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The key safe was really useful, as was having a combination padlock on the Heras fencing gate into the site. It meant I could let contractors have the combinations and didn't need to worry about having to be on site at the crack of dawn every day. As each contractor finished their work on site, I just changed the combinations for the next ones due in. Probably not foolproof, and I did advise contractors to not leave any tools on site (and had a notice up on the fencing saying this), but it seemed a fairly good way of keeping the place reasonably secure, yet still allowing easy access. It also meant I could just give someone the combination over the 'phone if they needed to get into the site to make a delivery.

Just been out and taken a photo of the meter box side: The caravan box we used as a temporary site supply, with it's 16 A commando is still there. The small grey box is because Openreach originally insisted that their underground cable had to terminate outside the house - by the time they came to install it their rules had changed and they would have preferred to bring it into the house (too late, the duct was sealed up!). The old key safe we put in to give contractors access to the house keys is still there, but no longer used. The silver box is my energy/power measurement system, that transmits data by RF link to the house, and also transmits the on and off signals to the Sunamp heater (for excess PV generation Sunamp charging).

If you neatly cut all the boxes into the wall and chase between them then fit conduit then rewiring is easy. (Could even do in singles). Be careful on the depth of the boxes on the internal walls, you might be drifting into Part A if the walls are thin. Go EASY cutting the boxes! What are the walls made of? Brick, breeze, lightweight block etc? No need to to go up from a socket, into the loft, along and back down. Just come down to the first socket then go horizontal between sockets. Less cable required. A wall chaser is easy but can be VERY dusty without proper extraction kit. Google "NICEIC safe zone diagram" look for the diagram top right. Keep switches, sockets, in the "zones". Lots of info too on that sparkyfacts link.

I think this large 2600? sq ft design has too many features with excess space sub division in the front half and this leads to a compromised entrance hall as identified by @NSS My previous house 1400 sq ft had more flow space between front door and bottom stairs step and I thought that was compromised even for 4 bed house squeezed into 1400 sq ft. The double height of your hall will help overcome the foot print problem to some extent, the 3D hall projection is very appealing. I like to see a pantry but the space is not used well because it doubles as a corridor. I would loose the dumb waiter unless this is a key life style need and dispense with the hall to pantry door unless this is a fire egress planning building regs thing here. Even so the downstairs toilet needs an extra foot in length pinched from the pantry. A single parking space is a major problem for a property of this size. Think of people visiting and children growing up and learning to drive. Ask an estate agent how problematic this would be. The house looks too large for the plot, are planning ok with this or is it the done thing in a city location? I like the flow in the main living area, very trendy and the nook should work when the cook needs a five minute rest. Your screen in the study will suffer reflections from the window behind, think about angling the desk around the corner.

Yep, that's exactly what I mean. As you walk 'around' the opening door the bottom step becomes a trip hazard. Also, if someone happens to be taking the last few steps down as someone else opens the front door..... It's something I'd definitely want to 'fix' ?

Oh, not far at all. The countryside is the main draw for us, although I expect there won’t be a lot of time for exploring next year !

Bit late then, be much more useful to know before you buy it. But, yes, scrape with a knife or cut and look at the end (though that'd be quite small for network cable). Here's John Ward on the subject of CCA mains wiring: https://youtu.be/q_2qGZeXEd4?t=911

How does it compare? Takes me about 10 minutes to order the tail end of a part load ( half price), and a further 20 to chat to the driver, 5 minutes to wash up the coffee cups.

If say you get about 87.5 kg in a drum of dry materials. Just basing a 6:1 mix filling the drum. So around 8/9/10 for .4m3 based on weight Yes I would assume 130l is horizontal complete volume

So the test covers the speech spectrum, which I guess is a reasonable approach. I'm only going to do this once so I'll go the MF route, combined with attention to skirting and board sealing detail. Thank you for your help.

An update on this thread. I made up a dilute solution of household bleach in a spray bottle today, as per Jeremy's example. I gave a little squib to clean all the toilet bowls but the most interesting effect was on the cistern without the flush plate. I gave a couple of sprays directly into the cistern and much of the snotty slime was gone in a matter of hours, so it seems an easy one to solve.

Did this. Used two strongboys and put a concrete lintel underneath the original that I couldn't remove and dry packed it in place. Used a 9 inch grinder and a sledge hammer to open it up. Took a whole day to get them in and need my mate up toe and heel the glass but not too bad a job. Nerve racking at the time though.

Thanks for all the documents and explanations. After expending a lot of brain power, victory is mine. I have to say, it’s rather complicated stuff.

Yes, the area is lovely and we're very excited to be moving there. There is a meadow beyond our garden boundary, so we may need to take some measures to keep the deer in the meadow and not our garden!

I recommend Excel cabling as well. Seems to have been "problem free" in the past.......or it may just be the the problems are insignificant in comparison to the other problems you encounter when you have to feed it around a building. Make sure you test your connections once you've done them. For £10 you can buy a tester and its incredibly useful. Most often problem is down to not punching the patch panel properly. You can just press it down a second/third time to fully terminate it. But its a bugger to do once the panel is full and in a small cabinet.

Well well, well. You'll never guess what happened next ................... 10 minutes ago a guy from United Utilites Water came out and weighed the job up. I can't (well, shouldn't) report the language used, but he thought that the design was somewhat lacking in common sense. He agreed that a leaking packing gland in a valve was a foreseeable failure and that therefore the design I was asked to follow was not competent. The site was surveyed, marked up on the ground and a job logged inside 5 minutes. A few moments later I had a text notification that the job to insert an external stop valve had been raised . Lively discussions followed about Head Office people - in a wide variety of disciplines - not knowing what they are doing . The job might well be finished inside 5 working days. Result !Top Bloke! Lets see what happens next. Why oh why did UU try it on?

Ughhhh, what a tangled tale. The only defense I can see is -possibly- tiredness, and overtrading. Pressure to get the work done (I'm good at my job, but not the paperwork), and failure to appoint the right people to manage the paperwork. I'm so glad to hear that you have a solid background in dealing with this sort of issue: frankly its a relief. We sometimes get members who are not up to dealing with unscrupulous trading practice. BH has supported me too - saved me a huge amount of money. So its good to be able to return some of the help I've been given. Good luck with the rest of the process! Ian

I used Excel cat6 cable, was about £90 a box I think. No issues at all. If you then have someone 'qualified' punch it down to an Excel panel and mods, they warrant it for 25 years.

Between 1:6 and 1:9 will be fine. Make sure you dig down the trench to remove any soft material. Backfill with type 1 and thoroughly consolidate. If the sub base is not wide and solid the concrete will not hold up.

Could be down to a faulty packing batch. I've gone through quite a few boxes of the stuff from different suppliers and its quite rare to have it kink like that. Should be fine along as your pulling it from the correct hole. Take it from the wrong place and it just becomes a tangled/kinked mess. Same applies for opening the box and trying to sort it out as their often 305m boxes, its worse than sorting out the Christmas lights.

That's what I would do personally. I know some will think that's unnecessary, but...

The brass coloured bit with the hole in the end is the line, the silver coloured bit that contacts the side of the lamp with the thread is the neutral.

Ducts definitely need insulating, or burying under the insulation in the loft. I think the manifolds have a small amount of insulation in them for acoustic purposes, but not sure how much it provides for heat insulation. I suspect if you can build a box and insulate it around the manifold, this would probably be the best option for minimal heat loss, this is what I plan to do, just becomes a bit of a pain taking it all back out in order to do any cleaning

Sorry just realized I probably linked the wrong filter, it's the Scale Control cartridge that is used on the boiler tank (I believe. They have blooming many!). The Scale Control cartridge is an ion exchange softener according to https://glacierwatersystems.com/product/quooker-scale-control/ And here

The Quooker doesn't soften, it filters.

@MaryM you're doing all the right things. You may (if you want them) end up paying for the kitchen units but as you say it needs to be considered as part of overall settlement including money you've already paid him for work not done/work done with defects etc. As you have already raised a dispute with him, and started the ball rolling on adjudication, he can't realistically pursue you for payment through the courts/any third party until the dispute is resolved. And it's very unlikely down the line anyone would uphold any interest/late charges etc against you for not paying until that was all settled particularly as you have already paid his earlier invoices. So whatever he thinks, for all intents and purposes the matter is held in abeyance at this point. So he can (and potentially will) send you increasingly firm messages etc asking for payment. But they have no teeth - so I would just respond to each chaser with a clear but firm "As I have told you, I'm not paying anything further till the dispute is resolved" and otherwise ignore them.

There are really only two ways, use a one-time-use, pre-charged, ion exchange resin (exactly the same as a water softener, but without the regeneration system), or use phosphate dosing, like the Combimate. From the description that @vivienz has given, I'd say that it's probably a phosphate dosing unit, as phosphate dosing doesn't reduce limescale, it just stops it sticking to anything to form hard scale, so all that's left is a powdery precipitate that will leave white marks if water dries on a surface.

It's fairly standard for supply contracts to have a clause like that, but it doesn't mean the contract for sale can't be enforced. It's primarily there in case you go bankrupt, so the supplier can get the materials back rather than having to join the queue of unsecured creditors. In general terms, unless you have a right to cancel/return goods then as soon as you order them you can be forced to pay for them. If you don't pay then the goods might be taken in part-payment of the debt but they would not necessarily be valued at the full sale price and you might still owe for any balance to account for the supplier's lost profit/overheads. In your specific case, however, then assuming the builder bought them on your behalf I'd argue they are part and parcel of the work he has failed to deliver. And as such are no different to e.g. timber he's already fitted to the building/any other materials. Your contract (which may be verbal) is for supply and fit, and can't be retrospectively be split off to supply only. If he's not fitted them he has not delivered his side of the contract, so shouldn't be paid at all. Until/unless you both go through adjudication and come up with a settlement/route forward for the project as a whole. So I would be taking the line that you are not paying for them until they're fitted, and if he wants to return/sell them he can take them away.

No, as the box is still in the same place now as it was when installed. I knew that we needed to have a small screening fence to hide the wheelie bins, so just had this put in when we were doing the ground works. I fixed a caravan site box, with a 16 A commando outlet, on the fence below the meter box and used that as the site supply (the caravan box is weathertight and has the required RCBO etc for a site supply, as caravan sites have to follow the same regs). I made the fence deep enough to take the box, and panelled it on both sides. I fixed timbers to go down the sides of the box, so that I had something to screw it to, and fitted blanking plugs in the couple of unused cable holes (with a bit of sealant around them for good measure). I also added a "roof" across the top of this fence. This is the front view of that fence, the meter box is let in to flush vertical planking on the other side:

To charge at 32 A with the Tesla UMC you may have to buy the optional 32 A commando adapter. Some cars came with this, some didn't (mine just has a 13 A plug adapter and a 16 A commando adapter). Not a major issue, as Tesla sell the 32 A commando adapter lead for ~£40, I think.

Nope! Not all women!

Am super interested as just pressed "buy" on a used Tesla - think I saw you on the Tesla forum Jeremy :-) Thinking that maybe the quickest way to get a charger in place would be a self/electrician installed socket that would work with the 7.2kw 32amp. My install is as easy as it gets as the unit would go on the side of the garage which has the consumer unit & meter in. Though will call a couple of install companies and see what they can do in next couple of weeks. Quite excited!

I'm having a radial sysyem done and the unit will be in the loft. I'm planning to insulate the radial ducts from the manifold about 1m up to where it goes under the insulation. I have been told that all the ducts in a cold loft need to be insulated. I had a word with someone at bpc and he was saying just to insulate the 125mm pipes.

I got BC approval as well for mine.

It appears we may have rushed into stage 2 eleven days before we were meant to. Nevermind, at least we had one night in the house..

Our boiling water tap came with a phosphate dosing softener cartridge filter. Very expensive, around £40 a time to replace it, and it needed replacement every 6 months. Like @joth, I made enquiries, then removed the filter and have been running our boiling water tap on softened water. It seems that the makers of boiling water taps often charge a pretty high price for replacement filters. The filter that came with ours had a pretty unique bayonet fitting, that I couldn't find anywhere else. I'm pretty sure it had been designed like this to force you to buy their expensive replacement cartridges. Reminded me a bit of the sales model for inkjet printers.

And....... Granted, after 27.6 weeks, not that I am counting ? Not even a request for an extension with the decision. Massive thank you to the buildhub community for the help getting this through! Can't quite believe it's actually got permission after the sites history of refusals and us asking for more than those! Today feels like a win!

That would be really good, especially if you can give some basic theory and calculations. So chop chop, no need to have Christmas off just because it is in the middle of the week.

If you can get away without having one internally then it is worth doing, as they are always a thermal bridge, wasting a bit of heat. The key thing is to recognise that SVPs have two functions. One is to vent any gasses that may build up in the foul drain, the other is to allow air to enter above any slug of waste that goes down the pipe after a toilet is flushed. These two functions can be separated out, and doing this removes the thermal bridge. An external vent can be fitted to the foul drain, outside the house. This doesn't need to go to roof level, it's OK to have it above any flood level, in a location where any slight odour won't be noticed. Putting a vent near, or in, a hedge or some bushes will avoid any odour, as plants seem to be pretty good at neutralising smells. To resolve the requirement to allow air into the soil pipe after a toilet flush, you can fit a short internal pipe up above the highest drain point, and cap it with an air admittance valve. We've done this, and have no visible vent pipes at all. The AAV sits in the eaves space, where it can be accessed if needed.

Welcome. Think you might be our first American member?

I’m working hard on get him trained !?

Only 1 hole - so I got that right !

And when it comes to water ~ make sure their design includes a valve which isolates your property, and which you can turn off.

Run all your garden stuff, car washing etc, before it goes through the meter, and just put one w.c. handbasin through the meter. Very small water bills.

JFDI.... If you are planning on doing a thread on this, let me know and I’ll order some more storage for the server ....