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Got the blue key. £5 .

I tend to take out and very lightly drill the square shaft where the grub screw has marked it in order for the point of the grub screw to go into something. For repeat looseners I'll apply low strength Loctite.

It's a roof! Do you worry whilst it's pi55ing down with torrential rain for 24 hours? Nope. You turn the TV on and have a nice cup of tea. Time for a day off people!

You will always have a standing seam there, regardless of which layer is down first / second etc. The OSB is the base layer, then one section of membrane one level, and the outlet fold another.....and they must overlay each other which creates the 'dam'. When a roof is virtually flat there's zero you can do to make this immaculate.

Thought you lot would love this as a bit of historic trivia Popped home over the weekend to help my dad with a bit of building work. Found out he's been having a few issues with getting an EPC certificate My grandfather John Lowe was a chemical engineer at Lankro Chem Ltd who had a number of patents including foamed phenolic resin (expanding foam) (https://patents.google.com/patent/GB1604657A/en) . Back in 1978, with the help of the his company he created a number of insulated foam sheets, every sheet was handmade in his lab. My father who when converting the old stables he lives in now to a house installed under them under a screed floor in what was apparently the first recorded instance of insulating under concrete slab in the UK. The EPC surveryor is currently having histerics and doesn't know what to do as it predates all records of this technology being used. Dug up some old photos of it being installed and can't use it as they aren't time stamped and then go lost again after explaining that cameras back then didn't do time stamps.

Install the front door, then lock it, and only allow 3rd parties to use the back door. Cover the threshold and buy some £5 strips of PVC 25x25mm angle to stop any damage to the frame by accidental / careless traffic. For any instances where opening the front door are sensible / practical / outright necessary, be there to open it, monitor, then lock it again.

Same issue I'm having hitting a sweet spot with a clients build...... Slab and house temps have such a slow response vs what the system "expects". Prevention vs cure is paramount criteria.

That is the plan. It could be as simple as a basic hardwood door clad to match the profile being careful with the depth of the door reveals so that the cladding is flush with the wall. Add a pull handle made from the same cladding and an automatic lock.

Makes sense. Thank you. Sounds like it may be wise to constrain the cooling with a higher minimum temperature and perhaps a shorter cooling window. Not ideal, short of directing the controller to watch a sensor embedded within the slab (or the temperature of the return water in the UFH pipes).

The issue is that the controller uses room temperature and if I put 21C it will cool slab for too long, and the next morning the ground floor rooms will be too cold because (due to the lag in room temperature) it will have cooled the slab too much. The heating function can be enabled/disbaled via a dry-contact or you can use Loxone/EEBus to set the heating mode/setpoint based on slab temperature (or if you want slab temp, room temp, exterior temp and forcast), but there is no such functionality for cooling, you have to use the Vaillant app or controllor both of which use the temperature sensor in the controller. I don't know for certain, but I'm 90% sure it is not using weather compensation from what I've seen. The water temperatue for cooling is: min(configuredMinCoolingTemp, calculatedDewPoint + configuredDewPointOffset) (both min temp and dew point offset can be set per circuit if you have more than one. e.g. UFH + fan coils. Also dew-point monitoring can be disabled for a given circuit). I have the following configured: UFH: - dew-point monitoring: on - dew-point offset: 2K - minTemp: 15C ComfoPost: - dew-point monitoring: off - minTemp: 7C

Extremely useful again Bozza, thank you. Thanks too for the plans, they are interesting viewing. Hadn't appreciated the size of the child's room as they grow and potentially hang around longer than previous generations? Converting an existing bit of open plan area in the future is a cracking suggestion. I will play with some ideas and float them to the family. Think I'll do some more drawing and see where it heads. Many thanks again.

I can fully understand that. it would annoy me every time i saw the pool of water

I predict 3 dogs, and a snake or parrot. This will not be in your gift. I think you are being insufficiently ambitious there. If you take with windows, glass above doorways, carefully chosen through views of the house, and perhaps stairwells you should be able to have sun of some kind visible from everywhere throughout the day. Others have done some detail sweating, so I will add 2 points. Try some "use cases" eg 2 people working from home, 2 friends come round for an impromptu meal, we want to eat outside at brunch time and suppertime, child stays at home to start a business, we need to care for a pair of grandmas, after an accident you end up in a wheelchair, someone in the family becomes a nudist etc. Think about indoor / outdoor living. This is Scotland, so shelter and supper outside may matter. Storage for lawnmover, garden stuff and bikes? Potting shed? F

You need to speak to your FIT payment provider as OFGEM dont get involved with customers. I asked OFGEM a similar question a few years back and thats the response I got back. From what I understand you can only change things on a like for like basis if something has failed. Upgrading the size of the array is unlikely to fall into the definition of like for like. Only exception would be if a 190watt panel failed and a direct replacement wasnt available then I think youd be justified in going to the next larger available size, but thats unlikely to be 400 watt and it wouldnt be all the panels either. If you ask and get approval definitely post back as theres likely 1000's of peeps that would love to up their FIT payments, me included. Even if you could fo this swap one of the savings you mentioned was no change to the mounts but I think youll find 400 watt panels are considerably larger than your 190s

If you don't have them already, it is worth getting a set of small, precise, hard screwdriver heads. I find I use them a lot on watch straps, electronics etc...and grub screws. They provide a better fit to very small screws, are harder steel and so can tighten better. I think mine was a set of heads with handle from TS.

Grubscrews in door handles are often made of cheese nowadays. Over zealous application of the Allen key results in the hex in the screw rounding off.

Some square shafts have a V groove in them for the grub screw to locate. I've drilled them too!

That'd really bug me especially when it goes stagnant and becomes a mozzie breeding ground. Tip a few gallons of Desmopol over the roof and it'll fill up the depression...maybe 😂

I would leave them in to ventilate the cavity and keep the wall dry.

Is that because the grub screws on both handles are not tightened down to the shaft?

the trials and tribulations of trailblazers. hope you get it all sorted.

Not going to happen it its current form. I can see no justification of having only 200 m between the walls, why not a 1000, 5000?

If you take the volume of the inside of your house and divide by the volume of the inside of your fridge then multiply that by the cost of your fridge to make a volume to volume comparison then the question might become "Why are heat pumps so cheap?"

The best insulation will be Phenolic. Kingspan Kooltherm etc. Available up to 40 mm thickness but much beyond 25 mm is rapidly diminishing returns for smaller pipework. Don't use it on anything much above 60C. It will turn to dust in time in spite of what the manufacturer (with Grenfell morals / ethics) claims. Tape all joints to stop air movement. Plastic clips spaced off the wall as Marvin has done. Failing that class o armacell (as used on cooling systems) tends to better job than climaflex mostly thanks to being designed to be taped/sealed properly. Stretches between glued joints father than shrinks. Expanding foam also works for chuffing awkward bits that you care not to touch again...and fibreglass / mineral wool stuffed generously into awkward boxed sections.

I'm trying to sell software to NEOM at the moment so have had a few meetings with them, everything they tell me just sounds insane. As the £500 billion from the wealth fund they are looking at a flotation and about £1 trillion

It is the same. A fridge removes heat from the air (inside a fridge) and moves the heat the to room. A heat pump removes heat from the air in its location and puts into the room.

Looks like it will be two 170km rows of 500m high sky scrapers, 200m apart, clad in mirrors., with Gardens in between. Quite a feat of engineering. The Saudis are only putting in £500 billion. I wonder where the rest of the money will come from. Surely something of this scale will cost much more.

Yes, it does rather look like that. I wondered whether it was a disguised whole population jailhouse or a massive extension of foreigner compounds. One of the image mockups in particular looked like they'd taken a scene from Bladerunner and plonked a load of trees on the balconies and bridges. I also like how imaginative the architects must have been when making sure the project "will contain residential, retail and leisure areas as well as schools and parks." You'd hope so wouldn't you.

I’m installing Hager for one client, and have installed CPN, Contactum, MK and Wylex. Hager is good kit but expensive, and the Contactum seemed very good quality and plenty good enough quality / robustness etc so will go with one of those again. I’ve been installing Contactum for 20+ years, and I cannot recall a single issue. I’ve recently put the Defender CU in my shed / man-cave and have the previous one was their 3ph offering ( converted to 1ph ) which also impressed fore the money. Can’t recall where I heard it, but apparently MK are getting out of the domestic CU market, so maybe support will dwindle too. Defo all RCBO, that’s a no-brainier. Dual RCD boards should be removed from the market imo just on reliability / redundancy alone. Why we still accept losing all or half of the house for one failed device is beyond me. A cheap ( £25 ) emergency light in the same room as the CU / in the CU cupboard is a help if the ‘lights go out’. On a current domestic 4-storey project I am installing strategic emergency light fittings ( annoying green status LED hidden or located remotely btw ) so the client can get up / down stairs and main thoroughfares in a blackout plus another in the CU room.

Should say that that payment is set by me, not by them. For obvious reasons. F

That is why I am replacing all DG glass on all the windows. I see half of them had moisture in between so the seals are gone. I also deep clean the window frames including the gaskets.

That is indeed poor data then!

It would be too much of a coincidence for the Isle of Lewis mission hall advertised below in 1970 (Aberdeen Press and Journal) to be your one - and assuming it's not - it might be worth seeing what happened to this one in the seventies.....anyway might be some hooks into further research (and apologies if you already have this)

Stone is certainly more interesting than block. This is not the work of a master mason! There doesn't seem to be any coursing, more of an undulating pattern. Do you know what kind of stone is used locally? Because we have granite, we use the kind of lime that goes quite hard, and has to be used before it sets, which was a surprise after reading so much about lime staying soft for days. Most people wont be interested it is 'just a building'. But there may be an estates manager, or a retired clerk of works who could be interested to help. Also try to find what other conversions have been carried out recently, as there may be information to be had.

If your electrician doesn't know what he recommends, maybe you should be looking for a more experienced electrician.

Hi Dreadnaught, I got it wrong, It's wood by post https://www.woodbypost.co.uk/ email enquiries@woodbypost.co.uk . They keep a pretty good range of sheets and cutting accuracy millimetre perfect.

It's not rocket science, you are trying to overthink it. Was in the local b&q the other day their price are the same as Wickes and they had loads of stock. Just roll it out it will find its own level, plumping is great for a day or two, it will then find its own level with the help gravity.

Standard 170mm topup Roll is £24 from Wickes - average loft that is 8 rolls, and it’s as simple as start in the far edge and just unroll as you go. https://www.wickes.co.uk/Knauf-Insulation-Space-Standard-Top-Up-170mm-Loft-Roll---6-47m²/p/109450 Don’t forget a decent mask, and don’t forget to leave gaps at the eaves for airflow. Finally, make sure any hot water pipes in the attic space are insulated, big slab of PIR over the hatch and then airtight strips on the edges to make sure it’s all toasty. Fit and forget, and not a piece of technology required and all done for change of £250 and a Saturday afternoon.

Got to agree with @Conor why complicate it. Plus, You could fit perfect roof insulation and be throwing heat and money out through windows etc.

By the time you've hired a thermal camera, poked around, figured out what to do, you'd have an extra 100 or 200mm laid. I know the price has gone up, how much would it be for your loft? When I did it, it was only about £300.

Oi! I'm a late starter! What have I learnt? Control the blackfly earlier for a start. I don't seem to have many flowers "low down" tbh. Were they destroyed early on before I properly got on top of the blackfly? The layered trench though seems to be holding moisture well, see how dark the soil is in comparison: These are about the biggest runners in the trench at the mo. I've plenty it seems in the upper layers of the foilaige: The potted runners...well, not even worth taking an in focus photo:

Got a bean.

It has to be applied rather thickly, although many painters don't, which defeats the object. You would want to see it in life before committing as it doesn't always look great.

we have render and cladding on a timber frame. was supposed to be larch cladding but we went for fibre cement due to wanting a fireproof exterior.

If you end up needing to pay someone, and you chose to DIY it, I would be tempted just to mix up some concrete and bulk fill the back of the kerbing. Would just be material cost, and time, if you have any spare. If it was me and the installation generally looks smart, and I was going to need to DIY it, I would dig out the back, chip down to the same line as the bottom of the kerb, clean it all so adhesion is good, I would even probably PVA the back of the kerbs (total overkill but that is me) then tip in bulk concrete then haunch it neatly with a trowel. That would lock it into place and the PVA would help get a really good bond between the concrete and the kerb to essentially "glue" it into place. Mortars and concrete have no shear strength, however, in practice I have seen plenty of blocks and bricks and other masonry products which have been bonded together with mortar or concrete so strong that the masonry product breaks before the bond. So it is possible to lock something in place albeit not the "right" way. Make the concrete with a bit extra cement and not too dry, the extra cement and water will make a nice paste which will make contact with the kerb and make a good bond.

How do PV sales people describe how they work. Do they say they create a black hole.

Well, to matters even more clear to the unitiated, the guy running the heatpump training moved on to explain that a heatpump pump makes heat 'run up hill' compared to the normal process of heat rolling down a hill from hot to cold. That's definitely the reverse cycle, but I can't help but imagine a scenario explaining to a customer that it's a refrigerator that chases heat up the hill using what's in effect a powerful water gun. I wonder how many customers would sign you up then 😁

That would be a cooker.

"House burned down, the culprit, Thorfun's kettle was found sealed into the wall, plugged in."

Ignore it til you finish the bathroom?