Leaderboard

Worth a look @jamiehamy?

I just saw an ad for this. Looks expensive for what it does, but I guess if you really can't get your car into the garage. https://www.myparker.co.uk

As an aside, and possibly off at a tangent, I have a few hard-one points to make with regard to CH control and sensing. The first is that, if you are naturally drawn to a technological solution, for the fun of designing, programming it and building it then it's a fun thing to do. You will spend a lot of time deciding on kit to use, fitting sensors and writing code to make the whole lot work. All told it's fun, and it's how I initially envisaged making our system. I don't regret the time spent doing this, but it was pretty time consuming, as first I had to try and model the house response under various conditions, then work out a control system that would work. The killer for me was time, both the time spent developing the code, but more importantly, the time take for the house to respond to any change. What started out as a slightly morbid thought, induced by my frame of mind at the time, came to dominate my thinking. I realised that if I wasn't around, there was no one who could just step in to maintain or repair things. That revelation caused a step change in my thinking. I cant rely on home brew software, short life cycle hardware and interface obsolescence (all those with phone operated controls probably face a complete system change in less than five years). I traded my natural enthusiasm for designing, building and developing stuff to only applying it to monitoring stuff. That's been invaluable in fine tuning an off-the -shelf control system, and that just about satisfies my desire to design something novel.

Youll be fine with what you have there tbh, with the additional cross bracing. The one I did had the ply for a few reasons, one was to act as a noggin as the TF company had decided they aren't necessary ? Your arrangement is much like another I did with the same tray. 15 lengths of 3x2 iirc

Ok have some more info and the news is not good - so it probably is too good to be true. I can find no regulation details on the we site so either they are not regulated or have still to update their site. They do say that they do their best to rent back to the property owners but cannot guarantee this - and perhaps here lies the rub because - if they do rent it back to you then the whole transaction becomes a 'sale and rent back' agreement (my understanding) and so becomes regulated (see the link). So if you call them and say you would like to become a sale and rent back customer and they don't immediately send you the money advice service factsheet then perhaps best to walk away. If they don't rent it back to you then it is not regulated and of course you need to find somewhere else to live! Citizens advice have said a few things and you can find the details HERE while the old FSA now partly the FCA had some consumer advice HERE. Sorry but I think this particular firm might be sailing close to the proverbial wind so Cave(at) Venditor.

Tread with care and maybe ask to speak to previous customers. There was something in the news about similar schemes (I am not saying it this company was invloved) where a reasonable offer was made, then once seller had committed and was well into the sale the company dropped the value. Buyers had committed a lot by this stage e.g. were in a chain, had paid solicitors etc and so felt trapped to take the lower offer.

Right. I have an old useless coal bunker made from concrete rings. Now I know what to do with it. I've got a digger, I've learned how to make concrete, I have a load of 393 reinforced mesh left over. What could go wrong?

Do they charge fees for this fantastic service? As they say in 'All The Presidents Men'. "follow the money"

Hmmm - Never heard of this in the form here - I will ask my 'local' mortgage market expert and get back to you.

This is a subject very close to my heart and with a new build designed from scratch, there should be few reasons not to try to minimise future maintenance. Here is our (almost completed) MVHR cupboard, which also houses the network /data hub and TV aerial hub. I've also just finished the soffit ceiling under the entrance porch, which is finished in cream uPVC soffit boards. Even though this is very sheltered, it will never need painting.

Sorry I'm late @PeterW you get the blue peter badge, but no cigar for not spotting the other side effect here The non return is indeed needed where it is, but for the wrong reason, ( I'll explain below ). Add another, where the green arrow is and your problems will end. The pump ideally wants moving too as it shouldn't be pumping downwards TBH, but instead should be laying horizontal or vertical but travelling upwards to allow natural venting / removal of air. Not life or death but can add to the longevity of the pump. Insulate the pipework in the attic and have that hot return ( HR ) pump triggered by an occupancy switch like this in the bathrooms so it only runs briefly prior to when it's needed. It can be set to run off a timeclock too if easier but I'd certainly not make it redundant as it's there to help, by circulating the dead legs of hot water pipework to massively reduce waiting times at the outlets ( particularly the basin hot taps when washing hands after visiting the loo ). One observation is that the plumber has fed the HR into the very bottom of the tank whereas it should be going into a dedicated tapping midway up the cylinder. Does the cylinder have a blanked off tapping midway up somewhere around its circumference? Not all UVC's have one so that's maybe why it's like this. The problem / side effect here is that a system with a HR pump should only be able to draw hot / very warm water back up the return leg when the pump is off. In this situation the plumber hasn't mitigated against the fact that he's connected it where luke warm / cold water will reside, hence your system is currently able to simultaneously draw cool water and hot water into the hot pipework, hence your problem when the pump is off. Another is that in a house with all UFH this should really have been a thermal store. An hour or so after the heating comes on, go see how often the boiler is lighting and then going off whilst there is demand for heating. It's probably cycling quite a bit then and could benefit from a buffer. All depends if you want to open that can of worms or not as ignorance can be bliss ??.

We were after a consistent redish-brown to part of our cladding (incl. porch ceiling) and initially thought we'd be going with cedar but were disappointed with the inconsistency of samples where pinks and yellows would be mixed in with the brown we'd expected. In the end we went with Sapele (PAR) and three coats of clear UV resistant Osmo. It's a lovely deep brown, looks like a piece of fine furniture. If there's enough light in the morning when I leave I'll try to get a picture of the porch to post. In the mean time, not the best picture to show the colour, but to give a flavour. Sapele is obviously the lower half, and only one coat of Osmo at this point:

You're telling this to a man who drilled thru his footings with one for the new water main! Never thought it would end! Even with the home made extension bar:

Very good point indeed, @dogman. Tanks can and do lose pre-charge, especially if fitted with plastic dust caps. It's a little known fact that the original Schrader valve (as used on tyres and pressure vessels) was never intended to be the primary air seal, it was designed to allow easy filling, with a leakage rate low enough to allow the sealing cap to be fitted before any appreciable pressure drop had occurred. Sadly, the majority of plastic "dust caps" provide no sealing at all, so I make a point of replacing them with proper nickel plated brass seal caps, that have a nitrile rubber seal in. This massively reduces the pressure loss from both pressure vessels and car tyres.

Just to add to the information from JSH. I don't think he mentioned how to check your pressure vessel. Once a year i power down the bore hole pump and run the water till the pressure drops to zero. Open the pressure valve to be sure there is no water pressure in the vessel. On top of the vessel will be a fill valve that is the same as your car tyre valve. Using a tyre pressure gauge check the pressure in the vessel. Now the pressure should be just below the pump cut in pressure. I for some reason lost all the pressure in a tank a few years ago and thought the tank bladder had failed but once i re-pressurised it it held. Could be worth you checking as above As JSH has stated its normally the filters that cause the reduction in flow. I run three in parallel and change the filters every couple of months. As for your borehole details. Your local council are now the legal authority and will have the details of the installation and initial testing( assuming it was properly installed.) they may wish to inspect and have a right to do so. However unless the borehole supply's more than one dwelling or supply's a business including letting the house you do not need to to have annual testing. We were forced to upgrade our borehole well head as we have a self catering cottage on the supply

And we're done :-) What a relief! O ly took 23m3 in the end. Had a hairy moment when I realised I hadn't shared up the door jambs enough but that was quickly sorted. Sheet metal deck roof arrives Friday but not sure when we will pour that.

Just to keep this thread fully informative, and on topic.....SWMBO found the remote in the wardrobe. ? Panic over everyone.

Its been a while since I added anything to this blog, but we ve just had some professional pics back (our timber frame supplier wanted to do a case study).... so I thought I may as well add them here... Its also a nice reminder for me to see what the house would look like if I did nt have a 4 and 6 year old.

I would add that I always send an email outlining my requirements and what we have agreed - however when things don't go to plan I am realistic and reasonable enough to know when it's their issue to fix, mine or just for us to work on a solution together.