Nickfromwales

If you post a head off the an established 3D printers they can do the design and production.

@TerryE could just take the wheel heads off the manifolds and push them into a heated socket, melting them into compliance, and then refit them all and use the socket. Or one of those DIY multi-sockets which have a load of finger pins, which allegedly grab any size nut with a locally sized ‘socket’.

@TerryE, I think it’s just ‘life’ and would be far less problematic if you had better access to get your kits on it more robustly. Beware using a ratchet as that apply way too much torque and wreck the manifold, but I’d certainly look at getting a long screwdriver and welding on a tip that fits the square shaft, or, as above, 3D print a key. You could probably buy some aluminium tube and just hand cut some castellations into the end of it to create a Hep-spanner. I doubt those teeth would need to be more than 5mm deep vs the full depth of the tap heads. Have you emailed Wavin to see if they do a spanner for this?

Gordon Lewis came to site for 2 days, with a +1 in the van feeding the machine, and did a huge amount of work tbf. @Gballam PM me if you want his details, and what he charged, but he’s a lot cheaper than you may think. FYI he doesn’t supply, he estimates the volume and you order direct from PYC, then he just turns up labour only and pumps the stuff in. He allows for taping up the membranes back to airtight standard, and supplies the tape.

I’d jimmy the bottom 600 mm of batten to get a gap, lap it up and tape it, then use screws to pinch the battens back into place. Taping around the battens is a bit crap (imo) so I’d go the extra mile as the vapour barrier is very important in such a dwelling.

I’d tee in as high up as you can, and actively avoid dropping down with a waste pipe, as you’ll get slurps and traps being sucked dry, so will need air admittance valves if you do that.

Odd that it wasn’t taped up before the battens went on. Were the upper walls pre-fabbed?

Thanks for the sympathy guys…

Does this have a FIT agreement on it?

Is the wall to the left (the original, shorter wall) retaining anything? Are both rear gardens at the same level? The block-work looks ok but obvs the cracked few blocks would need replacing as I bet you could just push those off. My 2 cents is to demo the lot and put a nice shed there, which will have thinner walls so you’ll gain more space. Drainage? You don’t need any as it’s outside, literally, so the rain will just go wherever it wants to. If you put a shed there you just leave a gap between the shed and the walls so rain and runoff from the rear retaining wall just go straight to ground.

You’ll be biting that bullet, but you already secretly knew that . No real reason to change the stack unless it’s in a bad way, and you can cut into these with a decent Starrett hole saw without issue. Just keep the chuck tight as you don’t want to finish drilling the hole and then watch the hole saw fall into the stack, and then listen to it go ‘clunk’ as it hits the bottom clay bend and shatters it. Ask me how I know…..

Most offer a rudimentary coverage, but all seem to want the path of least resistance. The pitfalls of going for convenience is often accepting unidentified compromises through lack of comprehensive and holistic dialogue; architects for home builders just seem to glaze over and almost entirely discount the families that will inherit these offerings and live with them for the next 5/10/20 years. In the last 10-12 years, I've 'suggested' to 9/10 of my clients that they allow their architects to move on to other projects. One of my current clients put MBC's quote on a shelf, where it was left gathering dust, before engaging my services. Once the hidden value in MBC's offering became identified and realised, it soon became their chosen path. If you don't know, you don't know, simple as. For the many folk reading this, put a price on yours and your families time, as you can't buy this for any amount of money .

Yes, it is!!!!

Yup. Most stuff is 1/2", or 3/4" where you just insert a brass 3/4x1/2" bush first. German stuff usually 3/4", like Grohe / Hans Grohe.

Glued too?

Kress were in most Black & Decker shops years and years back, and I had a load of their 230v tools. Cheap, great quality, lasted forever, and the best part was a detachable mains cord that plugged into the grip of the tool. If it got damaged I just put the lead from another tool onto the dead one and back in business.

Where can I buy one of these bad boys????????? I haven't baited as I have a dog, plus I don't like the idea of the Kyte's or neighbours cats snacking on poisoned rats.

Because you can't beat a Greggs mate

The mechanicals will always need replacing, that’s just acceptable as things that move wear out. The backbone (such as UFH pipes etc cast into screed or slabs, plus MVHR ducting set into the frame and fabric of the dwelling) is where you should focus concerns of “ultimate longevity”. Most build systems have to withstand 50-60 years of occupancy and ‘use’ but that’s mostly for sub and superstructure; the pretty stuff can be changed retrospectively, and one can assume a full cosmetic makeover (x2) in a 50 year span, to allow for end of life or keeping up with modern taste / style etc.

Or

Seagulls need a massive cull too. Had 2 of my kids food out of their hands, and a whole pasty literally as I was about to pop it in the pie hole. Just heard a whoosh and a flap and the damn huge thing was sat on the floor in front of me trying to polish off a steak bake in one gulp. Queue one angry Welsh plumbers right foot and off it went sideways. Cut my sons thumb open and took an entire Big Mac off him. In Asda a few weeks back I had my shopping loose in a trolley and a mate stopped to chat. He said to look behind me, where another flying rat was ripping my shopping apart. It grabbed a 2x 12 slice pack of bacon and attempted lift off. Just before I got to strangle it, off it flew. The beak had gone through the plastic packaging and right through 10 slices of bacon, ffs. These types of vermin are rife and something needs doing.

Cocker spaniel. Mine has seen 2 big bastards off in my back garden. Feckin things are rife everywhere tbh. Running across the roads early evening, largely because lazy twats keep them fed. Neighbours with open compost heaps and allotments don’t help.

The units I referred to would do UPS / EPS in a black or brown out, where the 50hz metronome from the grid goes bye-bye. AC coupled parallel inverters would instantly go into island mode and shut down. Hybrid units would allow the 50hz signal to be created artificially, and then the solar and batteries would perform as normal in a power outage. You can even then connect a genny to charge the batteries simultaneously if you want to use a lot of power / sunshine isn’t suffice. Lots of different products / options / scenarios / solutions. Best to choose inverters that offer export limitation too, as at >253v your inverter is supposed to switch off.

Chaps. AC or MVHR?

Yes. It’s quite common practice amongst the Chinese stuff. Typically you’ll have a master unit that provides the 50hz metronome to the slave units, linked by the AC signal or a cat 5 cable. Been a good while since I dipped my toes into this stuff, so I expect a lot of the more reputable industry standard manufacturers are also ‘parallel capable’ by now.