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For ones into masonry have about 70 - 80mm embedment with really careful drilling so did not punch through the half brick thick wall. The ones in the photo are drilled into timber studs. These are structural studs but only have a modest axial load and very little wind loading so not getting bent top to bottom. Good point markc. Yes these kind of fixings are subject to a bending moment as well as shear. For non safety critical fixings like this you can calculate it out as a fag packet check. Have to say I did not do detailed calcs as it is my own house but if asked here is roughly how you prove it for a non safety critical fixing. The key is to let the shelf sit a fraction off the wall so it does not pry the fixing.. a tension force. Lets say you put 100 kg on the shelf and it is 2.0m long and your fixings are at 400mm centres so direct shear load per fixing = 100 * 0.4 / 2.0 = 20 kg per fixing. 20 kg is about 0.2 kN.. call this the working load.. an unfactored load. The 20 kg acts straight down the direct shear. A M10 /M12 threaded rod in a typical resin in soft brick will carry about 1.0kN to 1.2 kN in direct shear... all looks good. Until you see what @markc say about cantilevers. Say your shelf is 300mm deep and it is loaded front to back with books. The centre of action of the books is 150mm out say. Now you have a leveraging (bending) effect also.. which is 0.2 kN * 0.15m = 0.03 kNm.. seems a very small number until you start to think.. hey this rod only goes a little into the wall .. 70mm , the bricks / timber are soft and just where the fixing goes into the wall you have a highly stressed area of brick / timber. Lets say here that your first 20mm of rod penetration is required to resist the compression under the fixing.. and you need about another 20mm at the far end of the rod where it wants to move upwards. So the effective lever arm is now 70 mm less (20 + 20) / 2 = 50mm. Now a bending moment can be what we call decoupled into an up and down force in this case. So we convert the bending moment into an up and down shear as follows. 0.03 kNm/ 0.05m (the effective lever arm) = 0.6 kN .. and this is the extra force that is generated as marc says. Now we have to add the 0.6 kN force to the direct shear force = 0.6 kN + 0.2 kN = 0.8 kN. All of a sudden we have significantly increased the load on the masonry / timber although in this case it still looks ok. One other check to do is to check the rod in case it bends or deflects too much. That is why I tilted the rods up at a bit of an angle so when the shelf is loaded it lies level. Remember that the shelf in the photo is just for a few pictures and stuff... no where near 100 kg. For safety critical stuff we start with a fag packet sum to get a feel for things then we check carefully. We use some theory from steel column base plate design and write a quadratic equation and or use excel to solve iteratively.. then we get close and do further checks and so on. You often see something like this on the side of a motorway or the base plate stantions for railway pylons.. the base plate sites proud of the concrete base.. your shelves are the same .. but hopefully cheaper! There you go.. a bit of theory on flying shelves for a Saturday nights fun. That said this can be applied to all sorts of cantilever structures that require fixings into masonry.

Just had door fitter round to install Thiral aluminIium entrance door which I supplied Illbruck ME508 airtight tape for. The fitter has run a mile... he says he can not install with an airtight membrane. Has anyone else had issues

I’d get someone else You are correct Short lengths that finish just short of where each slate is nailed Allowing the next slate to cover and so on Leaving the soakers stepped like the slates

Bar bending and reinforcement quantities! Have written this as I hope it helps all who are doing everything from ICF, piled extensions or just using rebar. I often do these on small domestic projects. I sell this as an extra to the Client by discussing first what type of builder they may want to employ. Take two cases: 1/ A house extension.. a few piles with a ring beam. Here your local builder (or you) could maybe get a piling contractor that leaves the pile heads. These are commonly designed at SE stage to be up to 75mm out of alignment and still be code compliant. Next the builder has to figure out how to connect the piles to the ring beam, the shuttering to say get the concrete cover right and all the bars in the right place. Now your local builder may find this a challenge. I say.. hey I'll do the schedule and a shuttering detail. Your builder can then send my schedule to the benders for pricing, make the shuttering and I'll nip by and check it before you pour the concrete. If you want the builder to sort it all out it will probably cost you more than getting me to lay it all information wise out on a plate for the builder. All they need to do is send my schedule out for pricing.. no hassle for them and if no hassle less tends to be added to the price. Or you can get a ground worker that will sub out the piling and do the ring beam.. but someone has to coordinate all this and that is something that comes at a hidden cost.. and you have to take a leap of faith that they are doing it correctly. Better to spend more on good pragmatic design info than have a bad day when it comes to the concrete pour or worse.. once the concrete has been poured and you discover all is not as you expected. Stepping up to say an ICF basement. Here I would push the Client to pay me to do the steel (bar bending) schedule. In fact I would be reluctant to do the job unless I had sufficient design control over it and be able to check on site. What folk don't realise is that when you bend rebar it is not an exact science (bends vary a lot!) and that you need to be very careful to maintain concrete cover, the correct lap length and make sure the concrete can be well compacted at particularly the corners and junctions as that is where you often get leaks. The folk that provide the ICF stuff don't cut you much slack if your bars and in particular the bend radius is a little off. The steel fixer will use what they are provided with and while they will often do their best they can't make a purse out of a pigs ear. Remember that rebar is very heavy and if a rebar cage falls over it could kill someone. I want to make sure that the tying of the bars and temporary stability bracing will be sufficient for it to stand safely during the construction phase. ICF suppliers.. their interests / priorities are not the same as yours when it comes to rebar and so on. Yes some SE's don't do schedules.. years ago it was part of an Engineers training to design a concete beam / slab and produce the bending schedule.. I still remember learning how to do it. The main thing for me is that if I do it say for a basement or say ICF, a retaining wall I have to really look and draw/ model how it is going to fit and if it can be built /poured. It's almost like a last design safety check as when you have to sit down and do the schedule / shuttering you can spot things that you may have missed. It's like another design review/ safety check. If it can't be built as per the design then it's not safe. I could pass design responsibility to say.. well who is going to carry the can.. that is what you need to ask. The sad reality these days is that few designers want to carry the overall design responsibility as modern Clients are often not willing to pay for what they percieve as an extra. Why.. because modern professionals often don't explain (and have often not been taught how to) to a client how they can make savings at the end of the day. I minded to blame the telly.. too much Sarah Beany, Homes under the hammer and Grand designs etc .. well I'm not going to blame myself? If you have the skill to convey to a Client that your way is the most cost effective, efficient and delivers and the Client is not of like mind then you need to walk away from that Client, let them get on with on it. Projects like that often only lead to disappointment on all sides.

The only thing I can add is a new plant would have to comply with building regs which in Scotland would mean 5 metres away from a building or boundary and 10 metres from a road or watercourse. I think the distances are different in English building regs. But you would not want to put it where the cess pit is, you would want it elsewhere and when redundant fill in the old pit. As for type, most of us here would recommend one of the air blower type and I would certainly advise against the ones that have rotating mechanical parts.

@Adsibob I think you need to measure the weight of the books you propose to put on each of these shelves first 😱 then boffins like @Gus Potter can give you more accurate info as to what’s required.

Who in their right mind would use a company like the one recommended above? Lousy wix.com website and no hint of who they would be submitting an enquiry to, no hint of actual company name, address or how to contact them. It must be some sort of scam, no real company would advertise like that.

time for them to get a new SE?

+1 They have to get written to the benefit of whoever owns another piece of land not just an individual named person.

Bet he wants to put it in with 8 S’fix frame fixers and some foam and then a bit of frame sealant … dodged a bullet there ..!

Does the Covenant wording say the 'successors in title'? If not you might be in luck.

Covenants are notoriously hard to enforce especially if there’s no beneficiary If a neighbor decides to use a covenant to restrict you building They will need deep pockets You can apply to have the covenant removed

See this: https://www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk/2016/08/24/restrictive-covenants-is-there-a-building-scheme/ It’s a complicated subject for sure.

It wouldn't affect planning permission, only the legality of actually building what was granted. Complicated territory... to be enforceable, there has to be a beneficiary, ie someone who owns land that would be adversely affected by breaking the covenant. That could theoretically be a neighbour, if the covenant is designed to limit development in the area. I'd speak to a solicitor before getting too far into the process. (If you're in the Wisbech area, there's a solicitor with expert local knowledge in the town 😉)

How is it worded? Who is the beneficiary of the covenant? Covenants run with the land so it still applies and presumably anyone with an interest (like a neighbour) could highlight it. You can indemnify the land and it stays with the land but I thought this was you taking the indemnity out to protect the person buying the land/house.

So, I used the app to change to heating only (as it was stuck on hot water cylinder priority I guess) then turned off for 15 mins. Turned on and all OK on heating and no more alarm ! 🙂 Left that for a while to get the buffer up to temp then put back to heating + hot water and after a short time it switched to hot water and seems OK. So emergency over 🙂 Will try and find the cause but if happens again I guess try the same but this is the first occurrence since installed in March - though does probably coincide with the first cooler night (8 degrees). If I find a possible cause will share on here for others

Your fault... You prodded the 'reality generator'. Sometimes chinese firmware copies over numbers like these. Variously AL114 has meant: Power+ alarm:Power+ offline (Carel) memory backup battery fault (Carel) Probe B2 alarm (Carel) room thermostat fault (Aermec) Power+ alarm: Drive connection alarm (EMAUX) Not much help I guess.

Leave it alone ..!!!! A pumice liner is the Rolls Royce of liners ..!! Do not do anything to it, especially not a stainless liner ..!! This is your answer - you have to slow the burn at the bottom not the top. Choking the chimney is dangerous and could lead to more issues.

The latest gen ashp models, if competently installed and set up, are much cheaper to run than the average gas boiler. At current rates mine is saving me c. £700 pa

So I'm at the final step of moving to Octopus Agile - getting on for the actual payments. This has taken since August, and is clearly still a developing process. Received yesterday: Ferdinand

Good evening and welcome, a vast amount of answers available with a search of previous threads and failing that, ask away

I'm so happy with my setup right now. this was yesterday where I managed to get 104 miles in to the car and then fully charge my 6.4kWh battery storage. you can see where the solar PV dropped off the battery kicked in to keep charging the car (I have a Hypervolt EV charger) and then at around 3pm the car finished charging and so the batteries started charging while also exporting quite a bit to the grid. I'm hoping that once we actually move in to the house we'll self consume more but it's working well at the moment, even with the batteries in the basement!

i used rawlplug r-kem ii and threaded m16 rod cut to length, 18mm drill marked to depth. bristle brush and puffer to clean out the holes and marked the resin nozzle so I had an idea how far to place the nozzle, i also marked the bar as well so when 'turning' it into the hole again knew when to stop. I'd suggest getting a good gun if you do it this way and you've lots to do as it can put a lot of strain on your hands. Not sure if you can zoom in but here's the ones i done, ring beam i think was 10 x 1 3/4.

We finally got our completion certificate! Now I can move from my high rate self-build mortgage to a nice low rate high street mortgage... Bollocks.

Thanks again for your response Nick... Nice to hear from you. The chap is in his late 30's like me so maybe the guy he did his apprenticeship with many years ago swore by this over PTFE. Reading online there is some debate about which is better but I think PTFE looks neater. I'm not sure the stringy stuff actually is hemp, it looks white and stringy on the joints but I know Boss white was used as I saw the tub. Is the discoloration anything to be concerned about or just a little seepage before the joints / threads sealed? The radiators are Henrad which I understand is a good quality radiator made by Stelrad. They came from a decent plumbers merchant.

Yes, but it’ll need some woodworking skills!!

Yep. I always put a little drop of washing up liquid in it. Fortunately we have inward opening windows, well most of them, so ladders rarely get used.

I find washing windows is futile, as soon as a hoolie comes in, my windows are covered in salt, and I am two miles from the sea. If it is a sunny day, I go outside and take full advantage of the light. When it is dark, I don't care what the windows are like.

And it'd be prudent to always use a detergent so dirt should be kept in suspension. I doubt cleaning windows with water alone would be all that effective (although I must admit I've never actually tried it).

Get a little dehumidifier to dry your clothes on the cheap through the winter, save all the condensate and wash away to your hearts streakfree content. Rain drops wouldn’t exist without dirt/dust etc so rainwater is not clean, but stored in a water butt I guess most of the dirt would settle out.

[Mod hat on] Please behave yourselves and stop bickering. [/Mod hat off]

Insert an ion exchange cartridge in the hose before the pressure washer - one of these would do it for quite a while. Can easily add a couple of cheap hose fittings to it as it’s threaded https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232518514655

Got any AC units? The condensate from those is free of minerals.

We're in a hard water area and I use water from a water butt to clean the cars and windows.

Put a bucket out in the garden and give it a go. Think there is probably enough acid in rainwater to keep it streak free.

Just a little, that’s all I use but find using a long pole hard work and not as good, I am happy to be up a ladder tho.

Just stick some Fairy Liquid in it. And most a video of the result.

No such thing as a stupid question, stupid is not asking 👍despite what the SE says it’s the building inspector that makes the decision on ground conditions once the trenches are dug (and clean, scrapped flat and smooth). I would say dig 1100 from existing floor level, the thickness of the concrete poured should be specified by the SE but some do full fill pours (trench filled to top, saves laying blocks in a trench).

Hi, we have just done this job on our house. The screed man & underfloor heating company specified we needed the blue foam (comes on a roll) for the internal walls and 25mm PIR for the external walls, the blue foam helps provide an expansion gap for the screed and the PIR is to stop thermal bridging. We cut our 25mm PIR to 100mm "skirting boards" on the external walls (for our 65mm of screed) and then cut them down to size after the screed was down and hard enough. Hopefully that makes sense and is of help to you!

I got as close to like for like quotes as I could from the list of: Norrsken Nordan Rationel Green Building Store Jeldwen (priced direct with them rather than through a merchant) and a couple of others. ages ago I'd also got a quote from Velfac but this was for Aluminium windows the architect spec'd rather than timber we eventually went for. They were competitive price wise and rather than relying on a ridiculous negotiation process for the sake of it, just gave us a good price up front. About 7k or so less than GBS for 3g windows that had a whole window average u-value of 1.05 including the doors (We weren't looking for PH performance in ours so didn't spec this) . The Nordvest windows were slightly better on G-value (we've got lots of south facing windows shielded from summer sun with large overhang but wanted the winter gain - and can attest now that this works well). Rationel was the best quote on base price but Rationel couldn't do our 1st floor egress window as designed, nor could they do our front door IIRC, nor did they include the sills or transport in the quote. With Nordvest they quoted including timber sills, pretty much everyone else wanted extra for the sills of course, especially the aluminium ones. Nordvest also included transport in their quote so you basically knew everything was covered. What really made the difference with Nordvest is that they actually looked at the designs and window schedule and instead of just quoting for what was on there, they came back and suggested alternative arrangements for window openings etc. So, for example, they suggested tilt and turn windows at some places and fully reversible top swing in others etc. With the front door, I think only one other company could do our size and Nordvest said they only supply front doors with an Accoya external face and it was to be steel reinforced due to the size, which was reassuring. I also like their window profile which was 109mm deep x 56mm. This helped because with their frames I was able to bring them out further from the timber frame to cover the 50mm insulation installed externally and not have to use deep aluminium sills. I only needed 65mm timber sills rather than the 120 + mm aluminium ones. There are also some other neat additions to the design. For example, even on the timber only windows they include aluminium profile as cladding on the top of the bottom rail which clips on just above the bottom bead. As I understand it, this is one of the weaker areas of a timber window and this profile provides better protection. We ended up spending more with them as we decided to increase some sizes, like for the french doors and up the spec of a few bits and bobs but we still ended up paying marginally less less than Rationel would have been with sills and transport included. In total it was just over 20k plus VAT. Can share full schedule so you can see all the details if you'd like. Windows & doors not long after installation. Bays have fully glazed returns:

I thought I would put a post together for those that are looking for windows, replacement or new build. As someone who deals with final order placing / final quote discussions. One of the things that crosses my desk on regular basis, is that the "other supplier" is more cost effective. Which leads me to ask myself "more cost effective against what" are you comparing apples for apples? When I ask people to compare, what we generally explain is to look at the following (see below) if they are not willing to supply a copy of the quote without prices. Product - is the product similar. For example are you comparing a Timber Aluminium cladded window with a Timber Aluminium cladded window? Glazing - Is the glazing on offer from both suppliers comparable? Is it double glazed v's triple glazed for example or is it float glass v's toughened or laminate? Check that doors have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows within 300mm of a door have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows below 800mm from the finish floor have toughened/laminated glazing Check that windows that are 1400mm in height or above for toughened/laminated glazing. Most suppliers will start to consider toughened / laminated from 1400mm onwards, some will still be float glass. Check triple glazed glass units. Some suppliers will only toughen the inner and outer panes and leave the middle pane as float glass, others will toughen all 3 panes (I recommend all 3 panes as toughened) when required. Why? quick example is from experience, a customer in the north west of Scotland had the middle pane as float glass in french doors, the doors are recessed with wall on either side. It effectively became a wind tunnel. What happened is during high winds, the door sashes had that much wind pressure constantnly, that the door sash was pushed away from the frame slightly and a rattle effect occurred (only thing I could think would cause this to happen). As a result the middle pane (float glass) shattered. This required the whole sash to be replaced, as the glass was glued into the frame on that particular product. Timber - Is the timber comparable, are both using spruce/larch/oak/pine etc.? Are any of the products finger jointed as standard (which is more cost effective versus fixed timber, but not as aesphetically pleasing). Is the timber cut from from one section of wood or is it individually glue laminated timber? Ug values - A 0.5Ug can be quoted by suppliers but the costs vary dramatically. One of the reasons for this can be the glass make up and the gas that is being used. Some quotes won't tell the gas being used but it's safe to assume that if it's 48mm glazing it is Argon. Pay attention to the spacer distance also, not for cost but if the spacer is above 18mm, convection can occur of the gas filling (gas moves around in the unit). Hinging - Are the hinges concealed or are they exposed? Door Hinging - Pay close attention as suppliers will have quoted standard framing on doors, others may have increased the widths of the jambs to increase the space available at the hinging for plastering behind. RAL Colours externally - are the quoted RAL colours the same? Internal colours - have they quoted the same? Some will offer the standard colours such as a clear lacquer, others will have them painted - does this have any impact on price comparison. Sizes - have any of the units been split, due to not being able to achieve the size required? Some suppliers will not be able to do large sizes, others will be. Look out for compromises. Don't always look at the end figure and immediately reject a quote as being to high, compared to the others. Most suppliers will have the supply price first, then additional items such as window cills, compriband, membrane, installation etc. which are optional to the quote and not necessarily required but may be included in the total cost at the end. Most self builders like to take on the mantra of doing the whole build, others would like to leave this to the supplier or builder and or source their own materials if supply only. What is being offered with the installation service, are the installation options / costs comparible to each other? Who takes responsibility for the windows upon arrival? Generally speaking most suppliers who are installing, should be taken responsibility from the moment the windows leave the factory, to the moment the windows/doors have been installed, sign off. If supply only, the responsibilitygenerally passes to the client once the offload commences. So it is important to document the windows before offload, during offload and once offloaded. The manufacturer will normally have documentation / pictures before departing the factory, it makes life easier on whether a claim with the haulage company or whether a claim with the supplier is required (both should go to the supplier who should deal with it). Warranty - how long is the warranty, what does it cover? Last but not least, is the quote comparible? Have the suppliers referenced things the same way or are have the drawings been scaled and then referenced by the supplier (this happens a lot when no window schedule exists)? A lot of architects don't create window schedules for some reason (one the major parts of a build and most costly aspects) and problems of missing windows can be encountered, due to the elevations not always showing "hidden" windows which can be seen on floor plans. Some suppliers can miss this, which then impacts that quote. Hopefully some people find this useful, of not apologies for the long read

I produced an "as designed" window schedule, based on the plans I drew up, to get quotes from window suppliers and select the one we decided to contract with. The frame company confirmed that the frame had been manufactured to the required dimensions (10mm bigger in both axis than the actual window size, as required by the window supplier) before it left their factory. The day after the frame was erected the window supplier sent their representative over to double check that the on site opening dimensions were correct and just over a week later the windows arrived and were fitted. All told there was a fair bit of checking, first by the frame manufacturer confirming that the openings were built to the right size in the factory, again by me when the frame was erected and once more by the window supplier shortly before the windows were fitted. I don't think you can check the window sizes, openings and specifications too many times!

Don’t call it insulation, say you want to use a revolutionary lightweight structural block called EPS, give them the mechanical properties sheet (compressive strength) and say the idea is the isolate the structure from the horrible corrosive cold ground. if that fails go with @Thorfun and get another SE

Mine is only 6” diameter (but don’t tell @pocster🤣) and sweep it through the stove after removing the inner baffle.

You will need to buy gallons of the finest artisan spring water.

Where do you think I get most of my stuff? 😂