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I guess you could have a pair of, say 220 x 45 joists across the of top of the pipe as a lintel and sheathe with OSB

Turns out this was the correct answer. My SE specifically suggested the Flexseal type of fitting, but turns out that a normal coupling was actually the right thing to use. So, out came the pea shingle, expanding foam and after a few hours of struggling, I'm much happier. BCO came and gave me the green light, so we're all good. Thanks for your input everyone.

Not sure how you've approached that maths? UK nominal single phase voltage is 230V, current is (loosely, ignoring power factor) power divided by voltage. So 22,000W / 230V = 95.7 amps. Theoretically could just fit on a 100A supply if you turned everything else off...

In the example above it’s apparently an unofficial pole that BT purloined so who is going to come after him. If it’s an official pole/stay then you’ll probably need to pay for it or maybe not depends on the company.

50mm mineral wool works a treat and dead easy and dead cheap.

Go and talk to them. I personally have pussyfooted around a boundary issue with a neighbour because I didn’t want to rock the boat, a month ago I was in a raging mood and got on the digger and ripped all the old fence out back to the correct boundary, I waited a few days for the row to happen. Never did, neighbours came out and said “ we wondered when you were going to do that “ two years I’ve been hesitating. If you believe you are 100% in the right then go and have a chat and tell them you intend removing it.

While filling the bath, the shower pump seemed starved of water. Shut the taps, bathed, got up in loft and the cold tank is not refilling. Shut off water, removed ballcock and valve. The little white plastic cone that has a hole in the middle has a small screw in it. The same screw I dropped down a pipe when changing the cylinder a few years ago. Ten minutes, problem sorted.

I think you'd be looking at least £400. For no benefit what so ever. I'd be ditching the cover and start putting money away each month towards an eventual boiler replacement / breakdown in 5-10 years time. I've never seen the value in these sort of polices, I've never paid more than £50 for an annual inspection / service and the only issue I had in a boiler in nearly 15 years cost £200 to sort.

I did a Sarnafil standing seam. EPDM the material mechanical fixed to 18mm ply, then seam welded and standing seam mouldings welded. Same effect way less money - 194m2 was £14.7k in early 2021. At the same time I was getting £30k quotes for both zinc and aluminium.

Hi All, Hopefully this will help someone as I could not find anything online. I was about to pull the trigger on a new fan which is really limited as to where you can get them and expensive. A new fan from Vent Axia is £280 I sourced bearings from Amazon for £7. Below is a series of pictures showing the fan in various states of disassembly. To remove the fans from the unit requires a full strip down of the unit unfortunately, this is not difficult just a pain, especially if your unit is in the loft like mine. Picture 1 This shows the fan body from the top, first remove the 3 screws in red, gently pry off this black housing, this houses the contacts so go easy, it does lift off without any resistance. Now remove the other two screws in blue. Picture 2 The contacts mentioned above that you will not want to damage. Picture 3 This show the fan in two main parts, the upper with the circuit board and the body that houses the bearings. You can remove the circuit board but I would advise against it, no reason to unless you think it is faulty. Lift off the white rubber cap (red dot) to reveal the upper bearing. Picture 4 This shows the upper bearing already removed with the retaining clip (blue dot). The clip is really small and a bit fiddly, if you push down on the hub assembly if will give a little space between the clip and bearing, this will allow you to get a plain bladed screwdriver into the clip and spread it slightly to remove it. Once the clip is off just lift the whole hub assembly out, it is not stuck or tight but held in magnetically so just pull up. ;Picture 5 This shows the underside of the hub with the bearing already removed, the bearings are easily remove as they are not tight inside the hub, just gently tap them using a long screwdriver from inside the spindle shaft hole, you will see them move out. Picture 6 This just shows a spring with a flat washer on top of it, just in case it drops out when you are lifting the hub etc, just leave it in place. The blue dot shows the magnet Re-assembly is just the reverse when you put the new bearings in. The bearings are marked 626-2Z, these are the one I got from Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FMV2ZHR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Hope this is useful to someone.

I've just noticed a white Magnaclean Micro in my recycling box that I took out while installing a boiler not long ago. I can have a look inside it to make sure it's okay and then if you want it, you can have it.

Mot familliar with Forma Plus, anyone care to explain? Mine are Aura Plus.

Ooh this could be fun. And useful. My Potential house builder has quoted for Rationel forma plus alu clad. We, me and the boss, get closest to an agreement about colour with RAL 7003 Moss green. I have said i wont commit until i can see a whole window in the flesh so to speak. The thing is Rationel do not appear to have a large showroom with all colours on show. If they cannot point me at a real example i dont think i can buy them. Cos' once bought they are staying for a long time.

Also, although the electrician does have a responsibility to check that the overall design load is reasonable taking account of diversity there is some wriggle room there. Ultimately so long as every cable including the incoming supply is protected by a protective device adequate to the cable rating & installation method, that is the safety side of things covered IMHO. And if any of the kit is cabled but not connected then it is for the electrician that eventually commissions that to sign that off. It is extremely common for the total potential load on a consumer unit to be way higher than the actual maximum. Even before car chargers and the like you could easily have 2x32A ring, a 40A cooker, 16A immersion, 2x6A lighting and a 20A garage supply for a total of 152A worth of circuit breakers off a 60 or 80 Amp supply.

Check your maffs. 22kW/230V = 95.6A This is the reason the sparkie has said he needs 3 Phase as 3 x 7.2kW could be used simultaneously even assuming you applied diversity to everything else.

7kW I believe

Does that apply to all DNOs? Do the Wild Western Thieves come under this as our T/X is well under powered? (Western Power)

Might not be applicable to you but I have asked for 3 phase supply for the new house (development of two) and received a quote a few months back for it. I called this week to go ahead and it was suggested to me I would be better waiting until April as they are changing the way they charge. Costs of upgrades required being absorbed by a central pool of money (ie. Put on everyone's bill) rather than charged to the individual

Some makes make connecting a power flush easier:

All you need to ask the electrician is to show you his working to calculate your load.

Don't assume that the builder or electrician understand all or any if this. I have employed many who may be good at installation, may be qualified to sign it off, but don't know much theory. And I have met some who know how to connect a socket, and have a source of certificates. There are plenty of good ones too. Ask them to explain what 3 phase is. (More power is the wrong answer) Ask them to explain how a 2 way switch doesn't short. Ask them to explain diversity....actually this one might do on its own.

But very easy to consume the residual ~2kW in winter, that which the 10kW system will then only provide ... Yes absolutely, wasn't trying to say exporting some in summer is an argument against buying PV at all / in those quantities, just flagging the OP should think now about strategies of what they'll do about it to make it acceptable when it inevitably happens.

Diversity. Don’t add up all your loads and assume the worst case is all on at the same time- apply diversity to each load. And then an overall diversity factor of 0.7 to the total to allow for you over-egging the first set of diversity 🙂

If you're so inclined, Urban Plumbers takes a decent but not too laborious look at these things. They all use the same principles. I'm not a mega fan of Magnaclean as they're plastic and the seals can cause a problem when servicing them. The replacement seal packs are expensive for some o-rings. I personally prefer the metal ones. The Spirotech with magnet you can pick up for about £70:

Sure but it’s all part of your due diligence when buying the land. You spot the random extra cable ask farmer what it is he tells you it’s a BT cable you find out history and advise your solicitor about it and put it into the offer. It’s what I did anyway. It’s easy to miss something of course. I missed a random pipe that enters our field at the burn because it was overgrown with gorse. From the deeds (when I eventually got them) it described it as a source of spring water for the drovers to use for their animals that I needed to maintain. Obviously no requirement for me to do that as we’d bought the plot and it’s use changed so irrelevant. However once I cleared the gorse I could see it was now an overflow pipe for the drain on the road. I’ve since found out that the farmer diverted the course of this spring water many years ago so it doesn’t come anywhere near us now.

I put to studs back to back with a 150 cavity Great for soundproofing also

Unfortunately the electrician, at best, has been unbriefed and did not understand and hence scuppered your airtightness layer. I would let them know, kindly, just for education purposes but not expect anything more. I'm guessing the airtightness layer and service cavity continues down the walls in a similar fashion to the flat part of the roof? Not to worry all is not lost. I have 4 options. 1. Take down the plasterboard and repair the layer. Very small cost as the screws and boards will be reused and the tape required will be cheap. Done in conjunction with a DIY blower door fan it will be a cheap solution. 2. How big is the service cavity and is it empty currently? 50mm? You could possible get a spray foam company to fill it. @Gone West got a sub 0.6 ACH with just a thick layer of open cell foam between I joists. Advantage also of an improved U value. 3. Put another vapour control layer over the current layer of plasterboard and then a new layer of plasterboard. You would have the advantage of better sound proofing from the extra plasterboard. 4. Use the skim coat as an airtight layer. This will involve sealing all penetrations with appropriate tape, mastic and foam before the skim coat. You will need to foam behind the board around the holes. It may take a few try's to get every penetration sealed with the foam. I would lean towards option 4. Make a DIY blower fan for £30. Get plenty of IL330 foam and a good gun. I mean plenty. Like 24 cans/2 boxes. It isn't cheap but it's the best I've used. Different league to over the counter stuff. Best online price I found is here. Get every trade out of the house for a weekend when the first fixes are complete. Tidy it up so you can access every junction, wall to roof, wall to floor, wall to window etc. Then using the back of your hand to detect leaks go room by room and seal every hole and crack that you can. It is tedious and will require diligence. There's no point in just throwing a few quid at a labourer, they won't do it properly. It's not heavy work so anyone careful will be a real asset. If you have kids give them 50p for each hole they find! The better sealed you get, it the more small leaks will be detectable so you may need to do the house 3 times. A lit candle shoved in a length of conduit is the best I have found to find really small holes. Much better than smoke. We got 0.31 ACH50 with this approach although the airtight ceiling was intact. It might have taken 50+ man hours. Very satisfying work however. Impossible without a DIY blower door fan.

Yeah that sounds promising.

You get hot spots from adjacency to UFH runs, solar gain, etc. What you really need is a slab average. If you have wet UFH you might consider what I do. I run my circulation pump for 8 mins every hour. I initially did this to help to redistribute heat around the rooms, but I also realised that the return flow temp is a good remote sensor of average slab temp, and so I use the average of my zone returns.

If measuring output from the AC side of the inverter then the operating temperature of the inverter can have a significant effect. Taking measurements from the DC side is the only reliable way to assess the module performance.

Primary treated water effluent is high in nitrates and phosphates. Your pond will be green slimy mess in a matter of months. You need either secondary treatment to get rid of these, or a way to deal once in the environment (reed bed, percolation treatment etc.) In a river, these nitrates are naturally diluted.... but ultimately lead to the generally crap water quality in our rivers.

Solar panels are in a slate roof. The flatter roofs are sarnafil

In our first 9 months we've self consumed 70%, even at that, the payback with current energy prices is just 4 years. Down from the original 7 years estimate. We also get paid 8.5p per unit export, which is basically the same as our overnight economy 7 import rate. So we even have the option to use appliances and heat hot water overnight on the cheap rate and just export during the day - which I think works out better as never guaranteed when running a dishwasher or dryer during the day that you will ONLY be using PV. And heat pump heating water on economy 7 is far better value than immersion running on excess PV. 3x better "return"

That seems very odd. I just looked quickly at the Homeserve T&Cs and they explicitly exclude "any gas supply pipe made of steel" in the "What's not covered" bit. Normally when insurers list exclusions that means they can provide cover so long as a specific claim doesn't relate to one of the excluded items. I would press them hard on whether there's really no way they could offer the policy on that basis. I can't see how it could hurt them to be charging you the full premium but have a whole class of claims they wouldn't ever have to pay out on! 🤣It's not even like it's something where there could be a grey area as to whether it's relevant to a fault.

Ah, your post crossed with mine. So are they refusing cover at all unless you get it upgraded? Or would they be willing to offer a policy with that excluded? I imagine it will depend on what access is like under the floor (can it be done from the crawl space or do the floorboards have to come up) and how much making good is needed. As well as where you are and how much a plumber near you wants the work. Probably hard to advise without seeing it.

It will be hard to self-consume those 10kW in summer. Does the install include MCS certificate? To get paid export. Do you have a v2 smart 3phase meter? To ensure you get net billing across phases. Have you considered adding a battery (or two) now? They're only VAT free if bought with the PV.

I've heard that said a few times, but it really doesn't to my eye. There's noticeable differences between a steel standing seam roof and a Zinc or Aluminium roof, but there's a huge difference to a single ply membrane roof with a profile stuck on it. It's a good value option, but doesn't have the same appearance.

Our deck is OSB3 and standing seam metal roof. Got quotes for Colourcoat Urban and Greencoat PLX.

@Jimbo37Just check that whatever contract you do use doesn’t need a contract administrator. The JCT Minor Works needs one.

The main thing is who is buying the stuff and if you’re paying for stuff up front (and providing the builder with the funds). This is where you can be financially exposed. In my case I’m buying everything myself.

I got some from Platinum Chemicals - was about the cheapest I could find and free delivery over £75.

Hi @DaveAF Yes, your right about the mains pipe ownership, however what I was wondering was, if the insurance company is worried about your steel pipe being an insurance risk, do they not consider the steel main pipe the same risk? It all seems strange to me.

I only use the band seal couplings on different pipe type and sizes, so plastic to clay, MDPE etc.

I think heating the garden is an anathema to many of us on here…

We had 3 phase just 20m away but the transformer would need changing . £15k. Advice from many sources (incl here) was that it was very unlikely that we would have it all running. And yes, 3 electric cars may need charging, but charging systems/ timing systems will come too. And we will have more solar panels. What some people were getting wrong was that a 12kW ashp uses about 3kW, that being the whole point of them So we will have 350m2 off single phase.

I would certainly bury the appropriate cable to allow a 3 phase upgrade later. (not an option for us the nearest 3 phase is about a mile away) But worth considering how the DNO would get a new cable in. If it means digging up your garden or driveway I would be looking at getting that done now rather than later. No harm in asking the DNO for a quote so you will find out the cost and how they would actually do it.

Do all the prep work for it while the build is going on as it won’t cost much and much harder and costlier to do afterwards. Contact your DNO and get a budget estimate for adding 3 phase. There’s normally a form you fill in. 3 phase can obviously complicate your electrics especially PV and battery storage. Ditch the electric patio heaters and buy some warm blankets.

@Drellingore fair enough. You will always have more knowledge of your situation than anyone here, and those facts may of course make yours a valid approach in your specific circumstances. Most of the criticisms stem from the fundamental question of why you can't save all the hassle and have HoldCo lend the money to you personally. I did look back over the thread before I posted last night and I'm pretty sure you haven't addressed that. No requirement for you to do so, but given that seems an edge case - it would be unusual for a lender to be unhappy to lend to an individual but happy to lend to an individual's LtdCo given the much higher risk of default when lending to a company with no assets - it is not surprising that people have made assumptions as to what might be going on. Particularly also because as you've acknowledged there are tax & overhead costs to going your route that wouldn't exist on a direct loan, so prompting the question of what costs/risks/problems you are avoiding to make that worthwhile. And of course even if your intent & situation is entirely above board, HMRC may still turn up one day and ask the two questions I asked last night. So there's no need to answer them here, but I'd make sure you have a solid answer to each - ideally documented as part of the original decision making so that the intent of each company is clearly evidenced. But as I said some posts ago, not my circus, not my monkeys. One last comment is that you'll often find on BuildHub that we reply both for the benefit of the poster and also for future readers. If you feel people have taken unfair assumptions, it may just be because those are natural assumptions to make purely because of what's been written (and not written) in a thread. And we want to protect a future reader from making the same assumption and thinking "oh that's a great idea, I could do that" without the detail of your specific situation and without thinking through the ways an idea could go wrong. So please don't take anything as a personal criticism, or a pressure to share more justification, I am quite happy to accept you & your accountant with all the facts in front of you may have a plan that works. I just think it's unlikely it would work for many people, and should be approached with extreme caution.

A further update to this, replaced the bearings with SKF as recommended. So far so good - a real difference, whisper quiet.