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Sadly in the summer, my brother's wife died very suddenly and unexpectedly. She had been something of a hoarder and none of the family had been to visit them for some years. They would only come to us. When we went to his flat we found it was a mess. We had professional cleaners in and then I arranged to have it totally refurbished, so that it would be easier for him to look after once he moved back in. He has been staying with my parents for the last few months. We were very worried about his health, but he is doing much better now. The flat actually smelled like someone smoked even though they don't and I think the air quality affected their health. They purchased the flat when they got married 22 years ago and it had not been touched since then. Further they refused to open any vents and properly use extractor fans so they had a big mould problem. We replaced the kitchen and an en suite, replaced all the flooring with hardwood and have had the whole place redecorated. Hardwood was expensive, but will be a lot easier to look after. The previous carpets were stuck to the floor beneath them. When the flat was built the woodwork was painted cream eggshell, it looks awful as it is so similar to the magnolia walls, that you would think someone had emulsion the woodwork. Took three coats to get it white. As well as organising everything, I did the new kitchen design and put up the light fittings. I reckon spending just a few pounds on lights massively elevates a place. The kitchen and en suite floors had to be replaced as they had started to rot due to water leaks. I also luckily discovered a leaking soil pipe just before the new kitchen went in. Just need to order some new furniture now and put up some curtains. Found a small building company to work with who were very good. Very impressed with DIY Kitchens. The original kitchen had bizarrely been installed around 50mm into the room to avoid cutting the pipes into the back of the units with the oven jutting out a further 150mm due to the soil stack. I fixed this in the new design. It was quite a bit of space to lose in a room basically only 3m square. I think the before and after pictures are pretty obvious. The before pictures are after the professional cleaning.

OK, I am going to try to help here. I know you are frustrated and these things are quite upsetting. You have posted three threads about this with slightly different variations on the theme. It is best to keep everything to one thread so that people can help you. Firstly - Right to light - The extension was only approved in 2017, so there is no right to light. The window is what matters, not the aspect. However, you have confused me and I suspect other people by consistently calling your house a bungalow. It seems that it is a two storey house and always has been. You also built a two storey extension This could make a big difference. Often councils will say just build a fence at ground floor level. This is why you had to apply for planning permission that includes the gym/study. The approval does say that the layout has to be exactly as shown on your plans. See this thread which has plans for your house. I found the planning application for the houses next door from the info in the various posts. I am not going to link to it, but I suggest that you post it as it is the best way for people to see what is going on and help you. Originally they proposed houses with habitable windows facing you which would not have been approved, but they have now revised this. The house proposed closest to yours has no habitable room windows facing you, they are only bathroom/utility room windows. So in normal circumstances this elevation of the new house can be 1m from the boundary which is what they propose. According to the plans, there is already a 1.8m fence between the plots. If this is the case then that fence would only be 1m from your window, if not I would pull them up for the error in the application although there is nothing stopping them building such a fence. The proposed bungalow is 5.3m high, but this is at the peak of the house, which is 5.5m away. The eaves that will be 2m away are 2.5m high. This means that the bungalow will create little more overshadowing than the current fence does. If you derew a 45 degree line from the window to the top of the fence it would be higher than the new house. Your best bet for a planning objection is that you do have upper floor bedroom windows facing the proposed house. The rule usually is that in a principal window to gable situation then the minimum distance is 12m. The question is do you have principal windows on the side of your house, as said side or back does not matter it is principal windows. However, there are two issues. One is that you have built 1m from the boundary, so there is a strong argument that it is your own fault, and if you can build 1m away someone else can. The other argument is that the two bedrooms upstairs have front and rear facing windows and these new side windows are secondary. Looking at the plans, you might be able to argue that the side window in bedroom 2 is the main window. Also there is no issue of you being overlooked by the bungalow, the issue would actually be are you overlooking them and as they have no habitable rooms the answer is probably no. So your best argument against planning for the bungalows may be you overlook them, not they overlook you. I really think there is nothing you can do about the study window. It is not appreciably worse off with a house there than it was with the fence there. If the fence is 1m away, then a house 2m away will be considered to make little difference. It will neither be overshadowed nor overlooked. Whether it is a study or a gym makes little difference to this. To put a more positive spin on things, if the bungalows had already been built you would likely not have been allowed to build the upstairs windows. You would still have been allowed to build the study and it would be in the same situation as it is now.

May be worth asking our top notch glazing expert @craig how it is done.

It’s a tank and a pump https://pumpexpress.co.uk/explaining-cold-water-accumulators/

Well I just shopped around. Trying to complete a house with a non existent budget focuses the mind. I bought 2 back to wall WC's for £50 each oddly enough being sold by an on line UFH supplier. The plain ordinary close coupled WC was from Wickes, after an argument as it had two price stickers on it and I insisted I would only pay the price of the lower one. After the argument the assistant removed the "wrong" lower price sticker. Looking for an on worktop basin, and first looking at the "bathroom" shops and seeing 3 figure prices, we found one in the orange DIY shed which by the time they took off the loyalty card discount cost us £28 These are the sort of offers you stumble across and buy them when you find them, they won;t be repeated.

Internet sellers, Aqva for example. I shopped around and bought from the place with best price. Fine if you know exactly what you want. Go to one of the glossy showrooms to decide first.

Very pleased with it. I need to organise the downstairs now somewhat. Can anyone recommend any good wall storage solutions. I’m looking for some robust, deep shelving that can go floor to ceiling but just running down blind alleys.

I had to go and have a look at how it was built as I hadn’t taken much interest previously The sides have an extra 100mm fillet to make them deeper. I can see a slight gap between it and the normal depth carcass but don’t know how they were joined together. There are then simply two 100mm strips across the back at the centre which suggests the fillets must be quite securely attached. The shelf forming the cupboard above the dryer is rigid. If you sit the washing machine on the base won’t this shelf end up very near to the top? The sides sit around 5mm off the floor so there is some room to adjust them. I Googled raised washing machine and found lots of articles and videos where people have done it. For a situation like yours people made a wooden box the size of the space under the bottom of the carcass and then slid the carcass over it. You could place another strip of carcass material on the back of the box to make a flat platform. You would screw the base of the carcass into the wooden box. They also put the dryer on the shelf as dryers are light and don’t shake. This would provide extra rigidity. One thing to note from another thread in the forum. Somebody had their washer break and become unstable then fall off the front of a raised platform. They need to be secured to stop this happening.

FFS Just as well they have not put the top coat on. 1 layer is bugger all and will quite possibly cause problems in the not too distant future. If they use the right kind of resins, adding extra layers and a top coats onto fully cured substrate is not a problem. I will say that it does look a reasonable layup for 1 layer, nice and resin rich, which is a good thing.

I'd second that. The dwelling is the planning unit and a home gym and a home office are both legitimate uses within a dwelling so you can use it for either. Converting a garage to a gym/office would only require permission if the garage use was secured by a condition for parking purposes. But that is bye the bye , Temp is right, make it clear to the planners that the development will have a significant impact on your use of the room as it stands at present. Ask if they can request that the developer carries out an impact assessment on light levels to this room, prior to them considering the application. Speak to your councillor to help put pressure on the planners to consider the situation.

I use either: https://www.tcfixings.co.uk/home or https://www.metrofixings.co.uk/ I've always been able to source the metalwork/brackets and other fixings as specificied by structural engineers from both these companies and Metro are efficient if they don't have stock and need ordering. HTH.

No two heating systems are identical. A problem that will be even worse when we all have heat pumps.

I keep seeing this on eBay - it's far too big for me and probably for most on here, but I thought I would just put a link up here in case any parts of it were of any use to anybody. It's not mine and I have no connection to the seller. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284460150912

You'll need to check with a mortgage provider/broker what the requirements are for moving from a self build mortgage to a standard mortgage. My guess is a completion certificate may be one of those requirements. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable in mortgage matters can confirm.

Surely someone on here grabbed it? That's been listed for nearly 2 months and then gets snapped up shortly after this post? Buildhub should charge marketing fees

Missed it but @ProDave and I both bought similar units on flea bay for peanuts, yes larger than required but means it does not work hard (if you have the space.) 👍

KISS, is really a single thermostat, no actuators, no manifold pump or mixer and no buffer. Then run the whole lot on either WC, or a modified version for batch charging the floor etc. But if you are keeping the zones, have a look at at Salus SQ610, fits a standard wall box, they look nice and lots of good fuctionality for UFH. It has built in control algorithm for UFH so it learns how to stop and start the heating to keep things stable. It needs the Salus ZigBee unit to function, but once commissioned there is no need to be internet connected but you can be if you want.

If you have a planning condition to connect to the public water supply, you'll need confirmation from SW that this has been done in order to discharge the condition. If SW does not approve of a branched connection from a neighbouring line then you'll never get this condition discharged until you do it the right way which is with SW engagement. Do it right once and you save yourself a massive headache and being tripped up by 'paperwork' (or lack of) when it comes to obtaining completion.

Just needs a good rub down with fine sandpaper and it'll be fine. Topcoat in theory protects against UV damage, otherwise aesthetic. Looks like a pretty good job btw.

Flow issues can be overcome with a cold water accumulator and a booster pump.

We bought Rak toilets and matching sinks on our first build good price and excellent quality 5 years on the quick release seats look like new

75mm is collosal, the cabinets will also need some real attention for their ability to support it!

Trouble with that rule of the plumbers thumb, the gas boiler is nearly always way too big for the property, in my case it was 11x too big for the max heating load. So it lived in short cycle mode, until I got the first gas bill and nearly fell over. I then added a 160L buffer to keep it happy.

If you really need a 15kW, which I very much doubt, unless you are doing a very poor quality build that doesn't comply with any regs. Then 28mm is way too small for a heat pump primary piping. Go on the heat geek site, they have section on heat pump pipe sizing, which should give a good steer.

Have a look at viesmann boilers they can do a 1:17 modulation I think from memory

True, however the only "plan" in the lease is not a room-by-room floorplan but rather a plan of the exterior boundary walls, as per the definition below. So this is perhaps further support that the license to alter is aimed more at extensions than alterations involving internal walls? My bathroom refurbishment certainly wouldn't change the lease plan at all A lease plan defines the boundaries and areas included in a lease, while a floor plan shows the layout and dimensions of the property's interior.

No idea. It is not used in the PU industry. They use it to decaffeinate coffee and tea. It used to be sold on eBay. I think Nitomors has it as the active ingredient.

Don’t forget to insulate all the 28 mil

I've only ever bought cheap stuff from the DIY sheds. I'm aware you can spend more but I'm not sure what you get for your money?

I though modern combi boilers could be range rated for CH requirement and have a decent modulation ratio and left un range rated for HW 16 - 17 lpm is a good flow rate for bath taps (compared to my house) can you fit flow restrictor to the hot tap to match the boiler output rate - save fiddling around with taps to balance flow and temp

Do you want low price or top brand? The answer will be different.

Now being put on the spot I've read that lease term again - it's in three parts: (13) Not at any time during the said term without the license in writing of the Lessor... to make any alteration in plan or elevation of the maisonette building hereby demised or in any of the party walls or the principal or bearing walls or timbers thereof... (my emphasis). So you cannot, without a licence make any alteration in plan or elevation, or make any alteration in plan of any of the party walls etc. Now I've added a comma in places and it makes it easier to read. The legal people avoid commas deliberately but it does make things harder to follow for the rest of us. That term can be read to mean that removing the cupboard walls is an alteration in plan of the maisonette building and thus needs a licence. If it was me I'd send a simple polite letter with a copy of your surveyors opinion and bathroom plan and make the point no loadbearing walls are involved without specifically referring to the lease - as a courtesy perhaps. See what comes back. If it's a "that looks nice - good luck" then I'd say that's your licence.

Plaster first

Let us not forget up until the 80;s the UK was a world leader in the design and construction of our own reactors. Some very short sighted thinking shut down the UKAE as not necessary. Now you know why we have to buy in any new reactors, designed and largely built outside the UK. Of course I don;t have a chip on my shoulder.

Wasn't aware they existed at the time 😞

Simpson strong tie ICF ledger bracket. Install before pour, fits flush, can be spaced around alignment system. Only issue is if you're using the xr35 block which requires a bit of a fiddle solution using makeup panels and webs. Still less expensive than the nudura system for the xr35.

Get a quote and let them take the guess work out of it we had three quotes All seem to use the same software

You've mentioned nail holes a couple of times yet all the discussion seems to be about the membrane material. If the water is coming in through the nail holes, and only the nail holes, then what does the material have to do with it? A hole is a hole and of course is never going to be waterproof. The mitigation for this is, and always has been, ensuring the membrane is drooped between rafters (keeps any water that finds its way through away from the rafters and nail holes) and of course having a layer of tiles on top (which practically keeps all the water away in the first place).

Yes they work. I used Spax floorboard screws. They're excellent. 22mm chipboard floor. As solid as, no squeaks. https://www.screwfix.com/p/spax-tx-countersunk-self-drilling-flooring-screw-4-5mm-x-60mm-300-pack/88716?

The top thread stops the floor board/sheet moving, while the lower thread locates it on the joist. If there is a gap, the board/sheet cannot move downward. The 'squeaky board' sound is rubbing on the screw/nail shaft, not wood on wood, usually. You can get a similar effect using bolts, rather than screws. Just need to drill a clearance hole and make sure the heads are larger diameter so that they don't pull through.

The price shown on big builder's merchants websites (Jewson, Travis Perkins etc.) are way above the going rate. You should have no real trouble getting the going rate, provided you can show them you know what it is 😉 Work out exactly what you want then do a round robin of merchants. Get a price from the first, knock 5-10% off the number and then ask the second if they can beat it. If they can, they'll likely come back fractionally under the price you gave them. Knock another 5-10% off and go to a third. Keep going until you start getting "no" back. You'll find some local merchants are great and give you an honest price off-the-bat, so I always aim to order with those if I can. Don't forget to take delivery logistics etc. into account, it can be much cheaper if you can take a full load direst from the supplier than if they need to take it to the merchants yard first.

kitchen could be made nicer as well you have masses of wasted space that could be made interesting. Needs a decent kitchen designer to have a look, surely can do better than a bog standard L shape!

I’m going to try and get the UFH and screed in over the next couple of weeks (168m2) We called in to a kitchen showroom where a friend of ours works to get a kitchen design done So I can set the pipe work out accurately We will self fit a German kitchen again Last time Nolte This time Hacker Previously 5 years ago the lead times where 8-12 week The lead time is down to 4-6 Not just the UK slowing down

I am in the process of doing a garden building and made some mistakes in this area. I hope you can benefit from my learnings! 1) Don't make the slab bigger than the final finish of the building. I did, and I've had real issues stopping water running under the walls back onto the slab. Had to run stixall round the perimeter, and I might also run some flashing tape from the breather membrane to the slab DPM to add some extra protection. 2) No, no fall or your floor won't be flat 3) Leave it long and bring it up the either between the breather membrane and the OSB sheathing, or the inside of the walls. The idiots who did the slab for me cut it to the ground before I could stop them, otherwise my water issues wouldn't have been so bad. 4+5) I laid dpc under my sole plates. I got stuff that was 2x the width of the plates, and just slid it underneath after positioning the timbers. I then concrete bolted the plates down. Once the walls were up, I stapled the dpc up on the outside inbetween the breather and the OSB. On the inside, I 'infilled' with more dpm on top of the concrete, taping the dpc and dpm together. 6) You can massively simplify your floor layup. Unless you plan to use this for a gym with heavy weights, or have a grand piano in there, you don't need to batten on top of the slab. Just put your celotex straight on the slab, tape it well to create a good vapour barrier, and then lay 18mm OSB T&G, gluing the joins together as you lay it with 5 minute wood glue. I would also increase from 50mm celotex to 100mm on the floor. This is what I did, it worked really well and was suuuper quick. DM me if you want a link to my Google photo album of the build, it has pics of all of this. Disclaimer: I'm amateur, it's my first time as well doing this.

I read in my weekly comic a few years back that small reactors are not as fuel efficient as large ones. This is not an unusual situation in energy production, and should not be a reason to not use them. They are probably much lower on CO2e emissions overall compared to natural gas, and that should be one of the overriding reasons to use them. Wind and Solar will still be cheaper, and I am sure that battery storage will get cheaper in the next decade, as long as we stop pretending that the best 'fuel', which we all know is Hopium, is just about to be invented.

I would get some prices to make an informed decision. In 2020 in Ireland we had a borehole all done and dusted for about €4000. Similarly our council requires separate supplies for a farms and houses. A person in my locality was only granted planning on this condition although he owned an existing borehole 30m from the house. As to whether the second borehole got done in the end I couldn't possibly say but it was shown in the plans....

What you're proposing to do is illegal under the 1980 and 2002 water industry acts. You'll need to apply for your own connection to SW, or drill a borehole.

A Maxwell House presumably?

I signed off the plans for beam and block last Monday and it was delivered Friday morning. It took longer to get a dolly to put them in.