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FIber is for backbone, long distance work. You get 1Gb form Cat 6 (properly terminated) and you can get 10Gb from Cat 7/7A though you will struggle for find any network gear to run at that speed. The fiber (if you have it) coming into your house will go into a modem and then it come out on 802.xxx twisted pair (Cat 5/6/7/7a) If you can get 1 Gb you are not in the UK but the far east! Most network switches (the box that connects everything together) are limited to 1Gb connections, the new XG (10Gb) stuff is only just coming on line and it is still wired fir twisted pair. Just get decent (solid not stranded) Cat6 cable installed, terminated, tested and guaranteed and you will be fine. Also your TV, Blu-Ray,.... all have a 8P8C connector (the ones you are used to). Just get a good 802.af PoE switch and proper cabling and you will be fine. I have had a look at the data sheets and it is POF Plastic Optical Fiber, so not usual fiber, and is limited and can't even reach the speeds of Cat7A 10Gb twisted pair. It still has conventional connectors at the user end, just a waste of money. I have fiber in my setup but only between my router and switches, this saves on my standard ports as they are all allocated. Only one of my switches is 10Gb capable the router and other one switch only 1Gb fiber anyway. A 10Gb router costs over $1000!

I've applied a fair bit of vinyl in my time and the guy is right. However, there's a knack to getting it right (and bubble free) and there's a big difference between applying decals to a van in a controlled environment such as a workshop, or to the inside of windows, and covering whole, large panes of glass outdoors. The film may not be particularly expensive, but it would be easy to get it very wrong. I certainly wouldn't attempt it as a diy job.

I've opted for aluminium bifold. Door to one side and 2 pane folded to the other. Got a 2 week lead time though - delays ... delays ... delays. However, I am in the process of putting my current house on the market so that is my priority at the moment.

Dont bother with fiber, its extremely expensive to terminate, and if not done properly it won't work. Theres nothing in a home which requires that kind of bandwidth, so just stick with CAT6 (the low smoke version). I install HPE Aruba Modular switching in my day job, and often do 10GbE installs, but they are only useful if you are pushing a huge amount of data, i.e. multiple stations streaming full HD, and even then it doesn't get saturated, in fact the most useful thing for 10GbE is iSCSI SAN installs, where you can really use the bandwidth in a Hyper-V environment. In a house, i just don't see a use for this.

Id have thought going around first with a 5:1 S/C mix to plug all the visible voids would pay dividends, followed by then mixing up a self-leveller type slurry in buckets and pouring it in? Youll never pack the gaps with mortar better than a free-flowing slurry mix will. A Lot of the ones Ive seen done have all the drips dangling down beneath them where the first lot has flowed through and cured, then a second lots been added to fill anything left.

won't mention the one in the last post then no doubt that'll come back to bite me in the future

Camping gas stove???

If you think you will need it for only 5 weeks, then do you really need it. Ive been on our site for the last month and haven’t used the electric once. Why not ask the tradies what tools they will need. 90% of my tools are cordless just a thought.

Another thing to consider is how portable you need it to be? I have one of the Aldi ones mentioned and it's been a little temperamental at times (saying oil is low and cutting out) but it has always kept going. It's a suitcase type one so weighs about 20KG. If you want a site genny, Costco have a Champion one for less than £200 which is 240 and 110v

I bought what I think was this generator (but badged as Neilsen not Bulldog), from these people. He gave me a compelling argument as a self builder himself on why to get this one...based around it being able to withstand whatever some errant tradesman might plug into it. Anyway I lost £150 on it when I sold 3 months after buying.....that's only a couple days of hire fees. It was faultless from my point of view. http://www.pjlallsorts.co.uk/bulldog-bde-6500e~15

I think you need to post your spec ... what will it drive. But if they are appropriate Lidl and Aldi special buys have some good ones. F

So install the PV, wait for them to do the free upgrade work, then install any high power loads. Sorted.

Well, it seems that SSE are about to get their knickers in a twist because despite my having told them everything that was happening over a year ago, no one ever came to collect their meter which is now at the bottom of a pile of builders rubble and they don't know what to do. Looks like I may hire a generator - could be easier!

They did the installation because it's on a glazed gable that's just over 4m high and I didn't fancy having 4m of film flapping about in the wind. There were two of them and they were excellent. It was done so quickly and with no air bubbles. They did say they wouldn't install unless the weather conditions were ok.

In the architects office I work in Universities and hospitals are the only buildings I can think of where we regularly install fibre inside the building and even then its only between the comms/server rooms. Same principle to large office buildings with multiple server rooms. Can't think of anywhere else. Haven't had to install in any secondary schools or any industry/manufacturing building yet so can't imagine how you'd need it in a house. I'm all for future proofing though and putting in conduit / cable trays / access hatches / etc. to allow for future services. I put in a cable tray and have access hatches hidden in the ceiling of full height kitchen units so nothing will be seen but will allow future services to be pulled whatever that technology may be.

Happy with the shower flow. Don't want the ladies emptying the tank too quickly

So here is what I have done. I tried setting the PRV so that the dynamic pressure with the bath taps on full, was 3 bar. That resulted in the static pressure rising to 3.8 bar with the taps all off. So I have compromised and set the static pressure to 3.5 bar and that gives a dynamic pressure of 2.6 bar with the bath taps on. This has given a noticable improvement to the bath fill speed but strangely made hardly any difference to the shower flow which is still at 14 litres per minute. The shower flow is measured with the sceintific method of timing how long the shower takes to fill a bucket of known capacity.

I think I may have a solution.....just waiting on some technical feedback. Will let you know.

Bit late to this one but my build, 240sq m, came in at £500 per sq m. Builder did founds, blockwork and brickwork, plastering, roof, drains, Supplied doors and frames, stairs skirting etc. I did plumbing, windows and doors, fitting doors, skirting etc etc, I upgraded stairs and doors to oak and paid the difference. As I have said before my builder was brilliant and nothing was too much trouble. During my build I became ill and originally I was doing all the woodwork but found myself unable to do floors/ joist and build roof structure so he just stepped in and did it for me ( at a very reasonable cost). I am happy to pass his name on to anyone building in North Devon ( but he is booked up till next summer?).

Done - I din't realise I could edit the topic. I hadn't noticed an over abundance of politeness on this forum (thank goodness) I'd be insulted if people thought they had to be polite to me ?

I am skeptical. First off, your TV and your broadband will not provide you with a fibre connection. So what advantage speed wise will a fibre from your comms room to your tv provide? Just what are you going to stream, from where to what, that a good cat6 cable won't support? by all means install a conduit through which you can pull some future system cabling, but I am not convinced this will give any practical benefit. Concentrate more on real things like cabing for surround sound speakers etc.

Def grout now. The blocks will drain ok. I spent a few days cleaning crap out of the joints pre grouting - never again.

Grout. Or all the gaps will fill up with crap and structurally you'll never be able to do as good a job as you can now.

I have a very close equivalent in my build. It's as specified by a SE (single skin 100mm dense block). I'm far less worried about it than say the fact I have 150sqm of flat green roof that ultimately relies on 120 x 10mm diameter thunderbolts to stop it come crashing down. That's also a fully SE solution. I had an intuitive wrangle with the concept of that. I suspect all builds are littered with details where the buck stops with small components that to a layman don't look like they'd cut it. It might be quite enlightening and put your mind at rest to have a general chat with a SE about 'how strong is stuff'.

You could upgrade to a 140mm wall if your heart’s set on it,would save a lot of mortar compared to a 215mm wall.

This is what a rational pro builder would do. The irrational self builder in me wants to be able to tap a real solid oak beam and know it is making a structural contribution to the house. I will also be able to spin a yarn that my reclaimed oak beam is rumored to have once supported the upper deck of one of Nelson's ships of the line.

This flange (against the tiles) goes all round the frame, not just the bottom. previously the question has been raised about exactly how often people open their bi fold doors full anyway. Well, all of May is a good answer this year and we don’t even have a patio yet. sliders/French doors wouldn’t be the same.

Oh god I have a funny one about sacking a painter, it probably won’t sound as funny in print, but I still chuckle as I think about it. So the painter had well and truly annoyed me, so he was going to be leaving from a top floor window if he ever showed up, i spent an hour going around the house and collected all his tools and stacked them in the drive for if he ever showed up, an hour later he appeared so I made a sarcastic remark about being 2 hours late, he made the mistake of saying something stupid back, so I picked up his tools, buckets rollers steps and proceeded to throw them at him across the road, tools flying everywhere the road littered with rollers and brushes, I launched a couple of milk crates at him but he was managing to bob and weave as the barrage of things rained down. As I was in full flow a van pulled up with the carpet layers on board, one of them lent out the window and said to my mate who was leaning on a shovel watching “should we come back later “. Cool as a cucumber I turned round and said, hang on lads I will be finished in a minute. Well You had to be there to appreciate it. One of my most outstanding moments in life.