Temp

Take 2. I've not tried honeycomb bulbs. Perhaps buy one and rig it up temporarily on a pole or similar?

In general spots tend to produce quite sharp/harsh shadows. Its one reason I buy wide beam angle (90-120 degree) LED downlights for our kitchen matrix. The beams overlap filling in the shadows and producing an even lighting. Yes there is a bit more glare with the wider angle but we prefer that.

Just for kicks I drew up your proposal in Fusion 360. This shows you need a beam angle of about 9.8 degrees vertically to illuminate the picture from 5m away. So a 12 degree spot should be Ok in that respect. However it shows that if you stand closer than about 2m from the picture you will cast a shadow on the picture. The circle is a head at average height. Likewise if you stand any closer facing the light there will be lot of glare. So I wouldn't do this. I would try either a) a spot on the ceiling about 1.5-2m away from the painting. This would allow you to stand closer without a shadow and produce less opportunity for glare or b) one of those wall mounted painting lights like this. https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/arstid-led-picture-lighting-nickel-plated-20355622/?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=CjwKCAjwgr6TBhAGEiwA3aVuIdjP-m-pc_d7k8eRHRCG7fcQ2AQTLISAYNOVNn10QwQD1jEXBEZQWBoCiuIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds c) If there is something like a bookcase or table below the painting some sort of table lamp or special up lighter might work?

The Candle bulbs I'm using are.. Osram Parathom Dimmable 6.5W LED E14 SES Candle Very Warm White - 287907-438835 I'm sure they make as E27 similar.

I tried numerous LEDs over the years. Had great success with cheap non-dimmable bulbs but getting anything dimmable to work has been a struggle. I tried several makes of filament type bulbs on a variety of dimmers and always had horrible flickering. This was only/most apparent when several bulbs were used in one room/fitting. Then last year I tried some Osram candle style dimmable bulbs and they are working well on a Varilight dimmer. This year I tried some Osram GU10 downright bulbs and they worked very well on a dimmer until I blew them up. Think a spike on the mains from a fluorescent light on same circuit took them out. Have replaced with same and seem OK so far. So in short I would ditch the filament style and go for a well known brand. Trailing edge dimmers are best for LEDs.

+1 to insufficient information to determine if an RSJ is needed. _If_ that wall was only supporting the middle of some floor joists that span 3.2m then it does look like replacing them with 44/47 * 175 C24 would be OK. However walls and pillars frequently perform other functions. I would pay an SE to come take a quick look. The one you spoke to might be under the impression this wall was once an external wall and you're knocking through into an extension or something like that.

Seems they stopped offering insurance backed guarantees in 2015 ish.. Reasons here.. https://gbr.sika.com/en/media/news/2015/changing-world-of-guarantees.html I think I'd write to Sika and make the CEO aware of the issue with them not providing a IBW and Protek. How can anyone use their products on a new build?

Google found their specimen warranty.. https://gbr.sika.com/content/dam/dms/gb01/7/20-Year-Product-SPECIMEN-June-2012.pdf

I'm surprised Sika won't provide a materials warranty if the roof was done by a registered contractor. Would it be cheaper long term to get the flat part redone by a company that can provide an insurance backed warranty? How big is it?

Do you have planning permission yet? If not make sure to submit a landscaping plan showing trees and plants when you apply. Trees and plants aren't normally covered by the VAT reclaim scheme unless they are "required" by your planning permission.

If you want to do them yourself.. Fusion 360 is very powerful and free for home use.

Some heads have a mesh filter. Between hose and head. Did you descale that as well?

"Construction Index: The building regs are about to change but they forgot to tell the builders" https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/the-building-regs-are-about-to-change-but-they-forgot-to-tell-the-builders

Where do the pipes from the boiler fork to supply the heating and DHW? Presumably that's in the external boiler or the leak would affect both.

We have a mix of stone, engineered wood and carpet over UFH. It's nice having cool floors in summer and warm in winter. Particularly in bathrooms. I suppose there are days in spring when the heating is off that the floor feels a bit cold in bare feet. But socks are enough to prevent that. We certainly don't heat the floor. Mostly we walk around in bare feet all year round. I'm sitting with my bare feet on the stone floor as I write this.

Yup. If you fully fill between the rafters the membrane ends up flat. You need the counter battens to raise the tile battens off the flat membrane and allow any water to run down.

The duct should run to within a few inches of the pole. Typically you end up with a cable and a draw rope coming out of the end of the duct. What I did was wrap about 12" of the cable with electrical tape and pulled it back into the end of the duct. Then i squirted some expanding foam into the end of the duct creating a plug which I hope is only 6-8" into the duct. It wouldnt be too hard to remove it if I wanted to pull another cable through. I left the hole open until BT did the connection. They ran the cable up the pole and covered it with a galvanised cover strip from just below ground to several meters up the pole. I coiled up the excess draw rope and buried it in the hole.

If you use a vapour permeable membrane I don't think you need a 50mm ventilated void. I believe you only need a 25mm void to allow the membrane to drape. The drape is to ensure water can't become trapped above tile battens causing them to rot. The drape forms a gap under the batten so dirt and water can run down to the gutter.

With all plastic pipe systems they have to be assembled correctly. My builder wouldn't use anything but Osma Gold. The two errors to worry about with all systems are forgetting the insert and not fully inserting the pipe into the fitting. Our plumber always used a sharpie to mark the pipe to be sure it was fully inserted but he did forgot one insert that caused a leak. Lucky it was easy to fix.

Only if its a ridge board not a structural ridge beam. Big difference.

Simpson Ridge Rafter Connectors are under £3 but see above first.. https://technologyspareparts.co.uk/shop/simpson-strong-tie-rr47-ridge-rafter-connector-47x100x1-2mm-pre-galv/

Do the rafters "hang" from a structural ridge beam or is it just a normal ridge board? How is the roof triangulated?

You can get oak veneered plywood and add a bull nose. Might work out cheaper. Some of our window cills are left over engineered oak flooring. When I built an oak clad out building my neighbours had some of the left overs for their window cills. Only last week another left over board got used you make a coat rack for the village hall. Can never have enough oak.

We installed cable from our house to the bottom of the pole and left a coil behind the pole long enough to reach the top. We had loads of problems getting them to schedule an engineer but when he came he was happy to use our cable.

It's virtually impossible to get utilities to coordinate projects. You may find the electricity Co will come along and remove their cables but won't remove the poles as they still have BT lines on them. BT will want you to pay for them to remove the cables starting wth the surveyor to come and do a quote. If the BT line you want to move underground only serves your house then you can try disconnecting it and telling the electric co it's an old one not in use but they might not take your word for it. As for reconnecting.. you can just lay duct with two draw ropes to the bottom of the nearest BT pole that's staying. One draw rope to be used to pull copper, the other fibre when that happens. If the BT cables you want to move serve other houses then you will have to either get Openreach to quote to move them or wait until they do the fibre project and remove the copper, although I suspect they won't remove them. You might want to adopt Aporoved Document R for the duct and entry into your house?.. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-speed-electronic-communications-networks-approved-document-r