Calvinmiddle

I looked at this well and I think it's up to each council to decide, I found ones where it had to have a completion certificate, or be materially finished (?) or even to when PP had been started. A very very grey area

I think this is it http://www.nienetworks.co.uk/Connections/Generation-connections/Small-scale-generation/11kV-Network-Heat-Map

Yes I remember there being a NIE heat map showing capacity on the network. If there wasn't then they wouldn't allow you to connect to the grid no matter what the size of the system was. That was a couple of years ago - so will have a look for the link and post if I can find it.

Wait to see what the enforcement office says, I had several dealing with ours. Best one was that the fence along the neighbours had a condition saying it had to be at least 2m high, but I showed that fence going all the way to the footpath. When I was putting posts in neighbour came over and complained that he wouldn't be able to see when reversing out of his drive. By this stage we weren't talking so I totally ignored him which pissed him off then finally I said it was part of the planning and I had no choice. Enforcement came round and was friendly enough and said he thought the condition was ambiguous, but later his boss overruled him. I had always planned to stop the fence 0.5 from the footpath and slope from 1m to 2.0, but was being awkward. When I told this to the enforcement officer I said I wanted his assurance that he wouldn't be coming round later as there wasn't a 2m high fence to the boundary. He also said they had to follow up when someone made a complaint, even if they thought it was nonsense, they had to. So have a chat with him and see what he says, try your best not to be defensive or confrontational and if he mentions the lack of planning say you were advised that it's under pd rights as is not over 2m and not next to the highway

So we have been in the house about 5 months now and though I'd share a bit about how we are controlling the heating. As a recap, we have a MBC build house and slab, not the twin wall all pumped cellulose version but slightly less insulating and costly. Our wall makeup from outside to inside is: 20mm larch hit and miss cladding or Pavex on render board. 50mm battens Some sort of black membrane 9mm OSB 140mm stubs filled with 150mm Warmcell Airtight membrane 50mm PIR insulation 35mm battens 12mm plaster board Roof is: Evalon VSK single membrane 9mm OSB 25mm batten Non tenting membrane 18mm OSB 300mm I hoisted filled with cellulose insulation. Airtight membrane Battens to create 100mm service cavity 12.5mm plasterboard Floor is: 300mm polystyrene insulation 100mm concrete with UFH pipes imbedding in it. Heating controls So I thought I had found an off the shelf thermostat with a floor sensor from Wunda, but it turns out that the floor sensor is there to limit the screed temperature and somehow the one I have doesn't work as it can't 'see' it even though it's a wired connection. Turns out the thermostat has a sensor on it, whole whole house is being controlled from one air sensor in the open plan living room about 1.5m off the ground. This is set to be 24c (prob a couple of degrees above actual temp due to an offset function in programmer) during the day and 21 overnight so it doesn't call for heat. UFH setup I have a gas combi boiler heating a 70l buffer store, set up so that the boiler is set to keep this store at a certain temperature - currently about 35c. It is set to do this all the time as I haven't got round (and prob won't as set up seems to work) to replacing the duff manual timer on the boiler. Tank is double sprayed and has about 100mm on insulation on it. A pump feeds water to the UFH circuits and is activated by the thermostat in the open plan rooms, there is a bypass in case the UFH circuit thermostat (looks like a TRV on a radiator) is closed. There is also a NC (normally closed) valve on the return side of the UFH manifold, this too is connected to the room thermostat. The pump at the buffer was not in original design and this was the mechanism to allow the buffer water into the UFH circuits - but plumber said pump on manifold wasn't 'sucking' water from the buffer, just pumping it round the circuits. So pump at buffer was added as a quick fix. Flow rate on the 6 UFH circuits all set the same at about 2l/min (and due to someone losing a piece of paper I have no idea which circuit goes were) and both pumps set to lowest setting. Pump on UFH was all all the time but now off 6 hrs over night, the 2hrs first thing in the morning and then off 30mins then on 30 mins for rest of day. I find the temperature on the TRV set to about 30c and find that the return temperature is always about 5c less, but have only tested that from about 28c - 35c on the feed side. So far have found that works great, house nice steady temperature, I were a t-shirt and if boys (7&4) are running about they have to strip off their tops, so prob could go down a bit, but after having 8 winters in a detached solid walked house which was like a fridge I'm liking this. Have noticed the last couple of weeks that it sometimes getting a bit warm, our living room faces north so don't get sun there but bedrooms face SW so they can get warm, but hoping when sun gets higher this won't be as much as an issue as we have fairly deep waves (300mm). Been sending gas and electric meter readings off monthly to see if all this planning is working and for Nov - Jan gas was about £30 and Elec £50 a month. Feb was £28 and £48. That is with 2/3 adults and 2 kids. Be interesting to see what they are once I turn off the pumps and turn boiler to summer mode, would really like to see what the heating cost per month is.

Maybe Belle End Vue??

I don't think you really ned to worry about this, our passive slab was engineered designed with 750mm depth of ground dug out beneath our slab and then filled back with stone. Needed this as we were on what the results said was desiccated clay and there was a danger of heave. As our ground slopes and plus the thickness of the slab it mean at one point we were about 1.6m below original ground level, there was no way this could drain anywhere. Luckily we dug it out in summer when it was dry, as in the winter when we were digging out the hole for the treatment plant we can across a very slight transition layer between two type of clay, that had water running along it, had to get a pump to put the treatment plant in the hole. Joke was with the ground workers was that we have the largest soak away ever, as I know water must be getting into the slab stone, even our soak-away for rain water is well above the level of the bottom of the stone, so even through they aren't connect there is a good chance it is ended up in there - but is there an issue, if there is one I can't see what it would be, there is terram at the bottom of the hole, its been whacked down in a number of layers and has 100mm of concrete sitting on top - house isn't going anywhere!

I planned this at the start and created a service void in the ceiling to take the ducts and down lights but you need about 100mm. MBC had to do battens on top of battens as the cross batten idea only gives 50mm at the cross overs

What they said I also had to get a pipe reamer as the plumber didn't have one as he does do much UFH http://www.wundatrade.co.uk/tools-accessories/461-pipe-reamer.html

I just got most of my stuff from the Wunda store http://www.wundatrade.co.uk/ We had a Willis heater at home when I was growing up, it had the advantage that you could turn the immersion on and if you ran the water slow enough (about pencil thick) you got instant hot water - even if the cylinder was cold

Hi Terry Splitting the plot now as we have a buyer - talked to LR long time ago but they said that splitting a title with no change in ownership would not be a priority. I asked what exactly that meant and the lady was kind enough to say that it would get but to the bottom of the pile and that due to cutbacks it would never rise to the top as the ones with a change of ownership would be prioritised. So solicitor will be involved - more wanting to know what level of detail in the plan - fell out with the AT as I felt she was talking the p!$$ charging me for things that I would have expected her to have on the plans - like charging me to add dimensions to her plans so I could see what size rooms where.

What sort of level of detail did you give the LR, did you have to get a survey done or just take the plan that they have on file and draw another line on it and say its marked by a fence, ie the rough boundary not a determined one down to the nearest mm

You have a large plot don't you? Any chance of planting a leylandii hedge along that boundary so you never have to see him again? Obliviously if it blocks out light to his house thats an added bonus.....

@jack Do you have an update on dealing with the Land Registry, I'm getting to the stage where I will need to split my plot as I have accepted an offer on the old house and new house was built in the back garden. Land Registry said they were too busy to split titles unless there was a chance of ownership. But there isn't a dispute (as that would be by myself) so just trying to figure out the easiest way to get the tile split and recorded.

So checked it and the clocked had stopped at 9pm, turned it more than 360 degress again and guess what... It stopped again at 9pm, which is where I think it was when I first looked at it. Conclusion: the clock has a problem Solution: get a new clock Thanks guys

Ok so turned dial round to the correct time and got 'stiff' in a few places and now seems to be working!! Bloody thing, but think it must be an issue with the gears inside clock, will let it run for 24hrs and seen if it gets all the way round, if so great by manually turning the clock more than 360degrees (as I got mixed up between am and pm) I may have fixed it. If it stops working then I'll bin it and get a new one. Thanks for the help guys

Don't have a multimeter, should have a screwdriver with a mains tester in it somewhere so can check the back wires when I find it. when slider is on, boiler is on when slider is off, boiler is off when slider on timer it does whatever is selected on the little 15min increment things, but fail does turn, so just stays on that time forever. should the dial be turning even when the slider is at the "on"?

Here are the wires, looks OK to me as agrees with the wiring diagram, brown on 1, blue on 2 and black to 3 & 4

Here is a pic of the wiring diagram

This is the offending item, it's on the timer setting but just doesn't seems to turn. Not sure it would be covered but the warranty as it was an extra to the boiler, and I bought it myself and got the plumber to fit so don't think I have any recourse with him, besides it was a couple of years ago now

The mechanical timer switch on my new eat BAXI Duo boiler doesn't seem to be working, never tried to use it previously but I've tried to use it recently and it doesn't seem to turn. I'm wondering if these things are generic or do I have to buy a BAXI one. Also wondering if there is a way to fix it (take it out and give it a bang on the bench) and if this is a common problem

I found these guys to be good, had nails to fit my Australian bought nailer, only place I could find them at a sensible price http://www.collatedfasteners.co.uk

Using an insurance broker

I'm trying to get sensible buildings insurance since I have (mostly) completed things. But the fact I have a flat room (well it has a slight pitch but 1/3 is 1 degrees and the rest is about 18 degrees.) seems to put a lot of the insurers off. The roof is a single ply membrane, Evalon VSK, and it seems the insurance industry hasn't heard of single ply membranes before. So the few quotes I am getting are coming in at the £250-300 range just for buildings insurance, which is too high if you ask me. I know some of you have got flat roofs @jack so who did you get your insurance through?

Doorway being bricked up, so no replacement