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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/26/20 in all areas

  1. In my last blog entry we had done the majority of first fix and were about to tackle the lighting circuits. We had intended to do this in the conventional ring and switch runs. Reading up on our options it soon became obvious this was not the best option and that running radial circuits made much more sense. A radial approach will let us install led drivers and any automation in a central area for ease of maintenance and to allow us too upgrade with wi-fi switches at some point in the future. Initially we are installing RF controlled relays with switches that look like fairly conventional switches stuck on the walls at appropriate places. There are a couple of of lighting circuits where having Shelly controlled switches will be beneficial as we can programme them to come on at sunset for a couple of hours. All has gone reasonably well, our council building controls visited and gave us a clean bill of health and said they didn’t need to come back before completion. They’ve been really good to us drawing our attention to possible problems, so getting the news was a nice vote of confidence. It’s been hard work and we’ve been on site most days, so when it came to the 14th I did little to help my cause by buying Pat a new set of overalls ? … we both had a laugh about it. Our plans were to get the plaster-boarding done by mid March, which is when the plasterer was scheduled to finish a large job. This schedule gave us plenty of time to fit service battens on the vaulted ceiling and get everything as true as we can to give us a nice flat ceiling. Not having plaster-boarded before we decided it was prudent to call in the plasterer to take a look at what we had done and point out anything we needed to do differently. So when Shaun our plasterer came on Tuesday last week and told us it all looked good and the big job he had been due to start had been delayed as the electricians had failed to come on site. Quick discussion and we decided to break our plastering into two pieces of work and start on the 25th a full three weeks before we had planned. It was an all hands to the pumps week to meet the schedule. Our house has a two story stair case in a 1.8M by 2.4M void so when working on the ceiling over the void it looks like a very long drop...a good 8 meters. The boarding above the void is in full view, so we wanted to get a nice straight line on the intersection on the apex. We set up staging in the void on the second floor. Well supported but still knee quaking. Getting the board lifter into the work area was also a problem. Just to help the wall on one side of the area was not true so getting a 2.4M board lined up and fixed true proved a bit of a mission. In the end it took four attempts and some use of packing shims to get it right. Not a good start as it had taken the best part of a day to do a comparatively small area. Our kitchen ceiling is vaulted and we had bought a board lifter and an extension arm to allow us to do it. This extension arm allows the boards to be raised to 4.6M plenty we thought. It turned out to be just 800mm less than we needed so we ended up putting the lifter on blocks to get the additional height. In the end it worked out fairly well with minimal trauma. Can’t imagine how people do it without a lifter. Progress picked up well from this point and we put up the last few sheets with a little time to spare. Plasterer arrived on schedule and got to work fast. Such a transformation.
    7 points
  2. Mix up some sand and cement at 8:1 and a splash of water so it clumps together and roughly level.
    2 points
  3. Not sure how much this was said in jest, but just FWIW achieving a good level of airtightness requires much more effort than choosing a build method and the crossing of the fingers.
    1 point
  4. Well it's arrived, and is the same size as a tin of filter coffee. And it seems Jeff Bezos thinks that a 3" speaker is a woofer. Presumably the chap is an enthusiast for Yorkshire Terriers. Will report back. As it happens I have to hoover out the coffee grinder this evening so I'll do it to the Java Jive played by Alexa. A slice of onion?
    1 point
  5. I'm a roofer and we do this on every strip and re-tile. You only strip off what you are able to felt again in the same day. Scaffolding tents aren't needed unless you are taking off all the trusses.
    1 point
  6. That will be a layer or laitance, caused by excess water or over floating normally. No I wouldnt bother, as long as its roughly flat so the boards done rock around. On my sub floor it was quite uneven so before laying the insulation I put down between 5-40mm of a sand cement screed so I had the correct depth on top for my flowing screed. Far cheaper than maybe for 2 or 3 extra cubic meters of screed.
    1 point
  7. Would making yours 6.3m make it deeper than the neighbours? If not then perhaps point that out and ask the planners if they will accept a it as a non-material amendment.
    1 point
  8. Seems it's a bit lower at 150l/day but depends how many people share a house.. https://www.statista.com/statistics/827278/liters-per-day-household-water-usage-united-kingdom-uk/
    1 point
  9. I haven't bought any yet, but these people list them (with prices) in their online catalogue (and happen to be local to me): https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/sunamp-heat-batteries
    1 point
  10. If your painting it then I would have thought the durability rating would be less important. I would look at Siberian larch.
    1 point
  11. Open a window ? my architect hasn’t questioned any of it there’s extraction fans in kitchen/bathrooms etc. Each time I read something crops up so now guessing I best plan for this. Yes it’s additional and takes the uvalue down further sip info Kingspan TEK™ utilises Kingspan’s high performance, fibre-free rigid thermoset Urethane Insulation for the core of the SIP panels, which is autohesively* bonded and sandwiched between two sheets of oriented strand board (OSB/3).
    1 point
  12. In that recording they sound as if they need coffee ... of which I have just learnt from my neighbour how to make Middle Eastern.
    1 point
  13. The piling crew phoned me early on Monday morning. Can we come to site on Thursday? We're going to be done earlier than planned and we don't want to waste money on the ferry. Fair enough I think - the ferries are silly money if you're moving equipment. It left me a little problem though - the site wasn't graded to the right level and I had no piling mats. They were on my weekend list so they would be ready for Monday when I was originally expecting the piling team. So a few phone calls later and I had my stone order accelerated and had found a very speedy digger driver for a day and a half. I'm still learning the art of grading with a digger and I haven't got time to mess about. Besides, who is going to walk around with the surveying stick saying "a bit more off here!" if I don't? Job one was to complete a piece of French drain along the front third of the southern edge of the property. Due to the lack of dumper truck, we improvised a stone carrier. We skip a few steps now because I didn't have a camera for most of the grading work. The crushed tarmac arrived for most of Wednesday morning and I spread it about until it got dark. I didn't get all of it finished but there was enough flat ground to get a good start on the first few piles. This is after the first 20 tonnes arrived. There should be no surprise that it rained the previous night so I had to deploy a pump to empty the garage footprint lest it turn to a swimming pool. I spent the morning of Thursday marking out the site with a couple of decent tapes and a laser level. It should be good to 10mm or so all things considered. This is (hopefully) adequate for groundworks. The ring beam will cover the multitude of sins, I am reliably informed by the machine operators! The first pile hole being drilled. A momentus occasion - we are finally under way with the build. The plan with the piles is to auger down to 3 metres, through the reasonably clean clay to where it starts to contain a lot of chalk particles and an awful lot of water . The anti-heave sleeves will then be fitted (the most expensive toilet roll middles I've ever seen) and an end driven steel pile will be installed to approximately 8 metres. More drilling and shovelling. The team can work at quite a pace! Even an attack of super moles doesn't put the team off their game. Most of the sleeves are now installed. Little did you all know, I am secretly building a multi-story car park. The piles are ready to be hit with the large hammer on a string. Sometimes brute force is the best way. All piles installed and concreted. Oh and it rained again for a change.
    1 point
  14. Have no idea on that particular rule. The BCO didn't have objections, probably because the tarmac isn't being left under the house. I have other uses for it making some pathways in my woodland. The underfloor area is getting dug out by 4 inches (so I get 300mm air gap to the floor beams) and covered with a membrane and gravel. My BCO is quite insistent that I give the vegetation no chances. And since the local brambles seem to be cross bred with Japanese knot weed I will follow the advice! This was all going to be in the next chapter should it ever stop raining for more than a day here.
    1 point
  15. The Wolseley, black, solvent weld: 36mm OD - (1 1/4" ID) 43mm OD - (1 1/2" ID) 56mm OD - (2" ID)
    1 point
  16. Yes it's your OCD. I would just grout the lower one first, break the grout at an angle (say 30degrees) then do the upper colour, any water will have to go uphill to get in the different layers. Or grout it all in the light colour, but leave very low on the darker area, then put a layer of dark over it where needed. Perhaps do a trial panel with scraps first......
    1 point
  17. I'm a classic petrol head, but EVs are the way forward no question. The biggest challenge to mass adoption is not the interior, how it looks, how it drives, performance, styling, or comfort levels. Its the infrastructure to charge them, especially on conventional terraced streets and flats. I also wonder whether there is enough Lithium and rare elements needed. Its going to be a slow long journey on that front IMO. The car is the easy bit.
    1 point
  18. In general, there is a bit of tolerance on dimensions allowed before planners will take either enforcement action. Our build was challenged by a neighbour (not 100% sure who) on the basis that it was too high. Luckily I had access to a Total Station and we still had a survey pin in the lane, so when the planning officer came around to check I could easily show that the ridge height was slightly lower than we had approval for. During the conversation with the planning officer I asked how much leeway they allowed on dimensions, and he said +/- 100mm. Based on that, I'd say that you're unlikely to get away with a ~300mm increase, although it would probably be at the discretion of your local planning department. Worst case is that they could get you to pull the extension down and rebuild it to the correct dimensions. Best case is that they might accept the change and just ask for another application (and fee) as a material amendment. It's anyone's guess as to what they might do, though.
    1 point
  19. You should build what you have planning permission for. If you build bigger you risk enforcement action which could mean you have to take it all down. If you want to go bigger, apply for planning for bigger.
    1 point
  20. No offence taken, you know me! What do you mean? Everything was pretty well considered tbh and done for a reason. As @ProDave will attest to, "50mm" doesn't necessarily mean the same thing with all makes of fitting especially on eBay. Mixing solvent weld and compression can be a mare. The Geberit wall drain waste was some weird, nominally 50mm bit of mdpe then the black solvent weld a bit different size wise. The 50mm can be inside diameter or outside. Got all my waste from the local Plumb Centre: https://www.wolseley.co.uk I didn't move without @Nickfromwalessay so!
    1 point
  21. Sugar tax is a joke. Let’s replace it with asparmatine and sucrolose. Give everyone autoimmune disorders and cancer.
    1 point
  22. One of the reasons Tesla chose Germany was because the pretty big German car industry means that logistic supply chains are already in place. Pretty much every second and third tier parts and components supplier already has a presence in Germany. Tesla also already use some German parts (notably Mercedes switch gear) too, so they already have a relationship with some of those suppliers. It wouldn't surprise me to find that Tesla are starting to impact on German car sales. One reason may well be performance. The Model 3 pretty easily out-performs a BMW M3, for example, and costs a bit less to buy. Not going to be long before all those who have been buying relatively fast BMWs and Audi's switch to Tesla's, if only because they get fed up with losing out at the traffic light grand prix. There aren't really many cars that can pull off the line like a dual motor Model 3, or Model S.
    1 point
  23. 6 kW to 8 kW heat output seems about right, and that would draw around 2 kW to 2.8 kW from the grid when running flat out, less than an immersion heater. Most of the time it won't be running flat out, either, so the true power drawn will be a lot less.
    1 point
  24. Bath waste here is 50mm solvent. I've an accessible flexi waste from the trap onto solvent waste: The bath waste is 50mm solvent weld in the slab. There's a T coming up and the basin goes into that in 32mm solvent via a reducer. Anti siphon trap on the basin so the bath emptying doesn't make ths basin trap gurgle. Shower / wall drain waste goes from the mdpe waste on the Geberit wall drain to 50mm solvent via a compression coupler. Deep shit if that ever leaks!
    1 point
  25. All sorted, £140 for the 12 months, covers the field basically encase any idiot trips and falls over grass haha, thanks again to all for assistance. Mike
    1 point
  26. I know this is slightly off topic, but have you looked into log gasification boilers? There was a very decent looking quarterly payment for using them. Ideal if you have the space and no access to mains gas.
    1 point
  27. We have appealed twice and had the band reduced in both cases. It's a simple process, which they may well challenge, as they did with our first appeal. It went right to the line with them dropping out of the tribunal process with only a week to go before the hearing.
    1 point
  28. You would normally get someone technical involved with applying for an electricity connection. The DNO's are very worried about high starting currents which will cause a dip in voltage ad the unit starts up. So they ask for this information. imho they are being too worried. It is only old design heat pumps or some of the cheaper ones that use Direct On Line starting and have these very high inrush currents. A modern inverter driven heat pump does not.
    1 point
  29. We have used the water based 3 product / 6 coats / 10 year guarantee system from Dulux - any RAL is possible. It its a PITA to apply that number of coats but it is a lovely paint
    1 point
  30. Definitely Great for tiling on but you need the floor to be pretty even for flow screed With a typical semi dry screed on a floor of 150 m2 You will have 20 tons of screed flattening your insulation
    1 point
  31. We had an oil combi in our farmhouse I fitted about 15 years ago. Supplying a 200sqm building with traditional radiators and 2 bathrooms. It was fine for showers and wasn't to bad for baths, you just got used to running the hot in first incase it struggled. When we did our major renovation the last few years we swapped this out with a trad oil boiler feeding an unvented HW tank as @ProDave describes. This gave me a couple of advantages. As we had added a 3rd bathroom I wanted lots of HW capacity and so we had a HUGE unvented tank fitted, probably overkill but what the plumber recommended. Also having a tank meant we could add an immersion heater which is great for the times when i forget to order the oil in time and we then have no HW? The system is working really well for us and with oil at the lowest price it has been for over 10 years it is actually quite cheap heating. cheers, MM
    1 point
  32. @Mike_scotland Assuming the obvious that you're located in Scotland. I recently got a quote from SPEN (Scottish power energy networks)...and didnt get these questions. Is that who is asking? Similarly it is not something I would expect anyone to understand unless they had an engineering background. So I would question what they are asking and if you're getting the right quote. As above 1 would be your kW motor rating. 2 would be single phase. I would assume its DOL (direct on line)at these small sizes. 4 could be 5-10 times bigger than your base kW rating it's called 'inrush current'. Again I'd reiterate....doesn't seem like questions they should be asking domestic clients imo, so a little strange.
    1 point
  33. Thin flow screeds present a bigger problem because there is less weight pushing down on the insulation sheet.
    1 point
  34. Chucked some double glazing in today, and French doors. Let there be light
    1 point
  35. On an UVC always, but, you can get away without one on primary circuits as it’s just the volume of expansion to get rid of. BCO’s never chase on that but are all over D1 & D2 on potable as it’s drinking quality water being ‘lost’. There are several waterless traps ( sealed ) which are transparent, so you can use one of those if a visible discharge is required internally. Where it runs to an outside wall you can rely on that as means of visible discharge.
    1 point
  36. You don’t really need the tundish as it’s not potable. Change it to a waterless trap if you’re getting draughts coming up
    1 point
  37. Greetings fellow builder bods, Having solved the problem of how to secure footer plates to a friable lime slab floor (with the marvellous help of you brilliant people) we have rocked on with putting the start of the stud walls up and dry lining the barn. Sheeps wool insulation (from Cosywool) will go between the uprights. We will also be studding out the roof rafters in order to give us the depth for the insulation we need to achieve building regs U-values and for our own warm home wishes, so we are holding off the internal partitions until we have done the first part of that so we don't have unnecessary scaffold faff. We have framed up all but one of the 9 windows, but still got 3 of the 4 doors to do. But not bad progress in one week especially when one of us was poorly and should have been in bed really. Self-build fun and games! Handling wood is SO much warmer than handling stone which is a welcome change in this weather! It sort of seems a shame to cover up the stone walls which represent a good few months work for me. But they aren't the prettiest of their type given that we have kept the old lime wash on in places where it was sound and didn't need attention, and we do want the house to be warm when all is said and done. If I want to see stones I'll have to go outside. ? We had to choose between setting the footer plate further out from the stone wall and losing more floor space but not needing to trim anything... or tailoring the uprights around the irregular lumps and bumps if they protruded too far. We picked the latter, of course, so the uprights are truly bespoke fitted in places! We did have one run of a few meters where we didn't have to use the jigsaw at all - we liked that bit. We are currently 2 years into this build and it is nice to be doing something so immediately visually obvious. Up until now we have mostly been altering/making good existing structures / features which isn't the same. I spent a fair chunk of a year repairing the stone walls (while the kids were at school mostly, so not the same work rate as a full time labourer would be able to do) and when I was done it didn't look a whole lot different (though structurally certainly was)! But now everything we are doing from this point is adding fresh new stuff and as such feels like more progress. If anyone is curious or thinks a question about any of this would be useful please feel free to ask. ?
    1 point
  38. TBH, I think you're pretty well covered with the thermostat and the back up safety cut-out. Any additional safety cut-out you add would need to be as least as well-proven as the certified one in the immersion to be useful, I think. I can only once recall having an immersion "run away" and boil a tank, and that was over 40 years ago, before they were fitted with safety over-temperature cut outs. My experience since has been that, if anything, the safety cut-outs tend to operate when there isn't really a problem, as they seem to err on the side of being safe.
    1 point
  39. In the village i lived in down south one cottage by the river regularly flooded, but only to a few inches deep when the river came up. They had made it resilient by quarry tiling the entire ground floor including quarry tile skirtings. All electrics were well up the wall. The kitchen units were on taller than normal legs. When the flood came, the furniture went up on blocks and the kitchen kick boards came off. When the flood went down it was a case of mop out and put everything back. Due to the location the tenant had to wear a pair of waders to get in and out, sometimes even when the cottage was not flooded. Oh and remember to park his car further away.
    1 point
  40. We have built near a river. The houses have brick and block ground floor, rigid insulation, electrics set above 1100 from ffl, suspended concrete ground floor, with flood proof airbricks and porcelain tile finish. Ground floor walls are rendered internally. Ground floor use non-habitable (store, gym, office etc. Bedrooms, kitchen etc. located on upper floors.) Skirtings and a few areas are sacrificial. We are also looking at adding some flood barriers for ground floor openings at a cost of about £2,200 per house.
    1 point
  41. What made me most annoyed was really bad communications with Sunamp, further complicated because they and our m&e consultants couldn’t agree on how to make them work with the ASHP for UFH. We eventually got new controllers for all three batteries so they now work, but now there’s not much justification for using the PCM34 ones just for pre-heating water for the PCM58 battery.
    1 point
  42. Having been through the process a few times with SEPA, that's my experience as well. They only seem to allow as a very last resort. The Biorock we had in our last house worked on this principle. A settlement tank then the separate treatment plant which relied on a constant supply of air being drawn through. I've related my experience of the Biorock before, but needless to say we had problems. I think these systems have to be very well installed and probably have a far lower % of tolerance from ideal conditions before they stop operating at there optimum. I think the electrically aerated systems many of us have or intend installing are far more forgiving in this respect and therefore should be less susceptible to such issues. When you look at the capital cost of these 'passive' systems, they cost a hell of a lot more than an aerated system. You have to ask yourself will you ever see the additional capital back in energy savings and is that worth the hassle / risk with a plant that by its nature requires a far tighter range of operating conditions than a cheaper electrically powered plant?
    1 point
  43. I'll hopefully confirm the servicing requirements of the Vortex tomorrow. Household under occupancy is an interesting one as building regs require us to install on a population basis which often bears no relation to the actual occupancy. Not sure what the answer to that is, the dual approach of the Vortex (intermittent running of air blower and ability to adjust air blower), replicating that approach by timing air blower operation and fitting a variable resistor to control blower output or simply using a smaller air blower.
    1 point
  44. Unfortunately, doesn't really help, as I'm paying per pallet space for that particular haulier. Just one of those purchases where I'll have to take the extra haulage hit.
    1 point
  45. Your description of the differences between the two matches what I've read, although there is reference in the Biopure installation guide, that in high water areas you can back fill around the base of the Biopure with concrete to anchor it. As my builders will be installing rather than DIY, I don't have exactly the same requirements in terms of installation - we have a loadall on site so keeping it in position while they backfill wouldn't really be an issue for us. Having made a few more enquiries, it's looking like it will be the Biopure, as they will deliver to me up here for an extra £120. No TP up here (nearest Thurso), and despite me referencing your order they want £1750 for the Conder and I still have to arrange the last leg of transportation. Tried the local BM's but all they want to sell (for a reasonable price) are Klargesters. Most of the other online sellers will happily deliver to Aberdeen for free, but the onward transport costs (priced per pallet space) push the final cost up to more than the Biopure. The lower running costs of the Biopure, circa £35 p.a. will start adding up over the air blowers life time.
    1 point
  46. Out of interest, why did you opt to remotely house the pump?
    1 point
  47. Good to know, thanks. Having previously paid a lot of money for something which really didn't work as advertised, I'm content that the two choices I've narrowed down to meet the simplicity / minimum moving parts test. An alarm unit is in hand, as are grease traps and as we have lived with off mains drainage for many years, the consistent and sensible use of the same detergent and cleaning products. The one thing on that list I wouldn't do is house an aeration pump inside the house. We had such a pump in a garage two houses ago and it was far too noisy for me to consider having one inside. For me, it's either in the dedicated space within the unit or a housing nearby.
    1 point
  48. I thought a Trannie was a van made by ford.
    0 points
  49. I would use one colour - probably some sort of lightish grey that you can get more of later. My bathroom man said that they normally use Jasmine. Better than white imo. If you use something really light you apparently need to use a Tile Grout Protector. Houzz says you need to get a "Grout Swatch" to help you work it out. https://www.houzz.com/magazine/what-grout-color-should-you-choose-for-your-tile-stsetivw-vs~89929909 (But if you were OCD *before* you read that article...)
    0 points
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