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Well we ended up leaving the crackmat down and we got some fibre reinforcement screed over the top and then some glue down karndean to finish. Obviously looks no where as nice as the huge porcelain white gloss tiles but at least it’s not cracking now and is safe to walk on and is functional. I think when we charge the kitchen we might pull everything up and go back to the joists and replace the floor then. Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to reply it’s really appreciated ..

your builder is correct If it had been filled with concrete first time and had a decent found it would probably still be ok hollow blocks are not strong and have little weight in them when not filled so get a digger in pull back the soil to below ground level put a foundation in twiice as wide ,at least as the blocks and at least 300mm thick with mesh whilst down to ground level fit a fench drain or juust fill back 30cm with gravel first row of blocks need drain slots then rebuild with concrete filled blocks or use std blocks on thier backs this should give the weight required and make sure if anything it is leaning back to you a little . the only other way i see to repair is to still dig down at yourside and build another wall behind first one with same drainage although looking at it looks just like it never had enough foundation so it sank a bit and split blocks ,allowing them to move ? gaps are widder at top so it looks like the bottom has sunk and oppened up the gaps all guessing games at this point

Just thought I'd update this to help anyone in th future with an Ideal Logic Air ASHP - So long story short, I managed to get it get it to work by forcing it to work on commissioning mode... Phew The next morning I used a hair dryer to warm up the flow and return stat and low and behold It fired into life. I checked the manual again and I couldn't find anywhere that mentioned it, so thought I'd update this thread. Thanks JamesPa for your reply. So far the system is working will with a COP of just under 5. Thanks to JohnMo for help with the design (I bypassed the buffer, extra pumps, zone valves etc make it completely open loop). I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions to optimise the system in the coming months.

Our Renyaers sliders came with tape all over

Why don’t you just sit the stone lintel in a catnic

been saying that for 30 years who in thier mind would allow kids to throw petrol bombs at police in NI should have been shot dead and we would not have the problem now too much tolerance of bad behaviour same oges for all the foregin rioters sure it would not be tolerated where they came from they just taking the piss all the time ,then cliaming human rights violations simple change inthe law ,which will never happen anything that happens to you AFTER you break the law is on you how can it be right htat asomeone breaking can sue you for an unsafe roof ,o having glass on top of your boundary wallwhich caused them hurt should not have been on it in the first place

that proves its probably settlement of the founds --so no panic then

Yep, ignore the small stuff and it escalates.

Just to round the calibration element of the thread - I’ve had both sensors over a NaCl slushie for a couple of days at room temp one required an adjustment of 2.7 and the other 4.5 (both cases they were over reading) so I’m a smidge less concerned about my humidity levels now thank you @Sparrowhawk

I tend to agree with your builder but not sure if it’s urgent, you could cut the cracks with a disc cutter and fill with mastic (as an expansion joint) you could always core drill some holes near the bottom, your neighbour has gravel backfill and not a lot of water will emerge. Leave the rebuild till it’s really required.

Ps guys - we had a builder around the other day (just for advice, for now) His thoughts were: This wall was doomed to fail, due to: No drainage in the brickwork to allow water to escape The hollow block (he thinks) probably doesn't have adequate concrete/reinforcement His suggestion would be: Rebuild a similar replacement wall (hollow block), from foundations upwards Ensure that all hollow blocks are filled with concrete Plenty of drainage holes at regular intervals (the water would just drain out onto neightbours pathway - would this have any legal/building regs ramifications?) Adequate gravel in backfill, to allow proper drainage (i guess this would probably mitigate much of the above bullet point concerns) He mentioned something about Rebar - which i assume is the steel reinforcement our side? He also said the concrete & steel our side would be fine, as the weight of the soil above would help anchor everything down & keep it all rigid He didn't think the work was big/complex enough to warrant a structural engineers assessment Apologies if some of this is a bit vague - it's not my forte, so something i could only take mental note of at the time Cheers Shadow

I often read about ramblers/walkers getting killed by cows. Nearly always the 'victim' was a dog walker. There was a case, in this week's news, of a woman that got attacked by a longhorn, no mention of a dog. Made a change. As for electric bikes and scooters. Just yesterday, a teenage girl was wobbling down the middle of the street on an electric scooter. I pulled to the left, and then stopped. Stupid youth then scooted between me and the parked cars on my left. I should not have left a gap. As much as I dislike too much police enforcement (have lived in countries where it is a bit OTT), I really think that some things need to be enforced a bit more.

I live next to a 33 hectare, ex golf course. Been taken over by a wildlife trust and they are "re-wilding". Various cattle breeds on there at the moment including longhorns. There's talk of iron age pigs in the future. It's been well fenced with galvanised kissing gates. I don't think you'd get a wheelchair or mobility scooter through them. Tbh, nor should it be a requirement. It could be very dangerous. Plus there are no real paths. You are allowed to walk over the area, with dogs on a lead. There's a few small timber fence sections based on telegraph pole diameter wooden posts. Hasn't stopped the lowlifes, often en mass turning up, breaking the fences down and tearing the place up on dirt bikes, quads and 4x4s. The police are generally simply not interested and or haven't the resources. A couple of them were rocking up and revving up next to the closest house. Just long enough to let the house owner phone the police. Then they'd race off before the police got there. In the village next to me kids race around on little 2-strokes with no number plates, helmets etc. often 2 or 3 up on the bike. They go to the shops etc then tear through the estate. Police presence? 😂 A mate has a footpath across his land. Caught two lads on dirt bikes and had words. They were most indignant at his attitude saying "But mate, they're electric!"

Disclaimer. This is a bodge up, but will get you a few years before you need to look at it again. Did the same job this weekend on a building that will be demolished in a couple of years. strip off 1400 x 1400 area back to the boards rip up the soft boards back to the joists cut a patch of new plywood or osb to fill the hole. cut felt and stick down to match height of existing roof, or higher.NOT LOWER. fill all gaps and joins with a roofing type sticky something clean an are far larger than patch 2mx2m cover entire area with a fibre reinforced coating. BOSTIK FLEXACRYL is what I used, very impressed but not cheap.

I would echo the A2A (air con) sentiment. It’s not resistive so doesn’t run glowing hot and will be 2-4 times more efficient than resistive heating. If you’re there for a while, worth it.

Need to see photos of the full roof and details of construction to comment effectively.

If you do go the GRP route, you need to make sure that there is a large radius on any up stands. Glass fibre matt does not like bending too much.

Keep your eye on the prize: Planning Permission. It's a nervy time, applying for permission. Hoops to jump through , walls to face-plant into, people being badly behaved, for ever rushing yourself and then having to wait for everyone else. Its a test of character. Now is not the time to challenge the insolence of fortune. That luxury comes on Appeal. Because if after you've been a good-boi and swallowed your medicine and played by their rools made up on the hoof or otherwise , they refuse permission and you appeal, then their actions will be put under scrutiny. What-ifs are not for now. Later. Eye on the prize.

Photos please

Is the wall leaning?.if not then I don’t think it’s a problem . Does it have expansion/movement joints ? If no expansion joints I am not surprised it has cracks at 10m long but not necessarily unstable.

but is it your wall or theirs or shared? depends where the actual boundary is and considering it is retaing their land I would suggest it is their problem not yours which house was built first ? i would doubt your land was reduced in height to build your house ,why would anybody do that ? far more likely they wanted to build up some sloping ground to make a flat garden finding orginal planning drawings if possible of your house would show that would it not ?

Unless she can turn back time she’s flogging a dead horse. It’s not an unusual occurrence for contractors to forget to inform BC - ask her if you can do a trial hole. She’s hardly going to make you take the foundations out to look at the ground.

The Land Registry entry and plan is essentially a summary of the ownership details, covenants, charges etc. Tgis entry wont necessarily describe every boundary maintenance obligation. You need to try and get a copy (filed copy) of the original sale agreement (Deed). These are often 'filed' at the land registry and can be obtained for a fee. It's a postal request service unless your solicitor does it via their online account.

Battery angle grinder with a cutting disc (metal) and grinding disk to make flush with the ground.

We've lived in a 3 storey new build with a comparable spec for 7 years now. Our ACH is around 0.5. We have an MBC WarmSlab that's 100 mm reinforced concrete on ring-beams encased in (mostly) 300 mm structural EPS and UFH embedded in the concrete raft, so ground floor only. The UFH is run as a single zone and heated by a single 3kW inline resistive heater. We keep the whole ground floor 24 × 7 within a ~ 1°C tramline of 22½°C, the 1st floor is typical 1-2°C cooler in peak midwinder, though I do use an 1kW oil-filled rad (controlled by my CH system) on the 1st floor for the peak midwinter period. My son's bedsit in the warm loft is mostly heated by his Games PC and huge TV screens. 🤣 The house was built as ASHP ready, but we put the inline heater as a stopgap until we had confirmed the heating characteristics and loses of the house. However in practice, the heating costs are relatively small, and we have never made a payback case to install, maintain and depreciate an ASHP. We have never missed upper floor CH. I also use the Green Octopus Agile Tariff so my CH system schedules the CH and HW on-times to buy and use the cheapest half-hourly price slots. I am not necessarily suggesting you do the same, but what I am saying is that for this class of house running the whole GFL as a single zone is entirely workable, and we use less than 30 kWh heat daily even in cold Dec-Feb, so a ~ 5kW ASHP should be fine for this class of house. With a ~ 10m³ slab acting as a thermal store, it is even questionable whether you need a separate buffer tank for the UFH. I suspect that most ASHP installers have no idea how to design and right-size an ASHP for a (near) passive-class house.

You can indeed use only 2 zones and meet Plat L. If you have a well insulated home that's likely to be recommended by everyone here, as above. However official 'best practice' is still for one thermostat per room so, in the absence of any instructions from you to the contrary, your designers have a valid reason for having designed it as they have. As they seem to be supplying and installing it, I imagine they have a financial incentive too. Your options now include: persuading them to simplify the design according to your new request installing their existing design anyway (after getting their confirmation that it can achieve the temperatures you want - probably not an issue) cutting your losses and going elsewhere / designing it yourself - for example using LoopCad

Keep it simple Get local plumber to install UFH on ground floor only (plus any upstairs bathrooms). Set ground floor UFH on 150 to 200mm centres throughout. Any bathrooms on 100mm centres due to less usable areas. Buy a Panasonic heat pump to suit your heat loss, a heat pump cylinder (any make) with at least 3m2 coil. Manifold for UFH, no pump, no mixer, a 28mm diverter valve. Self install or direct plumber and electrician. Use Panasonic controller as a single over temp thermostat, run system on a very small weather comp curve. Possibly starting at 15 Outside and 25 deg flow and -5 outside and 28-32 deg flow. Run everything as single zone. Provision with option to install electric panel heaters in bedrooms, but don't install unless you need them once moved in. Add electric towel rads to bathrooms use around 500W plus ones and get an external timer thermostat for them.

I seem to remember reading, when skipping through the Ideal (R32) installation instructions recently, that it would not start unless the return temp was greater than 17C,m and they were recommending various ways to ensure that this was the case.. This would be consistent with the message and, if it means what it says, is a bit mad!

It may well be. You have to switch it all on and come back after 6 hrs. The crankcase is heated to take the refrigerant out of the liquid phase, in the crankcase where it dilutes the lube oil, and kills any lubricating value. If you still have an issue first thing tomorrow, it something else.

Might as well have. At least they'd be a focal-friggin-point. "Oh look sweetheart if you poke that fish you get a real buzzzz" I've been playing this Self Build game now for 9 years... Made stirling efforts to incorporate good design practice, included key people in design discussions , tried to build to higher build standards than needed - and still = Plug sockets in the wrong places (6) = No focal point in the sitting room = 6 years behind schedule = Absolutely exhausted And she hits me with an absence of focus . Welcome to the Principal Designer role dear. What goes where, by when and how much do you want to spend? Don't misunderstand me. I'm one of the most overpriviledged people I know - all I've done for these last years is get out of bed and build a house every working day. Don't have to do a real job like most of us. I'm just thoroughly, deeply knackered. It's time to move on. Time to give others to the job and sign cheques.

no sthil saw will have big enough cut to do a 9 wall" even a 16"one will not cut that deep

If I had to remove a vertical metal pipe safely (from my own land, naturally!) leaving it safe but with the minimum work I’d probably cut it off PDQ with a battery angle grinder, a bit proud of the ground, thence cutting four vertical cuts, thence two more horizontal cuts at ground level to leave two opposing bits sticking up that I’d then quickly hammer over. Might work best if the bits left standing for hammering were each a bit less than a quarter the circumference. A quick ‘polish’ with a grind wheel on said grinder would help make it safer. Maybe have an older, hi vis clad, overweight chap with a clipboard standing by to prove that it’s official. Oh and close the nearby road for 3 days, that really will make it look official. 😉

You aren't next door neighbours by any chance?! https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/topic/40844-retaining-wall-inspection-by-neighbours-structural-engineer-questions/#comment-579797

Side note, I've always thought these should be fitted outside McDonald's, would save the NHS a fortune.