is parked 2.5 miles away and only gets looked at by sea gulls, and the scrappy keeps leaving his card on the window ....... My other ancient ex military landy is such a health hazard that if you managed to get it started and drove off you would be lined up for a darwin award.

I don't think he was advocating removing the plug top per se, just having a dedicated radial like you would for say an immersion. I'm sure he means 16A opd, 20A DP switch then unswitched socket thus keeping the plug top. Don't forget he's foreign! A non electrical manager asked the other day what DP stood for so we told him to Google it.....on the firms monitored intranet!

With my house being so small, the furniture layout in the bedroom is pretty much set in stone, i.e. there is only one place that it is remotely sensible to put the bed. So... can or should I not bother putting UFH under the bed?

I can see the headline. "Skye man decapitated by roofing sheet that came unhooked" You deserve a beer (I think I need a beer after reading that) A roof ladder would be safer than a rope and a sling. Reminds me of my "put a ladder down a well and climb down" episode and how I was told off afterwards about how dangerous that was (not to mention the extension lead and electric drill I took with me)

https://basc.org.uk/firearms/applying-for-a-firearmshotgun-certificate/ makes me feel safe.

Our UFH avoids all these zones: - Under all built in furniture (kitchen and utility room units, plus the kitchen island) - Downstairs WC units and the WC itself - Under the space where the staircase runs (which is partially boxed in as a cupboard) - under all internal stud walls. It also shouldn't run under shower trays or baths.

In present house we fitted the hall and the landing with their own UFH zones. Total waste of time and pipe. There is so little external wall to lose heat, and so much internal wall to gain heat from other rooms, that these never turn on.

Depends very much on the way the frame is made, though. There's no exposed wood at the outside edges of our aluclad frames, the alloy extrusions are around 20mm deep, IIRC, and then there's a foam-cored PVC frame about 30mm thick, with the timber frame inside that.

Just been to one of the two possible window suppliers and now I know why the tape is there at least for this manufacturer. Essentially, as they explained it to me, it is set back a small distance to create an air gap up the side of the frame to ensure that the ali cladding can breath otherwise moisture would build up behind the ali cladding and not be able to escape. It seals the frame but is not designed to take up slack in the construction because the brakets etc still have to be a slide fit. If you clad / render up to the frame then you have to leave a 2mm gap to allow the alu cladding to breath. A bead of silicone would seal the gap and cause eventual failure of the timber frame. They also told me that it's life expectancy was 25 years, guarantee is 15 years so suspect it is the stuff @Nick describes above, in the open if protected then it should last much longer. Well that is what I was told!

Ooh Jamie. Now you're talking I'm on the Bollardsdirect website already

As you say, the direct comparison is not fair. Two way you could compare this is to look at the total energy yield for the given area between technologies. Another way would be to compare the amount of energy you can store from your short rotation coppice and then calculate the area of PV needed to supply the same energy at the same time of year i.e. winter time. So for a giggle, let us assume that that you can harvest between 8 and 18 tonnes of dry mass per hectare (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_rotation_coppice) That will be between 0.8 kg/m2 and 1.8 kg/m2. If the usable energy content is 4 kWh/kg, then that is somewhere between 3.2 kWh and 7.2 kWh. I do not know the real energy content of short rotation willow (SRW) in real life, maybe someone else can waste time looking that up. Now a quick look at John O'Groats in PVGIS and using a 250W 1.6 m2 PV module, which is 156 Wp/m2, will give a yield of in kWh/month: Nov 4.46 Dec 2.69 Jan 4.01 Feb 4.86 Total of 18.02 kWh So a lot better than the best that SRW can supply (7.2 kWh).

Could you do it as a sunroom but include sliding/inwards opening doors with a Juliet balcony so on the days the sun shines you can open the doors and enjoy it and on the days whens it's hurricane wind and horizontal rain you can still enjoy the view.

The new Amd 3 rules also cover "switchgear" enclosures. I am sure your box with timers would be classed as such. But of course you installed them before 1st December 2015 didn't you? Re UFH upstairs. fit a dummy thermostat on the wall, have your completion certificate done in summer, and nobody will ever know there is no upstairs UFH

There's a water usage calculator for checking compliance with Part G of the building regs. Basically it's a spreadsheet where you enter all the appliances and their known water flow rates or usage for some, like cisterns, and it spits out whether you pass or fail. In our case we failed badly the first time around, so I fitted those cheap flow limiter washers, measured the flow rates again (bucket and stop watch method) and passed, and then put those numbers in the certificate to show compliance with Part G.

Oh to have a nice square hole to fit the window in! I could have faffed around rendering the ragged brickwork.....but I didn't! This'll have some the new (undrilled) 15x13mm trim stuck on which'll be rendered up to and then a bit of paint. Concerned I might not be able to match the original finish, anyone got a chip pan?

Terry, if you want an idea of the massive range of flow restrictors like this, then this page (where I nicked the image above from) give a fair idea: https://www.qssupplies.co.uk/Taps/Taps/EcoHomeRestricters/Product/463.htm There are literally dozens of suppliers of these things, as the water regs require that taps, showers etc be limited in flow rate for a lot of new builds. Often fittings are supplied with the flow limiters already fitted, we found; our downstairs WC tap had one on already, for example.

I did the same, then covered the small (5mm max) gap with clear neutral silicone and a length of 6mm x 6mm x 1mm PVC angle as a trim, so you can't see the sealant. It worked well and left a neat-looking finish externally:

Just an off-the-wall idea, but if you can get a decent hose to the standpipe, how about installing an accumulator to store water in the hut, under pressure? It takes up space, but could be put outside in an insulated box. If filled via a NRV on the accumulator, via a removable pressure hose that fits the standpipe, you could have water at the same pressure as at the tap, with no pump. Fit a pressure gauge and you have early warning that the tank is getting low and needs topping up. You could then have ordinary plumbing in the hut if you wanted to.

Compriband made by Tremco is the industry standard. It is normally specced based on the size of gap to be filled rather than the thickness in its pre-expanded state so assuming your window openings were surveyed correctly, it should have the right weathertightness. They warranty it for 15 years if the installation is registered and installed to their guidelines but who knows what that will mean in practice if your window leaks in 14 years' time. Life expectancy is 25 years on their literature assuming it is this brand that you have. Personally, i like to see a tight 5-6mm expansion gap around a window and a silicone seal regardless of whether there is compriband, EPDM, e.t.c. behind it that should be doing the job of weatherproofing. Reality is that installations are never 100% by-the-book and the more secondary protection you can give to your primary seal, the longer the whole thing will last. I suspect the expanding tape only method is these companies' way of minimising installation time and labour costs.

Expanding foam tape is only expected to be water and air tight up to a certain amount of expansion. A tape may be 5mm thick and expand to 17mm but only be weathertight up to 12mm.

Just noticed the WRAS logo is displayed on the product brochure: http://www.wondervalve.com/uploads/files/wondervalve_brochure_26_08_11.pdf (last page)

After the CU it simply becomes 'fixed equipment'. Ideally it should have local DP isolation ( 20a DP switch to the side ) for disconnection. Edit : Maybe an din mounted 80a isolator would tick that box?

No 'kin good whatsoever when you have to shift a stack of tins to isolate a "insert appliance here" in a hurry.....and you're in a wheelchair. These designers need a smack with a rolled up copy of the "regs" wrapped round a length of 25mm conduit! When you say regs we could be talking about BS7671 the "electrical regs" which aren't statutory but may be used as a defence in law (basically you're a ****if you don't follow them ) You've then got the statutory Building Regs, P & M for a start. Back to the "bible" (afaic), 7671: On the assumption such switches may be needed for an emergency then in the back of a cupboard doesn't comply. Have a look in section 53 for a start. Says amongst other stuff that emergency switching shouldn't expose you to further danger etc. Well if your taking time to get to the tumble dryer switch etc when the things on fire and the kitchen's filling with smoke..... Indeed it doesn't comply across the various statutory and non statutory guides. A well designed, conveniently placed grid switch(es) with non switched plug tops to provide for mechanical maintenance is a good way to go IMHO. The grid no higher than 1200mm in a convenient wall space you're not going to keep brushing by. Need to carefully think out your cable runs, and of course it's more cabling. Then if course there's the missus who just doesn't like grid switches.....which is why most of my stuff has a 20A DP switch above the worktop feeding an (accessible) unswitched plug top below

Why such big gaps? Why is it not possible to make the windows a snug fit in the brick formed orifice? Such large gaps also have the visual effect of making the frames look much bulkier than they need to. @pauldoc I cannot find any life length guarantees on the tapes I have looked at so suspect they won't last unless mechanically protected from UV / Weather etc as if they did have a guaranteed life then it would be in their technical manuals / general advertising. In the ads for the product they show them as very much more compressed than in the @readiescards example also they show them mid frame so that sealant has somewhere to go to cover / protect the tape.

Hello everyone, I'm John Davies, 36 years old and just moved back to England. I was living in Germany for 7 years, as an architect. Back home, I want to continue being an architect by building my own company. However, I would like to talk to some of you as I guess some things have changed here. Maybe, if you have experience in this field or another or know someone who knows someone.. feel free to reply to this post or text me.

Try this stuff - I used a small tin of it to bond some timber to a concrete wall and it's impossible to remove 18 months later and that is outside ...!! http://www.bambooflooringcompany.com/ever-build-lumberjack-650-adhesive-14kg.html

I have just had my windows installed. (Ideal combi) they to have this tape on. Various window companies all- velfac, rationel etc all recommend this method. I agree it's hard to imagine it will last and be weather proof but the tapes do have a rating that specs how efficient they are which relates to wind and weather proofing....they are also ridiculously expensive ! In the upside they are neat. My installer was also not convinced but did admit that was only because he hadn't had call to use them much .

Yes that's meant for a static van with mains water. Have a serious look at the touring van storage water heaters that will work just from a 12V pump. For example https://www.truma.com/uk/en/water-systems/gas-electric-boiler.php Similar cost new the the Morco, but much better suited to your hut.

I agree with all the above, BUT, first make sure that the problem is with the supplier and not the wrong product ordered in error! I speak from experience, having had what I though were 3m length of pipe delivered as 1m lengths; I was steaming mad, but made an idiot of myself when the company pointed out, quite reasonably, that the order code I'd sent was for 1m lengths, not 3m lengths. I've no idea how I made the mistake, but there was no doubt I had!

I think any DC route is going to be troublesome. An extreme example would be the creation of hydrogen and oxygen in the cylinder. I know Scotland wants to join the space race, by Cornwall is much better suited to it. (https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25897-spaceport-uk-locations-for-launch-sites-unveiled/) One has to be careful when designing a system not to get carried away. We have gone from about a £1000 DIY system (my idea) To a £2000 plus system (Nick's idea) To a £4000 plus system (Terry's idea) (all figures are bad estimates to make me look good )

Check out postsaver.com if you use wooden posts. CCA is now baned so posts rot in 4 or 5 years, these products are fantastic. Farmer friends use it - they dont spend money unless necessary.