chrisb

@Ferdinand What did you decide to do in the end? I have a 800x800 ish shower with walls on 3 sides (alcove style in bathroom-speak) that needs redoing after water got behind the tiles and rotted the tray support. I hate tiling, and also it's cold in there (2 external cavity walls) so I was thinking of removing the tiles, adding 25mm of celotex to the 2 outside walls and then panelling over the top.

My wife has just had a valspar match on a piece of 'picture' wallpaper - it's a lego pattern for our Son's room and he also wanted a green wall. Given we didn't want two greens in the room, the match seemed like the only option, and has come out perfectly. It's not a colour in their database, so it is now called 'Toby Green' in Reading B&Q ?

After a bit more eBaying, I've secured a H-T kit, brand new for £15 delivered, so all good! Resistor colour code is definitely there somewhere, but it'll soon come back to me ? I'll also pick up a pack of the marker cable ties as they will be useful for cables & pipes. Thanks all!

With the cable markers, is there a better type to get? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ovalgrip-PVC-Cable-Marker-Kits-for-electrical-cables-0-to-9-R-S-T-L-N-etc/153181666587 Appears the cheapest on eBay which is more like the price I was hoping to pay, rather than £££ for a Hellerman-Tyton kit or similar.

I did this about 3 years ago when I re-cabled an office for cat5. It all looked good when I did it, but the next time I saw it, all the labelling tape had fallen off (even when stuck round the cable back to back). I suspect it might make a difference if I used better tape, what type did you use?

What is the best economical solution to mark T&E cables? I guess that the best option would be a cable marking kit with printed sleeves that slip over, or a labelling machine that prints on heatshrink sleeving, but they are both out of my price range for the use they will get. Any other suggestions? White electrical tape & a sharpie? Thanks Chris

I hadn't thought about ASHP - we have mains gas, so I was only considering that and potentially PV in the future. I was expecting to run the UFH loops with regular CH inhibitor in them - is there anything wrong with doing this? I did like the idea of a coil in the buffer incase I wanted to connect another heat source of some kind in the future, but didn't plan on using it for now.

Is there anything to stop me using a small direct (or indirect, and not use the coil) UVC instead of a purpose-made buffer?

Lack of internets got in the way of replying - sorry. Wet trees are an issue if you have a wireless bridge providing your internet connection ? I've got an expansion vessel in the circuit anyway as I'm going for sealed rather than vented, so I wan't thinking I'd need another one? I was thinking about 120L originally, but space, cost and heat loss is a concern. The boiler, UVC and buffer will all be in the attached garage, which is underneath two bedrooms, but not the biggest space (16'x7'). I'm expecting to put decent non-leaky doors on it and treat it as a room, but with the UVC and buffer it will get hot. MVHR will take care of some of the heat, but I would like to keep waste heat to a minimum in there. That was the main reason for the UVC/Buffer option as when the heating is not required the buffer can be cold, and the UVC can be heated to a lower temp than a TS. Radiators-wise, we have never really struggled for heat in any of the rooms, and often have them switched off. I'm expecting the floor to run at no more than 25 degrees maximum (that was plenty last winter when we still had draughts and the floor could only get that hot with the 3kW Willis heater. It's pipes-in-slab at 150mm spacing, so once it's warm, it takes a very long time to cool down.

Has anyone used one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BUFFER-TANK-HEAT-PUMP-CE-B60/112659997759 in their installation? I want to use a buffer in my house which has a mix of rads, UFH and DHW by UVC. Boiler is a heat-only type, hence the buffer. I have enough expansion volume separately, so not really bothered about the integrated expansion option in the product above, but I think it would be daft to overlook the option of having an immersion available incase either the boiler breaks, or in the future when I have PV, I can dump it there. £316 delivered seems a reasonable price? Thanks Chris

I wonder if anyone has come across a supplier for a flexible (think roller shutter) sideways opening cupboard door? I am thinking of constructing a cupboard in the new utility room, approx 600mm wide and 800mm deep. There isn't a great deal of space for opening doors, and then putting things into and out of the cupboard becomes harder with the open doors in the way. To get around this I thought of using a retractable sliding door that moves around the side of the cupboard and out of the way, but I can't find a supplier. Any ideas welcome! Cheers Chris

The best thing I found for hip/muscle/nerve pain both pre and post op was a TENS machine. Can be had fairly cheaply on amazon, along with sticky pads etc. Ultimately it allowed me to do the physio that I needed to get mobile again. Without it, I'd have had to have massive doses of opiates with all the side effects that go with them.

Put in loads of cables to wherever you can possibly think they may be required. You don't have to terminate them with faceplates now, so long as you know where they are so that they can be done in future. WRT 'stuff'-over-ethernet/cat5 adapters, be aware that some require power too, and also some require more than one cat 5 cable. As a general rule I never lay/pull a single Cat5 cable anywhere that is going to get covered up. If it gets damaged, replacement can be a nightmare, so its easier to pull 2 cables in the beginning.

I very nearly bought the same tap @lizzie - Exterior fixings, door handles etc are all stainless, so I wanted it to match. The thing that stopped me was the exact issue you're having - they stick out too far when wall mounted like that, and I didn't want to drill a hoofing great hole through my nice new timber frame, and into the living area for the plumbing. I've gone for chrome wallplates with pipe entering at the bottom, and for now, regular brass taps. I've found some smaller stainless taps that look quite nice, so will investigate further, but really needed something quickly as the only other alternative for 'builders water' involved disconnecting the dishwasher to attach a hosepipe.

I can't add much I'm afraid. UPVC windows came from Merseyside in the end, and ended up having to get MasterCard to chargeback as they were faulty but the supplier would not refund me. I bought a kitchen tap from China on eBay - nice enough tap, but wrong colour turned up. Lots of typical Chinese seller rubbish about refunds etc. Ended up with eBay refunding me. The moral of the story I guess is to ensure that you have some kind of buyer protection!

I'd get the same plumber back to fix his mess - that's clearly not acceptable, and the alternative method above should not be beyond any plumber charging for his time. I do acknowledge that you might not want to confront him though, in which case this is pretty basic stuff, and should be doable by almost any plumber. The only slightly sticky thing I can forsee is the existing hole in the wall looks like it's in the mortar joint. Expanding this from the 15mm pipe to over 25mm will need a decent drill, and might get tricky if the bit keeps jamming, but even then, it's not insurmountable by any stretch.

Can you get access to the other side of the wall? Are you planning on hanging a watering system or similar on the lower outlet of the tap? if so, how much further into the wall does the tap need to go so that it's neater, but not too close for the device? Possible solution: change the wallplate fitting for a straight BSP female soldered onto the 15mm copper pipe. Drill a larger hole and let that back into the wall. You will need to take the pipe at a right angle to the other side of the wall to prevent it rotating. Edit - 'doubled with @PeterW

Mine had a builder stood on the end of the pipe, which was wedged firmly into a large bucket. Still made an almighty pop though!

Our mix-and-pump-in-one-wagon put the ball in at the mixer end and fired it out of the pipe in the same direction as the rest of the concrete. Nothing to dump anywhere after that.

I tried to find out more info about Casambi, including prices. It seems that a simple 1-channel dimmer module is about 70 euros? I can't find a UK online store - maybe I'm using poor search terms. I completely agree that star-wiring back to sensible central locations, along with neutrals to switch locations is the way to go for future-proofing.

I believe that there is a gap in the market here. My Brother has a couple of Lightwave RF dimmer modules controlling two banks of downlights in his kitchen. Control from a wall-mounted wireless switch, many compatible varieties available. He's taken the whole thing to the next level by incorporating it into his OpenHAB home automation setup. I've got a similar issue to resolve - at least 4 zones of lighting in the kitchen/family/dining room, but also 2 dimmable zones + 2 on/off zones in each of the two boys rooms. Another dimmable zone in the playroom/study. Doing all these with LightwaveRF is the cheapest option using 'proper' kit. It's still quite expensive though - especially when you add on the cost of the dimmable LED fittings too. I've had good results previously from the generic chinese panel lights (like @JSHarris has) so long as the power supplies are reasonable, and not devoid of filtering components and went looking along these lines again until I found MiLight - similar style of fitting, but with integrated dimmer (and RGBW colour changing if you want it). They have inbuilt proprietary 2.4GHz RF control, which has a variety of controllers available, up to 8 channels or scenes. The protocol isn't secure, but I'm not worried by this - the worst someone could do is mess with my lights.

Fire up a virtual machine - VirtualBox is a free VM host. You could get away with an unregistered install of Win 7 or 10 to finish off your drawings. I played with LoopCAD over a period of some months by snapshotting a clean Win 7 VM prior to installing and then rolling back each time it expired. (Just remember to keep your saved files somewhere else!)

Welding gauntlets from Toolstation are very effective. Shame they don't come in smaller sizes so I don't have to be the sole wearer!

I've not seen that on any of the 15 or so various flat panel fittings that I've bought over time. That said, all my drivers have about 10% of the components of the one in your picture!

@PeterW I've PM'd you if you want to invite me to Ironmongery Direct - it seems they have a referral bonus scheme. I have 'access' to a Howdens account, so could go down that route, but a quick browse on ID seems like they have plenty to offer with decent reviews.