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Loads of sockets under kitchen sinks, not ideal but I don’t know of anything that says you can’t and it’s far better than having the sockets behind the appliance

I've watched the first part so far and it is spot on. Reply today from LABC "Thank you kindly for your email to building control. I have taken this off of our administration team so that I can explain a bit more detail. You are correct from your email that the works are normally enforced from a local authority building regulations. For example, if an extension had no application. This would be down to us to enforce as the LABC. We would not be able to govern another building control body, such as xxxx xxxx. If you feel there has been a discrepancy or you wish to further your concerns from your complaint, the CICAIR are the governing body of all approved inspectors within England. Therefore, this would be the port of call to obtain further concern. We would not be in a position to involve ourselves between yourselves and xxxx xxxx for example. I hope this helps xx, and apologies we can not be of more help. Kind Regards" We will refer this onto CICAIR but don't hold any hope of a resolution through those channels. --------------------------------- The developer and their main contractor came to visit on Thursday for an appointment specifically to look at the missing insulation. They turned up thinking it was for something else, and end of defect period (EOD) inspection for their main contractor, not our warranty defect period as that runs until July 2024. They have used these EOD inspections for their main contractor to convince most other owners that their defect period is now over, closing the portal with which to report defects and many other residents footing the bill for their own repairs whilst still inside their 24 month defect period. The developer initally lied to us verbally when I questioned them during an earlier defect inspection on how long our defect period is. This is having also phoned us up and aggressively told us we were reporting too many defects through the portal and that they would come visit us and explain what a defect is. Needless to say everything I showed them during the visit they agreed was a defect. I also asked them in writing how long the defect period is which they ignored, but I did get written confirmation from our warranty provider that it is 24 months as opposed to the 12 months our developer was claiming. When they arrived for Thursdays visit they had also lost the list of defects that in March we had previously agreed with them that they were going to rectify. We hadn't taken enough time off work nor organised the house to conduct a broader whole house inspection, so we asked them to rebook but insisted the use our ladder and torch to inspect the insulation in the loft. They took a few photos and said they would look up what should have been there. They wouldn't even go entirely into the loft they just leaned through the hatch for a while. From the March list of 30 odd defects they have so far fixed 1, despite giving us a 28 day timeframe and repeadted emails chasing them. Needless to say we think they are an incompetant and lying bunch of cowboys. I will name and shame once this is all resolved. We've put to the developer we would like them to hire a chartered surveyor, of our choice out of a selection of 3 with no business relationship to them, to draw up a schedule of remediation works for all the main issues with the house (insulation, bowed walls, unlevel screed on ground floor, and significantly creaky floors on 1st and 2nd floor), for the surveyor to also inspect and sign off the remediation works once completed. If they offer anything less we will escalate through their complaints procedure, then the warranty provider and then the financial ombudsman if neccessary. Using the independantant surveyor is one of the resolution models the ombudsman service use, which we have told the developer in the hope they will actually get on with it. However, their main tactics so far seem to be delay and ignore in the hope that owners give up, so we are expecting to have to spend several months escalating this to get any progress. They are frankly a bunch of crooks that thanks to little regulation narrowly stay on the right side of the law. The whole industry needs a shake up.

Been a while since my last update - lots of rain. We had a clear few days this weekend though, and I managed to make some progress. -> (scuse censorship; imagine it's a starry night sky) That's all the bales up now, although I'm eyeing the left corner a bit unfavourably; I *think* it's OK but there's a bit of an overhang situation going on, and the fourth course particularly is dodgy. Worst case, I'll have to take it down and re-size a few bales, but it might be within trimming range in-situ. Worth a try, anyway. Similar for around the door and window posts - they get vigorously trimmed before the lime plaster goes on, which should improve how it looks significantly. There are still 24 bales in the garage - so I over-ordered by about a third. I've got some wall-shaped projects in mind for them come spring, though, they won't go to waste. Next is the wallplate/roofplate - just another timber box beam round the top of the bales, only harder because it's more than two metres up ^^. I got the back wall section put together today, and it's up there - weight was a problem so I ended up doing the timber ladder on the ground (40kg?), getting that up, cladding it with the OSB (30kg/side?) then flipping it so that side was on the bottom. A bit sketchy, honestly. The remaining sections are shorter, so I might be able to get more done on the ground for them. Regretting not at least cutting the timbers back when I had access to the baseplate now, of course, but if I'd spent time on that back then, I might still have straw to do now. I've explored the hip roof idea a bit more but increasingly feeling like I just don't have the vertical space for it. So probably a flat roof over winter, keep an eye on it , maybe explore guy ropes if we get any wind forecasts above 80mph. The roof deck *looks* simple enough, timber-wise - 2x5 joists, use firrings to get the fall, T&G OSB on top of that and finish with EPDM. Maybe add insulation under the joists later. More rain is forecast, but the walls are all tarped up and should be fine like that indefinitely. I can build the rest of the bits of wallplate in the half-empty garage and uncover one wall at a time whenever there's a clear moment to put one up.

Been using them almost exclusively for 15+ years almost every day. The only products I don't recommend are Definity screwless (Schneider Ultimate is far superior) and the Click dimmer modules. Buy the plates and knobs from Click and fit V Pro modules.

i don't get this....tile backer board (not Hardie backer board) is cuttable with a Stanley knife (other manufacturers are available). it couldn't be easier and is in no way any harder than plasterboard to cut.

Use the proper screws for it. I used Starretts to drill holes in it. To cut, then cheap carbide grit jigsaw blades from TS and an old circular saw. The dust is very abrasive btw. Some advocate the score 'n snap method.

Yes they are my go to choice for basic stuff. They are cheap but good quality. A lot of our house has them. One of their hidden tricks, id the light switches you can remove the switch modules, handy if you want to mix intermediate switches with ordinary switches without having to go to a full grid system.

I reckon i would use aquapanel, it’s easy, stiff and I hate cutting backer board.

if it's being tiles maybe use tile back board (the XPS stuff like Jackoboard or Marmox board etc rather than Hardie!). be aware though that if using 12mm tile backer board for the Jackoboard i used the manufacturer said 300mm centers so i had to noggin a lot to obtain that. i think 20mm Jackoboard is fine with 600mm centers.

Our electrician put in a socket for our dishwasher under the sink.

I used Knauf Aquapanel both 6 and 12mm. The face of your studs has to be dead level as it's not very flexible like pb. It can develop hairline cracks but it doesn't appear detrimental as it's made with loads of cross-linked fibres.

my sparky didn't say anything against it. i'd say just put them near the top of the unit so if there's a leak they won't be submerged! plus i'm sure you're using nice new RCBOs which make everything super safe anyway. 😉

For me, the mention of "APP" turns me off. If I want to do this sort of work I want a big screen, and proper multi window OS and proper input tools like a mouse and a real keyboard. i.e. I want a fairly decent computer. APP to me means a phone, the very last tool I would choose to use for such a task. I manage such tasks quite easily with a web browser, a spreadheet and a word processor.

No, but I do have space on the frame for another panel or tubes. Sun's out this afternoon, so will have a look later to check how many kWh I produced today. By way of compensation my 22 PV panels are doing 2.5 to 3kW. So for the size ST is quite effective.

Well young Neo … you listen to Morpheus ….

I have an idea. Is this crackpot? The cable needs to go from the loft, right where the MVHR is, to the utility room. Several MVHR ducts take that route already. How about I run my required cable inside an MVHR duct. I would obviously need to airtight seal where the cable enters and exits the duct. Madness? Has anyone done similar before? What are the pitfalls?

>>> it's Planning (potential breach of PD conditions) that the OP is concerned about, not BC. Yeah, you’re right. Presumably, if pd, it’s not recorded in the planning system. So, planning will only be interested if neighbour complains to them. If neighbour can’t measure without trespassing, then presumably not a problem. I did though once have a neighbour that complained about a beautiful pd oak cart lodge I built. (Neighbour was a bit slow, but had an evil sister.) Planning had to check, and asked for the drawings. Well it was a cart lodge so there were no before-hand drawings. The drawings, after the fact, met pd though.

My understanding is that the planning committee's decision is final as far as the local authority goes. You do have the right to appeal to central government. From what we have seen they are less interested in minor details and more interested in the politics of getting more houses built under their watch. If your planning committee is the same as ours they have little knowledge of all the laws and a lot of interest in petty politics.

Except there is a power difference between the flap being closed, partially open and fully open, as well as the power loss though the casing. When the units are charging up at night, the output flap automatically closes. If the unit is blasting out heat first thing, then it is faulty, get it fixed. During the day, there are incidental heat gains most of the time. If the output control, even on old heaters like mine, is set correctly, then it tracks the inside temperature nicely, i.e. as the room natural warms, the heater is loosing energy, but not in a linear fashion, it follows Newton's Law of Cooling. This keeps everything in equilibrium. There is, therefore, no need to adjust for the evening. Now if you have a heat load of say 30 kWh/day, and your storage heater only has an effective capacity of 20 kWh, then you will have problems, but that is incorrect sizing, not useless technology. If people cannot get storage heaters sized correctly, and learn how to operate them, there is little hope that heat pumps are going to be successful. They are much harder to set up. But as I have said, a heat pump is a better option, but there is going to be a steep learning curve, so steep that most people will fall off it unfortunately. Cross post, same sentiment.

Making decent progress with the painting. I was going to buy a sprayer so hired one. What a pia it is as it’s always blocking. I decided to stick with the traditional method of rollering etc. although might try again with the sprayer when I get to the vaulted ceiling. I’m a pretty good painter if somewhat slow and quite enjoy doing it. Like everything it’s in the prep. I’m really impressed with the white emulsion I’m using. Crown Contract Super Covertex. I got a job lot of it cheap from Travis Perkins. Thinned back a bit it covers well with only a mist coat and a top coat needed really. I’ll do a final coat of the wipeable stuff in the heavy traffic areas. Our custom made glass hand blown lights for the open plan area turned up on Friday and very beautiful they are too. I can really recommend Emily at glow lighting. Great to deal with. https://www.glowlighting.co.uk/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20623605482&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoInDj7yvggMV752DBx3ofASPEAAYASAAEgLlPfD_BwE

For those who haven’t seen it there is an excellent 2 part BBC documentary “Britain’s housing crisis - what went wrong””on iplayer. Though not primarily relating to quality issues it’ does cover other issues around major developers. The entire situation with major developers is just appalling.

Have a look at blown in cellulose insulation.

Perhaps we should name them here in an appropriately constructed sentence so the crawlers / bots can pick it up and get their name out there. This sampling approach is bonkers when it comes to being sure everything is done correctly everywhere by the larger developers. It seems that trust continues to be a thing even when trust has been shown to no longer be a two way street and redress is just a gapping hole in the system.

Thank you all, I should have indeed used another type of bearing, will know better in the future. I placed two of mine back to back and it's... decent, still drops a little but maybe because they're cheap Chinese bearings £5 each. Another issue is that some of the wooden joints have started to squeak, and I’m not sure what to do about it. It’s hard for me to identify the exact location and reason for the squeaking. I probably need to take it all apart and apply some silicone to the joints, but I'm tolerating it for now. Yes, the cats use the wheel for walking. They don’t run on it because once it gets going, it’s difficult to stop. I guess they don’t like the idea of having to anchor themselves for their lives.

Got the drone up yesterday. First time the flat roof has been clear of stuff since April. Also did another tidy up so the whole site is now clear with the spare materials organised by type in one corner out of the way. We should have been getting the drainage finished this week but the flooding in the local area has held the team up on another site. I suspect there will be another delay due to the coming storm. Interesting comment from someone yesterday. I had the magic mastic man have a look round to get an idea of the size of the job. I can apply mastic well enough but he’s a bit of an artist with the stuff and his work is impeccable. He asked me where the heating was. I told him there is nothing in the house yet. He couldn’t believe how warm it was.

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🤷‍♂️

No wild cats (as far as I can tell), but see red squirrels, had Mallard ducks nesting this year. Had about 20+ swans on loch.

This is an interesting point. Permitted development rights only cover one heat pump per property, and for heating not cooling purposes. There's a tiny bit of sense in that, as during the cooling season neighbours are more likely to have windows open overnight and hence be troubled by the noise. However I'd be interested if anyone ever successfully enforces removal of an ASHP in violation of this rule, i.e. that is used for heating and cooling without planning permission. I mean, they could hold it up with appeals, and ultimately all the owner has to do is turn off cooling mode, and they're back within permitted development space. I can flick it on and off from a mobile app, and it's virtually impossible for anyone outside the house to know it's being used for cooling vs just heating up the DHW tank anyway (DHW is in fact the noisier operation, although even that is still nearly silent for ours). Wth 30M retrofit ASHPs being installed in the next decade (or whatever it is we're supposed to believe is the goal) I can't see this PD clause standing very long. It's simply unenforceable at that scale

We finished boarding the third of three barn conversion for a local farmer I normally order a skip But he said Stak em out bak sev ye cash He turned up this afternoon Dug a massive hole and pushed the pb off cuts and pallets in Couldn’t get any worse Wrong Ge then tipped two 5 gallon diesel containers in and a bit of petrol for good measure Then lit it 😌

My bad, mark, read the bloody post properly before assuming … I was talking about hardie backer board. 🙄

Nah . It’s all good . Boss strap to soil pipe from the 50mm I know you’ll ignore what I post but just want it on record that I am correct .