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At our last house we used paving slabs set vertically into the bank if the stream as retaining, we had the 'infinity lawn' look and I also had 'grass' bridge made by local metal workers. Steel sides approx 6 inches deep with a mesh bottom. We put soil in and topped with turf, our grass bridge dissappeared seamlessly into the infinty lawn look. It all worked like a dream. I made a water garden down in front of the slabs (could only been from the middle of the bridge or the other bank of the stream), In the end it was a stunning feature in the garden and it only took us 22 years of messing about with numerous 'solutions' (including, scaff planks and sleepers) to achieve it. The paving slabs were old ones we dug up when we replaced the patio so didnt cost us anything either.. The whole thing survived serious flooding on several occsaions. I highly recommend the paving slab route.

1 down only 5 more to go ?

We have a Panasonic air rad upstairs running off our ASHP and it can provide cooling to the bedroom in summer or additional heating in winter (UFH downstairs only).

anyone for a flyaround?

Evening all, I hope @Nickfromwales isn't to far away. So please read this first bit as it has quit a bearing on why I don't want to spend to much money. The house we live in I would like to eventually knock down so I'm trying to hold it together with gaffa tape and multiple coats of emulsion at the moment, but the wife declared that she could not stand the piddly old shower anymore and it had to go so hence me not wanting to spend a lot of doe on it. What i I need is a mixing valve that can be fitted and maintained from the front, the fear I have is we have exceptionally nard water and the scale is terrible, so I am concerned about fitting something that I Cannot get at if I have a problem, ideally I would like a big face plate that can be removed and any screens or filters removed so it can have a flush out or de scale. The shower head will be located away from the mixer so a bar mixer with flexible hose is no good. Thanks skinflint russ.

Just buy it if you need this type of hammer and you're going to use it. Its not that expensive.

You buy all the tobermore or Ag materials through a builders merchant. They like it that way as it means they are never out of pocket. They both have very large showrooms with massive display areas at both their factories here but most builders merchants or garden centres also have smaller displays as well. For a retaining wall I doubt there is an easier method , I haven't came across one yet. No concrete needed for a found and they don't need plastered up to finish them. Do no merchants near you stock them or can get them ordered in for you.

Tidy!

I've just been looking around, and the Panasonic units don't seem to look much different from a conventional split air con indoor units, and seem very slim (130mm). They are pricey for what they are, though. I'll do some more hunting around and see if there are other options. I've just done a few quick sums and it looks like I could get away with 10mm pipe runs to the sort of size unit we'd need, and running a couple of lengths of 10mm plastic pipe would be easier than running 15mm, I think.

Just to be absolutely, transparently, clear, I have never, ever, not once, suggested that anyone should keep all their windows closed if they have MVHR! Yes, opening windows will unbalance the system, so just turn the damned thing off when you do this, to save wasting energy..............

Could you..... - Get a pallet load of Postcrete bags - Get the delivery man to stack 'em in a line just where you want them - Go beserk with a garden fork - Get the kids to give them a douse with the hose - When set peel off the plastic at your leisure

Oh my god you don't let your wife near anything that controls temperature i spend my life walking about in my undercrackers after she started messing with controls.

Im on it like a tramp on a kebab. .

I agree, I like the pillars too, plus they look very definitely structural and there to support the roof loads, which will be pretty high, so removing them could be challenging. Solving the thermal bridge problem, if going for internal insulation, is going to be pretty difficult, as insulating every one of those pillars would significantly reduce the space available, and would make them look out of proportion. In terms of decrement delay and the heat capacity of the interior structure (thermal mass has no physical parameters and cannot be measured, so is a bit of a myth!) then I doubt it's an issue, as being earth sheltered will massively reduce diurnal temperature variations anyway, even with one open side. It looks quite deep to me, so the chances of getting significant solar gain through the one open side is probably pretty small, even if it faces due South. I think it's well worth costing up both an internal and external insulation option, to be honest. External insulation has the advantage of a larger internal space and greater freedom to utilise it in the design, but has the major problem of how to insulate the floor. Adding internal floor insulation, with external wall and roof insulation, will still leave some massive thermal bridges, both through the pillar bases and around the edges (although deep perimeter insulation might mitigate the edge problem a bit). Internal insulation solves the problem of the wall to floor thermal bridges, and means less work in removing soil, etc, but still has the big problem of the pillars and the thermal bridging they create. All told I think the ideal solution (which may well be too costly) might be to remove the roof and the pillars, and internally insulate, adding a new green roof to get back the original external appearance. This would be far more flexible in terms of internal layout, would allow the fitting of roof lights or light pipes to get daylight into the furthest reaches, and would also allow a great deal more design freedom. You could opt for something like the design of Mole Manor, with a central atrium to allow light into the middle of the space, for example The roof light over this could be made invisible from all the elevations easily enough, so from outside no one would know it was there (unless they flew overhead). As a source of ideas, it might be worth looking back at some of Arthur Warmby's designs, and through the archive of the British Earth Sheltering Association. They have long since disappeared from the web, but I was a member years ago and downloaded quite a lot of their articles, but I must have archived them somewhere, as right now I can't find them. The chances are they are saved on an old portable drive somewhere, though, so if you're interest I could try and find them.

Classical thinking, yet to be overturned, is that we only progress through failure, be it of ideas - tossed aside along the path to the finished idea, or artifacts that are not as fit for purpose as they could be and sometimes not at all. Without failure we would be nowhere.

So I got a quote from a local Hetas registered shop, supply and fit Dunsley Yorkshire boiler stove, flue, loading valves, controls, 750l thermal store & external exhanger...£18500+vat!!! One thing which is mentioned in the quote is the pump for the boiler stove needs to be within 1m of the stove, but I can't see that in any regs. Can anyone help me out with that? I got a quote from Mark at Newark cylinders which I'm happy with so thinking of going down the route of getting all the gear, doing the manual labour etc and finding a hetas plumber on a day rate for the important parts, or just getting building control to sign it off.

I thought you were talking to me for a second, that's near exactly my situation. 25gal cws, copper cylinder, shower pump (as you know!) I'm feeling proper flushed that I've got a Surrey Flange at least! @Russell griffiths, a Surrey flange draws off prority / dedicated, deaerated, hot water from the very top of the cylinder. Here's mine, provides direct hot to the pump, cold is direct from the cws that sits above under the roof apex: This is one of the only pumps I found that is accepting of a 25gal cws tank as a minimum. I replaced the New Team one that came with the house and that had died:

I will not be backpedalling, Mr @recoveringacademic. Me and my cocktails and my weekend BBQ will not, will not be moved. And I just ordered one of these from the excellent Lancaster Smokehouse up your way as my meat treats for most of the rest of the year, together with a large box of kippers. While it looks expensive, for a dozen gourmet items I think that is OK. Fairly good value imo. I was invited to fill the hole in the freezer, and I have done so. F

So do you own it now ..?? If it was freehold with vacant possession then they don't own what is inside unless it's connected to the main at which point they need a wayleave anyway..! If they have signed and sealed the deal, you can remove the kit at their cost if you give them 28 days notice to either do it or you will.

T-ing out off the existing pipe will cause negative pressure in the household pipework, so when the pump kicks in, and water taking the path of least resistance, anyone opening a tap nearby will hear air getting sucked into the tap instead of water coming out Id just buy a very good quality Mira Exel or similar, which will operate well on very low pressure but with ADEQUATE flow, for the interim. That shower then migrates to the new bathroom as it'll cope with both low and the new high pressure system. Spend on the expensive shower and get the pump idea out of your mind, and wallet ?

Come on you pair of old farts; @Ferdinand, @Onoff, just do it! Extended pub lunches indeed. @Onoff, your comment about diet is too close for comfort. Meat flavoured meals, rather than a main portion of meat, very small amounts of alcohol, half-size portions (think Kids meals) and the odd day of 600 calories only clear my @MikeSharp01-esq spark plugs

Ring Newark Copper Cylinders and ask for Mark - will make you whatever you want with tappings to suit you. http://www.newarkcoppercylinder.co.uk/thermalstore.html

To date my build is at £108,000 and the only thing left to do is the drive. I have just got a lorry load of granite chippings spread over it for now. I haven't even priced it up yet but if I allow £7000 for tarmac just to keep the figures easy to work with my cost is £522 per sqm. Mine is a 220 sqm chalet bungalow in NI and as Jeremy said bar the electrics, plumbing and wet plastering and had a hand with the roof I done the rest. Took 2 long back breaking years and near killed me with exhaustion but I can enjoy it now. I got the site for free as i built in my parents front garden which helped a lot.

I used a dry build type block to construct my retaining wall. The blocks are 450*300*150. You don't need a concrete founds just a good sound base of compacted hardcore. The way they lock together they lean back at approx 80 degrees. That complete wall is over 20m long and at its highest 1.4m and I done it all in a day. Cost wise I think it was approx £600 just got the main retaining wall. The smaller wall facing you on the picture used a smaller block as they aren't suitable for the height you need to go. For a block wall 1m high I would start with a course 450mm wide then 2 courses at 330mm then a 215mm and then your coping. The most important aspect of any retaining wall is how you get rid of the water that will pool behind it. You need a French drain type system with a fine gravel behind the wall.

You could use gabions. 1m wide will support 1m high. On Type1 foundation. There are lots of websites that offer guidelines. Alternatively if you asked my engineer, he would design you a concrete slab as footing for a RC wall, with 0.5m toe to resist against slip movement, and it would hold up most of the elephants that you expect to entertain on the patio during the forthcoming earthquake.