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Just a word of warning I called at the tile supplier to pick up tiles for tomorrow’s job A couple had bought the same tiles that I was collecting and paid £31 per mtr I will be billed £13 per mtr plus vat Bargain hard when you are buying

Skill Builder released a 1 hour video 4 days ago which is a deep dive on fitting out a whole bathroom exclusively with Abacus products. I got a lot of value watching the video even if I never buy any Abacus stuff. During the video Roger Bisby constantly eulogizes the wonderfulness of an Abacus system bathroom and the plumbing synergy derived from the integrated system. Is a best of British Abacus bathroom really streets ahead of misfit continental stuff as Roger claims over and over in the video? https://youtu.be/vNYNigge1C0

Nope, he most deffo WAS a cock of the highest disorder. Typo......PMSL. .

Erm...read this earlier. Couldn't think of anything. Re-read just now and still nada. I'd change everything if I had the £.

I think I have 2 wows my kitchen and my view......and I do love my shower.... 3 then!

I have bifold made by a local company ( oak) didn’t get a price as all house windows were included. I specified an upstand so a compression seal was used all round, yet to do an air test but I think they are very draughtproof. It’s not our part m entrance and the up stand is about 20mm.

Although it sounds fine in theory, I have seen Terram membrane looking more like DPM after it was in contact with clay for a few wet months. You could have used it as pond liner.

With the bifolds, the flush threshold seems the weak point. If the profile has a small upstand (inside for open out, outside for open in), they can be fairly draught-free.

To keep our structural elements simple, we were more or less restricted to a 3m opening which is quite small. At that size I don’t see how even treble sliders can get anywhere near the effect of a bifold door. They are on the sheltered side of the house but do not seem to unduly allow draughty through the seal. They are DG so you can feel an airflow down the glass when it is cold more than through the seals.

You need to look at exactly what you signed, which will show what you and them have agreed to. A drawing will show an arrow indicating the door slides. The cost of a sliding door will be more than a fixed panel, so this will be obvious in the price too. Once you know exactly who is in the wrong then you can decide how to proceed

In my (limited) experience, coordinating with sub contractors is part of an architect's usual standard product offer, their bread-and-butter. He seems to be reacting in this vein. By all means, tell him that you will do this yourself and he should provide you with the needed files to do so. Once you have the files, what you do with them is your business so long as you are using them solely for the project as originally intended, and not, for example, setting yourself up as a retailer of said plans to third parties, which would infringe his copyright.

Okay, never mind. From what you said earlier it doesn't sound to me as if he is trying to get more fees out of you but is naturally reluctant to get involved in part of the job for which he isn't getting paid. It would still be worth a phone call to have a chat with him to see if he is able to give you an electronic copy of the .dwg CAD drawings. Tell him that you are happy to give him a disclaimer in writing saying that he won't be held liable for any subsequent use of the drawings.

@ultramods its an ambiguous email from your architect. My reading of the email is that it says that they wont provide info to third parties on your behalf (without being paid to do so). They are not however saying that they wont give such information to you, which you can then give to the third parties. I am currently engaging an architect. From my research, I think that CAD files are a grey area. But I will be stating explicitly with mine at the time of engagement that I can have all the drawings & files I wish.

Quite a tricky one. Our last architect just did planning drawings and handed the CAD drawings to us and we appointed others to do Building Regs. I cannot see how it will void theer PI by giving you the CAD files for you to do with as you like. They are after more money I think.

That is the idea. I don't know individual models well enough, but by the time it has frosted up, it is too late. The Temperature/RH curve is tuned, not the sensor. The idea is to predict, or just sense, when the ambient conditions could cause frosting and then either reduce the ASHP output (lighter load) or switch it off for a period of time. Both would prevent frosting and the associated time or energy to defrost. It may be possible to do this with just one sensor, but without data it is hard to tell. One sensor would, in effect, just be monitoring just the ambient conditions and have, other than the theoretical frosting point (based on dew point), no idea what is happening after that air has passed though the radiator and cooled. The state of the radiator will be dependant on the temperature of the transfer fluid and the flow rate of the coolant.

Nope! Named by @Nickfromwales

@newhome Perhaps there is a typo in the fourth sentence?

We have had long discussions with MBC about cold vs warm roofs. We also have a parapet on a flat roof and the ventilation solution is not through the cladding but the design flows air over the parapet. The solution seems reasonable but we are definitely going to end up with a "cold" roof though not in the traditional sense. Nothing built yet but in theory the solution should work well. Not got building regs sign off though yet as haven't got final drawings from MBC to submit yet.

If you go for one plinth brick you need a 65mm width block on the inside at the back so when it steps in there is something to build on for the rest of the way up. You can do it with brick on it's side if you can't source 65mm blocks. Two plinths and a normal block will do.

You only have to run the numbers to realise there is no merit in having a battery power pack at home yet. Maybe one day it will be viable. Just remember that you can, if you shop around, buy a unit of power for about 13p, and if you are storing power, then on E7 it is less than 9p. So take my house that uses 4000 kWh, with 80% on E7, that is £288/year. If these power packs really can last 10 years, that is £2880 installed to break even. And that is assuming they can survive 3650 charge/discharge cycles and deliver a decent amount of power (say enough to boil a kettle). At the moment my storage is a 29 year old, 200 lt water cylinder on the original element and thermostat. It can hold about 10 kWh of energy, deliver power at 60 kW, has an efficiency of about 75% and would cost less that £300 to replace.

Had most of my Windows fitted last week and this week they came to fit the sliding patio doors. I wanted bifold but because of cost compromised with sliders. It was suggested that I have 3 panels with 2 sliders to maximise the opening by a different company. The quote came through with 2 fixed panels which was counter productive in having a wider opening. I phoned up and explained what I wanted and that I that the single panel should be on the opposite side to that given on the quote and received an email confirming both instructions. The door came with 2 fixed panels and one slider. They were getting it in to position when I luckily went to look and saw it wasn't right and told them. It is a father and son company and the son is my contact. The father went ballistic saying they'd told me I couldn't have 2 sliders. Slammed everything down, threw everything back in the van and drove off with tires squealing. I got an email the next day from the son apologising for his dad's behaviour but reiterating that they had told me I couldn't have 2 sliders. I know that they can be made with 2 or even all 3 sliding. I was offered them by another company and have seen them online. However I am now wondering what to do. I am definitely not having the doors that have been made. They are just wrong. but Do I get them to make me some standard 2 piece doors? Do I source 3 way sliders from somewhere else? And if so do I go for UPVC, which I know will be bulky, or aluminium Or Do I pay the extra and get bifolds Another setback as of course whichever option I choose there is a lead time putting back me being watertight Thoughts please