Leaderboard

THE PLAN WORKED ?????

After around 18 months of planning things have finally been moving a lot faster over the last couple of weeks which is great! I'll try to summarise the interesting bits: Type 2 vs. Type 3 Our EPS was installed on a sub-base of 150mm MOT Type 2 and 50mm sharp sand for blinding. Structurally this is absolutely fine, but there was an awful lot of and fro with the foundation designers about if permeable type 3 + grit should actually have been used as specified in the system certificates. I believe the only potential down-side of this approach is the potential for capillary action causing water uptake in the EPS and reduced thermal performance, but, given we upgraded to 300/400mm EPS this shouldn't be a significant concern. Drainage below EPS While it was a challenge with the invert levels (especially with the 400mm EPS) we decided to try and ensure that all drainage went through the sub-base and not through the EPS. This resulted in a redesigning the drainage runs as well as ensuring we use inspection chambers without drops, but it all works in the end, with just small notches being required in the underside of the bottom 100mm of EPS in a couple of isolated locations. "The bend at the foot of the stack should have as large a radius as possible and at least 200mm at the centre line" One warning when putting drainage in. Make sure the correct shallow bends are used! Our building inspector had, in theory, given us a pre-pour approval, but then when he got the drainage photos it was clear that the correct bends hadn't been used for first floor SVP's which he flagged up, so we had no choice but to mine through 300-400mm EPS and change them! Why so much EPS? Given our house design has stepped sides (something to do with street scene according to our architect) this means there are numerous steels and load-bearing walls internally. What this meant in practice for the foundation design was that around 60% of the slab needed reinforcing and would have 250mm concrete and only 200mm EPS. We had a u-value calculation done based on our actual foundation design and as we expected the u-value wasn't great, so we decided to go ahead and upgrade the EPS to 400mm which ensure there is a minimum of 300mm EPS across the while slab. It might have been overkill, but the price to upgrade wasn't that much and our PHPP calculation was already assuming 0.10.

Thank you guys for all the help. The channel and glass is now installed. What clear silicone would you recommend for bead around shower tray, I kind of like the matt clear silicone but don't know the product name.

My grandmother had just passed away a year ago, and my mum and her siblings want to take all the things from her old house. We got this old leather couches that look quite worn out. We want to restore them so we can set them up in our home to remind us of our grandmum. Should we do this on our own, or is it better to hire this furniture repair company my friend suggested? Thank you!

Will cut to size for extra £5... https://ooznest.co.uk/product/borosilicate-glass-build-plate/

it is something that is very enjoyable to learn and do if someone is so inclined and does eg an evening course. My mum did such when we had a lot of Guy Rogers furniture, and dining chairs from grandparents. You could get a job which is 90-95% as good as a pro. But allow an elapsed year or 18 months overall. Then you will always have a talking point in the house. Or if you are in a furniture area then I am sure there will be umpteen people who do it weekends. Just ask around. Eg ask a local gym who redoes the leather on their machines. Or get your company to do it. Personally I have a tenant who is a professional upholsterererer who works on the line at a high end furniture manufacturer, so I am sitting in clover eating a buttercup on this one ? . (*) F (*) Sorry - cowslip, as they are more exclusive than buttercups - see Watership Down. Reserved for owsla.

As in how long you have to live in the property for in order for the exemption to be valid? If yes then it’s 3 years from the date of the completion certificate.

Leave it at 10mm then trim with a Stanley knife after he has left ?.

Great to see it underway Dan! It all rockets along from here

I have a friend who is very handy with soft furnishings,, makes her own cushions & curtains etc. Tried to re-upholster some standard dining chairs and found it way more involved that she expected and went to a local firm to complete the job. I had used them previously to repair (broken in delivery) and re-upholster my wife's gran's carver chairs that had sentimental value. I'd look into local restorers, especially if the piece has great sentimental value as you suggest. Get customer testimonials and do your research. If you're an aficionado of Repair Shop on BBC (as I am) you notice that most of the trades have odd specialist tools for specific tasks, plus home made compounds to restore materials etc. There is also a lot of skill in restoring something but keeping it's character and making it look brand new, which may not be what you want.

Just to add to what others said, you roofer seems to have done a good job with the Roof Inspection report, I really don't think you'll get much more value (for the additional cost) in having further surveys done vs getting your roofer to give a full cost to re-roof (ask to include any likely "surprise" extra costs that builders may normally be tempted to leave off an initial quote....) and run with that

From Sunday 2nd August.

@PeterW & @Onoff Pretty much finished.. just got to renew two diddy windows, colour darker than usual due to existing surface of logs.. but seems to have turned out fine, a sort of antiquey look maybe. Hugely appreciate the help from all on this project- couldn't have worked out better. zoot.

Time to replace the lot with LED's? I was asked to replace all the fittings in our village hall after 2 Tridonic ballasts caught fire, one resulting in Trumpton attending.

He had a special relationship with my site Portaloo. The inspector is into his 70's and found my site geographically convenient.

Sounds like my fave Sikaflex EBT+: get one dab on one finger, close your eyes and count to 10 and it will have transferred itself to several places on both hands, your face and every item of clothing you're wearing ?

Still working on his erection I heard.

@pocster have you finished it yet? (Or Started?).

IoT stands for Introduction of Trouble in my book - I’ve still yet to find the person that needs to be able to change their bathroom UFH setting whilst sat at a Starbucks with a soya latte .... UFH is far from real time feedback, and response time is measured in hours usually so I think the “connected” stats are a solution looking for a problem rather than anything of real world benefit. There is a significant benefit for using off the shelf components where they need to be used by more than one person unless you plan to write a controls manual for the house and give everyone a copy who walks through the door.