AliG

@ETChas doen a great job there. Gap in the midldle of kitchen unites would look stupid. Also if the utility room is for doing laundry, you would have to walk it all through the kitchen, now the door is closer to the stairs. I might mirror the design so the door to the utility is closer to the bottom of the stairs and the coat cupboard is closer to the front door, although plumbing etc might be easier if the WM and TD are on the back of the kitchen wall. I would get a kitchen specialist to look at the kitchen design, I think it could be improved. Why for example is the sink shown as half across the window and the hob off to the side facing the wall. I am a big fan of putting the hob on the island facing the kitchen. A sofa at the back like that is going to feel quite odd facing the table. I think it is not that big a room and you have a lot going on there. I often see designs showing a breakfast bar and a table. They are almost right next to each other, so do you need both? Chairs take up a surprisingly large amount of room once you account for people moving them in and out from the table/bar and not pushing them back neatly. Also the folding doors are very large, it could be useful to make them a little smaller and have more wall space. It is somewhat dependent on what you want to use the room for.

I have ordered 10 replacement pipes so that I can replace any that appear damaged and have some spares. I am thinking of putting thicker rubber piping around the braided hose, so that if one bursts the rubber pipe directs that water into the cistern. Then we should hear the sprain water/see it running into the cistern but it won't go everywhere causing a flood before I get a chance to fix it. Can anyone think of a problem with this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/sourcing-map-Clear-Vinly-Tubing/dp/B07T1YD3YY/ref=sr_1_10?content-id=amzn1.sym.6a8bca00-2c99-4bbb-a0d6-1d9660235317&keywords=rubber+tubing+30mm&pd_rd_r=d59344b0-1524-4045-8878-b6370eee9530&pd_rd_w=59ejy&pd_rd_wg=ScRvM&pf_rd_p=6a8bca00-2c99-4bbb-a0d6-1d9660235317&pf_rd_r=5CYG4FSHW6S8BJDCYR10&qid=1674885972&sr=8-10

The flexi is inside the cistern it’s part of the system. I think the Geberit concealed cistern has the same pipe. I have always thought they were basically the same.

Another one of these pipes burst today. At 430am I thought I could hear my daughter taking a shower, then I realised after about 20 minutes that didn't make any sense. I got up and the en suite was busy flooding. Figured out another one of these had gone, but this time instead of spraying into the cistern it was spraying against the flush plate and coming out. Got soaked with my finger in the hole while I switched it off. Then went downstairs to find enough water had got out around the flush plate into the wall that it had started to drip down through the kitchen ceiling, so now that will need fixed. Luckily just a small area. It was around the edge of the cooker hood, so I will wait a bit to allow that to dry out before trying it. Hopefully the water will dry out inside the bulkhead as there is no way to get in there easily. Further investigation suggests that flexi pipes may only be good for 5-10 years which scares me as we have quite a lot of them connecting things up. I am going to buy a load of these ones that go in the cisterns and replace any that look dodgy. I checked two out, one looked like new, the other was covered in rust spots. Not sure what the difference between them was as they were in almost identical bathrooms.

On the actual topic, my view is that generally you cannot make someone fix something of theirs that is in disrepair because you would like it fixed. Building Control may order a fix if they think the retaining wall is unsafe and a danger to the public, but it is not that high, doesn't appear in imminent danger of collapse and it is unlikely that people would be near it, so I very much doubt they would care. If you wait two or three years I doubt the wall will be in any different a state. It is probably best to read this thread in conjunction with this other below thread where @PXR5discusses building a further retaining wall very close to this one. My view is that they should be considered as one and this should not be built without the input of a structural engineer. Indeed I think building a retaining wall over 1m without SE input is a breach if building regs. A tall retaining wall like this would have be considerably more substantial than suggested. If you propose digging down 2m within 500mm of an existing retaining wall you are going to have all kinds of trouble, with a good chance of destabilising the existing wall. If you need to do this to build a house then the cost and responsibility of this will be yours. I am sorry that the neighbours appear to not be very nice people, but they do not have to rebuild their wall to help your project. Indeed it would be pointless of them to rebuild their wall if you then plan to dig right next to it.

Posts that got off topic onto the subject of the neighbours have been deleted, please can we keep to the topic of the wall.

What is really really annoying me is the massive number of headlines proclaiming we were all doomed as the wholesale price went up versus the almost complete lack of comment as it has fallen. It shows the media's massive bias towards scaring people and causing alarm. If the war ends prices will fall back to where they were before if not arguably lower as we will have more supply of gas than ever and people will have reduced use n the interim. There will be massive oversupply of LNG. This could easily be the situation in 2024. Or of course the war could escalate and the price could be higher too, but my bet is on the war being over and prices collapsing. Ramping short term prices is a bad long term strategy for commodity producers as it hastens people's efforts to find ways not to buy your commodity in the long run.

The price cap works in arrears. For each period, they work out what wholesale costs averaged in the previous period (the period recently changed to three months from six months) and set prices to reimburse the energy suppliers. Note it is the average price over the period, you cannot say the price today is cheaper and then just apply it to the whole period. This is why many of them went bankrupt last year as when there was a big increase in wholesale prices they had to keep supplying at a massive loss which they were then compensated for in the next period. The small suppliers did not have the borrowing capacity to cover the working capital shortfall. I have to read the full formula for how they calculate the price and which wholesale prices they use. The chart below is the Winter 23 gas price which gives you a rough idea, but is not exactly the same as the price used in the formula. A simple calculation to get to the price per kWh is to divide this price by 29.3 (there are roughly 29.3 kWh in a therm and then add 1p to cover overheads and an allowed 1.9% profit margin + 5% VAT. So the January price cap was based I think on prices from September - November. the price averaged around 375 a therm, which would have given a price of around 15p/kWh. Thus the government is subsidising prices at the moment. The April cap will be based on December-February prices which will have averaged around 250/therm. So around the current price for the next cap and no government subsidy needed. I think the price has actually been a bit higher based on the gas contract used n the formula and so the price may rise a little bit. If prices stayed where they are today, the cap would fall to 7-8p/kWh in the July cap. Note I would not call this a forecast like people quoted in the media. All they do is calculate the cap based on the price staying the same as today forever. Thus the nonsense forecasts of £7-8000 utility bills when the price of gas spiked briefly to 7-800p/therm. Electricity prices would move in a similar way. Prices should fall below the current cap in July. The quoting of the cap as a price per year is also incorrect, as people use considerably more energy in winter than summer. Thus even if the next cap is higher than the current one, most of your gas use in winter will be behind you.

I don't remember that, but maybe. I just don't see why he didn't pay up the £16k that they requested to get rid of it and instead fought it. I am fairly certainly lawyer would tell me to tick the don't know box re knotweed unless I could categorically say there was none.

Interesting case today. I can't see how the seller thought they weren't liable and went to court rather than just paying up. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11679077/Accountant-slams-miscarriage-justice-200-000-Japanese-knotweed-bill.html#comments

UK workplace electrical deaths- USA So 5x the population and 30x the deaths at work. For total electrical deaths per year the UK averaged around 10-12 for the years 2012-17 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/adhocs/009176numberofdeathswheretheunderlyingcausewasexposuretoelectriccurrentbysexandfiveyearagegroupengland2001to2017 France apparently averages around 40 and they have been complaining about people using hair dryers in bathrooms and apparently a new issue of using your phone in the bathroom while plugged into the charger. https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/French-consumer-agency-DGCCRF-warns-against-danger-of-bathroom-device-use-due-to-electric-shock The UK has very strict safety standards and seems to benefit. It is actually something we should be proud of.

Clearly opening windows is not the long term solution, but before spending money and time fixing this, it is probably good to know how big the problem is. By the description the house I assume it maybe just has a bathroom upstairs and kitchen downstairs. Can you try opening the windows in these rooms just slightly for a few days to see if that modest amount of ventilation is enough to stop the condensation? It will be quite a bit warmer next week so less of a hit having windows open. I would assume that most of the condensation comes from showers, cooking or clothes drying? If so perhaps a through the wall MVHR unit in the rooms where this happens is all that is necessary. These are cheap and just require a 100mm core through the wall plus electricity, so can be installed without interfering with the occupants. You could maybe just in stall one in the kitchen or bathroom and see if that is enough before installing another one. A full MVHR system or centralised extraction is going to be very expensive to install. and a dehumidifier very expensive to run with current electricity prices.

I am temporarily locking this thread as it has gone off topic.

I have looked at the technical specs of the heat pump, but cannot see an installation manual. From what I can see, like most heat pumps, it is designed for air to be drawn in at the back and blown out the front. This is why they are normally placed a few hundred mm from an outside wall, facing away from the house. The suggestion here seems to be to mount it "backwards" so that it draws air from the street and blows it into the garage space. Similar to @Nickfromwalessuggestion, but simpler would be to move the wall and door in around 800mm from the street (allows for 300mm clearance behind plus the depth of the heat pump). Then the unit could be mounted as normal in that space facing the street, taking air in from behind and blowing cold air out into the unrestricted street. No need for grilles. If it needs clearance to one side you would mount it with the door at that side. TBH looking at the spec, the concern re noise is incorrect. We have just installed a Panasonic Aquarea ASHP for my parents and you can barely hear it is running standing right next to it. The days of noisy heat pumps are well behind us.

Your local council is responsible for this. https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/directory-record/1190/street-lighting Councils tend to list a cost of around £1500-2500 to move a light up to 3m. Costs rise substantially if it has to be moved further.

@pudding the people who can see them are signed into Google. I have never used Google Photos but it looks like you can create a public link from there. I am not sure if the photos would appear if you insert a link or just the link would appear. Or you can just copy the photos direct into a post.

Well found @Blooda The Scotsman story seems a lot more accurate. Amazing how people can get a friendly journalist to spin a story the way they’d like it.

I just looked again, the plans show "soft landscaping" there is literally none on the Google view. My house is large, but the houses in the area are large. Most houses in this area are 3-400sq metres and I am around 900. The house here covers a ground area of 700sq metres according to the planning report (this includes the overhangs at the front). This makes it more than 10x larger than the surrounding houses. You can see 5 houses across its width behind and it is more than twice their depth. Despite being "single storey" due to its size it is at least as tall. I don't know how it got permission. It looks ridiculous. Taking rough measurements from the site plan. The house should be 620 sq metres (I excluded the front overhangs) and the site around 1650sq metres. However, I thought the house looked bigger than this percentage of the area when I eyeballed it. I took some measurements from Google Maps and the house appears to be roughly 4m deeper than shown on the plans. It is nearer the rear boundary and considerably nearer the road. I get closer to 760sq metres than the 620 shown on the plans. The house is approx 24m deep, compared to 19.5m shown on the plans and referenced in the planning report (full depth including the overhangs). I am sure Google Map measurements are not fully accurate, but the width measurement is correct comparing the map and plans. Note the position of the house relative to next door versus the plans. The rear is level with next door's garage and the front much further forward than shown on the plans- From reading the story, the council just seems to want them to adjust the roof shape. I bet they haven't even realised how much deeper the house is than approved.

Hi Gaz, A lot depends own the price you pay for a plot. Where I am in Edinburgh at the moment, plot prices have not fallen to take into consideration the massive increase in building costs. As far as I can see, unless you can build something very cheaply, say £2000/sq metre, then there is a good chance it would be cheaper to just buy something. I would say that using a main contractor you are looking at £3500/sq metre costs at the moment. I have heard of people being quoted £4000 as a ballpark figure. TBF this includes the often high spec in a self build house. I have noticed that builders have massively reduced their specs as a way of keeping costs down, e.g. virtually no tiles in bathrooms.

I found the planning application. The dormer window shown in the picture in the article was not in the planning application. https://planning-applications.midlothian.gov.uk/OnlinePlanning/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=P2A98TKVKNQ00 Actually the whole roof bears little relation to the planning drawings. However, in fairness, I cannot see it making a big difference and cannot see why they didn't get retrospective permission, although the house is stupidly out of proportion with the neighbouring houses, but that hasn't really changed with the alterations. Maybe they were enough to just push it over the edge as it does make the roof even larger and more imposing. I find it hard to believe that they did not know what they were doing. The comments on the article read like people think they should sue the council for making a mistake. However, this is due to the article quoting the owner saying the council made a mistake. No mistake was made that I can see. Planning and building control are separate and they had an architect who would have been well aware of this. The cladding and window shapes also are very different to the approval. The materials had to be approved and the cladding was supposed to be natural oak. Ahh, it all becomes clear. The house looks a lot more like the house they applied to build in 2017 which was refused due to being too "bulky" and poor design. https://planning-applications.midlothian.gov.uk/OnlinePlanning/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=OT0ULEKVJ9900 Shame the papers couldn't do half an hour of research. Refused plans

Shockingly badly written article by people who don't know the difference between a building warrant and planning permission. The people claim that they thought they were OK building what they did as they had a warrant. It sounds like the warrant was not for the same building they got planning permission for. I can't tell if they really didn't know this was a problem or not. https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/midlothian-couple-could-forced-demolish-25950076

If you have that much going spare all you need is a WiFi controlled fused spur. Something like this- https://www.ledbulbs.co.uk/products/timeguard-wi-fi-controlled-fused-spur-tuya-edition-fstwifitu?variant=39550838505530&currency=GBP&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google+shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlKirvLWD_AIVxtLtCh2awwNKEAQYASABEgJ8mvD_BwE I did look into getting one of these and the only issue is that a number of them are prone to burning out. I would try and find one that can take 16amps to give it a bit of headroom.

Yes, this is not a practical solution. You would need 3kW spare and to be available to switch it off and on. Leaving it on for just a small amount of extra time could offset any savings. The output of solar panels is extremely variable. I picked a random day in September to display the chart from my Eddi (I only installed it in early September). I agree it is expensive, but it seems work very well. As we have Octopus at 7.5p, we also use it to heat water with the immersion during the night.

It is a FLIRone apro attached to my iPhone. Looks like I paid £320 for an open box one. New price is over £400. I didn’t really want to spend that much but it has been very useful.

My brother and his wife have a flat built in the 90s. They get mould on the walls I think because they close the trickle vents due to drafts and they haven’t replaced broken extractor fans. My parent’s last apartment had central extraction and she kept turning it off as she didn’t like the noise(which was barely perceivable). I could tell straight away from how stuffy it was when I went in. Their new place has MVHR and I have told her in no circumstances can she switch it off otherwise I guarantee she would. I also haven’t told her how to work it so she can’t mess around with it. This is why we have these regs.