AliG

I bought this shoveI. It has been excellent for £21. The serrated edge is very good at cutting through things. Have spent three hours so far digging and pulling. The best thing to do seems to be to dig along just past where you think the chicken wire is buried, then you can pull it up like a roll of turf. The problem is places where roots have grown through it, sometimes up to 2cm thick and in one place where someone wrapped it around a large tree and the tree has grown into it, I just had to cut it there. They also just dumped unused chicken wire on the ground to grow into the undergrowth. Idiots. As you pull the chicken wire back you occasionally have to stop and run the shovel under it to break up roots. It has been back breaking work, I have had to put my not inconsiderable weight behind pulling it out. A woman stopped and cautioned me that her dad did in his back doing something similar. My recommendation would be that you should use chicken wire sparingly. I have also been able to perform an archeological study on the eating habits of builders and school children. They appear to really like McCoy's crisps.

It all depends on how good a swimmer you are. It works perfectly for me, a professional swimmer might prefer a swim spa. This totally misses the point. I can think of hundreds of jobs around the house that are easy and yet no one wants to do them thus they are better automated if possible. Because the underground temperature is higher and steadier than the outside temperature, the insulation of the room is more important than the insulation of the pool. The underground temperature is usually considered to be a constant of around 8 degrees so the temperature difference between the pool room and its exterior will be higher than the difference between the pool and underground. Clearly though more insulation is better. I was shocked how little insulation pools came with as standard. There are evaporation losses as well. Yes but it looks like the pool has a cover as does mine. Otherwise I would strongly recommend one as evaporation losses are very high. Heating my pool/pool room uses around 15-20000kWh of gas a year. Hard to say exactly as I have never turned everything else off except the pool. The room is 10x7x2.7m plus another 2.5x5x2.7m for the plant and changing room. Plus 9x3.7x1.35 for the pool, so the pool itself is only around 15% of the heated volume, hence I would focus more on the insulation of the whole space. The cost that people tend to miss is the dehumidifier and pump. They use around 4500kWh of electricity a year. I have timings set to maximise use of PV and night-time rates, but basically they cost as much to run as the heating. Including chemicals you are probably talking about £2-2500 in running costs a year. It was a lot less before utility prices increased. The real cost is the cost of the pool and a very large room to house it. That’s probably about 400k at today’s prices.

I couldn’t find a better picture. The area you can see there with the pipework is underneath the pool room. I think it was just backfilled with gravel after the pipe work went in. The pool sits under where the blue tarpaulin sits. You can see the pool sitting up at the top right waiting to be lifted in. I think they used french drains around the outside and then they painted the walls with some kind of paint on tanking membrane. It wasn’t a big job at all. The pool itself had 50mm of EPS insulation all the way round. We laid another 100mm of insulation on the concrete base then sat the pool on top of that. I’d be asking if the pool needs any manual maintenance like checking pH levels which would be a pain. I have the guy come service ours every 8 or 9 months and really he just delivers extra chemicals that the system uses automatically. I just chuck a cleaning robot into the pool every few weeks. Our pool is a bit larger and our air handling may be overkill but 6 years in the pool room still looks like new. I went to a local pool to see how much space I needed to do lengths and we ended up just over 9m. I’d consider a very slightly longer pool and no swim spa which would make things a lot simpler. Our pool is I think 9.2x3.7x1.35. It should maybe have been 1.4 deep.

Our pool is effectively in a small basement as described. The thing they are missing is it had to be tanked to stop water coming in and it has to be insulated. Otherwise you will lose heat to the ground. The pool costs the same to heat as a space that size would cost heated to 28C. It actually costs more to run the filter and dehumidifier. I have a Niveko pool which is made of polyurethane resin. It looks and feels a lot nicer than fibreglass but is a bit more expensive. Have they not mentioned air handling and dehumidifying in the costs. That was another 20k for mine. It heats the pool and extracts heat and moisture from the air. Also the filtration equipment looks quite minimal. I have a sand based filter, pump, centrifuge, uv disinfecting and automated pH regulation. There is literally nothing to do, the pool looks after itself.

This would be the easiest but seems a bit much for some chicken wire There is about 30m of the stuff. It was there when we bought the house we knocked down, so I am guessing it has been in at least 15 years and shows absolutely no sign of rusting. I suspect the fencers just dig through it, I just thought this was a good opportunity to get rid of it. The problem is the amount of stuff that has grown through it, it is tougher than the wire. I think I might give the hoe a chance and see if I can scrape the stuff off the top of it so it lifts up. A sharp spade might also work, I don't have one to give it a try.

It looks like the part is here, just need to find it without the rest of the stuff https://www.ventilationland.co.uk/en_GB/p/vent-axia-siphon-sentinel-kinetic-advance-o32-mm/18784/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAB0qKPDPgcA_zQB1T1U2Ii7QMSNZM&gclid=CjwKCAiA0rW6BhAcEiwAQH28Iher6XY6Qox2OJWqL879n9bCwv20DkFKsMKbmeQHzBscJaDZu_07qhoC4QEQAvD_BwE

After losing 15m of fence to a fallen tree due to recent winds, we decided to replace the whole fence. In front of the fence the previous owners had put a post and chicken wire fence. I thought it was pretty ugly and had considered pulling it out but now seems the time. Little did I know that the fence is buried under years of fallen leaves and plants that have now grown through it. There is about a foot of fence buried, but it sits pretty much horizontally under 6 inches of growth. So there is kind of a chicken wire L with about 1ft above ground and 1 ft under the undergrowth. When you pull at the piece above ground it lifts up all the roots and plants growing through the wire, like lifting a carpet, but there is too much growth through the wire to pull it out. Trying to apply leverage to the wire eventually starts to break it. I guess the easy option is to cut it at ground level. but there fencers are not going to thank me for that. I can see various hoes that might work for this, see links. Any recommendations? Do I try and cut the roots above the wire making it easier to pull out or do I try and cut through the wire also. Plus these things looks somewhat sharp and dangerous, are they safe to use? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harbour-Housewares-Digging-Wooden-Handle/dp/B00GAZ221Y/ref=sr_1_6?crid=355NZ4VXKUR1R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.M7BcWgfC56Cvm5URYZTIqVrpXoQPaodvYcBMvyCChz7l2HNfw0L9C_fXy20b2KpiwddwkTZLTsmYbjrFNlUfAoL-sg7FgWw8MzRjf7OXqHAD2mj1AxgBilgYCo2Mvln-HyCxQYJu6OH69OwDfV2DmzvPnum1e6sTlrPxsS78HdNjdqoKFsgtPv1ixA7ovwBb1MlX412oaCsTnSrTpYQn7R8YQqkW_wvONuWNcPmP481G43SNmPhT5pIyYfoQ2sohHViX5GaYSnhSYADP4kbotloSZy9_DbyXKD0J6ShanKM.U7t3qBa7KUmdm90S8WVxQci6l8XUXREdIlQG-E5o9tg&dib_tag=se&keywords=grub+hoe&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1733153751&sprefix=grub+hoe%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-6 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-85632-Digging-Hoe/dp/B01LWWH7HG/ref=sr_1_9?crid=355NZ4VXKUR1R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.M7BcWgfC56Cvm5URYZTIqVrpXoQPaodvYcBMvyCChz7l2HNfw0L9C_fXy20b2KpiwddwkTZLTsmYbjrFNlUfAoL-sg7FgWw8MzRjf7OXqHAD2mj1AxgBilgYCo2Mvln-HyCxQYJu6OH69OwDfV2DmzvPnum1e6sTlrPxsS78HdNjdqoKFsgtPv1ixA7ovwBb1MlX412oaCsTnSrTpYQn7R8YQqkW_wvONuWNcPmP481G43SNmPhT5pIyYfoQ2sohHViX5GaYSnhSYADP4kbotloSZy9_DbyXKD0J6ShanKM.U7t3qBa7KUmdm90S8WVxQci6l8XUXREdIlQG-E5o9tg&dib_tag=se&keywords=grub+hoe&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1733153751&sprefix=grub+hoe%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-9

The point I am trying to make is simply how to value the property. A large number of the possible buyers of the flat would have to pay second home related taxes so the value has likely fallen due to that. It is also worth considering who we might be able to sell it to after university. I had a discussion about this a few years ago at work and was very much persuaded by a colleague who I didn’t always agree with. Despite stamp duty being paid by buyers in terms of who settles the bill. Stamp duty goes up, prices go down and vice versa. Buyers have fixed buying power set by wages, savings, mortgage rates etc. If they have a large extra bill to pay then that reduces what they can pay for something. Even if we don’t have to pay the extra I am still considering how it has impacted the value to other buyers. Scottish first time buyers only pay no stamp duty below £175k. Over that they get a fixed £600 off what the stamp duty would have been.

Oh yes it will be hers, basically gifting her the money. But the sellers own it as a holiday home and I have to believe that a large part of the market is holiday homes and student lets, especially looking at small flats. These have to be worth less than they were 6 months ago due to tax increases. I just don't want to overpay, pointed this out to the agent. Interestingly he didn't push back or suggest any other offers had been made. Main reason to do this is she wants to live on her own and also I don't want issues with trying to find a rental every year, dealing with landlords and so on. A lot of student rental stock is pretty poor, the new purpose built stuff is crazy expensive for what you get, you're talking £14000 a year for a 20sq metre room. However, a bonus, if you are in the fortunate position of having cash available, is that the return on cash after tax is appalling. So, say I am getting 4% interest on cash, this is only 2.2% after tax. Higher inflation makes tax on interest basically a wealth tax (You earn more interest to cover higher inflation, so are effectively paying tax on inflation). Therefore the loss of interest after tax is way way less than I would be paying in rent. I would save the equivalent of around £6000 a year, basically covers transaction costs after 1 year.

Made an offer so in wait and see mode. Not being a landlord I didn't realise all the changes to second home council tax, LBTT etc. The flat is being used as a holiday home. So I am guessing the 200% tax will really sting. They have also upped additional property LBTT in Scotland to 6% of the total price. This also applies for a corporate purchase. So the value of places up for rent, which would be the main value of this place must have fallen. My guess is that values should have fallen around 5% because of these two changes and this is not reflected in the home report valuation which was done before this. I guess the purpose of the changes is to make houses a lot more expensive for landlords than owner occupiers and I think that is fair. I'm not going to have to pay this and it does look as if it is reaching the limits of what is reasonable. TBH I'm surprised prices haven't fallen between this and interest rate increases.

I think it would be cheaper to be on a time of use tariff now anyway.

Been to see the flats again. What I thought was a big hot water tank was actually two tanks. Hot water below and cold water above. The pump kicks in when you use a hot tap and gives good hot water pressure. I assume that the electric shower if necessary due to the small size of the hot tank. There was good cold water pressure in the kitchen which presumably is connected to the mains and poor cold water pressure in the bathroom which is presumably connected to the cold tank. Should I be able to replace both tanks with a UVC connected direct to the mains and do away with the pump and electric shower? One flat had an e7 timer on the wall. The other just had a switch which said hot water and timers on the electric radiators which makes me think they have done away with e7.

Yes, I will run taps when I am there tomorrow to see if I can get an idea of what is going on. I don't understand why there appears to be pump next to the tank and the shower is also pumped. The tank pump did look ancient in the one flat we saw last week. I'll try and get a picture of it. I also noticed that the electric shower seemed to be a new addition as new pipes had been knocked through the wall to it from the cupboard behind. Maybe the tank pump gave out and this was the solution. We could conceivably have six months before my daughter has to move into the place so plenty of time to do it up. It is extremely well located and I suspect that a lot of buyers wouldn't have the time or inclination to renovate so I could get my money back on the renovation as well as having a nicer place to live. There is a reason we live in a brand new house we built ourselves!

A very good point. One of the two flats is top floor and we do have a preference for this reason. Luckily as all the flats are one bed it shouldn’t be too noisy. Daughter is currently in halls and HATES sharing due to other people never cleaning up after themselves. Many people it seems leave home without ever having done any cleaning themselves. Also person in the room next to her seems to be living on US time and constantly video calling people after midnight. However heating and hot water are free and they have underfloor heating! We don’t know the thermal makeup of the building. The EPC uses assumed figures. It appears to be block built cavity construction from the mid 80s with the original double glazing which seems in surprising good condition. All the internal walls seem to be solid also. Loft has 170mm of insulation that we can top up. As it is quite small heating shouldn’t be too big an issue. My main other issue is Artex ceilings in a flat built in 1985 could have asbestos in them. I know it’s fine if left in situ but I’d remove it if it is asbestos or skim if it’s just Artex. There is very little choice. Either much older places in worse condition or much more expensive newer places. Onerous stamp duty in Scotland makes me want to keep the price down.

Looks like I need to have a closer look at the system when we go look at the two flats again tomorrow. Considering the hot water tank and apparent pump next to it, I wonder if there is a pressure issue. Presumably low water pressure could limit my options. I might take some pictures for people to comment on. I have zoomed in on the brochures and both showers appear to be full Mira electric showers. Not clear why you would need these when there is a hot water tank.m Having listened to people I am certainly leaning towards replacing the tank with a new UVC and then having just a mixer shower but I guess I could have flow or pressure issues that might make this difficult.

The existing tank is an old school one covered in yellow foam, so the only saving I was thinking of was less heat loss in the tank. It looked like it was easily 200l or more. Probably would save 1-2kWh a day in heat losses. If the tank and pump need replaced anyway due to their age the choice is a new UVC or a new electric combi. Actually looking at costs, maybe a new UVC is a simpler/cheaper solution. This would also allow the power shower to be eliminated. Indeed I would only get an electric combi with an integrated tank as heating hot water on demand would be very expensive. This relies on the system allowing the water temp to drop to a lower set point during the day before it kicks in to reheat it with a higher set point during the night. I believe that this should be doable.

I thought I couldn't find the noise level, but I had missed it and it is indeed 50dB which is probably too loud. The Dimplex EDEL is only 36 which would be fine, but that just gets you hot water. A few companies make these, I am surprised they have not configured them for heating also. You really think a 150mm penetration would be an issue, it is no different to a boiler flue. (Would need to check the deeds, but it is freehold property in Scotland so I don't think you need permission, planning would be required on the front elevation) Even if I don't do anything, I did think this thread would be useful as installing ASHPs in flats is not something I have really seen discussed.

Yes they are expensive, but would likely be a little cheaper than the current very old hot water tank. Fair question. The hot water tank and pump appear to have been installed when the flat was built, so at 40 years old I would think it is the to replace them and it will be empty for a few months, so now is the time if it needs doing. It would also allow us to get rid of the power shower. TBH that is maybe just my bias against them. Good point on MCS, it appears not when I just looked at the register, making the question moot. The EPC suggests installing heat retention storage radiators. This would probably be a good idea as you could charge them up a lower prices during the night. However, they are surprisingly expensive at £6-800 a piece plus installation.

We are looking at buying a 1 bed flat for our daughter at university, will be in her name. There are two that we are interested in both in the same building. One is top floor, one is mid floor. 46sq metres. EPC suggests around 5000kWh of energy use a year 1500 for DHW and 3500 for space heating (4000+ for top floor) The flat is around 40 years old. It has electric storage heaters, a hot water tank with immersion heater I think on e7 and an electric power shower. There appeared to maybe be a pump connected to the hot water tank, it looked like something built by Edison! It wasn't clear to me why they have a power shower if there is a hot water tank, would this possibly be a pressure issue or is it just incase there is no hot water? I have never had a power shower so don't know much about them. We would refurbish the flat, new bathroom etc. The more expensive flat has a new kitchen. I was considering replacing the ancient hot water tank and power shower with an electric combi, I had one in my apartment in London and it worked well for a low user. Various things spring to mind. The electric combi should have a tank so that hot water can be heated and stored at overnight prices. These appear to cost around £2000. No doubt installation would be expensive due to rerouting of pipework. I was thinking that most hot water would be heated overnight, so the saving of using an ASHP to heat other water would not be worth the extra cost. You'd only save around £100 a year. But when I looked at indoor ASHP hot water tanks such as this- https://www.electricpoint.com/dimplex-edel-hot-water-cylinder-heat-pump-170l-edl170uk-520rf.html I was shocked to see that they barely lost any more than an electric combi. Just a few hundred pounds extra. I then remembered that in Scotland you can get an ASHP grant, but only for heating and hot water I believe, so if I could replace the heating also the system would be free. The flats are in a conservation area and getting permission from both the council and other owners for an exterior mounted ASHP fan seems unlikely. But I found this product - https://trianco.co.uk/activair-indoor-9111-9111 This is a ducted indoor ASHP (Not sure if I would need permission to drill a couple of 150mm holes in the wall). The small output would be fine in this case. This along with a new UVC and radiators would fully upgrade the apartment, rust in much lower bills and CO2 output and possibly not cost me anything or much at all to install due to the grant. The flat has quite a large utility cupboard with an outside wall as well as a hot water tank cupboard so there is plenty of room to install things. I assume rerouting pipework won't be a deal breaker. Does anyone have an experience of these systems or know of a similar indoor ASHP?

I have removed the house photo. Really I don’t think the builder is likely to see this and even if they did I don’t think you said anything that they would be upset about. It is just a genuine question.

I think you didn’t attach the pics

Is that an upstairs room? If so I would wonder if it was blocked gutters causing water ingress. The picture is quite shadowed so it is hard to say. Any damp would be coming from outside most likely so I would check outside. Otherwise it might just be movement in the building, plaster has no give in it and cracks easily.

You’re right I have looked at putting in an electric panel heater and indeed have tried one which did the job. If it was me I might have done this. But all the panel heaters I have looked at have horrible timer systems. They purport to have various apps etc but seem to be extremely fiddly to program. Unless you spend close to the price of adding a new radiator. It is a lot easier for my parents to have a radiator connected to the hall loop so it works off the same thermostat. Indeed running the flow lower would improve efficiency and save money. That’s the plan once the radiator is in place. Assuming something like 500kwh a year of output from this radiator, it saves around £75 a year using the ASHP vs a panel heater so it will soon pay for the modest extra cost on installation. I have been quoted around £500. It will be within a couple of feet of the manifold so is a very easy job.

It's the glass. My hall and my parents' hall both have enormous amounts of glass and are double height. I did, however, tell my mum to leave the kitchen door open and it made a noticeable difference tbf. Although of course she doesn't like it.

Heat loss isn't affected by height, just the external areas. Halls aren't normally designed for 21, and normally rob or borrow heat from every room attached to it. Yes, but a double height hall has twice the wall area and one of the walls is entirely glass, so it has much more heat loss than a normal room of similar size. Do they have thick carpet? Have increased the flow rate in those loops to give more energy out. Run those loop 50% higher, so you get a lower dT (differential temperature). Then move the curve back down to lower flow temp. I have never been above 35 and we have UFH at 300mm centres. Various issues. Late 70s parents like to keep the house ridiculously warm. It is uncomfortably hot for me. They don't like the hall being colder than other rooms. The weather compensation curve was set to run the flow between 35 and 45C ramping up from 35C at 5C and above outside to 45C at -5C outside. I can see from the Heatmiser thermostats that the UFH rarely runs for more than 15 minutes in all the other rooms in the house. So for all the other rooms the flow could be 35C or indeed probably less. It is a tiled screed floor. The hall is an issue for multiple reasons. Many of these reasons will apply to any hall. 1. Double height means that there is a greater wall area to lose heat. 2. It contains about 30% of the glass in the whole house. 3. There are no UFH pipes under the stairs or in the understair cupboard 4. The pipework running to the other rooms is insulated, further reducing the floor area available to heat the hall (TBH I hadn't realised ow much area would be lost to this). 5. The only heating upstairs is electric bathroom radiators, so some heat is also lost to the upstairs rooms. I guessed it might be an issue and had the installers reduce the pipework to 150mm centres. The problem is that because of the lost floor area mainly due to the stairs and UFH runs to other rooms, you are trying to heat the whole volume from only around 8sq metres of floor, the total floor area of the space is 18sq metres and it is 5.5m high. At 50C flow, this has an output of around 86W/m2, so only around 700W. I calculated that the space needs around 1.2kW when the temperature is -5C (The whole house only needs 3.5kW at this temp). So we need to add around a 2500BTU radiator to the space (Maybe 3000 to allow a bit of overhead). This would produce 500W of output with a flow temp of 45C. @ChrisInKent likely has some of the same issues as regards to heat requirements for a double height hall versus the amount of floorspace available to produce heat from UFH. Although as I have said this issue would require an extra radiator, or closer pipe spacing, not a larger ASHP. What does that mean? Sorry typo - Heat the hot water faster.