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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/01/18 in all areas

  1. Here's a true "cold revenge" story for you. In 1984, the girl I'd been living with for a few years decided to have a fling with someone else. I caught them at it (literally - I went around to see one of her friends, as I couldn't find her, and found her and her bit on the side in bed together around there, much to her friend's embarrassment at them being caught at her place). I rushed home, packed up all her stuff threw it on the drive and when she came home told her to bugger off. I neither saw nor heard from her again, until around a year or so later, when I was driving back to Helston from Penzance on my own, in the early hours of the morning, in torrential rain, with virtually no other traffic around. I spotted a car stopped at the side of the road, apparently broken down, so stopped, got out, and ran over, intending to try and offer to help (this was before mobile phones were around). As I got level with the car, the driver's window wound down and I asked if I could help. No sooner had I said this than I spotted it was my ex driving the car, on her own, so I said something like "Oh, it's you. Well you can go f*** yourself then", ran back to my car and drove off. I grinned all the way home about the way that revenge had handed itself to me, just like that...
    3 points
  2. TBH, I doubt very much that it's anything to do with the ducts at all. The air flowing through the room supply ducts will keep them dry, as long as they are inside the insulated envelope or are well insulated, and at this time of the year there's practically zero chance of getting condensation in the ducts, anyway. It's far more likely to be a problem with a trap somewhere, and the MVHR is then drawing in smells from the drains. I didn't trust the suggested arrangement for the MVHR trap in the instructions for ours, so I raised the MVHR up on a stand, to get better clearance underneath it (also allowed me to fit anti-vibration mounts) and plumbed the drains to a normal 32mm U bend trap. I also plumbed the water softener drain to the same trap, which makes sure it stays topped up. The mention of gurgling noises suggests that air is being pulled up past the MVHR drain trap arrangement, and I'm near-100% certain that your problem will be with that being too shallow, or perhaps with water being sat in the drain tray in the MVHR because it's not angled properly towards the outlet.
    3 points
  3. "Vampire" loads from lots of small things that are left on 24/7 can quickly add up. Years ago I did some experiments in our old house, measuring the 24 hourly consumption of every single appliance we had, including plug-power supplies for things like the cordless phone etc. At that time, our old fridge freezer was the main culprit, averaging around 1.3 kWh per day, with the TV and DVR combination being the next biggest culprit, at around 0.9 kWh/day. Just switching the TV and DVR off every night and replacing the old fridge freezer with a newer one with an A*** energy rating saved us around £70 a year. The other thing using a small, but continuous, amount of power was all the PC and network related stuff. Routers, modems, switches etc all use a fair bit 24/7, as do laptops and tablets whose chargers are just left plugged in and on. In the new house I have all the network stuff powered by a battery pack that is charged during the day (via a time switch) so that it is usually charging from self-generated power from PV. It doesn't make a massive difference, but every little bit helps. I'm hoping that the price of battery storage continues to drop, as being able to just run stuff like the aeration pump on the treatment plant, the MVHR and the other house vampire loads wholly from self-generated energy almost the whole year around will make a fair size dent in the electricity bill.
    3 points
  4. I managed to get a full day tiling the kitchen floor I’m working tomorrow so won’t be able to get there to grout till next weekend
    2 points
  5. I have a scanned PDF copy of the 17th Ed if anyone wants it. It's too big to attach here, I think. Happy to send it as an email attachment, but bear in mind that it's intended to be read by people who already have an understanding of electrical installations. The On Site Guide (OSGs) are easier to read, but restricted to those who hold accreditation. As an aside, I'm seriously looking at getting a Part P ticket, primarily to offer a test and inspection service and supervise straightforward DIY electrical work. Given that I've already got the test gear and knowledge, the only expense would be the costs I'd incur from one of the accreditation bodies, plus getting my multitester recalibrated (it's about a year out of cal at the moment). I'm currently looking around for the most cost-effective route to getting a ticket, and have already been told that I only need to do the one day refresher training on the 18th Ed - they will accept my 15th Ed C&G and teaching quals, something that surprised me.
    2 points
  6. The existing socket stays where it is and in use. A short, new length of 2.5mm twin and earth connects it to the new outside socket which can be one or two gang. Something like this: I'm making assumptions that your ring main is RCD protected and that it is in fact a ring main. Your electrician would be able to advise better.
    2 points
  7. Did you use that urinal they have on the side ...???
    2 points
  8. I happened to be driving down the A6 earlier today and found this great lay-by. No litter bin in sight though! Not sure whose house it is but the builder wasn’t to be seen. Mind you the roof and windows are looking fantastic.
    2 points
  9. In my day job I'm a mechanical engineer, and one of the big themes is how you work low cost (be that build or continued operation) into the design from the very first concepts. Some of it is well known (the Toyota Production System, Kaizen, Just In Time, etc.), but other aspects not so much - for instance each bolt is assumed to cost £1 in lost time, etc. so you should design out fasteners whenever possible. Some of you may be familiar with this graph: It doesn't quite apply to buildings, but the fundamental concept that cost is committed to extremely early in the design cycle, far earlier than 90% of people normally realise does apply. Since it directly applies to what I'm hoping to do in a year or two, I thought it would be interesting to apply these principles to the Passivhaus standard, and see where the logic takes me. Please feel free to jump in and rip this to shreds - I'm trying to ensure that I have a good grasp of the fundamentals driving cost when talking to my architect in the near future, since cost is one of the major hurdles for us. Fundamentally the Passivhaus standard has two requirements - one for heating (15 kWh/m2/year OR 10W/m2 at the design condition) and what is effectively a limit on imported energy. Historically the limit on imported energy has been very hard to meet, leading people to follow the 15 kWh/m2/year criterion and this has led to very well insulated houses where high performance glazing is used to provide a lot of the required supplemental heating. However, with heat pump performance having drastically increased in the past few years and PV becoming very cheap I'm not at all convinced that concentrating on this requirement is still sensible: PV and a heat pump can essentially be used as a controllable diode, shifting solar heat into the building when needed, while the improved heat pump COP means that the penalty from no longer using "free" solar heat from the windows is smaller. Interestingly, the 10W/m2 is much closer to a comfort criterion - achieving this means everything has to be well insulated with no drafts or cold surfaces anywhere. In cost terms the two approaches are quite different however - the energy criteria encourages the use of (expensive) high performance windows with increased area, while the power criteria encourages the use of relatively cheap, thicker insulation with less glazing. Heating system capital costs are also dominated by the peak heating power, while at anywhere close to 15 kWh/m2/year unless you're burning banknotes you won't be spending a lot to keep warm. From this I think a number of conclusions follow: The use of the alternative 10W/m2 criteria should be the starting point unless other design criteria (e.g. wanting large south facing patio doors onto a rear garden) mean that a lot of solar gain has to be inherent to the design. Wall, roof, and underfloor insulation need to be as thick as possible without affecting the cost very much. When the current aircraft carriers were being built the RN followed the mantra "steel is cheap and air is free". Cellulose insulation costs about £10/m2 of wall area to increase the thickness by 100mm and depending on the timber frame system used the associated timber costs should be quite modest. If I'm interpreting the PHPP modelling done when we were hoping just to extend and refurbish our house correctly, the energy impact of going from 300mm to 400mm is about the same as shifting from Part L minimum glazing to quite nice triple glazing. Use glazing to provide light and make a room a nice place to be, not to provide heating. This is likely to reduce total glazing area (and hence cost), and possibly help slightly with overheating. If going this route, the requirement for heating will be increased. To avoid this turning into a wall-of-text, I'll address this in a subsequent post if there is any interest.
    1 point
  10. I have an old one but need a new updated topo survey. Have you had an earth quake recently. Can’t imagine anything’s changed.
    1 point
  11. Al Murad are worth a try They hold massive stocks of tiles If you are going to employ a tiler it may be worth asking him to order then I normally pay around 60% of the showroom price So even if he splits the discount It’s still a saving
    1 point
  12. Summer Sale mid May to mid June approx, Winter sale mid January to mid February approx. The dates are on their Website for 2018 for their last sale period. Their outlets are usually very open about these dates, at least where we bought from was.... We bought in February and paid in full and they stored for free, until we called for them to be delivered in May/June. We needed some top up trims and other bits in July and we had missed the summer sale
    1 point
  13. There is nothing to stop you designing it yourself as long as it complies with building regs. The attenuation tank is more likely to be Building Control or the sewerage undertaker who decides. £1350 sounds steep so def shop around.
    1 point
  14. That's ace and is so like something I would have said too . Reminds me of a guy I used to work with. He was married to his second wife by then but still had a ton of affairs. He was clearly a leopard that didn't change his spots because he used to play away during his first marriage too. On one memorable occasion with the first wife he returned home in the early hours of the morning to see strange stuff all over the front garden. His wife had spent the evening chopping all of his clothes into tiny bits and flinging them out the bedroom window!
    1 point
  15. I reckon you can be rightly proud of your achievement so far. I think we've all seen some real abominations done by some people who consider themselves to be competent DIY'ers, and for someone with little or no DIY experience I reckon you've done a damned good job - a better job than many so-called professionals would have done, IMHO. Please let us retain all the earlier posts, they are a really good lesson in how someone can go from knowing very little to tackling what is a pretty big DIY job very well, and will be of benefit to others who read the whole story, I'm sure.
    1 point
  16. Though they don't advertise it I think NAPIT still do their "Just 8" scheme whereby you can annually verify just 8 notifiable jobs. Designed for retirees and say college lecturers who just want to keep their hand in / be on a par with their students and do the odd job for family and friends. Worth a look.
    1 point
  17. Not getting angry at all. Been there, done that! It's very difficult advising somebody. For a start it's trying to condense someones's learned knowledge, gleaned over years, into just the bits the DIY'er wants to know. They then don't have the benefit of an "old hand" looking over their shoulder as in the electrician/electrician's mate to tell them "Well done!" or "That's crap, do it again!". Then there's the whole dexterity thing that can only be learnt. It's OK saying "stick all three wires into the L terminal" but the trick is to know how much to strip, how not to nick the copper, when and how to fold a solid core back on itself so as to "double up" etc. Luckily I err on the side of thinking it's better to maybe advise someone the "right" way to do it in the hope the end result if they do have a bash will be at least "safer" than if they had gone in blind. You then get into having the proper, often expensive tools and test kit and so on as well as knowledge of Building Regs & 7671.
    1 point
  18. Sorry for late reply. Yes, that’s where I got mine. Very good customer service.
    1 point
  19. How I know that feeling. In a cheap bed and breakfast once there was the tiniest shower with an even tinier door. Very similar situation lol
    1 point
  20. Hey.... Today I feel amazing. Having a day off from the house as yesterday myself and my builder shifted 200 breeze blocks, 1 tonne of sand and a tonne of cement from the front to the back of the house and BOY do my muscles feel a bit zingy today. Mentally though I would like to be there progressing. I'm researching lead filters for the water mains as the cost of digging it all up and replacing and the stress is too much for now. I'm hoping I can get something. Yesterday I had the task of cutting a Budlea davidii out of an upstairs window sil ... best way to get to it was from inside, so I squeezed myself and a saw out of the tiny Edwardian Sash window and with awkward difficulty I cut the damn bush out. THEN I GOT STUCK!!!! It was hard enough to squeeze out but once out the girls had hoiked themselves over the frame and that was that.... You ain't getting back in unless you rip us off or grease yourself up like a swimmer! My builder thought it was the funniest thing ever as I shouted "Oh shit, I'm stuck in the window. My bloody boobs!!!" Anyway, with some squishing and squooshing akin to a baker kneading dough and a lot of strange noises I freed myself and am here to tell the tale!! NOW I know why cat's have whiskers. I will grow some post haste!
    1 point
  21. Sorry, just seen it on the quote / info ! £1113 a year.
    1 point
  22. I am not a professional but did my appeal myself based on plain evidence and common sense, we won on all points.
    1 point
  23. One can be sceptical about how much insulation 4mm of anything, however clever, will give but, yes, something vapour closed like that would be what's needed.
    1 point
  24. You have discovered, as did I many years ago, that planners have only a small vocabulary and the same words are used whether correct or not. Those were exactly the words used for our application. We had to hip the roof and dormers to get around that one. I can't see what they are talking about in your case. I can't see how something that is not visible can add to the massing but unfortunately there is no logic to their thinking.
    1 point
  25. hi guys thanks for the welcome, so far plans are to strip out insulate and re plasterboard, removing the storage heaters, finish the rewire that the previous owner started including ditching E7 and the pre pay meter, its a right bodge of different bits added here there and everywhere, iv counted 5 consumer units of various ages. Probably replumb the whole thing as well as adding radiators for the ASHP and a "megaflo" i am fairly confident that i can get the RHI payments as my EPC is only 44, im also looking into the interest free loan to install it aswell, i looked into getting insulation grants but its means tested so i wouldnt qualify plus there is about a 2 year waiting list up here iv attached a drawing that i managed to do on a free online drawing tool to show the layout.
    1 point
  26. Not in my case. All new builds in this location are bungalows, local builders tell me the council have a fetish fir bungalows. We wanted two story cottage and cited several hundred year plus old cottages nearby that are two story. Thrown out by planners but fully accepted by appeal board ?
    1 point
  27. No offence but companies who advertise on here get shot down but you as an author can self promote? A bit "double standards" tbh.
    1 point
  28. We've used one of the local "off the shelf" designers, but had a full redesign of the standard plan to suit our requirements. Still ended up being pretty inexpensive.
    1 point
  29. You may find pre-mix postmix is just as quick and cheap. Slit the bag and dump the dry content in, spray with the hose from time to time and job done as it sets really quick.
    0 points
  30. We're shifting from Santander right now - we only stayed with them because I'd already set up the "house build" account with them before they managed to REALLY piss me off. My beef with them is the way they reneged on our mortgage and have then refused to refund the costs we'd incurred as a consequence of them unilaterally withdrawing their written offer on the day we went to draw it down. We knew we needed to borrow some money on our old house, which was mortgage free (not a massive amount compared to its value - £110k against a mortgage valuation at the time of £260k) and Santander accepted our application and fee, did all the checks and gave us a formal mortgage offer. I explained that we didn't need to draw it down immediately, but needed the offer in place before I placed our frame contract, so there would be a couple of months delay before I drew down the mortgage. They agreed this would be no problem as their formal offer was valid for three months. First stage payment came in for the frame and I went into the bank to draw down the agreed mortgage. Santander said they were withdrawing the offer as their internal policy had changed. I argued with them that they had taken the money for the arrangement fee, valuation etc and they were in breach of their contract with us. Basically they said tough, we're not lending you the money. We ended up having to use our cash reserve to tide us over whilst I hurriedly arranged another mortgage with the Leeds, at a significantly higher cost. To say it was stressful is an understatement. Nothing on this planet will induce me to do business with Santander ever again after that episode, and I'm still arguing with them over the fee I paid them for a non-existent mortgage.
    0 points
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