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Tell them to pack there shit and leave Tell the person they are working for the same and bring someone else in There standards are obviously lower than yours No amount of pulling them up will make any difference

As promised, Black Friday did me well…

Hello, I’m converting a detached house built in the 1950’s back to a residential property having been a 6 bedroom HMO.

I can see more of this happening as landlords leave the letting business.

Yes. This is it going on You can see the brushes we used to apply in this photo

New to the forum, looking to glean useful pointers for a possible, though highly improbable, new build on our own land for our future retirement. Planning will be a major obstacle, unfortunately.

So a quick recap - back in December 2023, what may be my last ever employer decided to ask me to leave. I had mixed feelings about this. I took several weeks to think about next steps and actually get around to writing a father of the bride speech which I'd been putting off. After the wedding in March (a great day and a great speech!) I started to look more seriously for a new job, but being the wrong side of 60 now, the IT industry is not a good place to be looking especially when so many other people have been let go as well. Coming up to the end of May, we sat down and took some tough decisions; we bought a static van on a site about 3 miles from the plot, I stopped looking for a new job, SWMBO did an internal job transfer, we rented out our current house (instead of our original plan to sell up) to three newly qualified doctors (our niece and two others on their first F1 rotations in our local hospital so that worked out well), and we spent 6 weeks decluttering, and moved down SE Cornwall (Kernow) at the end of July. In the last blog entry I ended with a list: Finish ventilation system Finish insulating the GWW Finish backfilling Electrics Floors Walls ASHP and HWC Kitchen Bathrooms The remaining plumbing Outer wall coverings This is how it looks today Finish ventilation system Finish insulating the GWW (Great West Wall) Finish backfilling (on the back burner) Electrics (first fix) Floors (now on the back burner) Walls (En suite partition walls to be done) ASHP and HWC (being done in January) Kitchen (planned for January or February) Bathrooms (temporary loo and basin installed, cold water only, temp bathroom planned for January) The remaining plumbing Outer wall coverings (rendering done, stone cladding starting next week) What I missed off the list, and has taken most of our time: Sound insulation (R35 rockwool and resilient bars) Plasterboarding So a few photos are required I think: MVHR unit in place (since removed as plant room walls have been put in and waiting to be plastered inside) Ventilation distribution boxes and pipes fitted: Plaster board arrived (in May): My cold water manifold has pipes attached for the first time (one now being used for the temporary toilet and basin), no picture of it but just to the right is the hot water equivalent: We powered up the sewage treatment plant for the first time (nearly 4 years after it was first installed!): We started plasterboarding, first a large room into which we moved all our stuff that was in storage so saving a hefty wedge per month on storage fees, and then the much larger and more complex open living area: We took some time off in early October and went sailing for a week, and when we got back some kind fellows had installed some scaffold (first time on this build), and in the following few weeks we had the renderers in thanks to the Kernow weather gods: Meanwhile back inside, we finished plasterboarding the large living area, and during this last week the plastering started (kitchen area first!). We set off a couple of insect smoke bombs as we had a cluster fly infestation and wanted rid before plastering started 🙂 : Dare I add a what's next list 🙂 ? Well, here goes .... Plastering finished in the open plan area this coming week (by others) Remainder of stone cladding arrives and work begins to get the most inaccessible (high) parts put up before the scaffold gets taken away - this means cladding two 7m x 2m wide walls Plumbing pipework ready for ASHP installation Gabion basket and pad for ASHP to be installed on Mist coat and first coat on plaster (SWMBO is at the ready) Begin fitting upstairs UFH Front door being fitted (January) by others Take 3-4 days off for Xmas ASHP installation (January) by others, that will allow for hot water and the downstairs UFH to be available ... Fit a temporary bathroom ... Fit out utility room as temp kitchen ... ... and this is why - Move out of static van for the month of February (rules is rules!) and decamp to the house Well, I'll let you know how it all goes 🙂

Hi there, my name is john and I am on an adventure to find either land or woodland, so I can achieve my goal of building a straw bale house. It would be great to chat with anyone who can give me any info. I am just at the start of this journey and would love to visit completed or in the process of building a strawbale house. I currently reside in limekilns nr Dunfermline. I am willing to travel to gain as much experience as possible. I hope this is not to much of a request. Many thanks John

I've a SIPS house with renderboard (Knauff Aquapanel) and K rend TC15 finish. Lovely walls with no expansion beads or unsightly breathers. 20m run on 1 wall...looks mega. Zero brickwork. Noise is a zero issue. Feels solid always, there was a very slight vibration when we had an Uber storm (90+mph winds) but that's all I'd say. You probably wouldn't have that in a block work house. We had no issues with getting a lender, we are with Barclays and house insurance and structural warranty no issue. SIPS is stiffer than purely timber framed so that may be less solid but I'm not sure. Self_build_ayrshire on Instagram if you want a look.

Hi Karl! There's always potential for ambiguity and different people's interpretations of tolerance, however notwithstanding this in my view if the tolerance is '3mm within 3m' then I'd take that to mean that over any 3m length the difference between the highest and lowest points should be less than 3mm. Thus your units could ripple like a (square) wave but if you were to locate the lowest unit then all the others must be no more than 3mm higher than that and you'd be fine. It might not sound a lot but 3mm is a fair amount for something that is infinitely adjustable. Do you want to elaborate on your situation? Did you cancel the templating or did the surveyor say it was far out? If the latter I'd expect them to be advising what improvements were needed and where etc. Gosh, this thread is a blast from the past. Funny reading back how concerned we were at the time... A few years on and we love the worktops and wouldn't change them for anything else!

I don't know about you, but I'm really glad to have dumped Unifi now. I'd still choose Frigate over Unifi imo, especially if you have it set up already. I'm looking at these video entry systems from Grandstream. Grandstream's Wifi gear is also great and runs either cloud, hosted or embedded on a flying saucer depending on your preference.

Converse to the above, my pipes are not insulated in the room and I have no condensation drain. But I flow at UFH (cooling) flow temps, over a long period - so above dew point. Certainly not as effective as really cool flow temps, but acceptable

Yes think I was one of the first on here to do this, mostly documented in this thread Although the second one I got for the office (eBay job ripped out of a restaurant) seems to have died so I'm now eyeing up getting a third.

Of course, me being me and liking a challenge, if that was the nearest available but I didn't want a thread on the right hand part, I would be tempted to put that on my lathe and turn the thread off

Really depends on the original contract with the builder. It’s called snagging, worth trying your builder but if he won’t or says it was not included in the price then cr@ck on I guess.

I wouldn't use that Loxone power supply personally. It's not scalable way too expensive. @Rob99's N+1 set up (especially as Meanwell also provide a UPS and ATS solution) is straight out of datacentre best practice and given with an 8-way 960W/40A devices it's scalable to 7.68kW DC power, on paper, it's awesome. However, given you have the LuxPower setup, if you feel you're worried about the 16A max, then my recommendations would be: 1) Get a second inverter and split the solar and batteries across both, thus you get redundancy, twice the MPPTs and double the EPS power. Especially the redundancy point given how critical you're saying those sump pumps are. 2) Use Loxone's Load Manager logic block and have Loxone govern peak loads to keep it under 16A, including those sump pumps, so your power usage is actively managed and 'smart' based on the actual load being used in real time. I'd still get a second inverter though and have peak load to 32A with an emergency 16A if one of the inverters goes kaput. You say the inverter doesn't switch quick enough? It may be a wiring issue as it's not detecting grid power loss fast enough. Have a look at that, as even a 'slow' switch should be 2-5ms, which is well within what a capacitor in a DC PSU should be able to withstand. If not... Meanwell seems to have your back covered again.

Agree to a certain extent @TerryE but a 90k price differential? That’s a lot of spare money to spend on airtightness detailing.

Try installing the software required to run a cloud key on a VM/Pi. If you get that working then you should still be able to use the G4 as a standalone product.

Never seen this exact scenario but having done a calls Q i would say its very unlikely they will allow you to extend best option would be put in an offer subject to positive feedback on a pre planning enquiry (the planning department will do this but TBH its the same timescale as a full application)

Well there is no permitted development for extensions to Part Q conversions so if this is complete, signed off and is in effect now a dwelling house you will need planning permission for any extension. As to whether a proposal would be approved, that may depend on the attitude to the original conversion but it'll be difficult to second guess. You could try asking the local planners but most I'm afraid try to avoid talking to the public these days.

We had a Genvex Combi 185 at our last house which incorporated an EASHP to heat the DHW and the ventilation air, if required. It only works in an extremely well insulated house. We heated our house to 23C with just three electric towel rails and the Genvex. https://www.genvex.com/en/products/air-ventilation---water-heat-pump/combi-185-bp-and-combi-flex

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply, i appreciate it, yeah, it is a bit of mystery, maybe i should render my stack too, just to see if that helps, unfortunately, i can't remove the who stack, as half it is adjoining to my next door Neighbours house, i checked my flashing when i was up there and it all seems good. but thanks for help anyways. best regards

Bricks are not waterproof, it’s just their evaporation rate is higher than their absorption rate. I don’t think flashing is an issue, top of a gable wall will always get the worst of the weather hitting it. It only becomes a problem if freezing causes spalling (frost blows the surface of the brick off). Or damp penetrates the wall. You could treat the gable wall with a waterproofing agent but only when it’s completely dry.

It looks like the part is here, just need to find it without the rest of the stuff https://www.ventilationland.co.uk/en_GB/p/vent-axia-siphon-sentinel-kinetic-advance-o32-mm/18784/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAB0qKPDPgcA_zQB1T1U2Ii7QMSNZM&gclid=CjwKCAiA0rW6BhAcEiwAQH28Iher6XY6Qox2OJWqL879n9bCwv20DkFKsMKbmeQHzBscJaDZu_07qhoC4QEQAvD_BwE

I’ve not had that issue but ours is as close to the doorbell as possible and still be in the main room. We don’t really need the chime as Rufus, our flat coated retriever, tells us the minute anyone walks up the drive. The issue I did have, which fixed itself, was the video stream being too dark at night as if the infrared had been switched off. It was working then it wasn’t for about a week then it started working again.

More or less done these two rooms now, which after finishing the bathroom were basically just flooring and decorating, making a bit of furniture and then moving some other furniture I already had which was always destined for the dining room. I’ve got planned some bench seating for the wall side of the dining table to make it more space efficient, but not any time soon. I think this will be the first time, certainly in the last 10 years, where I have no outstanding ‘filler that just needs sanding down and painting’ kind of jobs, everywhere has skirting board which is painted… the little things in life. Everytime I walk in the bungalow and see the French dresser, it just melts my heart, knowing that my late wife would have loved to see it where it is now, we did buy it while she was still alive as they were stopping making it and was perfect for the look we were going for, managed to bag the dining table off eBay from the same range for around £200 I think brand new, and the chairs were ones we had from ikea which I upholstered and painted white to match. I know the plug sockets need covering, managed to locate them just slightly too high! The bookcase is to be backlit with an LED strip light (awaiting Black Friday being the right bugger I am!) and then will be filled with all my books, photo to follow at some point. The hallway has also been redecorated and the floor sanded and reoiled - out of anywhere this small passageway has suffered the most during the works bringing everything in and out, so was nice to get it back to 100% again

Looking google mate, well done you 👍

do you already have Unifi equipment in the house running your network? if not, then i would think maybe their doorbell is overkill? but it's probably subscription free and if you can configure a key server to run on a raspberry pi to give you the remote access to the doorbell then it might be a good subscription free solution. i wouldn't get a Ring as i believe it's subscription based and i don't want to add yet another subscription to a long list of online services i already pay for! for me i have a Loxone doorbell/keypad so it should integrate nicely in to my Loxone system. just need a gate to fit it to now. 🤦‍♂️

We have that 3.6kW sunsynk; it’s enough power for us. Attached is our Octopus days use for last Saturday, which is the heaviest use it’s ever had in the year we’ve had it, as Mrs Robl cooked thanksgiving turkey dinner for 18 people! We have an all elec house(car, gshp,etc) - in the morning the tesla and home batt were charging. By 8pm the 15kWh home batt was flat 🤬 - but this was a very unusual day, I think it goes ‘flat’ 5 times a year roughly. You can see that even with loads of heavy cooking - and Mrs robl makes no attempt to stagger elec devices when cooking - there’s hardly any elec drawn during the peak period (Oct intelligent go):

Go and buy the closures, do not take a punt on them not adding much, I bet they reduce the opening by 10 mm

Existing members posting commercial links in the context of research and recommendations is fine. It's just people advertising that we don't allow. I agree that the gap will close as more people (and eventually grid-scale storage) absorb cheap energy at offpeak times for re-use when it's expensive. However, relatively few households installed solar when the government was guaranteeing two decades of index-linked payments. Financial conditions for most people are worse now and I don't see them improving in the near future. Even if battery prices continue to fall there're still additional costs associated with installation that won't get much cheaper. I just don't see vast numbers of people getting into battery tech in the near term. Also, there's some complexity around operating these systems in a way that takes full advantage of the time of day pricing. I'm sure set and forget systems are on their way, but we still have some time. People are generally not that interested - look at how few people building an extension bother spending 10 minutes researching what insulation to put under their new UFH system. Overall, I doubt there's much risk of the market changing so much in the next 3-5 years that ToU tariffs won't still offer an arbitrage opportunity. For some of these systems that's the entire payback time. With a decent solar array, you almost certainly get more time before the financials deteriorate. Personally, I'm very close to the point where installing a decent battery system makes sense. Just need to find the time to research the options (the massive number of which is another impediment to mass-market uptake!)

2 channel if it’s a Combi.

At the beginning of Week 5 the scaffold arrives. The ICF walls get past window header height so they can be boxed in first with the ICF to close the side jamb, header and cill then the wood brace for the concrete pour. The internal structural walls are started and tied into the ICF. These are to support the steel roof beams. Its good to stand in the open plan kitchen and lounge area now and get the scale of the room, the three windows look down our field to the East and the slider door opening looks out South towards Dartmoor, visible on clear days. The kitchen may look a bit dark but it will have 4 velux windows that as well as providing light help to zone off the open plan area. The photo from the scaffold shows our workshop in the big barn and beyond that just visible is our current home. The weather has not been too bad during working hours, a mixture of sun shine, rain and strong wind with gusts of over 43mph so I will be happy to see the pour next week. This week the car is our own Jensen Interceptor my husband took it out in the sunshine when he went to our local ‘Men’s Shed’ in Holsworthy. Total man days of labour week 5 is 23 man days.

Our public single track road is only 3 metres wide tarmac with a bit of grass either side. Bin lorries and fire engines have no problem. I think you will need to provide turning space for a fire engine on your plot.

If you know the space a closer takes up. But as mentioned get them to measure, you are also making them take responsibility and take the risk. No idea of the window quality or cost, but generally not cheap. If they can't or will not measure, go elsewhere.

Ask how much it would be to send someone out to measure. It may be not too bad, for the reassurance.

An end cap on the drain pipe and cover on the access chamber wouldn't go amiss, to prevent unwanted egress of stuff.

Change your block type, nothing in the world would make me use both inner and outer skins in thermalite blocks. if you must use them on the inside then there only. 100mm celotex in the cavity only just meats regs, you need to improve this somewhere. how will you fit lights in the flat roof area, does this need a service cavity. no mention of vcl in pitched roof. no mention of vcl in flat roof. on the pitched section insulated at rafter level, change the insulated plasterboard for normal celotex, fit this directly under the rafters, then service batten then normal plasterboard. Again no mention of vcl.

I did try mortar in a bucket and a brush to start with, but found it ended up crumbly and didn't adhere too well to the blocks, just ended up grainy and on the floor so I went the expensive route and bought in soundcoat @ 10 per bag, never even attempted a plastering type motion before, 1st wall was a mess and more slopped on the floor than the wall, second wall better but still dropped loads. After that, spot on, got the hang of the hawk and trowel... Although I could only manage 1/2 a bag at a time as my shoulders were crying.

I’m sorry I don’t know cost of the pumps they where part of the builders quote for the foundations. The pumps came from a local quarry about 15 miles maximum, they had at least two like this and it could reach the far side about 20 meters from its parked position. The pump operators were all very good remotely moving the telescopic boom to the correct position.

If you draw out, what you mean, that would be great. The wood and PIR packing is just acting as packing, doing very little insulation. Your yellow beam horizontal parts will be the same temperature as outside and they are bypassing all insulation.

It will leak air like a Wimpey Home, especially around the doors. When your husband got it, did the old mannequin get left behind.

Think I would be more concerned about winter, than summer. If summer bypass is on its likely your loft would be unbearably hot. Any condensation would vapourise.

We want more info on the Interceptor 🙂

Under G98 you're limited to 16amp per phase. You need to add up the potential export for each phase, its the potential that your DNO is interested in, not what you might actually do. If you add a battery(car or standalone) with its own AC connected inverter then you need to add the potential output from the battery inverter to the potential output from your PV. If the sum comes to more than 16 amp on any phase then you've gone over the G98 limit and need to get permission for the excess over 16amp via a G99 application. If your PV or battery inverter supports export limitation then you can get either or both set to keep your export to no more than 16amp but you still need permission via G99/G100

I should have known it wasnt going to happen. The Commissioning engineer is now coming next week to give the company time to sort this all out. Which is a good job. The electrician was moved to today (wednesday) as the new Honeywell thermostat was arriving yesterday. However, when i arrived this morning, the electrician was resetting the programme on the old one! He assumed I was not intelligent enough to programme the correct temperatures!🙄 Despite being one of the two who had left it on the factory set schedule, for those out at work all day, not 85yr olds sititng at home all day!! Grrrr! Then i found out, he had not been told about the new thermostat, and questioned why we wanted a wired in version and not wireless😖😩 He left shortly after, saying he'd be back tomorrow with the new thermostat to wire in.........

I like this approach, was a very enjoyable (long) part of my build. Last shot before Cedar cladding fixed.

To add to JohnMo's comment, it's generally because in a commercial context (think hotel) different rooms might want to be cooled or warmed independently. By having four pipes / two coils, the entire complex can maintain a cooling pipe run and a heating pipe run, and then the individual units can be set to either provide heating or cooling dependant on the occupant wishes by using either the heating pipes/coil or the cooling pipes/coil. As he mentions, with a single ASHP, you can only either cool or heat - you can't do both at the same time. The following text is in my notes by way of example; "Two-pipe systems are less flexible than a four-pipe system. The entire building is in either heating mode or cooling mode. The changeover from heating to cooling or vice versa is made manually, and there is always the possibility that unusual weather patterns might cause some occupant discomfort. Overall, the majority of the buildings on campus are on a two-pipe system. This means when winter starts to set in, the two-pipe system must be switched from cold water to hot water. If the weather changes and it warms up for a few days, the occupants of a two-pipe building could become uncomfortable. The building system could then be switched back to cold water, but the manual switchover requires a couple of days. By the time this is accomplished, the weather could cool off again. So as you can see, when it comes to heating and cooling a space with a two-pipe system, especially in our fluctuating Kentucky weather, it is a guessing game."

Ok to disagree. My own feeling is that it's worth while paying the SE for a visit. This achieves a number of things. 1/ It lets the builder know that you the Client are not alone. 2/ I can say that I can't remember the time when I went to inspect a job and found nothing wrong. Builders often swap materials, hangers, connections, nail types and don't follow the nailing schedule on TF. Then you have fire stopping, vapour barriers etc... long list 3/ When I go to site I also look at fit up and if everything looks ok for the next stages say.. the insulation, how are the drains looking and so on. Now is the time to nip things in the bud. As a project goes on builders tend to come under more financial pressure as they like to get as much profit out the job early on. If they feel they have a weak Client it's human nature that they tend to let things slip as the project goes on. Ok @joe90 I agree with you that you should tell the builder to get it right.. but sometimes the presence of an SE, Architect or QS say can concentrate the mind..avoid later serious disputes.. especially if any visit is at short notice or unannounced.

I've been meaning to post a follow-up and I'm always disappointed when threads are left hanging! (What happened to that guy whos new build looked to be falling apart?) Anyway, the worktop suppliers were really good about everything - seemed to be genuinely concerned about trying to make us happy but also remaining sensible about the options which is all fair enough. On the two main points: - Colour - We've reached the conclusion that there's no fault on the part of the supplier here... It's just a combination of our room/lighting and the fact that the worktop isn't quite as white as we expected/hoped and, more to the point, never was - the samples have got pretty much the same tone to them but we'd never put one in the corner to view it (it had always been out on the well-lit island) and even if we had I don't think we would've spotted an issue. We have reminded ourselves that despite looking high and low for other options whilst this one was out of stock we never did find one that we loved and so this one probably is the best we're going to get and there isn't the 'perfect' one out there (that we're aware of at least - don't tell me if you see it!)... And we've got used to it, or are not so concerned about it - indeed I'd go as far as saying we're growing to like it now that we're looking at the kitchen as a whole rather than focusing on the latest thing to have gone 'wrong'! - Island bow - The supplier asked for some photos and then arranged for someone to visit in person (300 mile round trip!). The guy that arrived was actually great - who knew worktop problem rectification could be such fun. A bloke from Buxton with a strong northern accent but with Italian roots he was quite a character. It took a couple of weeks for the visit to happen and by that time I swear the bow had lessened as I'm sure I wouldn't have kicked up a fuss if it was how it was a couple of weeks later. He said he wasn't surprised given that the resin in a quartz worktop does lessen its rigidity, and he also didn't attempt to deny that it should've be installed/left like that in the first place. Rather than berate the installers we just discussed what best to do and the pros and cons of each option, including replacement. We ended up removing the sealant, spinning the worktop so as to reorientate the pattern to what we thought was a slightly better aesthetic (might as well whilst we could) and then found that the worktop actually fitted much better. Perhaps my units weren't quite as flat as I thought, but even so there was a measurable bow albeit not one you could feel or spot by eye anymore particularly now that it had flattened. He tapped in some shims - his thinnest ones - and I was content (pleased in fact) with the outcome. He siliconed up, we had another cup of tea and a chat about life and the matter was concluded. So, all's well that ends well - and another reminder to me not to assume it's the end of the world when things don't quite go to plan.