Ralph

Have you seen the video of him as a young teenager, being interviewed in the back of his old man's Rolls Royce, talking about how much he loves money? Vile.

I have to imitate Jacob Ress Mogg to get Alexa to understand me. Apparently it can't cope with a north east Scotland accent.

We've had them for a few months now and I really like them. The only issue we had was that the catch on the warming drawer would not hold, Samsung replaced the whole unit. They also come with a five year warranty.

In Scotland you can have a plumber sign off your drainage, I don't know if that is the case in England.

I had this with Angus council . My contractor was supposed to be doing it and did not bother his arse. Luckily I had taken loads of photos saved to cloud storage so when they asked for the photos at the end of the build I gave them access. They were also a bit vague with exactly what they wanted just asking for detailed photos or video of Foundations Superstructure Drainage (Foul) Drainage (Soakaway) For superstructure I made sure included any steel work and trusses going in as well as windows. The issue we had is that they wanted to see insulation before the the pasteboard went on and as ours is closed panel so we had to get info from the manufacturer instead.

I'm not sure if it's in building regulations but I seem to remember that 25mm of deflection at the top edge of the glass is the maximum acceptable. Yours looks more than that so I would measure it and try and find the applicable regulations. May be that it's industry or manufacturing standards rather than building regs. Ours has some deflection because it has some decking between the spigots (we don't have the channel) and the steel beam it's bolted into. The decking has compressed in the months it has been installed and I'm waiting for the installer to come back and adjust it. Mine deflects by less than 15mm but because of the height it's a bit disconcerting.

My central contractor went tits up so we have no structural warranty. I'm looking at this now as we will soon be moving away from our build mortgage. My understanding is this: Some lenders seem to want a structural warranty, some are happy with a PCC, professional consultants certificate, which is basically the new name for what used to be called an architect’s certificate. My architect and apparently quite a few others stopped doing them because the liability became a pain in the hoop. The PCC has no warranty insurance like a structural warranty would have. It's basically a professional consultant (one one approved and listed in the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders Handbook) telling the lenders that they checked on the design and build and are happy everything is as it should be. Normally this would involve inspections at various stages. I think a PCC is only valid for 6 years whereas a structural warranty is valid for 10, after 10 years you don't need either. You can get a completed house warranty which is essentially a retrospective structural warranty but more expensive due to the liability from lack of stage inspections. I'm going to wait and see what my lenders will accept and make a decision then (some don't even ask for them) For me a PCC was about £3K and a retrospective warranty was over £7k I think a structural warranty is a waste of money unless the lender insists on one because they are difficult to claim on. some will probably disagree.

If you are looking for black appliances I'm pretty happy with our Samsung infinite Range. Steam oven, oven microwave combination and warming drawer. Hob is Samsung as well. They all seem to be working great.

That would be my preferred method but I'm a bit wobbly on ladders (legs are held together with screws) and the standing seam down the first floor makes it even worse.

Any recommendations for a water fed pole for cleaning high windows? Also, soap or no soap? I don't really want to get into having to use ionised water and all that faff.

We need a retrospective warranty to move our mortgage, we've been quoted between £3k and £7k by various companies.

Thanks, I have a look to see exactly. I'm slightly concerned that if the river keeps the flap valve closed for any length of time that the plant will back up anyway.

Sorry to hijack the thread but on Sunday I was walking through the burn that our treatment plant empties into, clearing our branches etc while the level is still low. I noticed that the outlet pipe does not have a rodent guard and had a couple of thoughts. 90% of the time the burn is below the pipe but occasionally it will be above in heavy rain. Should I: A. put a flap valve on the end instead of a grill? B. put an angle on the end of the pip so it is pointing downstream? My concern is that if the stream is too high, will it flush back to the treatment plant causing issues? It’s a klargester bioficient and I don’t know if it has some sort of internal check valve. http://www.svrplastics.co.uk/uploads/images/spigot_connection21.jpg

As a comprise you could look at standing seam steel, cheaper than Zinc and will look similar.

We also have black cladding and it really seems to attract them. Being in the middle of trees and with a stream insects is a problem for as when we leave the sliders open, which I do all the time.

I think it's worth it when you have those kind of views. We really like ours but some visitors take a bit of time to get used to it.

Looks great. How does water drain from the balcony? The frameless with the channel looks good, we went with some spigots and they have been a little bit of a pain to set.

Good idea.

I have about 150 meters of this on a large plywood reel. BT are ignoring my requests to come pick it up. If I consider this as abandoned and decide to dispose of it, is it worth anything? Do you reckon I could get £50 for it?

I have to say I can't watch it any more. Having struggled to build and keep on budget, people pulling extra money (sometimes more than our total spend) out of their arse because "this space deserves it" is just annoying. I do know someone who had meetings with the production team a good few years back when they were building some of the first "eco" houses around here. It seems like they did not go ahead because plans, budgets and skill sets were all in place so there was unlikely to be any entertaining jeopardy for telly.

As long as the ditch has a continual flow of water there should be no problem. We run into a burn and have not noticed any smells or anything, it just looks like clear water going in.

But not if you are a bird. Just this morning I picked up a Mistle Thrush off the deck after it smacked into the window. That's two birds this year and a pipistrelle bat (although it survived). Can you imagine the carnage caused by building a 170km by 500m mirror in a country that 500 million birds migrate through every year.

I'm trying to sell software to NEOM at the moment so have had a few meetings with them, everything they tell me just sounds insane. As the £500 billion from the wealth fund they are looking at a flotation and about £1 trillion

It's 1530mm x 1100mm so not significant. Apparently the SE can't just do an amendment or letter stating it's covered. They have to do a whole new cert.

We added a window to the back wall of our garage and decided to handle it as an amendment, now Building Control have requested a new SER certificate and associated drawings. The structural engineer who have already given us the signed Form Q now wants £500 + VAT. I feel like I am being robbed. I don't think I have a choice, any thoughts?