Leaderboard

They do exist.. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-Clout-Nails-Roofing-Tiling-70mm-long-x-3-75mm-diameter-1KG-box-/184578867246?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

As my pan was non Geberit I had to go off piste with the fixing detail. I was paranoid about the pan material sitting on the metal bolt threads. I used the clear sleeves and a length of plastic conduit:

Just before you do ... Insert a 2mm packer under the bottom edge of the pan - wrap it in cling film if possible and CT1 all round. Then pull the packer out when it’s all dry on Monday. This means you don’t squash all the CT1 out and also means if the pan connectors do leak you will get a tell tale line down the wall rather than it disappearing behind tiles etc.

Yeah no geberit pan to wall gasket supplied . I saw that in a video and asked geberit . They said only really needed for pan against glass tiles not ceramic . Will take off the wall ct1 the back then reset . Clean up , then leave until Monday

For me the disappointing thing in the wish list is the air test number. I see SO MANY houses, even recent ones where you unscrew a socket from the wall and a howling icy cold gale comes out of the hole. It is my gut feeling that the best "bang for your buck" improvement would be force the builders to sort out the air tightness and install mvhr. The air tightness is not so much of a cost issue but an attention to detail issue.

I cocked up height wise. It was near enough dead in line though. Had an anti siphon trap: Whoops! So I got one of these: Took the telescopic section and added to the anti siphon bit of the first trap. (Both traps McAlpine): Some foil tape to finish off on the black plastic pipe!

HELP! We have engaged an architect who has come up with some strong designs for us. We are adding a decent sized extension and summer house on to what seems decent land. The block provider has suggested we work with a SE and to get a soil survey The loose quote we just had for eight holes is £4800? What are peoples thoughts We were not expecting a fee in that range.

Any bolt into a threaded hole will wobble due to thread clearance..

I've got an open bottom. (So no need for a 2mm pack here with the Bernstein pan).

It will move as it is pivoting on the wall at the bottom of the pan. Take it all off and bed on either the Geberit gasket if it was supplied with one or a good bead of sealant and then do it up and leave it. This also stops any point loads from the pan and cracking any tiles. Don’t do it up any tighter than hand tight or you will crack the porcelain.

I didn't sit on mine until the CT1 had gone off. I used it as both packer & gasket as my pan sat across 2 tiles that weren't dead flush. Didn't over tighten for fear of cracking the pan but it certainly didn't wobble.

Have you tried turning off all but one radiator and seeing if just 1 radiator running will reach 55 degrees? Or am I wasting my time trying to help?

Nope, shouldn’t move, get a pair of grips on the end of the Allan key, and give it a turn!

One other elephant in this room is that even if implemented now there would be at least 5 years (more likely 8-9 ) before it made it into a significant proportion of houses being built. The housing estate I obtained Outline PP for in 2012/13 on family land has started to be built in summer 2020 ... and it's not a very big one by developer standards.

Both tests successful! zero leaks . I stuck a bit of tissue in it . Set my camera to video hanging over the edge of the manhole . Flushed it . How sad eh ? . Where else would the (expletive deleted)ing water go ? All good ! . Would like to weight test it for my peace of mind but will wait until other ‘wall hangers’ say it’s ok .... too scared !!

Brave boy! I don’t like the idea of wall hung (in theory), regarding “lift up” I guess ct1 as a gasket on the back before it’s bolted to the wall would take up any slack?

You don't have a major application, I'd say 20% is a very low bar too I've got a 90% record of success on planning appeals - actually make that 85% forgot about one where they retained a condition

I paid for all my products with credit card too, to get extra protection and points on the card! Paid the card off each month with the build money.

if its a shower screen then ideally you dont want any packers as this is likely to leave voids that will collect water. If the glass is a little short or base not quite level then it would be better to lay down a bead of silicon (thicker than you need), allow to almost dry and then sit the glass on that. No voids and better load distribution. Packs are needed in UPVC frames etc to hold doors and window square .... or out of square to fit the frame etc.

I'm not really talking about the type of houses that people on here are building as most use the regs uvalues as the backstop, most housing providers use them as a target - a 5% increase on the cost of construction will more than double by the time it gets to buyers... rigid insulation prices have been increasing a lot over the last couple of years, the last note I had from a supplier here was there was a 17% increase between december and january, so requiring more insulation compounds price increases. Doors going from 1.4 to 1.0 in the short term is going to knock a lot of suppliers out as will the windows to 0.8 - I recently had an english window supplier tell me they were unable to produce whole window uvalue calcs!! Most of the houses we do already have heat pump heating and UFH but it's certainly not the norm on the developer led housing - if you've ever done a development appraisal for anywhere outside of the south of england you can appreciate the economics that even adding small costs can make projects unfundable... All these things have incremental costs associated with them, but it adds up very quickly over the entire construction. There should be a set target for new dwellings, even with something as blunt as SAP, which would allow the whole design, siting and construction to be accounted for rather than specifying individual elements for improvement. And just to be clear - I'm very much a fan of low energy/fabric first approaches!

The only place I opened an account at was Howdens as they won't sell to public. I just turned up in scruffy site clothes and that seemed to do the trick. Every other BM I just negotiated per item or got my trade to get their best price and I got the invoice in my name. I think the main advantage for trades are the payment terms where cashflow can be an issue.

Recognise the issue, however afaik the actual % of flats in UK is more like 20-25% (6 million from 30 million ish). https://files.bregroup.com/bretrust/The-Housing-Stock-of-the-United-Kingdom_Report_BRE-Trust.pdf Fig 2.4.

For my own build I broke everything down into packages and sent all the merchants with the same info, insisting on email reply. easier to compare prices and seek out the best supplier

And if you don't follow up that issue with the accounts clerk the price agreed over the phone is just hot air. In self-builds, its the relentlessness of the need to attend to detail that gets to me . We could all do with a back-office whirling dervish posessed of an uncomfortable eye for detail.

Jewson do it to the public I use others at work that don’t really offer this but as a repeat customer they want our business

I have used neither. But I have learned that whatever the fabric - it's the quality of the work that is the key issue. I suspect you can get U values pretty much the same overall for each build method. Its the focus on detail and pride in accuracy that repays. Just one slapdash worker is enough to cause lots more downstream work, and therefore cost.

The same argument that the automotive industry has been using for decades, but they seem to manage to produce cars to a higher standard for, in real terms, less money. The biggest problem the house construction industry has is the people they employ on site.

Any specific ones? i know Jewson have a paid for service.

We had a self build account with Jewsons and the manager gave us a list of all their stock items with the reduced price we would pay for each item.

er .... but perhaps not Kingspan or St Gobain ?. I think 0.15 is roughly what many of us build to. eg 0.15 is Brick Outer, 120mm Celotex or 225mm EPS, and Lightweight Block Inner. So not that demanding in BH context. There's a comparison table which I will post. I have not got my head around what standards will apply to extension. Will this be the same? The thicker of the two versions of Durisol, without extra internal insulation, is about 0.15 .

I have looked at this before and still thinking about making one eventually. In this country you have to think of it as a pond which you can occasionally take a dip in high summer. If you try to heat it without loads of chemicals the water will turn green with algae, some types of which are harmful to health.

My kettle cost a tenner from Tesco. I am very dubious of any advantages.

I did respond to the consultation saying ENERGY USE REDUCTION - ENERGY DEMAND REDUCTION should be the number one priority Floor U-value (W/m2.K) 0.1 External wall U-value (W/m2.K) 0.1 Roof U-value (W/m2.K) 0.1 Window U-value (W/m2.K) 0.7 Door U-value (W/m2.K) 1.0 Air permeability (m3/(h.m2) 1 ventilation Heat recovery no more dormer windows unless U =0.1 for walls and roof same for extensions The elephant in the room seems invisible, action on the existing stock is needed (some use it leverage poorer standards for new build)

So if you’re talking about a warranty then you may be too late to get one for the build as you have to get inspections on all elements including the foundations. If you need a warranty for mortgage reasons you may have to buy one retrospectively which will probably cost more.

Can you measure the inside and outside diameter of that concrete liner as it looks quite small in the picture. Also need to smoke test the flue before you do anything - check it’s not blocked or leaking.

Interesting you mention MKM we have one opened up 30 miles away and one supposedly opening up around the corner but TP always been cheaper. Unfortunately a lot of trade prices depend on who is working the computer behind the counter.

Not sure if MKM have made it as far south as you but they are good. TP are ok but can sometimes be laughable on single items the day after you’ve bought 14 packs of blocks ... Wickes is a good shout - they do delivery too.

I haven't found one merchant that is competitive on everything. We have a cash trade account with travis perkins, they are competitive on some stuff but ridiculous on other but they del and accept amex as payment (airmiles). It pays to price everything as we regularly buy from b&q, screwfix, tool station, ebay, TP, trade counter online etc. For online I usually Google search for the cheapest.

If anybody is interested, I was told today by the HMRC VAT team, they are dealing with early September applications, I lodged mine around the middle of November so probably going to be early March before I get the payment back. They have also stopped doing the partial refund. I was told that my claim had been accepted and I should get the full amount back as long as my invoices meet their criteria.

The wickes one is worth doing (assuming they have a branch near you) 10% off for making up a letterhead and business card for Joe blogs home improvements. Surprising how competitive they are on some things and how handy out of hours so might as well get a bit off. They're owned by Travis Perkins yet offer better than TP's price on some things.

Built a few storage cupboards into the posh shed. Also a sofa, and an occasional pull down bed. The birch ply was a pig. Warped, and a right pain to try and straighten it.

Buy them in bent, life is too short to be messing about trying to bend rebar.

Let's move on then and just talk doors!

Get a bending schedule drawn up and the rebar company will bend it for you. It is absolutely pennies to do, I had hundreds and hundreds or bends, it worked out at £1 per link for the steel and bending. Pits just not worth the agro. It will all come to site ready to tie together.

4" Fence post laid flat with a 12mm hole through it and a 6ft length of scaff pole Put the bar through the hole to where you want the bend, one person stands on the post, other slides the scaff over and lifts it up Remove and repeat

How about two scaffold tubes, one fixed to the floor/wall/bench, other slid over bar and “grunt”. I have used bits of my JCB before now to hold metal whilst I lean on it (8.8 tons ain’t going anywhere).

Here you go for a description of Special Measures. It has only been applied to 3 LPAs - that is once every 10 years. You are quite special ? . ------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Special_measures_designation_for_under-performing_planning_authorities Special measures designation for under-performing planning authorities Section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows certain applications to be made directly to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government where a local planning authority has been 'designated'. The Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 gave the Secretary of State power to 'designate' local planning authorities if their performance in handling major planning applications was below an acceptable standard. Under the original provisions of the Act, local planning authorities could be designated as under-performing and placed under 'special measures' by the Secretary of State if: 30% or fewer of their decisions on major applications were made within the statutory determination period or such extended period agreed in writing with the applicant. The statutory period is 13 weeks, unless an application is subject to Environmental Impact Assessment, in which case it is 16 weeks. A major application is an application for 10 homes or more, or the equivalent commercial floorspace. More than 20% of major applications decisions were overturned on appeal. Local planning authorities under special measures have applications determined by the planning inspectorate and lose a proportion of the application fee. Special measures designation is reviewed annually to allow improving authorities to regain their determination powers. However, on 28 November 2014, in response to a consultation on the criteria for identifying under-performing planning authorities, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced its intention to raise the threshold for decisions on major applications from 30% to 40%. Ref Planning performance and planning contributions. Then, on 24 August 2015, following publication of ‘Fixing the foundations’, the government formally revised the threshold again to 50 per cent. Ref Improving planning performance: criteria for designation. The government pointed out that up until that time, only three planning authorities had been subject to special measures and two of those had subsequently had their designation lifted. In November 2016, the government published Improving planning performance Criteria for designation (revised 2016) Presented to Parliament pursuant to section 62B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This will increase the threshold for major projects to 60% and for non-major projects of 70%, but will also introduce a quality threshold of 10%. The quality threshold relates to the percentage of the total number of decisions made by the authority on applications that are then subsequently overturned at appeal. The criteria have effect from the day following the end of the statutory 40 day period during which Parliament may consider the measures, provided neither House resolves not to approve it.

Hi Adam. @AdamJ Thanks Gus, I take your point that a whole life assessment including transport and disposal would be better. I agree, though I don't know yet how to factor those two additions in easily. As SteamyTea said, the ICE database does include some transport emissions. The authors say the database has a "cradle to (factory) gate" scope, covering modules A1 to A3 in the EN 15978 standard. A1 Is the extraction of the raw materials, A2 is the transport to the manufacturing site, and A3 is manufacturing. To be more comprehensive, I should then add in transport from the manufacturing location to my site, and energy I use on site in building with those products. I'd want to have a rough idea on how large a proportion transport-to-site emissions are before putting a lot of time in comparing so many different systems. I don't have any idea how to estimate the end of life emissions! I do know that the a lot of the neighbouring buildings to my site were built around 1880-1890, and then another lot around 1960, so are between 60 and 130 years old. I hope my house lasts at least as long (longer because it will be such a good house! ) I would love to believe that SteamyTea's 500 year statistic will apply to my house. Even if it only lasts 60 years, the decision on how to dispose of the house at at the end of its life will likely fall to someone else, but I could design it so the parts could be easily re-used. If I was designing it for re-use, though, I might be looking at using steel beams and columns and pre-cast concrete planks, because these are most easily re-used in new construction projects, from what I understand. Again, before embarking on a comparison between end-of-life emissions on multiple systems I would want to find out what sort of proportion of the whole they make up. Can you give me a rough idea? Adam I think you are doing a sterling job here exploring this complex issue. You asked "..Again, before embarking on a comparison between end-of-life emissions on multiple systems I would want to find out what sort of proportion of the whole they make up. Can you give me a rough idea? " I wish I could! A bit off topic..life span of your house. For all, when the loadings are calculated for your house they are based on the probability of occurrence. Take the wind loading, (an environmental load) here we often base this on a return period of 50 years and design for that and when you apply for a mortgage the lender works on a similar probability to ensure their asset is protected. However, we know that timber framed buildings last a lot longer than that, hundreds of years, often it's fire that ends their life. I can't see for example how a modern timber framed house cannot also last well beyond the " design life" if it is well maintained. Turning back to fact that I can't answer your question! Modelling is often an intrinsic part of modern development and the build process. Structural Engineering has benefitted from this, the computer models are significantly more advance even compared with 5 or 10 years ago and this continues as the processing power of computers grows at an exponential rate. But as we know predicting the future and how the materials we use now can be recycled later is difficult to say the least. This uncertainty can throw any model right off. Also, these modern models generate a huge amount of data that needs to be stored.. and that uses electricity, I try and avoid thinking about how much electricity data storage requires. The energy requirement for this may well increase as we start to gather real time data on home automation for example. But at the moment this is one cost of innovation and this will pay dividends in the future. As an aside. A colleague who works in the oil and gas industry recounts hearsay where they were analysing the all up loads / stresses on a rig using FE analysis. The output was a bit on the red side and they felt that as the client was not an Engineer they may have a concern as there was a lot of red on the model. Someone joking said, just change the colour palate on the graphics... the same can apply to the carbon model. At the back of my mind when I was posting on this was.. What if you are on a limited budget, first time self builder say but want to do the best for the environment. We know that for example the latest technology.. some batteries, circuit boards, complex systems often have rare earth metals in their construction. It's reported that there is growing activity relating to mining of the seas for these elements and we intrinsically know that this is probably not good for the planet. To be clear, I'm certainly not suggesting that we should abandon innovation. But if you are on a budget maybe select the materials that we already know are not too bad for the environment.. sheep's wool insulation, straw as a good example, although timber , steel etc are already proven to be easily recovered and recycled. Lastly another way you can also protect the environment is to spend the time getting the quality of your build up to scratch, good detailing and workmanship to keep the weather out and so on. A well slated roof can last for over a hundered years if properly done, a bad one much less. I do wonder when you see the complaints that are raised against new build how much of a carbon cost is attaching to shoddy building practices and workmanship. Keep posting AdamJ and thanks again for sharing.

We recently had a bench made in birch ply. I like the look of the lamination.

Thread revival. Condor all installed and now been running for last six months. All good. Can confirm it seems to use circa 2kw a day. Noted that @ProDave was looking to install a timer to reduce consumption. Have you had a chance to do that? Or has anyone else? If so how, as simple as a three pin plug in timer from ikea? Our unit will only be used for a couple of weekends over the winter, so seems wastefully having it running the whole time, equally I don’t want to save £50 electricity only to cause it all to sludge up and fail! Thoughts and advice welcomed.