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Walk away! All I can see is something akin to chipboard flatpack furniture, possibly screwed to a wall and a batten scribed to the wall/skirting. Save you pennies or spend the same and get proper wooden furniture. It looks a bit like a student dorm room or budget hotel if I am being really honest.

What a financial disaster so far. Who gives 100% of the money up front before the work is complete and to foreign company. Mental.

Ah this is interesting - I'm finding lines like: "Improved energy efficiency and a reduction in CO2 emissions in buildings can be achieved through various means including orientation, siting, photovoltaics and heat pumps." ... in our local plan. That's helpful. Alan

That fell around 20% as well. The two year out price is around £3 compared to £6 for this winter. When there is a big move generally all points on the curve are impacted in a similar way. Prices down a further 6% today. This may be because European countries have finished filling their storage. The piece will be crazy volatile for the foreseeable future. Very dangerous to lock in current prices. Much better to find policies that reduce prices and scare the markets. If that works maybe then lock in a better price. Much as it it not the done thing I think there is plenty of room to cap the wholesale gas price at a level that is massively more profitable than in the wildest dreams of energy producers but still much less than today. Trouble is that you’d basically need Norway to agree as they are now the EU’s main supplier of gas. Not a word in the press for the fact they are more than happy to sell their gas at 10x the price they used to get for it and just pocket the money at the expense of their neighbours. They’re a NATO member and benefitting massively from the actions of Russia. Perhaps they need reminding of this. Indeed instead I read commentary yesterday praising them.

Not so sure. The outer edge of the soffit looks to be the same distance from the wall all along. What appears to have happened is that "wall plate" has moved out. That would imply it is not fixed to the rafters? If that is all that is supporting the roof then it is on the verge of falling off the wall. Usually the wall plate is on the inside of a wall. I would want to have a look and see if anything else is supporting the roof.

I see no need for any of that to be fitted. We have a free standing chest of drawers much taller than that. Just buy off the shelf free standing furniture and then pay a local joiner to notch the back of the units to sit over the skirting if you want that close fitting look. that will be way cheaper.

I found the air filter had the biggest influence on fuel economy. 10k miles and it drops 10‰ at least. Regular oil changes as well.

Whilst not MOT exempt, my maestro diesel van (perkins FTW) might be seeing more action. does over 60MPG. Or will do again just as soon as i get the injection pump swapped out for my shiny new one.

If the normal wholesale price of electricity is £50 per megawatt hour (5p/kWh) then what this plan suggests is saving 27p per kWh for say two years by paying an extra 11p for the subsequent 23 years (assuming) a 25 year contract. This is a terrrible idea that would make electricity expensive indefinitely. Two years ago people were forecasting electricity prices falling to £20 per megawatt hour as the amount of renewables increase. This would look in a price of £160 admittedly only for some generating capacity. Assuming current inflated prices last for two years, it would save £176bn over two years but cost £825bn over the next 23 years. I cannot reiterate what an awful awful idea this would be. We’d be locking in the impact of the last two month’s price rises for 25 years. To be clear, changing the contracts is not a crazy idea but the suggested prices are. This was almost certainly drawn up by the asset owners who would make a killing.

Welcome This is a tricky one. Not much use if you are building a timber frame place, clad in timber. What you really need to do is find the area that would give you the best cost benefit. I doubt it is laying bricks and blocks. One thing that often gets mentioned in here is coordinating the trades. So maybe a plumbing course is better to give you more flexibility. And you can shop around for good prices on kit. A few have done their own roofs, seems that is not so hard. Carpentry is a huge part of the build, so look at that. I have tried plastering 3 times, I am totally useless at it. But others may be alright. All wet processes are a pain, design them out. Probably save more money not using an architect, they will spend all you have, and then some.

If you want to win in court you have to give them "opportunity to rectify". That normally means writing to them recorded delivery at their registered address (I'd hit every address you can find) giving them a date to sort it by. Perhaps two weeks. Otherwise a claim might get thrown out. I would do some research online about what you need to do to satisfy a court before you get any work done.

Mitsubishi SRK20ZSX-W was the A2A I referred too.

You have to feed the cat and deal with the waste. So you need a few more pictures.

I think the panes have lots of barely visible spacers to keep them apart.

Guys ! I have the solution!!

Good morning all, I am building a house with a frame supplied by MBC Timberframe. I have been very impressed with the service so far. We are not finished yet although the frame is up and my windows and doors are in. Roof covering is also on and the render guys are on site at the moment. We are using Parex rendering by the way. I also had MBC install a passive slab and this made me thing about how to finish the works below ground and up to what will be my finished ground level. if I was building with block/brick i would have installed several courses of them agains the insulation. But since we don't have conventional trench foundations that isn't ideal. The passive slab sits on hard EPS insulation as you probably know. I asked Peter Gray who is my project manager at MBC if he had any suggestions and he told me about a previous installation he had designed for a client. I involves fabricating a trim of powder coated aluminium which is attached to the bottom of the frame with a layer of Geotex waterproof membrane protecting the EPS as this is below ground level. Peter was very helpful, sent me a drawing of it and talked me through the process. I had a local fabrication firm (Barnett Engineering in North Wales) make up the metal. They also made me a selection of inside and outside corners which neaten up the corner element of the trims. The cost of the metal came to just over 2K. I applied the Geotex to the outside of the EPS and then attached the metal trim to the bottom of the frame which was very straightforward to do. I have attached some pics and I hope that this might be of interest to others who are self building! The battens in the pics are the carriers for the render board. if you have any questions, I would be happy to help, and I'm sure Peter would be too. Derek

No me, so I am keeping the word 'hideous' for another day. Try High Wycombe for furniture. It is the furniture capital of the world.

Looking at this picture, the movement has happened a long time ago. The soffit is relatively new and the spacers suggest when the present soffit was fitted this "wall plate" was already displaced. If you can confirm the roof is adequately supported by something other than this timber, then there may be no need to correct it?

Is there another wall plate slightly higher up the rafter than this ? ( Just a thought)

I didn’t want to be so honest 😂

There are other places to buy bedroom furniture given all of that isn’t really fitted. I’d look at some of the upcycled stuff. Old sturdily made furniture but brought up to a more modern look.

Nope, the extra generated heat will allow brothel reception areas to be used as heat banks

Its already happening. Restricted kitchen hours seems to be the thing at the moment. But little in the way of reporting.

Non existent as usual! During covid we were classed as key workers/suppliers to rail industry so no furlough, but as virtually all works stopped on railway projects they didn’t buy any machines, just starting to pick up again now. Luckily we have a roughly 50/50 split so the construction and arboricultural machines kept us going.

F me ! . I’ve had cowboys do a roof . But your cowboys make mine look good . Jesus - what a mess .

I had to make an assumption and normally this kind of contract is pretty long. I have looked a bit further into it and the CfD contracts are for 15 years. Of course to model anything like this you need to make myriad assumptions. Indeed if anyone ever tells you they have modelled something, ask what assumptions they made as they often guarantee the outcome making the model of dubious value if the assumptions are wrong. Assuming two years of high prices followed by 13 years of “normal” prices you would save £176bn at a subsequent cost of £466bn. The breakeven point would come at just over four years of prices that have only existed for a few weeks so far. You are 100% correct that it would become less of the generation mix in future but the absolute cost would stay the same. If for example you thought that wholesale prices would return to £50 and retail electricity prices to 13p The extra £466bn would I think increase the price by 2-3p for the next 15 years (that’s a bit of a guesstimate as I don’t have all the data). This suggestion, like many, reduces current pain by spreading the costs over many years. There is certainly value in that, but as you might expect doing this on commercial terms involves a cost that ultimately increases the total cost. A bit like using PFI to build hospitals. Commercial interests will always suggest a solution that benefits them and the U.K. is highly unlikely to break existing contracts so instead would probably need to “incentivise” things to happen. Rather than complaining a lot about this, I have been trying to think of solutions. I have heard suggestions that the government will increase tax thresholds to offset the cost. A bit like they showed during COVID, much as they are often lacking foresight and slow to act they do usually get their finger out when there is a real problem. I think this idea may have merit. The reason is that if you just subsidise the price of energy, people will just keep using it and it will show producers that they can increase prices with impunity. But if you give people extra cash to cover some of the costs they are then incentivised to reduce their usage so that they break even which is a much better plan in the long run. The trouble with this kind of solution is that outcomes will vary considerably from person to person, but it may be better for the country overall. The more the money we spend to fix this today reduces long term energy consumption the better. The trouble is it is hard to implement these things quickly. Supplying Ukraine with more weapons to shorten the war is also probably a good use of cash. Indeed if Russia did not have nuclear weapons I think we would almost certainly see NATO attack them as we would once again be having a war driven by energy.

If I had know I would have taken the week off and cadged a ride. Quite fancy a few days up your way.

Yes, crap job, the trouble is there are real cowboys out there and it’s difficult to see when its on a roof.

That's a fair point, but I'm not sure if the new contracts would necessarily have to be 25 years. The Guardian writer says: In effect, the generators would get more certainty (and still a very nice price) over revenues in two or three years’ time in exchange for selling at sub-market lower prices today. The actual Cornwall Insight piece he links to is silent on how long the new contract might be, they just say: to incentivise participation, the contract terms could extend project support beyond that envisaged by schemes that these new CFDs would replace (like the renewables obligation) My assumption was that the proposal was for much less than 25 year contracts. You're absolutely right that the longer they are the more they will cost overall. Equally the further we get into the future these legacy projects will become a progressively smaller share of UK generation capacity - and if we stick with the merit order system of picking the cheapest generators first then presumably they will become a smaller share of total energy produced as newer, cheaper, projects come on stream. So I'm not sure that the long-term cost is quite as bad as you envisage?

Hi there, New to this forum, first time buyer, moved into my property, complety stripped it bare and looking for ideas on UFH and also wanted to get advise on a damp issue in the party wall, which is very peculiar. Nice to be here!

You as well.

I must say I had none of the problems this person is experiencing. If you have any specific issues feel free to tag me, if I know the answer I will try and provide it to you. Good luck!

I knew my comment would elicit such a response. 😂 It’s not like driving an ICE car or even an automatic. It’s something you come to realise after spending some time driving one. There are a few reasons. The acceleration is seamless and silky smooth as it’s not changing gears and instant with a huge amount of torque (mine has 605Nm) and more or less constant so makes overtaking etc a breeze. They are very quiet with just tyre noise mainly. You can hear the light whine of the motor but only under hard acceleration. Plus there’s the braking regeneration when you lift off the throttle. It’s quite configurable in mine so you can drive without braking or put it into one pedal mode where it will brake to a stop although I only ever use that in town. Mine has all the self-drive stuff but I rarely use it. The smart cruise control is pretty good on the motorway although obviously ICE cars have that too. The one feature I do use occasionally that I thought was just a gimmick but is surprisingly useful is the remote driving. I can move it back and forth from outside the car just using the keyfob. I occasionally use a friend’s garage in Edinburgh but it’s too narrow to open the door to get out once in it. However, I can park in front of the garage, get out and reverse it in remotely. It’s also surprisingly nimble and fast for such a heavy car. The batteries are in the floor so the CoG is low so it hides its mass well. It has a lot of other nice features such as being able to have it automatically heat the car for you in the morning. I know this is an option on some higher end cars but it’s not a common feature. Add in the ability to charge it at home and also utilise PV if you have it. The one area that an EV can’t compete with a big diesel is towing. Mine can tow a caravan but it hammers the range. The charging station design also doesn’t lend itself to towing either as they aren’t drive through like a forecourt meaning you’d have to unhitch etc which is a big pia. I’ve owned a great many cars from nearly every brand. The EV is the best all round car I’ve ever owned and I do feel fresher at the end of a long journey of several hours compared to any other car I’ve owned. My other half says the same and I’ve heard other folk say the same thing.

You are missing my point. With an ICE car I know it will do any journey I want, short or long (with quick refuel stops every 350 miles) with or without passengers and luggage, and with or without some form of trailer on the hook. Now I make a big thing of the towing. Perhaps If I changed our lifestyle, sold the caravan and chose a different form of holiday, then I might, just might be able to accept the other limitations of an EV. But why should I have to limit what I can do with a car? IF that is really the end game, I would like to hear a politician stand up and say "sorry you are all going to have to change to an EV AND with that you are going to have to accept some major reduction in your expectations of what a vehicle can do" So I am going to be a stick in the mud and keep an ICE as long as I can. It may well be that ICE does not do many miles but it will be essential.

Aldi UK. Now here is our experience of "Aldi Not really all the UK" . Our project is near Inverness, the capital of the Highlands. A very bustling place with every UK retailer you can think of. For those who are rusty on geography, there is a road from the south all the way to Inverness, mostly motorway or dual carriageway. It is not on an island. There is an Aldi in the city. We tried to order the machine online but it said 'not available'. So we phoned, thinking there was a mistake. No we do not deliver to the Highland area. Alright, we will collect at your store in Inverness No you can't do that, we have no control as we don't deliver it, the manufacturer does and they won't deliver to Inverness. But we want to buy it from Aldi, as your advert, not from the manufacturer, and you don't exclude any region. Can't help, but why not get it sent somewhere else? Annoyed, but needing it, we had it sent to a family member in Cornwall, who was coming to help the next week. (There was a deliver charge, applicable anywhere). This is the van delivering in Cornwall . Our orange emphasis.

Judging by your post of June this year, your best to invite builders to the property so they can see what they are pricing up for. Otherwise the estimates will be so far out, you'll be wondering where they got the figures from. You said in a post in June about buying some materials from Wickes and other builder's merchants. It's best to let contractors buy the stuff they need and use otherwise the whole job could turn to 5£!t with materials.

Builders are here at the rental today. All equipment electrical. There’s a power cut in the area so play stopped until I said we could run their gear from my car if their extension lead was long enough. 😂 Young brickie amazed.

The issue I am finding with doing work myself is that it's slow. I have to work in a "proper job" 5 days a week and it can be all consuming at times. So often I don't really like the idea of leaving work to get a few hours on site before bed time. But I'm committed to finishing some jobs before my chippy is back from some other jobs, so I just have to do it in order to keep to some form of timescale. The amount of time to devote to the build is something to carefully consider. Mine has become like a second full time job. (I'm reading Buildhub in the wee small hours while I should be pricing up and placing the orders for next week's required materials...) Definite no to the bricklaying course. I would spend it on tools myself (I'd be lost without my Paslode, chop saw and impact driver on my build). I would like to believe I'm a fairly practical sort even though I fly a desk most of the time. Then again, would you take advice from someone who's first thought on getting the site was "Good, I can buy a digger now!"? 😉

Lots of good advice above. Knowledge is your main friend. If you can project manage#, do ninja buying*, and read up about each trade just in time, then you will save more than by diy. On our project, my son-in-law has become a superb PM with the judgement to gain the respect of the trades, but be no pushover. Gradually finding better contractors along the way. In the process he has discovered a liking and skill in masonry, and groundworks has become a family and friend, diy process, with huge cost benefits. But it depends on your own abilities. We have also the benefit of design professionals in the family, so the design is lean and practical. Without that, it is important to find designers you can trust, and who are prepared to discuss with you, even be challenged. You want good bricklaying and plastering? Leave it to the people who do that one thing every day. *skilful procurement isn't just about shopping around and discounts. Far more important is to minimise waste. A QS or a builder using your money is likely to overorder by 10%. That will cost you 5% of the project cost. Materials can be scheduled and managed to limit offcuts and waste. excavations dug just big enough and no more, and so on. A skip costing £300 is filled with stuff you have paid £2,000 for. # overhead, management and profit for a main contractor is about 30%, then each of their subcontractors about another 20%. Some of these can't be reduced, but some can. Not to dabble with: Bricklaying joinery plastering final screed electrics plumbing roofing maybe worth a try with a very big IFFFFF: groundworks wall cladding decoration kitchen floor cover ???

I paid for the shell to go up (brick and block) and found plenty to do around them, did nearly everything else but the brickies were worth every penny.

So the initial outlay would be £1600. Or the equivalent of about 80 m2 of blockwork. Then you will spend 5 times as long as your bricklayer who you are paying £200 + a day to do any of the work. Surely you are better off going to work and paying your Bricky what you earn ? There are a lot of things that can go wrong with brickwork and they can be expensive mistakes that have a knock on effect through your build. Especially in foundation work.

Only for doing footings, or rough blockwork that will either be plastered or rendered. You can learn to put them up level and straight. But you will not be good enough to do any brickwork that is on show, if you do want it on show you will be so mind numbingly slow it’s not worth it. But to set out your footings, get up to damp, install first floor it could be handy.

Laying bricks/blocks isn't rocket science. However even with practice I couldn't do in a day what an experienced bricky could do in a hour. It's almost definitely not a place you'd save money. Time used procuring items at knock down prices is far better spent. A good few members have saved handsome four figure sums by pouncing on large ticket items on eBay like heatpumps etc. Plumbing with Hep2o is straightforward as is MVHR install with radial ducting. Painting, tanking bathrooms, fitting insulation, plasterboarding are all DIYable but far more important is keeping a good eye on coordination, budget and quality. Nobody cares as much as you do.

Mostly it's full of fruit an veg now. Can't afford meat or cheese after shelling out for it. Yes it was expensive but the one it replaced was 24 years old yet was similarly priced which is a bit mad. Like TV's always seem to cost the same.

No, yours is at least twice the size. If I had 300 lt of food in my fridge, most would be thrown away as I cannot eat that much.

About the same as my small, under the counter, fridge from Currys. Mine cost £110.

Energy data as advertised: Energy consumption in 24h 0.242 kWh / 24h Energy consumption per year 89 kWh/a Actual consumption data for 24 hour period: My daily kWh legend has rounded down to zero but the average of 12W over 24h makes 0.288kWh so slightly higher than their 0.242 kWh / 24h but not bad. Logging is done every 5 minutes so you only get a brief current spike, mostly averaged out, when the door is open due to the considerable led lighting. What's the betting the standard for test results are arranged to eliminate the contribution of the interior lighting. The old fridge was averaging around 60W / 24h so this is going to save us £212 every year at the October price capped tariff.

That was a full-on afternoon getting the new fridge fitted! Because it's in an integrated housing the door had to be swapped over and of course all the holes were in different places. The old hinges fitted in standard big round cutouts like regular kitchen cupboards. The Liebherr has totally different style so I had to hole saw out some plugs and glue them in to fill the big old holes. Then getting the 72kg fridge in the niche was huge fun. Not least because the mains lead was too short to reach up to the socket on the wall above the kitchen units. Anyway, all in and running now. Only within 10 minutes of firing it up for the first time the RCCB tripped in my CU. Don't think the fridge is to blame as resetting the trip, everything is back on and has been for a couple of hours. Bit of a mystery that.

If I never see it again it’ll be a day too soon 😂

Ha ha I think Peter will be alive to possibilities, he is no slouch! There was much debate before finally settling on this as a solution and it works well enough. We did get ours done in a matt finish I was very clear no gloss on anything, think you are right about gloss being default, we are very modern style and gloss would have been wrong for us. Ours looks to be deeper over the EPS than yours it goes down quite a way and yours perhaps higher up the wall. We are part render (alumasc) and part larch clad with internorm 3g aliclad windows and doors. Did you only have Peter helping you for MBC for that part of your build, are you going it alone for the rest? We have been at it nigh on 2 years now and you look more finished than we do LOL We had a lot of issues to get past. Still getting there on some things but light beginning to appear at the end of the very long tunnel. We are on the Warwks/Worcs border near Stratford upon Avon. On the top of the Ridgeway with clear views across nearly 40 miles to the Malvern Hills and home beyond - I am Welsh but South, don’t know your part of the world at all Derek. Kitchen fitting going on at the mo but outside is a nightmare of mud, groundworks not finished yet.