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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/06/18 in all areas

  1. Just be prepared to put a nice back lit dropped ceiling feature in. Personally I'd run a spur from your main lighting source so its there for the "oh shit" day
    3 points
  2. Hi Day 15 of building and erecting timber frame, 1st floor joists and nearly all flooring laid, steel arriving next week to build rear wall, then roof craned on
    2 points
  3. Hello All, Just starting a new adventure.....a new semi detached property in need of a good refurb, and also wanting for an extension and/or loft conversion. But I guess it all depends on what my wallet and time allows! Currently renting so balance excitement of getting into this new house once it's ready with my natural love of getting stuck into a good project! This is certainly the biggest I have tried though so any advice and thoughts will be greatly appreciated, and probably a few jokes when I realise quite how big this endeavour is! So, into the deep end I jump....
    2 points
  4. Ressurection day 1 (looks more like the chainsaw massacre just now) From this: To this: Apparently these are the bits that are fecked or should never have been fitted
    2 points
  5. Yes, I bought a set from Ebay, with "water resistant" speakers. They work better than expected, TBH, although they only get used for streaming Radio 4 into the kitchen (which seems to use up what little "broadband" we have). They look very similar to that Ebay link, the amplifier unit looks identical. The speaker grilles on mine are just white mesh, but otherwise look very similar. My only slight complaint with them is that they make a series of beeping noises when they connect and disconnect from a Bluetooth advice, which gets really annoying after a while, but other than that they work fine. It probably helps that the ceiling cavity has 200mm of rockwool sound insulation in it. The only other thing I found was that the speakers were intended to fit to a thin bit of metal or GRP, so I needed to cut some bits of ply and glue them on the upper side of the plasterboard ceiling for fixings, as the fixing holes are too close to the edge to take any normal sort of plasterboard fixing.
    2 points
  6. In this pic, some of the white protective film is still on the window frames. The slates are Eternit Thrutone fibre cement. This is a garage conversion and extension. You can just see the rest of the house through the bifolds (the older part is phase II, which we're still planning).
    2 points
  7. Today we started on our foundations. It was snowing this morning on Skye and I took this one just before the digger arrived. Our brickie had pegged out the site a few days previously. The digger then arrived on site and the snow stopped and sun came out. I helped to mark out the foundation tracks and then wandered up the access to do a few hours at work. n I came back in the evening and the trenches were just about finished. After walking down to the site for the last million years, it took a bit of time to sink in, we are now building our home. Tomorrow the concrete wagon is booked and all being well we will have the trenches filled and can move onto blockwork next week.
    1 point
  8. Came across this. Haven't seen anything like this. Thought looked pretty interesting. https://thepowercollective.ca
    1 point
  9. Still going. @Nickfromwales and @PeterW woz ‘ere.
    1 point
  10. Dont need to imagine it! I wish I'd got better gear when I slept out on it - 6 hours watching rain drip into your sleeping bags wasnt much fun. Lot of respect for the MR.
    1 point
  11. Getting you in the mood with a bit of Dirty Dutch, CHOOOOON!
    1 point
  12. My concern would be noise.
    1 point
  13. It'll take them a while to shave YOU!
    1 point
  14. @CC45 and @newhome - I was chatting with the brickie whilst we waited for the second concrete pour and he is involved with the mountain rescue and helps folk stuck on the Cullins like where Danny is on his bike. Can you imagine going onto the ridge in the dark and cold conditions?
    1 point
  15. 18mm osb3 rather than 1" marine ply. Perfectly adequate and 1/3 price.
    1 point
  16. I sleep very well in ours - it's very quiet, for a start! In winter our bedrooms are cooler than downstairs by typically a couple of degrees. It's enough to be noticeable as you change levels. That makes it perfectly cool enough to sleep in. Also, rather than cooling the room, you can just use a thinner duvet or a blanket to reduce your sleeping temperature. I'm struggling a bit at the moment, as we have a duvet that's a bit too warm now that the house is warming up a bit with this milder weather.
    1 point
  17. @Dreadnaught yes, we motorise them, you can also hook them up to a home automation system supplied and connected by others. It’s something you would need to contact us about.
    1 point
  18. If you are fitting a new deck anyway, how about EPDM? https://www.rubber4roofs.co.uk/shop/epdm-rubber-roofing Easy to DIY, single piece so no joins to worry about and fascia trims to finish the job off. I've used EPDM a couple of times and been very impressed with it.
    1 point
  19. We did a similar design for a house just outside Glasgow for the concealed blind (by others). We also do concealed venetians externally as part of the windows system and have done for some in the UK about to for another.
    1 point
  20. First pumped concrete now assisted heavy lifting. Looks like those extra few pounds ain't gonna shift any time soon!
    1 point
  21. Looking at this again, there's this thing called a QuickCharge Aware cable in the newer versions of the standard. Looks like a revolting hack to me. I guess that's what this is. Bloody standards people. USB-C was supposed to make everything simple again, but here we are with another camel.
    1 point
  22. That page seems to imply that an A-to-C cable can support UPD, but it's a physical impossibility, because A doesn't have the CC pin. Marketing people are dim. It does imply it's rated for 15W (3A at 5V), so you can at least manage QC2, and perhaps QC3. But you won't be able to, say, charge your laptop at 100W (5A at 20V).
    1 point
  23. That's only true for some applications. USB-C is a new, 24-pin standard. USB-A is the old, 4-pin standard. For example, an A-to-C cable won't support the USB Power Delivery standard, so the best you can hope for is 2A, or perhaps QC.
    1 point
  24. Yes I suppose it is, but the rate of change makes it more challenging. 13A sockets are not likely to change in my lifetime, I can just plug in todays fashion into that. Oops - good catch.
    1 point
  25. I feel USB charging ports are a transient technology so I avoided fitting any. Would hate to have to change them in a few years. USB current has gone from 500mA to 900mA to 1,500 to 2,100 and now 3,000mA over the years (and maybe some other values). USB is being replaced by USB-C which is a different connector. Proximity charging is happening and may become mainstream soon.
    1 point
  26. I think I totally misunderstood what you were after
    1 point
  27. Might not be what you are looking for if you are thinking of charging more than just a phone or something, but I saw these the other day which I thought were pretty neat, probably a bit easier to rout into the board and then cover/paint over. Just a thought. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultra-Thin-QI-Wireless-Charger-Charging-Receiver-Adapter-Card-For-iPhone-7-4-7/112668551847?epid=2259403664&hash=item1a3b91aaa7:g:3LQAAOSwZG9WjqOh https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Qi-Wireless-Charger-Charging-Pad-Mat-For-iphone-X-8-WIRELES-ENABLED-PHONES/282868819492?epid=2283471344&hash=item41dc4ba624:m:muXQQrcPnLvxS9GCO5TwjPQ
    1 point
  28. I reckon the new fitters have got a job lined up for that lot!
    1 point
  29. This is the local technique ( much cheaper ) from my direct experience. Buy a trailer load of pig manure. Tip it in the pond. Wait a year. In public meetings, express sorrow at the absence of GCNs
    1 point
  30. Yes. It worked in my favour this time, so I let it be. The FX risk is limited to 20% of the £13k - given the sigificant savings (approx half price compared to UK purchases) this seemed insignificant.
    1 point
  31. Why not rent some? Rather handily they normally come with a chap (foc) who also knows how to use them (so saves all of us tax payers nhs costs) and more often than not does the plastering as well. Result. Leaving you to admire the quality job - the only thing you need to do is choose the paint. Sorted.
    1 point
  32. Maybe. The invoice date is very different from the payment date, so this can be material given the volatility of the GBP. Invoice is only issued on despatch, whereas payment is on order. In our case there was about 3 months between these events as we had special order on the Bette baths - factory drilling for taps. On my other European purchases, most vendors charged the UK rate of VAT and one charged the local rate. Not sure why, it makes no difference in the end.
    1 point
  33. God help us . We're all doomed, doomed I tell ya.
    1 point
  34. £17k is a lot to allow for 3 bathrooms and toilet, you can definitely get good prices by going to Megabad - their pricing structure means you can earn up to 10% discount on their already cheap prices if you hit certain amounts. In our case, I spent £13k on 3 bathrooms and one toilet, delivered to UK. I was able to reclaim VAT off that as well, so nett was less than £11k. This was for some higher-end supplies - Bette baths and showers, Hansgrohe taps and valves, Villeroy toilets, hanging frames for toilets etc. Price included most of the accessories that are affixed - e.g. towel hooks and rings, soap holders, toilet brushes, shower screens, fixing accessories etc - I pretty much went to town there. Having said that, I did not check if there was a way to save more money by buying different brands. I stuck with the ones I knew have a good reputation which narrowed my choice, someone in the know may be able to point to cheaper brands that perform well.
    1 point
  35. 1 point
  36. No I’ve worked on sites were they have screeded without being watertight But ideally you need to be watertight if only to keep the screed from getting damage in the first 48 hours
    1 point
  37. Normally you would screed the floors as soon as watertight Though some do plaster down to damp course and screed after the plastering is finished I can never understand this as you are losing months of natural drying time
    1 point
  38. @8ball, I picked up the body dryer for a song, unused still in the box. They are discontinued from Triton. Lets's face it, when it goes wrong I'll be left with a damn great hole(s) in the ceiling! The spares that are available are astronomical money. The people I got it from had just completed a plush bathroom and seeming didn't realise it needs a bfo supply etc. It would have meant messing up other rooms to get back to the cu so they just stuck it on Gumtree. I've tested it and it works fine. It sits between two joists: I'll be in a fireproofed "box" under the ceiling vcl: No extractor as such it just sucks up air into one vent, blows it across the heated element and chucks it out the other vent in a downward spiral. More a bit of fun really.
    1 point
  39. They look great, Lizzie. Was it just the fittings or the doors as well that came from Howdens? Edit: just spotted the doors on the Howdens website.
    1 point
  40. I think @JSHarris has a set of Bluetooth ceiling speakers, Jeremy? Tbh I was just looking for an excuse to drill more holes in the ceiling! :) Saw these on S'fix (for which I have a £20 voucher) but they don't get the best reviews: https://www.screwfix.com/p/istar-12302r-wireless-bluetooth-speaker-ceiling-kit/9921R? I like the idea of smaller, discreet speakers like the ones above that'll fit in "downlight" sized holes. A little worried about them maybe lacking bass as one review suggests. I'm not expecting hi-fi but don't want a tinny sound. On eBay the prices on this sort of thing have come down dramatically, half of the S'fix one even with the discount: https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kitchen-Bathroom-Wetroom-Bluetooth-Wireless-Amplifier-2-x-5-Ceiling-Speakers/183011004542? Just wondering if anyone has a set similar? (Secretly I don't think I'll ever fully trust cheap Chinese electrics like this. A part of me thinks they're designed on the limit and a mass over-voltage event the day the Grid is hacked will see thousands of fires across the UK and bring us to our knees! )
    1 point
  41. 4 milk crates and some battens and job done. You don’t need stilts ... My plasterer uses one of the aqua crates as a hop up - works really well and he just kicks it about where he needs it.
    1 point
  42. This shower head swivels too btw. The joint is very subtle.
    1 point
  43. You learn some stuff on BH don'tcha? How have body driers passed me by? Can't wait to hear Debbies reaction when I get her one for her birthday
    1 point
  44. All up ready for felting tomorrow
    1 point
  45. Coincidence: I’m an architect and had a meeting with a timber frame manufacture just this morning asking him to make all the opes 50mm larger as well. I’ve created a detail where the window blinds are hidden from view and a birch ply window surround frames the view. See below. As for the insulation in your situation you should be fine but I’m not 100% following the detail. Is the insulation only the depth of the window frame or the depth of the ope? Have you a drawing you can show us?
    1 point
  46. In our two spare bedrooms/studies I have gone for the build an alcove vat reclaimable style. Just need some big capacity storage and it worked in those rooms. I have used Howdens sliding door kit, very inexpensive and looks much better than I expected so I am pleased with it. First doors on yesterday.
    1 point
  47. If you're dealing with mains water, it almost certainly has residual chlorine in in anyway, especially in some of the hardest water areas in the South of England, so I'd not worry too much about microbial growth, especially as often the larger units will be sited outside the house, in a shed or garage. As for reliability, then having stripped both a Harvey metering head and a Clack electrically driven filter/softener head, I can't say there's much in the way of reduced complexity in the motorised head, if anything it's more complex than the metered head. The only known weakness with the Harvey type unit was the brine water level valve on early models, something they fixed with a re-design. It is a heck of a lot harder to strip and rebuild a Harvey type unit, but something like changing the ion exchange resin is dead easy, primarily because it's a lot easier to lift the small twin tanks out and empty and wash them out. The bigger units are a bit more effort to empty and refill, just because of their size, but do have the advantage of having a larger empty and fill port than the Harvey/Kinetico type. I have both types, as our water filter and iron removal system uses a standard Clack softener valve running on a timed cycle. Instead of sucking in brine on the regen part of the cycle it draws in air to re-oxygenate the inside, and it's programmed not to bother with a rinse cycle, but other than that, and not having a brine tank, it't the same as a softener. Interestingly the Clack head has already needed a new O ring on the drain outlet - not sure why the old one failed, but it was dribbling water down the tank on every drain cycle. Easy to fit a new O ring, but worth remembering that the Clack, Autotrol and Fleck valve heads are made in the USA, so use imperial sized O rings. The Harvey is made in the UK and uses metric O rings. The Kinetico also uses imperial sized O rings I believe, as that's a US design too,
    1 point
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