jayc89

What's your hot water system like? Considered a manifold solution?

Our waste connection is crazy. We have a family bathroom that discharges to mains, but our ensuite discharges to a septic tank that has a surface water connection. The local water board requested that we changed that within a year of us purchasing the property, that was 2 years ago and no one has checked yet.

Ladder's hiding the one of the left, but you can see the battens beneath the window that I was going to attach to.

Battened out rooms using 2x1. Ran some in the correct locations for the radiator brackets. Radiators are Stelrad Compact K2 450x1400. Are 4x 5x40mm wood screws per bracket enough to hold?

Well I do, but it's ended, because I bought them

Sounds expensive to me. My house is approx 250m2 and DIY cost is coming in at around £3,000 (minus room valves) For a house of your size, I'd seriously consider 2x units.

The quote doesn't suggest they'll be connecting to any supply, just running to the boundary hedge. Typically, the utility companies will come and make the final connection (which also costs money)

Max area is 3m x 3m (I don't think you could get away with 4.5m x 2m to reach 9m2, for example). Must be at least 5m away from any boundary. Max height of 4m. Would make for a decent shed too.

It's a fair distance. IIRC, I was quoted around £1,500 to run approx 30m of 32mm MDPE, which I managed to do myself in a couple of days (and it was my first rodeo) How handy are you with a digger? Save yourself 10k and do it yourself.

My full time job is in Software Engineering, which is a really weird industry when it comes to pay; local companies pay pittance, but companies like Amazon have literally made some Software Engineers millionaires, forgetting about shares for a minute, some engineers on the West Coast of the USA are earning $350,000/yr +. Given the types of companies I have worked for in my career, I've genuinely seen a, nearly, 100x salary range. Mid-level jobs in the UK can still be pushing 6 figures today and there's been an effort recently to try push that down, but with the amount of venture capital money still sloshing around (it's still there, don't believe the media), it's very difficult. Supply and demand.

Gas meter box is bang on where I'd want to install the new electric meter box. What's the min distance I can have between them? I've heard 150mm mentioned anecdotally, but can't find any concrete numbers.

Sparky also used our re-wire as part of his NICEIC assessment (are they annual?), so I'm guessing everything was above board.

I was told that rewires don't have to conform to current building regs heights etc, which is why all our light switches haven't been dropped to be accessible either. The old CU was in the same location. In hindsight, I should have had it moved elsewhere at the time.

Any difference between that type and one of these https://www.directtradesupplies.co.uk/product.php/202439/fusebox-100a-fused-switch--63-80-100a-fuses---white-?gclid=CjwKCAjwpayjBhAnEiwA-7ena6XqoST4qKgfagJeZlUdreiAMRN2nKLLiU6uYCL59tDna5OvKB9ZIxoCcv0QAvD_BwE? I’ve put a cheeky offer in for a length of SWA on eBay, I owe my sparky some beers so that might be this weekends activities sorted out!

I understand the sub-main needs to enter the electric box from either one of two holes on the right hand side; on the bottom or side of the box. Apart from that, are there any regs preventing the SWA going up the outside of the house and entering the property at the height of the first floor void?

Could split concentric cable be used for the sub-mains? I understand it's more flexible than SWA, and I'll have some tight bends to navigate.

Makes sense. So I could run a suitable cable from the under-stair cupboard to a new external meter box (with nothing else in it yet), whilst I'm in the process of ripping rooms apart (so have the access to do so), and then if/when I'm ready to, fit a new CU in the under-stair cupboard, have DNO move the supply cable and fuse into the meter box and have my energy supplier move my meter? I assume I could also use Henley block in the under-stair cupboard to connect back to the existing CU, if there's a period where I need to continue using the old one? (My sparky generally helps me out evenings/weekends so I'm thinking for the period between the meter being moved by my supplier and him being able to move the connections to the new CU)

Now you've ripped it off, I'd replace it with one of the automatic vents that have already been suggested. It should remain closed, or at least partially closed, when humidity is at a satisfactory level. Having just fitted mechanical ventilation to a house void of any trickle vents, I highly recommend you don't seal them up without some other method of ventilation to those rooms. (Over winter, even the window in our 8 year old kids room would be dripping wet every morning)

I have 2.5m high rooms upstairs, once the ceiling service void is in place it will leave me with approx 2460mm. We have 200mm skirts, so I plan on starting the PB 60mm above floor level and using full sheets.

One of the first things we did when we got the keys to the house was have it re-wired. In hindsight I wish we'd held off as there are a couple of things I'd do differently now. One being this monstrosity by the side of our front door; In an ideal world, we'd; - Bring the supply (black cable, painted white) in within the first floor void, slightly above it's current location. - Move everything else to our under-stair cupboard. Approx. 8m from the current location I understand to move anything up to, and including the meter that far, I'd need to contract Northern Powergrid, which sounds expensive. I also understand the meter tails can't be longer than 3m, so I think that means, realistically, I'll have to leave everything to the right (mounted to that piece of wood), where it is, but I can get my sparky to move everything else? Are there any other solutions short of forking out, who knows how much, for Northern Powergrid to move the meter et al ?

Make your external walls airtight, which it sounds you are doing with wet plaster and taping the window reveals. The only PB tape you need is scrim for rigidity, to reduce the risk of cracking.

Surely a separate supply could be fitted later, without needing the planning committees approval?

I have a downstairs rad, that I forgot about. (Old kitchen, not yet been renovated). I also have some 15mm copper pipe, olives and compression nuts. I'll see if I can drain from one of that radiator's legs instead, bypassing the UFH altogether.

Showing my plumbing naivety here. AFAIK, we have a standard S-plan set up for the upstairs rads and DWH, with the UFH pipework effectively bolted on. I believe it's teed off the boiler supplier prior to the rad and DWH 2 port valves. Would the water be able to flow through a turned off pump? We have the pump on the boiler which is the only pump used by the upstairs rads and DWH, but we also have a Grundfos pump before the UFH manifold. As I was trying to drain at the UFH, after that second pump, would it have allowed water to pass whilst being turned off? If I had a way of draining before the UFH pump/manifold, should it have worked?

Only PRV I can see is on the DWH cylinder. Yeah, rads and DWH upstairs, UFH downstairs. I expected draining from the UFH (lowest point) and letting air in at the highest point would do the trick, but I got little more than a dribble.