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You probably won't want to hear this, but going by the sound of things, you'd be better off demolishing the existing house and building a new one. If you are removing the roof, adding a story, building an extension, you'll have the building back to nothing more than a few walls.

I would leave it alone and grow to hate it … more incentive to get the house built

If that is the "waste" from building work, then sack the brickies. 3/4 blocks should be used for the cuts not just slung on the ground and what's the betting the next cut they needed was taken from a full bock.

Totally agree. ive been using arc welders on very long extension leads for years. All the above information is valid but to get back to your lad using a welder … get him one, plug it into a 13amp socket and get him welding. I doubt you will end up drawing more than 10amps with the machine set at 80-90amp and that will do you fine for most steel you will use

Google reckons it could be Himalayan honeysuckle.

If you assume that a normal wall needs to cope with low losses when it is 20⁰C inside and 0⁰C outside, then you can work out an acceptable loss for a floor slab that may be 35 to 40⁰C but the ground will probably be no colder than 10⁰C. So 50% greater losses, and no solar gain available except what shines through windows in the summer, which is of no use. Can you not put in conduit for all the buried cables, costs very little and gives you flexibility in the future i.e running cable for a car charger, shed, ASHP.

Demolish and start again, a major renovation is a money pit. I’ve done both and demolition is the way to go.

A year, and no big cracks? Professional.

yes thats a good surface for adhesive

Looks like a pretty good sound surface to me, if its reasonably flat then i would go for it

I would have thought you would lose the flange in the depth of the bedding material - mortar or whatever.

Issue resolved! For any Ecodan users, this maybe of help for future diagnosis. It turned out that when the compressor is exposed to direct hot sunshine as we are having now, the thermistor reading would be way off, tripping the PL error, I have simply shaded the compressor from the sun but left ample air flow around the fan/coils. Flow temp is constant 12c and floors are about 17-18c, will see how long the house takes to cool now. Just wondering how other users are finding the slab cooling method in this heat?

Agree with @Temp It's all up on the government website if you take a look. The definition of "designed as a dwelling" includes the requirement for planning. See: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buildings-and-construction-vat-notice-708#section3 This same page also says the following, which suggests a seperate electircal supply isn't a must.

Welcome. Be vary careful. I think a small time builder converting commercial properties to flats open to a lot of abuse, rule misunderstanding and fraud. There was a reason no Fensa certificate was available for my front door, the fitters were crooks and conned the previous owner. You may be better off walking away now.

Firstly welcome. Secondly I’m surprised that the builders didn’t know that anyone buying the property with a mortgage would need a warranty to be in place. A builder can’t generally get a self build warranty as many of them will have clauses that say that the self builder needs to live in the property for a year or 2 following completion. This is to stop commercial builders from using them. The warranty will need to be put in place by the builder, not you, and as it’s a commercial enterprise they will only be able to use certain providers such as LABC and NHBC. I suspect any retrospective warranty will cost several thousands of pounds. Your other option may be to look for a lender that will accept an architects certificate.

I have an old style transformer based stick welder. Had issues with it occasionally tripping the 16A breaker in my shed CU. Only when striking an arc first time when the welder is cold. This happens even when welding at very low currents like 40A. Think its an inrush thing.

Unless you're Jim in American Pie

Morning i would use Gripfill or similar (needs to be thick and gooey). The metal plate will have holes and cut-outs etc which allow the adhesive to grab hold rather than actually bond the flat surface.

I stand by earlier opinion that it must have planning permission to be a separate dwelling to qualify for zero rating for VAT. If it doesnt get planning for that then effectively it is an out building, detached annex or granny flat, call it whatever you want but it won't be zero rated for VAT. @newhome quoted the rules from the government website. If you think you have seen something that states otherwise please post a link. I believe your best bet is to apply for planning permission for a "New Dwelling". On the site plan I would show the separate road access and show a plot boundary (eg where you would put a fence if it was going to be sold off seperately). You would not actually have to sell it off or even errect a fence. That merely establishes the site boundary for planning purposes. I would not show a "workshop" on the plans either, call it a double garage or games room or something else that new dwellings normally have. You can decide to use the double garage/games room as a workshop later without needing new planning permission (unless its for business use). It's irrelevant to the planners how you do the services but they will matter to Building Control later. If planning is granted for the above then, because you could sell it off as a separate dwelling, it would qualify for zero rating for VAT and almost certainly add the most value. However it you would not qualify for the self builder exemption from the CIL unless your family member lives in it for three years as their primary residence.

Not used home assistant . The problem I found with most home automation software is it had little support or was just too simplistic. Homeseer has many flaws . But there’s a lot of users if you check the forum . I’ve yet too see a problem that HomeSeer can’t be made to solve - though it can be convoluted. The fact you can script if you want or use the IDE for simpler things is good . Depends how much you want to learn/tinker ; also for a ‘professional’ system you are going to need some real cash . Homeseer equally can do any method you want ( not just z wave ) . I think it’s a free download and you get 30 days trial . Can run on raspberry pi if you wish but I prefer a headless i7 .

The cost of sorting the neighbours door slam is so small that you might offer to do it for them. Thickness of an extra skin of wall? 20mm gap with rockwool slab therein, normally a 70mm stud, with fibreglass roll or batt between, then plasterboard and skim or joint. you might turn the studs 90 degrees, put twice as many in, and accept some deflection. Testing if noise is flanking through the floor is rather undignified. It involves you lying on the floor with an ear on the solid floor surface while a noise is created next door. It is worst with impact on the floor, and much reduced if there is carpet.

Simple. You just add another small manifold, run individual hot returns ( HRC ) pipes back for each outlet, and connect the hot return pump to the manifold. I do this on nearly every job. Series plumbing will see a lot of waste of potential and much larger bore primary pipework, plus you would then have to have the HRC on all the time ( in lie with occupancy / demand ) or serving all of the house. With radial hot and HRC you can pick and choose as to where to implement HRC. I run a 15mm hot and a 10mm HRC together in one piece of 25mm wall pipe insulation to minimise losses. Virtually nothing escapes from those runs in terms of heat loss. You just split those immediately as they arrive at the plant room and then insulate them separately to the manifold. Box clever and take the HRC outlets from the end of the hot manifold and then the entire manifold gets 'pre-heated' thus reducing wait times on the non HRC outlets.

We had a visit from a planning officer following a complaint (couldn't tell us the details) from a neighbour (wouldn't tell us who). The planning officer took some photos of one side of the house , which happened to be completely shrouded in plastic wrapped scaffolding, but turned down the chance to photograph the other side of the house because they already had those photos. I wonder where those came from... Nothing came of it. I guess they compared the photos to the plans and that was it.

Maths , how many muck away lorry @ £xxx + 22 ton hard-core delivered add the 2 together minus £600 +labour ÷ which method is the path of least resistance = answer ?

Sorry I didn't spot you were a new member. Welcome to the forum.

For safety you could apply for a certificate of lawfulness on the grounds you started work before it became a conservation area. Include copies of any drawings and dated invoices you have.

Why? Have you expained the ramifications and the difference in product? I've usually found that a quick conversation along the lines of cold bridge = condensatoin = black mold on those lovely new deep window cills, sorts the issue out very quickly! Otherwise, just make an executive decision...

On my own self build journey I have learned to mellow out a bit. There is the way you expect things to be done and then there is the way that things are done. The disconnect between the two caused me a lot of angst during the early stages. If it works, it works. Dont get too hung up on the how, let them do what they do, if the house stands then all is good with the world.

Not really enough in normal circumstances. Yes it does, your electrician will know all the regs about it, I hope.

Don’t over complicate things, as punter said 10-15mm bed and they will be lifted high enough. You could however ever get a laser from the lads at NASA to cut them. Or why not cast cast your own pavers, you could make a mould and cast them with a notch. Hold on didn’t you just do that for something else. ???

I know a midwife who was called into casualty to 'help the fire man' remove a pipe fitting from a young man's member. When she got there, there was also hematology, trauma, neurology, police, press, Et Al. all giving advice. Not sure if a blacksmith was called.

I remember waiting for a bus on our local. Bus station An old man being carried out of the toilets with a loo seat stuck to his behind and the firemen trying there hardest not to laugh I overheard one saying it wouldn’t be so bad if it was just stuck to his Arse

Mate of mine got superglued to a toilet seat. I once saw cling film on a urinal. But the best is my sister. After a long drive down to the South of France, she was busting. Ran to the loo, flipped the lid, sat down and let it flow. She forgot it had a secondary lid to reduce the odor when left unused for months. She may as well just have done it in her pants.

Glue is your friend.

Thanks. It all sounds pretty much the same as Home Assistant, right down to the flaws and the forum

It's not just about ticking a box with 150/200mm insulation in the cavity and you will have a toasty house. Lol You have to adopt a whole house policy. High quality Windows and doors, triple glazed of the budget allows, good depth of insulation in the floor and roof, very good airtightness throughout etc. I've a block house and my kids still move around like hippos and slam doors. After years of in depth research the final conclusion I have reached to stopping them slamming doors is to remove the door.

No, this is the new bathroom thread!

Is this finished yet ??? asking for a friend.