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Came across this forum recently whilst searching for information about BNG, after delving deeper I wish we’d found you all about 2 1/2 years ago. My wife and I are just finishing our build, hopefully by the end of this month. Maybe 6 months later than projected, so probably not too bad. Our struggles along the way have been for the most part due to our main contractor going into liquidation in December 24. In some respects this may have been a blessing, in others not so. We realise now that not all of the headaches end with the completion of the build; reverting to LA building control after the liquidation is challenging, we still have outstanding land transfer issues and obtaining planning permission for a ground mounted PV array is laughable. Our build is a new build replacement of an old tractor barn, close to the ridgeway in Oxfordshire. It seems the forum likes photos so I will attach a couple.

After the advice of pretty much everyone, for once I am going to admit defeat and have some professionals in for this job. We have found a couple of options we are happy with and will readjust the budget a little to accommodate but its not something we can afford to go wrong. I will take some pictures and update you in a couple of weeks when it's done but thank you so for your advice and help and I now know what to watch for when it's poured and what to prepare

It’s taken a little while to get an exact figure With some moneys and bills still to go out and £1500 off the vat reclaim off a supplier Which we’ve now done We ended up with £42800 back off the vat Most of which went on the landscaping and gates So I’ve knocked that out of the total spent Carpet curtains blinds wood burner I’ve left in as part of the spend fees surveys buying costs Architects BC fees All in Land purchase omitted from the spend tax All complete 420m2 £386000

The principle is good but these are wrong, it gives a very false understanding. There is a tolerance between the frame and building, whether 5 or 10mm, there is either bracket install or screwed through the frame, so the tape needs to be able to bridge those areas. Covering the brackets correctly, ensuring the membrane goes from frame to building and 99% of the time, the airtight membrane is fixed to the sides of the frame not the face of the frame. A better video to watch would be the following.

Plenty of rain last night for sure . Didn’t witness it . But bone dry 😀

Pretty much as I expected. It is pointless to engage with Climate Change deniers and Covid conspiracists, who never provide peer-reviewed sources and do not engage with reasoned debate backed up by evidence, but cite the Great Barrington Declaration as if it was a statement of fact. As an essential worker, visiting clients daily throughout the lockdown, I experienced more than enough of the horror of the pandemic's effects. I can tell you that the true Co-morbidity cost to my customers was traumatic enough that I still find it hard to discuss. 46 of our clients died in the first week of the lockdown alone, and I stopped counting after that. Is that 'normal for the flu season'? Those who stayed safe at home, fomenting conspiracies, can never understand how truly insulting it is to hear such utter rubbish repeated, let alone as part of a general discussion on a building forum. I'm thankful that I wasn't working in a hospital where I'd have actually had to watch them die, but I can tell you that there are many thousands of bereaved family members, traumatised medical staff, carers, and other essential workers who will never forget the lockdown and will never forgive conspiracy theorists who make light of their cost. Many lessons should be learned from the lockdown, and there may be alternatives to the various forms of lockdown and vaccination schemes used around the world. But all of these should be attempted with the best of intentions - to save lives, rather than prevent inconvenience. This is something for suitably qualified and evidenced discussion between experts - not a shouting match between DIY builders...

Let's not go down this rabbit hole but suffice to say, these are either untrue or at best highly contentious. Just because you believe them doesn't mean they are true.

Politics, climate change and Covid are three subjects where the populations view has been polarised by the media and now the vast majority sit in two camps with hardened views and no discussion is going to change either sides point of view…….. Quite sad really

I did every penetration of the envelope myself for this reason and designed out all but 5 wires through the roof membrane. I had an absolutely no blame policy if anyone accidentally made a hole. "Just tell me and I'll patch it up" It worked well.

We batted back to about 60degrees. This was based on an assessment of the soil by the SE following a trial hole and a determination of soil modulus. A key thing to remember, is that weather and time are enemies of a stable slope. To help mitigate this you can employ various methods to stabilise the slopes. I chose to use woven membrane, overlapped and staked in to the ground, lapped under compacted stone at the top. At the bottom we had a sturdy catch fence to stop any material to spill in to the working area. No issues. through a wet winter. One corner was particularly wet with a constant flow of water the pulled out a bit of clay. had to be cleared out a few times. Also, critically, an exclusion area at the top of the slope so vehicle or material weight aren't too close to the top edge.

Yes they do and I put this on my drawings and specification. You will find the nailing schedule and nail type, durability etc on any SE fixing schedule. The nails holding everything together are just as if not more important than the timbers say. It is fundamental to the SE design as different types of nails have a different performance. Ring shank nails have a different load capacity from a smooth nail, length and diameter of the nail is vital as is their coating for durability. From time to time I get asked to verify that what I have designed has been built.. I check the nails on site as the performance can be 30 or more % different! Lots of builders cut corners here and use the wrong nails, they don't follow the edge and end distances that are specified on most SE drawings. They think they know best.. but they don't. Look, you ask your SE to do lean design.. then the builders comes along and says they are talking pish! At what point do you think.. hey this is more risk falling on me.. and I'm paying for all of this! So in the context of buying a nail gun. Buy one that fires the nails your SE is specifying and make sure you / your builder executes what the drawings say. I have this on my website but take a little time to read this by Ruskin. “There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

I have concrete stairs and a concrete first floor. The foundation design will need to accommodate a concrete stairs. My structural engineer needed to know the stairs design, before he finalised the foundation design. We needed an additional concrete pad under the insulated raft at the bottom of the stairs. I did investigate Millbank for pre-fabricated stairs, but the ICF guys built the form work for the stairs in-situ, and poured the concrete the same time as the first floor walls. https://www.milbank.co.uk/products/stairs/stairs-and-landings/ For me, concrete first floor and stairs were an integral part of my design requirements from the beginning, even before deciding to go with ICF, which actually made it much easier. The ICF guys did my stairs at no additional cost, which was very generous of them. Here are some other links I have from my early research. https://www.ejbformwork.co.uk/in-situ-concrete-stairs/ https://midwest-stairs.co.uk Picture of the form work for our stairs.

Buy a kiosk (would suggest a 3 phase kiosk even if single phase supply) and mount it on a concrete pad. Fit it with three ducts (supply in, cable to house, and a spare) For the ducts Have the meter installed in it, a small CU and some sockets. That’s your temp supply. When it comes time for your permanent supply you remove the small CU and sockets, fit an isolator and run your house supply from it. Or get a small brick kiosk built as you suggest. Make it quite big. I’ve ended up with two kiosks as the EV charger supply is installed directly into the meter cabinet but this needed a small CU and because of the large isolator there’s no space in the original kiosk so had to fit another smaller one. Just think carefully about the cable run from housing to the house. You want it to be as straight as possible and as close as possible to wherever the CU in the house is going to be. I got that massively wrong with ours and placed the kiosk too far up our boundary but this was a year before we’d even finalised exactly where the house was going. It caused me a bit of grief when we came to pull the cable up to the kiosk from the house. Took my wife and I a full day!

Update: Their grant submission has been accepted. Pretty quick and easy for them one they actually sent in the necessary documents. Funny old thing.

Complex though and uses a lot of space. Personally I'd just amend my routine to be more reasonable in my demands, but I know that's an unpopular view, even though it's the only one consistent with any faint degree of sustainability. Four showers in quick succession (often, perhaps not in this case, for a long time at 20l/min) is the archetypal first world problem!

Based on some of what you say above I do wonder if this is truly the case, or whether (perhaps subconsciously) you are really trying to find evidence to support the decision you have already made (again perhaps subconsciously). Are you truly undecided? If you want an ashp to work for you it will, if you don't want it to work for you it probably won't!

Well worth a listen to. To use biomass for in and out UK flights would take 68% of farmland (I think is what they said). https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002j755

Absolutely plus 1 The ones we’ve used are online no photos are required

Either rigid or semi rigid can good or bad. It's all down to design. Semi rigid being way more tolerant of not so good design. Rigid, needs good between room attenuation, semi rigid had this by default. Airflow, disturbance really depends on how many bends or changes in diameter you have with rigid. Semi rigid is all generally smooth long radius bends. System pressure drop, resulting fan speed, either can be designed with the same pressure loss - so exactly the same fan speed. Air flow noise, 90mm semi rigid in most instances can be a single run from plenum to outlet/inlet, 70mm may need 2x runs. Rigid should be silent normally. Ease of install, semi rigid wins every time. It's flexible, rigid isn't. Cost to install semi rigid should be way cheaper, no inter room attenuation needed. I had two designs rigid and semi rigid, both to be self installed. Went semi rigid, just so much easier to install - it's silent.

'ello folks. Those familiar with my posts may have noticed me talk about our build being chosen for Grand Designs. I was very keen, the missus much less so. To spare you the details, she agreed begrudgingly because I'm insensitive and pushy, then wasn't happy, so I pulled the plug, but she's since had a (entirely voluntary!) change of mind and it's now back on. In a few different threads it popped up, and people had questions (like "why on Earth would you want to do that?!"), and voiced a few preconceptions that haven't been really matched with our experience thus far. Even our architect had a negative perception of the production process, which suffice to say the production team were surprised by. I don't think our contracts include any NDAs, but they do ask that we don't over-share the progress of the build, as that would spoil the narrative of the episode when it eventually airs. I figured I'd start a thread so if anyone's curious (and maybe is considering applying themselves) I can answer about the general process, without polluting other threads with off-topic stuff. About Grand Designs: All the people we've interacted with are very nice, and very considerate. They've been super patient with our internal debates, and they've been super-supportive of the missus and her concerns. They haven't (yet, it's early days) dictated anything to us about timelines. Their only asks have been 'if you can, tell us before something happens so we can decide whether to film it'. The perception that they'd insist on us delaying things for the benefit of their filming schedule seems unfounded. Sure, they said that they would ask if things could be moved if it'd help them out, but they also said that they wouldn't dream of telling people when they can/can't do works. They wouldn't have any leverage to do so anyway! We haven't done anything with Big Kev yet, but the producers are lovely and so far have been unintrusive. Follow you around, ask some questions, and maybe ask 'can you do that whilst I get it from this angle.' In summary, based on our limited experiences so far, I think some of the negative perceptions are unfounded. Let's see if I say the same in a couple of years! But one of my motivations for this post was to help spread the word that so far, they seem good people. About the decision: I'm a bit of a show-off, so I like this kind of thing. I do keynote talks at conferences, host a podcast for work, used to teach martial arts, so I'm comfortable being in front of people. It seemed like a great way of sharing the build and the site. I find it motivating knowing that other people will see what we're doing, and that somehow makes it more real to me. I found it validating that the show wanted to film the build. It felt a bit like 'winning', and that someone thought what we are doing is cool. It'll be good to document it for ourselves, the kids, and any grandchildren. I'd thought about trying to film it myself and doing a YouTube channel, but having done a podcast for work I can now see that'd be a boatload of work to do to an acceptable standard. The missus works in the industry, and is studying for her Part 2 in architecture. The exposure will, I'm certain, be great for her career. Even if she doesn't yet agree! You get a letter to prove that they're filming you, so you can tell suppliers that they might be featured. Each build gets a page on their site, and you can list key suppliers. This should help us secure discounts, and also motivate folks to not arse-up the build - I don't think many people want to be seen as a massive problem on national telly. We've already had some doors open as a result of their involvement. So basically, what we have learned from this is that I'm insensitive and needy of external validation 😆

You don't say how thick the concrete is going to be ? (We had our pipes tied to the mesh rather than the insulation and had a polythene vapour barrier) I'd have thought you need a detailed military plan for the day with some possible fall back options and everyone pre-briefed. Talk to the concrete company to try to understand exactly what to expect from them. We ended up with an old pump lorry because the newer one was in for servicing, no flow control at the outlet end of the pipe, people had to shout and wave hands across a 30-40m distance to get the pump turned on and off. A significant delay between off and the flow ebbing away. At the beginning you can get a very watery slurry coming out of the pipe at first, so might possibly want to consider dumping this somewhere (out of a doorway or window or into wheelbarrows or something ?). At the end the concrete remaining in the pipe has to come out, so you might want to have a plan for where this can be dumped - we ended up with a considerable concrete mass on our driveway until we eventually got the builder to remove it. Know where the mixer and pump lorry are going to park and ensure it is clear of vehicles. Have plastic sheeting and tarps available so you can protect the road/driveway as necessary from leaks that may occur under the lorries. Know what the options are with the concrete company if things were to go wrong - lorry arriving late or early - having to abort part way through (will they then empty onto your property regardless etc) - job taking longer than expected. Check those volume calculations and know what you are going to do in case of shortfall or surplus. Have boards avalable - we had a 6m board spanning our footings from one side to the other - not sure how that works for an existing building. Do you just work back from the far room, or is it feasible to do one corner room, then move to another corner room while someone is finishing/checking the first, then move back etc - I have no idea as I've never done it. Do you assign a person to each room ? Who does what exactly ? Will they be dressed appropriately - our builders young lad turned up in shorts and shoes and had to have concrete washed off his legs FAST to avoid concrete burns - brickie turned up in long protective trousers, gloves and wellington boots with shovels. Pipes full of concrete are heavy and they can jump about a bit when the pump is running so make sure the pipe itself doesn't damage anything. I had to put some bits of insulation around the corner of our house to protect it.) I am sure you must have any conduits, drains, manifolds, services in place - u/floor heating pipes pressurised - perhaps your cabling and plumbing pipes are going in the ceiling and walls ? Keep the egde insulation higher. Levels can be tricky - have you used a water level to double check them - maybe know what your tolerance might be at doorways. Splitting the pour may cost money - but how much money is it going to cost if things go wrong - likely an awful lot more.

I'm panicking for you. That concrete will come faster than you can level it. Then it's too wet to walk on for a few hours for any precise work....until it's not, at which stage it is getting hard and difficult to improve. Cracking isn't your biggest worry. Di not allow any extra water in the mix. It will crack jaggedly at the doors but it doesn't matter.... or you lay a bit of hardboard in the surface to make it crack there. As above, fix level markers to the walls and also in the middles they can come out again. How many loads? 2 I guess. Give yourself at least an hour between them, perhaps 2. A shovel each and a bull float. Polythene over the lot once you can walk on it.

Better to use bits of batten going floor to ceiling with white paint and a datum marked on it? Can use a full length attached to the ceiling timbers and then cut and wiggle free just as the concrete goes hard enough to take foot traffic over walking boards? EPS marker blocks will likely gets smashed / knocked off as the pour goes ahead, with zero time / opportunity then to reset them. Once a pour begins, you ain’t stopping it! Battens are then going nowhere, so with that and the perimeter insulation set up as datum’s the stress should be somewhat removed. Don’t do this, always have this higher than the pour, with a fat permanent marker line drawn on it from a laser line, and then cut off the excess later. If the pour happens to spill over the top (accidentally) then it’ll drop down and bridge your original DPC. Where your original DPC is, I’d black jack the area, 100mm below, and 100mm above as insurance, as once you’ve poured there’s no going back. Use a 75% water / 25% mix of liquid DPM product to prime the areas that you intend to then brush the liquid DPC on to, as brushing onto friable masonry that has not been ‘sized’ will be a pita and it’ll pull off very easily. Priming will allow the product to soak into the surface, providing an excellent key for the surface applied layer(s). A good few £££ to go on this, but I’d be doing this if it were my place. You might find that the dilute mix will go through a cheap electric HVLP gun, like one for spraying fence panels with preservative, which would make life a lot easier. If that works, just make a larger amount of the diluted mix so the gun is constantly ‘wet’ and you can refill without having to measure the solution each time; if the black jack begins to cure in the gun you’re fecked. If you set this job out, and prepare yourself, you can likely do this in one sitting, but if you’re 10% off in the prep and sequencing then it could very well go 2 pairs of tits up. No need for 100mm, just use 25/30mm PIR and then the expansion perimeter / edge insulation either side for your expansion relief. That edge insulation towns corners just fine, so aim to have the middle of the PIR directly where the door will reside. No need to install the conduits afaic, and I’ve been doing these jobs for decades. All you (actually) need is simple foam up-stands there, but they get battered during a pour. I’d say stick with the block of insulation there and use that to get the doorways poured cock-on, (as you’re DIY’ing).

Those last two posts are far too sensible, it won’t catch on in todays polarised society where you are encouraged to take sides and nuance has left the discourse. The wind turbine developments locally to us have integrated storage and solar to maximise the efficiency and presumably return on investment.

Hi all, I'm a first time builder (of anything bigger than a shed or a bathroom renovation) and hoping I can pick your collective brains to reduce the number of catastrophes I encounter en-route! My new workshop will have to be big enough to park my motorhome in it, so I'm needing a door height clearance of 3.1M and it's just over 10M x 6M, so 63ish Square Metres footprint. Upstairs will be a bedroom with large en-suite at one end of a full length apex roof, bedroom accessed via a few stairs down into an existing room in the end of the extg. house, and a covered balcony at the other end, overlooking the Humber Bridge. Current state is that we've got walls up to joist height, concrete block and beams in last weekend under the balcony floor and the steelwork including a ridge beam was also lifted in last weekend. Scaffolder just finished the scaffolding for the next lift of blockwork and I'm about to order easijoists for the floor under the bedroom. I will no doubt have lots of questions...

Her weight in gold Hospital administration by day But true self builder at heart When I broke my hand She slated the entire workshop with me only fit to carry the slates and cut

We have an MBC slab topped by a ~65 mm polished concrete screed that was installed by a specialist polished concrete company. A few thoughts in no particular order: 1. You can't predict the outcome of a pour The quality of surface finish of a structural slab can't reliably be predicted in advance, and it isn't necessarily to do with the installer. In our case, the slab was poured in January. I believe (without any real evidence) that the concrete we were supplied with wasn't ideal in terms of slump. I think, in particular, that it had too much water in it. In any event, we started pouring first thing in the morning, but even by 11 o'clock that night it hadn't gone off enough to power float. It got very cold that night and we ended up with really bad spalling on large areas of the slab. To their credit, MBC offered to fix at their cost by raising the frame and covering the slab with a self-levelling screed. We went with polished concrete instead so that wasn't necessary. The main point I'm making here is that if something goes wrong with the pour or finishing and you haven't allowed for the additional buildup of a screed to fix, you'll need to think about microscreed or other thin finish to rectify. 2. Polished concrete is usually not just "concrete" As others have said, ideally you should add the right additives to the mix and use a surface hardener (I think our guys sprayed something on right before the power floated, or maybe before they started polishing). I don't know how this all works when you're talking about doing everything based on the structural slab, but if you're getting a specialist in to do the polishing, you should probably be getting their advice in advance, and possibly even onsite input during and immediately after the pour. 3. Polishing is best done before the frame goes up We made the mistake of leaving the decision on flooring until the frame was already up. Large polishing machines can't get right up to edges, and corners are a real challenge. These areas are polished with smaller hand machines which definitely don't do as good or consistent a job as the large machines. We have lots of waviness and visible artefacts along edges and in corners. We've convinced ourselves they add character. We also have a couple of large cracks. We did have crack-relief cuts made in the appropriate places, but because the frame was in the way, the cuts couldn't be made all the way to the edge. This wouldn't have happened if it had all be done before the frame went up. 4. Polishing isn't perfect Along with the edge and corner inconsistencies, we have several spots in our floor where you can see blade marks from power float being stopped. They look like big '+' signs. The underlying aggregate is inconsistently exposed. This is something you might be able to improve by being present during the polishing (and particularly the early part where the coarser grinding is done). Yes, and yes! Our floors are completely covered in fine surface microcracks. You can't see them in most places unless you look closely, but they're more obvious where there's wear or staining. 5. Concrete doesn't (in my personal experience) age well This is just my experience, but we've found the concrete to be an absolute bear to keep clean, especially in the kitchen. Every spill, particularly containing oil, risks a permanent stain on the surface unless it's wiped up immediately. Some months after moving in, my wife took the rubbish bag out of the bin in the kitchen and put it on the floor. She forgot to take it out and it leaked overnight. The resultant large and obvious stain is still there over 9 years later. There are smaller stains underneath the bin, in front of the fridge, along the bottom edge of the dishwasher, and at various random points throughout the kitchen/dining area. It's just my personal impression, but it also just feels like it's become a bit grubby over time. It's partly due to the stains mentioned above, but also the polished surface has dulled in areas of high traffic. To me, there's a difference between a rustic, "honest" finish that shows the construction method (e.g., edge/corner inconsistency and float marks) and the history of the house (general wear, such as more matte areas where the polished surface has worn down over time), and stains that just make the place look dirty. We're not super tidy people but we are quite clean, so the staining really annoys me. I don't personally see how you can avoid staining. Perhaps regularly applying a sealant would reduce the problem (we've only done that once or twice after the original sealant was applied), but the big stain mentioned above happened only a few months after the first industrial sealant was applied. 6. You might be stuck with it If you really hated a tiled or wooden floor after a while, it would be costly to replace, but it wouldn't necessarily be that difficult to break up a tiled floor or remove a wooden floor. It's potentially a real challenge to do the same with concrete. In my case, I don't know what the process for taking up the whole screed would be. I suppose we could cut down through it along walls and around kitchen units, then chop it into sections for removal. A breaker probably wouldn't be ideal, as there's anti-crack mesh, and I wouldn't want to damage the underlying structural slab and its UFH pipework. Where the structural slab is polished, it might be even worse. You're unlikely to have much space to add a different floor on top of the existing slab. In our case, there's only a few millimetres' clearance underneath a couple of the external doors, so even adding a topping layer such as a microcement screed would be challenging (quite aside from the fact we couldn't afford it anyway!). Probably the best option would be to apply some sort of industrial epoxy topper, but that really limits the end look. Other thoughts It's not all bad. In general, it looks pretty good other than in the kitchen where all the stains are. It's very easy to run a broom, vacuum cleaner, or mop over - far less resistance than even a wooden surface. This is great if (like us) you have a dog that sheds hair and drops dirt/dust around the place. It's brilliant for underfloor heating and cooling - it feels nice and cool in summer and warm in winter. Some people think the surface will feel unpleasantly hard, but I don't find that bothers me at all. We have rugs in some places to soften it out, but even without them I don't have any issues. On balance, my wife and I agree that we definitely wouldn't go for concrete again. She'd prefer wooden floors throughout. I'd prefer tiles (either large format, or possibly those wood-effect tiles you can get, although I'd want a closer look at them before committing).

Hi all, I got the light down. I used a zip tie to tie the springs back. I did one spring and tied it, and then the other and tied that. It took a little while and was fiddly. Thanks for all your suggestions and advice.

Back in 2006 I got utterly piddled off with std DIY shop rainwater diverters (we had a few water butts dotted round various gutter downpipes for general garden watering) Reasons why….. 1. they blocked up really fast with moss or leaf debris 2. any decent rainfall and they had limited capacity to harvest all the rainwater coming down the gutter 3. In decent rainfall they tended to soak the walls 4. Slugs loved them and made good homes in them 5. Had to remove them in winter and replace with straight pipe to stop the butts being filled and then the water freezing. I searched the internet and found what I thought would be better. UK made, switchable so a harvest position and a divert to drain position. Decent depth before the overflow was reached (maximising volume harvested in a good rain shower. below is what I found only I bought the version made in white 19 years of use and exposure to UV has meant they are past their best (Brttle and leaky) but worst news of all was the company that used to manufacture them had gone under and they were out of stock everywhere so the search was on for replacements who knew it could be so difficult…….. Seems all the usual places just stocked the std ones with all their issues Then Google took me to Australia and I found what I’m looking for I bought 3 and tonight I fitted the first one can be removed easily without stripping downpipe has recirc back to soakaway if butt is full has leaf/moss filter/ switchable for winter Claims 600 ltrs per hour with garden hose but 1200 litres per hour with 32mm pipe (so I’ve fitted 32 mm pipe version) being Oz spec 75mm diameter downpipe fittings i had to create so adsptors to suit the UK 68mm but not exactly tricky

Pre MCS we had our own in-roof system that allowed the panels to fit truly flush with the tiles and worked for both new build and retrofit. It was a bit more work than a tray system but the results looked much better than other in-roof systems at the time. For existing roofs, the tiles, battens and membrane were removed. 18mm ply was fitted between the rafters to achieve a flush surface. This was then covered with EPDM and then battened and tiled around the edges to the required dimensions. Tiles could either be mucked-in, or use industrial compriband expanding tape to maintain weatherproofing. A dedicated, weathertight cable entry point was included at the same time. We used double galvanised Unistrut rails fixed to the rafters - 21 or 41mm profile, depending on the tile profile depth - with spacers to allow unobstructed run off. With panels fitted over, the surface usually matched seamlessly with the rest of the roof; this looked particularly good with all-black panels against a slate roof. One of the benefits is that the gaps at the edges were 50mm all round without any flashing details except some leadwork at the bottom of the array to lap over the eaves tiles. And of course, the bloody pigeons couldn't get underneath, unlike some of the other early in-roof designs that were only slightly better than bolt-on in terms of profile and appearance. My own in-roof panels were constructed this way and are still looking good after 15 odd years. No reason that the EPDM couldn't be replaced with a fireproof metal roofing sheet and trapezoidal fixings for an updated version of the system. Sadly, you can no longer use Unistrut for an MCS-approved system, as they refused to pay the stupidly high MCS 'approval' fees. The market was too small for them to justify compared to all the other market opportunities. The same reason that our in-roof system and bespoke slate and plain-tile fixings using unsistrut were never commercialised. Too bloody expensive to get it through MCS approval.

As an ex-installer from before FiT and MCS was around, I have never seen a fire caused by a PV system that spread to the roof, but have certainly come accross many instances of poor installation causing DC arcing, where a fire could easily have occurred. The most dangerous period for house PV fires in the UK was in the early period of FiT introduction, when we went from being one of only three Solar PV installers in the UK, to having 100 new companies forming every month. Many of the causes were installer mistakes - this is what happens when you allow roof monkeys and 'builders' to fit electrical equipment after a day's 'training'. Poorly fitted DC connectors, incorrect isolators (AC instead of DC specific) and loose neutrals were the most common issues (for some reason, the neutrals always work loose on the AC side of PV, which is why we introduced an inspection and maintenance service to check annually). Other issues were caused by solar equipment manufacturers themselves. There was a range of DC isolators we used in the early days (Can't remember the name now) that had an IP rating that was not worth the paper it was written on. Used under ground-mount arrays - even where the panels should have provided protection from rain, they would leak and cause DC arcing. We had five isolator fires in one install, and spent the next two weeks replacing them in every install we'd done to date at our own cost. Later, ABB introduced a 'DC' isolator that was not up to high voltage DC switching either. To compound the problem, their DC isolator looked exactly the same as their AC isolator, other than a model number difference. Guess what happened? Que another round of replacements - at least ABB paid for those. I conducted many maintenance and repair visits to 'Cowboy' installs, where they had used AC isolators on the DC side. When inverters were introduced with built-in AC and DC isolators, the safety of PV systems improved greatly, as idiot installers couldn't fit the wrong equipment. The more isolation points and connections you fit to PV, the more points of failure you introduce. Some of the early 'Goldrush' inverters were also dodgy. The old iron-core transformer inverters we used pre FiT (SMA, Sputnik) never went wrong. The early transformerless inverters were prone to electronic problems, and we had a couple of the early ABB inverters nearly catch fire. Not to mention some of the cheap Italian and Chinese crap that the cowboys fitted. SMA was also guilty of causing fires. Their first inverters came with certificates incorrectly stating IP65 in all conditions. They were IP-rated, but only if mounted vertically. If more than 30 degrees of vertical, moisture would creep inside. The issue was invisible from outside - the first time we encountered the issue, the installer opened the inverter lid and a ball of flame singed his eyebrows off! Personally, I think the biggest step backwards with PV safety was the introduction of the MC4 'compatible' connector. Previously, we had used MC3 connectors. These could only be fitted with specialist tools, and we never had a single failure of an MC3 connector, as they were hard to fit incorrectly; if you didn't crimp the terminal end properly, it would come off when you pulled the rubber boot on. The only issue was some people not pulling the shroud until it 'clicked' into place. As soon as the cowboys had MC4 they could fit them with a pair of pliers and hand-tighten the plastic shrouds without proper tools. No wonder so many failed! Mechanically poor and not waterproof unless fitted with the care and attention that your average UK 'tradesman' cannot be arsed with anymore. Then, of course, you can mix them with 'compatible' connectors from another manufacturer. Utter rubbish. I still have a supply of MC3s, and routinely replace any MC4 connectors on my DIY solar projects.

BTW the little <> icon in the post form can be used to insert code, e.g. try: dt = parse_ts(s) assert dt.tzinfo is not None and dt.utcoffset().total_seconds() == 0 print("OK ", s, "→", dt.isoformat()) except Exception as e: print("FAIL", s, "→", repr(e)) It also does nice syntax highlighting. You can also use the TR ... icon to edit previous posts and add code formatting 🙂

Hi Zelem Yes we have gone this route. I asked the very same question to both the fabricator and Senior themselves regarding the claimed Uw value. They use a standard calculation method using EN ISO 10077, for the reference CEN window. The window size they simulate with is 1.23 m wide × 1.48 m high. This reflects a standard window size as the Uw value is related to the proportion of glazing to frame. Remember - the larger the window, the closer the Uw value tends to the Ug value. We have larger windows than the CEN standard so will tend to a better U value - although we have some spacer bars on some windows that will wash this out. The problem with any claimed Uw value is it relates to a number of related components that won't reflect your window; and therefore all they can do is provide a reference size so you can compare between manufacturers. The calculation of the Uw value (I looked it up because I wondered) is actually remarkably straightforward. You need to know the u value of the frame, the glazing and the dimensions of the thermal transmittance strip. One of the reasons Pure's Uw is low is they use PUR -polyurethane resin (~0.022 W/m K) whereas many other manufacturers use Polyamide (~0.30 W/m·K) thermal break. Thats an order of magnitude improvement in thermal conductivity. PUR is already commercially proven in large systems. So with this assumption, is their Uw claim reasonable? On average the frame area is around 15-25% of the U value heat loss, so the thermal break is going to improve the Uf value by around 30-40%, so I'd be looking at a reduction of around 0.2–0.5 W/m²K for a Uw value. That pretty much checks out with the difference between their standard Polyamide broken windows, and the Pure windows. Without independent verification then (which few glazing providers bother with because of the challenge of different window makeups - and the fact that the reference CEN window calc is pretty simple), you're left with looking at the reliability of the fenestration provider itself. Senior are prevalent in higher specified commercial glazing - not massively prevalent in domestic glazing. I see this as a benefit - they're a 34 year old company, which imparts a good degree of confidence. Check out the NBS Source Case Studies (https://source.thenbs.com/manufacturer/senior-architectural-systems-ltd/dVSDoRHE7zaprhEbgnigyf/case-studies). They've installed Pure in Grantley Hall Spa & Hotel, the main welcome building in RHS and the Castle Park View scheme in Bristol - tallest residential building in the city and it achieved level four standard in the Code for Sustainable Homes certification. These are the typical installations Senior does - high specification, high end commercial glazing. I think they are one of, if not the, largest privately owned fenestration provider. We're not talking safestyle UK here. Do I trust that they are putting PUR not Polyamide thermal breaks in? Yes. So from this, do I trust the claimed U value of the window? Yes. Did I look into Senior (£50m annual revenue last year, profitable, well reviewed?) Yes. Are the windows fabricated to a high quality? Well that's down to the fabricator selected which I can't comment on, but I visited the factory where our fabricator is based, spoke to their MD, spoke to a seasoned installer who has had no issues. So all in all, I'm pretty comfortable with the claims and my decision.

I will echo the advice on here (and you should really take that into account) - keep the architect and builder separate. The other things I'd like to add: 1. Make sure the architect is local and has worked with your local planning authority and has proven experience of getting approvals. 2. Don't be swayed by the architect's vision of what the house should look like. Start with the guidelines of what you want and let them add the artistic flair but remember that you have to live in the house, not them. 3. At all stages, keep an eye on costs. Good architects will keep your brief and costs in mind though most will get carried away and design something that will cost a lot more to build than you may be willing to spend.

Sources like stack overflow, which helped software engineers to share knowledge on a platform immediately available to everyone. AI companies see that data as fair game, scrape it all and provide a more user friendly interface to obtain it. The end result is playing out as we speak, contributing posts to stack overflow are tanking and will dry up. No new data to feed the models, things go south fast as technology moves on.

Don't bank on any size staying around long. Just bought some 500W panels and they were actually smaller than the datasheet, things move pretty quickly. If you have space to store, buy some extra panels just in case?

Have you seen recent threads? Several failures, wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Pretty rubbish for a heat pump as it requires heat pump running at high temperature for the whole heating cycle. Just get an unvented cylinder - tried, tested, cheap, installer friendly. Does the wheel need to be reinvented? No

Rained pretty good last night . But I class it as inconclusive as I didn’t witness how much rain for how long . Anyway no leak . So it’s promising

I spent a long time doing the airtight membrane myself so it is quite annoying to have had this happen. As a first time builder I am shocked at how hard it is to find decent builders and contractors.

Hose pipe, couple of clear pipes on each end, coloured water and some small stands/clamps. When I did my surveyors course, the 'levellers' where flipped over 3 times, then the measurements were corrected. Do a search on Bowditch Correction. Explains it better than I can.

The way (for me) to size battery is ignore solar (for now) calculate the electricity demand on your coldest day or close to that. So now you need to get a battery that deliver that electric without have to use peak electricity. Octopus Cosy gives you three cheap periods, think the longest period between cheap periods is 7 hrs. And there are 8 hours of cheap electric, so you can just draw from grid in this periods and recharge battery. So battery only needs to be able to last 7 hrs at highest demand. So in simple terms xkWh, divide by 24, then multiply by 7. Example 40kWh/24, is 1.6kWh, them multiple by 7, so just under 12kWh. With conversion losses (DC to AC) you need to add another 10% so now you are at 13.2kWh. So really an actual capacity closer to 15kWh. Or a GivEnergy AIO, with an available capacity of 13.4kWh, which is what I chose.

The oil companies strategy on climate change has been clear all along. First deny it, which they succeeded in doing for a long while (even though their own scientists told them about it), then argue for delaying action now it has become clear that their denials are simply lies. Eventually (if we allow them) they will shift to arguing that action is pointless and that instead we should buy even more of their products to 'protect ourselves', which of course we can never do because continuing to burn fossil fuels inevitably means that climate change gets ever more severe. However while we do so we will still be buying their products so they wont care. They pay vast amounts to consultants and others to represent their case, and fund election campaigns (in countries where this is legal) for people who would support them, They arrange things so that much of the media sing their tune. Unfortunately many people, including some here, appear completely to swallow this misinformation campaign and instead echo their most recent mantra, and blame politicians, who have limited power, need to win elections, and have a job that relatively few actually aspire to (unless they are totally power-crazed in Trumpian fashion which, frankly, relatively few of ours are so far as I can tell). Despite this they still haven't quite succeeded in 'controlling' governments, who thankfully, continue to do things that are contrary to their interests No politician is perfect of course, but neither can we expect them to be. They are only humans and have to operate in the real world and, faced with such a barrage of attack from those with vested interests, necessarily will moderate what they are doing (or how they represent what they are doing). The fact that the oil-sponsored media are constantly criticising the measures ours and other governments are taking to mitigate climate change is, in a way, good news, because it means that they are worried that it might actually have an effect on our consumption. It now appears more likely than not that China is on a mission to benefit bigtime from climate change, by making bold steps towards cheap energy and dominance of the markets. We can sit in the backwaters slowly watching what remains of the historical benefits of our imperial legacy vanish completely (both in terms of global influence and wealth inherited as a country from our not-particularly-nice forebears) , or we can remain on board. I say remain, because we are still one of the leaders, notwithstanding the previous government's attempts completely to destroy our credibility on the global stage. Neither is guaranteed to work, but the former is guaranteed to fail and is also completely devoid of morality. So for me the path is clear. Yes, we must do what we can to mitigate, to the extent we reasonably can, the 'baked in' effects of climate change, but we must also do what is necessary to stop them getting more severe than they need to. If that costs a lot of money, so be it, because the alternative costs even more. We remain a relatively rich nation (even though the wealth is unfairly distributed); we can afford it if we choose to. Currently we do choose to, not fast enough maybe, with some rough edges maybe, with a little hesitancy certainly, but nevertheless we are as a country pursuing a course which should result in a material reduction in our emissions and, so far as I am aware, not failing materially to invest in measures to combat the effects already baked in. By carping on about individual facets of the plan we risk throwing out the baby with the bathwater (as most now accept we did with Brexit) and surrendering control entirely to those who are truly self-centred, who seek power for the sake of power and who will do the bidding of big oil. Is that the route we want the country to take?

They're all lying, 2 faced, self-serving assholes though. Not just any one of them.

Also, the 110V secondary is usually centre tapped and the centre connected to earth. So if you did come into contact with a live wire the most it would be is 55V which is little more than a tingle. By the way who actually says they are going to use a 110V transformer or indeed any mains powered tools. I have worked on several new builds including 2 of my own, all timber frame and I don't recall much use of wired power tools. Plenty of wired chop saws etc but they are sited away from the actual build a little, and later in the build perhaps a large drill to drill a core through a wall. But most day to day stuff is all cordless tools now. So what I am trying to say, is mains power available next to the build is probably enough.

Well bar a little bit of trimming work it’s done Louvres shut Louvres open suns gone and it’s cloudy so light isn’t the best for photos need to re-instate gutters and fascia and sort out the drainage but quite happy how it turned out - It was never going to be a quick job and limboing round a post parked smack in the middle of the garage side door would have been awful

It won't just be the electrician using a 110V transformer, most trades will, and most will just bring their own and expect somewhere to plug it in. So get or make a very heavy duty long 240V extension lead, or since you have the cable that is going to feed the house already buried, buy a waterproof cabinet and put a temporary site consumer unit in it with power sockets etc right at the house site.

I just commented on your other post but as a bricklayer in a 3-1 we get some work down in a day and your quote is taking the piss. What’s the £500 for tools? £9600 foreman? All of the gang should be capable of reading drawings, organising etc.

First timers with a modest budget of £350k (e.g., plot £100k, build £250k). Doing lots of initial research to see if this is even possible. Looking to the Hub community for information and advice. Thanks.

Just in case others stumble across this thread with the same question, I've been told by one of the wood fibre technical teams that there is some compliance testing taking place in September 2025.

Tipped off a few days ago by @Nick Laslett's mention of the free Opaque software package (decrement delay calculator etc.), I experimented with another free package from the same site: Climate Consultant. Climate Consultant indicates the potential effectiveness of different design strategies that could be adopted at a particular location, based on its typical local climate. Being based in France, I found it interesting to compare different geographic locations, but was thinking that it would be good if it were possible to use it to compare current and future climates in the same location. I spent a day or longer trying to pull together a similar comparison for a client some years ago Today, I came across a website from the University of Bath - COLBE (https://colbe.bath.ac.uk/) - that provides separate future climate files for every 5 km square in the UK (and every 25 km for India), based on current projections. They're provided free and are in the same .epw format that Climate Consultant uses, so it's now easy to use it to compare climate design suggestions for a regular year or a heatwave year during 1961-1990, 2010-2039, and 2070-2099. All suggestions are generic, not tailored to a particular building, but it's worth a look if you are into your building / climate science. The cut in the need for winter heating and the increased desirability of shading windows both stand out and, of course, the climate projections are scary.