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Hi, Does anyone have any views on this? https://www.groundsun.co.uk/small-home-and-apartment-heat-pumps/ Just ran across it today. Rgds Damon

yep, a whole row of them.

Beware of the B535, unlike the earlier B593 I'm fairly sure it does not support and external aerial.

You can get £60 cash back on that on Quidco.

+1 My TV aerial is in the loft. I replaced a foil covered panel with one without foil and it works ok. The foil covered insulation in the walls seems to block 4G and wifi pretty well.

This one is cleaver enough to clime up a fence and knock a bird feeder full of nuts of the end of the frame. First few times I thought it was the wind so I kept pushing it further on the pole but then I saw Boris do it. Oh yes I named him Boris.

Welcome! I’m also a new member but have already asked a number of questions, read many blogs and learnt a lot, but I’ve still a lot to learn. I’m also looking at building a basement and the big basement post @Bitpipe mentioned was in response to a post of mine. Some great info and can be found here:

We're using one of these huawei b593 it accepts an external aerial so you can a good signal under most conditions. It's only 4G not 5G but is very easy to setup and as it's old kit it's peanuts. Our dat sim is from 3 mobile and is £15 for 20GB which is enough for us provided we don't binge on TV streaming, however having said that the 3 Go Binge feature means most TV data is not coming out of your data allowance ? We've used this setup on our narrow boat for four years and it's been very reliable...hope I haven't cursed it.

Firstly, why would you consider a deep tray? They’re not exactly ‘beautiful’..... The litres per minute discharge rate is what usually dictates the size of the waste. A slimline tray is deemed more likely to need efficient means of discharge, hence the larger diameter, but the deeper trays can use a bit more gravity to get rid of water. Suds are the nightmare so cause most issues, but make sure the traps regularly cleared out and you should be fine. To be honest, if the waste pipe work is in 50mm instead of 40mm ( 2” instead of 1.5” ) then that will pay huge dividends. 50mm gives a decent air break ( air can travel back up the pipe over the discharged water travelling down it giving relief from any vacuum happening ) and is something I practice without exception. Taking the chrome cap off the shower waste will also show how badly the suds stop natural discharge.

How well does your phone work in the house, we get very slow 4G speeds inside as insulation and triple glazing cut out most of the signal. You would probably need an external antenna to get a decent speed.

Every time I look at this, the only one that is viable is Three's All you can eat unlimited data sim for about £25 per month (or whatever offer they might have sometimes) Only trouble is no three network coverage here. Still waiting in hope.

Weils desease probably doesn't help their reputation much either.

If it helps, I built very similar to you (demolish, cast in situ basement vs ICF and 2.5 storey MBC TF passive standard house on top) with zero prior experience. Could not have done it without this forum and its predecessor. Ask all the 'stupid' questions you like Have you done the ground investigation survey yet? This is the one that determines the spec & cost of the basement (or any foundation structure).

I did a lot of research before building ours. I'm no expert but here is my experience. Unless you're excavating under an existing building, if you hire someone with 'Basement' in their company title then you're probably paying a premium for what is essentially a concrete box that any decent ground-worker firm can build - i.e. the type of firm that would build an underground carpark etc. Here are the steps that I followed: 1) get our planning permission for the basement element of your build. In our case, we re-submitted the planning app once the above ground element was approved - our planners were mostly interested in the lightwells to the front of the house (which are only visible as grills in the front paving and not so much the emergency egress to the rear the footprint itself. We represented the basement as a big empty box with 'basement' on it - not not indicate any room division or use at that stage. 2) get your SE to commission a ground investigation spec that will give them the relevant data (soil bearing, composition, water levels etc) and will also satisfy any conditions imposed by your LA (we had archaeological and soil contamination conditions). You can shop the spec around yourself but don.t be tempted to come up with your own. Then choose your GI contractor and get them to do their stuff. In our case, they were probing and coring around the existing house (that we later demolished) but they got enough data points to satisfy the SE. NOTE - steps 1 and 2 are committed costs, depending on what comes out of the report, you may decide that it's not cost feasible to build your basement, especially if it requires piling etc. 3) get your SE to design the basement, paying attention to supporting the loads imposed by the house above. In our case, we already had a MBC structural design with calcs so the SE was able to take these into consideration. BC will also need to be consulted to ensure that the basement meets regs regarding emergency egress in fire (either a separate exit to ground level or sprinkler system). You will also know your groundwater situation and this will inform your waterproofing strategy. What shape is it? Ours was a slightly off square box (11.5m x 10.5m) with an additional rectangle bit for the plant room. We used stud-work to create the internal rooms and a web of steel above to hold the suspended timber floor. Wet ground floor UFH is on spreader plates. Complicated shapes, corners etc will cost more to build as there is a lot of labour in the formwork and steel placement. How will light get into the basement? We sourced german GRP lightwells (MEA Bausysteme) and specc'd holes to fit. East then to get a window made (UpVC) to fit the hole. Cheaper than specifying made on site concrete lightwells. Will you have wet services in the basement (shower, toilet etc). Wet services will need a means to connect to the ground level fouls (pump). We decided not to but do have a plant room in there for the gas boiler, MVHR, UVC etc. Just have to get rid of boiler/mvhr condensate and we have a external drain for the UVC tundish where the external exit stairs are. Will it have a solid lid or be open and rely on a suspended floor (we did this). Will have implications on how you heat the GF if you're thinking of UFH. How will it be insulated? We put ours on a layer of 300mm of EPS200 (the bearing strength, calculated by the SE) and applied 200mm EPS70 to the walls (with LE foam) which then met the insulation detail from MBC. This was not hard to do but that grade of insulation is not cheap. We did not heat our basement, it's always 20oc year round due to being in the ground and having decent insulation. Also, there is lots of ambient heat released by the plant room and electrical appliances, people etc. 4) you will need a waterproofing strategy - really depends if water table is far below you or you're effectively building underwater. We had gw at 6m and as only digging 3.5m down type B alone was ok. A is an external membrane - can be effective but only as good as the application - a problem will not be apparent until you have a leak B is waterproof concrete - uses an admix to the concrete, water bar on vertical and horizontal pour joins and penetrations (like fouls) and special plugs to fill the formwork bracing holes.. We used a warrantied SIKA system that was inspected and signed off C is an internal membrane, sump & pump. In this situation you are expecting the walls to leak so collect water internally and have it run down to a precast sump which is continually emptied by a pump. If the pump fails, the basement floods so it's good practice to have two and some kind of warning system and plan for power failure. If you're above ground water then you need a land-drain at the perimeter of your basement to a soak-away. Covering in shingle and using clean stone as backfill for the gap between excavation and wall will act as a giant french drain to deal with rain water. 5) you need a build strategy. How will your basement be built? Concrete poured in situ using movable formwork (most common method), ICF? Precast insulated panels? Bored holes filled with RC? Blockwork? How big is your site, how much plant can you fit on it during the build? How close are you to neighbours? Does the party wall rule come into effect (the 3/6m separation bit) NOTE - you may choose to build in ICF but be aware that for a waterproofing strategy that depends on the walls being a barrier, ICF has the challenge of not being able to see the quality of the pour (marshmallow finish due to etc) as both sides covered with insulation. Does not mean it will be a problem, just means you won't know if there are any issues and will have to trust your contractor to get the mix perfect and vibrate well. Will you need to de-water during construction - we had friends who live by a river and they were in this situation, they used an (expensive) system that pumps ground water out of the excavation continuously during the build. 6) when you have all of this info (most from SE) you can get groundworking firms to tender. The SE quote should detail the concrete spec, bar schedule, waterproofing strategy, backfill spec etc. If not, you're leaving some discretion to your contractor so pay attention to what they propose. Most GW will sub out the concrete work to specialists so they essentially dig the hole, get rid of the spoil and then backfill when the concrete is done. You'll probably use them to do any pre-site work (demolition, clearance etc) and put in the services for the new build (fouls, water, ducts for gas & telecom, power). You should make it clear that you expect a turnkey package based on the SE spec and make sure that all elements have been included - contractors will look to cut costs by using spoil to backfill (vs stone) etc which will lead to more settlement after. At this stage you will know what your basement will cost You may want to get the SE to spec traditional foundations to understand the incremental cost / m2. in our case we had the passive slab quote from MBC as a comparison. A basement company may do all of the above for you but some costs may be opaque. Our friends in the river used Glatthar and were very pleased, however for our basement their waterproof system was overkill and was about 40% more expensive than the route we took. They also don't do any groundworks. Do not be bounced into using the system a contractor is used to if it's not necessary for your site - i.e. an internal draining membrane if you're miles above groundwater (we had one who was very pushy on this) Make sure the critical elements are warrantied with insurance backing as you will depend on this to get your overall house warranty (if you need one). Good luck, it's a cost effective and amazingly useful space if you get it right.

Best of luck and ask away. We built an ICF basement (Integra-Spec ICF and Kryton waterproofing admixture) with MBC timber-frame double story on top, very happy with the result 3 years in. Good point. For warranty we did have some challenges, our install does not have separate tanking or drain channel and this became a discussion point, but we got the cover we wanted. BC did not raise any questions.

Do you know when the 10 years period starts from?

Pp How much is the fee? Sometimes there are more important things in life to worry about. I have a planning condition that we never got discharged. Now >10 years later they can't enforce it. Probably a god job as not sure we comply with it. Not sure what a future buyer might think about that but hey ho. If you are sure they will accept the application to discharge the condition is probably just pay it.

You cant say that, you'll come across as homophobic / non pc! ? Anyway, I like making cakes.

Hi @Alan and welcome. Before your architect does their detail drawings, make 100% sure that your warranty provider and building control are happy with an ICF basement.

This one I have conversation with though the patio doors, he's a sweet little bugger more like a squirrel than a rat as he climbs the tree along the branches looking for the bird feeders, but I keep moving them ? Going have to trap him when I have time and take him away from the house.

Hi, welcome to the forum. It's a great resource as you've found. Good luck with your build.

Hey ho - there will be bumps in the road but stick to it and the rewards will follow. Small wins help and once we get into the sunlit uplands of spring and you really crack on .... our experiance with the neighbours has been good but they were, and still are, a bit worried about our rather 'out there' design.

Here you go @gc100

No, get someone in to do the whole contract of this stage, big contractors will use a wood faced metal form-work system like the Gilpi system which will be their own kit - they will do the lot. You would probably just need to supply a prepped site. I highlight the "wood faced" aspect as it reduces the water content against the form and improves surface strength of the concrete. Unless you feel really confident. But concrete form work (temporary works) is a whole speciality in it's own right and will be holding back a huge weight of concrete desperate to escape, so really... I wouldn't!

Yep, we often have to spec duct penetrations which will be water tight to commercial (usually city centre) buildings with basements. They still don't call the "basement" contractor - any proper concrete contractor worth his salt will know how to deal with this and will be well versed in these matters. If they are not, don't hire them. I wouldn't be blase about any aspect of construction from the foundations to the ridge tile, each does it's own job and play an important part, what I am saying to the OP don't be getting hung up on a "basement" contractor - as soon as you give someone a name like that they double their fee!

I'd just get in a concrete contractor in and get it poured - almost every commercial building built in cites have basements, they don't use a specific "basement" contractor, the guys doing the pour just form a basement in a big hole - nothing special - that will open up your choices.

It is really difficult to get it to fit as sometimes the studs are a bit thin or the boards are thick. Use 130mm or you will struggle to get the plasterboard on.

And what is usually ignored when comparing BEV to traditional cars is the fact that BEV's are just so much better to drive. It would seem that comparisons are assuming that basically they are the same as each other to drive but BEV's are worse because they don't have the range or whatever. Have a drive in one and you will then know what all the fuss is about.

It's not just adverts, though. These big datasets on individuals can be used for everything from enabling insurers to vary premiums (or refuse cover) based on data that's been collected, to enabling financial institutions to adjust how they deal with you. In countries with private health care the data can be used to determine how much you pay for health care. Big data enables selective and personalised treatment of individuals based on covert data acquisition from their "private" lives. The big companies that are gathering all this data (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, etc) know far more about individuals than any government. They know key financial information, age, address, 'phone numbers, email addresses, devices used, everything searched for, bought, or looked at on any connected device, patterns of work, holidays, your sex life, you name it, they know it.

I could not work out why I was being hit with adverts fir women’s shoes, dresses and handbags till I twigged er indoors uses my iPad ? ( honest judge! )

Ha that awful puff if dust as to bang a tight fitting bit home and realise to late you took your glasses of !

I think I might be more concerned about the router brand!

But - who is listening......

Anything remotely hairy will be undertaken in the downstairs bathroom - with the approved window at the back - no one can see that one. I'm also planning on having a venetian blind to ensure everyone is safe from any inadvertent views.

I've Googled it and still none the wiser!

https://www.schneider-gmbh.com/en/produkte/tart-and-cake-saw-153500

Would you like me to come and cut it for you. Tart.

I cut studding with a 4 1/2" slitting disc and take the burr off / polish the end with a flap disc. No nut used. Wot he said...TART!

Put a nut on before you cut it, you tart.