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As @Temp suggests, send them a copy of the report with a clearly set out rectification list that you require them to resolve and ask for a response within a given time - e.g. 14days. Unfortunately, if you have to make a claim in court you will need to play the game to really show that they were not willing to sort out the problem. At the moment, they could quite easily just sit there in court and say you didn't give them an opportunity to resolve the problems, that in their view it was all good and you didn't give the them the report and a list of the problems. \They could even argue that you didn't give them the opportunity to obtain an independent report themselves. Why do I know this? I've been in court with a lying toad that despite all my evidence and a surveyors report, slimed his way out of it. Out of a claim of thousands of pounds he got away with it apart from £600 which I then didn't even see because of all the various court/surveyor costs. Hence, why you need to at the very least have a conversation with a solicitor who will guide you - and sometimes, just getting the solicitor to write the letter for you will tip the problem in your favour by showing that you mean business. If this is that important to you, don't try to do this DIY. Have you looked at any insurance policy you might have that covers legal costs? BTW, that workmanship looks super terrible and shoddy! It looks like they bent the cladding by hand. I dread to think what the underlying detailing like flashings, trims and aprons is like!

Having originally planned then dropped the idea of Solar PV (a combination of budget constraints and drop in FiT rates) I recently acquired a number of Solar PV panels (a pallet bought in conjunction with @ProDave from Bimble Solar via Ebay). Having recently collected the panels, lengths of mounting rail and various other bits and bobs @ProDave had kindly sourced, I fitted the system over the last two Saturdays. First off was mounting the rails on my rear, SW facing garage wall. I decided to mount the panels vertically simply for ease - a ready made structure to fix the rails to, and easy access to a consumer unit for the grid connection. There is a penalty in terms of a reduction in annual generation compared to a sloped array, however simplicity won out. The following picture shows the garage wall with rails fixed; To start I nailed packers to the cladding to ensure I had a drainage gap behind the rails. I then fixed the rails (Unistrut - a tip from @Onoff) through the cladding, cladding battens into the timber frame of the garage using timber drive bolts I happened to have. As the lengths of Unistrut I had were offcuts (only way I could transport them) I used joiners secured to the channel with bolts/channel nuts. Finally, I added hanging brackets for each panels to help carry the weight of each panel / so I wasn't reliant purely on bolts clamping the panels in position. I fitted the panels, sitting them on the hanging bracket and bolting them around 300mm from top and bottom as pictured; The ends were secured using Z brackets I cut down using a grinder (thanks @JSHarris) so that they clamped only the frame and did not overhang the panel itself; Long M6 bolts with large washers were used to secure the panels into the rails where they met with each other; The channel nuts (also known as Zebedees) into which the long M6 bolts were secured; I used M8 bolts and channel nuts for the joiners, end and hanging brackets. My electrician connected the system up, wiring the panels to a DC isolator, into the Inverter which in turn is wired into the garage CU via a meter and AC isolator. 2 hours work for him. Switched on, the Inverter ran through all its self tests and everything okay. Sadly at that point it clouded over and the heavens opened so only a few watts being generated. Fortunately, today has been a bright and sunny day (albeit a bit hazy) and my 1.5 kWp system is as we speak, generating 1.2kW. The following shot was taken yesterday just before the rain came on, but all in all, I'm pleased with the way it looks (panels mounted so they read visually with house windows). Cost wise the system (1.5kWp plus a spare panel), mounting rails, nuts, bolts, brackets, isolators, meter and electrician (@Prodave was kind enough to give me the DC cable he had left over which was just enough for the job) total £550. I already had the inverter. Final job within the next 28 days is to notify the DNO of the installation.

I really don’t know. It beggars belief that people can behave so unprofessionally in so many respects. My project is going to have taken almost a year longer than quoted for. Probably only 30% of that delay is down to my main contractor, and I thought he would be a bit late anyway. The rest is partially supply chain related, but mostly caused by poor attitudes amongst other contractors in respect of timeliness, professionalism and dependability. I suspect that one significant cause of problems is poor access to justice, resulting in little deterrence to breach contracts. Litigation in this country is exceedingly expensive. The small claims court is VERY slow, and if you have the misfortune to have to bring a claim for anything over £25k, there is a significant risk of having to pay your opponent’s costs. Another contributor to this phenomenon, I suspect, is that a lot of work in this industry is done on a cash basis, or at least part cash, and that gives the parties involved an (incorrect) idea that it is therefore lawless, and un-policeable. Finally, there is often no deep pockets to enforce against, as contractors often operate as limited companies with little assets, or as sole traders with little assets. A further cause might be that the general building trade (ie I’m not talking about some of the more specialist trades like gas engineer, plumber or sparky) is seen by many as a trade suitable for unskilled labour. It isn’t of course, and all of us laymen here who have tried our hand at doing it ourselves know how difficult it is to get it done as quickly and competently as the professionals. The result of this, is that there are a lot of cowboys/impersonators/chancers and this brings down standards/expectations across the industry. I’m not sure if this is related to the previous point or is a separate point in its own right, but I think lack of education and/or technical training in the UK is another factor. It’sa shame more investment has not been put into apprenticeship programmes and technical training. Learning on the job is all very well, but if it was more structured it would attract more young people, and create a more highly skilled and motivated workforce.

If it's only started since the work was done next door I'm willing to bet they stood on your roof and caused this.

Yeah it’s new connections to main sewer

You have got to frame it at the top and have a supporting shelf underneath with cut outs for waste etc. A s/s sink would just need the top frame. My kitchen fitter wouldn't do the undermount sinks either - said it was for the Silestone guys. Worktop lot said it needed to be in pre template. Another scope gap needing to be filled by muggings here...

The foundations for any wall or pillar should be horizontal/level with steps not sloped. http://civilconstructiontips.blogspot.com/2011/06/foundations-on-sloping-sites.html http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cFxWm7-WL4M/Tegma68USKI/AAAAAAAAABM/J8QV0lARUO4/s1600/18.gif If the foundations are stepped then like this..

I used a GoPro that I already had. in a waterproof case and powered via POE with a USB-C converter so it's permanently powered up on the roof of our existing property.

Its not quite clear how many neighbours are involved. My reading is that House A relies on the pipe which goes through your garden (House B) then through garden of House C to a soakaway in D or ?? Where is the blockage? On land A? or land C? . Its likely to be the responsibility of house A to sort out as its essentially their pipe. The exception might be if house C also uses it. See if the deeds give house A a right of access to B,C and D for maintenance purposes? It's possible that the slope of the land means that one or more houses have a right to let rainwater run off their property onto yours but that does not extend to sewage. Sewage flooding onto your garden would amount to a statutory nuisance. If they refuse to do anything about it you can try and get the Environmental Health Officer to intervene but EHO can be busy and aren't always very helpful.

Are the commercial solutions now economic given the increase in marginal unit rates / decrease in costs as shenzhen grade kit comes on the market? £800 AC coupled inverter / £800 for 6000 cycles @ 2 kWh / 1 kW(p) https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/sofar-storage/sofar-me3000sp https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/sofar-storage/sofar-me3000sp-us2000-type-c-kits Charge @ average 250 W for 8 hours; discharge @ average 125 W for 16 hours; bank £0.50 / day through "screw displacing gas fired generation; play the broken electricity market using batteries and PV instead" game? £18/yr. Will it last 10 years? 15 years? Perhaps; if the peak charge / discharge rates are limited? Is it Depth of Discharge or the cycle count or the charge/discharge rates that kill LFP?

Oh dear. The days of mortar dabs are long gone. A continuous mortar bed is the only way to lay any kind of slab. For more info have a look at this paving expert article Also, as Jonny mentioned a slurry primer should have been applied to the slate as it's not the least bit porous. A mix of SBR and cement the consistency of runny porridge is brushed on just prior to laying. Frome the article: Spot Bedding British Standard 7533: Part 4 , which covers the installation of both concrete and natural stone flags or slabs, requires that these are laid on a "full bedding layer". This applies to ALL classes of pavements, including patios and driveways, not just the big projects undertaken in the town centre or on a retail park.

@SuperJohnG I extended the air inlet hose about 6m with some buried 25mm conduit to place the snorkel in the hedgeline out of the way. Has no effect on the running of the unit, the volume of air required is quite low. With Smart C there is no separate control box, there's an LCD built into the top cover flap of the pump. Lift manhole, unscrew lid of "equipment capsule" to access. Funnily enough I lifted the lid on ours yesterday for the first time in a year or so. Couldn't hear the pump at all until I lifted the manhole cover, no odour whatsoever, and a seething mass below.

Remember that you will need an accessible entrance - though that need not be at this particular entrance.

It probably needs a slurry primer to help the mortar grip.

Yes read that now, thanks. a belated heart from me.

I agree with @Conor. I have a cordless Bosch Professional that's been impressive. The other option if you have a compressor is to use an air hammer - so light you can hold with one hand and can be bought dead cheap. I used an air hammer to remove concrete render from the back of my house and to remove all the existing plaster inside. The only limitation with an air hammer is the width of the chisel attachment but you can get some up to 75mm which I believe Sealey sells for one of its hammers.

I'd reccomend a cordless SDS drill, rather than a full blown kango type SDS max machine. something around 2-3kg would do the job. I've a brushless Makita one and it's one of the best tools I've ever used. You'll need at least two batteries though, not cheap. https://www.toolstop.co.uk/makita-dhr242z-18v-cordless-li-ion-sds-plus-brushless-3-mode-rotary-hammer-drill-24mm-body-only-p67795/?gclid=CjwKCAjw9-KTBhBcEiwAr19ig48OgjUqC_KZYP28rK6y06msef8fERqFHYN4MoLjZ_xDdKu9LWJgaBoC1dMQAvD_BwE I also have a large titan sds machine and now rarely use it as the Makita can do 90% the same work but far lighter and a lot less tiring. The titan is now only used for core drilling

You don’t need to skim MR plasterboard but you do need to tank corners and where it joins floors etc.

Hi Charlie, Thanks for your response. We're still pretty open in terms of the construction method we want to use. We'd looked at SIPs because we want a building that's going to be thermally efficient and quick to build as we're going to be moving into rented accommodation. The site we're looking at also has tricky access which is going to limit the size of the vehicle we can get in, so we may have to consider off loading to smaller vehicles to get stuff in, although some SIPs companies will supply smaller panels. I've looked at a number of companies who supply SIPs kit houses and with most of them you seem to be able to adapt the design, and you can choose what stage they take the build to - wind & water tight or turnkey. But given the tricky access timber frame may be a better option. I've looked at MBC but haven't looked at any other timber frame companies yet (we're going to be based in Hampshire near Romsey). Thanks for the information about the blockwork and warranty etc, I wasn't aware of that. I'd Goggled 'building plot contracts' and found some information about 'Conditional contracts' and 'Option contracts' so that's why I mentioned those. As a first time self builder it all seems quite over whelming at the moment, so I want to make sure I'm doing everything right.

You can get a device that routes excess PV generation into an immersion heater. This can then be set to higher temperature to do the sterilisation.

Thanks, I am in work at the moment, I will take a photo later today 👍

will do! I need to speak to a solicitor- they’re clearly confident they can ‘wait me out’ or slide out of it. Sadly your experience is what I fear!

Have you read many posts on this forum ?

I'd still write giving them final opportunity with deadline.. https://gw.legal/articles/building-claims-how-to-challenge-shoddy-building-work

Some bathrooms/gates/electric whacker plate/<insert any other project here> take longer...

Just to add, anywhere you are tiling doesn’t require skim. It actually reduces the weight carrying capacity of the plasterboard.

I think to be safe you have to give them an "opportunity to rectify" the problem. You did that by inviting them to come and look but in court they might make up some story and say they did agree to fix but you got someone else to do it while they were waiting for parts to arrive. If you haven't already done so I would write recorded delivery with a copy of the report/list of work that needs doing and giving them a date in two weeks to agree a plan and timescale to sort it. Keep a copy. You can say in the letter If they haven't responded by that date you will get the work done elsewhere and seek to recover costs.

6.5 years. 1) builders and contractors are (expletive deleted)wits. 2) suppliers lie. Contractors not sticking to their contracts and structural engineer taking eons to make any minor revisions. Joiner falsifying a major injury to get out of a contract. generally people being (expletive deleted)witty. To avoid delay, don’t build.

I just like the idea of a sensor in every room. I know building regs specify the minimum but I have gone well beyond building regs in most aspects of the building. With the amount of electronics now, never mind when my kids grow up, with questionable quality li-ion batteries, I think there is a risk in bedrooms particularly. So I am aiming for LD1. I've seen the silence button and like the functionality. I'll keep my eyes open on ebay and reassess the costs

No, solar array + E7 + Sunamp(or cylinder) for DHW This is what got me thinking about Sunamp in the first place - i could store E7 energy with minimal loss and inject when needed Hmm, this is another factor I hadnt really considered. ASHP would protect me more for future energy price-hikes 🤔

It's good to know the history of this and makes perfect sense. It was only briefly described to me by a tradesman a while ago. I suppose today it pretty much means the same as you describe in that it keeps the money coming in when there's nothing else better, but as soon as there is they're off to that.

Before tanking you need to make sure you use the tanking tape to the corners and around the tray. I have recessed shower valves so taped around them too. I used the Everbuild system and it seemed pretty good.

Welcome. I am intrigued to know what a 'property developer' actually is. Seems to cover everything from someone renting out a house, to a large corporation building 1000+new homes. As far as I can see, at the lower end, it tends to be chancers. So why not go and work for a property developer for a year or two, see what it is all about.

Lets start with the basics, and then move down the hierarchy: Naivety Optimism bias Great Crested Newts Male learned helplessness Mendacious tradespeople Criminal behaviour Exceptionally bad weather Osteoarthritis @pocster's car-crashes. If you can be bothered, detailed evidence of the above items can be found in my previous posts. Delay can , with a bit of effort, easily be turned to advantage.

All day long. You can bypass the Sunamp and just fit Willis heaters for direct electrical heating, but then you ar stuck with a ratio of 1:1, whereas with a ASHP you’d be more like 2.5-3:1 so around a third of the cost. Completely dependant on whether or not the HP is matched well to the dwelling, and can run at a reasonable CoP.

Screwfix and Toolstation are a scourge to productivity. It is just far too easy to justify getting a couple of pipe connectors, a single paint roller sleeve, drill bit, or packet of screws, and then driving half way across town to pick it up during the afternoon instead of doing something far more important. I now really try to be more organised and save up the orders to just get them delivered next day free.

I prefer to call my many lacks of skills opportunities to learn...whether I actually manage to take advantage of those opportunities is another matter, which I refuse to discuss 😁 Yes, procrastination is a big one. 1. I find myself procrastinating because I'm worried I've made the wrong decision so leave it some time to make sure it's the right decision. God, what a hole that is to get into. 2. Another one is 'organic design' or in other words, designing things as you go and changing your mind, a habit that feeds the procrastination of No 1. (Mind you, this way you do eventually get exactly what you want.. so far me and my whole family have been very happy with the decisions that took this route. It's some of the quick and poorly considered ones I regret.) Another thing for me is that stupidly optimistic tendency to think it's going to be easier that it is. I can now never forget the time honoured advice of Lao Tzu from over 2000 years ago that said something along the lines of: always plan for a journey to be much harder than you think. I wish that'd been at the forefront of my mind when I started, but we live and learn. Now I'm aware that writing this post is a form of procrastination because I'm trying to fit a cutting list as efficiently as possible onto some sheets of plywood and I can't decide whether to use the very expensive Birch plywood or some cheaper softwood plywood to build numerous kitchen drawers to go in carcasses that I'd originally planned to be cabinets....🙄

Not seen any cylinders with moving parts? Copper and stainless cylinders lasts for decades. There is no reason copper should not last a lifetime. The real advantage of sunamp are size compared to normal cylinder, and better heat loss profile. But any cylinder in a cupboard surrounded with accoustic insulation will loose the best part of nothing, especially at heat pump temperatures.

But when a SA goes wrong? Some reports of failures. You can't just swap the heating element out when it fails. What will it cost to repair if it breaks after the guarantee has expired? Compared to a HW cylinder, every plumber under the sun knows how to swap a failed immersion heater for not very much money.

Lack of skills incompetence work going to the gym procrastination lack of skills lack of money taking it easy back ache lack of skills waiting for Friday going on holiday lack of skills

Power. I planned ours well but it was a year to get sorted, albeit I had three fields to cross and my own transformer. It didn't affect schedule just took a while. On the day they ran the lines it was mega quick. I'm currently 15 months in and outside nearly complete. It's slow now plodding along at weekends alone, but I enjoy it. Windows will hold you up, and contractors. The other thing that held it up is me, wanting to control all aspects of the build and be there and oversee people.

I had your problem @Moonshine, in spades. maximum error, in places, somewhat over 20mm laterally, and a few mm vertically. I talked to the joist manufacturers , Cheshire Roof Trusses, Cullens and our SE: sent them all the gory photographic detail. BH advice was also a great help. Cullens sent me back detailed drawings of what I could do, talked to me on the phone : very reassuring indeed. No charge. Have a laugh about our joists on me (FOC)

I would start will all ducts/valves about half way open. There is a lot of interaction when adjusting rates - as you close one valve to reduce the rate the flow rate at all other terminals on that run will start to increase. This makes the process a bit of a pain, as you end up adjusting every room several times. I started with the kitchen, as that had the highest flow rate requirement, and so would tend to cause the least upset to other rooms. I also did all the extract rooms first, as building regs only really stipulates extract rates for individual rooms. The individual room extract rates in the regs are actually the maximum figures the system needs to provide, not the background figures, so turn the MVHR up to boost for these initial room settings. Once you have at least 13l/s from the kitchen, next move to the bathrooms and utility room, and adjust those to get at least 8l/s. Then do the WCs, and adjust for 6l/s. After doing this, go around again and check that you still have at least these rates from each of the extracts - some will have changed because of the adjustments throwing off the main plenum pressure. You will probably have too high a flow rate everywhere, so I would advice opening up the valve to increase the flow rates whilst keeping them in proportion with the regs requirement for each designated extract room (kitchen, bathrooms, utility room, WCs). If you have fitted the toilet smell extractor system I came up with, then just ignore the flow from that - it isn't officially part of the ventilation requirement. Once you have the system extract rates looking in proportion at boost (and bear in mind that they will probably be way over the requirement at this stage) then start measuring the fresh air inlets, also on boost (doing it this way will highlight the main duct loss differences). Adjust these to achieve two objectives. You want the sum of the fresh air flow to be as close as possible to the sum of the extract air flow, plus you want to adjust the fresh air flow so that the most frequently used rooms have the higher flow rates. There is nothing in the regs about fresh air flow rates, so use your own judgement here. For example, you will want the largest and most often used rooms to have the highest flow rates, the smallest and least often used rooms to have the lowest flow rates. The main thing is to adjust the fresh air total flow to match, as closely as possible to the extract total flow. After doing this, go around again and check all the extract flow rates. The chances are they may have changed, and if so then adjust them to make sure they all exceed the building regs limit and match the fresh air feeds. Then go back and double check the fresh air feeds, these may need slight adjustment to get the system balanced at boost. The chances are that you will find at this stage that the system is pretty close to being balanced. Next, reduce the MVHR to the background ventilation rate setting (this is specified as speed 2 on our system, but see my note later). Go around as before and measure the flow rate on all the extract terminals and note the total extract flow rate (the sum of the flow rates from all the terminals). Do the same for the fresh air feed terminals. The total figures for each should match. If they don't, then adjust only the fresh air feed flow rates to get them to match, do not adjust the extract rates. Note the total extract flow rate with the MVHR system on the background ventilation setting and make sure that it exceeds the continuous ventilation rate requirement in Part F, which is calculated from the house total floor area (the total must exceed 0.3l/s per m² of net internal floor area for the whole house). With luck you should find that the ventilation rate exceeds this figure with ease. If it doesn't, then go back to the start, turn the MVHR to boost and go around opening up all the extract ducts, starting with the kitchen, (this is why I said at the start it was a good idea to open up all the extract ducts to maintain the ratio and exceed the building regs extract figure), then go though the process again. Once you have the system so that it meets the building regs Part F Table 5.1a max extract rates from the specified rooms, and is in balance at the background ventilation rate of 0.3l/s/m² of floor area, the job is done. However, you may well find that the background ventilation rate is too high in practice, and that as a consequence the MVHR is using more power than it needs to in order to keep the air in the house fresh. Our experience is that turning down the background ventilation rate has had no detrimental impact at all, so I now run ours at speed 1, with the fan speeds around 25% of full speed. It's worth noting that some MVHR units have the option of being able to individually adjust the extract and fresh air fan speeds independently in the set up menu. This is useful for fine tuning, but is detrimental to efficiency if used as a shortcut way to try and balance the system. I have our system set to 28% extract and 25% fresh air fan speeds, to fine tune it, but would suggest that anything more than a 5% difference really needs to be adjusted out in the ducting/terminals if possible.

One of my assignments when studying renewable energy was to design a system that supplied power for 3 days. I designed a cascading system. Basically anything could run for 4 hours, then stuff was disconnected, big loads first. So no DHW or heating, then oven, then freezers and entertainment, eventually just left with lights, I considered lighting to be a safety issue. Costed it out at around £60k using lead acid technology and islanding inverters. Class mate if mine found a biodiesel generator, I considered that cheating. He got better marks. He used to get better marks in the Mathematic assignments, and I did them for him.

Isn't this a repeat of a thread a few weeks ago? That went round in circles.

Maybe it can be made a sticky?