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The roof will be slated back end of next week - The TF for the house arrives on 29th May 2018. Will update again thereafter.

I tiled a floor about six months ago Only about thirty mtrs The customer had already purchased the tiles and adhesive from Topps Paying about 40% more than I do They rang to ask if I could replace three tiles as two were scratched and one had chipped The reason for my post is to warn in advance those that are choosing floor tiles These particular ones are Turkish and not great quality They easily scratch and chip and £36 isn’t cheap I get the Italian slats for between 22 and 30 all in and there is no comparison The glazing is far tougher and they are laser cut You can score them with a broken piece of tile without marking A good guide is that the glaze runs all the way down to the bottom of the tile preventing chipping I think that the shop price puts most off With most asking for 40 to 60 But with the volume most on here are using That can easily be cut down I called into Topps for a bag of adhesive for the repairs as I didn’t want to risk using a different adhesive and grout They stung me for £17 I never pay more than £10 inc vat For Larsen flexible white He said we don’t sell foreign rubbish I asked him where the tile slats where from He didn’t know I think that one went over his head The best adhesive I’ve used is made about five miles from me At around a tenner your going to be be looking at the floor tiles for a long time So shop around

Looks like Dave has gone with the seller I got mine from, "esavep". The bonus is his will be connected and running long before mine is so I'll get a heads up on any issues!

So the official confirmation letter arrived yesterday. Planning conditions are few, and simple, and just as per the Officer's report: Start within five years Obscured glass for the bathrooms Landscaping following completion Access works pre-commencement (yup, like already eight years ago) No conditions re levels or ridge height is a bonus. Digger man and his mate called on Tuesday and we've a plan of attack. A couple of land drains to put in (one new, along the short E boundary with the nighbour's garden and one to culvert the long open drain on the South. Then strip and retain topsoil and put down crushed reclaim over the drive and form clean hardstanding. Still waiting a revised price for the TF...

It's been a quiet few weeks on the house site waiting for the contractors to come back, but we have done the following: Building control and quantity surveyor inspected the works carried out to date The plumber supplied our the internal drainage. Anchor straps fitted. Alum clad, triple glazed windows order finalised and placed Attic trusses design reviewed and finalised We are now commencing the final stage of the foundations. In filling the solum is the first job. The solum has now been infilled and whacked with the aggregate. A finer layer is now being added on top. Plenty of diggers and dumpers here. Last day of the foundations. DPC was put down and then the concrete wagon came back on site. We used around 25m3 of concrete and as the photos show through the last few blog posts, we had fantastic weather conditions during this foundation. I was also pleased with the amount of the rubbish that is going to the dump, just four cements bag full of plastic waste.

PS. PMSL

Some of my finest work. .

Looks great.

It passed the 'Harris test' mate. What more do you want ? .

Italian Spanish Turkish& Portuguese vitra are miles ahead ahead of the other Turkish tiles They tend to follow the Italian designs

Believe it or not, after a great deal of searching around for a wide rail, without too many bars or being too high, I found it on ebay of all places. The seller was Company Blue and they still have the same rails available: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1300mm-Wide-400mm-HIgh-Heated-Towel-Rail-Radiator-Chrome-Straight-Bathroom/191256380598?hash=item2c87c4c4b6:g:KOoAAOSwPcVVlAq0 If you want white, then they are a bit cheaper: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1300mm-Wide-Straight-White-Towel-Rail-Radiator-Towel-Radiator-Bathroom-Designer/191343834476?hash=item2c8cfb356c:m:m_Lon_6Feeg6LYVgC0LqcMg

Just to remind people of my mistake, bought two electric towel radiators and they get to 98 degrees, way to hot, going to change the elements to thermostatic ones.

Only had a can of Fosters today as run out of anything decent I actually topped it off with 7-Up! Back on thread... The errant, diagonal soil pipe now goes through a right angle. This going left to right is a bit steep at about 2.3 degrees: Whereas the one off to the right is too shallow at about half a degree: Bring the joint up higher by packing underneath should fix both issues. But at least I can now sort/ tap into the existing pumped shower feeds

You may just get that pint after all, just not single malt .

The DHW tank is enamelled steel and the pipework is copper.

I had the hozelock micro system at my previous house. A fiddle to install but when done it proved to be very worthwhile. I had it permanently set up for baskets and pots. I used a timer. On border areas once things were established I didnt bother with it they either fended for themselves or I used a sprinkler in very dry weather. A good mulch on the borders kept watering down too. You do need to check the connections regularly I found that where there were branch junctions could be prone to leaks, ok if its leaking into the soil but not around the house. I ran my baskets and pots system in the gravel channel around the house which was great for hiding it.

Looks good. If you plan to treat the oak I recommend Osmo UV protection oil rather than Danish.

On the nature of PCM34, as Andrew Bessell of SunAmp told us, PCM88 uses Strontium Bromide Hexahydrate. Source reposted by @Alphonsox from the previous forum here: In the letter from Andrew Bessell on the current issues re posted with permission by @le-cerveau in the thread below it says only that SU34 is a bromide with a different metal ion, i.e. not Strontium.

Now there’s an idea ! A small project for @Onoff ; can supply his hydraulic shower head as well ?

"Damn you decimal place!" Wheres @SteamyTea when you need him. Should have added the disclaimer at the bottom of that post about my shit maths skills. Oh, and the point being......WOW! on the SA lifespan.

This might make interesting reading, given the way that medical intervention for mild hypertension was being pushed so hard a few years ago: http://www.cochrane.org/CD006742/HTN_benefits-of-antihypertensive-drugs-for-mild-hypertension-are-unclear The bottom line is that for vast majority of people with no history of cardiovascular illness, but with mildly elevated BP (defined as around 140 to 159mmHg systolic, 90 to 99mmHg diastolic), which happens to be the vast majority of people taking anti-hypertension drugs, there is no good evidence to show that this treatment either decreases morbidity or mortality rates. That flies in the face of what GPs have been telling me for decades. FWIW, my mean BP over the past three months with no medication is 122/83mmHg, so well below the strongly recommended UK treatment threshold of 140/90mmHg...

I can confirm that the same is true for the standard Sunamp PV we have. The buffer tank is usually around 35 to 40oC, and this preheats the cold water fed to the Sunamp via a plate heat exchanger, with the pump that pulls water from the buffer to the heat exchanger only coming on when a flow switch in the hot water feed operates, so it's "on demand" heated, much the same as the Sunamp. The net result is that in practice the Sunamp PV can easily run a couple of decent showers, with enough capacity left over to meet the house hot water demands for the day. I was thinking of adding another parallel Sunamp heat battery (essentially just the two heat cells from a Sunamp PV in parallel with the ones already fitted) but I can't see that it's needed, as long as the preheat system is working.

Its being pumped underground to his rentals as drinking water to offset the rates

It is madness, but it's also an intrinsic part of Chinese business culture. A friend builds custom bicycles, and has to import a lot of parts from China (strictly speaking Taiwan, but the culture is the same) as practically all the big name bike component manufacturers now source them from Taiwan. He would send the factory in Taiwan a specification, and they would produce sample components for him that were fine. They'd give him a price, then when he placed a larger order he'd find that they changed the material specs, but also charged him a lower than agreed price, thinking they were offering him good service. Price over rides quality, as price is a matter of "face", something you just have to get used to when dealing with China. In the end he had to employ a local British ex-pat living in Taiwan to be his quality assurance manager and inspect every batch of components before it was shipped, to make sure they were made to his spec. This seems to be the only way to guarantee consistent quality. I doubt the Genvex will have any issues. All the refrigerant piping on mine is copper, and it looks very well made internally.

The ceiling joists and the rafters will form a truss in themselves. Looks amazing, and no worries about it blowing away or collapsing under a bit of snowfall! Puts my garage to shame (I live in fear of both these events...)

@AliG I like the way the light comes off that chandelier, you know, in a manly way of course. Keeps reminding you that spotlights are a second option.

Wowsers...not a normal looking roof frame...nothing holding the roof up? Guess the wallplate is bombproof and everything compresses the ridge beam? Looks smashing ?

Rainwater stuff is push together, you can glue if you really wanted to but if supported and clipped properly / sufficiently then shouldn't need it. Have the IC at the very end of the 4' ( 110mm ) run, then at the downpipes end you want a correctly coloured ( lets say black for eg, to match the colour scheme on show ) 110mm 90o bend to take you from horizontal to vertical, then an straight inspection coupling, and then a rainwater to 110mm connector. You can then rod from the downpipes side to clear obstructions there, and rod the 4" horizontal from the IC. You could do away with the IC the other end if you can get another 110mm inspection branch / coupling at the end of the run where it changes direction.

So the person needs to run and keep up with it ?. We have a chappie who walks 2 dalmations every morning, and one of them thinks it is a husky because it howls at ambulance sirens and police cars and reversing lorries. Great fun. District hospital is just around the corner :-). Need to look out the Hornit for the bike.. F

well if you've tried adding bits of foam and stuff, it'll definitely be your fault.

So that's not the house then?

now that's pretty.

Thanks for all the comments guys. I wasn't aware they were a pain to fit. We have not boarded or plastered yet. Walls have 50mm battens to provide a service cavity. Hopefully at this stage our electrician will figure out a workable way to fit. I hope so because I would like some different ones in other rooms. It was just a nice feeling to actually buy something decorative for the inside of the house rather than materials for building it.

Pictures as promised - The WC is not quite finished, but almost. The grout needs tidying up, and there are lights to go in the alcoves. We have 4 identical sinks like this, plus a double one on our bedroom. Part f the reason for ending up with 4 was that when we priced them up initially the sinks were only maybe £200 more than wall mounted ceramic sinks, much to my surprise. Months later they discovered that they had forgotten to include the cost of the quite substantial brackets.

Yep my bad - they are different to the ones I've used as they only have the one O ring.

Better not be..... or I am buggered, lot of unhappy customers.. I have been using them to join mlcp to brass compression for last 15 years.

That realy is something ! Just love the curve. These are a set i built a few years ago, would go well in your garden.

We are finally very close to being finished inside. We have been living in dust for two months. I have been trying really hard to avoid putting up pictures until it’s all done, but the stair is going in and looking beautiful. As there is another stair porn thread re glass balustrades I thought I’d join the party. Give it a few weeks and I’ll do a full photoshoot.

Don’t give my wife ideas. She wanted two stairs in the hall!