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Look at whole window U value, not at the headline you get triple glazing. Have seen triple glazed advertised as 1.4, because the frames are cr*p. Insist on getting the whole window U value, they will want to give you the Ug valve which is only the glazed part of it. We have some double glazed doors and the whole U value, frames and glazing is 1.1, but they are Krypton filled. Our triple glazed are 0.74 and 0.82. A normal ok/good quality double glazed window is 1.4, triple glazed less than 1.0 for the whole window U value.

Spend your money on insulation first

Well 3+ years after our nightmare began it has finally ended! two weeks ago the biomass boiler finally died, we are still awaiting the enforcement of the arbitrators award which is now in the hands of a solicitor but when it decided to give up the ghost a fortnight ago we had no option other than to remove it as it’s still too cold here to do without heating. Finding a heating engineer who was willing and able to install the oil boiler and mega flow tank was another hurdle altogether but we finally found a company (after many who came out to look and I presume were lost when they saw the thermal store and realised they’d have to remove it) who came out over two days and did all the work for what I consider to be a very reasonable price. they actually worked until 7.30pm last night to finish the job and make sure the ufh, radiators and hot water were all working as they should. what a difference from the original installer who installed the biomass at great cost but wasn’t interested at all in how everything would link up and work as it should. after a fortnight of no heat preceded by 3 years of having to be totally ocd about the heating (or lack of it) it was wonderful to get up this morning to a warm house, enough hot water for a really decent shower and peace of mind with a 10 year warranty from this company. Definitely not as eco friendly but when HVO becomes freely available at a decent price the boiler only needs a change of jets to run on it 🤗

Just to add to this thread that it isn't just the rise + going and angle of the stairs but also the rise + going relationship that matters. This relationship is defined as 2R + G (R = Rise, G = Going) which needs to be between 550 - 700. Edit: @jack kind of just got in there first I've noticed! If you're making the stairs yourself, I'd recommend getting a book on it. This one is pretty good - Simply Stairs: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Mark-Milner/Simply-Stairs--The-Definitive-Handbook-for-Stair-Builders/16592144. It has a very helpful chart, plus it's a pretty straightforward task to make up a basic spreadsheet like the attached that I made up to help me build stairs. (it's not annotated so you need to familiarise yourself with the terminology and formulas to make sense of it to know what matters!). Staircase calcs.ods

Yes there is thermal bridging, but you can insulate around it to mitigate that to some extent, joists have been fitted into pockets for 100s of years. If you were starting with new joists then you would avoid thermal bridges etc, but you have to take a pragmatic approach and go for the easy cheap big wins rather than expensive marginal gains. I doubt the cost of the works will ever be recouped by the savings you make on your heating bills in your lifetime.

2000 x 800, triple glazed, installed directly above the galley of my kitchen. Natural light for chopping the onions.

You can take smooth changes to the going (we have them on our staircases which have smooth 90° turns), but even the smallest variation in rise is a real trip hazard:

If it’s a planning thing then you can build a false one on the roof, for the look, just don’t continue it down through the house, a lot of chimney stacks are now fibreglass replicas that just sit there doing nothing.

Assuming concrete/medium density block on both sides then acoustic performance will come from the mass of the wall. Adding mineral wool or dense plasterboard will add little, if anything, acoustically.

I hope it goes well for you 🤞

assuming they were to the spec of the time they’ll be somewhere between 1.8 and 2.2U

No, not pre-produced by the manufacturer. It is for the customer to make their own up-stand. In my case I entrusted the up-stands (all nine of them, and complete with their 5º fall) to my timber-frame designer and the up-stands were installed along with the rest of the timber frame. All I had to do was plonk the rooflights atop with some glue and screws. It was an easy install. In fact the biggest challenge was not the up-stands or the installation. It was getting the biggest of the rooflights, at 152 kg, on to the roof in the first place. (I am sitting under that rooflight now as I type this.)

many thanks, seems the like my current shallow degree is based on the going part, will have to remeasure my existing staircase and see (the after works the height will increase by approx 27mm so cannot use the exact same measurements for the new one). Many thanks for the link, was a eye opener

It's looking good, keep the pictures coming.

I know you aren't saying otherwise, but stair angle isn't the whole story. You could have 10 steps over, say, a 2.6m total stair height, but the 260mm rise would be completely unworkable even at 38.5 degrees. There are some interesting notes on the topic of stair comfort here. Personally, I think that if you stick with commercial, rather than residential, guidelines, you won't go far wrong.

Thanks @Dreadnaught that's very useful. Is the upstand shown in the detail a pre-produced one? It doesn't look like something a person would make themselves. I am veering towards making this kind of thing, then adding insulation into the gaps between the beams, and perhaps across the face of the beams too.

I've found their web ordering system and delivery updates to both be excellent. Fairly long lead times but both my orders have been during these recent odd times (lockdowns and subsequent shortages etc).

Slab Put a 300 mil rip of PB in for the dpc to fit against

Yes, all the welding done, just need to spray it and put it back together 🙄.

He means that the rise and run should be consistent throughout the stair, not that they should be the same as each other.

contact warmcell and they'll give you a list

You asked for it…..now I finished the build I am Into classic car restoration (learning to spray currently)

Morning! Good to have you with us. Can I bag the first question to you please? When wind turbines rotate on their vertical axis, why doesn't the 'flex' (?) taking the power to the grid get all twisted and tangled up - wrapped round the vertical axis? Oh, by the way is this you really ? - come on, admit it.......

This has been an ongoing debate in education. Some educationalists think that courses should be developed to a more specialised areas i.e. Forensic Science, Renewable Energy, while others think a more general education is better i.e. mathematics, Physics. This gets much harder with the arts and humanities i.e. painting or sculpting, early learning or phycology. As part of my post grad in education, I had to observe a lesson in the art department, it was in textiles. I pointed out that it was really engineering and technology, but the 4 students thought it as art and craft (incidentally I had 30 IT students when I was observed, and only 26 working PCs, that is a challenge, peer learning comes to ones rescue in that situation). My view is that with the sciences the first year should be the basics, second year students split off into interest groups i.e. chemistry, software, botany. Then the final year should be projects. Take my first degree, we had I think, 6 or 7 subjects (we turned down vehicle electronics, but it was over 40 years ago), second degree I think it was 18 subjects in all, including my favourite, environmental economics (I can put a price on nature, it is easy with proper surveys), and philosophy (which at the time I thought was nonsense, but looking back, was useful, should have been in the first year). Everyone should be taught Thermodynamics, Laws of Motion, the SI units, Laws of Indices and Algebra, along with English (or whatever language in your country). International Sign Language would be useful at primary school for a few years, it is the closest we have to a universal language (I am a BSL user, though out of practice now). There should be a 'how to deal with OFSTEAD inspectors' as part of the PGCE, it is all that college managers seem to care about. I have seen really good lecturers go to pieces and leave because of an over promoted, useless colleague, has been put in charge of internal inspections and totally missed the point of education.

Planning total end to end was 4 years, but mostly handled by our architect. I'd be suprised if anyone told you it was easy to achieve planning under Paragraph 79 (Now 80) as there are some very strict (and quite vague) guidelines on what is a suitable proposal. I would recommend finding a great local architect who has a proven track record if success and/or planning consultant to assist.

5m head in this case isn't the height difference as you have a loop, as the water would find its own level, imagine a 'U' tube. The water coming down will be pushing the other water in the circuit up. So the 5m is the head loss from pipe friction and bends. I just time mine on for 30mins for the morning, as get up the same most days and the same in the evening. But I would be tempted to work out how often your cylinder would initiate start the heat pump to start running circulation continuously. I think you will be surprised, as I don't think it will be that often (every few hours). But insulation on pipes would be a good idea.

I'm using a Lowara Ecocirc Pro pump, which has an integrated timer. Works great, real easy to install, just power needed. Several sizes are available.

Agree with Nick (obvs) - we only use our electric UFH in the bathrooms to take the chill of the tiles. Do you have space on the roof for a few PV panels to contribute to running the system?

Quite low tbh, plus the cold bridging of all the joists / rafters. You can get through-wall AC units which are 'all-in-one', and may be more sympathetic to look at from the exterior / neighbours PoV etc.

That is a bit of a sweeping statement. I was very impressed with the effects that Monodraught got from their sunpipes. Slight disclaimer, I had done some work with them in the past.

In my previous house the entire place was decorated in F&B. Its not only the chalkiness its the depth of pigment and how the colours change in the light you are paying for. The copies cannot match it in any way, at one point I tried the copies in Johnstone and Dulux no-one who knows would mistake it for true F&B. Decorators universally hate it because it needs more care and coats to get an even finish. In my new house I am going for Dulux Trade Ulramatt tinted to my preferred shade....not a F&B copy colour. Having had F&B in all its glory I said never again. It is a nightmare to keep looking perfect and I am a perfectionist so every little mark drove me nuts and cost me fortunes in redecoration. We are a 2 adult household no kids so didnt have any real wear and tear but still every little mark shows. If you want F&B in a wipeable finish go for the modern emulsion not the flat estate emulsion. It was not for me its the hint of shine in the modern I dislike I want the flattest flat matt. One F&B product I would and will use in preference to main stream paints is their eggshell for wood. Its brilliant. Nice alternative to F&B if you want to pay the premium for designer paint that is a bit more robust is Little Green. I love Craig and Rose paint but its even more difficult than F&B to keep perfect. Join the million discussion boards on Mumsnet about F&B and the pros and cons and the best copy colours. Hours of fun!

Pour in a few hundred kg of concrete.

Lot of effort for a glory hole door bell

That grey stuff underneath everything, is that what they call "floor"?

If anyone broke in and ransacked my garage or workshop they would probably leave it tidier than they found it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthalpy_of_vaporization Says 2257 J/g. So yes, think I did get it wrong. So ten times less as you said.

@craig should know the answer, he had broken more windows than Microsoft.