Leaderboard

Did this to get a BFO extractor in below pozi-joists. 9mm PB wetted both sides 5 mins before fitting. Internal radius done in 4 pieces. This was in the ensuite upstairs. Formed with 4x2" and double boarded with 4mm ply. I soaked the ply ( dripping wet ) for a couple of hours and then rolled the 2 sheets up then ratchet strapped them overnight to dry. Straps came off and they retained about 50% of the curve so happy days. The PB was special order 6mm and that was wetted both sides and left to stand up against the wall, getting further wetted by brush where I wanted the radius, throughout the day. Just wet it and push against it, leave for an hour and repeat. The weight of the board pushes down and helps. Prop the top of the PB with a dead man ( timber T piece ) so it can't fall over . Easier to do than most think. ?

Well the two ring gas hob is connected. The guy who connected it and certified it for us charged us £100. The cylinder and connectors including the deposit was £105. He made a really neat job of it too. So a good result for us. So maybe @joe90, can show the pictures to his wife

@Onoff Yes, I've covered your updates with interest over the past 12months or so. You should have popped round for some hardcore levelling as I read you'd been round to @PeterStarck the other day! Could have used your expertise levelling 90sqm. @A_L Thanks! Yes, I came to the same result using the changeplan calc in the end. @TerryE - Good question! For some things you can aim/hope what you have done is correct. Nothing too scientific. Cross your fingers and hope for the best. That's almost the stance I took when I started looking at UFH in the old part of this house. I almost got schmoozed into going to a retrofit UFH system by a well known UK UFH company until I started looking into the science/facts a bit more. UFH with 20mm of EPS powered by an ASHP just isn't going to work. So I bit the bullet and dug up the old slab (plus an actual WW2 bullet) down to approx 500mm. U-value of 0.11 as it's better than BuildRegs...(well that ain't hard is it!!) and I noted that was the magic value that appeared to work for someone else on this forum. So I've spent the £ on areas where it's going to matter on this retro/extension: slab insulation, EWI, 3G passivhaus windows and discarded other stuff like ASHP, leaky bi-folds,and fancy-looking log burners that are supposedly 99% efficient and very environmentally friendly. @Ian Thanks Ian - I did come across this last night but got a bit bamboozled until I had a better look this evening. Quite simple in the end - amazing what fumes do to your head!

PM me the part number and I will see what I can get it for ...

It depends a great deal on the circumstances. For example, around 20 years ago a developer bought a swathe of farmland outside a nearby town, that was well outside the development boundary. they paid an agricultural land price for it, at that time probably around £3k to £4k per acre or so. They rented it out as farmland and sat on it, then many years later, when the planning policy changed (with, I suspect, more than a little influence from the developer........) a large (as in several hundred houses) plan was approved. I reckon that paid around £500 per plot, so their uplift was around 100 times the purchase price, but over a fair period of time, around 15 years or so. On the other hand, my neighbours field was bought for around £20k per plot, so the uplift was only about 2.5 times the purchase price, but the developers bought it with a condition that the sale would only complete after they'd got PP. In general, the uplift from agricultural land price to building plot land price is usually around 50 to 100 times, hence the motivation for speculative land purchases around areas predicted to grow.

I suspect you would need to look at their annual accounts to get a true picture, my guess is that the land profit (IE rising price of their land bank) is taken each year as part of their asset register and written down or up, but it could be 'handled' in a number of ways on their books. I think that means dividing the profit by the number of houses built is at best approximate because they can 'adjust' the way the undeveloped land bank value is treated to suit their needs.

Really, I know of two small developers, both live in large detached properties in very nice areas, one even has his own helicopter and a Ferrari! Mind you the Bovis profit margin could just be fake news.

here you go! http://www.pinpod.com

@Bitpipe well our flush plates are the standard cheapies which fit over the top so shouldn't be a problem for us!

5:1. 4:1 it really isn't that important just to fill in any voids air pinholes. We used to do it to provide a better key before rendering on a poor surface.

The only place around me that has a decent signal and free wifi is the pub ?

When building PCs I've used Arctic to glue CPUs to the heatsinks.

No. Mix it up a bit sloppy, put a rubber glove on as the cement is not good for your skin, cut a hessian sack down so it goes over your hand, grab a good hand full and slap it on swirly pattern or figure of eight is good squish it in all the nooks and crannies. Helps if you put a bit of plastic on the floor. Messy but quick a soft old fashioned broom head is good as well, not the new plastic bristled type.

It is open to abuse, to a limited extent. Say, as a hypothetical case, you are self-building a new house, but still own an old house that needs work doing on it before you sell it. You could, if you were dishonest, buy the materials to do up your old house and add them to the VAT reclaim for the new build. The problem is that if anyone does this and gets caught then the penalty can be pretty severe. From the tone of the correspondence I had with HMRC, which was full of warnings about being prosecuted for various offences, and from the very thorough way they went through all the receipts, I don't think anyone could get away with much without getting caught. They seem to do all the obvious things, like compare the number of sinks, washbasins, WCs etc with those on the plans, and I got the distinct feeling that they wouldn't hesitate to investigate, with a view to prosecution, if they found something that looked awry.

Now does it make sense?

If you're really worried.....and rich: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/1558320/?grossPrice=Y&cm_mmc=UK-PLA-_-google-_-PLA_UK_EN_Adhesives_And_Sealants_And_Tapes-_-Adhesives_And_Glues&mkwid=s0L91DEDC_dc|pcrid|88057075443|pkw||pmt||prd|1558320&gclid=CLGPvvuPntICFe0V0wod-h4Bxg I thought you were going to introduce a section of copper? Btw, what dia copper pipe would you need?

It would, but it doesn't bond well to PVC, whereas stuff like neutral cure silicone does (most acetoxy cure silicones don't bond that well, I've found). Some neutral cure silicones, and modified silicone polymers (like CT1) will bond well to almost anything. I've been impressed with the way Dow Corning 799 bonds to PVC in particular, as it's a fairly cheap and readily available sealant/adhesive that seems to be a good all-rounder, despite being primarily intended as a glazing sealant.

To be honest I dont know other than it dries from the top down rather than bottom up apparently. It is a french product they have brought in and are sole suppliers in N Ireland at the moment. They can also pour 100 m3 in one go without expansion seemingly. In terms of tiling they report no issues and also report that you can tile on it after 5 days. I am going to follow this up with a more indepth chat and visit to a few installs they have done.

Not read the whole thread, but can't you just you one of those power line network things and forget about the CAT5/6. Then just plug in a Raspberry Pi by the gate.

I beg to differ that that is Too much information

All a professional is is someone that gets paid for doing 'a thing' - it has absolutely no bearing on whether they are good or not. So far, pretty much everyone I've worked with has been great - but I've also pulled every one of them up on more than one thing that I'd consider pretty basic stuff that either they should have brought to my attention first, or that should have just been dealt with without my intervention. The only comfort in all this is that I know there is more of this to come so I just try and be as prepared as possible

Interesting thread as I will face the same issue as I also intend to use MBC and Internorm Lift and Slide. what interests me is it seems to suggest that what has been written in the two posts above seems to imply that MBC have said "what do you want" where their sales pitch is very much "we work with your chosen window supplier"? Surely if they're building as many houses as they claim and as they also claim regularly work with Internorm they must have provided this detail before?