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37k not enough. buyers market with the recession. I'd want double that at a minimum.

I'm being very general here but to give you a flavour of the way things operate. For the avoidance of doubt I'm including some of the companies that are major developers and medium sized ones that are underwriten by the major warranty providers in the UK. I'm not going to name them.. suffice to say that I have won a number of claims again them similar to what you describe. Small builders that may be building you an extension,.. don't say much here on small builders as this may require a partially differant approach.. assuming there may be a cash element to that type of transaction. If you are a domestic home owner then surprisingly you often do have legitimate recourse against the medium and bigger developers. But you will probably need to spend a bit of time and possibly a bit of money to overcome this hurdle. If a new build.. in the first couple of years the medium sized builder upwards is probably playing the war of attrition.. they know a lot of folk complain but only a few will take it any further..(some folk post bad things on facebook etc) the warranty provider often does not hold the ball until two years have elasped.. hence the lack of initial response. Take a young couple who have saved up to buy a house and they move in. Cracks appear / drains block say and they feel that they have not got what they paid for. Over the years I have become aware that this is a numbers game for builders and their warranty providers. The warranty providers are essentially insurance companies so this is all about paying out less than you get in premiums and the difference between the two is essentially their profit. Just like car insurance they have a "claims avoidance" department / culture..? I'll deal with the jobbing builder (say a small extension) in another post if there is any interest. But the some of the same rules apply.. often you won't have a formal industry standard contract with the very small builder.. you may be doing a deal.. part cash? Take a medium builder up to the majors. They send their "surveyor in a suit" and offer to do a bit or just send the decorators.. that reduces the field quite a lot.. folk feel.. well we got something out of them. As a domestic home owner you are entitled to a certain standard of workmanship. You are also entitled to a structurally safe home.. all covered under the consumer protection act not least. You are as a home owner are entitled to a product that will perform. @Scots Build If you want to pursue this you have options, there are others but here are a couple. Builders/ house developers often give domestic home owners the run around. They are experts at it and they caveat the sale conditions very heavily.. you need to clear a lot of hoops to gain satisfaction. Caveats include cracking / shrinkage and a whole host of other things in the fine print. What I do is this when acting on behalf of a Client is this.. Rather than arguing about crack sizes / workmanship on say sticky doors, opening mitres, floor levels say on facings that are open to interpretation in the desing codes I look under the bonnet. I always ask myself.. what is causing the cracks, blocked drains, in adequate wall ties for example, walls out of plumb. I then look at the what could be structurally wrong. I can tell you that I will 90% of the time I will find a "structural non compliance" when I look under the bonnet. I don't do random opening up stuff as I know from experience where folk cut corners. I would focus on for example and investigate.. the things that are cheep and simple to do SE wise as it keeps your bill down ...is it the render.. but that could be a symptom of underlying malaise.. I would check the wall for alignment.. is it out of plumb, are the wall ties correctly installed, are the cavities the correct size and clean? If the cavities vary too much coupled with the outside leaf leaning out and the inside leaf leaning in then they are often stuffed as the wall ties no longer comply with the design codes they have probably used. This is easily checked with a plumb bob. simple technology. I check the connections of floor joists for example. Fire protection is a cracker.. one failure is a no no in this day and age. I look at a load of other things too.. could be that I notice that electrical cables are too close to heating pipes.. on the face of it you may think that it is not within an SE remit.. but anything that could potentially cause a detrimental effect to the structure.. say cables or heating pipes that could cause fire or comprimise the strength of a stuctural member does fall in my remit. I only need to ask.. hey I see this.. can you confirm it is OK? I don't need to be an Electrician I just need to apply common sense and are entitleled to ask these queations as a professional. Now it may seem harsh. But if I write in my SE report that you instructed me to do a prelimiary survey and I look in two places that are of interest to me and find one out of two items that are non compliant in terms of fire design.. that is a 50% failure rate.. it raises questions.. I guess where I need to look, say open up a small part of the ceiling to expose a joist hanger.. is it fully nailed, it it installed as per the manufacture's instructions. Find one thing wrong and you have them over a barrel. I have found in the past that the developer comes back with.. what are you on about.. we are big boys and you are not.. our SE says its ok. I call their SE and say do you know about this.. they say no.. In then say who is responsible for the fire design? now the the developers own SE has washed their hands.. and the deveoper has lost the support of their own SE. As soon as the SE bails out all the stuff about shrinkage is blown out of the water. I have found that as soon as you say.. Hey I have found evidence that the building does not comply structurally and I need you to come to the table to discuss it changes the game. If you don't come to the table I'm going to report you to the HSE and my Client is going to sue you as you have sold them an unsafe building. The HSE stuff will impact on their insurance premiums.. you aim for their pocket. Have found that this approach gets their attention as you have moved the goal posts big time. From experience your complaint will rapidly get moved up to "director" level. Funnily I have had quite a lot of success with this approach.. maybe I'm just lucky? The above is a bit of an insight into how you may approach your problem. If you want to pursue this you need to pick your battles and hit them where it hurts. Always remember that you bought the house in good faith.. you are not at fault. Hope this helps you either rule in or rule out how you may want to progress.

Update…. Went for insulated raft…the only PITA was the land drain as it follows the deepest part of the dig circa 1.1 m deep. site is a tapered dig so we’re moving on full steam

Llamas: https://www.alpacamagic.com.au/livestock-guardians/#:~:text=Yes%2C llamas are elite fox,rid their paddock of foxes.

Top stuff and welcome. I've made a few comments below which will I hope will help. First things first. In the past I have bought and sold properties that are suffering apparent distress. Mostly now I do a bit of design for Clients that are interested in these types of "distressed" properties, some buy them to "sort out" and sell on, some buy as they are cheep and turn them into their "forever home". Both are fascinating for me as a designer as I often get involved right from day one and see the project through to the the end. Now there is no free lunch here. Much depends on your attitude to risk and MOST importantly how much work you are willing to put into researching the problem, understanding it and identifying cost effective solutions, if there are any. Some can be stunningly simple and cheep to implement. Spotting this opportunity where others have missed it can be the key to unlocking it all. Making / saving money that let's you make a good profit or spend it on the things you want.. finishes etc or just make it affordable as a project when you are on a limited budget. What I'm saying is keep your enthusiasm up! A question. You mention the word "sewer" To the lay person this could mean just a drain that carriers water from say the toilet and maybe the roof from your house out into the street from your house alone. But in technical terms a "sewer" could be a big public asset.. a very big infrastructure pipe. You also have what is often called a public drain, that is a pipe that serves a few houses before it goes into the "sewer". Public drains are often more manageable.. but if you want to build over them later you'll need build over permission. This is often doable if you plan ahead for a future extension. Your SE report will likely be an "observational report with some limeted technical comment" not offer up solutions and be heavily caveated. It's the solutions bit that cost the professional fee money as the SE has to step up to the plate and carry the can if it does not work out. You mention various options.. underpinning, structural repair etc and how that is treated in terms of insurance and resale value. If you involve an SE to give you advise on solutions and thereafter design them up this should cover you as the SE carries insurance that should satisfy most folk... lenders etc and selling later. Also you will need to involve the local authority who will provide a completion certificate. That also adds weight when selling. Your project sounds really interesting. If you wish post photos, provide more info and you'll get loads of help and suggestions on BH. Try if you can not to reveal the location as it may be a live bid. If in doubt PM folk here.. but if you end up buying it then you should post about how you won the bid. And if you benefit from it you should make a donation to Build Hub! If you don't get this one then keep your hopes up and look for the next as you'll learn loads on BH. I do every time I log on. All the best. Our questions are around the following: 1) I've read that resin injection with geopolymers can be a cheap & effective alternative to underpinning - just wondering if anyone had used this & what their thoughts were (we're thinking of using Geobear, unless anyone can recommend a better UK company)? Have heard it's around £1200/metre.... 2) When using something like this, are there any implications if we decide to build a house extension over/around that area at a later date? 3) I've read that house structural rework can cause problems with insurance & resale value. Apparently, resin injection avoids this, as it doesn't 'break the ground', hence no need to declare it. Does anyone know more about this claim of avoiding the insurance/resale issue? 4) Does anyone know what is classed as 'structural repair' that may affect the house value/insurance? Eg, if we use helibars to repair the brick mortar cracks will this need to be declared or just part of the normal process of house repair? 5) Any other advice/tips/gotchya's from anyone who's experienced similar when fixing their property

+1. I drew this in AutoCAD but my lad brought the render to life by running the STL through Fusion:

Just had a quick look at Geo ear's website. Two things would concern me. Seems they are using an expanding polymer, probably a polyyrethane. The other is the use of the word 'leading' in their blurb. I worked for the leading supplier of saunas, steamrooms, spa baths and sunbeds. We joked that it meant we made mistakes and the customers paid for them.

Newer glass wool products (not yellow in colour) are normally much nicer to handle especially compared to stone wool. Underside of water storage tanks normally left uninsulated but this can introduce a route for thermal bypass to occur.

Yet the two are very different when it comes to handling. I believe most people find glass wool more irritating than rock wool. I certainly react very differently. I also wonder if if the practice of leaving the underside of any water storage tanks uninsulated still holds? I guess it may depend where you live but I can't remember the last time we had ice here, and the loft still stays a bit above outdoor ambient anyway.

Mineral wool is a general term covering both glass wool and stone wool products. Knauf loft insulation will be glass wool

If you're putting stuff up there there'll need to be a supporting structure so not to compress the insulation. Yes. A good dust mask. Mineral wool is a nicer product than glass wool. This is a good price. Knauf Insulation Super Top Up 200mm Loft Roll - 5.61m² | Wickes.co.uk Cover all your skin (including clothed areas) with a thick layer of moisturising cream beforehand. It'll help stop the fibres getting in your pores. If you have them, wear old clothes and consider throwing them away later or washing twice. Don't put the insulation hard against the bottom of the felt in the roof at the eves. A 50mm gap is needed for ventilation. If you need to cut say a 500mm strip of insulation, it's much easier to do it when it's still packaged in the roll rather than when it's rolled out. I used a standard handsaw. Even a breadknife would work. It's no extra work to put in a 200mm roll vs a 100mm roll. Thicker is obviously better. If you're earning less than I think £31k or someone in the house is on benefits you may be eligible for free installation.

You need an air gap between the top of the insulation and boarding to avoid damp issues. Look at Loftzone Storefloor as a relatively easy solution. They do two versions of the standoffs to suit different insulation depths. As long is the old insulation is in decent condition then I think the majority of people just insulate over the top. If the first layer of insulation is running between the joists, run the next layer at 90 degrees to the joists. Wear a good dust mask!

So the vendor's insurers are aware, and have commissioned a survey which says that the foundations have failed, but are not paying to repair it, and it us up for sale. Hmmmm. Any more info on this? Would you get any insurance that was worth having? Mortgage, probably declined too.

+1, I would not allow it in my build 👍

Firstly, i am both Engineer and contractor. For a clientI I take few risks. For my own, and family, i take more chances. We have taken on severely distressed buildings 5 times, always to live in. In every case there have been nasty surprises, even to me. These would nof have come up in reports other than as general warnings. More accurately these are considered decisions, not risks. So the default here is to say to be careful. The discount may not begin to cover the risks....but i don't know as i don't know enough about this property. If this house was possibly to be mine i would cost the repairs of the known problems, but also allow for the unknowns. Repairing to live in rather than sell is an advantage. Things like the drains can be dealt with as and when. A builder either has to get it right, or disguise the problems, in order to sell it. Stitching is a repair, not a solution. Best have an expert look at what caused these cracks and the floor movement. A good local SE could simply have a walk round inspection and give off the recird advice. This works for easily seen problems and avoids unnecessary detail and report cost. For example i once suggested this, on the basis that the SE would say only whether the house would get a mortgage, and why not. Client paid for 2 hours and avoided an expensive mistake. The discount may not be remotely enough. Be prepared to let it go. On a positive. Maybe the ground is ok and thd floor is just very badly made, and can be repaired. Maybe the walls are cracked for other ressons thsn foundations, and just need repair. On a negative....often houses are beyond repair, demolished and rebuilt as new. Be careful, get independent professional advice.

Hence factors of safety. Some for load, material, and build quality. And a lot of that weight is at the edges. Then, most structures are governed by deflection limits...ie they flex and feel uncomfortable long before they break. I assume that the stairs did not fail in this instance.

And here's a picture of the project. Cladding was 'finished' last week (as in - it's still not finished...!) - guttering is temporary until I sort it out properly. This is south-facing, 15 degree pitch, cold deck (on 18mm WBP) covered with Sarnafil SPM. It's approx 3m x 10m

Ah (expletive deleted) it ! I’ll pack it out with window packers then foam it . Quality !

Replacement floors make a massive difference. My mother in laws kitchen was cold damp and pretty miserable. Dug out, insulation and replaced and it’s now completely different.

Just to help you understand the process: We commissioned an SE to give a solution with instructions/diagrams etc (which are submitted to Building Control for them to check) and then the builder/other carries it out and it's inspected by BC and signed off. We had an SE visit initially and at points where we needed some advice. If you don't like/agree/want to carry out that suggestion, you could ask for another solution, or even (rarely) ask another SE for a second opinion to find a different remedy. This removes the danger commissioning a company (who are not unbiased and independent) to do work which you or they have diagnosed. However, they might have their own engineers to do the drawings which you would give to BC. PS you need different house insurance whilst you do remedial works, you might even have to keep the original householder's insurance co as other co's may not want to take it on.

What did the SE report recommend? I've never specced the polymers but have had various CPD lunches off them over the years. I've always had the impression they're done when nothing else is really suitable, so I would certainly look at conventional cement grouting or even if underpinning before opting for polymer injection. 2) Shouldn't be significant. May need to do a raft rather than normal footings but all achievable 3) If done properly, shouldn't be an issue. A ASUC registered contractor is a safe(r) bet 4) Not for normal repair. Crack stitching isn't always needed and can be counter productive on an old house. I wouldn't crack stitch the photo above

Ok, I will get a llama.

https://certificate.microgenerationcertification.org/ Tried a few username/passwords but no luck.

Any chance of a photo of the problem area?

Hello dnb. The half landing needs to be compliant with the regs in terms of width. @ProDave His photo is a good example to explore as to what you need to do SE wise and how you start checking / designing it. First in terms of a domestic stair. The landing is just like a floor so the live loadings on the floor (people etc) are 1.5 kN/m2 which is about 150 kg per m2 If you have 18mm thick V313 say chipboard this will need supported at 400mm centres, if 22mm thick then 600mm centres under normal loading conditions.. no other hidden loads. The next thing to do is to design the joists that support the chip board (landing) . As a rule of thumb if you take the span of the landing joist in feet, divide it by two and add two inches.. convert this to metric if you have to and that will probably work in terms of joist depth based on a 45mm (C16 grade) thick timber, subject to final checking. Final checking includes working out the self weight of the landing, any ceiling under etc and if the load goes onto the trimmer or side walls and what that load is. Pro Dave's joists could span from the wall with window opening back to the trimmer at the top of the lower flight or side wall to side wall. Can't see from the photo but the same principle applies. Next thing to do is to work out the loading on the lower and upper flight of stairs. There are a number of different loads that the codes require you to look at. Evenly distributed loads and point loads. In general it's the distributed loads that govern the design. The loading on the stair flights that tend to govern are the self weight of the stair plus the live load (150kg/m2). The stair flight is like a roof rafter and often we assume that the stringers are simply supported at the bottom and top. Yes the outside stringers could be fixed to the side walls but let's assume they are not as the side walls may be non load bearing walls. Now we can work out what loads the stringers are putting on the trimmer, add to that any load from the landing and this lets us design the trimmer. Say the landing joists span onto the trimmer. The trimmer is checked for the four point loads from the stringers plus the uniform load from the landing. In this case as we have point loads from the stringers close to the side walls we need to check carefully for both bending effects and shear effects at the ends of the trimmer. What we do though is to make the trimmer pretty stiff so that it does not deflect very much at all. Every bit of deflection adds to a "bouncy stair" The next stage is to check all the joist hangers etc and any directly nailed connections. There are a lot of ways you can put a stair like this together but hopefully this gives an insight into how you go about designing it structurally. Now if anyone is intersted in how you design cantilevered type / winding stairs with no trimmers or central supports please post. These are fascinating to design and make work. Master stone masons have been doing this for centuries and the laws of physics have not changed. A lot of modern cantilevered stairs are designed with each tread as a cantilever extending out from the side walls but under the right circumstances there is another very elegant way of doing it that can deliver a great aestetic result. When folk look at them they may be inclined to think.. how does it stay up?..

MCS has a system registration database. Don't think it is public though. Call up MCS and ask.

To get export payments, I beleive you need the MCS installation cert and the installer to register the install on the MCS database. I beleive some or all SEG payers want a letter from the DNO confirming the grid connection is accepted. On top of those you want elec test cert, warranty details, operation guide. Details of any non standard settings theyve made together within any usernames and passwords. A list of component model/part numbers would be useful in the future for getting spares sorted.

Good advise I would add If you really want this property Assume the worst and base your offer on this Houses with subsidence issues are usually money pits But not always

The Geobear Google reviews do not inspire confidence. Unless the property is at a huge discount (at least twice the cost of proper underpinning, drain replacement and crack repairs) I would not go ahead.

Unless you specifically asked them to sort out a SEG contract for you, and I dont think thats the norm, it would be you that would sort out an export payment contract, as you are doing now with Octopus. If you'd asked for the MCS certificate when the system was installed, but they didn't supply it, then you might have an argument that the loss of export payment was their fault. If they're an MCS acreddited installer then you'd likely be able to make a complaint to MCS but not sure you'd get your lost export payments reimbursed???

Better to have a decent office manager than a 'whizz kid'. PV is mature technology, basically installs itself. If you could connect up a 1970 stereo system, you can do PV. Tell him for the right money I will sort out his crap installers.

No not speaking about CO. Sorry it is a monitor not a sensor, but it is for CO2, also it is not an alarm. The monitor requirement pre dates COVID by 5 years. https://www.gov.scot/publications/carbon-dioxide-monitors-standard-3-14-letter-to-local-authority-verifiers/

Hi. If you want an optimum design for off-griddyness then I would suggest a dual cylinder arrangement. A 500L TS ( thermal store ) with 2x 3kW immersions, and a 300L UVC ( unvented hot water cylinder ) also with 2 immersions, with the TS preheating the cold feed to the UVC. This will massively increase your potential to store energy as heat, plus the TS can be depleted ( for heating ) without sapping all of your DHW for bathing. All excess electrical energy into the UVC first, then cascading to the TS. Batteries and PV can dump into either on demand, whichever needs a nudge. Another advantage is, if you have a diesel genny which is water-cooled you can divert the heated water from that into a low mounted coil in the TS to absorb every ounce of energy you create, wherever it gets created. When you have the least solar revenue it will be the winter, and you'll be needing heating, plus the batteries will need topping up via the genny, so, one problem gets solved and the bi-product ( wasted heat from the genny running ) helps to solve another by using even low grade heat at start up to the high grade heat after it's been running for a while. Zero is wasted. What are you doing in terms of heat emitter? Concrete slab with UFH to be used as a further energy store?

No ! Because it looks even worse !

My search for a way to limit the download speed of one connected device seems to show only a few routers will do that, and the air cube is not one. So a bit of lateral thinking. We all know wifi speed diminishes as you get further from the router and the signal gets weaker, you can test that by walking around with your phone and doing a speed test. This XBOX is very close to the router, so the potential speed of the wifi link exceeds the total download speed of the broadband service, so for that device the wifi is as good as a wired connection. Now if only it were further away and had a weaker, slower connection? Well I can't change that, but what I have done is stick some sheets of copper clad PCB board to the "ceiling" above the router placed to try and block the signal from the router in the direction of this XBOX. It has certainly reduced the signal strength it is getting and appeared to slow down it's download speed just a little. I will have to wait until it is next downloading to see if it has slowed it enough that the other stuff can still work while it hogs as much as it can.

Dave .. was not sure if you had continued the newel post all the way down. But for BH folk and for simplicity had assumed that your good photo showed a clear spanning trimmer. On the upside Dave.. given your neck of the woods I expect, as does a lot of my family that live on the islands, you will be putting on a bit of weight on "for the winter months to keep you warm ", partying over the coming festive period.. I referenced a floor loading of 150 kg per sq metre.. there are some big fishing folk up your neck of the woods? 150 kg... would that would be their weight with no clothes on? Of course we in the central belt of Scotland will be living on lentils in the lead up and during xmas.. have electric blankets (PV supplied of course) and be having a "quite time" at so don't need to worry about over loading stairs and floors. We will be miserable but convince ourselves we are happy. You stair looks good by the way.