Leaderboard

I find it best to wait until someone else has worked with a lighting designer...then COPY them!

The attic trusses arrived today after making a three hour journey from Inverness to Skye. Offloading took place at our site entrance. Our joiner did a great job weaving between odd trees on our access. Trusses unloaded and ready to start being fitted over the next few days. Had a sneak peak on the top of the scaffolding to get a view from where the treble velux windows will be fitted.

There ok Three times the price twice the labour We have two sites for a local builder who has got a good deal with them in order to get them mainstream The price will determine whether they catch on id fifty to fix today and would have rather been doing something else

Your typical mid-ranking test tube shaker who has just missed the next best thing since penicillin in his petri disk because he is distracted by a Guardian editorial probably lacks the cerebral horse power to comprehend a Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus. Scientific Method is for the easy narrow focus stuff e.g. Black Holes. Comprehending the history and future of Mankind is far more difficult and I would accept the opinion of those who have shaped history over the test tube shakers any day.

3 people who are well known for working in research science. I feel a 'Storm' moment coming on.

I think you would enjoy ploughing through Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari. At the end you might end up agreeing with me on the definition of truth.

I used Dulux matt for all coats. This is 2 coats straight onto skim.

Jesus, Ed....He'd be a walking safety nightmare. ? Couldn't work it this time...... not like the Haldane Fisher driver. After 10:30 here, the sea breeze kicks in, so it could be a lot worse.

I sparkle anyway. ?‍♀️ Cheers.

Was that for the YMCA gig?

The things we get on Buildhub ? Waiting for the headlines: ”Kiss My Glass Scottish hospital closed when English woman turns up with French window attached to fingernail”. Only topped by a recent experience having sushi with 5 other men’s wives for an evening.

Monday morning 0900 sharp it arrived. Superb shipping company: they range me twice to confirm they were arriving. A cheerful Brummie driver (well .... Halesowen is that Brum?) told me that he hadn't had a site H+S briefing for many years. How long did that take? 30 seconds tops. I write this post as a DIYer and a self-builder. I'm in the middle of the full-on DIY experience, and that's why I chose Nulok. I dunno about where you are , but round here, ya jus' can't get the staff guv. It looks as if I might be able to manage it on my own . But then again..... The Delivery Note shows that the all up weight if the delivery was 2.7 tonnes. Imagine my delight then to have to handball it all off the side of the road myself. DIY can be a bit of a bastard sometimes. I have a trailer onto which we should have been able to simply slide the load off the wagon . But I was so exhausted on Sunday night, I didn't unload the last load from the trailer . That'll learn me, wunnit? 5.4 tonnes later (once onto the trailer, once off, 2 lots of 2.7) Can't take a joke? Shouldn'a started this self build should I? A decent Poldark-sweat later (Demelza would have swooned), I had both earned a sherbet, and the further hearty dislike of neighbours who had to slow down to drive past the load sitting in the road. Funny how the bin lorry could get past nay borra Jimmie ( he's Welsh) Up yours too pal. So, unvarnished here's some piccies. I'll be tekin' it slow (back hurts a bit) and posting my Laurel and Hardy-esque progress . Well just Laurel..... That's half the load(ish) for 88 square meters Here's the battens which are metal One pack of tiles is about 1 square meter. Each tile is 400 by 400. The tiles are supported by metal channels which sit either side of it. I hope to have recruited a young lad (lad was previously autocorrected to lady: I can wish) to give me a hand. But more of this later. Bettcha can't wait can ya?

Not the best pics but you can see from my hand they are embedded in the wall completely flat in the plaster

Good weather for water cutting tiles !

Erm...Nick, Dave, Nick, Nick again, various Geberit videos etc.

I'm on a break from this book. I got (from memory) about halfway through it last year after my wife raved about it, but eventually put it down because some of the generalisations and conclusions annoyed me. I may to get back to it one day.

I did work with a lighting designer, she took my initial scheme and basicallly chucked it out and started again and I am glad she did. It was money well spent on the design fee and I learnt a lot. I was having those profiles in the hall ceiling, they were going to come up the outside wall next to the front door continue along the hall ceiling and out and down the back wall. It was a fantastic idea but would have cost a fortune so we dropped it. The ones in the walls have a tiny pir controlled foot washer in the skirting immediately below the longest ones. Its very effective. Now the house is built I have no regrets about dropping the ceiling profile in the hall the ones in the walls are enough.

A Brief History of Humankind did not receive very good reviews from the science community.

I tend towards minimizing insurance cover in all matters, for example I never opt for accidental cover on home insurance. My philosophy is personal responsibility and as it happens I have never made an insurance claim in my life. So onto self build site insurance. I have parred down my Protek quote to under £350 by removing cover for a site hut and personal tools. Bumping up the excess to £1000 knocked another 15% off the premium. I am now looking at a £30 option to add £25,000 of legal expenses cover. This feels like a good move but I cannot come up with a scenario where this would actually be used in anger. In my case there is no main contractor to sue. All I can think of is if my concrete did not cure or a helping hand fabricated a medical injury. Am I over looking other potential self builder legal battles?

Sorry for your loss but definitely better to be busy, I can say from experience. You can now stand in all of your rooms downstairs and envisage living there, plus the view you will have from each window. Enjoy!

AFAIK, the 3,6,9 and 12 unit sizes ( with immersions ) employ 3x 1kW immersion heaters, not 1x 3kW. They also come with a little box of tricks to manage the 3 heaters, which IIRC are accompanied by 3x thermistors placed in ascending order which determine the state of charge. Any electrical input is deemed useful tbh, but the chemistry dictates at what temperature point the PCM changes state, so best consult with Sunamp before placing an order / designing the system.

Thank you. They are plastered in led profiles, you need to do at boarding stage, the metal profiles are fixed in the plasterboard and then skimmed around as part of wall ..... electric cabling done at first fix too, then led tape and diffusers fitted at second fix. I love them they are so effective. Our building inspector loved them too!

@Dreadnaughtand @nod why crappy? other than it taking more skill/time to install there is no drawback I have found. They are far superior to the regular boards both for strength and acoustic properties. I have no problem fixing to my walls and none of those rubbish stud wall fixings needed. The 30kg hung from one wood screw claim is turning out to be true. I have heavy pictures and mirrors and so far none have been a problem fixing into the habito, ditto with coat racks and wall cupboards I highly recommend it.......

Great. They often call this type of drain around the perimeter a French Drain, nothing to do with France, but after Henry French, born 1813

You taking about the chair or the roofer!!!

You want a "contract matt" type as the mist coat mixed with water rather than anything with vinyl in

Pleb? We'll I'm not an aristo, so that makes me a plebeian self builder too. What makes it easier? It goes click. Watch the threads about Nulok: I'll be adding to them by the weekend. As I say above, betcha can't wait, eh? Ian

Getting a rod around a swept bend at the foot of a stack would be a challenge, and once used, I wouldn’t want rods coming back into the house ..!! Other issue is buildup - if your blockage is at the foot of the bend on the junction, opening a rod point on a vertical stack with a WC above you will be........ interesting ........

The class I go to is great, we’re all over 21(?) and all have aches and pains and her mantra is “don’t do anything that hurts, were all different with different abilities, it’s not a contest” (thank god!).

Yeah i guess someone has to buy it to make it start. I wish i had that kind of money! lol

Que voice of Captain Mainwaring: I was waiting to see which man would spot that deliberate error. ?

Well I told them it was faulty and sent the picture of the pump. They swear it was brand new and are arranging for the manufacturer to fix it. Watch this space.

We painted the living room 4 days after the plaster was finished, it dries tha quick at this time of year. I am still a fan of Wickes cheapest trade mat white emulsion for the first couple of coats. We did this time try a slightly watered down first coat, but that did not cover as well and needed a third coat so won't be doing that again.

Nails like paper and putting any kind of varnish on makes them worse. Having said that, my imagination has made them stronger since taking the Vitamin D3

The build has literally only just begun. I think i'll contact the developer again and ask the question (again).

I have just finished decorating our new build and found screwfix bare Plaster emulsion and magnolia good paint, my decorator friend advised Dulux trade white for ceilings for better cover and non yellowing ( he was right ).

This weather you can paint fresh plaster after a couple of days Unless it is on the crappy Habito boards give it a week

With @Declan52on this. It needs a few days to dry. I reduced this to about 36-48 hours on my last by using chunky dehumidifiers, but I had an electrician programmed and needed it done first. I spray the first coats for speed (would save a number of days on a house) for a number of whole rooms, and while still empty so as to avoid needing to do too much masking. Ferdinand

You will know by the colour of the skim when it's dried out enough to paint. It will be a pale pink colour with no darker spots. In the summer it won't take much more than a week or so for most walls to dry out. Your best bet is to just paint it all white and let the house sit for 18 months 2 years and let it move and shrink and crack. Fill the cracks after the 2 years and then paint it whatever colours you want.

This is our plan.... We would be using micro inverters if we didn't have already a inverter. The panels will be in roof and are having each join between the panels in the attic so we can check individual panels, bypass a failed panel or add in micro inverters in the future without going on the roof. We will be using ufh pipe (12mm) as a sleeve, making up 6mm mc4 male/female cable extensions so not removing the connectors on the panel (this would invalidate the warranty), thread the extensions through the 12mm mlcp, spraying approx 400mm open cell insulation to seal one side of the pipe and using air barrier tape to seal the cable to the mlcp pipe.

On a serious note this is a concern. Nails are hard to glue without sticking your other hand to it as you need to put a bit on pressure on it until it bonds. Then there was the time that my manicurist was mending a nail break for me, didn’t realise she had dabbed glue on her own hand and stuck her hand to mine lol. Life is short. Always sparkle ??

@Ferdinand Use silicone to fix the makeup strip to the timber. First, mark a straight vertical line up the frame with masking tape / other about 5mm away from where the trim will meet the frame. Use that as a datum line so you dont end up with a wavy / wonky trim line, which you'll see when you stand back. Apply the silicone to the timber, after the trim has been cut and scribed to fit perfectly, and press firmly into place. Use a 600mm spirit level as a flattening tool to get a nice straight edge. Push the trim against the frame and mark lightly with a pencil where the two meet. Slide the trim about 10mm away and apply a continuous bead of 'superglue' about 3mm in from the line starting at the top and working down. Dont stop or let it blob. Have a practice run further in if needed. Once you have the bead of glue in place slide the trim in to the frame, and once happy give one blast of activator from top to bottom. Dont over apply. When dry, you use white silicone to hide the joint. Bingo.

I was going to make a dragon/gargoyle/Alien Queen skeleton out of the stuff I've left over them foam it, carve it and GRP. To sit atop my gate pillars.....

You don’t need an IC to start the run, just use a rodding eye on the end of the main run and come in on the branches with your flows.

I am in a similar position to the OP and found a solution. It is possible for the drainage run to start with an inspection chamber. The OP could have a couple of ICs under the car park side of the house, these would run under the foundation and the soil stack would join as a branch into the existing drain pipe.

Microinverters often have a monitoring system built in that reports back to a data collection unit, so you can check performance and health. For the sort of shaded conditions you describe then microinverters are a good choice, but equally good, and perhaps more reliable (the jury's out on that) might be to fit panel optimisers, like the Solar Edge system. Optimisers don't have the high voltage switched mode inverters built in, so are a lot simpler internally. All they do is optimise the output from each individual panel using a maximum power point tracker (MPPT). This deals with partial shade every bit as well as a microinverter system, but means that you still run DC down to a conventional inverter. The advantage is really that the primary cause for concern in the microinverters (and big inverters), the high voltage commutation capacitors, aren't up on the roof, but remain in the main inverter. Commutation capacitor life is the primary life-limiting factor in an inverter, and is proportional to temperature - the cooler you can keep the capacitors the longer they will last.

It is a very difficult and overwhelming process. So, make a cup of tea/coffee (fully caffeinated!), sit down with a large notebook and pen. Step1: Buy Chocolate digestives. Step 2: Get on Amazon and order The Housebuilders Bible by Mark Brinkley. Step 3: Read the whole book at least 3 times, accompanied by said chocolate digestives. Step 4: Read every post and blog on this site. Step 5: Read them all again. Step 6: Work out how much money you can reasonably spend. Step 7: Assess your own skill set - are you going to be able to complete any of the work yourself? Be honest. Step 8: Assess how involved you want to be in the process. If you just want to be handed keys at the end, your extension will have to be smaller than if you are willing to pitch in and can actually be useful. Step 9: Ballpark figures - £1000 (low end finishes) to £1500 per square metre of finished home. Use the figure from Step 4 to work out how big the house might be. Time invested now is cheap - delays and poor decision making whilst mid-build are expensive and sometimes not possible.

why not bring the DC cables through the felt and have the microinverters in the attic?

You've identified about the only advantage I can find for having a flat(ish) roof with parapet wall - no scaffolding needed to replace a microinverter!

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama all recommend the book, that is good enough for me. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Sapiens-A-Brief-History-of-Humankind