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Today's top tip. The average "1 ton builders bag" that you often get full of gravel, sand etc, nicely fits over the top of the average small cement mixer to keep the worst of the weather off it.

Awesome isn’t it . Others ( people without PV and/or battery ) don’t get the thrill of generating YOUR own power and being superior to them ( like an iPhone user to an android / pleb user )

Yeh right 🙄 I finished mine in 3 years and now moving onto my next project (you can’t keep a good man down 😎)

You should have a wayleave for that pole, if not then a local law firm should be able to sort that if it is now on your land. You will then have the contact details. If you were then to revoke the way leave then they have to move the pole this may be some leverage. I suspect that the £5500 includes running the fibre from the local cabinet, which they are obliged to do for a new development as I believe HMG insists. If you crack that one then your neighbour's will piggy back off it, as they will run a multifibre to the pole, and they may feel like helping you pay. Long shots all of it.

If it's already there, you will not get anything, so don't hold your breath on that one. Any money I believe would go to the original land owner and never to you. I contacted BT, they contacted openreach and they provided free of charge the cable to put along the road from the pole to house circa 100m for own trench. However due to the super slow rates, and no fibre anytime soon, I just do it all via a 4G modem. Works fine, no connection fee, sim card on unlimited data, sorted.

It does indeed! Also appears to be storm proof its such a good snug fit. But you need to know to slide it over the handle side first then down over the drum.

Buying a new 136L Belle minimix is pricey though. I can vouch for the almost identical looking £284 136L mixer from Screwfix. Only the power switch has failed since I got it 4 years ago, but these seem to go quite regularly anyway. The switch on my previous mixer went as well as the one on the Belle minimix that my builder brought round when building our extensions. Easily fixed by a common replacement switch available on Amazon.

How many squads of brickies will you have on site at the one time? Might be worth getting a tub of ready-mix each day. Otherwise, worth having at least a small one anyway. My £200 mini belle is still going strong nearly 10 years on, despite a gearbox oil leak.

Be careful if anyone else uses it that they wash it too. I had a ladder and a wheelbarrow that weren't so lucky.

Henley block? (I am no electrician but I thought this is what they were for?).

All depends propbably worth getting an EICR done/ an inspection to see what the rest of the installation is like first then gives you a starting point. someone changing a db only could issue a certification limiting the work to that so only potential solving half a problem..

what do you guys reckon would be a reasonable ETA for someone to tear down and redo the consumer units? I'm thinking of getting a label maker, asking my mate for that cuppa, telling him i'm gunna get someone else in to finish off, and then asking him for help in labeling all the cables coming into the CU's with the label maker. They have marker labeling but it's a bit like reading a doctor's prescription so, if we get them label printed it may make it a bit easier for someone new coming in.

But well done in doing it! 👏

@ChrisDL - we have completed our house structure (the walls are up at least) and have a mix of Isotex 38s left over. We're in North Somerset - let me know what you need to finish. It's been so stressful to get 3 deliveries from Italy to site...

Your electricians has neutrals mixed up between circuits or a N-E fault. He should know how to test that, and should have done appropriate dead testing before energising. If he is scratching his head i would be starting to doubt his ability. The more I read of your post the less I trust him. Sorry. If in England or Wales I hope he is a member of a competent persons scheme as he will need to notify it under part P.

Not so many of them, this wee side of the Pond

Best day of generation so far here too, 32kWh and counting. May's utilities bill (gas + elec inc. standing orders) is currently sat at -£2.85 👍

Buy shag it sell on 👍

should be about our timeline as well.....not including the basement of course. that'll take as long as @pocster's whole house

and going by what I've seen you come up with on here I'd have to agree! 🙂

HID has 1 huge workshop and 3 sheds, so I said I wanted my own for my gardening things. So he bought a kit (for speed), we built it and now it stores all his expensive tools because it's more secure than the others, which he hasn't moved out of. So, I have sympathy with SWMBO as I don't have anywhere either. Eventually I have a corner of the woodshed and all the pots outside, about 60 of them.

Its no secret, loads of us have used them : Tanners in Eire. Superb. Saved the price of their fees many times over.

(expletive deleted)ing right, repotted my Black Aeonium Zwartkop without any grief today.

First things first. Get him to take meter readings and update his account, if he is on direct debit, the £200/month may be just bad estimating. Then get him to read the meter every morning for a week. to see what is actually happening. It is quite possibly the legionella/disinfecting heater coming on and just gobbling up juice. Make sure that any immersion heater to the cylinder is off.

Better ask the bricky. He seems to be in control and you wouldn't want him unhappy with your mixer. I think you need an agreement on how long he will take. Then you will have a known time for your hire or buy formula. Then does the £45/ week come off his pay?

Piles and a ground ring beam maybe? Tree protection zone is 12 x diameter of tree at chest height

If you pay for the ground investigation, site prep, pile rig to get to site, set up and do some piles, the extra cost to do more piles is not great. You should be able to make a pile supported raft slightly more efficient than a normal raft, too. Overall it'll cost more but shouldn't be dramatic, especially per sqm if you are able to make it bigger.

There's always a delay while a G100 inverter load matches. It's a second or so, maybe there's a standard out there somewhere. Anyway; if you had loads of G100 inverters at home set to 0A export and turned off a big house load (lets say 100A!), there will be a short duration 100A export causing overvoltage of the grid. Where we are the grid voltage is set "high", so that people can pull more current than they can push in, and it just about stays within bounds. There's not a lot of leeway - it gets to 250V here when it's sunny. (Don't know if above is why they care, just a guess)

I doubt that an engineer is going to allow you to mix foundation types im afraid.

I know . if I stuck another pw on there ; no one would know and nothing bad would happen ….

On reflection I think it depends. Bricklayers should bring their own and will want a biggish one. Then they will look after it a bit, which involves washing it down and occasionaly throwing a brick in or hitting it with a shovel when not cleaned properly at 3pm friday. One labourer can then serve 2 layers. If you hire it for them it will be your problem if it breaks down, and your cost to clean prpoperly at end of hire.....because they won't. You will also be paying for it when they don't show up. They will not tolerate a small one. They will want paying for lost time if your machine stops working. If diy, which seems unlikely (?), then the smaller ones allow 1 serving 1. Or small batches of mixing and laying which provides variety and reduces RSI.

Buy it. You will also need it for all the other things you forgot about or haven't even thought about yet. I got mine 7-8 years ago and it has mixed so much, concrete, mortar and render that I just couldn't imagine life without one sitting there at the ready. I need to pour 2 small founds for some block columns at the weekend, an easy mornings work to dig, mix and place concrete with the mixer about.

After the estimated 14 weeks stretches to 20, there will be other occasions when you will use yours because it is there. We bought a smallish new one. None second hand when wd wanted of course. Its biggest job was 3m3 of concrete which was a lot of refills, but worked out fine. 139 litres, £280 but shop around.

Mine (which I got off eBay with a failed power switch & refurbished) has been outside under a bulk bag for 4 years now and is still going strong.

Still have my Belle mixer from 1987. Replaced the gearbox. Had the paddles in the drum rewelded. Would recommend not leaving out in the rain if you want it to last. Used for supplying concrete/mortar from manholes to foundations to brickwork to patio to paths from the start of a job to near to the finish. No off hire in bad weather, no delivery / collection charge, no being charged when a gap in the work. If you can transport it and store it then in my experience its a no brainer.

Ooh, sounds like something I could need further info on as my 3ph setup will be broadly similar. Please report any findings either way.

I think you may be on to something there. How long it would take to sort out depends on the skill of the electrician and a bit of luck. See if moving that N cable fixes some of the issues? My concern is he has looped the feed into the top CU down to the bottom CU. In which case I await the explanation from the "electrician" as to why none of the circuits connected to the bottom CU require RCD protection.

Buy … have a look on FarceBook marketplace and get a used Belle Minimix - even if the drum is shot a new drum isn’t too expensive and you will sell it for what you paid for it. Just remember to clean it every day and once every couple of weeks run it with a litre of brick acid and a couple of litres of water to clean up any stubborn bits.

The first time round we hired This time we bought an old lister petter for £280 and it hasn’t mixed a beat

We're still working through this. Our ASHP is single phase 12kw Samsung. Solar inverter is an old old one, but also single phase. Reality is one phase will have PV, ASHP, and house. Other phase double garage and garden and final phase single garage and chargers. So PV sits in the main phase we will draw it from. Electrician says he will fit a diverter that will switch PV to whatever phase needs it... Not sure if that exists without being expensive, need to look into it more.

Got me thinking. Looks like there is no neutral in the isolator, but in MCB? This will cause the tripping. Is the idea that the 32mm MCB is feeding the second CU? The Supply N needs to be in the isolator, then out of the isolator into the RCD's input.

If you want new external oak to be a nice honey colour and stay like that I recommend one coat of Danish Oil then several coats of Osmo UV Protection Oil. The Danish oil will make the Oak slightly less white and more honey colour over a few days. The Osmo keeps it that way. If you just use Osmo I find it can look a bit too white. Dainish Oil on its own is a nightmare. Needs recoating every year, even twice a year sometimes so I don't recommend that. The Osmo is good for 4+ years. If you buy Osmo UV Protection Oil online some places have a 20% extra free. eg a 3L tin for the price of 2.5L. I just got a tin from.. https://www.decoratingwarehouse.co.uk/osmo-uv-protection-extra

never pay a percentage for anything. Fixed fee irrespective.

Okay, we want simple. ANYONE including the house owner can buy the ASHP and any required parts, tanks, radiators etc.. ANYONE can install it as long as there is a gas safe person to disconnect the old boiler. Upon submitting the gas safe boiler disconnect certificate, the receipt from the installer and the receipt for the materials (that may or may not be supplied together) and a couple of photographs, the BUS scheme will refund up to £5000.

I think you entirely missed my point It wasnt about the design. It was about, effectively owning any problems with the existing system. Bit like when i ran the workshop. Had a 944 in. Oil change, set of pads etc. When he picked it up, the clock was no longer working. (they are notorius for that btw). Well that was our fault, no amount of reasoning would change that. Never came back. Doubtless bad mouthed us to anyone that would listen. The same will happen here. The customer has a problem, which in reality is unrelated to the work. However, heating now broken. Especially if short of money, the installer will get the blame, and be exptected to put it right, or be "outed" on social media. Thats just how it goes. Fitting a "full" system gives you complete control of the end result, and allows you to stand behind it 100%. Anything else is a massive grey area. All im doing is to say, look at it from the installers view point as well, even for the moment putting the profit element to one side. Just comes back to the motivations. Whose interest is it in to do budget partial installs?

How difficult do you think "plumbing and electrics" are? If the job pays the wage to attract folks of the right calibre they're up to speed on all they need to know to survey/design/install within 6 months / within the first season. A year at worst. Say they're 20 now because they left school at 18 rather than 16 and spent a year enjoying casual work before deciding that they'd like real money. The next five years are working out how to make money by doing the jobs quicker. A job every fortnight for £5k profit a fortnight rather than a job every month for £2.5k profit a month. They're now 25 and on six figures by working their backsides off. The next five to ten years are working out how to train their labouring minded schoolmates up to do the site work; to train their estate agent minded schoolmates up to go out and sell; and move away from the tools onto a desk / working out how to scale the business by the time they're 35. They have to do this as the margins trend towards £1-2k per install. And by the time they retire and it's like for like swaps of heat pumps the margins will be peanuts but that's ok because they're experts in the everyday business operations / processes. Why do I think the majority of boiler bashers are wholly unsuitable? Training stubborn know-it-all 50 year olds / motivating comfortable have-it-all 50 year olds who fit gas boilers to do anything different isn't a lost cause but it's a lousy use of resources. They're difficult. They're not motivated. There's no way they'll start out on £30k today with the potential to make £100k in a few years by working hard because they make far more than that now and they don't intend to work hard later. Mainly they think they know everything though. Training low-calibre folks that just about how to drive a van that says British Gas on the side and service gas boilers to fit heat pumps is also a lousy use of resources. Partly because they probably can't. Partly because that initial investment doesn't compound because they're not capable of growing a business off the back of it. Many of those who work for this type of firm today were hired because their employer knows they're incapable of leaving. Not capable or motivated enough to go out and run their own firm. Invest the minimum possible amount in a marginally capable employee fairly safe in the knowledge that they'll stick in the job for life.

Got the trim yesterday (£16 for a 3m length collected) all done. Very happy with how it turned out

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?..

i have been finding this useful https://www.robbins.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/TTF-Cladding-Handbook.pdf There is a TRADA External Timber Cladding manual, but i can't find a copy on line without payment