Leaderboard

Here it comes... No digger required, just ally ramps and slide it off!

"Oh, we'll just render it" I said - four years ago. Then I tried to get someone to do the job : our excellent plasterer looked at the job, winced and said - honestly - No. DIY then innit. How hard can it be? We have a short bit of wall that I can use as a training ground. Here: look - This shows all three states of that wall Raw at the bottom, parged on the left, and rendered and two coats of exterior silicone paint on the top. Tickety Boo ....... until you look more closely. ChristOnAbike I tried hard. I made errors that I haven't even got the courage to show you here. ( @nod has seen them - too polite to say anything) My shoulders have only just stopped aching. Now I know why many renders are textured like this ( the right hand side of the image) The images shows an ideal build-up - rendered by someone who knows what they are doing. In another ten years I might just about have got it right. Right then, next wall, where is it ......😠

As usual we have opposing "needs" pulling in different directions. I have never thought raising interest was a good tool to slow an economy. Perhaps that is because I have always (apart from a mortgage) worked on the principle of save up to buy something, I don't borrow money to buy things. So if interest rates go up, it is not going to stop me buying things. When I had a morgtage the payments would go up so yes I would have less to spend, so perhaps that slowed my spending? but i remember at the time late 80's early 90's job security was my biggest worry so I never spent much anyway trying to build up a buffer of savings, or pay down the mortgage quicker. So interest rates are going up to slow the economy. The news then starts telling us how bad that is that mortgage and rent payers will have less to spend. Isn't that the objective? Then they start talking about ways the banks should be helping borrowers like switch them to interest only. Well if you "help" them you diminish the effects of the rising interest rates which surely will mean inflation does not fall so rates will have to go even higher? Then a reporter says "so you are trying to slow spending and reduce inflation by causing a recession"? the BOE bloke blustered and stuttered a bit, of course not. Then there was muttering about the cause being businesses who want to get back to profit (of course they do) and workers want their wages to keep up with inflation (of course they do) and this should all be stopped. So they WANT us all to become poor and struggle thus stop spending = that recession. You might gather I don't have a lot of faith in those in command.

Also make sure that when your joiner has finished and the plywood is down The whole roof will need a temporary waterproof cover As one heavy shower will ruin it

The word "ply" in "single ply" means "one layer". So the quote is just for provding and fitting the PVC layer 9f the roof not the plywood. You need your joiner to fit any plywood needed. I haven't come across PVC roofing before. I think most people use EPDM or Fiberglass on flat roofs.

I’m going to try and get the UFH and screed in over the next couple of weeks (168m2) We called in to a kitchen showroom where a friend of ours works to get a kitchen design done So I can set the pipe work out accurately We will self fit a German kitchen again Last time Nolte This time Hacker Previously 5 years ago the lead times where 8-12 week The lead time is down to 4-6 Not just the UK slowing down

My son is a car salesman and he tells me they make more money on finance than actually selling the cars!,!

Very similar to cars and HP vs PCP/Lease. Most salesmen look at you in disgust if you want to pay by any other means than PCP.

He's certainly a teacher, think he's actually some sort of lecturer in his spare time. Our house is pretty old and when he's been around he can stand chatting for hours about random building facts, last time was brick bonds,

Some interesting pricing changes to Flux from July: Import fees are reducing by ~8% for all three time periods Export has different changes for each though: Peak reducing by ~11% Overnight reducing by ~20% (not that you would be exporting during this) Day reducing by ~13% That changes the maths a little to make this tariff not quite symmetric: Old overnight import vs day export allowed ~8.5% efficiency losses to be symmetric, new is ~4% Old day import vs peak export allowed ~5% efficiency losses to be symmetric, new is ~2.5% This makes peak export trickier, there will be some inefficiencies for a full discharge followed by buying from the grid until 2am, but still an incentive to not have charge left in the battery by 2am that you could have exported during the peak window. Altogether not a game changer, still a very good tariff.

Like newborns, under 14s, pensioners, the sick and the lame. Listen to this series. Bad Blood https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fd36 Shows how easy it is to convince people of just about anything.

Never once cleaned a mixer out between mixes in all my years. Unless you're going from a grey to a coloured mortar your only wasting water. Having been a brickies labourer it's a very physically demanding job that is way harder than it looks. How much the brickies and you earn is all on you. If they have to stop to stack bricks, put scaffolding up etc then they aren't laying bricks so aren't making money. It's as simple as that. You job is to keep the bricks stacked, mortar boards full and the next wall loaded out. Their job is to keep a trowel in hand, lay bricks and make the money.

No minimum as far as I know. New build not far from me and I don’t think anyone other than a tiny child would get through the gap, seems stupid.

The problem is borrowing has been pretty much free for the last 10 years. A generation has been raised on that principle. A large number of fixed rate deals will come to an end over the next 6 months which is when I suspect we'll see things really bite.

I’m no fan of any party as they are all liars and self serving pricks . But ! I’ve got a feeling Labour might get in as obviously tories will be blamed for brexit , Covid , inflation , house prices etc. the list is endless . Labours current ‘ policies ‘ ( aka more bs for the electorate ) on housing rental and build are ridiculous. But then , if they win they then dilute what was promised and we end up with simply different shite .

In my experience, joiners of all the trades, have the most understanding of previous and following trades, so get his input and discuss what the intentions are.

Basically they work as follows They manage the flow rate through a loop by keeping a fixed delta T. As zone valves close on a manifold this can upset the flow rate of the open zones. Auto balance valve just modulate to maintain the delta T of its loop. At temps below 30 I believe the delta T is managed at 4 degrees, above that at 7 degrees. I removed all mine and now operate the whole floor as a single zone. The actuators got in the way of balancing the flow rates to get room temps where I wanted them. i.e. I couldn't balance the system.

The explanations above are correct. It's not ideal that the waterproofing ply goes onto timber ply by someone else.....someone is better to have thd whole responsibility. The waterproofing g man should have to at least approve the deck before working on it. Don't be shy to ask for clarification of what is not included and what is expected.

Typo, clean out between different types of mixes

Take a step back, look at what you are actually trying to achieve, see what building fabric you need to use to achieve this. I've been playing round with our energy consumption and generation in a spreadsheet since reading this thread. Our 4.5pkW (limited to 3.8kW) system generated 4.5MWh from april-april, and our imported electric from the grid was 4.4MWh for the same period. In reality, we had a massive excess in the summer, and defecit in the winter. We're still better off by £1k a year with the array. Payback 5 years. Do a similar exercise yourself and play around with different scenarios and see what makes sense for you. In terms of heatpump Vs direct electric for us... Quickly calculated our heating season consumption, and it's about 21kWh per day, so about £400 for the heating season. If we had gone with direct electric, that would be more like £1000. Factor in the capital costs of the unit Vs a direct electric setup (no UFH, storage rads, direct heated water) and payback is about 6.5 years. That's with a pessimistic COP of 2.5.

The three countries with the highest number of heat pumps per head of population are Norway, Finland and Sweden- as a ex-Devon lad myself, I don’t think it gets as cold as them. I've seen several stone barns in Scotland running great on an ASHP

i think you're crazy to try and install a 30kWp PV system especially as you're not off-grid! i would size more sensibly to allow you to run the house in the summer and charge up your batteries to run overnight and in the winter charge the batteries overnight on off-peak tariff for heating demands during the day. you'd be much better off using the money you were going to spend on the PV array to insulate and airtight to the n'th degree so you simply don't need that much heating! at the moment our 10.5kWp array is generating between 50 - 70kWh per day. Also, i fail to see what's wrong with an ASHP and ufh as has been said above, you get 3-4x the energy out that you put in

But you won't like the cost. Ignore all marketing nonsense about it being economical or sustainable......simply not true. Ashp will multiply the electric input into energy output by 4 or 5. You can distribute the heat by rads or air ducting if you don't want ufh.

Inflation stays at 8.7%. Baring cars, all things people typically wouldn't be buying in a recession. The crux of it is, not enough people are yet feeling the pinch.

Anyone else remember interest rates around 15% ? When you got 10%+ on your savings. mortgages were roughly £10 per month per £1000 borrowed

That's a quick rabbit hole to close - no PV generation in winter is pants. About 10 to 20% of summer performance. Spend on insulation

Hi, Not sure that I have any of that wisdom stuff to dispense, and I am in the middle of preparing for a meeting, but here is some of my write-up which may be useful (follow the "See also" links in the sidebar): https://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-Spacetherm-aerogel-thermal-insulation.html Rgds Damon

Thanks for reply. The Beam is on the outer leaf, supported by dense block in the centre.

We have a metal frame around our window. We added a frame to the outside in wood and the windows are mounted into that. The steel frame was then wrapped in a combination of aerogel and 25mm PIR. Have attached some images, zoom in to get a close look.

Well we are new to this site but this one thread alone has proved it's worth. We purchased our plot last November and paid the £4500.00 sdlt that our solicitor said we had to. Having read @Omnibuswoman thread we spoke to HMRC to confirm and have sent off for a refund (Plot @ £150K so 0%). When I requested a copy of the SDLT form we filled in originally from the solicitor and told him why we wanted it, there was no acknowledgement of having given us the wrong advice whatsoever! If we get the tax back (this is HMRC after all) there'll be a contribution to the site's running costs coming.....

Spacetherm Aerogel is 0.015W/mk.

Aerogel is good stuff but very expensive and fragile. Aerogel blanket used for insulation isn't nearly as good as raw Aerogel. The Thermal Conductivity of PIR is 0.022 W/mk. Google suggests the Thermal conductivity aerogel blanket varies from 0.024 W/mK down to 0.018 or 0.014 W/mk. So some (0.024W/mk) appears to be worse than PIR. The best (0.014W/mk) would need... 150*14/22 = 95mm

B is correct in your picture. Cut the Fermacell slightly over sized and finish with a bearing bit in a cheap router running over the face. You may need a small fine tooth saw to square off the corner. You can snap and score the reveal boards to fit with the rough edge on the inside of the routed edge, then just fill any gaps. Leave a 2mm gap from a factory edge to the frame and FST and paint the boards then finish with a bead of decent sealant between the board and the frame of the window.

When the labourer is getting the first mix on and distributing bricks, the brickies are in the van eating bacon rolls. I found brickies labourers generally had pride in their work. I always assumed, and hoped, they got a bung at the end of a good week.

It’s not the final inspection. I asked when to come out next , 6 yrs ago ; they said when finished . The only reason they’re out now I because I submitted a stair design for approval as recommended by the stair supplier . I woke the zombie !!! .Contractor on my site ? - that’s been me for the last decade 🤣👍