Leaderboard

You can’t reclaim VAT on hippo bags as they are not incorporated into the fabric of the building so don’t qualify in the same way as purchasing tools doesn’t qualify.

Are we looking at your half of the roof? I don't mean to be rude, but it has to be said that it is in pretty poor condition anyway. I think the patch is the least of the problems. There are a lot of broken, cracked and clipped slates there. I couldn't say how long that can be kept watertight, but realistically, it will need re-slating in the near future. There may also be a good reason why the new slates are not sitting down properly - if the existing battens are in poor shape, for example. It may be hard to conclude other than that the builders did the best they could with a roof that is already in poor condition. Perhaps it wasn't so much that they damaged your roof, but that any disturbance to the old and fragile slates inevitably resulted in needing to replace some of them. As it's a semi, you will need the co-operate with your neighbour when re-slating, so making enemies of them is not recommended - ideally, you'll do it as a joint effort.

I am no expert on a turret slate roof but have done quite a bit of traditional slate work, I would say they have used to many wide slates near the top, especially where a wide slate spans three other slates…. I would have only spanned two slates at any time, the slates should all be of a similar size on each course / row so that they sit right, each row nearer the top and the slates get narrower. Looks rubbish and personally I would want it done correctly. Go online and find some information on how it should be done and present this to the roofer. I may be wrong but that’s my opinion.

option 2 for sure, you can use a small chamber. It will make the install a lot easier and give you the option of rodding both directions should it ever be needed.

Some people choose to have an internal stack with a dirgo and an external vent at low level elsewhere on the drain.

Is the confusion from the AOD abbreviation on the plans? I have understood this to mean Above Ordnance Datum, which relates to sea level, so most levels I see like this are positive. I am currently looking at one where the ground floor is 81.60m AOD. Even next to a tidal river we are 4.00m AOD.

They have to be concreted in to stop the surface spreading out when you turn the car. Set your levels up to whatever height they need to be and using a string line bed the kerb/edging on a dry mix. Then using more concrete haunch the front of the kerb slightly so you leave enough height for what ever is going on top. Put a good amount of concrete on the back of the edging as it's this that will stop it from tipping over.

Have a read here: https://www.pavingexpert.com/edging3

That's just wood mate, it's just a fancy finial for the lead.

Yes, with an internal stack terminating through the roof cold air can enter the pipe from both ends. Sometimes the pipe can act as a wind tunnel causing the wall of the pipe, in the house, to get very cold.

Thanks. There is now no doubt. Delete catch pit idea. A very messy idea. If these levels are negative (there is a - which might be a spacer or a minus,) then there is a drop of 0.5m. If positive then there is a rise of 0.5m. I don't think it matters how much it snakes up and down unless the pipe runs empty for any reason. (which it might if running downhill to the outlet.). Pump spec. therefore to be suitable for the horizontal length and 0.5m rise (or is is fall?) . If it 'just' manages then the pump will be straing and the liwuid willd ribble out. I dont know how much you dare go over. I have found local specialist pump sellers to be very helpful: I guess this an important part of their role, and there is usually one for every area.

How did this work out for you as no self levelling compounds are supposed to apply to the melamine like coating on Egger Protect.

Averaged over the time we lived in our last house, just over three years, we used 306l/day. This was for two adults in a 130m2 house with some garden watering.

No problem.

I shall try and remember to look up my figures when I finish work. Southwest water is the most expensive in the country. 8 times the price of the City of London.

Thanks Gone West, yes it`s been quite a response hasn`t it?! Been very useful and informative though. I will use your quote above in the book i you don`t mind

The point about the pressure of water is correct. an uncontrolled release into any chamber will splatter everywhere and possibly erode the chamber. 2. is easier and cheaper, as long as the pump is ok with that length. The extra length will reduce the flow somewhat which may be a good thing. how about a) a catch pit, instead of IC, so that the bottom is permanently full of water and the pipe outlet is pointed into it and is slowed by the standing water. or b) pointing the outlet pipe along the gravity pipe. c) a pump that has enough oomph but not too much.

No problem with the bend in the MDPE. If you put the gravity chamber in around the word "bend" it will be fine. Going to the bigger pipe will help even out the flow.

The discharge from the pump is very strong. I would prefer to have it enter the gravity IC straight on so it does not spray around the chamber.

Tile vents allow air over the felt but not really through the loft. I am guessing the extra insulation is stuffed right into the eaves and therefore blocking airflow. you don’t need to reduce insulation thickness, just pull it back a bit to allow air to flow again.

Would be a shame to destroy all that exquisite craftsmanship

I found that cheapy wood jigsaw blades works well for STS construction boards, which are also fibre cement. They only manage a few cuts before they blunt and become useless, but at a pound or so per blade it worked out better value than buying the magic circular saw blade the manufacturer recommends. Lots of dust though!

Nothing a bit of sanding won’t sort

12mm hardie backer will do nicely, it is incredibly strong and easily resists the twisting forces likely in this application. bugger to cut, scoring with diamond blade is the best but the dust is horrendous.

Can’t wait to find a suitable plot or place to knock down to start a new build instead of refurbs.

Are you thinking of inviting @pocster round?

Oh I disagree, our planners wanted what they wanted, not the community and when I went to appeal they were told they were not abiding with their own policies (and I have fought planners before and won). Yes, I find your design a little fussy but I like classic lines. You have already found examples locally that fit with your design so yes you might have to compromise a little but don’t give up on your dream.

Looking at this I would 100% go for demolish and rebuild. Is this what is proposed? There is no reason to stick with the existing footprint. You will get a house with no compromises and can reclaim all the VAT.

double slip wedges and some polyurethane glue has been working a treat. Thanks!

I am taking this a little bit out of context (of HPs or gas), but am interested in narrow goals. Is it not a case that the UK is not working in isolation, we are part of a global species. Most countries will be taking a different approach, but with the same aim of net zero. There will come a time, possibly in the not to distant future, where only goods and services must meet a minimum criteria of carbon emissions or they cannot be purchased. As long as this is audited correctly, then there should not be a problem. There will always be odd ball situations that skew the figures i.e. County A may have higher agricultural emissions than country B, but lower industrial emissions. But the idea is to get divergence to, initially, net zero. Carbon negative can come later, but not too late. I don't think we need to particularly do this via austerity i.e. heat your house to 16°C rather than 20°C, but we will need to be careful of marginal gains i.e. a factory that makes heat pumps that have embodies carbon at say 10 units per HP, overproducing to get the unit value down to 8 units and they then just sit on a shelf (we used to have 'food mountains'). How each country does this is rather irrelevant i.e. nuclear, RE, efficiency gains, tree planting, CCS, the idea is to get to net zero. Also worth pointing out that land is only around 30% of the earths area, there are huge carbon sinks in the oceans and seas. There are also huge risks of acidification, rising temperatures, overall sea level rises and the more devastating storm surges. So I don't think a narrow goal is the problem. The problem is getting the ball into the goal.

The pricing and product looks good Our previous build had to be sash windows throughout We contacted Three manufacturers and asked if they would make us a small on suit window up One refused the other two sent us the windows out About £200 each Money well spent

Design services are standard rated and cannot normally be reclaimed. "Mixed" invoices (eg supply and fit) should be charged at the lowest of the two rates on the lot. Since "Fitting" is zero rated the whole of a supply and fit invoice should be zero rated to you. However in this case they are providing Design Services and materials both of which are standard rated. There are at least three possibilities... 1) Two seperate invoices. You can only reclaim VAT on the one for the materials. 2) One invoice with design and materials separately priced. The whole lot should be standard rated but only the Vat on the materials would be reclaimable. 3) One invoice with just one figure for the total and VAT. HMRC should allow you to reclaim all of the VAT.

Our design is about as far from the local street scene as you can get. Think chocolate box 16th Century cottages right next to ours: a sharp Scandy design. The key thing - for us - was the micropolitics. In this case we knew (through our architect) of the LPA planner's preferences. And he (the planner) has a weak spot for passivhaus design and sustainability. So, without promising that we would work to that standard, we promised to aim for it. All the informal local feedback we had was about the passivhaus design - and the built in sustainability. A SUDS design for example that had a water garden built in to the roof discharge, leading to a small attenuation pond , its overflow goes into a pond set on the existing spring line. I'm not arguing that that's the route you should take; merely to look for the planner's triggers. And then use them. And you can get a hint of those by reading his (hers) Delegated Reports. Worth the effort every time.

a freezing stack would be an extremely rare event in most of the UK However cold bridging due to the cold air in the soil stack rising in the building could be the other problem considered. Also the termination through the roof can be a leaky problem. And again the smaller the diameter of the pipe the more likely to freeze so perhaps the 32 and 40mm pipes are the real concern.

This kind of lackadaisical behaviour from a surveyor really Fs me off. I would write him a strongly worded letter mentioning that as a professional he really could have had the common sense and courtesy to ask why you didn’t have trickle vents. It’s not as if MVHR is a new technology. Tell him that you consider his failure to ask to be, at best, lazy and, at worst, a breach of the standards to be reasonably expected from a professional surveyor, and threaten to make a complaint to his regulator/certifying body if he is unwilling to accept your evidence of MVHR. With some numpties, the only option is to threaten to make a nuisance of yourself.

This is the first bending project that folder I made was for, my second attempt at the gate video intercom shroud. I binned the first as I'd hand formed it, aka beaten it around wood and metal formers with a bfo hammer & wasn't happy. All stainless including the M4 rivnuts this time. It's still not perfect, one leg is a bit taller, I stick welded it again as I really struggled with my MIG yesterday but it'll be covered either side with the flints, lime mortared in, so most of it won't be seen:

As long as a post doesn't break the T&C's then it's allowed. If the post contains information that another member disputes then we allow and welcome a healthy debate on whatever topic is being discussed as long as it is kept civil. If you think something is lies then please use facts and figures to prove that a member has got it wrong otherwise it's just 2 opposing views of the same issue.

This blog is for me to look back over time to see how things have changed and to assure myself that we are making some progress, albeit very slow. I appreciate all help and friendly comments, but appreciated that this is not an exciting blog. Looking through my diary for the last month it seems to say, work / work / work and not on the conversion. Moving to a new factory seems to entail lots of extra hours. Good to add some OT to the budget, but by the time the taxman etc. have their cut it's not as much as hoped. Anyway, this weekend 7th / 8th August is the server move which means the rest of the office staff can move so one more busy week with them and it should slow down. The factory is a different story, but that's not my responsibility. Anyway, back to the conversion. After looking in more detail when replacing some blocks we realised that the crack in the middle of the long back wall went from top to bottom and was not level, but luckily hadn't cracked the somewhat limited existing foundations. Thanks to BH and advice we went from the plan to stitch to removing the whole section to replace. So, from this To this, and hopefully soon the gap will be no more. To provide access for drainage and just add more space on the back, which is south facing, we have been removing rotten sleepers and the steel girders which held them up. This picture is back before everything started growing, now the whole bank has been covered in bracken as you can see in the picture above. So again, from this To this, which will ultimately be retained by gabions and cleared the whole length. Getting out all the tree stumps, rotten sleepers and metal girders is quite a labour intensive task, thanks for diggers. As of 2019 this stretch was completely impossible to get through with lots of weeds and tree branches growing through what is now our windows. I didn't think at the time to take any pictures, but I'm beginning to become part of my children's generation and trying to remember to take photos daily of everything that does and doesn't move. Not something that was ever done when I was young. So, onwards to August, building up the gap, extending some internal walls and if we can get a floor saw then breaking more concrete, hopeful at an auction tomorrow. Good luck to everyone on their build and back at the end of August. Jill

Hi Have managed to get watertight and have insulated the roof in the house but still have the garage to do, In the house I have used 150mm PIR in between rafters and then 2 layers of 60mm PIR, also sealed all joints with airtight foam, using large washers to hold up insulation until fixing the timber for the service void thought insulation into the rafters, then counter batten for plasterboard. Have now started first fix plumbing and mvhr system. So moving on if not as fast as i would like.

I'm a roofer and have done many turrets over the years, you are correct. This must be their first attempt at doing a turret but do not back-down on this. It needs sorted or it is a potential leak/wind problem.

I wouldn't cross the road to piss over Wren. Showroom is drop dead gorgeous, killer salespeople, "buy now or your children and the planet will die before you get back in your car".....etc......and then nothing after you have left and have paid, other than two fingers when the order all arrives smashed to bits by an over-worked angry delivery driver and huge turn-around times to get replacements 'when they can fit you in'. I lost a lot of money on 2 of their installs, when replacement panels and cabinets etc kept on getting redelivered by the same angry driver in the same state. The builder had to threaten the driver with a slap around the face due to just how badly he was treating the clients order whilst getting it out of the wagon and lobbed onto the pavement. 7 damaged deliveries of key decor panels which halted the whole install, and when the client went to the showroom to protest the showroom manager took over and got the transport manager to deliver the new white gloss decor ends, and proudly opened it up, removing all the 34 layers of bubble-wrap, to reveal the new hand delivered panel, damage free, in fcuking grey.

I thought for a minute that you were somebody from around here, where aitches 'ardly 'ever 'appen, talking about controlling your hedges. Favourite anecdote. Sister announcing at breakfast table: "We are gong to have an arbour in the back garden." Niece, at age about 6: "With ships?" F

I think I know his brother ! Was his surname d’over ?