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Paddington 2

As an economics graduate I feel I can get away with the only economist joke I know... An economist, a physicist and an engineer shipwrecked on an island with just tinned food and no tin opener. "Heat the tin up on the fire" says the physicist, "the contents will expand and force their way out." "You mean explode" says the engineer, "winch that rock up in to that palm tree and drop it on to the tin to break it open." "You mean crush it" says the economist, "the answer is simple, first, assume we have a tin opener..."

Meat. Eat a huge hunk of ham. See what doesnt happen. Oh, and by the way, eat just a small amount of corn on the cob at the same time. (Used as a transit marker).

Quick answers you will be governed by the dpc on your house for the FFL You could go lower but I’m not sure why you would make so much extra work BC Won’t care about window door sizes as long as they are supported correctly You may find an opening that shows a catnic May need a steel if it is increased significantly You can compensate with EWI We have just finished a conversion with the same issue A pic may help

Are you talking about the end with the double doors??? if so it would probably have a steel goal post setup, so two posts either side of the double doors with a steel across, then the long steel bolts either on top if you want it hidden in the ceiling or the side if you want it visible. Make sense. .??

If you take out the bleed screw it will let out air or water, but it won't give you access to turn the propeller. Not even sure why you think you need to do that. Follow the pipes from the boiler to see what is getting hot and what is not, i.e. at some point, perhaps that motorised valve you will find no heat. I assume the boiler is firing? Is the hot water working?

I haven't installed a thermometer in my larder so can't give any detail (yet). We aren't living in the house (yet). But we are using the larder for some food stuffs, wine and storage for other stuff and it is significantly cooler than the house. It was delightfully cool during the brief heat wave in Aug. Ours is insulated but not heavily. Had a top vent and bottom vent to the outside. Is on a separate slab so no underfloor heating contamination via the slab. Has a passive door between it and the kitchen. It doesn't feel damp in there, but it is cool. And the key is it is north facing and literally never sees any sunshine. It is also under trees. I reckon its going to be brilliant. And exactly what I was aiming for. And a thermometer is on my Christmas list so will report progress.

Without Googling, Celtic fertility effigies. (I've some Irish in me). Given me some ideas for a letter box and somewhere to hide bullet cameras though! ?

They might well be able to do it. The testing is pretty standard stuff that any lab should be able to do. There's no requirement for it to be UKAS accredited or whatever for just doing an initial determination, as all you need to know is whether the water is going to be relatively easy to treat and bring within the required drinking water standards. The data from our borehole includes my initial lab analysis (before treatment), plus the official one done later by environmental health. The borehole reference number is SU02NW24 and I think the analysis is on the last page.

Sorry, @Onoff, missed this bit earlier. There are two ways to get an analysis done. Your local authority environmental health people have a legal obligation to provide a fixed price analysis service for domestic water supplies. The price is set by central government, and currently the charge here is set at £17.05 for a standard water analysis, which is far less than any lab will charge. In our case, because the local authority would lose money on every analysis they are asked to do, they refuse to accept samples provided by anyone other than their own staff, so they can then charge a hefty "sampling fee" of £105 on top, to push the price up to enough to cover their costs (I'm pretty sure that the people who wrote the legislation didn't intend them to do this...). Often it's cheaper to just find a local lab that will undertake water analysis and take your own samples to them. We have a lab a few miles away that accepts private samples, or there are other labs, like the one that the hydrogeologist we used has, that will either send out sample bottles to be filled and returned, or will specify the size and type of sample bottles needed. The bottle used for collecting the bacterial analysis sample has to be sterile, and there's a procedure for cleaning and disinfecting the tap that the sample is taken from as well. The really cheap option is to buy a test kit from one of the many online suppliers and do your own analysis. Not hard to do, and there are test papers available for many common water contaminants. These won't test the total hardness, though, although you can buy electronic meters for doing this (I have a collection of them, happy to lend them out if you need them). You can also buy a bacterial analysis kit online, but it's so challenging to make sure that everything is sterile when using it that I'm not convinced it's much use. A lab test is best, as this will identify specific bugs, if there are any, whereas the kits you buy online will give a positive indication for a wide range of stuff, much of which is harmless. Best of all is if you happen to know someone that can do you a favour at a very well known lab that has comprehensive analysis facilities...

What about something as simple as a length of guttering. You can attach the gutter to a batten at whatever thickness suits so the gutter sits under the lip of your roof material. Then batten out to near enough plumb and put your cladding on as normal. You could chamfer the top length of cladding so it appears to slide behind the gutter to still look nice. Would be a simple relatively cheap solution and it doesn't really matter if it collects any water or not.

I am in the process of sorting something similar for our cladding, albeit for slightly different reason. As we have 1.5 storeys, we need a firestop at half height, and I have selected to insert a profiled cill/flashing on top of the firestop, to drain anything behind the 1st floor cladding. I'm getting some manufactured by planwell. They will stick out in front of the cladding by about 35mm. This is sort of arbitrary, because the cills/flashings are manufactured in fixed dimensions but I figured it should be enough.

I had a well driven Model S pass me in the A30 a few days back. It was a safe distance from the car I front. As it passed, noticed that the driver was looking at the passenger seat with his left arm outstretched. Texting he was. Next time I shall hit the horn to scare the living daylights out of them.

There was a town planner and an architect arguing about their beer glasses being half full or half empty. An electrical engineer pointed out that the glass was twice the size it needed to be.

@Carrerahill ok thanks for that/ understand principle, which concurrs with what I thought -might- be a logical scenario (IE get in a friendly pro to oversee/ check/ last dibs). I have exactly the pro fits this bill to a T, who actually sees & impressed with my amp-making actually encouraged me to crack on myself & do my kitchen 'leccy work (no new wiring per se, but, a good exercise). If I can fit a shower, surely I can do a simple electrics plan for my extention. My pro understands my budget constraint/ means, & I feel he's on my side too. One thing differs here to most builds: its being built via a 'Build Notice' which afaict involves more visits by the BCO than usual method. Might this hamper my involvement? should I mention to the BCO of my plan even? or defo not. thanks- zoot.

It's like Wayward Pines here!

I am on my third mini project with these (disabled ramp, which is techncially not quite their intended use) now use only ASP Wallbarn as they are very good with discussing issues, sending samples etc. Worth a conversation. F

I think there is a strong argument that the ‘close to services’ Idea does relate to carbon footprint etc in terms of eg making the Dr and the school walkable not driveable etc, and so reduces the green impact of the whole comunity.

When I first heard that in 1988 it had a mathematician not an engineer, who would calculate the trajectory of each baked bean and splatter of tomato sauce. There was another one about the oldest profession involving a bishop, an actress, and an architect. The punchline was about ‘but who created the primordial chaos?’, which may also have involved a Planner in the version at a self-build conference.

I think we already have legislation that, in effect, is going to make EVs the only choice in a decade. Reducing every day and won't be long before it is at parity with an ICE vehicle. Have you ever been to St. Just or Sennen by foot or public transport. I dropped someone off in St. Just to get the bus back to Penzance, it was a Sunday in October 2007. No one has seen her since.

Personally, I'm OK with 20% VAT on solar so long as they also charge 20% on other forms of domestic energy.

10,000 gallons per hour is massive, the most you are allowed to extract without needing an abstraction licence is 20,000 litres per day, so that has around 54 times the maximum abstraction capacity of a private borehole with no licence. It's also a big borehole, around three times the normal diameter. A normal domestic borehole would be drilled at around 200mm/8" and then be fitted with a 112mm/4" PVC liner, with a slotted section at the base to allow water in. Our borehole is 53m deep (174 ft), has a standing water level that's about 4.5m below the top, and which dropped to 11m below the top when test pumped at 1,500 litres per hour for 2 days. We use around 400 litres per day, for just the two of us. Our borehole cost (after correcting for the cock-ups) around £9,000, including the cost of the pump, filtration, pressure vessels etc.

I have no experience with this, but my thoughts after doing icf pours would be I would expect the concrete to be air proof so I cannot see what a vapour check on the inside would achieve

So you hit them with an application to knock down and rebuild at the same time. Saving VAT as well.

Bugger! The track the gate rolls on, I deliberately had it about 3" short of the pillar I've just built to allow for pedestrian access as in no trip hazard. It ends roughly where the two bolts stick up through the base member where one of the rollers attach: I'm going to have to make a 3 or 4' length of temporary extension rail to slide the gate onto so I've clear access all around the post for the next pillar. Thinking to slot some 20mm galv conduit and tack in an upside down T section cut from an I beam.

I think you will want a weather bar here as well i.e between the two windows: This just as an example, timber, aluminium, plastic all available. Will need to be siliconed on and pinned / screwed with stainless fixings ideally.

Should be no need to argue. Them's the rules!

So for an MCS approved installer to supply and fit I couldn't reclaim but would instead need to argue the toss and get them to zero rate it?

Well my “ Discount offer of the week” has been my best score yet, as some of you will know I am doing my build on a rock bottom, empty barrel budget, it’s just the way things are and I’m ok with it, but it has made me develop lots of contacts for getting materials as cheap as possible and recycling / up-cycling wherever I can. One of my local builders merchants has undergone a radical management and staff changeover and cutting a long story short after introducing myself and showing them photos of my project the new management have offered me a substantial amount of materials for my project for free.... today I have started the long job of collecting pallets of paving bricks, they have just gifted me a minimum of 15 full pallets of brand new but old stock pavers in a variety of colours. It’s an unbelievably generous offer and I am over the moon, though I am not ready just yet to go crazy with my paving it will in the future make my property look totally amazing. Really overjoyed that there are still some incredibly friendly and generous people out there who are happy to help out a stranger doing a budget build. Living in my remote location with a small ferry ride and two miles of steep dirt track and restricted to only being able to carry 2.5 tons means I am going to be very busy next week hauling all my plunder back !

Ahh, re reading your post I presume the "per" was short hand for per year, I just judged you by my own standards and assumed it was some sort of typo and you meant 20 in total ?