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Exactly right, dad. Reps are full of stories of whole houses being poured in one go - all tosh as far as I'm concerned. If successful, the reward is not to be sniffed at. At least the cost of a pump for a day. £500. Is it wurf it? For Durisol, there is no hard and fast rule. But there is a good deal of BullPoo in the stories I have been told, the amount depends on how pissed the story-teller is. Ask yourself this question: given the likelihood of a burst, how much concrete are you prepared to lose in one go? We had four bursts three at low level, one at 3 meters: every one caused by a combination of couldn't-give-a-tossitis and in one case criminally negligent behaviour. Three bursts were minor irritants - they caused half an hour of frenzied activity and we're promptly forgotten. The last one, despite being fully prepared, and having everything to hand (to repair a burst) , caused months of delay: and I came to be grateful for the delay. I now know exactly what to look for to prevent Durisol bursts, and so my risk appetite is different to what it was a year ago. Go and watch several pours on builds using your chosen ICF - you'll learn a huge amount from doing so. Err on the side of caution: reduce to potential for error to a level which is acceptable to you. Yours is the only relevant opinion.

2.4 metres

Will count tomorrow.

2.9m

It’s about half way up, very nice product, wouldn’t hesitate to use it again.

I think they mean the as yet "unclad" gable to the left of the extension. Zoom in people and you can see the stones coming up where the slates stop.

Ah, yes it does (brain freeze, your diagram is opposite to my setup, I.e. my heating is on the right and DHW on the left). That seems counter intuitive as I would have thought heating would be on longer than DHW so 3 way valve would be energised for shorter periods. That will teach me to make assumptions.

What "cable" is coming down from the loft? Is it in a duct? Could you run another cable down? Thinking you could run a long USB extension cable with the wireless mouse dongle on the end or dongle on the end of Cat-5 using similar to this. I may have a spare something similar kicking about... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Over-Ethernet-RJ45-Extender-Adapter/dp/B0029HRYBK/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?

Added to say that some people are passionate about their preferred method so there is never going to be a single answer, you can only weigh up the pros and cons as they relate to your own project and decide based on that.

Ok so the simplest would be to use the thermostat to drive a contactor - you can pick one up for change of £10 and an enclosure is £3-4 at most so that will sort your switching via either a pipe stat (non intrusive) or via a room stat.

Still have my UFH wills heater on a timer and want to change it to the thermostat. The plugin relay, solid state relay, microcontroller pin, logic level control, etc. replies are a bit above my knowledge. What am I telling the electrician to install and if possible a shopping list of parts if I’ve to order online in advance?

I tried to search for a diagram on tinternet but could not find one (I am laid up with an injured hand and ordered to rest ?) I only found this which has a drawing showing a pipe exiting the plant to connect the blower, page 3, hope it helps. https://mpcservices.co.uk/media/wysiwyg/Clearwater_PS_2011_8pp_1.pdf

If it wasn't for this forum I'd have never given them a second thought! Previously I thought 3G was a phone standard!

Here, his light bulb moment...

Thanks, all. I've emailed the window company today to raise my concerns about the poor seal around the windows. I know that it was a tight fit on a number of them and so they didn't use compriband and instead used what looks like expandable foam to me. I've asked them to return and seal everything from the outside with mastic wherever they were unable to fit the compriband in. I await their reply but I'm optimistic as their service has been good so far.

Expanding foam will not work as a seal. It is good for insulating but you will need mastic if Compriband does not fit.

I sourced my Bell here: https://www.houseofbrass.co.uk/bp32-pb-butlers-bell-pulleys-polished-brass?___SID=U

Same bell but driven by a relay controlled by Raspberry pi monitoring two infrared sensors on my gates. The only trouble is the bell can not be heard in all parts of the house so using Home Assistant and a MQTT broker, I intend for the Raspberry Pi to publish a topic to the MQTT broker when ever the infrared beams are broken and a wifi Sonoff running Tasomota will be subscribed to that topic and will ring a bell, make a buzz elsewhere in the house. Still working on getting the C program on the Pi to call the MQTT broker though.

Guess what I tripped over at the back of the BES catalogue: https://www.bes.co.uk/wall-mounted-rcd-mcb-enclosure-18840

Agree with the sentiment about ensuring future proof where possible - I believe I've gone some way to achieving this by star wiring lighting to central points, i.e. the switch T&E and lamp T&E both go back to the central control point - should the smart stuff become obsolete/fail you can rip and replace with something else, failing that just patch the wires together to make it act like a normal switched light - the flexibility is there. Same for the heating - it's just smart TRVs, rip them off and just screw on a regular TRV. I looked at a lot of proprietary systems for lighting like KNX, RAKO, Lutron etc but most of those required some form of proprietary cabling at the switch point or some form of catX. In those instances, if it failed, you would have to find another smart system, you couldn't just pop on a normal switch, unless you ran T&E to the switch as well as the catX. @JSHarris Love the video - I don't trust smart locks, thats a step too far. Give me a good ol lock and key any time. One piece of smart tech I don't recommend are NEST Smoke Alarms (or any smart smoke alarm)... getting a notification on your phone that 'Smoke has been detected' when in America does not make you feel great. (luckily(?) it was a false alarm... !!!) @joe90 Thats a lovely doorbell

Thought I would check the loft even tho I told the wife nothing could get up there, and found something had chewed the expanding foam sealing the loft from the cavity. Set a couple of mouse traps with my best Red Leicester and BINGO, within 4 hours had caught a little field mouse, I have left the traps up there in case it was not alone. RESULT.?

Cheers Peter.

Er why then your row of mosaics would not line up, you can chase your arse a round that bathroom for the next week and you will never get everything to fall where you want it in the grand scheme of things you normally walk into a room and the whole thing hits you the crisp lines the mosaics the pockets, the whole thing nobody apart from you will be looking to see if you got a whole tile in the centre get it finished and stand back and give yourself a pat on the back. Procrastination will just send you around and around. Move on. Looking good, but it will look a whole lot better when it’s grouted.

A similar approach would be a Larsen truss with mineral-wool infill and some sort of render board on the outside. Not sure if you'd need a ventilated cavity behind the board, though.

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Damn, damn, damn! While planning to build a small wet room extention on the side of a bungalow for my elderly parents, I had assumed we would not need full planning as its on the side of the house and not that large. But I was wrong! As it sits on a corner with two roads, there is no Permitted development on the side either! I should not have assumed, I know. If I had checked, I would have been able to apply at least a montha go. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/606669/170405_Householder_Technical_Guidance__-April_2017_FINAL.pdf Page 13 to 16 shows our side extension is outside the permitted area. So I am now looking at local architectural technicians to draw up some plans, as I would not have a clue how to do them myself. I did have a look at Sketchup but think it would take hours for me to become anywhere near proficient enough to do the plans. The extension consists of a small rectange added to the side of the bungalow, making it level with the front wall, sticking a little further out than the porch (avoiding the drain run which is currently under the porch wall) and the roof line would match in with the main roof. Here are my plans - dont laugh at their simplicity - I did my best. ? IMG.pdf and a picture of the corner where it will go. So the quotes have come back and are both around £300-400. The first is this one. Drawings: Survey Existing Buildings £ 75.00 Prepare existing CAD digital Plans and Elevations. £ 125.00 Prepare outline Sketch Scheme Plans for approval £ 50.00 Prepare all necessary Plans, Elevations Sections and Detailed Final Plans, and all necessary required to make a formal Applications. £25.00 including all site / home / Council office visits / meetings and to liaise with all other parties as necessary, printing rates as below Survey and all Drawing Work Total £ 275.00 Fees: (All Printing is inclusive) Digital Location Plan 1:1250, 1:500 scale £ 38.50 Preparation of Digital PDF plans and make on-line Planning Portal Submission £ 26.25 That seems quite reasonable. He also included a nice document explaining all about the planning process and how he can help me through it. The other quote is as follows; Conduct a physical survey of the property. The production of architectural drawings which will include: survey plans & elevations, proposed plans & elevations, location, block and site layout plans. £350.00 Licensed Ordinance Survey map download which is an external fee and a requirement for all planning applications. £45.00 The preparation of a Health and Safety file and to act as Principal Designer as laid out in the CDM Regulations 2015. (For further information please see CDM guide that accompanies this quote). £40.00 Additional design work will be charged at hourly rate VAT £0.0 TOTAL £435.00 Note: Any works outside of that quoted above will be charged at £35 an hour. Drawings supplied in digital PDF format, paper copies available at additional charge. The first appears to be cheaper and does the on-line application for me but does not mention of H&S files and CDM regulations. I am tempted to go with that one but would be grateful for any comments/advice. Have i missed anything that will be needed? Could I do the Health and Safety file myself or is £40 a good price for it? Funnily enough - both chaps live just round the corner from our bungalow in different directions. At least they know the area well and as there are loads of other bungalows with a multitude of varied extensions, I am not worried that it will get refused. Its just a shame about the time it will take to apply and that will put us into winter for the building work. Poor Mum and Dad will just have to cope without any bathing facilities for another few months. I can't even bring them to our house as Mum cant do stairs up to our shower room.

Liquid Weather turned it purple! Decision has been made to render the wall. Thankfully, this should be the last unexpected bill.

No. Thanks Gav, your diagram shows powering the diverter valve means hot water to DHW. Still trying to work out what’s wrong?