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We went through a period a few years ago where spammers would join, post a few inoccuous posts, then go back and edit spam into them once they'd disappeared off the front page. It was just about impossible to police. We still get people posting the inoccuous initial posts, but they generally lose interest and stop posting when they realise the editing block is in place. Facebook has its own tools for reducing the impact of spam (on top of actions of the page admins). We don't have anything like that. We have over 40 times as many members as Camelot, but probably a similar number of mods. If anyone wants anything edited, just let a mod know and they'll happily do it for you.

Hi All long time lurker, first time poster. We are renovating and extending our cottage in South Wilts. We’re about 6 months into the build having got planning in Jan, took us a while to get there due to bats, false start with first architect, and a slow planning process generally. The cottage consisted of an original 2-up-2-down and a couple of poorly constructed extensions (a ground floor lean-to which was then somehow converted to be two storey, maybe in the 70s). We’ve demolished the extensions and rebuilt GF to the same footprint, and FF will be a cantilevered, triple-gabled and vaulted ceiling “box” which we’ll have as a kitchen-living area (an upstairs down house to take advantage of the views we have here). Hoping to be weather-tight by the winter, and then complete by Christmas 2025. I am project managing sub-contractors and have a good friend who is a very skilled labourer/builder looking to gain more experience who is doing lots of the work and providing continuity throughout. We have converted a room above our double garage to live in whilst the work is ongoing, so here on site most of the time and we largely work from home. Thanks for hosting such an invaluable resource here - I look forward to contributing and please forgive the odd awkward question

Have you actually worked out the figures of Comfoclime for your flow rates? Because to get 1.7kW cooling you need flow rates of over 400m3/h, so passivhaus flow rates for MVHR that a 500m² house give or take. Cooling and MVHR is a bit of waste of money as you are only changing the air every 2 to 3 hrs. It's not good enough. We are not passive, but get overheated with big windows and the sun coming in under the canopy roof. Over heat days overall is not much, but the hours it is hot - without intervention it's very hot. Think, solar glazing, blinds external or less effective (but still good) internal blinds Real Aircon or ASHP with fan coils or UFH with UFH (cooling).

I am still planning to be there tomorrow if anyone has any questions for MBC or, indeed, about timberframe in general. I've asked, and they are happy for me to take photos and post any questions and answers on the Buildhub forum so I'll update this thread sometime over the next few days.

I had the opposite. Scottish water subcontracted our water connection. The plan said the water was in the verge the other side of the road. The subbies dug for it and could not find it. They dug deeper and further from the road into the field, still no sign. They were on the verge of packing up and going home when I got my rods out. You could see them sniggering as I slowly walked further into the field and my rods reacted, so I said "here it is". Just to humour me they dug a bit further and there it was.

Love my Creality Ender 5-S1. When the plumbers fitted the shower tray traps it was a godsend to be able to design and print some custom parts for the air/water trap that I am damn sure they just chucked out because they didn't fit! Am sure it's ancient now though!

Yes, see the drawing attached here. There are a few posts too for a wrap-around terrace. Plans here in case you want to take a closer look: https://development.wiltshire.gov.uk/pr/s/planning-application/a0i3z00001BtDD1AAN

Fixed - let me know if any issues.

Frametherm 35 is quite stiff. I left this test piece for 6 months without any support and it did not budge or slump. But I would want something under it to support it.

Don't hesitate. Ask often and ask early. Better an elegant design than problem solving later.

Welcome and the view looks great. Bring on the questions much knowledge here.

Well I give them credit for ‘thinking outside the box’ even if I don’t yet get their whole economics analysis. Maybe the clue is in the work ‘Kraken’ i.e. a legendary sea monster of gigantic size . Colour me cynical - is this the next ‘houses sold as leasehold’, ‘cladding’ or ‘crazily escalating ground rents’ scandal?

Hello and welcome. Did you look into demolition and rebuild? You would get the VAT back and have fewer compromises. What lovely looking surroundings!

https://amzn.eu/d/0eh27wqi I bought mine as a refurb direct from Reolink. Was as new and saved £30.

Working perfectly. None for my use. Been fit and forget. There’s a slight delay (seconds) connecting to it to watch live video and very occasionally it won’t connect but this is due to our poor 4G service.

Felt is cheaper, but has a shorter life expectancy. I would be considering EPDM or GRP - I have EPDM on the renovation extention (replaced leaky felt roof) and on the garden room. 5 years on with the garden room and no delamination or wrinkles, only two years on the renovation but no issues when I was up there a couple of months ago. Garden room was onto OSB (cheaper than ply), Renovation was onto existing deck (ply). The nice thing about rubber is that there are no joins (assuming a simple roof and you can get it big enough), and it can expand and contract

I can’t speak for the longevity of EPDM but I can vouch for its DIY-ability, recently did our garage roof 7m x 7m at the front and 5m wide at the back. Apart from getting the EPDM up on the roof, it was heavy, the rest was child’s play. The supplier of my EPDM recommended it was laid on OSB and not plywood, telling me that plywood delamination could be an issue, so ours is stuck on OSB. Maybe that’s the delamination issue you’re being told about? I’m sure someone on here has longer exposure to EPDM to inform further.

There is a specific gutter trim that should have been used, Google EPDM gutter trim and you’ll find it straight away. I think it needs ripping off and doing again as has been suggested, it wouldn’t take long or cost the original installer a great deal.

Go divining to locate the pipe. Yes I AM being serious.

[shuffles to his feet, looking intently at his own shoes while repeatedly clearing his throat, gathering courage until finally managing to look up and blurt out…] I am a self builder and I believe in thermal mass. [sits down quickly, avoiding all eye contact.]

>>> the site is about 800sqm, my main concern is to find a possible water pipe underneath the ground so that I can build at 3m away from that You'll probably get what you need straight from your local water authority - at least a rough approximation to the location. Sometimes the records are missing or not accurate though. That'll hopefully give you a rough idea for planning a house location. The doc might have already been obtained in the searches when you bought the plot. The authority should also be able to tell you what kind of pipe it is, which'll be useful so you know how fragile it is. If the pipe is going to provide your own supply, you'll make much progress by going through the 'apply for a new supply' application and get an actual bod on site. They often know stuff that's not on the plans. That's probably all you need to kick off an architect. To get it accurately though, which you'll want to do at some time, you might need to dig down to it at a few points to verify and to get the level. You might be able to locate it remotely if iron, otherwise some sleuth work and some digging. Re a proper topo - yeah, dwg / dxf CAD file is key for people to draw on (computer-wise) using it as a base. Prints / pdfs are negligible extra cost. You probably need to specify exactly what you want - here's my spec (below), but I probably missed a few things - some tree stumps, eave heights of neighbouring buildings, height of mid-point of LV line. Local firm is good, as it's probably 1/2 day for a team of two. £400-500 + VAT maybe depending on how big the site is / how much it varies in height / how many 'features' there are / what grid size you want etc. Boundaries with heights & description Pick up the gates, driveway & the relationship to the highway The position & invert level of the ditch culvert at the front of the plot and the position and top level of the culvert pipe (now exposed) at the rear of the plot (one point at each end) as marked on the plan provided. The top being ~70cm down from the surface. This is behind the Ash tree. A paint line indicates the approx line of the culvert, please pick up one other on the surface from that so we can establish the approximate track The invert points of the culvert pipe in the ditch next to the highway have been highlighted The location and height of the poles at each end of the LV line All street furniture All service covers Overhead Cables Buildings (Outlines) All changes in surface All water features Trees; Location of the four trees and, if possible, the approximate tree height & extent of the foliage. Also pick up position & heights of 3 trees on the opposite side of the road Trees fully detailed - surveyed trunk & 4 points on canopy Road markings Existing building outlines Contours (interval) Existing building heights and neighbouring buildings The ridge height (only) of the 4 nearby barns (assuming these can easily be sited reflectorless from the plot). Levels over the site - 10m grid Floor Window and Door Heights of existing buildings Visibility splays - include all nearside features with heights (trees/hedges/fences etc.), with requested distance of splays in each direction from site access

My epdm shed roof was supplied with a pva-looking glue to hold the majority of it down and a contact-adhesive looking glue for the edges. I guess sticking the free edge down with contact adhesive would be a good start. But epdm isn't very expensive, so it wouldn't be a big deal to replace it with a bit the right size.

That gutter edge is surely wrong? It depends on the individual system but some have a two piece trim that sandwiches the membrane. If I recall the system we used a few years ago on a porch roof had a mechanically fixed gutter edge membrane strip that the main sheet glued onto using contact adhesive. Whatever it should be it ought to be neater. Best way is to find out who makes the edpm and look up their standard installation detail on the web. That should illustrate how it's done.

If there are any manhole covers that are visible then their position then they will be shown. But a land surveyor will not lift covers or establish where drains run. Digital is standard. Prints should be requested. I would request a couple of large prints, say A2, bug perhaps A3 is big enough.? But my daughter would scoff. Also a file in printable form eg pdf. Plus a CAD file.

Topo survey won't locate a water pipe. Need to contact UE... Unlikely they'll help and you might need to do some trial pits. Worth have a Topo anyway. But do things in right order. Speak to an architect first, then think about ground investigations.

I didn't fit any HDMI, just 1xCAT6, 1xCoAx, 6xPower in two corners of the living room. 1xCat6, 1xCoAx, 2xPower in the Kitchen. 3x IP Access Points in the house and 1x IP Access Point in the Garage. The kids only stream to mobile devices of various sorts. The hardwired is all back to the server stack in the garage plant room. Everything else is WiFi anyway!

HDMI over CAT6[A] is always a compromise vs having genuine cable installed; features like ARC, ethernet over HDMI, highest resolution/frame rates etc tend to be limited, not to mention adds extra hurdles for the HDCP copy protection to fall over on.On the flip side, my experience of putting a few HDMI cables in (again, back to the central AV/comms cupboard) was not good: not one of them actually worked when I came to use them 😞. My understanding is despite not exceeding (or, barely exceeding) the HDMI max length, the cables used are long enough x poor enough quality they interfere with HDCP anyway. (In most instances, 1080p would play, but not 4K, over these longer cables). What I really wished was I'd put in a spare optical fibre or two, that could be used for HDMI extension, or for simple audio return path (my multi-room amplifier is in the central AV cupboard and having the "actual" sounds from the TV sent back there would be handy in a number of scenarios) If you do install HDMI, make sure to buy the cables in plenty of time and test with the exact kit intended to be used with. Also, if at all possible run it through oversized ducts so they can be replaced in case of failure, or HDMI being superseded by something else in future... (ours was a retrofit project, so it wasn't possible to the main TV, alas)

I would favour ground screws, simple, effective, quick.

HDMI in duct for room to room runs, ie sky box in corner TV in the wall. Cat6a for central house distribution. HDMI is more fragile then most realise, and gets very patchy over several metre. It's also a bigger cable, with a thicker plug so harder to route and protect. Just run lots of Cat6a everywhere, they less fragile and more flexible for use 5.

We have put two 4K (8K to the very local) HDMI and two CAT6 cables and a terrestrial Arial cable to each TV point and fed the HDMI, only cost £150 for the cables, back to the media panel - not really sure why but it seemed like belt and braces. We can stream the same image / sound to all the TVs in synch (nearly) via the HDMI.

You've not mentioned distance, ie length of HDMI cable. What are you hoping to gain from centrally served HDMI, but only going to a single TV? From what you've written on your comms cabinet, I can only see the DVR/NVR as a possibly source that may need it. Does your IPTV "player" need to be in the comms cabinet? With Smart TVs they can nearly all run an IPTV App locally or run it off a local, small, cheap box/fire stick. If you centrally serve the source of the HDMI signal from your comms cabinet, then you also need to consider how you are going to remotely control it. I think these days, with Smart TVs and good value "set top boxes" that can render up to 8K and Atmos if you wish, I'd simplify the setup and have a few Cat 6 cables to each TV so that you are flexible for adding devises locally. There's great solutions like Plex for centrally managing your own libraries and you can add on a DVR for recording live TV and then stream it over IP straight to a an App on any of the TVs in the house.

We can do clever stuff like casting or mirroring (from various devices to displays) but HDMI offers simple local reliable connection. Looks like you’ve several sources of stuff you might want to watch in your comms area so HDMI is a really obvious choice if it’s less than 10m (you can get further but it gets a bit device dependent). Of course once you’ve turned on your tv and selected HDMI as your source you’ve then got to select what feeds that HDMI cable…. We’ve a complex system with a digital recorder that can feed every tv in the house including the projector and is controlled by radio from anywhere in the house. Pity we turned it all off a couple of years ago when we realised that all we needed was a streaming stick on our old tvs and a couple of 3D bluray players (one in the lounge and one in the kitchen). The av in the new pad will be so simple it’s silly.

It's not a *bad* idea per se, depending on the distance from any TV to the source devices. Although you can do HDMI over CAT5/6 etc., it's often more expensive and can sometimes come with issues of compatibility. In my current house, every TV has one HDMI cable that runs back to a matrix HDMI switch where various source devices are connected, a coax that provides Digital TV and Satellite connections, and two CAT5 cables, one of which provides wired Internet to the TVs and the other allowing "expansion" with various devices. These CAT5 cables route back to the same location as the matrix HDMI switch. The HDMI matrix switch allows any TV to select from two BT HDTV boxes, a Wii, and a NAS. If I ever get to self-build, each TV location will have an HDMI cable (possibly two), two coax, four CAT6 cables, and some single-mode fibre for future-proofing.

Is it your fence? When re instating the fence why not use concrete gravel boards, they come in 6” or 12”, if you use 12” you can put them in so your side is 12” but neighbours side is 6” which gives you the 150mm you need below the DPC (and still use weed membrane and pebbles/stone so no maintenance as you can’t get in there again.)

Have good think - is the right direction to go? You should really move the dpc 150mm above ground level. I would go back to the architect and get a proper solution.

They only one I read is Passive House+ magazine: https://passivehouseplus.co.uk. When they review a house, they give a list at the end of all the suppliers, which is useful.

Try Home Building and renovation is very good Also Build IT is ok

That must be dead handy and save a fortune on muckaway lorries!

I am not as visited my mother today. Now I am stuck on M5 as it is closed both ways. Going to be a long journey home, been in the car 11 already.

Good job someone is paying attention. I'll try again. Aco ( other manufacturers are available) seems to be the proper solution. Gravel would involve access over the boundary which it is best to avoid. But it isn't a great design. Have I also missed whether this is a neighbour adjoining, or public land? Will maintenance to wall and roof be feasible?

I think a 3 Ton mini excavator might be better. I equipped my own small excavator with a "toy", and I have to say that my work efficiency has improved a lot.

i really enjoyed after i had the knock through but didnt have my full length doors fitted yet, all the builders sat smoking in the old kitchen sunbathing. And the subsequent me having to remove 5000 tab ends and fag packets from the cavity walls.