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Having not had the best of years health wise this year, which has unfortunately made the decision for me that someone else will have to build the side extension, i thought i'd get a bit more work done, but rather than the norm of a room taking me 3 days tops, i've spent weeks on this one, slowly picking it apart and now putting it back together (admittedly it is the biggest area of the bungalow). This is the last room which needed everything out, so I can finally say goodbye to woodwormed timbers (and this one didn't disappoint). This one was quite a bigger task than some others, as I've reopened the chimney breast, which I'm going to board out and put my AV receiving, and bluray/tv box, and in a few weeks when i've had a rest, i've got an acoustic partition to install which will cut sound down between mine and my next door neighbour. Heres how far i've got up to now... This was a before after i'd taken the fireplace out (to be relocated into the to be built dining room) and opened up the chimney breast Discovered a LOT of soot, one of the owners must have had a coal open fire at some point, so cleared as much off as I could and washed it all down. Will put a tube from under the floor into the chimney stack to provide a ventilation source, chimney pot is capped, but has ventilation built in. This room is probably the worst for rubbish out of them all, so a good clean out... Quick re-wire, and new joists in place... Base layer 20mm insulation... And topped up... The top layer was re-used from what was down, hence it being a bit worse for wear, but the 20mm layer is well sealed below. Some of the bits have popped back up a little from when i foamed them, but i couldn't move at this point my back had totally gone, so will sort it out when i do the next stage. Next to do is airtight membrane, and then the chipboard back down which was taken up. The floor in the chimney area will be formed when i've done the main floor, life without a TV is slightly boring lol! So yeah more to follow when i can actually move again and do the work

I should get in touch and see if they can use our lessons learned system. ? At least that's something.

We're using gypline brackets for a 40mm ceiling. The guys had this room done before I'd finished my morning cup of tea and buildhub browsing.

It’s becoming quite common I think the seller should make there mind up what they want for the land and sell it Cut all ties In our case there was planning for two We only intended building one But should we decide to build two We would have to stump up 20 % of the SALE price Which could even lead to a loss We were paying 275k for the plot So wasn’t cheap The two plots and field that we have just purchased from a very good friend Had no such complications Till there solicitor got involved He wanted to put an overage on The field and paddock The seller had to threaten to change solicitor to get them to complete

In almost all cases for a domestic dwelling (not flats which often share a common stack) it is a BC requirement. Here is some info which I hope helps BH members. In Scotland for example the regs point you to BS EN 12056 part 2 which is to do with drainage inside buildings. Comply with this code and you are well on your way to complying with the regs. There used to be great stuff and diagrams in the regs to help self builders /renovators but these are getting progressivly stripped out. Here are a few thoughs / observations. If you get a feel for the principles then you can adapt to suit your needs. Often you see a drain pipe poking out the roof..with a grill on top to prevent birds nesting and so on.. the top of the main stack. This open vent serves two purposes. One is to prevent excessive suction building up in the main drain line serving your house the other is to prevent over pressure in the line which will blow the traps.. and worse. Pressure can build up in a main drain line; if the wind is blowing the wrong way down stream (other folk doing daft things like facing a vent stack into the wind), if you have a blockage and a build up of gas (could be a gas leak too and the gas migrates into the drain! nice to vent outside than into your house) down stream if say your neighbour has been putting nappies down the drain. They get the drain folk in and they put a pressure washer down the pipe.. I'll leave the rest of the description for now as to much information can be uncomfortable. Commonly though it's suction that causes the issue. There are a number of ways you can design a drainage system. Some work on what we call "full bore flow" this is more common in the EU except for some roof drainage systems in the UK... you often see these full bore roof systems described as "syphonic systems" in the UK, some toilets work this way but just within the "bowl". Mainly though in the UK we design the drains in our houses (system iii) to not run full bore and thus they don't generate this true syphonic effect. But they do still generate some negative /positive pressure. When you pull the plug on the bath the water flows and pretty much fills the pipe. As the water moves down the pipe it compresses the air in front of it. If you don't relieve this compression it can blow the traps on say a sink in another room and thus fumes will enter that room. Some air passes over the top of the water in the pipe as it is not running full bore but often not enough. Commonly a sink trap has a shallow seal of water so we are only taking about a small amount of pressure, much less than say a car tyre or you blowing up a balloon. Once the bath is nearly empty if the pipe run is long then you have this body of water still moving down the pipe and this creates a suction effect behind it which keeps drawing water. This "residual suction" can be enough to stop the bath trap from filling properly at the end of the drain cycle and not creating a proper water seal. This means that when you say next flush the toilet the smells come out the bath trap rather than venting out through the stack. If the seal is completely broken (the trap is not filled enough) then you invite "lingering" odours from your own house and that of your neighbours unless you have your own private sewage system, in which case it's you own personal "gas". One way we get around this is to fit an air admittance valve on branch lines, say on a long run to a kitchen sink or ensuite bathroom. This works a bit like a snorkle in reverse. It is sensitive enough to let air in but not pressure (smells) out. This allows the trap to fill properly from say the last bit of water in the bath and create a seal. Now one problem arises with AAV's is that the regs require them to be set above the level of the spill over point. For example in a bathroom the idea is that the home owner will see the sink spilling over if they have a blockage rather than the AAV leaking and causing hidden damage. Now that all makes common sense. Some of the building regs are really good! But this does not fit well with modern bathroom and kitchen design as no one seems to want a "box in the corner" of their new sleek vanity unit or kitchen work top. I mentioned adapting previously. Sometimes you can implement an old solution that was commonly found in tenement flats. This is called a "loop vent". Here you create a circuit of pipe in a loop. The top part of the loop does not carry water, it just lets air circulate. Have a look on the internet for loop vent design.. kitchen designers with island units have picked up on this, reinvented the wheel and are punting this as some kind of great new invention. Ashthekid.. hope this give you and BH folk some background info. Oh, and there have been a few other posts on BH about pipe gradients etc...

Because the space already exists. And it’s a slow burn. It took a good couple of months to explain that we should take the floor up and insulate it. Then another month or so to get to laying pipes for UFH. Now we’ve got the pipes in we need to find space for the gubbins that goes with it…. I haven’t started on finding space for the HW cylinder for the ASHP yet…. Doesn’t help that SWMBO is the major bread winner by a factor of 8 so she is effectively paying for it all. I think I should be* a diplomat. *need to be more of

There yours if we can sort out some time in the not too distant future. ?

Very true. The only thing is I had 4 times the heat in the summer when I didn't need very hot water, where as I can use the PV to produce cooling, and not enough heat in the winter when I need hotter water. Also it's another system to maintain.

They do, they make thousands of glass units a week, something just went wrong. Are we annoyed? Of course but what can we do about it? Yes, waited 12 weeks, these are being remade within 10 days as high priority.

Cheapy off Amazon. £125 I think. You need one with a flexible blade "groover" to make channels for conduit and pipes.

They thought they did, next time they will do it better ?

They obviously don't know what there doing. It must be sad to see, what a waste, and I guess a long lead time?

It looks like the glass was standing up the wrong way in the first place.

I'd love to see the Loss Adjuster's report and decision. Short of ...."It were nudged by a stray 50 tonne armoured personnel carrier - honest".... I can't see how anyone responsible for that mess can get a good night's sleep for a while..... well, @pocster maybe. ?

Ooh er, BIG mistake whoever packed it, glass is very heavy so they should have known better. @craig was this fir you?

Terrible! knock them off and replace as planned

Whoever "wrapped" that up should be shot! What a waste. Is any saveable?

sorry to hear about your back, hope it recovers soon, same issue that I have.

We use our boost switches often as whilst the humidistat captures showers, baths and simmering it is still handy to help shift smells from cooking etc on demand. I sometimes use app control for this but you can't beat physical switches that anyone can use.

No mines a vortice, with the optional humidistat, i've located the sensor in the extract ducting near the MVHR itself. It catches kitchen and bathroom humidity increase very well.

I mean laterally, along the pipe. E.g if you are encasing a 6m run of 110mm PVC, continue another 550mm past the joint to the next pipe on either end. Will prevent any differential movement.

An overage clause put simply reduces the value of the land and any offer should reflect this.

Again, yes. It is done all the time in the civils world. I would encase to the joints at either end of the pipe you are encasing to at lease 5x diameters.

Why don't you use metal suspended ceilings? I don't see how you could get a flat and straight ceiling with timber. Stick all your services in, then get the metal brackets and edge channels installed at the height required. It's very fast.

Hollowcore is normally a bit bowed so you can get rid of it by packing the 2 x 2. 600ctrs and 15mm p/board.

I had someone try to do that to me when half way through the deal I just stood my ground walked away 3 years on he has still not sold it seller is being greedy your choice to deal or not always a poker game offer a fixed sum if you develop later ? then you know where you are for calculating further development to expect to get not only a lift from original sale ,but also to have to inflation proofed -- not a deal i would consider

hook followed by qualifier .... style ...

Can you turn the cross walls into load bearing walls? It already sounds like you are intending that the cross walls should provide lateral stability to the external walls. i.e they are shear walls. Build these in timber frame if you like. Roughly where the ceiling ties join the rafters can you stick in a purlin running in the direction parallel to the long walls? The purlin is supported on the cross walls. The purlin can sit above or below the node point to the ceiling tie / rafter. These purlins take out all the spread out of the roof and carry the majority of the vertical load. Not you have relieved most of the load off wall that is causing problems and you can work on it as and when you like. It's (the ropey wall) pretty much left to carry it's own self weight and a small portion of rafter load from the bottom two or three feet of slates / sarking. The same principles can be used for loft conversions where the roof is required to carry heavier loads. This may work fine or you can often adapt the principle to suit the layout.

Really interesting, thanks for that info, I need to accurately get a figure for my heating load. Will work on this over the week. For my 'good' Air-Tightness I am going to spend as much as budget allows, which means: - Intello membrane internally, bonded to scratch coat on walls - careful taping to window reveals, doors etc - Correct cable entry grommets used when membrane needs to be pierced - Chasings and below screed wall to be coated with sprayable liquid sealant Unfortunately the stove is an aesthetic decision and is 'non-negotiable', it is of decent quality though with triple insulated flue.

The building inspector won’t care what your house looks like As long as it meets regs We are part of a farm that is listed Planners tried dictating that The render should be Oatmeal in colour We went ahead and did it Stirling white

ebay is often helpful, indeed VERY helpful in this case https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124864933988?hash=item1d1287b064:g:fgsAAOSwEBdgMSf6 A job lot of MCB's for £16 including postage including four new in packet MK 25a type C I would go and snap that up very quickly. EDIT if you don't and it's still there in a few days I will probably buy it myself.

We are getting quotes at the moment. Brass is not particularly expensive, so I’m hoping it will be affordable; will report back soon.

I didn't see them claim that. I think it just switches off its charging when the grid's having a bit of bother. One size doesn't fit all. There are places were you can't have a heat pump and can't have gas where direct electric is pretty much the only option. E.g., many flats and perhaps some houses in conservation areas. Something like this would be a big step up from direct-to-room electric heating ('cause you can charge it on E7 or whatever) and be more comfortable and controllable than traditional brick-to-air night-storage heaters if it's practical to put in wet radiators or UFH.

Yes, it does. There's nowhere to make an earth connection to, as everything is insulated. Ours just has four wires coming down from the roof to the inverter, run inside 25mm flexible conduit, for the two strings of panels.

When £40k worth of curved glass (x4) doesn’t even make it out from the glass suppliers yard ?

Can't wait to see the packaging on v2