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No amount of damp products will fix that, sorry. Please don't add insult to injury and get drawn in by their sales pitches, those products just don't work (not for long anyway). The source of the damp needs fixing, not the symptoms.

Yes the ability of the planet to support the population is a problem. After all it takes only seconds to create a new persons zygote and that person may then need to rely on the planet to sustain them, and all that entails, for 80+ years. There we just over 700,000 births in the UK in 1994 - they will be 29 now. If they all live as couples and wanted to buy in 2022 we needed to have built 350,00 houses, yet we only managed to build 233,000 and this does not take into account migration / death rate and immigration numbers which will adjust it a bit. Yet again something is out whack even though the fact that 700,000 people born in the UK in 1994 might be expected to be wanting a home around now. Oh and the fact that the baby boomers will start to need care and the plant is warming up, people want to get away for the over hot places to cooler climes, get out from under difficult political & cultural situations and.... Sadly I feel we need to blame our politicians for not getting to grips with anything - or that is how it feels.

Too many people on the planet full stop.

Yes what most people don't see is all the gradual changes to the rules LL's have to operate under. More requirements for tests and checks and general paperwork, changes to the tax rules so less genuine expenses can be offset against tax, so more tax for the LL to pay, compulsory registration of LL's, another paperwork mountain and costs, reductions in CGT allowance so you pay more CGT if you sell. And for a lot of people the rise in interest rates. There has been a general trend over the last few years to hurt landlords and charge them more just about everywhere they can. And then they act all surprised when LL's sell up and there are fewer properties to let and rents go up. They just can't see cause and effect. Make things better for tenants = make things worse for landlords = landlords quitting the business = fewer rentals = higher prices for tenants. Oh and during Covid / lockdown etc give tenants a right to a rent holiday as they were not allowed to work, but at the same time give NO HELP to landlords who still had to pay their bills.

If you want to cut CO2e emissions, tax the bollocks off CO2 emitting fuels. It would not matter, environmentally, if a house used 1 MWh/year or 30 MWh/year if the energy source is CO2 free. If gas and electricity cost £1/kWh, house prices would soon drop.

The problem today is : As a LL I buy a typical house in an ok area for 400k ( in my city ) I need a 25% deposit as a btl - just say I have 100k doing nothing 🙄 300k mortgage at ( we will be kind ) 6%. So interest is 18k a year . Ignoring repairs / voids / legislation etc . A monthly rent of 2k makes it not worth the effort . Yet 2k a month rent is certainly not insubstantial. Obviously my example is rather crude - but the high purchase price and the high loan costs mean rent has to be higher .

Very nice garage, I am quite jealous. That’s on the list for when I get a plot near to me somewhere. Currently on the hunt and hoping to find something in Wales that is very good bang for the buck and to build the forever home in the background. Been busy creating homes for others for a long time, my turn soon hopefully!

Hi, Visited here a good few times over the past months, reading topics and finally joined. Received planning approval for our self build last week and beginning to get the rest of the stuff in order. Mortgages, Building Control, Tendering etc etc Located North Coast of N.Ireland 4 bedroom - 2100 sq ft My background is that I’m a Chartered Building Surveyor MRICS, so while I don’t know everything I have experience in projects of various sizes, compliance, contracts,defects, design, QS, PM/CA. Something that I’ve learned about myself is that I’m very good at making decisions/solving problems for clients but not so much for myself! Looking forward to asking advice and silly questions over the next few months.

If that’s a 400mm wide 600mm deep cupboard that would be a no from me. Poor access to work on it. 500-600mm wide, 300mm deep wall cabinet and I’d probably be ok with it, if fitted to the wall, not the cabinet, and at the bottom of the wall cabinet so access is better. Also not right in the corner of a room so you need to get on top of the work surface to get at it. As above though, it makes sense to relocate it somewhere more sensible at this stage.

I disagree, it was the west that started the pollution, (Industrial Revolution) so we need to lead with becoming clean.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/12/worlds-first-electrified-road-for-charging-vehicles-opens-in-sweden It has been tried and tested in the scandi countries for quite a few years.

Both correct!! Beautiful building but far far too many people inside and outside in the plaza. Inside it’s quite bland - the cathedral in Bologna is much nicer and quieter. €30 to climb the Duomo but fully booked this week. Ponte Vecchio wasn’t too far away but again heaving with tourists.

Centainly seems to be a large increase in Earth population over the last 60 years.

Attenborough has being saying that for years.

In a rewire you can route all circuits to anywhere you want. It is the one time you can sensibly get to choose anywhere in the house to put the CU. So make that sensible choice. You probably will need a switch fuse and appropriate cable from the meter box to feed the new CU so the routing for that cable might influence where the new CU will go perhaps. Kitchen cupboard is a silly place. Awkward to work on and unless you never use that cupboard for anything, loads of stuff to move just to get at it.

Too late - already sold one of ours. The EPC was not the only reason as managed to get it through before the CGT allowance changes in April. This govt and others have been targeting Landlords as the reason for poor property supply to the nation. Complete nonsense as we all know it's the lack of new build homes that is the problem.

Oftentimes an oxymoron one suspects.

I want one too! The recesses are a stroke of genius. They really appear to open up the space to create a light box below the roof light. Can you post a couple more photos of the detail around them please?

Where does the power come into the building? it’s a rewire put it where you want, but makes sense to make it accessible. silly places like just below the ceiling in the downstairs loo, to inside a kitchen cupboard full of crap to the under stair cupboard likely to be full, or the garage wherhe you have to get past all the accumulated crap. you decide what works for you and you tell the electrician. If it’s further than 3 metres from the electricity cut out it will need another fuse to protect your sub main cable. but none of this is complicated.

I think that should be ok as guarding us usually required where there is a difference in height of over 600mm. Would like somebody else to review and comment on that though.

All comes apart from the flush mechanism hole. Cold feed into iso tap at top of cistern. Hose from there to gubbins inside cistern. All gubbins come apart from flush plate hole with sufficient cajoling.

Minimum clearance underneath the timber is 150mm, that said parts of mine are as small as 110mm in places, but having cleared all of the rubbish out from under the floor, and ensured the gaps in the sleeper walls are free of obstruction it gets good airflow. one tip I learnt along the way, if you aren’t using a membrane to sit the insulation in, friction fitting PIR can be problematic with suspended timber due to movement, and I’ve had it drop through, so make sure you have something to hold it in place, I used metal clips every 300mm both sides staggered 150mm which has done the trick and foam the gaps up as any air movement negates your insulation. I totally get not being able to use enough insulation for underfloor heating, my maximum is 100mm. Couple of things you can consider… if you are doing the whole ground floor, you could consider adding another timber on top of the existing to increase height, either 50 or 100mm glued and screwed to existing, or (and) use an insulating product on top of your subfloor, so you can get boards which have grooves in for wet underfloor heating, or something like a marmox board to reduce the thermal bridge between subfloor and underfloor heating, depending on the type of UFH you are going for. internal wall insulation, as long as your walls are straight, consider full boards of insulation direct to the wall, with battens on top of them to hold it in place, or use insulated plasterboard, which if memory serves me you can use adhesive to bond to walls, but check the installation guide to confirm that

Before you let them fob you off with that excuse, ask for a written explanation from Ecodan describing exactly what it is doing, why it is doing it and how do you configure that aspect of it's aparently essential and normal operation?

Can we agree that whoever pays someone has to or the planet burns. The challenge is lack of forethought / planning for the carbon neutral future - like most on here we are trying to build a highly insulated home for ourselves where we use the minimum amount of energy to sustain us. In doing that I guess we are going some way to doing our bit. Essentially our politicians have cocked up and either way we will all have to pay - I would just rather it wasn't my grandchildren.

The people that make these policies seem to think it is easy and cheap to make any property up to an EPC C and the only reason it is not happening is those lazy tight landlords cannot be bothered to spend just a little time and money to do it, so we will mandate that they have to do it. The reality is a huge amount of the UK housing stock is going to be very hard and very expensive to upgrade. And with no financial help to do so, many landlords which such property are evicting the tenants and selling, while they still can. This is just a symptom of "them" not understanding the problem and not knowing how to solve it. Some people reading this and my other recent posts on the subject might think I don't care about energy efficiency and the environment. I do. But I also understand the challenges ahead and know there is no quick easy cheap solution. It seem that "they" are finally realising that as well.

Hmmmm maybe better for landlords but not, I suspect, better for tenants or the planet.

I had heard the tip about freezing them but had not known how long for so thanks for that @Jilly

Hi @Sparrowhawk The below is my overview. Whilst I know you are going for a new boiler, the process below would still be the same. You will save a lot more over time fixing airtightness, the insulation and installing mechanical ventilation. Triple glazing is the most expensive element to install per m2 with the least energy saving(although important when everything else is high spec). Get yourself a heat loss calculator ( I use an excel spreadsheet for this ) and play with the elements and you can work out what gives you the best money spent/ money paid. Normal double glazing with a U-value of 1.2 versus your triple glazing say high spec 0.6 U-Value. Inside temp 20 centigrade, outside temp zero C will give a saving of about 10.6Watts per square meter. (ignoring any non air tight issues with the old double glazing window installation or the rest of the building) Aim to go APE It worth considering all the AIM and APE elements before making decisions. That is Airtightness, Insulation, Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery OR Heat pump Ventilation, and Air Source Heat Pump, Photovoltaics and Electric Vehicle. Some of these will not work properly without the others, and some will complement others: A MVHR will not work properly without Airtightness. An Air Source Heat Pump will have to compensate for the lack of Airtightness and/or Insulation to the degree that the benefits become questionable, especially during winter, without them. An ASHP uses electricity and Photovoltaics can supply a little during winter and a lot during summer when cooling can be a problem and an ASHP can supply cooling. PV can supply a little to an Electric Vehicle during winter and plenty during summer if your vehicle is at home during sunny days. Extending a property and only doing AIM works to the extension will be no good, you have to do all the property within the thermal envelope. And thinking of running costs: a) Airtightness and Insulation should have no running costs and last (Well, loft insulation lasts over 40 years, in our experience) with the exception of UPVC units for windows and doors, but that being said it will last 30 years? b) Our MVHR unit servicing 100m2 floor sized home uses about 260kWh a year; far far less than would be used to heat incoming cold fresh air in winter, and we clean the filters twice a year. c) ASHPs are, in my opinion, still in their infancy but we are now in the second year of use here. We were very careful to follow best practice in the design and installation of our system, did a lot of bespoke tweaking, and we now have an upgraded 1970’s timber framed bungalow that uses less than 25kWh per year per m2 of floor for heating. d) PV would be a lot less attractive if there is no ASHP or EV (or battery backup) or diverter to the hot water immersion. In my humble opinion, if you have a suitable roof you should install as much a physically possible. Electricity production costs (cost per kWh) are difficult to evaluate because it depends how much is used and how much is supplied to the grid. We decided to go with the PV cost divided by 7 years, which for us works out at £1.60ish per day. Yesterday the PV produced 12kWh all of which we used. Remember, 5kW of PV panels will not produce 5kW because you would have to have: i. No shadowing of any of the panels during sunlight hours (like trees, buildings or chimneys. ii. All the solar panels face exactly the right angle in relation to the summer solstice midday sun for their position on the planet. (Perfect angle facing south and perfect slope) iii. solar panels completely clean iv. the sun is completely unobscured v. the Inverter is 100% efficient vi. all the other losses due to cables, and equipment, and so on. e) Knowing the above PV limitations professional installers often add extra panels to make up for these losses. (Our inverter allows us to add roughly 28% more panels than its kW rating) f) PV panel installations will produce about one fifth of the power in the winter compared with what is produced in the height of summer. g) The electric vehicle and charging from the PV only really works if you can have the vehicle plugged in during the day and supply over 3kW from your PV (or a large proportion of that). This is why we went for the biggest PV that would fit on the roof. We then installed a system which only charges the when the PV is on and generating over 2kW in winter and 3kW in summer. (we have a 13amp charging system). So, if finances cause you to have to consider only a few in my humble opinion AIM first and go APE later. (But prepare the property for the APE works as much as you can). Best of Luck Marvin

A quick nuclear war will help with that issue ( though May create a few more issues )

I will sell you one. Payment by bitcoin, you have to arrange your own transport.

If you are are asking the question then to me, that means wait. And then one day, you'll walk past the wall and say " That @MikeSharp01's signature line is spot on" OR take a leaf out of @Onoff' s book and do so much careful preparation and planning that you forget what the job specification was. Perfect time to start a different job. When that's finished come back to the original job. In the meantime SWMBO will probably have changed her mind. But the walls will be dry. Easy innit: when you know how. Trust me I've been prevaricating for 8 bloody years now. Expert by Experience me.

In The Archers, Phillip Moss got his slave to clean the glue off Grey Gables' kitchen floor with gasoline. It did not end well.

Yes, keen very amateur birdwatcher and enjoying the coastal waders and occasional marsh harrier down here. Are you? I have found Jeremy's threads invaluable, as well as people's assessments of products e.g. Sunamp when thinking "could that be better than replacing our tank like-for-like. It's also appears to be a less... intimidating forum than some of the others with better natured members and fewer spats and general aggro. We shall see if that holds true 😁 Great advice. I shall try and break down the "WTF do I do next?" into intellible bite-sized questions. Always the hardest part with a mind teeming with ideas and aware of the dependencies that "if I start to do this it'll impact this that and the other bit, which means I then need to do that as well and I think I'll have a nice sit down instead and pretend it's warm". I don't think I know what they sound like! We have a local pair and before we started taming the wilderness that was the garden the female used to bring pigeons and eat them under our bushes. On the second day of this cold spell the male snatched a bird off the bird feeder and I've spotted him hanging around on neighbours' roofs keeping an eye out for more snacks.