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A whiteboard screwed to the wall outside my workshop.

So, I know I promised tales of cladding and roofing in the last instalment, but I have reviewed my photo stream and in fact realised that the window install was the next thing. At the end of November (as we all know, winter is prime building time), we finally retrieved our bargain basement windows from storage and brought them to site. Ah, the bargain basement windows, a tale of joy, horror, stress, fury, confusion and eventual revenge all in one. I should explain. When we had secured the plot and had initial drawings from the architect and were waiting for engineering/calcs/building control drawings/services/everything else, we passed the time by getting hilariously large quotes for every aspect of the design. It kept us amused. So, after reading a lot on fabric first design and passive homes, off we trotted to our local Internorm dealer. Lovely showroom, excellent coffee, charming, if slightly oily salesperson. There was much discussion about our options - I asked about passive standard 3G timber aluclad. After a while, a large figure was mentioned. A very large figure. So large, in fact, that I actually was convinced that the salesperson was having a little joke with me. He wasn't. No further coffee was offered. We gathered our coats, emptied the complimentary biscuits into my handbag and prepared to leave shamefacedly, and preferably without admitting that we were FAR TOO POOR to afford these lovely windows. On the way out, the salesman commented off handedly and rather insincerely "Sorry we couldn't help you today. Unless you want to buy the ones in the basement, ha ha ha." Reader, I have little-to-no shame when it comes to sniffing out a bargain. I cannot be humiliated. So, I was accompanied to the basement of the showroom, whereupon I was greeted with a £100,000 wonderland of window-related (expletive deleted)-ups. Results of inaccurate measuring, bankruptcy of developers, incorrect specifying, just general inefficiency. Of absolutely (expletive deleted)-all use to anyone, of course. Apart from someone who had not fully finalised their house plans. And a salesperson who is uncommonly keen on crystallising some value from said (expletive deleted)-ups. It was a partnership written in the stars. Details of hard-nosed negotiating aside (and there was someone in the room close to tears, and it wasn't me), we came away with 15 brand new windows (including 3 large sliders), a fully biometric ex display front door with side lights, a utility door, and a large panel of glass. All pretty much passive standard, some with built in blinds, some alu-clad timber, some Alu clad UPVC. For not much money. At all. A very satisfyingly small amount of money. The architect was somewhat perturbed by this moderately unconventional approach of designing the house around already purchased windows, to say the least. For a while, I had a Quooker tap and approx £80,000 of windows as my only purchases for the house. However, he came up trumps and designed the house in such a way as you would never know that he had any design restrictions at all. The man is a quiet genius. We had cherry picked the best stuff - so all our sliders for the bedrooms are approximately (but not quite) the same size, they vary by about 30mm here and there, but they are all on different elevations of the house so you never see them right next to each other. We wanted to use one particular window in the bathroom as it had built in blinds, but it was a little too big, so we sank the bath into the floor to allow the window to have opening clearance. It looks amazing and like an intended "design feature". So, we purchased the bargain basement windows, and following our cynical, but realistic architects advice - we got a trailer and got them the hell out of that warehouse. They stayed wrapped up and palletised for approx 2 years until that fateful day in November. Now, what we should have done was quit while we were ahead, taken note of the surpassingly large number of (expletive deleted)-ups and run like the wind away from that warehouse. You will not be surprised to learn that this did not happen. We still needed our large feature window - a 5m wide, 2.7m high alu clad timber lift and slide window and matching fixed panels above. This was not cheap. Very very not cheap. But it was lovely. We decided that as we'd saved so much money with the rest of the windows, we could justify this lovely thing. We got a good, although still bloody expensive price on it, paid a 50% deposit, and were instructed to let them know when we were ready to have the window produced - as we hadn't been through building control fully yet, so didn't want to press "Go" just then. So, all well. We got on with what we needed to do, engineering, building control, life etc and gave no more thought to it. We get our building warrant. We phone up the showroom to say "yay! please make our very highly priced window!". Only, there's a disconnected tone. Odd, we think - must have misdialled. We try again, same thing. We google. Website down, emails bounce. A light sweat breaks out. The insufferable shits went bust. No one told us. It may or may not be directly related to the basement of (expletive deleted)-ups. Internorm had never heard of our order and had not received our deposit, so couldn't help. Now, thank christ that I am naturally untrusting of salespeople and INSISTED on paying £101 of the VERY LARGE deposit on a credit card. Section 75, how I love thee. We got the whole lot back. Eventually. After a lot of paperwork and phonecalls. But now we have a load of second hand windows, some with bits missing and no-one to fit them. And no-one to order our lovely slider from Help was on the way from an unexpected quarter though. Our house build is being filmed for TV, and we happened to have a filming day a couple of weeks later. Someone on the crew gave us the details of a helpful person within Internorm, who passed us on to another dealer who honoured the original price for the sliders, came up from England to fit the windows, supplied all our missing bits and were generally wonderful. So, we come to November. There are two access points to our site - one at the rear, which we can just about fit an articulated lorry up, and one at the front, on the extremely busy main street, that is cobbled and 2cm narrower than a transit with the wing mirrors folded, and only just as tall. The Internorm dealer had already made a site visit to review the access and made many sucky-teeth noises, but said "it's ok, we'll get a robot handler up from Leeds that can hold the window at 45 degrees while we drive it up." "Ooooh", we think, "A robot! Technology will save this whole scenario". The day started relatively badly when it transpired that the artic driver, instead of turning right when he should have, so he could drive straight down the street and have the windows on the correct side for unloading, had in fact, turned left and was now in the middle of fully reversing down a medieval street so long that it takes approx 8 minutes to walk from one end to the other. At 9am. Also, he was (I think) Romanian, with no English, and there were no Romanian speakers amongst the installation crew. So, when he finally arrived, after monumentally pissing off approximately 14 million local residents, the windows were on the wrong side and no room to turn. So we had to unload the rest of his lorry, stack it up on the street, taking up virtually every parking space in the place and drive the telehandler across the street, blocking all the traffic to get the window off. It is massive. Securing it on the tele handler is not a quick process. There was a lot of shouting. Also, did I mention I'm 6 months pregnant at this point? So, once unloaded, we look around eagerly for the promised technology laden robot. Looking a bit sheepish, the install crew confessed that it hadn't been available, but "don't worry, we brought something else". Great, I think! No problemo. The "something else" appeared, to my untrained eye, to be a couple of skateboards. So, we ended up with our massive window being rolled up the close on a couple of skateboards, being held at 45 degrees by a telehandler and 10 or so guys not all of whom shared a common language. To be honest, it went better than it should have done. The only hairy moment was when the tyre of the telehandler hit a drainpipe and it cracked with a noise EXACTLY like breaking glass. I was at the street end and couldn't see the window, just heard the cracking noise and a lot of a shouting. I was pretty convinced I was about to HAVE the baby. Terrifying. But, all in all ... TADAHHH! Over the next couple of days, all the windows were fitted and we were (nearly) watertight. Exciting progress.

https://blog.planningportal.co.uk/2019/05/16/time-limited-pd-rights-for-rear-extensions-made-permanent/

I'm Neil, a Plumbing & Heating lecturer from Kent and myself and my wife are looking to do a self-build within the next year or two! We have rebuilt/refurbished our current and previous family homes and now that all the kids have left home we think it's time to do what we've always wanted to do and self-build our next home. We are ideally looking for a plot in Kent/Sussex but tomorrow we are going to look at Graven Hill to see what's going on there and see if it's suitable for us. I am particularly interested in a timber frame, pre-insulated/SIPS type that can be erected and weatherproofed and then I would complete all the interiors and services. Although I worked for many years on construction sites, like so many I'm very keen to keep the cost down so any tips are greatly appreciated.

too small for the opening!

£65.00 for a chainsaw? Cheaper than a back street amputation https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0731NHV5N

I always assumed the recommended 'flexible duct' connections to mean something more like this 'semi rigid'1 ducting: Relatively stiff compared to the 'soft' flexible ducting (it retains whatever form you shape it) but still unlikely to transmit vibrations and being much smoother inside (particularly when stretched out). 1 Not to be confused with the 75mm/90mm semi-rigid ducting used for radial distribution! *sigh* I've never known a subject have so many ambiguous terms. Please nobody mention plenums, manifolds, vents, valves, terminals or grilles!

You can do your own calculation using PVGIS if you wish. It's probably what some of the PV companies do anyway. PVGIS is here: http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/tools.html#PVP You just enter your location, the pitch of your roof, the direction the roof faces and the installed peak power of the PV system and it will give you loads of pretty accurate data on performance. Remember that you'll probably struggle to use more than about half the annual output, as periods of high generation aren't likely to coincide with periods when you can use all that generation. Despite having an electric car, and an all-electric house, with electric hot water storage, I'm lucky if I can use even half our daily generation; much of the time I'm finding that the hot water system is fully charged, and my car is fully charged, by mid-morning, so excess generation is just being exported to the grid from then on.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanley-015252-FatMax-Reversible-10-inch/dp/B002KHJYBM/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=stanley+dovetail+saw&qid=1558022304&s=gateway&sr=8-1 I had one of these which did the job

Even if you employ a plumber to repair this, it wont be expensive but if you have very basic skills and tools you could complete it yourself. What about a dry trap tundish such as screwfix item 5384v at £18.23. This one operates at full flow or with just a drip, seal off and also provide an air gap. Just need to cut a piece out of your pipe and connect it in. I have used a pedestal sink trap such as screwfix item 30503 with a plain, open tundish item 2247v and a few reducers I already had but cant find parts in the diy outlets to show you. Screwfix was only referenced for ease, other outlets sell this kit too.

All the ones in my house were cut with a multitool.

I did mine with a multitool, as it will cut flush to a surface. I only have the relatively cheap Bosch one, but it seems to be OK (even if a Fein owning guy on site looked down his nose at it a bit).

Installers cut mine off with what looked like an oversized electric carving knife, bit like the thing in your link. It was a very quick job.

I'm in the process of collecting 3000 bricks free from Retford. Yes, they are free and we're left overs from building new stables st Welbeck, but handballing all those bricks is hard work!

Mine had to have an air gap/break according to the boiler installation instructions. Fit a trap to provide a water seal which will block the drain smells. Have a look at sink traps. Mine is a flexible pipe which just drops into a tundish/funnel which sits on top of a sink trap which then drops into the main soil stack. If that makes sense. I picked a trap with water seal rather than a straight through one as I thought this might work better here as it wouldnt get as much use as a sink. The bag seal type ones I have used have been known to let a wiff out when they goo up.

Pot, kettle.

Jeremy I am not disputing my result I am merely commenting on the process that was gone through to achieve it. The testers were not going to leave without it achieving the contracted result and so they taped up gaps and holes etc. This is not a complaint it is an observation and comment on the process and you were not here you did not see it so you cannot give an opinion. My gaps were not normal gaps such as the door, apertures, ducts etc I had gaps in all sorts of places plus I had gaps around the windows and water coming in all over the place....it was not airtight on the day and it was made airtight by temporary means with the caveat to sort it properly afterwards. I arrived right at the end of the test and that was what they told me. We used a lot of expanding foam and tape afterwards to try and seal up the gaps as best we could. It just shows that a good result can be achieved on the day if testers want to achieve it, it does not mean that the house would achieve the same score if it were tested again. I do wonder what it would score now....my hope is better but given I have dust and grit coming in under my slider thresholds I suspect not. I have no wish to hijack this thread with old news so no further comment from me.

Be careful comparing ROI of solar PV with savings interest rates. They are not comparable. Put your money in a savings account at 5% interest (please tell me where you can get that) and your capital sits there instantly giving you an income . Put your money into solar PV and your capital has gone. The ROI might be higher but if it takes 10 years just to get your capital back, then it is not much of an "investment" compared to the savings account.

@joe90 has MVHR.

46 sq meters and a roof of 10 sq meters. Wanna laugh? - I put them up on my own with the following results......

I think the missing thing here is the need for upgrading of the national grid, which may cost many times more than simply installing 2 million solar setups. I can see the solar PV installs being affordable - say £3k each x 2 m equals 6 billion. Even if you make it £10b, that is still only the kind of sum that Mr Brown used to piddle away very frequently. Having it driven as a government initiative from the centre would be disastrous, but I can see the benefit for heavy incentives within the current system eg Stamp Duty reduction or tax offset. This is speaking from experience with centrally funded EWI programmes and how much cost is added between the people who actually do it, and the people who have the contract to administer it. But I think they are in a hunt-the-biggest-imaginary-unicorn competition with the Greens.Given that both main parties seem to be lead by cabals of pillocks at present, I can see them starting to fine people for not installing solar panels on the roof of a ground floor flat in a tower block; or installing them below a ceiling inside the room. (* Piccie to be added) I could see a lot of sense in mandating a good sized solar install for all new properties, especially in estates where bigger infrastructure can be built. Ferdinand

I think it's worth punting him in the nuts, if that's the best he can come up with!

The water company will connect their "communication pipe" into the supply side of the boundary box. You will leave a tail of your pipe (couple metres excess) exposed at the BB location. It's normally 25mm MDPE 12.5 bar pipe. They'll connect up and turn on your supply at the ferrule (connection on the water main). The BB will have a half or quarter turn butterfly valve that will allow you to isolate your supply. You need to check who is responsible for supplying and installing the BB... It's normally the water company unless you are a developer that is installing multiple connections to a new watermain.

You will need to cut a hole in your membrane in more than just one place. Every poo pipe water main bt duct going out for any outside services it it has been done like this forever, don’t worry too much tape them up nicely and you won’t have a problem.

Yes, sorry, Toby is the local name used here for your underground water stopcock. Anything after that, is your pipe and your responsibility, and once you have the supply on your property to your building standpipe, you can add the pipework to the house when you are ready.

https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/toby ?

Not the best picture but you can see how the two ducts here come through the DPM. This was just before the concrete was poured - both drop down below the ground level in a slow bend. The orange tape is where the DPM was sealed to the ducts. Black tape used to cap them off so the concrete didn’t end up down the duct !!

Ok - have you spoken to your local Builders Merchant..? First stop is the local BM, get to know the branch manager and tell him what you are doing. Some offer a QS take off service from plans (don’t rely on this to order, but it’s a good guide) and will price accordingly. What you will be looking at is full RRP and that is not what you will pay if you set an account up and let them price accordingly. For example, local BM has shower wall on their website at £93.20+VAT for a panel. My price is £58.16+VAT, based on a quote received. Blocks are £1.60 each, I pay 93p etc. The big chains get a bad name but there is nothing stopping you getting an account with 2 and playing them off. Also remember that delivery will be free. I stored 8000 bricks in my local TP yard for 4 months and called them off 6 pallets at a time. All for free. The internet can’t replace the personal relationship here - they may also know some good trades who can help you with the build too.

I was going to suggest the "test mode" Try turning the power off, waiting a good couple of minutes then turning it back on. That should restore normal mode.

On and on it goes ...

A few layers of chicken wire ? Or maybe this will scare them off:

These look to be pretty cheap and will probably do the job if fixed with some cable ties: https://www.birdspikesonline.co.uk/Bird-Spikes/Defender8-Bird-Spikes-Steel

How about hardie backer board? Assuming you're tiling of course.

Get a proper quote for the power connection before making a decision. Anything else is guess work.