Nickfromwales

Handheld ones can carve valleys into the surface in seconds, so beware to not do more harm than good. I’d defo go for the upright and start with just taking a whisker off the surface, and remember to keep the machine moving at all times. Any time you need to stop, lift the machine. This isn’t a job for the front-hearted btw, and we recently had to drop an concrete raft down about 15mm (door and window supply and fit company fecked the job up royally, setting the front door down way too low to the slab as it was too big, and when I laid a tile down dry the front door wouldn’t open inwards as it was hitting 90% of the 9mm tile!). My mate came to the rescue, and did 2 days of grinding and smoothing out, over around 30m2 to feather it out. He told me we’re not friends anymore, and not to call him the next time 🤣. Hire the big machine for a day, try and area that you can sacrifice as a tester, and then remember you’ll need the smaller detail grinder to do corners and areas that the big machine can’t get to. Beware that the upright machine will chew through the job at a much faster rate than the detail grinder, so don’t make those areas then a load of grief by going to far with the upright machine. Mask anything such as skirting or units so as to not damage them, with Antinox sheets / other.

Horse and the cart seem a bit confused here tbh. @andeebee, do you have a pic of the architects section for this roof build up?

I think we have found the problem! Just re-read your first post…. Are you saying you have a dimmer switch controlling these lights? If so that needs to go, and the sparky should have told you this. LED dimming causes all sorts of grief, plus you can’t control fans or timers with a variable voltage input such as a dimmer. Afaic, this needs to be a regular switch, so if you can, change that over and test it again. @James94 also, you need the overrun for when someone’s used the loo, so there’s no reason why these two functions should be working without issue.

Defo supposed to be a VCL. Breather would be on the external surfaces. With correct detailing, it could become the AVCL, but a lot of questions would need answering to assure you of this, plus a lot more attention to detailing. Are you having MVHR? I can't recall.

Piss poor planning, which any decent professional should be discussing ahead of the works commencing, and including in the game plan for when works begin. Keep your chin up, as these improvements will pay dividends over time. Defo worth the extra hard work and time that you're putting in.

You are "within tolerance".... Go enjoy the beer and sit with the other half.

Gravity system with a heat only boiler? I'm less of a fan of Grundfos these days, and am steering towards Wilo more often. The 5 means 5m head, so most off the shelf standard circulators will do the job. This one may suit your needs and should be available locally LINK Hopefully the pump valves will hold well enough for a deft switch over, but expect them to not close fully.

It’ll be far more sympathetic, add value, and serve the intended purpose properly. Let us know if you put planning in and are successful, and we’ll talk you through the next steps

A light sand / media blast would bring that back to life

We used to call it cosy wrap. https://www.bes.co.uk/flat-pipe-wrap-12658/

That’s a piss-you-off!! CT1 will get that watertight temporary, if you need to keep using it. Just need to dry it out with a hairdryer and clean it before applying.

You’re driving me to drink Mike….

I’d be happy to roll the dice, if it’s not the only 2 houses within a few hundred yards.

From experience, with MBC ph offerings, MVHR ’may’ just get you by if you leave it at max wallop for purge. That’s if it’s used to prevent vs cure btw. At anything less, it’s no dice I’m sorry. One in Dorset was just stuck at 24/25°C and even with a Chinese heat pump MVHR with active cooling, the ‘occupant’ moaned to me that the cheap option she selected, against my advice, was useless. I’d recommend that you power up the roof lights and use the controls to trigger these to crack themselves open at say 22°, with rain sensors to close them etc etc. The automated purge from those, in your absence, may be the difference between a stinking hot house to an ok one; manual opening roof lights needs you to be there to manipulate them. Don’t think for one minute that this is in any way a) practical or b) possible in real life. My planning for clients is aimed at the residence being at an acceptable ambient by the time they retire of an evening, vs solutions which compromise life after the heads hit the pillow. One of the absolute joys of having a cellulose blown 300mm wall and 400mm roof, with MBC twin wall, is the sheer graveyard silence it brings. Having roof lights open in bedrooms at night would do my head in tbh, same annoyance I get when staying in hot hotel rooms with roof lights, and the result is a poor nights sleep.

This.

Not if it turns out cheaper and faster than prepping and re-covering with xyz. Especially if you’re still on shaky ground as to whether that’s then still robust.

SLC is friable, so won’t last 5 mins.

Microcement, or maybe ask a good grinding / polishing company to sample one small room and see what results that yields. Prep for adding layers to this will need to be robust, and would probably need some amount of grinding. The hope would be, to grind and area and see if it looks ok, then if so repeat throughout.

BCO may not sign you off with a DIY solution. Plus, you’d be interfering with the structural integrity of the beam, so would need prior approval from both SE and BCO. I like both other options, so as ever this is down to the decision maker in the house 👀.

Just “no”. Stop! This is fine, and will outlast you without issue. Put the sub-miniature spirit level into your missus handbag, and tell her, under no circumstances, is she to give it back to you. Turn the bathroom light off, and get to the fridge for a cold beer. Facts: The velocity of the flush water will take MrHankey and everything else out clear and past that connector, with absolute ease. Relax, fit it all in as per, and switch off. I’ve seen these going uphill 50mm and still no issue. And they’ve been in student digs etc getting a proper hammering. For insurance, when you’ve pooped, use the press and hold to completely empty all water from the cistern; that’s if you want to…..but I genuinely doubt you need to.

If they’re cheap leds then you may need a snubber (capacitor) across the feed to the lights. Do the leds only glow when the fan is running, and then go out when the overrun time has elapsed?

Leave it close to the window, get signed off, then push a Durgo AAV into the top of the then shortened SVP, so it no longer vents. It just needs to be higher than the pan of the 2nd floor WC, by around 200mm Do you have another SVP on the house elsewhere? The neighbouring properties with vents to atmosphere will be suffice for venting the network sewers, you’ll not have any negative effect from ‘capping’ the SVP with an air admittance valve. Make sure it’s an outdoor rated one though.

Ah. I thought this was off the decking, eg a fire pit / other! New specs needed….. May have some allowance given the distance from the house, but agreed, it should be higher. The installer should have said, or the neighbours should have appreciated, that this would become a huge nuisance to you as their neighbours (both sides). Time to knock the door and ask them to rectify, eg you provide an opportunity for them to sort this without enforcement by planning / HETAS / council etc. Tell them the air in your house is now being contaminated and it poses a serious health and safety risk to your son and yourselves. Don’t mince your words or be ‘too nice’ as they’ll likely take the piss out of you thinking you’ll go away.

Standard tile adhesive had been mentioned earlier on, so best to reiterate this needs to be flexible tile adhesive for best results and to provide some decoupling.

Yup. +1 to this. Excellent leverage!