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Hello I am not (yet!) a self-builder, but have an oak-frame garage, complete with fully enclosed shed and log store, available. Free if you can come and take it down yourself in the next month, or a small cost (TBC) if not. Would suit someone with the skills and need for one. It's about 10 years old, and sadly we have to remove it to build something else on the site (listed property which really restricts what we can do). We are in Hertfordshire. Happy to send pics - you'd need to lay a concrete foundation and v low wall, but otherwise it's a complete building. Thanks Rory

Save your SE money and pay a brickie a days wages to repoint it!

Thanks everyone. I’m wallowing in self-pity for not buying something sooner. Woe is me! Never mind. In the grand scheme of things there are plenty who would be overjoyed that their main upset of the day was a scratched hob.

Reading this from the Telegraph may ease your pain, for about 10 minutes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, World Economy Editor Two powerful and opposite forces are colliding in global commodity markets. Vladimir Putin’s war is pushing gas prices to the moon, sending an inflationary shock through a supply chain already ruptured by the pandemic. At the same time we are going smack into a world recession, or something like it, and recessions kill demand. China’s anaemic recovery has stalled as the greatest property bubble in world history deflates, and it is China that sets commodity prices these days. Europe and the UK are sinking already. The US is still afloat, but shot below the waterline. A ferocious mortgage squeeze has brought US house sales to a standstill. When the tide turns, you find out who is swimming naked. The denouement is never pretty. Central banks are doing what they always do: after stoking an inflationary boom with excess stimulus, they are tightening frenetically, too late, too hard, into the teeth of a storm. Money growth is collapsing on both sides of the Atlantic. This will show up in tumbling prices next year whatever Putin does. Industrial metals and oil are down by a quarter. Wheat prices have almost halved since day one of Putin's invasion, and are back to pre-war levels. This may surprise shoppers. The prices on the shelves are the legacy effect of past actions. Past is not prologue. We will be in outright deflation across much of the global goods market by mid-2023. Putin has lost his gas war. Today’s crazy prices are caused by a global scramble to lock up supplies of LNG from Qatar, the US, and Australia before winter. East Asia and Europe are in a bidding war. Once the panic subsides, gas prices will fall, and perhaps faster than almost anybody imagines today. German storage is 80 per cent, ahead of seasonal norms, and ahead of target. Germany has cut gas demand by 14 per cent. Its industry is learning to live with a lot less of it. Europe is a mixed bag but unless there is a polar vortex, it will muddle through this winter.

https://www.centrica.com/investors/results-centre/2022-interim-results/ British Gas also produce gas. The profits of their residential distribution business almost halved in the first half of the year to 90 odd million. The profits of their gas production business on the other hand went up more than 10 fold to over 900million. Basically non Russian owners of energy assets are making out like bandits as they can sell all the gas they can produce at massively inflated prices. The media has absolutely no interest in reporting things calmly and sensibly so just lets people be confused by the thought that their gas supplier, British Gas, is making lots of money. It’s not even called British Gas any more, the company is called Centrica, BG is just their energy supply brand. If BG is doing well then all energy suppliers must be doing well. Energy suppliers are of course majorly hurting, it is energy producers that are doing well. Norway must be making an absolute fortune. We can’t charge a windfall tax on Norway! One possible solution would be to exert political pressure on countries like Norway to sell gas at below the market price. They won’t like it but it is totally immoral of them to be taking advantage of a situation caused by a war. Now I’m all for free markets, but within reason. They could be selling gas for twice the previous price and still making a fortune. They need to be able to do this to offset times when prices are low. No one offered to pay extra when prices collapsed due to COVID. But prices are not symmetrical, they cannot go lower than zero but can go up infinitely in theory. This ceased to be a normal market when Russia invaded Ukraine and restricted supply. Windfall taxes are a roundabout way of taking away excess profits but they cannot totally fix things as net importers of gas cannot tax net exporters.

even i wouldn't have classed that as inconsequential 😂

Not sure which regulation you are looking at but most builders would just drill the joists where needed. You should avoid the middle third of the span where bending stress is highest and always drill mid-depth (neutral axis). What size joists and pipes?

I do not see how planning get involved as it’s only an extension and the drive exists, forget the gates (and instal them after you have finished 🤔)

Places I use metal boxes rather than plastic: Where an accessory has to go right next to a stud. When sinking e.g a light switch into a solid bit of wood. When I want the face of the sockets recessed behind the wall behind a television.

If your combined PV/storage combo costs £20k, and you can export 3 MWh/year at the right time to get say £500/MWh, or £1500/year, it will take 13 years to recover that outlay. But you will be importing in at £300/MWh, and on a £20,000 combo, you will be importing most of your own consumption. Storage and unsustainably high export rates are still really a dream. Much cheaper to use what you can generate, even if you still import at the same time to make up for power shortages.

FAQ is here: https://octopus.energy/blog/outgoing/ It seems to say yes you can explicitly. Seems to have been there for some time since 2018. I see this having its wings clipped a little in due course, I think. IMO Octopus are trying to get a big stake in the Smart Grid by recruitiing the core mini-suppliers. Words: Do I need to have solar, or could I take advantage if I have home batteries and/or V2G? × Outgoing Octopus is best for homes with significant renewable generation, but you don’t HAVE to be generating energy to benefit. Join Outgoing Octopus and use home batteries (or your EV battery, if you've got hold of a vehicle-to-grid charger...) to take advantage of low consumption prices on our Agile tariff and high export rates on Outgoing Octopus. It’s a balancing act. Store electricity at times of the day when the Agile prices are super low or even negative (on December 8 2018 Agile dropped to -2.31p per kWh). Then export from your battery when energy on the grid is most in demand, and most expensive. Not only are you powering your home with cheaper stored energy, but supporting the grid when energy is in high demand, and making money off anything extra you export. If you’re exporting more energy than you’re using, you might even get your Octopus bill into credit. And we’ll even refund the cash if you wish. It’s worth remembering, though, your home will consume battery discharge first before sending the surplus to the grid).

Ok so BCO should have picked this up when you submitted plans and not when you get to the end of the process !! What you’ll need to do is find a copy of the ISO standard and then someone who can do the calculation for you https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:44281:en ISO 15927-3:2009 shows the method for calculation based on local conditions and shielding etc - you’ll also need 10 years data from the Met Office for your most local location that can be used to provide the wind and rain statistics Assuming this was a full plans submission I would also be getting ready with a complaint to your building control department as they should have picked this up a long time ago …

Yes. They do. Not unusual to be paid to take gas. Happened a while back when a new interconnect opened. It is often cheaper, overall, to give something away than store it. Much depends on the interaction between the accountancy methods and the companies economic modelling.

Ended up buying a Miele. The XXL Neff was a touch too tall to be a guaranteed fit under the countertop without yanking up the floor tiles. The Miele XXL is about 20mm less tall so fits comfortably. Got to hand it to RDO Kitchen appliances who delivered next day and price matched a lower price we found online. They also supplied our fridge last week and price matched that as well.

Yup! Avoiding the rocket science answers is almost always the best approach.

Because there is no consistency whatsoever with planners or building control!!!!

Having theories is a good way to develop solutions to problems. Using the common sense approach is often a good way to check your sanity. and @joe90 comment above is just that!

What I don’t get is if British Gas are making more profit then surely they are charging more than the markup on the raw materials 🤷‍♂️.

I used metal boxes in the kitchen but elsewhere used plastic back boxes from TLC which were Kensington make. They were useless so changed them all for Appleby. You can get metal dry lining boxes but they're more expensive. Edit: The Kensington boxes were bought about six or seven years ago so the design might have improved since then.

IMO metal boxes are better where large cables are used, I.e. cooker, as its more stiff to bend and difficult to get into place. Also i guess where multiple cables are 🤔. Yes some cheap plastic back boxes are crap!.

Nothing wrong there

What fills the hole now in place of the gate? On the basis the gate pre existed, I would put the gate back now, and re submit with the plans marked "existing gate" and appeal if they continue to be stupid.

As you say, already committed. An interesting learning though. The steels were actually as per design from SE.. Something we want so we can open up the space seamlessly for hosting. Yes, hidden door behind joinery. Thanks for the feedback. Any suggestions for how we can soundproof/vibration proof the gym ? I'm hoping the floor to ceiling windows next to the staircase will bring in lots of light, as well as the crittall-style sliding doors to the dining room, which will bring in light from that side as well. We've also got a rooflight above the staircase (not shown on the floor plans), which should bring light in also. Agreed - thank you ! Agreed - we're making this change now Agree it's a compromise. Will look into this, thank you! Thank you for the really thoughtful feedback I think our steels was closer to £30k. Honestly though, this ship has sailed for us. Next time 😅 I'll solicit feedback earlier ! Attached is a render, hope this helps !

Building standards require a 10mm undercut above floor coverings, to allow all doors to be closed and get the required air movement around the house. Generally you only extract from wet rooms and kitchens. Supply goes to all dry rooms. In a dry room air enters the room away from a door or opening window, flow across the room out/under the door either to an adjacent wet room or down the corridor to a wet room. This way all the air in the property is replaced. Having a supply and extract in the same room, means the air flow path misses most the house just goes direct from A to B. Below is a guide to air flow rates by different countries in the UK and passivhaus

Depends on size and layout of your kitchen. Ours has 2 extracts over the kitchen island (to get require extract flow rate) and a single supply in a connected breakast area. Most MVHR designers will calcualated required door undercuts based on flow required between rooms.

OK so I asked the HMRC via their forum. My real name is Colin Watters. https://community.hmrc.gov.uk/customerforums/vat/6dae6dbd-96f1-ec11-b5cf-00155d3bb152 Got answer.. Section 3 is mostly about the qualifying building.

SWMBO ?

I fitted a concertina loft ladder today, with great difficulty. the instructions are the worst I have ever seen. Might as well have said 'fit ladder'. Imagine my surprise when I came to try it and couldn't reach the manual hooks. I have to use a stepladder to use the ladder. Then I saw in the operating instructions...ladder may be unwieldy, recommend use stepladder. I also find that the hatch is now very tight for access...bad choice.

Almost 3 yrs to the day! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun! 🤣

I always like a long one

Thought I’d come back to this. A year on and the surface of our Bora hob is shot. Scratches everywhere, and I’ve been so careful to not drag anything across it. It is just so prone to scratching. Last night I used a new pan which has a disc in the middle with the company name. It’s totally ruined my hob. So annoyed with the pan, myself for using it and the hob for being so scratchable. Ugh 😩 Picture below with offending pan

I stuck brick slips on mine, and five years later they were still there when I sold it.

It's quite interesting to see how vested interests are using this emergency (having been escalated from its previous crisis status). The Ch Exec of Scottish Power (seemingly supported by the bulk of the industry in the UK) , has proposed freezing prices and the govt loaning energy companies the excess required to buy energy at whatever the market price is over the next two years, with that money being paid back by bill payers over the next 20 years - basically the governments original £400 help proposal on steroids. What he neglects to mention is that it neatly takes the risk away for the industry in terms of non payment and potentially cutting people off, and will allow their generation arms to continue making money hand over fist where that generation is fixed cost. Easy to see that the government will be seduced by this approach, neatly kicks the can down the road and they can present it as keeping bills down, as a loan to industry rather than public debt and to keep the green transition alive. Telling people to use less, turn down the thermostat, wear a jumper etc simply is not a political option for the government, even though it is what's actually needed.

You did a ME ! 👍👍👍

Then I will say "told you so" if the internet still works.

I do , I do