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Yes basically the linesman cocked up and instead of burying a pigtail of copper wire connected to the earth, he had connected the pigtail to one of the Live conductors. There would have been a continual current passing through that limited only by how wet the ground was and therefore what the earth impedance was. And that current would have been warming up the ground hence causing the steam. I hope someone got a good talking to,.

Aren’t these reportable to HSE via RIDDOR?

Despite what you paid I would expect “professionals” working on lethal power cables to do their job properly and safely. There should be a mechanism to hold them accountable, perhaps telling the press will make them think twice?

As far as I’m aware, that design alone will be far too bouncy, and will rely on a substantial glass balustrade and glass handrail structure to give it the strength needed.

>>> Edited to add: The Planning App records it as "Core 10" roof panels. Yeah, I was wrong - I didn't think corten came in thinish sheets for roofing - but I see it is a thing. Much cheaper than I imagined - 0.3mm with some kind of seam ~ £15 per m^2 up to 1.5mm flat @ £60 per m^2 e.g.. https://www.vidaxl.co.uk/e/vidaxl-roof-panels-36-pcs-rusty-60x44-cm-corten-steel/8720287069942.html

Lucky escape. Buy a lottery ticket this week. My wife hit the end of a pipe that rolled off the verge into the road while it was being dragged along the verge. Damaged a wheel and tyre. The water companies contractor offered to pay for the damage, sent a nice apology and a hamper! I would submit a formal complaint sent recorded delivery and keep a copy. It's up to you what you put in the letter but I would point out that you did recieve an actual electric shock and that you and your grand children may owe your life to your rubber soled Welington boots (substitute whatever footwear you were wearing). Ask for an apology and details of what action has been taken against the person responsible (retraining?) and a copy of any report made to the HSE. I would add a note saying something like "At the present time I will not be taking legal action but we reserve the right to do so unless an adequate response is recieved". This just my personal opinion, I'm not a lawyer or solicitor. I'm kinda surprised you haven't been phoned up by the no win no fee ambulance chasers.

+1 To the no/bad Earth theory. Some 45 years ago as a school kid I had a summer job with an electrician. Went to a school where staff were complaining of shocks from metal light switches, a sink etc. Turned out to be a bad Earth near the distribution panel. The Earth wire was acting like a big aerial picking up about 60V from the adjacent live and delivering it to all correctly earthed face plates. Check the Earth connection in the socket. If that's OK get an electrician to check the Earth back to the CU or possibly even further.

What do you want to happen?

I think most are made by a local steel fab shops, as custom design; rather than an off the shelf item

Thanks - this is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for. Ok I think I can now safely bin the rooftop aerial idea

Salus do some nice thermostats (quantum), you need their ZigBee gateways also. But most equipment tied in to the internet has a short life, I try to avoid, especially with heating and ventilation.

Most of these channels can be viewed in the TV web browser. (you can use a wireless mouse & keyboard to control it) Or because the films are out of licence, on free streaming apps like crackle or popcorn.

Reference HIVE we bought the camera system to keep an eye on Dad in his last few months. BG are switching the service off, at least the camera side in 2025. Bloody disgusting tbh. Not cheap kit to buy and soon to be landfill I guess.

Is that why it is on Daily Motion. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3c8ijh

This is, for me, the nub of the problem - so I won't have any device in our system that requires any proprietary cloud service. Even if support remains to many of these devices they become subscription services. You then get tied into their eco system which is another technology win for them that is a loss for you. Also you have no control over the data you are giving them as there is no 'tick' box anywhere that says I reject any onward use of the data, information, knowledge or wisdom that you are seeing as a result of my subscribing. I appreciate that with free services the business model is we can use the data in exchange for providing the service but once it becomes subscribed that should stop or at least you should have the option - by default. Its a Klondike out there and I would suggest being very wary of buying a stake - grub or otherwise!

I used a Drayton Wiser system, which uses zigbee to talk to the TRVs and works without internet access unless you want to control the system remotely. Some clever people have worked out how to get at the data on your local network so you can bypass their app completely if you want to. However I'm going HughFs route and using the ASHP makers weather compensated controller with no independent room control. We'll see how well that works!

2 coats of emulsion is a vapour barrier

Or, as in my case. No earth connection at the fuse board.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with the coax. I haven't had a plug in aerial in 5 years now, and only ever once thought I needed one (turns out I didn't, I used the xbox to stream itv live) The one thing you haven't mentioned is main lighting. I take twin and earth to the switch so there's a neutral there, then take a 3 core and earth up to the light fitting so there's a permanent live alongside the switch (or two switched lives depending on lights arrangement. This caters for just about every type of smart light fitting on the market.

As above, there’s a good chance there’s no earth continuity to the socket. A cheap plug in tester may or may not flag this up, as they are not really 100% reliable. You may need to get an electrician to check this.

Not me, but the Nudura distributor is close by www.thefellpartnership.co.uk

Have you had any quotes yet? There wasn’t difference in cost between zinc and Greencoat plx due to the rise in energy costs. There are loads of houses on the Scottish islands with corrugated steel roofs that look to be weathering fine. It took me more than 3 weeks to get quotes let alone get the roof fitted. I don’t know where you are but the two roofers I used are completely booked up until next year for example.

I worry about corrugated steel. One timber kit supplier pointed us in that direction but I'm concerned about how poorly it ages. For example: as built 2011: https://maps.app.goo.gl/87Emx8RcxWQobNC49 10 years later rather rusty: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZnLtrH7N5X3VUR8x9 maybe it's supposed to be "rustic"?

On many projects where the planners wanted a traditional looking roof, or where the original architect casually wrote down zinc, we used steel. Choose a profile that can be called "wide pan, low profile" ( the magic words) and in grey or aluzinc. Saves a fortune. Ie the crowns are about 35mm high at 330 centres. Standing seam is an option too, but more expensive.

Lots of standing seam out there that isn’t zink look at a product called pagurek there’s a few people on here that have it. 3 weeks isn’t exactly that long to sort this out, I would expect some delays.

We did Sarnafil EPDM with decor profiles, to replicate standing seam. Around £15k for 200m2.

When we were planning our layout, we went to the beach, with tape measure and a stick. Marked in the sand, the real size of the building and doorways. Checked how things flowed, or didn't, made changes in the sand. You can add things like dining table, bed, sofa etc. Did this a few times, worked well for us. Also for room sizes, use you current house, fiends houses and show houses, to compare your proposed room size, to see how it feels, big or poky, also take account of furniture you want move to the new house.

Yep, he did. Loads of threads on it as he put one of the pre gassed units in at the top of his hallway if I recall correctly. I read a lot on this forum before I started building and learnt a lot. There is some bits on here which I think are pushed out with rose tinted glasses on. My house is 280m2, air tightness is well into passive and same for insulation. The super insulted and airtight house works against you in the summer as once the heat is in its a pita to shift. I have ufh in the slab downstairs and in a 50mm pug screed upstairs.....running the ASHP in cooling mode is pretty pump and not enough to keep the house cool. It certainly helps but is insufficient by itself. I would advise all new self builders to consider additional cooling mechanisms for the bedrooms, whether that's FCUs, aircon or whatever. The climate is supposedly only going to get hotter🤷‍♂️

I went on the Isotex, Nudura & Jackon training and ended up going with Jackon... My Jackon structure went up this year, with no complaints. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

I am using TH and the fabric has been built. Rendering using EWIPro silicone in a few weeks. So this is what has and has not worked well: - Do a lot of research about getting a building warranty if applying render direct to walls. A couple of large insurance companies (eg LABC warranty) now all but refuse to insure this except under some impossible conditions. See example here. - I have opted for an architectural warranty which covers direct render to ICF. - I did have the option for leaving a vent gap between the wall and the render using battens and render boards but somehow that defeats the purpose. Plus with 150mm EPS there will be a lot of long and thick screws into concrete, both expensive and slightly impacting insulation values. - my EPS walls are all scratched (seriously), pushed in, damaged, etc. not in a big way of course. Any serious damage can be fixed with low expansion foam. But when different renderers came for quotes, they were not worried at all whatsoever. They said the first base layer will smooth everything out. - I understand you can hose wash the silicone render within reason. So it is water resistant enough. However it MUST be applied well. EPS is NOT waterproof, I have seen it in action. It is not porous like plaster at all, but water will get through it eventually. Remember the old white foam coffee cups? - very critical to make sure openings are sealed well. Goes without saying. Remember there is no air gap like a two leaf wall, so sealing has to be much better. - I plan to glue plasterboard direct to EPS with some screws into galv steel for good measure. But remember, if you were to fix heavy stuff, the plasterboard and the glue may take the weight, but the EPS could get ripped. Very unlikely to happen with normal loads though. With thermohouse there is only 50mm EPS inside the house so is easier to reach the concrete core where you have to. I have also used sterling board for heavier stuff as suggested already, fixed to concrete using thick hammer fixing for my plant room walls. - for external render I have the option of using double scrim for additional strength. But just can’t see too many cars driving into the walls, so am taking a small risk… - thin coat silicone appears best for EPS. - if you have neighbours across the fence when you design the house, make sure the architect looks at fire spreading regs. - for windows, thermohouse is not really the most impressive out there in terms of product support. Most other providers offer their window jamb system and kit. - for doors and windows, make sure you choose a system which integrates well with ICF. Assuming you will go for low u value windows, they are often different from standard windows. So do not make assumptions. Eg with my Rationel windows, they want to place the entire weight of triple glazed windows on the base, possibly over a few spacers. ICF EPS is not designed to take that type of load and will give over time. My solution is to replace the EPS above the concrete on openings with thinner EPS 300 or 400, with a 10mm layer of cement or timber on top of it. To take the point load of the spacers. - think what you want to hang outside and allow for it at concrete pour time. Also for any holes in the wall, etc. - good luck. - on a separate note, if you are aiming for low u value house, then be prepared to argue with heating engineers who will (likely) use standardised parameters to work out your heat demand. I ended up registering as a reseller with a main brand so could enter my own house parameters. Yes, those with 30 years of heating design may still want to use heat demands from 30 years ago (no disrespect to those good advisers, but personally I gave up with JG and NuHeat for underfloor heating, though I am sure it was my bad luck. same with boiler/heat pump. I had to insist over several calls and after emailing informative documents, before my heat pump guys incorporated MVHR efficiencies into their air volume change calculations….