Leaderboard

We have just finished the drive 410 mtrs of paving 30 ton of sand My wife has pulled most of the paving on her little truck A monumental effort considering she is on 9 stone wet through

Do you happen to have a split air conditioning unit that you have bought, and found it doesn't fit? (Just asking for a friend)

I just asked family who are staying fir a week or so if they think our new build needs cooling and the answer is no, it’s a bit like heating, @JSHarris lives in a hot spot, we live in a flattish area near the Atlantic so any winds cool us enough. It’s true the conservatory gets hot (we were told on here we would cook in summer) but with windows at either end air flow is enough to keep temps reasonable. So location location makes a real difference. The only advantage of needing cooling over heating (if you have PV) is that the cooling is required when the sun shines ?.

Yes there was a lot of cuts

Yes folks-this thread really is as thrilling as the header suggests. We’ve unfortunately stumbled upon a BCO whose lack of common sense is matched only by his stubbornness & ‘computer says no’ attitude. So,in summary,I now have to remove the cast iron air brick I installed to ventilate for our WBS (I can hear you booing at the back) to install insect mesh (even though he’d have been happy with a plastic air brick which doesn’t have mesh.) So,my question is-does anyone know of a BM or High St shop where I can go & buy a some & get this bloody thing signed off? TIA

Not sure the sums add up, really. I'd guess that, a most, we might kill a couple of flies/wasps a day. If the whole of our village does the same, then that's about 1000 flies/wasps per day, so around 1/3rd of the consumption of a single bat per night (and I'm not convinced that house flies or wasps are even a small part of the diet of the bats). It seems the bats have been here for a long time, and have a fairly healthy population, despite the normal variation in the insect population being maybe +/- 50%, year on year, or more.

OK. Just cause I always prefer to read the ending to stories, I give you the result :Emailed my SE, asked if she could do cantilever calcs for what I sketched up at the top of this thread. Answer was 1. Not a problem, takes 2 hours, cost about 60£ 2. Probably don't need any adjustment (subject to calcs.), as the existing piles and RC beam are massive anyways. Excellent result. Thanks everyone as well for chipping in.

https://www.themeshcompany.com Mentioned here: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/6653-insect-mesh-help-please-stainless-steel-or-plastic-or/?do=findComment&comment=111488

Yeh - B&Q..!! They sell mesh in A4 sized sheets ...

Try it in a small area and see what happens. Should be safe, as we can smell a very low concentration of H2S, way below the harmful level, so if there's no smell then it's fine. H2S oxidises fairly readily, too, so it won't hang around in the air for very long.

Free Kindle Download Raspberry Pi 3: New Users Programming Raspberry Pi 3 Guide With Raspberry Pi 3 Projects (Raspberry Pi 3 Programming) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XSQ34JL

LOL thats not what I paid I got 3 for less than £20 that was just for the picture of what it looks like. I couldn't find the link I bought from. Lakeland sticky are good.https://www.lakeland.co.uk/51468/4-Window-Fly-Trap-Stickers and I have these outside https://www.amazon.co.uk/Genuine-Red-Top-Fly-Trap/dp/B071XJFNYL/ref=sr_1_2?hvadid=79920783821910&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&hvqmt=b&keywords=red+top+fly+traps&qid=1564242743&s=gateway&sr=8-2 in trees a bit away from house. We had a cluster fly problem and pest controller told me to get these they are effective at killing before they get in but not great to look at. I also have 2 of these bargain buys (will I ever learn) going begging...see pic.. Unused won't fit my doors. Free to anyone who can make use of them.

Because gypsum (which is what plasterboard is, mostly) is a problem if it ends up in landfill. When buried in landfill with organic waste gypsum (calcium sulphate) releases a lot of hydrogen sulphide, which, as well as being toxic, is also very smelly (it's the "rotten eggs" gas).

I have one of the hand-held ones that looks like a small tennis racquet. Fantastically satisfying thing to use, as it produces a loud crack, with a small flash and puff of smoke when you manage to hit a fly with it...

The very worst tap that I have ever bought, bar none, came from Victoria Plumb. It was part of a package of stuff I bought from them when I refurbished the bathroom in our old house. The tap literally fell apart after about 18 months use, from internal corrosion. When I replaced it I cut the thing open and was amazed to find that it was made from some sort of zinc alloy (the stuff commonly referred to as "shit metal"). This had corroded away so that in places all that was left was a paper-thin layer of chrome on the outside holding the thing together. There was no way that it was compliant with the water regs, I'm pretty sure it was probably a bit of nasty Chinese tat they'd imported.

Like @JSHarris my experemints this last week showed cooling the downstairs floor kept the downstairs okay but did nothing to stop the bedrooms overheating. We are lucky that I have a route to add extra cables and pipes for 2 fan cooling units in the bedrooms. I would certainly plan to put flow and return pipes and ducting or cabling so you can add those later should you find you need them, even if you don't plan to install them straight away.

All shifting towards SBD as standard, basically boils down to security. Laminated outer pane on ground floor windows. That must resist a physical attack by an opportunist/casual burglar. Doors and windows must be manufactured to a design that has been tested and shown to meet the security requirements of British Standards publication PAS 24 (equivalent EN standard RC2 is acceptable). PAS24 is published by the BSI. PAS 24 provides a method for testing and assessing doors and windows in relation to security. All ground floor and accessible doors must have suitable laminated glass with a security value of P2A or better. Windows do not require laminate glass for PAS24 but must have a locking handle.

Planning on some active cooling yes. UFH cooling like @JSHarris @jack and others. Just not sure I need to be planning for more than blinds and UFH cooling and so I'm not currenlty plannign for any additional fan coils or anything like @joth.

The one in our office was definitely a heat pump, it certainly made that sort of noise. And the ones linked to above talk of a separate box in a cupboard that is usually outside, that sounds like the heat pump bit with just the fan coil on the wall in the room.

People like me that installed second hand panels won't be counted in those figures though. As I have said many times you have to buy the kit very cheap and DIY install it to be financially viable without the FIT. the average person that wants a turnkey solar PV system installed for them will likely find it is not financially viable. And the export payment scheme is a political gesture so people can't complain about giving away electricity for free. Even if I could sign up to it, I would have been paid about £5 so far this year.

Looks awesome ?

I agree I have a Bora, I had demos of several before deciding on a Bora. I dont know why, @ryder72 has never been keen on Bora. Early on I looked at one local kitchen showroom (because a friend worked in admin there) and had some designs done, they couldn't get to grips with the look I wanted, they also only recommended products they sold, tried to push me into brands I didnt want. They may have been good brands but they were not what I had decided on after doing my own research. They didnt like it and were grudging about trying to source my wish list appliances. The company I used in the end were brilliant, he was a Bora showroom so sorted that but because he was not an agent for the ovens I wanted he said he couldn't get good discounts so if I could get them cheaper on the internet go ahead and they would fit them. Such a great company to deal with one if the best on my whole build. btw have been using my Bora for over a year and I love it.

The other thing is, house value if you sell/have to sell, the majority of people would balk at a house with no heating, at least get UFH pipes in if nothing else, worth the cost, then you can instal a Willis heater or ASHP at a later date if you require it.

Here are a couple of on-line simulators, http://spectrum.pilkington.com/ https://calumenlive.com/home# I prefer the first as it stores your work The optimum gap varies with the fill gas, e.g. air 20mm, argon 16mm, krypton 12-14 (all figures approximate ?)

18mm, is the optimum space between panes.

Interestingly we have some 6-16-4-16-6 units and they are notably poorer, thermally, than the 4-20-4-20-4 units, enough that we can feel the difference stood next to them in cold weather. All our glazing is SGG Planitherm, argon filled, with two low e coated internal panes. One thing I very much wished I'd done is specify a much lower inward IR transmittance glass for the outer pane, definitely not the low iron glass we have, which lets through loads of unwanted heat, so much so that I've had to apply solar reflective film to it.

Personally I think it's wise to invest in better insulation and airtightness, than to try to fiddle SAP by adding stuff like PV that will inevitably need replacement at some future date. I've never, ever, heard of anyone regretting spending money on better insulation. Worth remembering in this hot weather that insulation works both ways. It keeps heat out in hot weather every bit as well as it keeps heat in during the heating season.

Some carefully placed black tape on your number plate might help.

I would be writing to the leader of your Council, asking first what percentage of your council tax bill goes to paying for the recycling centres, and then stating you are going to reduce your council tax payments by that amount as you have been denied the use of them for no fault of your own, and you cannot afford to pay for a service that you cannot use. I wonder if you could get crowd funding to pay to take that to court?

I fix MF framing for a living But I’ve used block to devise rooms off Except for bathrooms and utility on the ground floor Though it’s a bit of a myth that better soundproofing can be achieved using block To decide our bathrooms I’ve used two back to back 70 mil studded walls with a 50 cavity With a loo on either wall you can’t hear the flush from one bathroom to the other Two 50 mil studs back to back with a 50 cavity will give you better soundproofing than a 100 mil timber stud

When it comes to sound insulation, a dense block work wall will always out perform a lightweight wall at low frequencies for a similar thickness of wall. However you can get some high overall sound insulation with stud work (staggered stud), and better high frequency performance, with a slightly thicker wall. If services are an issue with block, there is no reason why you can't batten off the block 20-50mm to create a services void and plaster board fixed to the battens. And if you were battening off and sound insulation was key, you could always fill the cavity with insulation and resiliently mount the plaster board

I have a general principle that if a company doesn't advertise the price of its products, or make the prices readily available, then I don't bother looking any further at them. Hidden pricing is, more often than not, a way of being able to cover up charging way too much for something. The sales tactic is to get customers hooked on the product features to the point where they are committed to buy it, then charge whatever you think you can get away with. It was traditionally the sales technique used by high-end luxury brands (like Rolls Royce, "if you need to ask the price you cannot afford it") but has been copied endlessly by other companies now, even companies selling complete tat (not suggesting that applies to this company, BTW).

I'm excited for you... it will change your cable labelling life for ever! I also got a 9mm vinyl roll of tape, which is nice for marking faceplates that don't have an obvious purpose. They also do heat shrink you can put through it ?

Yes but if all the people in your district zap a couple of dozen then pretty soon those bats will be going hungry and taking a big picture look at things we could all forget going electric as each of us only contributes a tiny fraction of the total emissions. Every thing is connected to everything else - in the case of insects its the food chain. I only wish I could live what I preach!

Thank you for all the contributions. I find this forum amazing that I ask for an opinion between A and B and the conversation goes so much further and people come with options C, D and E that I haven't thought about.

I have ruled out a duct cooler, there is only one place I can fit such a thing and that would cool all the rooms, upstairs and down. Downstairs is not the problem. So I am still set on fan coil units and will probably take a punt on some from Alibaba but not yet, other more important things to spend the money on.