MikeSharp01

Got an update on this one. Set my local expert the task of looking into the matter and, it seems that there may be no equity release / lifetime mortgage companies prepared to deal with non traditional construction out there. Although not exhaustive it seems that the risk appetites of these companies is so low that they won't touch them.

A recirculation system is a massive waste of energy in a home when you will only draw HW a few times a day. For the rest of the day you will be keeping the pipes warm, and associated spaces, for no reason. In a hotel such systems work well as HW is in constant demand and pipe runs are long so delays getting to HW are not acceptable but in houses these runs can be short. I suppose you could mitigate the waste issue by just running the system at high demand periods, as in early morning / bed time or whenever else you bathe.

Oooo er- what is the diameter of the trunk and how tall (long now) is it?

Not quite the case as a brise soleil works by cutting higher summer suns and does not so much interfere with low winter suns.

They usually supply and connect the meter and an isolator switch and your electrician can then connect to the other side of the isolator. If they don't have an isolator switch, I would be surprise if they didn't, you can get them at most electrical wholesalers and the like but you want them to fit it. Just check that the white box has a wooden back plate in it and let the power company do their thing.

It is a salutary read - sadly put out of lots of peoples reach by the price £80 ish, but a great borrow!

Even more if you have a shower one supposes.

Yep - I saw that but was not brave enough to mention it, but I now have my tin hat by my side - just in case.

I did a week long course on all three in 1981 (at South Thames College as was and I guess you can imagine where we went each evening, given that Young's brewery was 25 yards away!) I thought the MiG was most versatile and TiG the hardest to get remotely right but I still have my aluminium TiG project from the course. So although I enjoyed the TiG I would say MiG is a great starting place. I have done very little welding since.

According to herindoors probability of any sort of intimacy and warm body radiation theory you stand no chance with a pasty in your pants and you must not neglect the latency corollary that clearly defines the quarantine period, according to the inverse inverse cube law of time since any sort of pasty in the pants. There is considerable research, sadly now rather old, start HERE, that examines the nature of containment for pasty products - including what will happen to your collar, the screw extruder required, the need for a flat bottom and the probable effects on the container design. Along with the challenges to ones relationships the laws of physics also apply the the pasty phase, but, one guesses, that is a whole nother conversation. (Sorry Peter)

You are right to be concerned. Where is the hole in relation to the joist run, in the middle of the run or at one or other end? What sits on that joist, looks like a wall (hopefully a stud wall - which will be light and have a bottom stringer that can spread the load)? If its a brick wall then the load on the center of the joist is a triangle of the bricks and would need some calcs to work out what it is. Also does the joist sit on top of a wall below as this may make things a lot better. There are rules for notching a putting holes in joists. This is quite easy to follow: https://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/Notching_joist.htm

That was a great watch.

Yes - but we need to recall that the Clapham omnibus is now mainly packed with middle call Millennials traveling into work from their £500K Pied a Terres in Tooting and Balham up to the big smoke - their views might be interesting. (I mean that - interesting)

Auto opening for roof lights (Velux / Fakro / Etc) has been a thing for a long time and is very useful for creating passive stack ventilation automatic or otherwise but both need some air inlets lower down the building to let the air in and this is where more traditional windows and auto opening could be a great idea but the example above looks like a sub optimal design to me, aesthetically at least, solution and would leave security issues.

I am sure that most of the core lenders will support mortgages, most- although not by all means all, are quite happy with timber construction, but specialist equity release lenders are a different bunch as they have a different set of risk appetites. I suspect that the age / newness of the build might be a factor (newer houses easier). There must be someone out there who will do it but it will take finger work to find them and the rates might not be the best.

Broadly yes in brick / soft block situations you need to spread the loads out. There is some good stuff here: http://nhbccampaigns.co.uk/landingpages/techzone/previous_versions/2011/Part6/section5/appendix.htm

Ok so right now I am on way to GBK in blue water, walking, I will be surprised if there is no queue. Constructive pessimism or not?

Bascaly I don't see it working out well, in fact I see only bad things coming from it. I am, however, optimistic that my dire predictions are right.

Do not neglect the likely lack of pressure in a vented system needs to be factored in as the pressure & Flow rate is all about how high the main volume of stored cold (That keeps the tank pressurised) water is above the outlet point. In such systems this usually means that the flow rate to the upstairs shower is working from only a meter or so of head pressure. It is this feature (drawback) that makes unvented systems and power showers so much more 'end user' friendly EG great flow rates everywhere and similar flow rates on both hot, including those locally generated, and cold flows around the house based on mains pressure albeit regulated.

There be dragons - you need specialist advice on this one as access rights can be a nightmare. You can aquire rughts as @ProDave says but only if you confirm them and have evidence of constant use and the original owner didnt put any clever clauses in their sharing of it. Our build is on a private road and because the owner of the road surface cannot be traced we had to take out insurance to ensure we could buy access rights, or sell up at market value to the insurance company, if there was ever a problem. There are 50 houses on our road and they all have the same problem although some including ours do have reliable foot access as we are on a national footpath but it could be that vehicle access is cut off.

None from ours either.

Pressure regulating valve is all you need to limit the pressure. £35 should cover it.

In or on?

Our EPS came with a rendered outer face so we just back filled and gravel topped against that to 100mm below the cladding base.

Can you fit the outlet in the center of the run? As this increases the capacity greatly - can't recall the figures but you can look it up on the floplast website.