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Not sure what to say, very unusual to be stuck for words. Anyway, I’m Mark. I live in Cornwall and after a recent life changing event I decided to follow the dream (well mine at least) and create an off grid property and workshop to live my life and run my small business (I’m an electrical/mechanical maintenance engineer), to be honest I was toying with the idea of buying a canal boat and running away slowly but I’m a bit big for boats and I’m a hoarder of old machinery and electrical equipment. So this tied in with a good friend of mine sending me a text along the lines of “do you want to buy a bunker”, I’ve been involved with bunkers for almost 40 years so I know a thing or two about them and I went to have a look. Looking at it, meeting the farmer who wanted rid of it was another life changing event and so here I sit in a concrete room with my feet up drinking tea and writing this intro. It’s been quite a journey and there is much further to go so I thought rather than keep making it up as I go along I’d be better joining this forum. All I can say is the off grid bit works well (I don’t slum it) and I have no idea what the weather is doing outside. Cheers

It is that simple! For the towel rail you get a 90 degree trv like this https://www.radiatorvalves4u.co.uk/trv/052-modern-trv-corner-chrome-thermostatic-radiator-valves.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAiML-BRAAEiwAuWVggpsfPYJtmzEb_AFX5j_qoQM7DnFvGIVCNheRcZskPKjvZ0hnlRJNehoCLgUQAvD_BwE (never fitted this model can't comment on quality) that saves a compression elbow. Again we just used a two lockshields (I like the danfoss as the the Allen key bit to open is concealed by a cover) that turn back directly into the wall.

Difficult to say really as there is no big 'gotcha', it is more a collection of little things which on balance leave me thinking, regretfully that we are better off out on the whole. Don't get me wrong, I'm pro European, I just don't like what the Union has become. Free movement, the ability to go live and work in other countries are great and its a shame to lose them. I think that the EU is too different to integrate in the way they are trying and its causing a lot of issues. There is a big wealth/debt imbalance, I dont like how Governing the EU works, it seems like a cess pit of self interested motivations. The EU came up with a constitution in 2005, put it to a referendum in France and The Netherlands where it was soundly rejected. What do they do, rewrite it slightly as the Treaty of Lisburn and sign it off without so much as a 'by your leave' to their voters. Such contempt is shown by those in power to the electorate its disgusting. The contempt they showed David Cameron when he went to try and 'win' concessions pre Brexit vote. They gave him nothing and he had to pretend otherwise. They were dumbfounded when the UK voted leave simply because they have no grasp whatsoever of public opinion or they choose to wilfully ignore it. I cant support remain whilst the EU is governed in such fashion. It was supposed to be a trading union, God knows what it is now. The subsidy system, all of it is a cess pit of self interests. They are battling now over the Brexit relief fund in the event of no deal. Look at the cluster f**k with the EU Covid Relief Package, Poland and Hungary looking to veto it because they don't want clauses which prejudice against their access to the fund. They are slowing becoming autocratic, suppressing their judiciary etc, what can the EU do....nothing. It is an impotent and corrupt organisation. They 'buy' Turkish agreement to stop the flow of migrants and now have to tread carefully with the Greece/Turkey oil drilling issue in case the Turks open the gates and let the migrants through. Powerless to stand up for one of their own. Greece and Italy were hammered with the migrant crisis, the EU declared that all EU countries had to accept a redistribution of migrants to help Greece and Italy out...did they....no. They left Greece and Italy to it. Its a Union of equals when it suits, when it doesn't it is every man for themselves. A great idea, poorly led and poorly executed.

You could try something like this: INSUduct® MDPE Pipe Entry Protection Box www.gasandwaterpipelines.co.uk

Date set for the screed pour- next Thursday (17th). Got the final loop down on the floor tonight, so that gives me a chance to go over the edge insulation, joints etc prior. Total loop length? 666 metres. Really. And no, not deliberately....

Good point @oldkettle yes the kit will drive your insulation options to some extent. You can get prices for the basic kit with different wall thickness' for example. Thicker stud walls may result in less studs. For all, the timber studs have less insulation performance than the insulation so when you calculate the u value of the wall you need to take into account the stud density. There are so many variations to get your head around so hence the basic approach I mentioned to get you started. As old kettle says some TF suppliers may be making their margin in a different way... just on the kit with the offering of installation. They may have their own crane for example and a good experienced assembly squad.

In the last couple of years the DraughtBusters have adjusted quite a fe upvc doors to realign the striker, some needed to be raised at the hinge side to lift the whole door. They do drop, warp and deform. a few needed adjustment of the latch plate and two needed replacement latch plate /keep

TF especially we put breaks in the cement board with expansion joints Usually under and above a window

@Red Kite have just had theirs done and they had an expansion joint horizontally around the whole house, it was something to do with the guarantee of the render. Work out who is going to warranty the installation, then it’s down to them to specify the methods.

Brilliant, so the corner TRV you sent will just give the same look as onoff's picture above but a few less joints & pipe. Feels like a big relief resolving this so i can now select some components.? a decent manifold.

I don’t like advertising but I mean a compare online site for bathrooms

Well don't ask me how, but we received it today! earlier than expected, before paying for it, before the GHG voucher is approved, and before the site is ready to install it, but whatever, WE HAVE IT! Big day as well as ASHP the staircase, Quooker, water softener and Loxone panel all arrived on site today too.

Very nice. Sounds as we are in similar situations. Off grid is a lot easier these days (I lived off grid in a house in 1993 and that was very generator based) and the technology is getting cheaper. I have, what an estate agent would call, “distant sea views” which in Cornwall can vanish most days. The view from my garden.

Yes those are what your brickie would call lightweights. The labourer would disagree!

Nobody read the original thread very carefully. You may want to take advice from the carrier board people. The Bluclad BBA certificate says: 13.7 Horizontal movement joints must be provided at every floor to accommodate vertical shrinkage of up to 6 mm in the timber frame and to follow movement joints in the substructure. For steel-frame structures, reference should be made to the Structural Engineer’s details for detection at floor level and movement joints in the substructure. 13.8 Vertical movement joints should be provided at the required intervals. The actual spacing and position of the joints will be determined by the shape of the area to be rendered and should coincide with movement joints in the structure and allow for the same degree of movement.

As I said in the original post, no criticism was intended but it is an observation that I've seen made across international media and it seems to resonate with others here. Who says it's a bad thing? We've seen America exhibit the same characteristic (albeit in a less subtle fashion with the current administration). So no offence intended and apologies if you took such offence from my post.

I'd say this is pointless as most people tend to be entrenched in their views. Politics is just one of those areas that is highly polarising and the last ten years have been particularly so - I can't recall a time when tensions have been so high among the population. Brexit and IndyRef2 are constantly just simmering away, then throw in Black Lives matters, climate change protestors and Covid, financial crashes, it's mad when you think about it - there are so many issues with the country at the minute. The easier thing to do would be not to have threads like this, its far too easy to get sucked into arguing and let's face it, debating politics over an internet forum is a futile endeavour - I'm as guilty as the next man for getting sucked in when what I should really be doing is designing my plumbing layout!!!

Thanks for the advice on how to post pictures, do starter for ten let’s see what happens. I await the flak, but obviously not a problem with the property type.

The original sewers are still fine but the tank system was getting a bit tired (it collapsed when the farmer dumped a few hundred tons of rubble on it) so I’ve installed a bacterial bubbling sewage treatment thing and used the original soak away which was for the separate latrine block for the workers outside. Still got the original toilet. The bunker and latrine originally had 3 soakaways so decided not to fix something that has worked fine since 1942.

This thread is repleat with generalisation and logical fallacy. And hints of irritation, point scoring and sometimes offence given or taken. It might be a good idea to try our hands at summarising the arguments put by those arguing the case opposite to the one you favour. Yes, its hard work. But more useful than skim reading a post and reacting to the small bit of it that gives offence when none was intended.

There's scope for confusion over the terms used for blocks but generally lightweights in trade speak are aggregate blocks and they are not that light! They are medium density and would be fine for this application. Dense concrete blocks are for foundation courses and very, very heavy. Aerated blocks are to be avoided here, these are lightweight, brittle and suck up water like a sponge. Personally would use 7n medium density aggregate, I.e. what the builders merchants call lightweights. Confused yet? ?

Bit of a broad sweeping assumption/slur there about English people (all the more surprising considering you objected to derogatory terms being used in an earlier post). It appears to me that remain leaning people / organisations etc etc have to find some reason to 'justify' or 'explain' why we voted to leave. It is usually to do with racism, xenophobia, lack of education, old people stealing Young people's futures away from them, anti-immigration, far right, whatever. There always has to be an underlying reason common to all leave voting individuals. I have to say, being unhappy about not being Alpha, so taking our ball home is a new one on me.

?You could be the founder Russ- BucketShopsRus

Bucket shops online all in with taps, basin and cabinet 100 to 180 choice of sizes, I bought 36 last year average 120 - China basin ?

This one was about £200 total, I think it was from Wickes, if not another one of the sheds. SWMBO chose it.

I have used those fittings on all my underfloor heating and fan coils and not one has had a drip.

My bathroom towel rail is fed from 16mm Pex-Al-Pex. 16mm Pex-Al-Pex to 15mm elbow: Hole filled with CT1 & covered now with a chrome pipe shield: I really hope that compression elbow in the wall doesn't leak!

16mm mlcp (same as picture above) but thats with a standard 15mm danfoss trv. This is the uponor part for connecting 16mm to a 15mm trv or lockshield. https://www.underfloorstore.co.uk/product/uponor-compression-adapter-mlc-uk-16-15mmft

Moving the EU Parliament around costs £100m per year. https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/20/eu-parliament-s-114m-a-year-move-to-strasbourg-a-waste-of-money-but-will-it-ever-be-scrapp That's several billion over the years. All of it. Pissed away to no purpose.

I plan to have an air test one day when I’ve finished keep building extensions, I dread to think the result, but I try as best as I can to seal everything up and use membranes and tapes where necessary, I just keep thinking as long as my annual consumption of gas keeps dropping, whilst also adding more floor area, that’s got to be a good thing! Having completed around 40% of the total floor area this year I can certainly tell a massive difference, but know I still have a long way to go yet. Keeps me busy ?

No it was earlier than that. Maastricht & Lisbon treaties that both moved the EU from a "Common Market" towards what it is now. We were promised a referensum on at least one of those then never got it. Perhaps, just perhaps had we had that referendum and rejected it, then it would have to have been toned down and re negotiated and the EU might not have become so dominant and might have been acceptable to the majority in the UK?

My property is underground with a purpose fitted faraday cage and mobile signal (or radio or tv for that matter) cuts off as soon as you go in. I’m not worried about the phone but I wanted a simple to fit 4/5G router thingy so I bought the one in the attached link. It is hassle free and covers the whole property no problem (obviously not outside as the faraday cage works both ways), I have a Voda SIM card and this thing will run several things at once including an HD tv. It’s power consumption is minimal (I’m off grid). Another idea in the pot. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TELTONIKA-RUT955-DUAL-SIM-3G-4G-LTE-M2M-ROUTER-with-RS232-RS485-GPS-UK-version/172976694046

This is what a lot of water companies do know when installing a new main into an existing house.

I had similar issue when making my brewshed. I left 40mm drain pipes through the slab as conduit for the water pipe but could get the pipe round the bend! So I drilled in through the side just above ground level. To protect the pipe, I built up a small brick pier (3 bricks making a U shape against the wall) from just below ground level to just above the entry point, and capped with a couple bricks cut at an angle. Didn't have any issues with frost... But we are by the sea and heavy frosts are a rarity so I didn't worry too much. For a house, I'd be filling the void with rockwool.

I would normally agree, but its a conversion so footings and slab foundations were already there? Perhaps ask them to put a small (20mm?) plastic pipe through the wall as well so later on you can put an electric cable through it for a pipe heating element/tape. Not necessarily one of these makes but there are plenty of similar products for protecting exposed pipes.. https://www.ezeheat.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA5bz-BRD-ARIsABjT4nhJ9KM__Pa68L3YG5PbQMB56syRx9hvOf2t7Z7agebxWHU54EaakWUaAoQdEALw_wcB https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Cable_Index/Heat_Tape/index.html?ad_position=&source=adwords&ad_id=396625263039&placement=&kw=heat tape for pipes&network=g&matchtype=b&ad_type=&product_id=&product_partition_id=&campaign=ROAS_Cable&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5bz-BRD-ARIsABjT4ngBn6yw39V_PYGehf27oL9pZrXuzETw-8mDqq95Lz7OwjI9qRNOwG4aAi4vEALw_wcB https://www.traceheatinguk.co.uk/trace-heating-products You wind them around the pipe before covering in insulation. Protect insulation from rodents with a suitable metal box/brick/stone enclosure.

Doesn't the kit define what insulation can be used to a significant extent? I.e. for example 140mm frame means Warmcell is out of the question? With regards to extras, AFAIK not all manufacturers have doors/windows as options so they seem to be making their margin on kits and installation.

A reminder of what we were promised (and how it looks like it will turn out) Before you are quick to blame Brexit voters for destroying the country, take a look at what many politicians promied us would happen, that we could keep free trade etc. It now looks like those promises are not going to happen. the question should be why not? Were we promised something that was impossible (lied to)? Or did the people negotiating or deal not actually want a deal (we were lied to in a different way)? The result of all of this, (quite apart from the fact Brexit looks to be very damaging) is we are now ruled by a party that told us a bunch of lies, are going to deliver something very different to what we were promised, and yet nobody seems particularly bothered by that fact. It SHOULD both worry and anger you the depths that UK politics has sunk to, where the ruling party can promise any old rubbish they like, deliver something VERY different and very worse, we don't (or didn't last year) have an electable opposition, and scarcely anyone seems bothered by the dire state that UK politics is in.

Seeing the likes of Dominic Grieve, David Gauke, Anna Soubry lose their seats was outstanding. MPs thinking they can ask the public to answer a question, decide they don't like the answer and that they know better lose their seats was outstanding. The sheer effrontery and gall of MPs to assume they know better so 'ignore' the electorate is appalling. Equally I believe the Civil Service to be riddled with unelected remain leaning individuals who seem to think they too can hamper 'Brexit' and its ok. The people elect Government to carry out their manifesto. The Civil Service are there to enable MPs to do so. What is so difficult with all of this?‍♂️

“Without an economy you have nothing “ Someone said this once . It’s true . Because stuff your economy and all the other things get knackered also . The problem with brexit which people forget is what they were promised . Money for nhs , easy trade deals , keep the immigrants out - take back control !! Hurrah ! Sounds amazing ! - reality is a bitch . We had a half way deal by being in the EU . Not perfect by any means . But our economy has grown by being in the EU ; cheap Labour , London’s access to EU financial markets etc etc Equally the EU doesn’t ‘get’ what the U.K. wants . The only phrase left to chirp is ‘ sovereignty ‘ . Not sure exactly what that is . Will the US or China roll over for us - no . Far bigger economies than ours . Unfortunately we were part of the largest trading block on the planet . Whilst you can argue quite reasonably about dumb EU rules on bananas and fishing etc. - the bigger picture is what we need to look at . Public were largely sold a lie - now government has to deliver some half baked mess that makes no one happy . Sensible hat off - screw up some pipework hat on .

It's all there in the Caravan Act, and in local interpretations of it (e.g. Highland Council planning note 018, from memory). You could make it from brick if you wanted, but it would have to be on a massive steel chassis. Literally the only stipulations are: - max length 18m - max width 6m - max ceiling height 3.048m - movable in one or two sections Interestingly, the building can still qualify even if there is in practise no way of moving it. The test case for this was where somebody's portable building had been, over the years, encroached upon by other building work to the point where you could now no longer get a crane in and remove it from the site. In that case it was ruled that the characteristic of portability was inherent to the building rather than being a combination of the building and its surroundings, so just because other factors prevented access did not mean that the building lost its claim to be portable. And of course you could hire a Chinook if you really wanted to make the point...

I did have my garden designed, for a big birthday present, about thirty years ago. It was the best present I have ever had. The designer walked the garden with me and asked about the things I like etc. I told him a love trees. We have a large garden and he filled it with trees. The shrubberies were all measured and planted so that the large ones were at the back and they tapered to the ends. Roses over the door and climbers over the garage. The biggest reason I love it is because it stopped all arguments about what went where. Chris hates anything that spreads or climbs or really anything that grows! It is a constant battle to wrestle the mower, the slasher, the weed killer from him. He has managed to "prune" to within an inch of its life a magnificent spreading (!) tree that was supposed to shade out grass and weeds from beneath it in the front garden. He insisted he had to mow underneath it! I have asked for a garden design for another significant birthday present this year. Not so many trees this time due to all the leaves. A bit of a Japanese theme perhaps?

And I'm sure you'll end up with something with all the cohesion and charm of Hearst castle

Go onto Rightmove , put in sw1 postcode and steal as many ideas as you can from the hundreds of pages of listings.

Dumping temperature and dumping energy are not the same thing. If you slow the pump to a virtual standstill you'd expect the difference to be even larger. Conversely running the pump at warp speed, even a few °C decrease would equate to a much larger energy transfer. There's probably an analogy with packed cars in a traffic jam vs nearly empty cars on a motorway and which one delivers more people per hour to their destination.

Sorry a bit late to this thread, I don’t rate architects much (sorry) and I designed our house myself, and don’t think I need an ID either, ours is “cottage” and magnolia all over till we live in it for a while, I also think colours should come from furniture, curtains etc. We know what we like so why do we need someone to tell us this?.

I think you could add garden design to this thread

☺️ Active posters on this forum are typically old, male and tight so you don't see many mentions of interior designers. I've spent around £100k which is small even for this forum and its taken a few years to come around to the fact that I could be persuaded that an interior designer would be useful but would struggle to justify spending money on it. Money aside, it would be nice to have someone do the interior design because there's so much other stuff going on, decisions to make, things to sort that being able to let someone else do it is one less burden. And those people who say they'll give it some time to get a 'feel' will typically never do it fully, just adding stuff over time and never quite nailing the theme whereas a designer could do it all up front and then the home owner could enjoy it straight away. Something my wife believes in is if you are going to make a significant change, do it early so you benefit from it for longer. If I were trying to sell my services I'd go with those sorts of reasons - as I'm sure you already do. You're not selling a service, you're selling a benefit to someone.

I’ve just been reminded by my interior designer, (wife) she had the kitchen/family room, dining room and bathrooms designed, layout, colours, tiles, worktops and flooring, before we met with the architect. The house was essentially designed around these features. We’re at the plaster stage now and colour charts and wall paper samples keep appearing. She tells me, only a bloke would point a house in one colour! Harman, I’m sorry your struggling to get an answer to you original question. If only you’d asked about thermal mass, air source heat pumps or under floor heating! It’s a bloke thing, sorry......

Once the plasters on the walls its too late to worry about design issues. The design needs to be agreed with the client before the build starts. Plan things like service runs, location of plant room, levels of insulation, the use of modern technology to heat water and space heating, solar PV, light and shade etc. MHVR, ASHP. Fabric First .... The list goes on.

I made this one 7 years ago (all of 5 minutes) with the intention of making another one out of oak from whiskey barrel lids but never got round to it. its very safe and you can make them as big as you like !