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Well! I did my blockwork!. Architect didn't believe I did it!. it is SPOT on (if I do say so myself!). I started with a line through then once I got going just used the spirit level on every block! - shows the bloody soffit's out a bit now!! I am for hire!; very cheap rates; but I take forever!! LOL!

This question is a bit like "do you like marmite"? I am definitely a "copper" man.

Or, failing that, drill some holes with an auger bit right at the very base of the trunk and pour in some old battery acid. That'll make the thing dangerous in no time. This works for telephone poles that are in the wrong place and that you'd like moved free of charge, too - just don't drill holes, but dig out around the base of the pole a bit, tape a bit of heavy gauge polythene very tightly around the pole, just below ground level, then pour the battery acid in. Within a few weeks the pole will have all the signs of having rotted at the point where they always rot, right at the soil surface. Remove the plastic and tape and call the relevant utility company to report that you've found a pole that looks a bit rotten. When the guys turn up to replace it, slip them a bit of cash to put the new one where you want it. Works a treat if you only want a pole moved a few feet................

No, leave it at 15mm. The reason for the 22mm to it is to give it every chance at producing the most DHW it can. Once it's produced it it'll be at a reduced rate that won't really benefit from being upsized to 22mm IMO, plus you'll have less delay between the heater and the manifold with 15mm so less wait at the taps. Remind me again why this unit is going outside ?

I'll see if I can record a bit of video from inside a duct with it. I think it should slide in fairly easily, as the smooth inner lining inside the semi-flexible ducting seems pretty slippery. I have some 6mm nylon pneumatic pipe around somewhere, that should be stiff enough to push the camera, so will try just taping it to that and seeing how it works.

Mine are all heatmiser and the list is endless. From the basic version with buttons to the all singing dancing one you can control with an app.

No idea if any better but this is what I have from John Guest (fyi that really is a hostess trolley - so maybe we are not trend setters!)

Brought to you by the people who designed the Immersun - basically the equivalent of an Immersun for EV charging: http://myenergi.uk/product/zappi/ They also do a version of the Immersun that's called something else, which can apparently communicate with the Zappi so you can set priorities.

Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out ? ? That will break the fermacell and cause a lot of unnecessary damage, so no. Why not get hold of an inspection camera and have a look see first ? Nowt worse than doing all that and there's a different fault. Will removing one tile allow you to repair the suspect item? I doubt it. Have a look first if possible and go from there. Have you double checked water isn't getting in there from a dodgy WC cistern or feed and tracking down a pipe ? Soil is quite hard to fit badly TBH.

+1 the multitool anything more brutal is likely to damage things. Just get in behind it with the tool then lever it out. Alternatively just cut the square hole in the tile with a diamond blade on and angle grinder and lever/ break the edge out. Thus will also cut the access hole. How will you fix the leak through such a small access hole?

Your soffit

Yes but it is a very good cold bridge! I have the same issue and had not arrived at a final solution but I did look at the structural issues a bit. Essentially once the batten is pulled tight against the insulation the friction helps carry the load BUT you have to crush the PIR which means the grip is variable so I dismissed that one. Standing the base of the batten on something helps but moisture might be an issue. In the end my preferred solution was to going to be to make hundreds of plastic bushes, a fraction shorter than the PIR thickness, about 30mm in diameter with an 8mm hole. These would go in holes in the PIR directly onto the timber frame and the screw pass through the batten through the bush into the Timber frame and when pulled in tight would slightly crush the PIR but be held a fixed distance from the frame by the bush and supported off the frame by it. Will draw a picture when I get home.

Looks dead on.

Yeah. You contracted the company to do the inspections, not this guy. So your complaint is with the company.

Just wanted to show that I'm not always completely incompetent!

Just thought I would post this idea, for those buying foreign made doors think about buying a spare set of locks for the doors if they aren't something readily available in the UK. Internorm use 115mm euro cylinders which can take up to 1-3 weeks to get hold of and the existing locks can't be re-keyed by a locksmith. If you ever get broken into and find a spare set of keys has been stolen and you want to replace your locks quickly in case they decide to come back then its very difficult to sort it out quickly. Unfortunately I am speaking from experience, and the cost of around £60 per additional lock is probably worth the piece of mind should the worst happen.

Sounds like absolute bollocks to me. Unless he's a suitably certified electrician, what qualifications does he have to be inspecting an electrical installation anyway? If it's getting out of hand, I think the only thing you can do is get your knowledge straight (eg, find some official sources of why what he's asking for is out of order), and then have an open conversation with him about it. Explain that you're not a developer, but a self-builder doing the very best job you can to make your house compliant with (and indeed beyond) the minimum required by buildings regs, and that his demands are impacting your ability to keep momentum going onsite. Maybe explore where he gets the idea that he should be inspecting electrical work, for example, or querying the use of approved building materials such as SIPs. I think the danger with piecemeal communications based on particular instances (eg, your text to him about electrical work) is that they don't go to the heart of the problem, and may be interpreted by him as something to be suspicious about. Good luck, however you choose to tackle it. Exactly what happened with us. I was stunned when our (private) inspector took a five minute poke around after first fix (actually, electrics weren't even half finished, from memory) and then said he'd be back once everything was completed.

+1. You don't need a plumber, keep the faith. ? The reason the first attempt failed is that very little pipe goes into a ballofix isolation valve, so when you don't hold the valve straight and snug whilst tightening the nut, it goes skew and it's game over. Do as @JSHarris says, cut the pipe back and clean it spotlessly. Fit a normal isolation valve, then a short pipe, then a normal flexible hose. Push the ballofix onto your freshly cut and cleaned existing pipe and draw a line around the pipe with a sharpie whilst keeping your finger pressed onto it to keep it fully inserted onto the pipe. Use that line as a guide whilst tightening to make sure you don't lift off or go skew. DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN AT THIS POINT! Make everything up, tightened snug but not murdered, and once all is in place and looking good just go back over yourself nipping up any obvious slack. Check and then check again after a half hour. Also check that water is definitely not creeping down the flexi and causing you to falsely think the leak is down below. Wrap a piece of kitchen roll around the halfway point on the flexi and squeeze it. If it's wet, the leak is from above ?

The only moderately persuasive argument I've yet heard in favour of copper is that it's rodent-proof. Everything else points to plastic. I think there are still plenty of old boys out there who learnt to plumb the 'proper' way who regard plastic as a cop-out.

Looks like there's room to cut the copper pipe off to get a nice clean end, use a strip of emery cloth to get all the paint off to well below where the joint is, then you have two choices. Try and get a longer flexi, or solder on a short length of new pipe with an end feed connector. That will give you a pretty neat job, with a short flexi up to the cistern. I'd also be inclined to bin the flexi with the built in isolating ball valve, and fit a separate isolating valve to the copper pipe. That way you can replace the flexi in future by just turning off the supply locally. If you choose this option, then you could cut back and clean the existing copper pipe, fit an isolating valve, then add a short length of new copper above that to connect to a short flexi to the cistern. The key to getting this to work is cleanliness. I find that a strip of fine emery cloth, wrapped half around the pipe and pulled to and fro will get all the old paint off and clean the pipe back to a good finish. This works well where you cant get to the rear face of the pipe. For getting a good seal on any compression fitting the pipe needs to be clean, cut off square at the end so it seats fully in the fitting, have no burrs on the cut end and have a reasonably good surface finish. A thin smear of one of the proprietary compression joint sealants/lubricants makes all the difference, too. I tend to use a thin smear of liquid PTFE where the olive will go on the pipe.

Probably, as ducts are pretty smooth inside. One snag with mine is that I made the camera housing from a bit of solid brass bar, as I wanted it to be heavy, so it would sink. For pushing along a duct the camera needs to be kept really light in weight, I think, so that it doesn't tend to kink the cable. I do have another bullet camera, with LED lights, that is just on the end of a length of very thin cable (not sure how long, probably only around 4m). I fitted this to the end of a length of 20mm conduit and used it to probe through the space between the ceiling and floor when I needed to run an extra data cable that I'd forgotten about at first fix. The camera has a female thread on the end (whatever the thread used on camera tripods is - something odd and imperial I think) and could be adapted to fit to something like a 6mm Cobra, perhaps. I may be able to fit a much longer cable to this, as I have a feeling that I have around 40m or so of the same thin (around 3 to 4mm diameter) cable around somewhere.

All of the cold done in 22mm. Tee off with 22mm to get cold to the TS, and then 22mm from the TS preheat to the Rinnai heater reducing to 15mm at the inlet of the Rinnai. Whats the distance between the TS and the Rinnai?

Use 75 owm satellite coax, something like RG6. But be warned it comes in many variants. The best being copper foil and copper braid. the cheaper ones are aluminium foil. You don't want a "booster" you want a "distribution amplifier" that adds very little gain, other than to ensure the signal does not get weaker by being split several times

I think I put them up at sone point, but they might be better here. There has been one change not shown which is the moving of the master en suite and dressing room. Ground Floor.pdf First Floor.pdf Second Floor.pdf

... and get a decent pipe slice ..!! No hacksawing copper..!!

Believe it or not, it’s easier to do an end feed fitting than a solder ring ..!! Quite easy for a novice to overheat a solder ring and blow the solder out... Rothenberger or Bernzomatic torches aren’t cheap but will last a lifetime - I now only use MAPP gas too as it’s hotter and quicker but I also use them for lead welding. Get yourself a handful of end feed fittings, some Laco flux and some copper offcuts and practice ..! Green kitchen scourers are the best for cleaning pipe too - make yourself an apprentice cube ...

Notifiable by whom though? Is this likely to be the owner's responsibility rather than the supplier/installer?