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You're asking for a bespoke door. You'll need to network for a decent local woodworker who has a proper woodworking shop - not a local chippy. Networking takes time. Ask a proper old fashioned timber supplier for suggestions: you know the sort of timber supplier - proper old fashioned - doesn't have a website, phone is only ever answered at 7:30 in the morning, and when you eventually get there, nobody is on site (yes there is, but are completely covered in wood dust: perfectly camouflaged). They'll know who should make you a good door - because the woodworker in mind uses that timber supplier for the raw material. Locally for us its T K Knipe. Impossible to find unless you know.

Welcome. Thank you very much for doing some of your own research. You'll know by now how often we get asked exactly the same questions, its just that the words are in a different order. Have you discovered the search system that we have on this board? Its quite powerful. Just in case you haven't, here's an example relating to your post above. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/search/?q=32mm&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy&search_in=titles

Notes from video description and nuggets buried in comment replies: SCOP 2.99; "very small radiators, no cavity insulation" (but some attention to air tightness I suspect). "Vaillant Arotherm Plus. The load is about 6 kW … 22mm pipe." (He thinks the Vaillant HPs are much better than Mitsubishi, but more expensive.) "It was a pretty much consistent 21c internal temperature internally all week." "Weather compensated … curve selected is set for around 55c at -1." "I think once this has sensible radiators the SCOP will be more like 5." "Run 24/7 … set back overnight at 18c … does not turn off but lowers flow temp." "Electrical consumption in Dec … 580 kWh" Any TRVs left on max, ASHP modulates the flow temp down to what's required to maintain room temp. "I have not, nor will not state that insulation isn't the first most important step. By releasing this video I am not saying technology first. … We did not insulate first as this is not a house. This is a showroom. The heat pump will return before insulation and insulation does not fill the showroom." Sorry if you've seen this before. Sk8rboi has some other good content in the channel.

My wife and I are in the very early days of considering a self-build - with our current preference being for a built in factory kit house. The first challenge is to find a plot...

Then the CoP is creditable.

Risk of rot Poorer sound insulation Timber fraction to insulation ratios need considering Some Mortgage lenders don’t like (at least want an outer brick leaf) Issues with shower movement Each or these can be argued against I know, Im merely pointing out that you cant evangelise a construction method to the exclusion of all others. Went through a lot of research when looking at construction methods for our new build but came back round to traditional. That’s not to say that there’s some great advantages to timber frame. But timber frame is hardly new or innovative, like all things there are a hundred factors to consider (one of them being whether you’re in a wet climate!) when considering any individual build.

It's inverter. One very quick look at the schematic shows the compressor as having three connections WUV. Means 3-phase...

So we’ve just been down this route. Initially we were going 100mm pir but after looking into it decided to go blown EPS beads. I increased cavity to 150mm (should be fine if you’ve standard width foundations). Ours is also exterior facing brick. Cost difference: 272 m2 of cavity insulation required : about £4900 plus the labour for the brickies to fit. Pumped insulation by outside specialist contractor - £4200 - with a 25 year guarantee. Means the build will go up quicker (brickies just focus on laying block and brick) and have a much greater chance of a fully, well insulated cavity. FYI the beads are water resistant and don’t transfer water across the cavity. Water that does get into the cavity naturally flows down the beads between the balls rather than across the cavity.

You'll need to bump the cavity to 150mm between the leafs. You prob have this anyway I haven't seen any examples of moisture getting across the cavity with beads that were installed correctly. Normally it's because of a badly fitted cavity tray, mortar bridging the cavity or an unsuitable mineral wool pumped into a very narrow cavity. There's a few threads here about boards in the cavity. Have a read through.

Black Jack painted on , either oil or waterbased emulsion, careful work with poly and rape, self adhesive dpm, all tricky. I would use folded thick poly

Is there a stop-tap inside the house ? Because if there is, thats yer low-cost belt and brassieres answer .....

A diversified load which demonstrates sustained current draw well over the 100A mark. When I do a load assessment, usually for a commercial/industrial development (residential, until now has generally just been taken as a 100A fuse) I take all the main plant loads, lighting loads, small power, lifts, water pumps, EVC, etc. and add them all onto a table. Small power for an office for example is based on office type and W per meter sq. So that gives an estimate of "uncontrolled loads" i.e. plugged in items. In your house you could work this out, by working out how many of you there are and what do you all do. Laptops, TV's, do you run washes a lot, cook a lot etc. etc. Lighting can be much more accurate as you spec the lighting and know the connected loads and switching arrangement so you can work out burn time. Then we apply diversity to the other loads. Lighting might be 80% if you assume stores, WC's etc. and occasional use rooms are not always lit, general power I usually take at 100% because I have already worked out estimated loads and I don't like to reduce it more if I am sure the estimate is good. Lifts in a busy office maybe 70-75%. Vent 90% Water pumps, 60% and so on. At the bottom of the speadsheet it spits out a amps per phase figure, then I add 30% for expansion. On this office I am doing just now the figure was 215A per phase before the spare 30%. So clearly this will be a 3 phase supply, but had that figure rolled up at 16A per phase and I knew that we could get single phase kit, I would propose a 25kVA single phase supply which is about 100A. If you PM me your email address I will send you the spreadsheet and you could tinker with it. I will leave it populated so you can see how it works.

If the contractor has done it, tell him he needs to do it again, as it's rubbish. Why should you pay twice? If you contracted it yourself tell the company to come back. Looks like everyone is wiping up the mess left by a shoddy plasterer.

like I said before, the best thing you can do is get electrician to give it all a thorough test and inspection and advise what needs doing, taking into account your plans for the property and alterations you will need.

No point putting 32mm in if you have no sprinkler requirement which is usually laid as a parallel feed anyway. In any instance your restriction will be the 15mm meter orifice and the 25mm supply pipe.

so it's a spur off a spur? Where is this one powered from then? No earth sleeving where you come from?

If you are choosing to indulge in unnecessary personalised insults, I'm not interested. Don't bother replying to me; you are now on ignore.

Welcome! Last year we completed a retrofit of a 1960s property in Herts, using pavatherm wood fibre EWI. The details are on the PH DB. Airtight construction with breathable wall construction and MVHR makes for great internal air quality. Happy to help if you have any Herts specific queries ?

Anything better than 3 ach may require MVHR are you prepared for that. Q1. Parge coat, two of us (never done it before) approx 210m2 in two days with brushes and on ladders as some walls are 4m tall; that was for Durisol blocks, normal cement blocks will be much easier.

I've moved the other post to this subforum and will now lock the current post to avoid having two chains of discussion.

In terms of working with Dublin local authorities (or any authorities in Ireland) you need to phrase the letter something like "we assume the enclosed updated elevation satisfies planning condition number XX, however if not please let us know." That way when they don't get back to you it's approved. If you wanted you could send in a letter along the same lines. "In relation to the revised elevation submitted on the XX September 2021 we assume this meets the planning condition number XX as we haven't received further correspondence on this matter". The local authorities in Ireland (it probably varies and is more an issue in Dublin) are under resourced and so poor at replying to communications that a new law for planning applications currently under discussions will require the planning authorities to reply and agree within a certain timeframe.

What legal entity did you give this 5 figure deposit to? Getting that back would be a higher priority to me than knocking up a minimally functional budget kitchen.

Just want to say that I really enjoy these threads. Seeing everyone’s opinion come together to help guide design is great. Thanks to all those qualified peeps who spend their time doing it for free (and obv have a passion and enjoy it). Thanks!

If this is the case then the fuses maybe fake and do not comply with BS1363 or there is a fault with the fuse connections The rating given in BS1363 are not intermitant ratings they are continuous ratings. There are a lot of fake plugs and fuses out there. As an aside the other issue that is not so obvious to a lot of people is the 13A twin socket. The rating is not 13A per socket.

Can you justify these numbers with a source before I rework, please? Happy to do so, however. Accept that. 24.4 GW current wind nameplate power capacity. This actually seems to be 17.6 GW, ie 25% higher than your number - though estimates such as we are doing need mean averages and totals, not peaks. On May 4 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/21/may-gales-help-britain-set-record-for-wind-power-generation I make that more like 8.6 GW, which is 50+% higher than your number. Based on wind energy generated of 75,369 GWh (2020 Govt Environmental Accounts), divide by (24*365), gives a mean average power output of 8.60 GW. Are you missing that Offshore wind has a far higher capacity factor than Onshore wind, and all the new fields are offshore? For offshore it is 46% - just under half, and for onshore it is 28%. For new offshore wind coming on stream it is higher, which is why I use 0.5 or 50% in my estimate. Seems so to me. 1 - In resilience terms, we get a new stable source of elec,which is overwhelmingly low carbon - 90%+ in No is hydro. Part of teh answer to "occasionally no wind, sometimes no sun"? 2 - In C02 terms that's clearly a benefit. National Grid have an animated presentation of live. Nat Grid say they save 3 million tonnes a year, even without full data from the new one. data: https://www.nationalgridcleanenergy.com/powerofnow/ 3 - In kWh, it is extra capacity if required - at a time when we are seeking to increase renewable supply availability. 4 - In £, it is a more open market, and aiui Norway Link gives us access to another pricing pool. Plus I see no reason why we can't end up being more of an exporter over say 8-15 years. 5 - Politically, diversity of supply has to be good, surely? I'll avoid politics, however, beyond noting Mr Macaron's efforts to use it as a political lever - electricity being France's 2nd or 3rd largest export to the UK. There's quite an interesting pipeline of interconnectors coming on stream (somewhat old list, and I'd expect some of these to fail): https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/policy-and-regulatory-programmes/interconnectors F

You got to stop the water getting though, not just thinking that a lime finish will let it dry out faster. Do you have a gutter/downpipe leaking onto it? With your builder, there is still time.

Knock the house down and start again. That’s what I often wish I had done with my 1930s semi…

No amount of lime is going to help there.

We move in tomorrow (going to be interesting with 2 sprained ankles) but hobbled about with the phone today for a walk through - it is unlikely to win any cinematography awards (just realised I was holding the phone upside down for one of them!) but there we go. I will try to sort some links soon.

Keep the fairy liquid for the dishes it has no place in construction

What on Earth are you doing ??? why the lime?? Do not add washing up liquid!!! 5-1 sand cement or 6-1 sand cement both with proper plasticiser if it’s underground 3-1 sand cement. And if it’s above ground and will be seen, just pay a bricklayer.

What low carbon progress do you expect to arrive over the next year to achieve such a startling change in energy generation? The reality is that we will likely see a rise in carbon-based UK electricity generation because our nuclear capacity is being retired early with 1.4GW due to be lost this year. New wind farm capacity will only nudge the dial a percent or two each year, for example the biggest recent news in wind farms was Triton Knoll which took years to build and came online last year with 0.8GW capacity. It isn't startling imo. Let me take you through it. My samples of elec generation (=elec use as near as dammit) are Gridwatch graphs. I am taking the last month as a proxy for "winter" and the whole year as a proxy for the whole year. Percentages of elec supply. Gas fired is orange. Offshore wind is turquoise. https://gridwatch.co.uk/demand/percent Actual amounts in GWh: Assumptions 1 - The % share for gas / wind / nuclear in energy production over the year are something like 40%:30%:20%, judging by that - but let's work with my generous 50% guestimate for now for % of electricity made by gas. 2 - Total demand is about 35 GW in the winter, falling to 28GW in the summer - a fall of 20%. 3 - Offshore wind farm availability is now around 60%. ie a 1GW nameplate capacity windfarm will produce an average of .6GW output (Production Based Availability, which is the one relevant to total generation). https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Definitions-of-availability-terms-for-the-wind-industry-white-paper-09-08-2017.pdf Generation of Electricity 4 - So eg Triton Knoll with 857 MW nominal capacity should produce something around 514 MW, or call it 0.5 GW. The first turbine there went active in Sept last year, and will be fully operational by end of Q1. 5 - There are two big wind farms coming on stream this year in addition to Triton Knoll. That is Hornsea 2 (1,386 MW nameplate capacity = .83 GW actual), and Moray East (950 MW nameplate capacity = .57 GW actual). 6 - In addition we now have an up to extra 1.4 GW actual supply from the North Sea Link, which was half turned on in Oct 2021, and is now fully active at 1.4 GW. This is 2 way so is available when we need it, and ditto Norway. 7 - Plus the burnt down French interconnector is due back online by Dec 2022. That is worth another 1 GW, and usually exports from France to us the majority of the time. 8 - So to set against the 1.4GW going offline with the nuclear, between Sep 21 and Dec 22 we have 1.9 GW actual which is ours coming on stream, and another up to 2.4GW which is available as required. Up to 4.3 GW overall. Gas Calc 9 - Now consider if Gas currently supplies my over-estimate of 50% of electricity, and Winter Demand is 35 GW. And summer demand is 28 GW. Gas therefore supplies around 17GW of electricity in winter, and 14 GW in summer (though the 12 months of data above argues that it is more like 14-15 GW and 11-11.5 GW respectively due to my generous 50% assumption). 10 - Our new coming-online resources are worth a conservative 3.5 GW of generation, which can switch directly out from gas, and on gas generation of 14 GW or 17 GW represent 20% of gas generated electricity in winter and -25% of gas generated electricity in summer. Halve those to get a % of the overall electricity supply and you get 10% or 12.5% shift from gas generated electricity to other sources. 11 - Which numbers, once we use the data from the graphs at the top, give a reduction in the 10-15% range ie Gas generated electricity falling to 35-40% from the current 50%. Which is very roughly where my estimate came from. 12 - I think my assumptions are quite central and balanced, and I have not factored in reduced usage from higher prices, or the amount usage has been ticking down each year. 13 - To take account of the nuclear 1.4 GW closure that I was unaware of, my 50% base case for the amount of electricity generated from gas is generous as pointed out - and reducing that just to 45%, which I suggest is still generous, will account for that difference. A 10-12.5% shift of gas generated electricity to the other sources I have identified will put it in the range 32.5-35%. 14 - There are a few things we can quibble about around the edges, such as the impact on the winter 22 numbers of the first 200 GW of Triton and the first part of North Sea link being onstream, but I think the reduction in gas share of electricity generated in 2022 is going to be significant. 15 - Which is why I think the Govt have been right to take a short-term attitude to mitigating price rises, as I think they need to be nimble due to rapid change happening. But I wish they had done something far simpler such as "the cap will not rise at all, we will provide medium term borrowing to the industry for the difference, and this is the new expanded insulation etc programme that will take the £150 of green taxes off bills whilst doing the renovation job 3-4x more quickly". Which would have kept it all out of the inflation rate, and be totally flexible. 16 - I guess one potential change is if electricity jumps up after COVID, but as we will not all be at home all day it cuts both ways. The highest demand increase prediction for 2022 I have seen is 3-4%, whilst the 4 GW approx new supply capacity is much larger. (As you know, I do not think that electric cars will drive up demand appreciably for several years.) F

Can we change the names to Boris and Putin? …please!