Leaderboard

This will be a very welcome addition to these Sunamps and long overdue. Too late for the ones of us here who still have little idea as to the charge status on the older(er) units. The controller is now also built into the main unit rather than a box on its own.

I did a series of blogs on this, and a couple of very detailed conversation threads, which are all linked from this piece. I also identify all products and sources. It covers most questions in detail and worked very well until mum popped her clogs a year ago. It should help you with thinking about 90% of questions, even if to decide what you don't need. The points I would reinforce: 1 - The most important thing I did was to sit mum on the loo lid for about 90 minutes and talk through it all in detail - especially the personal aspects such as position of grab rails, height of shower seat etc. 2 - You need to consider heights for both of them. The shorter one needs to be able eg to touch the floor solidly when sitting on the shower seat, as foot scrabbling will exacerbate risks. Also a consideration for height of loo. If you like I can put some stuff about which aids are available free or you have to buy if they become frail - eg you can borrow a lot from the Red Cross free but unusual loo shapes cause problems for fitting eg 100mm high rise seats versions. Be generous with space so you can eg add a floorstanding frame or a Hitler Trombone (one of those lift up double rails) easily. 3 - With that amount of space consider playing close attention to building regs etc, as they are a good guide. 4 - Everything needs to be operable with one hand (may have to hold on with the other at some point in the future). 5 - Dual shower - overhead and handheld. All operable with one hand. 6 - Shiny grab rails are the spawn of the devil. Use either ribbed plastic or something with a rubberised surface if it must look plush; I used the ribbed Screwfix ones, or the Cassellie ones - also from SF - with the finger grips for the other bathroom. But the latter are a bit thin. 7 - Walk in shower with a minimal lip is a good call, but your planned shower head position will squirt water out. 8 - Door opening outwards in case someone collapses against it? 9 - What about wheelchair accessibility? 10 - Grab rails need to be there to support getting to each aspect of the bathroom as well. ATB. Get it right and they will get an extra 5 years at home. F

Why don’t you drain down and chuck the magnaclean in, leave enough room to put a container under the drain tap. The one you ordered holds 500ml of fluid - you just turn the isolators, open the drain tap and crack the top open. Then close the drain when it’s empty, refil with system cleaner and open the valves and run for 2 mins, then do the same again. That way it is directly through the boiler and also means the magnaclean is collecting the crud the system cleaner is chucking out ...

This is a loooong thread (not as long long as that covid one though. ?)..and tbh I've dipped in and out over the last few days without paying real attention. Sometimes I find, on the forum, we can strive for assessing what others have done and their input to make a perfect decision where we have analysed all the data. When in reality you just have to go with what you want and feel is right for you backed up by some input from here. If you fancy ICF jump in...you'll not go wrong. It'll be fine and perform fantastically compared to 'normal houses'. Just about every house built by everyone on this forum will because we are all into it and thats our passion. From light reading ....if you have time to pour concrete and can be there labour or DIY ...ICF is a good way forward. For reference....I'm building a SIPS house with insulated foundation. Sure everyone worries about interstitial condensation at the soleplate....but it'll be fine....I'm sure. ?.

I would definitely rather go 3 braces with this than having to rip the kitchen ceiling out underneath later. Hopefully its good enough not to have to rely on warranty. The boards are completely waterproof. Even under the cement layer its foam so nothing getting through it. I was quite thorough with the taping/water proofing too. Same thing as Wedi, but Nassboard brand which came with a Larsen tanking kit.

Crackers?

Somewhat, yes. So it could be done. I'm now going to leave @Vijay to his thread and find my supper ? .

Are the stone resin trays that have a bumpy surface better for grip? They look like they would be but that is not necessary the case.

YOU !

who will you leave the walk on glazing to if that happens?

happy wife, happy life

That's not pointing. That's smoothing mortar with the back of a shovel. Not good and For the few seconds extra it would have taken to smooth that out.

A poorly made crimp connection. Look at the one that is failed, there is a gap at the front. Look at all the others, solid. It's a manufacturing fault but probably out of warranty. It is fixable if the case is not too badly melted from the outside, just needs that wire link replacing.

Exactly the same for us. Applied at 7:30am on the 30th, no email confirmation & no response to email. I also filled in their web "contact us" page and got a response today: " Sorry to hear that you have not received confirmation of your application to join the Green Home Grant Scheme. We are receiving an extremely high volume of applications at the moment and this has meant there may be a slight delay in a confirmation email being sent out. Please continue to check your emails (including Spam/Junk), and it should be with you in 10-12 working days. Just to let you know, from the 18th October the applicants portal will be accessible. You will be able to check or amend your personal details like your email address at this time."

I am afraid I have reservations about this proposal as well. Planners tend not to like you going beyond the building line of the side street which this clearly does. Do you have PP for the front parking? I am a little surprised that was granted right next to the corner. The new garage will be awkward to get a car in,lets be honest you have no intention of that. I am not convinced the stairs to the third floor, disjointed from the main stairs will meet building regs, but that is not a planning matter. conversion to a gable end will be out of keeping with the other houses in the area. I am not convinced this particular house is the best candidate for a side extension.

I am gong to disagree slightly here after looking at the app. N has objected to 2 things - can logistics be done safely on a main / side road corner site with double yellows all the way round, and a big pile of junk in your front garden. The first one looks trickier, and I can see the Council asking you to show that it can be done safely. Probably not difficult but it is a big extension, and arrangements could have a cost attached (eg where is the skip going?). The second one is not a planning matter as such, but site tidiness may be an issue if it becomes a nuisance, and were they to complain via the correct route (council, but not planning), you would get a letter about your current pile. But tidying up is not difficult. Councils are usually tolerant of safe piles of stuff for the duration of a project. Not showstoppers, but I think you could get a couple of planning conditions. I think a potential issue is trying to go from a hipped end corner terrace 3.5m or so from the sideroad pavement to a 3 storey with a gable end perhaps 0.5m from the sideroad pavement, bearing in mind that there are 3 or 4 blocks of similar terraces with similar corners and none of the others have been extended. You will need some work to show that that is "in keeping" with the area. That is a planning issue. If you can find one done before similarly in the area it should help. I think there is also a question mark over that driveway access. Is it accepted and established with a proper drop kerb and planning permission? From the photo it looks like a hole in a garden wall, and was clearly not there in 2015, or in Dec 2016 when it was purchased. It is very close to the corner. That is also a planning issue, which could be the showstopper imo. What is Council policy on the minimum distance? I am also not sure about all those parking spaces. But your neighbour is clearly not that good at making relevant objections. I would suggest the key thing to do is to watch for the Planning Officer's report and address any points therein well before the Decision Date if the recommendation is to refuse. You should be able to withdraw the app and reconsider then reapply within a few months without another lot of fees if the project is very similar. And look carefully or the consultee response from Highways. That will have relevant stuff in if they object. Check the website every day for these. Perhaps not what you want to hear, but that is imo any difficulties will lie. Personally I think you may potentially need to hip the end or leave the side extension single storey, and put more parking round the back (which will cost part of your garden). Best of luck, however - and I hope I am not correct here.

I had one of these. It was not the most reliable and servicing was expensive. I have also had a Jura, De Longhi and am currently on a Melitta with milk frother. The Melitta is the best so far.

We had a howdens laminate in the dining room of our last house (built2008)it was 50m2 and we never had any trouble with it at all , sold the house in 2016 and it was still as good as the day it went down, ufh and no expansion joint. I imagine their laminate will only have gotten better since then.

Sorry for the confusion, I don't currently have insulation, but by the time I have the ASHP installed I will be fully insulated, so I based my calculations on that. I just did a generic calculation on the .gov website and the figure came in at £6,300 for the RHI!

I dont seem to have any pics of my render being done. The renderers use some sort of grip (whichever brand is their preferred weapon of choice) to 'glue' all the beads in place during the prep stage. This includes the expansion bead. Once that is done and everything is covered a base coat went on, followed by mesh and then painting with primer coat and then the silicone coat went on. Took 5 blokes a week to do my house, 280m2. They used Johnstones Storm Shield, the manufacturer have warrantied their work - if the shit was to hit the fan i have no idea if that will prove to be worth anything?‍♂️ Most people on here will say K Rend, that particular brand seems to have become synonymous with rendering. Much like a hoover is called a hoover when there are many other makes out there than just 'hoover'. My renderer said Johnstones is better than KRend but then I'd be surprised if he told me KRend is better whilst working with Johnstones product. I'm sure @nod will say KRend is the mutts nut. I think you likely end up using the product ypur contractor likes to work with.

Odd as I fit them on the return as the galleries in the boiler are what they are designed to protect.

I have a TF house. It does not move, creak or in any way feel flimsy. I chose this as I wanted every part of my wall make up to be insulation. So Insulated timber frame with external insulation and render. Very low energy house.

Yarp...pretty simples. You need a load of wall ties in as well either side of the expansion joint. I filled the joint on mine with a load of white silicone, render bead went over that and then all covered with render.

This is a weird thread, guy comes on asking for advice and opinions but then discounts everything that anyone says because he's only looking for confirmation that his way is the best way. Timber frame has been around for years and years, in wet/humid climates you will notice that the number of Timber frame houses built in those climates over the last 50-100 years compared to concrete structures is very different. Just because something can be done badly doesn't mean it has to be done badly...

Ok a quick update.....the cladding is finally complete! We are just working on the first fix and internals now. The isotex is still very much on show internally if you would like to view. T

Problems with small things falling out...sound familiar?

@Ferdinand, that's a good question, as there don't seem to be any well-defined regulations or laws, just guidance and mention of competence. Like many, I expect, I used a scaffolding company, and they effectively certify the scaffold, in that it is there responsibility for ensuring that it is erected safely and is fit for purpose. They don't actually hand out any certificates, though, it's just a case that they are deemed to be competent and have the necessary insurance. We did have one company ask whether the scaffold we were supplying for them to use was certified, and they were satisfied by a verbal reassurance and being given the name of the scaffolding company. I would guess that they recorded this as a part of their own risk assessment process. I have no idea what they would have done if I'd said that I'd erected the scaffold, they may have been OK if told it was Kwikstage, for example (ours wasn't), or they may have baulked at using it. All told around 6 different companies/tradespeople used our scaffolding, plus me. The majority were pretty laid back about certification, with some just modifying the scaffolding themselves, something that caused me to get the scaffolders out twice to put right. I think that if you used a self-erected scaffold, then you would have to take responsibility for its safety, and that would almost certainly mean getting better insurance, as I doubt a standard self-build policy would cover it. Whether any insurer would provide cover for a self-erected scaffold I'm not sure, but they might well be OK with a recognised self-assembly system like Kwikstage. It's probably a bit of a grey area, though. I think my main concern would be liability, and the fact that people on site will re-arrange the scaffolding the moment that your back is turned. Never under-estimate the ability of people to be very stupid.......... In terms of risk, then I have a feeling that traditionally accident involving scaffolding have been amongst the most frequent types of accident on building sites.

Like many here I bought my own Kwikstage. I bought a job lot on auction on ebay from a private seller completing a self build. I then had to hire a 7.5 ton flat bed and make a 600 mile round trip to collect it on a weekend hire. After the main build, I sold half of it, and got back just over half what it cost me to buy even including the truck hire and fuel cost. The rest I intend to keep so I have enough to scaffold one wall at a time for maintenance. It was some time between buying it and using it and I found some planks had gone rotten (poor storage) but I managed to buy some more from a local hire company. I prefer Kwikstage to cuplock, I think it's easier to erect short handed. The way cuplock works, when you undo a "cup" it loosens all the fittings at that layer, so needs more hands to get an initial stage erected. If you are really lucky there is a little galvanised kwikstage about but it's rare. It really was a godsend not being stuck with someone elses timescale and not having a weekly hire cost to worry about. Mine was up for well over a year, imagine the hire cost of that?. And when you need to alter it you don't feel naughty like you might if it was hired. Plenty of dealers selling packaged kits on ebay so I don't understand what your problem was.

Just tell SWMBO that you noticed her sister seems to have lost weight recently......

Glad I have my uses .... ?

Euphemisms abound..

Finish house soon or dead husband !

https://youtu.be/HOaiFBuvUSg

Tessties swelling as we speak !

Would be awkward to tell her that with a knife stuck in my neck ?

JFDI.... If you are planning on doing a thread on this, let me know and I’ll order some more storage for the server ....