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You just leave SWMBO to @Nickfromwales (when he has finished helping your mother).

I've been stung by many a trade. Tried everything including giving an instruction manual and taking then through the process. They will just ignore it and do it the way they always have. Some will care for their work, others won't. Best you can hope for are good recommendations to sift out the latter. I highly recommend Eastern European trades for quality. At least the crew I found for woodwork and bathrooms. They have been some one the best on our site. Work diligently, detailed oriented and always care for the finished result. They don't have to be micromanaged or chased, and I can leave them to address issues and propose better ideas than my original designs (and they even check with me first!). They even clean up too. Love them.

Have you tried Googling 'architrave' for photos? It's just a posh name for the fancy trim around a doorway. Stop procrastinating and start offering bits of wood up to the job! ?

@zoothorn as @Gav_P says above your over thinking it. If the height difference is 20” then three steps is 6.6” each is a much more comfortable and acceptable way to go. Build the steps and we will talk you through the skirting, I am off to bed, night night ?

I really think you are worrying about this far too much, which is stopping you from seeing the wood for the trees. As soon as it makes sense to you, you will realise how simple the solution will be. The other option is to raise the lower floor height.... voila, no steps to worry about. ?

Don’t do it ..!! ASHP supplier is talking rubbish ..!! A diverter can transfer seconds worth of excess power to a resistance heater (ie an immersion) that reacts instantly. Try that with an ASHP and it will not even power up the fan and compressor before the available power is used.

yep, go to the top of the class.

Hatsan 900x .22?

Remember that chat about water / sponge / paint brush / cleaning as you go.........? Because you took that on board the excess should be a doddle to sort

Feck off, watching tv (actually I can do isometric projection or oblique projection, which would you require ?).

In my book: don't touch this with a bargepole. Before long you will probably need 250-270mm insulation in the loft anyway to meet your EPC D or C requirement, which is most likely coming down the track for 2030 and 2025 respectively. I have a couple of setups - my normal rule is that lofts have 250mm of insulation in them, as it has been mainly free for years and therefore completely nuts not to do as part of 1st renovation. If it has that in it they can't put stuff up there without being stupid or reckless. I don't normally fit loft ladders so there can be no claim that access is encouraged (H&S potential liability in case someone falls through). The exception setups are one property where the boiler was up there before I bought it, so I installed an OSB walkway over the bottom insulation to the boiler, with a removable section of top insulation over it, and a notice on the wall above the loft hatch for gasmen. And a bungalow with a small fitted storage area and a high quality loft ladder; there is a bit of service gubbins and spares up there too, and it happened in a floor out drains-up reno without me having a say. T does not use it. And one where they asked me for a proper storage loft, as they were having a third sproglet and the dad's fishing gear and other things were being 'temporarily filed'. Used loft legs over the normal 250mm of insulation and created proper storage and a designed base for a ladder in a cupboard. Very long term tenants. Some LLs have a "no storage in loft" clause in the contract, or even padlock it. I have not gone that far, for reasons of emergency access etc. In your circs I would spend the small amount of £££ to put the correct insulation in, and literally "bury" the issue. You can sell to T as an upgrade, and lower bills should help keep T. Or go the whole hog and make a loft room if you want to upgrade the house (current grants can apply?), and it adds up. But then you will need to remove T. F

Nope... they just leave loads of rubbish behind when they move. I had someone break a bed up and leave it in the loft. Also it’s a popular place for tenants to have a recreational herbal farm!

Just use a Quinetic, job done. Use an MK or Varilight grid style Quinetic module if you don't like the big ones. https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Manufacturers/Quinetic/index.html

I generally means that you can build your dormer off the wall below. The soffit and facia of the existing building will normally give you the 200mm you need. I would do you a simple drawing, but i am utter rubbish on computers. What you can't do is join the dormer onto the wall below and have it all as one flat face.

My roofer came back again today as I complained about two last snagging issues. Then he started shouting at me that I was costing him money by having to come back to fix issues. He said he didn't want to get into a fight about it. It's ridiculous. I'm costing him money because I'm pointing out to him that he hasn't hasn't done the job right and I'm asking him to fix it before I pay him. He now says that it's not important that the dry ridge system fabric is not stuck down properly in a few places. There was me thinking it was there to stop the rain getting into the roof and allow the rain to flow away from the ridge. If I was him, I'd just get on the roof and stick it down. It takes 5 minutes and makes the customer happy with the job, but not this guy. Now he's demanding payment in cash. I said no. Simple solution to that one. Do the job right the first time and nobody complains and no return visits

Really???

It depends on your ASHP as they are all a bit different. My ASHP is set to heat any water to 47’ only. Basically I heated a buffer tank fir UFH and the tank stat on that cylinder kept the temp up. This is heated 24/7 during the heating season. When the room stat calls fir heat it operates the UFH pump to circulate water from the buffer around the floor. A diversion valve is operated by the ASHP to divert hot water to the DHW tank when it’s stat calls for heat. This does mean the buffer (well insulated ) stores hot water fir UFH all the time but it saves waiting for the ASHP to get up to temp before it starts heating. Some here don’t have a buffer tank fir UFH. (Not sure I would if I did it again). I did buy an expensive controller which means that things such as the heat curve can be changed but frankly it was so complicated I never use it. I may go E7 in the future which simply means installing a timer so the ASHP only comes on during cheap hours (and an override switch fir emergencies).

Once a planning application is registered and in the process it can't be made invalid, it can be refused, withdrawn or the local authority can determine that there isn't enough information to make a decision and request further information - I've been trawling my planning handbooks for anything that says an application which has been validated can then be invalidated later but drawn a blank so far. Revoking a permission due to fraud is a slightly different situation than the op has (hopefully!! ?) Was this application ever publicised @Moonshine?

Dr Phil Macrackin?

As a validation of this. I have 340 sqm of roof, which results in just under 10k slates to be laid, 75mm headlap and standard size of 400 x 250 is. Planning cupa heavy 3's, assuming I do battens. All quotes include leadwork and labour. Cheap quote - 6k (self employed, local guy well known, medium quality level but could swing to low or high quality depending what guys he outs on site.) Mid quote - 10k (self employed, unknown to me, recommended by cupa rep and has houses I can view and have seen pics of in local area. High level of finish with good grading of slates and finish) High quote - 15k (two roofing companies,.work looks good but high cost). All central belt scotland

Always seem confusing all the different views and additions. Would be good to have a guide for all the parts. I'm a hydraulic engineer and have access to hydrosym for drawing schematics. I'm planning on doing a schematic for my system (UVC/ASHP/UFH). I'm quite happy to draw a standard circuit and share for everyone as a guide.

Fiddly door return tiles done . Few mm out at the top - but I’ll just over grout to hide that .I have to say it’s all looking pretty good . Been also cleaning out the tile gaps with the dremel ( reckon I’m good enough with that to be a dentist ) . So just wall pockets to do .Time to conquer the bathroom now ??

That's exactly what I thought when I did some projects on my own. But it is not always the case: in many occasions I have seen them not using the right technique, the right tool or even basic common sense. For repetitive builds (e.g. equally spaced wooden battens wall cladding, drawers, stair treads, risers, stringers) I always make templates. It takes a little bit of time but then you proceed fast and have exact consistent measurements. In another case a bricklayer was raising a party wall in the garden. The drawings stated the wall was supposed to be 180m high, resulting in 100cm lower than the existing kitchen extension roof level (I don't remember the exact measures TBH). Well, the guy used as reference the indoor floor level, so the wall built was 20cm lower than the kitchen extension, 80cm higher than it should have been. And the 100cm drop from kitchen extension level was on the drawings. His justification was that he couldn't use the garden grass level as reference, so he assumed the best way was to use the kitchen floor level. He didn't think about using the other measure. I have almost never found a professional (that does this for living) that can do a better job than I could do on my own. Even if I go for "premium" recommended people. Of course there were few exclusion of very good, exceptional people. If you think about it, it is depressing: it is like going to a restaurant (not a fast food) knowing you could have a better meal at home, so only for the convenience of not cooking. Surely it is my luck plus the fact I actually enjoy doing stuff on my own. It seems that the builders I've used and seen in action (also the recommended and friendly ones) were doing their jobs just because they didn't find anything better. I do the same but unfortunately they don't always listen or have even the knowledge to amend (see comment from Visti below). The thing about the instruction manual & talking them through the process makes me smile: I did exactly the same with a carpenter and he was clearly annoyed and surprised a DIYer would attempt to explain him things about his trade. At the end of the first day I noticed he completely ignored what I told him. This was the end of it, I decided to let him go and had to redo the whole thing my own. It is difficult to generalise from a personal experience, but I have seen the same. Also because the local building standards are higher than here, so they are used to more demanding customers.

If anyone is interested in this area, there is usually a committee at County Council Level called something like "Rights of Way" Committee that are often looking for co-opted members. It is one of the key places to be represented if you are eg interested in cycle routes. Quite often consulted for Planning Apps on various strategic schemes - eg stuff being done by Network Rail. F

I have Adam Frost's "How to Create your Garden" on back order. I understand this book is more about the physical garden than the plants. So I'm also looking for a book recommendation about actual plants thats very practical on the choosing plants front. Say I have a spot X big that is sunny, want colour/foilage etc, want this height, low maintenance etc and get a planting guide - put X, Y, Z in, these sort of positions. Things for patio troughs, borders, in shade etc.

Thanks for the response Peter, I will have to digest/think about this later and hopefully it will make sense - plumbing seems to be an area that is pickling my brain! I have no issue with everything to the 'right' of the manifolds etc, its the stuff to the left where hot/cold water is supplied to the manifolds that pickle my head! I'm running with an ASHP to three way diverter supplying a buffer and UVC - its a work in progress. Trying to work through all the threads on this subject in order to cobble them all together as a design, I get the gist of it - once I've put pen to paper to draw something I will post it up in order to check I haven't made any fundamental mistakes!

I just buy a new set for a project, use the good ones on good wood, as soon as you hit a nail it becomes downgraded to a semi shit chisel, then when you hit another nail it gets downgraded again as a tool for smashing and bashing. no time to be sharpening tools, leave that for when the house is finished and you have a workshop.

A friend of mine is a bit of an odd job man. I called him in once to give me a hand putting a fence up as he owed me a favour. I’m one of these people that likes things to be right, which often takes a bit more time to fine tune and he said something to me that will stay with me for a long time... “I wouldn’t take this up for a living, you’ll never make any money!” I’ve received my fair share of half decent work over the years that would be pretty much perfect had it been finished off with a little more care. Often when you mention it they will rectify, but there have been occasions where I’ve redone stuff. I also stand by the fact that I pay people because I want a better job than I am capable of, but find if you take your time doing it yourself you’ll work to a standard you are content with, and can sit back and compare it to what you’d probably get if you paid which is often enough to allow you to live with some imperfections. (Obviously you need to know your limitations). When you pay and it’s not right it does your head in. I am that guy that inspects stuff at the end of every day of project to see if anything looks like it’s going to be an issue so I can raise it before it becomes a problem. Unfortunately I’ve seen some terrible stuff that the homeowner sees no issue with - and that’s a big part of why it’s so common.

Completion certificate received. I guess it's no longer a dream.....

Agree with the above. I punctured a yellow gas pipe, 250mm below surface. Transco came out and fixed it, then sent me a bill. I sent the bill back and said that the pipe should have been deeper. Never heard from them again. So in that house, it is still 250mm below the surface.

I did my own roof from scratch, got loads of old west coast slate for virtually nothing , me and my dad re cut all the edges with traditional slaters axes..... I then laid them in diminishing lengths to the top of the roof...... it took me months and months........ and months ? ..... it seemed fun at the time but All subsequent roofs on the property have been tin......

Gardening is a full-time, ballache of a job. For 7 months a year it’s trying to strangle you and you have to spend your time stopping it from taking over before you get to improvements. And some people do it every year! Through a combination of lockdown, great weather and a lack of occupational work I’ve spent more time in my garden this year than in my entire adult life. (That isn’t surprising when you’ve spent 3/4 of that time in back to back terraces and flats). It’s given us some thoughts on some ‘features’ we would like but one thing neither my wife or I can do is visualise a garden we want. Which is in stark contrast to the house where we’ve always been able to see what we wanted. We need to spend the money on someone who knows what they’re doing but finding one of those is not easy.

Although I 100% agree with you, some LPA's I deal with do include a rather odd bit of text within their formal acknowledgment/validation letters... I never understood why that included that part as the letter receives confirms the application is valid ?

Life is like a box of chocolates You always get a (expletive deleted)ing nut in them Run Pocster Run !

Funnily enough the new winch turned up today ! SWMBO though wants to see tiles on the wall not a crane ?

Looks really good mate (now you can build that crane ?)

I'll give you your due's, if that's your first attempt at tiling. Good effort Forrest

I do keep a small box of knackered chisels for “gouging” (or lending if someone asks ?)

Hell no, that’s where they store the previous tenants.

... I don’t stand a chance then!!! ?

Wonder if those heras bases holding the water up will become a permanent installation..?? ?

...maybe Edit: Yes I did!

@OnoffHave you actually drawn a pair of scissors ✂️ on the cut line for lowering your noggin?? ?

My wife’s a theatre manager and frightened of heights But soon got into the slating