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Don't do as I do - do as I say, comes to mind. Not much different from a multi millionaire pop star, movie stars, telling everyone to dip their hands in the pockets to give to charity.

Can you move another 400mm away from your neighbour?! That would simplify things greatly.

Hiya. To provide a bit of context, much of my initial SE training and Masters research was on portal frames. I know enough to make a contribution on this type of design. Here is my offer. You can call me on the phone on (mobile number removed, PM for contact details) for a 15 -30 min chat. It's free for BH folks! This forms part of my pro bono work that is good for my soul, my primary qualification is in Civil Engineering, you work for the public. Text me first so I know it's you. I'm pretty deaf so sometimes miss calls. I use my own name and can be easily found on the internet.. I get some interesting calls and offers, these range from "massages" to lots of "financial" offers and other "stuff" that actually breaks up my day, hence me filtering calls. The section sizes you quote might be dependent on your eaves height, wind loading and the types of finishes. That the best I can do for now.

Yeah, that's not great. It should be fully insulated and the insulation should go all the way through the wall. Just resting like that isn't good either. I would personally probably have 2 clips - one just after the bend as it exits the wall and the second before it enters the down pipe. Also, wtf were they thinking with the black? Just looks crap. Not very good standard at all and enough to question the rest of the installation, frankly. Get them back to sort it out as it doesn't comply with the regs or with the manufacturer's instructions on condensate drainage for a start. They should know better.

Local Authorities have no idea what things should cost, so selling them a £300 wind turbine made for a boat, a fifty quid PV panel, a small battery system for say £500 and a person to put it all together, should probably be about £1000. Councils will probably pay 5 to 6 times that amount. Then, where there is a meeting to fit renewables to council buildings, someone in accounts, will drag out the £5000/kW number and say 'it is too expensive'.

Our last house had a fully insurance approved and maintained alarm. Out of interest, at one renewal time for insurance, I asked to quote with and without alarm and got the same cost. All these things were true if I declared the alarm. Kept the alarm, didn't declare it any more.

Hmm, no. The logic defies me here. There is no possible means of producing a proper objective measure in comparison. Instead I'd hope that Rasmus et al would be making more sensible decisions around the necessity and means of travel and thus reducing it as far as possible, not trying to justify it on the basis of 'I do more for the environment so it's okay for me' which just gets us into more trouble and bickering. To affect change in behaviour there needs to be systemic change, because the system absolutely rewards air travel financially as a start right now - just think of the cost of a short flight from the SE to Scotland for example versus the equivalent cost of taking the train. The economics right right are shear insanity. But there are also other systemic factors that blind people to the environmental cost of activities and decision - so this becomes a societal aspect, but then there is of course the individual responsibility about taking a stand and making a statement, which in itself may affect the societal and systemic. But who is actually making this kind of stand in such a way as to shift the curve? Our politicians aren't, nor are other leaders, nor are celebrities really doing this to a great extent... but there are lots of more quiet people just getting on and doing it - maybe they're the ones that will eventually provide the gravity necessary to shift things from the bottom up? Who knows, but the winds are blowing in a direction that rather depresses me right now - it feels like taking a positive environmental stand is the higher risk path, both personally and professionally versus embracing and continuing with the status quo.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. Let them cut their 'carbon footprint' first and then us plebs can follow.

You make a good point about the skills you have, I accept that. The regs have become a lot more stringent particularly in relation to portal frames on or near boundaries. Best thing you can do is to give your SE a call and discuss.

Here is a bit of a good news story. There are two common ways of fire protecting steels. We can box it in with steel angles and say Fire Line plaster board or we can paint with intumescent paint. But BC often ask up front for a specification on the paint system. I wrote this morning to Rawlins Paints the following: Dear technical Department. I'm seeking assistance with a paint specification for steelwork fire protection and certificate / data sheets for a building warrant submission. Attached is a drawing showing the proposed steelwork. The project is a single story domestic house extension with a pitched concrete tiled roof in Scotland. The requirements are: 1/ Level of fire protection required 30minutes ( short duration). 2/ Section sizes are 178 x 102 UB19 S275 or S355 and 152 x 89 UB16 S275. 3/ The load ratio for the 178 x 102UB 19's is 35% and the load ratio for the 152 x 89 U16 is 50% 4/ Exposure to fire: Three sides are exposed; bottom flange and sides. The top flange has a 145 x 45 timber wall plate shot fired to it to support timber rafters. 5/ The beams are orientated in the vertical plane (top flanges upper most), loaded vertically downwards about their major axis. 6/ Quantities:The steelwork lengths are shown on the drawing. 7/ Steel design code is BS5950 part 1: 2000 8/ Exposure to weather: All steelwork is within the weatherproof envelope of the building. Thus dry conditions. No chemical exposure is required. 9/ Application of paint is to be on site, ideally brush applied. This can be done before fixing of the wall plates. By the close of business today I had a paint specification and an undertaking to supply the certification certificate provided we use their product of course. That is a fantastic service! Now for folk on BH. I'm putting these steels in awkward places, thus to box them in is going to be very labour intensive and that is very costly. On a technical note in item 3. I refer to what is called the load ratio. The steel sizes on this project are sized on how much they deflect in service. That stops cracking in ceilings for example. But in a fire we just want to make sure they don't fall down. The load ratio is the load on the steels in a fire compared with the steel beam ultimate strength / buckling strength. Long steel beam design is often governed by buckling, it twists and distorts first. That is why we tie floors into the steel beams for example to prevent the twisting in normal use. But during a fire that contribution can get lost as the floor / roof can burn away to the extent that it stops restraining the beams. Thus the load ratio is based on the strength of the beam when say part of the restraining floor or roof burns away in less than the required fire protection time. But even so using a paint system can be very cost effective. If a beam is not fully loaded up to it maximum capacity during a fire then the intumescent paint system can be of real economic advantage. To explain roughly. If a steel beam is loaded up to it's maximum capacity then it will fail at a lower temperature. A beam can still carry a bit of load at a higher temperature and that is where the load ratio comes in. The paint acts like an insulating blanket that slows the rate the steel heats up.. and that gives us the fire duration requirement we see in the building regs. The above it intended to give you a bit of a template if asking about intumescent paints.

Really wouldn't bother, tech will change by the time you get it working. Or you will change your phone it it won't work.

Yeah, we’re just starting the basement part of our build. This is ‘not easy’ (basements are quite unusual in the UK remember) unless you’re very comfortable with risk and/or have deep pockets. Most UK suppliers won’t want to guarantee water-tightness, the odd European supplier might, but my experience is that they are v difficult to deal with. As others have said, without some kind of sketch - to give an idea of size & shape & ground levels, we’re fairly much in the dark, so can’t say much.

Tektite push fit copper might be a decent alternative - slimmer than plastic push-fit externally and wider internally, no need to hire / buy tools versus press fit (which Tektite sprint looks similar to assembled) Working on our own house they're my preferred option if I do need joints in copper but generally I prefer long runs in Hep2o terminating to copper only as needed.

Went through the same thing with my own build and here's what I gathered after countless hours of research and AI aid as well. Ajax - is the Apple like new entrant into the market, and has the most stylish keypads, sensors etc. But they don't sell direct and are the priciest - got some quotes and it was easily 2-3x other competitors so I dropped this idea. Texecom - this is the industry standard for a graded system (I think you need Grade 2 for home security). Kit is pretty well known and standardised through the app and keypads are a little dated - works but nothing to look at is the consensus. Apparently there is no charge to use their app if you have the WiFi/Ethernet module. Orisec - relatively new entrant in the market and seems to have been setup by ex Texecom people. App is slightly newer and seems to get more updates. £45 charge to use the app on a yearly basis. Pricing is virtually the same as Texecom - based on the installer so you take your pick based on what you like. Pyronix - seems to be lowest rated of the lot (at least if you look online). This is the one we have in our current house (a wireless one). It works but the app is quite shit and frequently logs me out so I miss the notifications(!) when an alarm is triggered. Also currently £45 for annual access to the app. The other choice you have to make is a wired or wireless system. Wired does add a chunk of cost upfront (wiring and labour cost to do the wiring), but you don't have to change batteries every year which means high Capex low Opex. The advantage with most of the systems is that you can start with a baseline wired system for your key doors/windows and then expand gradually by adding wireless sensors in the future (like if you're adding front gates, rear outbuilding etc). FWIW - I've chosen to go with a wired Orisec system with option to add wireless sensors in the future. It was a toss up between the Orisec and Texecom and I'd be happy with either - went with the installer recommendation.

Nope. As I said to you before - not a Dunoon Daftie 😏 (a friendly reminder).

I was worried that when I returned I would find the door locked and a sign on it saying 'No Square Feet allowed' or something along those lines, but the boss was surprisingly friendly. She readily agreed when I said that a serious conversation needed to be had about the price. It's given me hope again, but cautiously so.

Just a warning - some window & door suppliers show windows on quotes & drawings as viewed from inside (e.g. 21 degrees), some from outside (e.g. Rationel). This makes a difference re handle / lock positions etc and other asymmetrical detail. Also, some UK suppliers show the handle position at the point of the triangle e.g. 21 Degrees, some e.g. Rationel show the point at the hinge side. Often this is fairly obvious, but sometimes not. Just to add a bit of spice ... if the suppliers source extra detail drawings from their European suppliers, they may well be the other way round.

Obviously it has its limitations, but this is exactly the sort of question that AI very good at answering. I just put the following prompt into Claude: This was the reply: Try modifying the prompt if you want something different. I just bunged in what I thought were some reasonable assumptions.

British Gas are just shite on toast, and their forte is ripping off pensioners. Be lucky if she got a Worcester, more likely they've gone bottom shelf and fitted a glow-worm. The above is exactly what I would have drawn if someone asked me to sketch a typical BG condensate arrangement. Just shocking. I went to one pensioner that had become another victim, and as they hadn’t brought a ladder, above 2m around the side of the house, the copper gas pipe just wasn’t clipped, literally flapping in the wind. They put a combi in and left the old boy with a manual mixer shower, so he was getting scalding hot water from it; you can’t leave anyone infirm with a non-thermostatic shower fed from and instantaneous hot water heater. List of this goes on and on, from what I’ve seen over the years from BG. Great adverts, even better sales-people, then the most dogshit plumbing you’ve ever seen.

Google says.. Minimum Dimensions: Both the clear opening width and height must be at least 450mm. Total Area: The clear openable area must be at least 0.33m^2. If you make the opening width the minimum 450mm, the height must be at least 735mm to 750mm to hit the area required. Height: The bottom of the openable area should be no more than 1,100mm (1.1m) above the internal floor level for safe access.

UPDATE: ITS ALIVE😅😁 I purchased a different USB drive, because when I read some of the reviews on the first one they made me think it was possibly the USB drive, as I looked under a microscope at all the capacitors etc. and tested them and none looked blown etc. anyway. Great result - the newer USB drive works like a dream, all files are there, I have a replacement motherboard coming so hoping that I can just plug in the SSD and it will boots as a PC.🤞 but for now the files are safe, and I have ensured that Google Drive is backing them up....

Pointing almost as important as bricks. Your picture looks like a lime based mortar. Bricks look like a non standard size. For our build used Furness bricks, Natural Orange, with “weather struck” pointing. Our builder built several sample walls with different mortars and styles of pointing for us to choose from. Furness bricks sent us a list of builds, using their bricks, in our area we could go and look at. https://www.furnessbrick.co.uk/clamprange Took us ages to find the builders merchant with a big display, found one with over a 100 different bricks. https://www.huwsgray.co.uk/branch-finder/huws-gray-brick-specialist-centre-llay?srsltid=AfmBOooEFD64AmY0O74nf7f4WBMuWxwa7IFkcH1dfvjX8aSZYIeKeboo About 700 on their web site, but that’s in N Wales a long way from you.

You can use cavity closers there are ones keyed to accept wet plaster https://www.coversmerchants.co.uk/dacatie-tf-multicloser-cavity-closer-100-150-x-2400mm

A while ago my next door neighbour locked themselves out of the house. After a while it was decided to break a window at the back to gain entry. I was voted for the job. It took over 5 minutes with a hammer to get through the triple glazing.

@craig?

Is it necessary? My phone is old and with poor battery life, even that only needs charging once a day which I do overnight. How often do you really think you need to charge your phone in the kitchen?

You need different things for the different finishes. Ours - timber frame (MBC) will be part stone clad - off SurCav and part Wood clad. The whole thing needs to breath, but our stone mason is used to putting in what he calls fire socks to the Surcav bit. And we'll be using something like VFB 60/60 from Tenmat as cavity closures in the wood bits. I'm still worried about providing housing for a whole menagerie of critters so will be doing some more work on keeping them out, but MBC are only bothered about the need for ventilation and BC are only bothered about the fire risk so those elements are a must. Critter barriers it seems can be "model's own".

If you've paid for a Pre-App they should have indicated how long it would take. Nevertheless, if it's been over two months than I would certainly be on the phone to them to try and track down what's happening. Planning departments are notoriously slow and unhelpful in most cases, and seem to try their best to be uncontactable. if you're not getting anywhere with them I've found the best thing to do is call up and ask how you register a complaint about the planning department. That seems to energise them. Not the way it should be done but it's worked for me twice where everything else failed.

unvented maybe?

Yes, these are a good option. I always have a few in my fittings boxes as they can come in very handy.

In light of current and future changes to UK environs, what other provisions should be looked at. I already considered these when building my extension and upgrading my house (unfortunately Covid restrictions meant that some of these were unavailable/unaffordable at the time of build) : Larger roof overhangs for better shading and and rain protection Larger gutters for higher rainfall (I went for deepflow, but I now think that was a mistake as we still get over flow, so may change to industrial or import some of the larger metal gutter systems they use as standard in Hungary Breathable and high decrement delay materials for roof insulation - along with an agressive roof ventilation stratagy to ensure that any moisture can wick away in winter / damp periods High Albedo roof coverings. (I wanted to buy white EPDM but this is unavailable in the UK and expensive to import from the EU. Now looking for reflective paint suitable for use with standard black EPDM) High maintenance 'green' roofs are probably not an alternave that is sustainable in the UK climate going forward As much rainwater storage as possible to allow for garden watering (and 'other' activities when the privitised water industry has sucked every last penny into shareholder accounts and bonuses and shuts down) Composting toilet for the same reason. Breathable (sorbative) insulation and high decrement delay wall materials wherever practicable House designed for level access and services suitable for old and infirm residents (raised socket hights, wide doorways, provision for stairlift or through floor lift) Plenty of fruit trees and bushes to provide shading, localised cooling, and dependable food supply External shades or shutters on South and West facing windows (Probably better make that steel shutters on all windows to deal with the innevitable civil unrest when the economy collapses...) No 'smart devices' whatsoever to go wrong/be held hostage to Sorry, that got a bit bleak at the end! I wan't to be a 'Positive Prepper' What else?

I agree that there is something to be said for the slow, considered way of the farming community, but after two years on the books (during which time they had actually forgotten that they were selling it 😂) it really is time to sit up and take notice of me and my cash.

To continue the essay. Intumescence means swelling. Let's stick to the paint context. When the paint gets very hot it expands and ends up as a skin of ash, which acts as insulator. A common problem I've seen is painters thinking they are clever in making it go further (it is expensive) whereas it must have the thickness specified. It must also receive a final seal coat for strength and protection. A properly professional supplier will assist with appropriate certification. But if you just buy some from a merchant you can get a wordy but meaningless 'certificate'. Heavy steel sections can be sufficiently fire resistant without protection, and light constructions need most. Thousands of buildings I'm sure are grossly under-protected.

It is not just British Gas unfortunately. 88 year old family member with dementia had a boiler breakdown with a service contract. As his boiler was old he asked them for a new one and was passed onto the sales team. Next thing they send a salesman around to his house, who then sends him a quote to replace his UVC system with a combi boiler. Was a hell of a job for us to get things unwound and sorted for him - endless phone calls, emails, medical documents, LPA documents. Fortunately the subcontract maintenance plumber (who had once been a carer) knew what they were like and was very helpful. Too many companies are happy to rip off the elderly it seems.

Ah, perhaps not a sensible assumption - it seems that your GPT (LLM) is not telling you about the self attention (is all you need - where all these machines spawn their approach from) 'quadratic bottle neck' it is trying to manage in helping you. If you double the context you effectively quadruple the compute needed to handle it so stuffing your context window with the problems you created with the last stuffing is effectively melting the planet and means that 5.6 won't sort a 5.5 generated mess because the whole thing is an exothermic reaction of sorts (compute runaway) . It creates problems and in trying to sort them it creates 4 times the problem unless you can tail the context back at every step - not easy because you a creating something which is growing. You will have already found that bigger contexts have interesting effects on the attention between tokens, it starts to weaken the connections between them - the LLM effectively has a weaker grip on the whole context. You can help by reiterating important stuff in the context / prompts (teachers will know all about the power or reiteration in learning situations). You can read more here.

This is very well stated. It's part of Scottish humour, "ma sides are bursting". That means I'm chuckling a lot having read this, enough to hurt myself. One part of the meaning is to say that profit is sanity, turnover is vanity. A corollary could be the way a Yorkshire Farmer conducts business.

Usually do it for a tenner

Maybe you can try to identify exactly where the noise is coming from, does it eminate from the fixing points, or the overlaps, or movement against the battens etc ? Not sure how you do that, but maybe you could rig up a test piece at ground level replicating the roof structure, then apply heat ? Maybe you could photograph/measure the sheets/fixings etc when cold and hot in different places ? I can only say plumbing felt helps a lot with noise from copper plumbing/heating pipes expanding and contracting as they get hot and cold. They eliminate the friction between the pipes and the joists they pass through. So if you could identify the exact source, you might be able to insert some felt or other material which allows movement without noise

Old bricks like these will have been from very local brickworks. In some clay areas there could be a brick kiln in almost every village. The variations in colour usually come from temperature differences in a primitive kiln. Ends got hotter too. A modern brickworks can get this effect but it will never be the same. Best is to go to a local merchant who should have samples to suit the local style, perhaps even in stock. Some of these may give the effect through the use of sand facings. But also try local salvage yards. New bricks will be easier to use and have more life left in them.

It's likely powering a device that doesn't have a mains connection - e.g. logger/telemetry system on a utility, LED sign etc etc. Often these units are cheaper than getting a connection to the mains. Also, if there are road opening embargoes, like you would in a new development, there might not be the option to make a connection.

Amazing quality of finish - excellent job 👏

I have been an SQL server & MYSQL user until about a month ago when one of my students was showing me some work they were doing on a knowledge hub with Postgres and I thought I should give it a go for my next mini project idea and I found it very good all kinds of ways the pgAdmin software is excellent.

I bought a spare handle set when changing all the handles on the doors in our house. The previous handles had all been on for twentyish years and I'd never had to replace one. Less than a year in with the new ones and a bunch of stuff fell over in the garage, against the handle, and bent it badly. Now, the handles are still available to buy, but the moral of the story is these things do happen sometimes, and it's a small price to pay for a little peace of mind. I have a spare handle set (or more accurately, one side of a door now!), spare catches, a couple of spare hinges, a spare LED spot for the ones used across the whole of downstairs, and a few other bits and pieces. Never had to use anything other than a handle yet, and I'm sure some things like the hinges wouldn't be really difficult to replace, even if I had to do all three per door, but it's just a lot easier and my mind is a lot more peaceful knowing I have some spares to hand to fix issues almost immediately. I do make a habit of very meticulously keeping things like part numbers and supplier information when I do projects, so I don't always keep duplicates of everything, more so the things that I'd feel forced to change as a set if one failed and I couldn't source an identical replacement. I've thought the same thing about larger items and don't know where I'll end up for some of those in the future. Solar panels are a good example. Do you buy an extra one just in case one fails in an array of eight identical panels or end up with one looking slightly different to all the others if you have to replace it with something different because they are no longer available?

It appears to be on a pole along with a small solar panel. It likely powers a street light which illuminates the adjacent footpath.

Tell them you can set the test up and they can come and witness it. I would not want to spend £400 just because someone is being a numpty. Part of what you pay for is inspections.

Just download ChatGPT and take all the effort out of it.

No apologies needed. As self builders sometimes the pressure of managing everything just gets too much and when things go wrong it's usually our closest that bear the brunt. I recall a renovation where we had sunk everything we had into it and needed it finished desperately in order to sell it before we ran out of money just for day to day living. Our 10 year old had got used to coming to site with us most weekends as we scrabbled to get done. I gave her the job of painting a short length of cast iron downpipe with some black gloss. She did ok with that but didn't put the lid back on the tin. I picked up the dust sheet without noticing and poured black gloss all over the indian sandstone patio that had been freshly laid only a couple of weeks before. I do admit to ranting excessively, not directly at her but just how unfair life, god, the world and everything was. It was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. Later that day, having dropped her back home and returned to site, her elder brother rang to say he couldn't find her in the house. A frantic search all over the village ensued to no avail. As we widened the search with the help of neighbours and decided to alert the police, a call came in from a nice lady in Cambridge who had found her wandering the streets. It seems she had packed a bag (including an OS map for reference!), boarded a train (unmanned village station) and traveled a few stops into Cambridge with the intention of going to her aunt's house. She had got upset and thought all the problems were her fault. Boy did that bring home the important things in life and certainly gave me a new perspective. We never let ourselves get into that situation again and despite many a frustration over the years you just have to press on through it - worse things happen at sea!

Many would say so. I say not, as the VCL is there on each sheet, but not at the joint. You go on to say 'Traditionally', nothing, which is why I prefer working with insulation only (say foil-faced PIR), taping the foil face , then battening and hten boarding. However a few people have started to use 'fluff tapes' like Contega or Pavafix Win, over which you can plaster, so that would work, although strictly that 'bit' of the VCL is not in quite the 'right' place. I think you can get a 'tighter' VCL if you use bare boards and separate plasterbds. I rarely use foil tape - it's too variable. I prefer to use Pro Clima or similar air-tightness tapes.

In true Blue Peter fashion - here's one we did earlier... Ours was all done with standard key clamp bits and some solar panel clamps. Can't remember who we used for the poles and clamps but we did work out how many of each length of pole we needed, so they were delivered ready to start construction. The poles in the earth are 1m long, whacked in by our builder for a flat pack of beer... EDIT - should have added that we set the panels at 45 degrees to maximise winter output rather than the 35 degrees that PVGIS suggested. The actual annual total for 45 degrees was only just under the PVGIS 'optimum' but output was shifted away from the summer towards the winter.