lizzie

They do like chocolate too.... the cheap stuff not the expensive high cocoa ones and yes smooth peanut butter and cheddar cheese all gourmet delights to ratty

I so feel for your dear lady. She is being very understanding. Get rid of all the rubbish near the house and get some professional advice about getting rid of whatever is in the walls. Some poisons are designed to be slow acting, they eat the poison then go away back to their nest and die there so you dont get any smells.....if yours is trapped then it will stink if it dies in the wall. If it is a squirell they dont generally poison them they trap them.I find a one man band pest controller usually more help than big national company. Having the eps base it is the thing that has bothered me most, i worry about rats nesting underneath and chomping their way through. I used to live next to a river and was constantly on my guard about rats getting into the house although they never did. My neighbours were more cavalier about things and they got them in the kitchen under the cabinets came in via gaps around the wastes behind the backs of the cabinets........ Oh and another method of rat catching which was what we were given by the local man in Doha when we lived there. Rats were a real problem and you could hear them all night. method is....good size piece of ply, spread some contact adhesive (evostick I think we used) some tempting titbits on top, put it where ratty can get at it, watch and wait and when he comes for the delicacies his feet get stuck in the glue. When he is stuck bash him on the head with something heavy. Job done, start again and wait for the next one LOL

Interesting project......any photos

That looks lovely, very well done.

You met my plumber then!

You could try a slightly different approach. I have a townhouse part of a Victorian school conversion. Suspended timber floor and no modern damp course. Conservation officer was a tyrant with the developer on the build.....Munster joinery did the windows its on their web site. To solve the problem of drainage/splashing around the walls which are porous old bricks they put in a french drain but left it open. It is deep maybe a foot deep with just an inch or so of gravel in the bottom. It is faced with slate on the inner side of the earth trench wall and slate against the brick side too to protect the old brick but still let it breathe. This big trench takes all the water and it goes away and because it is so deep there is no splashing. It was specificaly designed to prevent splashback against the walls. There is a shallow border for plants all around to make it safe from falling in and hide it a bit. There is no garden as such its all paved . At thresholds they essentially created a bridge, a sort of small culvert type thing so there was a level threshold with paving right up to the threshold and under it the french drain. There is no problem at all with damp on the walls or drainage it works. I cant find a close up but if you zoom in you may be able to see what I mean, Im not great at explaining it.

It is brand new! I think same principal would work work with old bricks though our french drain is about 70 wide which is enough to cope with any splashing. Our bricks are not getting wet down there.

My garage is all brick no cladding. We have the same french drain with gravel/slate as around the house that sits against the brick below dpc level. In front of door we have an aco drain similar to the one suggested earlier by redocober, its a slope down to the garage so we need to stop water running in. It works well no issues at all and we have a resin drive. Sorry have not got a close up pic to hand.

No the cladding is above the ground level by a few inches and it is set back behind the french drain, we have an aluminium trim around the eps then the cladding is above that.

Ive got a french drain and gravel topped with decorative slate. In front of that I have a slot drain, that does the level threshold area where I not have gravel as I wanted my tile to run up to threshold. Slot drain runs right around the patio perimeter

@Besidethewye sent you a pm

Worse than you can ever imagine LOL

You would not want to see mine I promise you!

Exactly what I thought and yes there may be a benefit to your hard wired system...the cloud is supposed to save the settings but this is not the first time everything has disappeared and it takes ages to re do.

Ap is back up now was an ap issue they have supposedly fixed however it appears to have lost all my settiing and I have to reprogramme and pair all the stats again.....tomorrow is another day it can wait I will use manually for today.

This is my dirty unit intake filter and this is a clean room extract vent filter

@ProDave yes they are black mesh. The grey is the dust and gunk.

No done twice since fire........ Room filters are optional extra, hopefully keep pipes nice and clean. I didnt want anything lurking up there growing bugs I might breathe in, once had a flat with warm air heating never forget the filthy mess that built up in that. OH is a talc fiend so could understand his bathroom one being so bad but mine is almost as bad and I never use any dusty products and his bathroom is well away from mine. Seeing all that is a worry, god knows what is being breathed in. The unit incoming filter is grey and yukky as you would expect, the unit extract filter is pretty clean as most must be captured by the room vents.

Bit of housekeeping today, changed filters on the unit. Been in since mid Aug and I have given them a periodic shake out during that time but they were ready for a change. In my ceiling extract point I have removable filters too. I have rinsed them a few times and resused but today I put new ones in as I think it was time. This pic is of the removed ones from bathrooms and dressing area....about 6 weeks since I last rinsed them out and they were filthy today. Wierdly the kitchen ones were quite clean (inc grease filters) so I didnt change those. Plant room , utility and w.c. were not bad but I changed them anyway. Given state of bathroom filters how often do you think I should be checking them? I need someone to be here with me to do it as I am not steady on the ladder LOL

Nice and quiet....open plan?

Bora is not gas its electric....induction. I would certainly go for the Bora over a Bosch, Neff etc with integrated extract in my view it is far superior. Downdraft is a personal taste thing really. I didnt want my clean lines broken by one and so went for the Bora having tested quite a few different options with integrated. Some on here have Guttman, again personal choice I liked Bora better. Having cooked on gas for eons I would never go back to it, I had the configuration with various different bits, wok burners electric bits the whole caboodle on huge hob.....but now no need for that mix good induction hobs are streets ahead....Bora have a special pan that you get that turns part of the cooking area into a teppanyaki style cooking area its brilliant use it all the time, you need to have the flexi induction though. Maybe you should go and test a few hobs before you buy.

Ive had someone out today to look at my threshold issue as I have been unable to resolve it with bits and bobs myself. There is no doubt my issue is with the install and complete balls up with the slab pour with no provision being made for the level thresholds (prof proj man and window installer both messed up cant blame slab people they just did what they were told). Some remedial work was undertaken to stop the water ingress ...that water ingress went on for over 6 months and held up the build. This remedial work has left me with level thresholds that sit in thin air. Apart from drainage issue it is a worry that the threshold, which flexes when you stand on it, will bow over time. Ill get back to the point,......... I found a company who happen to be near me and specialise in repairs to ali windows and cladding, commercial jobs but he is going to do something with the thresholds for me. I dont know if they may be any use to you @Besidethewye....if you are near the Wye you would probably come into their 80 mile radius of Brum work area. I can give you website if you wish but I cant recommend as they have not done my job yet. He was a very professional man and knew his stuff though. Waiting for my quote now.

Spoke to soon Neo Hub been off line all day and cant get it back on, hoping its an app glitch not my hub.

Mine used to get cakes/ pasties/ sausage rolls most Fridays during the job anyway.

Love the pink box...mine is a pretty blue at mo.....and thank you for the link??