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My suggested response: Dear Sirs I refer to your email of [date]. In your email you suggest that “Any use my clients have made of their own property or the passageway is entirely without relevance” as “It would not set any legal precedent on which [I] can rely". You appear to have misunderstood the point. My argument is that all residents on that side of [name of road] have a right of way over that passageway. Therefore, the fact that your client has made use of that passageway to cross other neighbour's land is entirely relevant since it supports my assertion that a right of way exists over the entire passageway, including your client's land, for all residents on that side of the road. I would therefore be relying on your client's use of that land as a matter of fact to support my legal argument, not as a legal precedent. Indeed, the fact that you yourself are referring to the “passageway” as such is telling. It is a passage that shows the way across your clients land for others to make use of to access their own properties. Your client’s position has no legal merit and your correspondence on this point is misconceived. It is patently obvious that your client's purported objection on the grounds that no right of way exists is a thinly veiled objection to my development proposals, as evidenced by his prior objection to my planning application, in a new guise. I urge your client to reconsider his position, failing which I will have to escalate matters to protect my rights, all of which remain expressly reserved. Obviously litigation is a costly endeavour, but I will resort to it if necessary and seek my costs of doing so from your client. Yours [@woz]

Daughter goes to the gym. Comes home, goes straight in the shower for 15 mnutes. WTF!!!! When we go swimming, we make use of the facilities included and have a shower there before we leave, we never shower at home on a swim day, why would you? And if I say anything like why did you not shower at the gym to save our energy use, I just get call grumpy old dad. This younger generation are not going to learn about energy saving until they eventually get their own house and have to pay their own bills, then they are going to get a shock. Until then I am expected to shut up and bite my tongue when i see them undoing my energy saving measures.

No I wouldn’t If you can’t live with the grout a bit lighter These DIY products will annoy the hell out of you Bit late for you now We normally mix a good sized blob of grout and leave it on a window cil while we are tiling You would be surprised how many homeowners want to change the shade Thats why most developers choose white or ivory

Hallmarks of a sticking float valve and one of the jets full of crud.

A lot will depend on you temperature at the inlet to mixer and the UFH flow temp. You can insulate the pipes as they leave manifold and enter the floor until clear of cupboard, then box in and insulate the manifold.

The manifolds in my house put out so much heat that the rooms where they sit have never had the heating on. Considering it is a very small space, it won't take much to warm it up, I don't think there is a realistic way to cool it down. The heat would have to go somewhere, unless you want to cut a hole in the wall and put a vent in, but then your heating efficiency will be reduced. In winter when the heating is running that cupboard will be toasty warm, maybe you can make it into a drying cupboard.

Thanks - my googling hadn't got me that far. Will definitely look into it.

Grant do an oil hybrid ASHP, which may allow you to retain the existing rads. Would need some numbers crunched first of course, and would require the oil tank to remain. You would gain a cylinder, and a device for producing 2-3x the heat energy from 1 unit of electrical energy. The oil burner side of the hybrid kicks in when the heating load exceeds the max efficient operation of the ASHP side. Have a google

Can you make a false floor using some PIR board? The trouble is, no matter how much insulation you add, after time with no air movement thermal equilibrium will set in through conduction raising the temperature in the enclosed space. If it was possible to leave an air gap between floor level and the base of the cupboard and have it open to the room with some sort of ventilation holes then that would greatly help. I'd still use some PIR between this air gap and the cupboard base.

Hello all My first post here, having been a lurker for some time. Have been meaning to register for a while, but the sudden and spectacular death of our combi boiler forced my hand. If your boiler is going to die, June is probably not the worst time for it to happen. Cold showers are OK - bracing, as the old saying goes. Mind you, I strongly suspect my enthusiasm will wane once the cold weather returns, so my next post will be in the ASHP forum. No gas where we live, so it looks like the options are a replacement (oil) boiler or a heat pump. I'm sure I'll find good advice here. Not much of a DIYer myself. I can hang a door - the last one took me 5 hours. If only the energy from the resulting expletives could have been captured and fed into the grid... I will save the tale of the time I fitted a new kitchen tap for another day. The bloke in the YouTube video said it would be a 5 minute job. Cheers Martin

All very good advice here, I agree with almost every word. But you really do need to check the deeds. If you don't have them you can get a copy from the land registry. The reason for this is to see the specific wording. Sometimes this kind of easement may say for maintenance or some such. If it explicitly allows for building work or for any reason, then you can send it to the solicitor and they should really give in and that should be the end of it. If the easement is more restrictive then you may well have to argue that it is an easement by prescription looking at the legal guidance posted earlier. You should still win this, but it will be more difficult. Frankly the solicitor doesn't seem much cope. He basically put in the letter that they are trying to use this to get around planning laws. I can't imagine it will look like a genuine effort to enforce the easement correctly to a court.

Given you have another route I would make things awkward for him. Keep writing letters to his solicitor to run up his bill as others like @redtophave suggested. I would also tell neighbours upstream what this neighbour has done. If by chance one of them has already got the legal position formally sorted then that might help you do the same. I suppose they might even be able to instruct your builder to act for them when transporting materials. Warn your builder he may have to use the harder route - that way he should take that into account when he quotes and not raise the price later if the neighbour objects.

You had me going for about 2 seconds...

I think I would take a slightly different approach. These type of letters cost a few quid for a solicitor to produce. I would write back and simply state that the shared access has been used for many years by the residents and is listed as such in the deeds. And then ask on what legal basis they intend to stop what you consider to be legal use of the shared access route. In respect of nuisance from the build this is an issue that should be raised with the council should it occur. Now to answer properly the solicitor will have to spend some time, and his clients money, which they probably wont as they know they would lose.

relatedly, do any water mains or (more likely) combined sewers run through the rear gardens? Check your home buyers pack. It will put the willies up other neighbours to hear that they could be held to ransom over a potential future drain block or water leak, if precedent is set that there's no right of way for the water company or private contractor to get in there to repair it. Overall, yes if you can turn it to an N vs 1 battle I think the case will start looking pretty bleak for the plaintiff. big kudos to @Adsibob for wading in pro bono

Does home insurance cover this sort of legal dispute?

I think this all works out as first fix being as the image below. It's pretty tight to drill the screw holes for the wall mount fixing kit.

You need planning permission to go over 9m² on a ground array. Do the existing modules need a good clean?

the sedum roof is looking particularly lovely at the moment with the different colours

It is the worst, sack of shit advice, any manufacturer could have given anyone. Categorically avoid doing this, please. If Hepworth has a bad point, it’s in giving that bit of naff information. They’d do a LOT better just posting a link to the fitting I showed you. 🙄

Was at school with a lad from your neck of the woods, he liked it so much that he held the school record for beatings. You probably know him, name is Tim Simpson.

I do have quite a heavy load overnight, 2 fridges and 2 freezers and I don't tend to switch tv's etc off at the wall. The immersion load is through choice as my intention was to maximize excess generation as much as possibl5e so I opted for the 5kW diverter from solar edge rather than the 3kW, that is when it arrives! As the diverter would use the excess power upto 5kW my choice of immersion was the higher the better as if I fitted a standard 3kW immersion there would be power going back to the grid anything above base load plus 3kW. Generated 59.78kWh today and exported for sweet FA 46kWh 🤥. Perversley, I may be. looking forward to winter. .

Yes you can do that.. Twin and Earth from CU (or previous on radial) to S1. 3 Core and Earth (Two switched lives a Neutral and Earth) from S1 to S2. Twin and Earth from S2 to the light. Twin and Earth from S1 to another light elsewhere. You can't go from S2 to another light with this set up as it only has switched lives. But if S2 is upstairs that wouldn't be a great idea anyway. Better to have one lighting circuit for each floor.

There are at least 4 ways of wiring 2 way switching, use whichever you prefer. But I would always loop a feed through a switch, even if not actually used. I never use 1.5mm no point it's too large for some fittings if you have to get more than one wire in.

While I was uncertain about ever getting to build my new house I decided to hire some plant and build a patio out in the back garden of my existing house. It will allow me to sit out in the morning, absorb the sunshine and ponder things! I found some nice 40x40 concrete flagstones and edged them in and finally grouted them yesterday. They need a cleanup and a wash and I've to fix the drainage in one spot but otherwise it's done! The experience will also come in handy as I'll explain shortly. The Engineer I thought I lined up last year, and signed a contract with a month ago hasn't been in touch. Tried phone calls and left messages with the secretary but ended up writing to them on Friday and telling them after no communication it was off and I was looking elsewhere. He was the only Engineer I could find willing to do the work and sign off the house for the bank though, a crucial step. Architects were charging twice as much and we four times as careful, no opt out (a planning option we have in ROI) and they wanted to revisit the design stage with more potential cost. I somehow managed to find another Engineer via a referral and although nothing is signed, his answers by text were prompt and accurate. He seemed a bit cautious at first as this is a self build using direct labour, no Architect/Builder overseeing things but he knew his stuff, and my answers seemed to keep him happy. I'll definitely sign something with him before agreeing to the sale of my house but it sets me up for the next stage: The Driveway. The site is to the right of the overhead picture below - it's a side garden. The driveway is bisected by the proposed new site boundary. I need to create a new driveway to the left, for the old house, and have decided on using paving blocks. I've contacted a supplier and got a quantity and quotation. Once I get this done I can put the house on the market, sell up and book the Groundworks/Timberframe guys to build my new house. Less writing, more action!! Steps for the Driveway: Order paving blocks, Stone & Sand Book in plant hire - concrete breaker, digger, tipper, flat plate compactor Book in Grab Hire truck and sequence delivery of MOT / Sand vs muckaway of soil/concrete - see if he can delivery stone/sand and take away spoil if there's room on my new site for this Consider hiring a driver for 2-3 days to assist (this is a solo job) Build new shore for broadband pipe junction to new house and lay 2" electrical conduit to new site to carry broadband (neighbours chopped down tree roots have blocked the broadband pipe on his side but I can't do anything about this despite trying, just hoping its fixed someday - existing cables are ok, new ones are impossible to feed through) Install new earthing rod (electrician) & inspection box as required So, that's the plan for July with September for Sale of House. I've to lodge a commencement notice to dish the kerb I believe and will be listing myself as the builder/owner etc using Opt Out regulations available in the Republic of Ireland. Hopefully in a months time I'll be able to post a blog with some photos of the new driveway and some clearing out of shrubbery to prepare the new site. I've to put up some new site boundary fencing too. That's all for this post. Maybe I'm getting somewhere, I don't know but time will tell!

We have a 250L UVC with 5kW ASHP. Seems to work fine. As discussed elsewhere, we boost the top part with the immersion every morning but probably don't need to. We've never run out of water in a year living here, although admittedly our water pressure is a bit low at the moment (temporary restrictor fitted by plumber to make absolutely sure we pass water calcs). We have two young kids who tend to take longish showers unless you continually hound them out of it. My wife and I both shower at least once a day, and what with sport, gym, etc, I'd say we average 5-6 showers a day between us, of anything between 4 and 10 mins each. We do have shower waste water recovery, and I'm convinced that helps a lot. One thing you could consider is plumbing in the basics for a second cylinder and seeing how you get on with just the one. If you make the room now and put the main pipework in place, it won't cost much, and you'll avoid outlaying for something you may never use. My inlaws have 2 x 250L in their 5 bed house with just the two of them(!) They basically turn one off unless they have quite a few guests. Personally I think they could do with just one by leaving the immersion running constantly on the odd weekend when they have guests. You might consider something similar as well, especially if your peak needs are going to only be occasional (might depend on how often you actually use the baths) . Bear in mind that although the occasional immersion usage seems wasteful, you have half the standing losses with a single tank. To be fair to her, she hasn't seen the restrictor you're going to hide in the plumbing to said shower!

It’s mostly behind the laundry basket where he can’t pee straight when he’s drunk.

My grouts wee colour in the ensuite ( as everyone kindly reminds me ) and I love it …

Careful when you give me a kiss then 💋

Yes that thread left us all feeling a bit salty.

How many showers have you had , and thrown the clothes in the bin?