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The AECB have given free access to their webinars during the Covid-19 problems. They cover a range of subjects and may be of interest to some. https://www.aecb.net/webinar-recordings/# There is also an airtightness webinar on 19th May 12.00 to 1.00PM. https://www.aecb.net/airtightness/

Your correct about floor levels You do need to decide pretty early on If you go for one of the vinyls You will have to stick with it Where as if you go for tiles it does leave your options more open for other coverings Carpet Bamboo etc Easier to come up in height than go down

Another way of looking at this is, that the person who planted the Robinia was being selfish and inconsiderate. They would have known that the tree canopy and roots would be on neighbouring land. What right do they have to plant a tree knowing that to be the case. If you want a tree on your land then ensure all of it is on your land, if not then suffer the consequences of any work being done on the neighbouring land.

£30 per caber-? and £28k paid to my builder for the build (not including ALL inside xy & z). Just painted 1st hot lockdown week.. so its coming on.

We opted for bamboo flooring. Unbelievably tough and very scratch resistant. I've been absolutely amazed at just how tough it is, as even when I've dropped tools on it it's never marked at all. Being pre-finished, with some sort of super-tough finish, means that it needs no additional finishing. I bonded it down using Sikabond, which has made for a very solid feeling floor. Many people assume the flooring is oak when they first see it, as the look is similar.

I had the same concerns but went for it anyway. We are also rural location with twin boys about 5 years old when we finished the house. They are 18 now. We went for engineered oak pre-finished with Osmo Hardwax oil and has stood up very well. We have only had to recoat the downstairs WC due to water damage. The only precaution we have taken is a rug in the entrance hall right by front dor. From there you walk through the the dining room to get to living room and kitchen. Hall and Dining room is engineered oak but kitchen is stone. We no longer worry about it and wear shoes when bringing in shopping etc.

Wouldn't it have been prudent to find the land owner of the tree before you designed something you can't build? You quote in your first post that you 'work in planning', so should we consider that to be a professional- that should have known the ropes? Put the apprentice on a digger, make it a big one and swing the wrong way when taking the footings out, might cost a few fence panels as well, but you've got to make it look convincing. Otherwise re-design or offer them some cash.

Some taps try and inhibit this behaviour by putting a bit of gauze in the outlet, but that has the effect of making the tap appear to stop quicker, but then to drip drip drip for some time (our basin tap does that)

This is normal for a tap like this that has a fairly horizontal spout. As @ProDave says, it's just the water in the spout draining out. This isn't anywhere as noticeable on a tap with a vertical inverted U shaped spout, as they only drain the bit of the spout at the top, the vertical bit stays full of water after the tap is shut off.

thanks for the advice, reason is mainly to avoid costs and time.

I decided to wait and see on silencers, never specced any in the original plan. MVHR unit is in basement plant room so plenty of space to retro fit one there - would be on the 160mm fresh supply port of MVHR, not the specific flexi as I probably don't have access to that anymore. Not sure why that port is particularly troublesome - all I can think of is that it's on the same side of the house as the MVHR (wasn't able to centrally locate) so the pipe run is relatively short compared to others. Also, as it's running along roof joists and not pozis, it needed to run laterally in the ceiling void to the eaves and then cut back, so maybe the relatively tight bend at that point is causing an issue. Almost (but not quite) motivated to crawl into the loft eaves to check, but pretty sure I boarded over that bit to enable storage

Put cable ducts in and then just derate the cable to allow for it being within insulation in a duct. Not hard to pull cables through reasonably sized ducts, and if a pull through rope is left in the duct it's easy enough to add new cables in the future. Make the cable ducts as large as you can reasonably fit. We have the cable that supplies our kitchen island running through a bit of duct set into the floor, under our UFH pipes. I just made sure the bends were nice and gentle at the ends, so that a bit of cable could be pulled through easily later.

I'm not really aware of anything like that, sorry. There's no real easy way to learn all this stuff - an unfortunate side-effect of extreme flexibility is complexity, even though no individual element is particularly complex. You could take a look at the Functional Categories section of the LoxWiki. There are at least some lists of interface options. The English language Loxone Google Group contains a huge amount of info, but unfortunately it's not organised. This thread discusses relay alternatives, as an example.

Should be easy enough (but a bit tedious) to rake out and re-point with a mortar gun.

This thread is making me laugh. Somebody bought a piece of land, and designed a house, which they put in for planning permission They did all of that knowing that the tree on neighbouring land was there, and would be a problem. They now expect somebody to be happy to remove, or have the tree removed. Please answer me this One question. WHY SHOULD HE ? ........."I won't be giving him any £10k" ...........Fine then you crack on and move your house somewhere else. Why do you all think the owner of the tree needs, or should do anything ? The owner, and the tree were there a long time before matey came along, and designed a house that he is now going to struggle to build. Who is really at fault here ? My £10k offer now expires in 28days. It then becomes £12k for 28 days, etc, etc. And building that close to the Boundary.....Don't expect any access, scaffolding etc......which i can arrange.... for a fee.

This was part of my planning fiasco with the planners, upshot is the verge is classed as “pedestrian” and historically was used fir horses. Your boundary will be the fence, ditch or hedge. There is a min distance from gate to roadside to enable you to stop your car off the road to open your gate, if your gates are that far back then visibility will not be an issue. Personally I would “crack on” as no one seems to notice (unless you have a stroppy neighbour like I had) but I still won my case at appeal and the planners and neighbour were told I was within my rights ?

JFDI is tempting.

Your road...a highway! ?

This could be done a lot more cheaply now. Potentially the only expensive/proprietary thing you'd need to buy is the Miniserver (the Go version @£300), then you'd run the rest of it with cheap DMX/IP modules.

When we were planning our replacement house we had to move our driveway and that was done within our planning application. It required approval from the local Highways Dept. as well as LPA.

We have just been told we need to go for full planning to put a new entrance in - it can't be done with PD. Do you know if your entrance has got planning or has it just developed that way? Highways were able to tell us who owner the verge - they did with us.

To me, Loxone is probably still the sweet spot for this kind of integration. It handles things like blinds very well - lots of intelligent options, like auto-closing at dusk or opening at certain times of the morning, by day of the week if you require. Re: integration with ASHP/MVHR, I'd originally planned to do this, but certainly on the MVHR I haven't found the need. I just leave it on one setting unless we have a lot of people over or we're going to cook something smelly, at which point I turn on the boost manually. Loxone isn't selling direct to the public any more. You can still buy from their partners, and a number of them have indicated on the Loxone Google group I'm on that they're happy to sell to the public. I'll say that whatever thoughts I have about Loxone's business choices, the support available from the community is excellent. I like the idea of that, but I'm less pleased about the idea that if I were hit by a truck tomorrow, no-one else would be able to maintain or modify the system. At least with Loxone, it's largely self-documenting by design, so worst case you could get in a Loxone specialist for maintenance etc.

Hi everyone Serial refurbisher here. I am getting towards the end of my third project (which is my house) - complete renovation and extension of a 1930s detached house. I do leave the structural work to builders, but tend to do the internal work myself (splitting up the space into rooms; fitting kitchens etc). I also want to do a full self-build project in the future - it is something my parents did when I was a child in the 1990s and something I would love to do. In hindsight I should have just demolished my current house and rebuilt a high quality modern home, but never mind - next time! I have joined as this forum seems to be the only place to discuss MVHR. My house is not an obvious contender but with all of the work we've done (which includes a putting on a new roof; new windows throughout; extending on two sides of the house and re-rendering pretty much all of the existing walls, I am hoping that I will get some benefit. We would need a central extraction system anyway so I thought I'd go for MVHR to see if it does make a difference, but out of hope rather than expectation. I want to take advantage of the knowledge on here so I've signed up to ask some questions, and hopefully contribute a bit too.

Change the building method to make it lightweight and then build it on screw piles. Will be quick and simple and should be lower cost.

If it was my workshop I would stick down some vinyl tiles on top, easy to sweep, nicer to stand on for long periods.

Good spot. Yes we have trickle vents in 3 places. The one you can see here (the WC downstairs); the back bedroom; and the kitchen bifolds. The WC window you can see here will be removed and blocked up shortly anyway (we have extended on that side of the house so it opens up into the side extension. And I will seal up the bedroom and kitchen ones when I am fitting the unit. However the general point you make is one I have been grappling with. A 1930s house is far from airtight. We have done a lot to improve things since we bought it, not really with airtightness in mind but nevertheless helpful. For example, I ply-lined the suspended timber floor downstairs, taping joints and refitting skirting boards; replaced all doors and windows; wet plastered every wall, and overboarded and skimmed every ceiling; blocked up chimneys and replaced the roof. We have also extended on two sides (wet plastered walls with the exception of one); and rendered most of the outside walls. But there will still be loads of places for air to move around - I have done nothing about sockets, light fittings, letterboxes etc. So yeah - I accept that to make the HR part work I have quite a bit to do and even then it may be futile, but I still want a system that takes stale, moist air out of wet rooms and puts fresh air back into bedrooms and living rooms. The MV part is more important to me, any HR I get from it is a bonus!

Too right... he should be clear that if you assert your rights to trim back growth, there's a good chance the tree will become unviable and wil need removing. Best shortcut that and take it out now! ?

Regardless of foundation design, if it's still only 10 inches from your build, I'd suggest it still needs to go. You can trim the branches back to leave your neighbour half a tree before you start, but are you going to be able to do that a couple of times a year in perpetuity to stop it encroaching? The landlord probably doesn't give a toss about the tree as long as it doesn't cost him anything, and he's possibly keeping his head down out of embarrassment at his parking-space deal duplicity being outed. I'd persevere at making contact again and reaching an agreement to relieve him of the burden of tree ownership f.o.c

Thank you all for the replies. The property will be well insulated, well above building regs standards as stated in the specification document designed by my architect. I am currently on furlough and foaming every crack and hole I can find before the insulated plasterboard gets installed by my contractor. Very good questions, the honest answers is.....if I would do it again, it will be a knock down and rebuild. Currently the refurb will be cheaper but I agree, compromises had too be made. Water pressure is very good on site.

Thanks all for all the advice. I reckon I might just have come up with a foundation design that doesn't need piles, doesn't include ten metre deep trenches and also doesn't require the tree to be removed. Nevertheless, I've offered to pay for the tree to be removed and replaced 2 for 1 as it would simplify the foundations even more as well as eliminating any risk of future issues for either of us. That would be to both my benefit and my neighbours. If he blanks me then so be it. I'll not be offering anyone 10k!

If you are on clay soil you will need to take precautions against heave even if you take the tree away, for a couple of years. This is because the clay then has to cope with the extra water not taken up by the missing tree.

To anyone else reading. To mate boards together. Take an offcut of a piece of boarding so you have a tongue or groove to slot into your open end. Then you can blat that damned hard with a hammer to drive your boards together without damaging your tongue or groove. All that will get damaged is your offcut that ends up as scrap anyway.

Welcome. Whether or not you need planning consent depends on a few factors. Does your house still have Permitted Development rights? Most will, but sometimes these are either removed as a planning condition, or are restricted because of the house being somewhere like a Conservation Area, AONB, National Park, etc. Assuming that you do have PD rights, then the Planning Portal has a pretty good guide on how to determine whether or not planning consent may be needed: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200125/do_you_need_permission Whether you need Building Regulations approval depends on the area of the building, and the use to which it's being put. Again, the Planning Portal has some useful guidance: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings/2

My mate in oz has one of the best workshop/ houses I’ve ever seen, we are both into old American cars hotrods 1950’s Cadillacs that sort of thing. What he has is is a huge industrial barn type building sizes just for an idea. 36m long and 12m wide at one end 12mx12m he has converted it into a two bedroom apartment, downstairs laundry boot room, spare bedroom, upstairs kitchen diner and main bed and en-suite. Next to this he he has removed the roof from the next 12m section to give him a 12x12 courtyard garden then at the other end he has a 12x12 workshop, 4 post ramps, Indian motorcycle, 52 caddy modal a coupe, heaven.

You’re from Cornwall way aren’t you ? No vision - pasties and fudge that’s all ?

Had you thought about just fitting one or more solar panels to directly power fans? That would make for an automatic system, with no maintenance required, as the fan would run whenever the sun was shining, and the more sun the faster the fan would run. Not hard to put a simple system together, using a 12 V DC fan and a suitable small solar panel. As a bonus, the solar panel(s) might also provide a bit of additional shading.

If you fit that I will come up there and rip it out with my bare hands. Stop worrying and do it properly

Oh, thing of beauty!

kits up, majority of windows and doors are temp in, i'm still asking what is wanted on the floor as i would like to fix doors to height for low thresholds 'i don't know' is the answer i keep getting. a lot of swearing under breath.

Welcome. It can be fun here. Once you find a plot you will be asked to ensure that you design in some walk on glazing. Don't worry, the chap in question is a strange type, and most people either just humour, or ignore him.?

If you wrapped your bits in cling film, could you make pants out of it?

"Subtle" and "nuanced" are the words you are looking for. Seeing that contraption down in Bristol makes me think that you are actually Wallace who has escaped from Aardman. ?

That was such a crap joke even I missed it !! ??

So how can it make a din? Take it back. Disfunctional.

So what is the point of quieter fans if you are installing a din rail?