MikeSharp01

Yes I had not considered that you are now officially in an earthquake zone, so you need to check that your SE has; the relevant experience, has designed with the 1 in 100 year event (or whatever) in mind and PI insurance.

Again not quite true. Screws are not nails they are usually of different materials, have a smaller cross section at the root of the thread, and behave differently to nails in this instance and twist nails are not crude screws.

Not quite true as some holes are for manufacturing purposes so don't need nails and some are for temporary fixing although these are usually left filled anyway, look at the manufacturers data sheet. For Simpson stuff they point out the what the different holes mean (round, diamond, oval, Triangle) and whether they need to be filled or not and under what circumstances.

The manufacturer will give you a nail (so the twisty nails are a must) pattern depending on the load / situation. Think this might point at it albeit from perhaps another manufacturer: https://www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/wood-construction-connectors/technical-notes/face-mount-hanger-loads

That is spanking small crushing Peter.

Watch out for the tax person (used to be a man, now more appropriately gender neutral but still as difficult!) as you will create a second home for yourself and may need to sort that out and there will perhaps be a capital gain crystallising if you are not careful. in your shoes I would be talking to a professional, in my shoes I should be talking to a cobbler.

Welcome to THE forum for self builders and their other halves. Not sure how we can help with your wife. You do need to tell her that this will be a big challenge and perhaps won't go smoothly - you can read any amount of tough news here and you need to be clear with her as there is no point in wrecking your relationship if it all becomes too much.

Yes just get a demolition order and do a bit. That should trigger 'start' back at the council.

+1 dont use kiln dried but there are loads of examples of oak external stairs - they do move and split but provided you get the grain going in the right direction they won't warp too much. It might also depend on the external environment a bit. If it's wet / wooded / north facing then it will very soon grow algi and get slimy which can be a problem. If open / south facing it should be fine. So if using steel with treads you need to watch out for this or buy a jet washer.

There may also be structural issues with plastic which over time might 'flow' if under high and continuous load.

Tidy work, I wondered what the roof work was in one of your posts over the weekend ranting about the weather forecasts!

That is interesting, I just took the house next door as an example of required drainage arrangements and used the part H rules for the BC stuff, seems I could have been much more refined.

How do you work out how many down pipes I wonder.

Impressive - house of the year next year.

Maybe this will become the defacto standard for short range comms and larger meshe's in the consumer space but has its limitations. I am still wondering which will win bluetooth or wifi not sure who is attacking or defending given the space is relatively undeveloped. The bluetooth security in v5 might help but the extended range of v5 makes the security weakness of bluetooth even more of a problem. Lower power demand of bluetooth is always a plus but even v5 limits the data rate to 2mbps IIRC.

You need to be clear on the professional indemnity insurance position here as, if it all falls down, you need someone to pick up the tab.

If, as I suspect, these are going to be mainly in shear, IE holding the plate on the wall, then a few M10 screws, provided they don't split the blocks, will have significant supporting capability. Typically in the order of 10Kn (appox 1000Kg) each.

My Experience with these screws is that the pilot hole is critical, don't use a worn out SDS drill, get a new one as factions of a mm make one hell of a difference to the torque you need to apply. Also once you start driving it in keep going until its fully in, stopping is also a problem I found, I did the last bit using a spanner rather than the impact driver. Good thing is they usually unscrew if required.

Very neat combi @Alphonsox and the speed is great, funny thing though - I have a group of 50 Chinese Engineering students who cannot recognise the Chairman or Chief executive of Huawei from their pictures but can instantly recognise Steve Jobs from his - and he is dead while the other two are still alive (I believe).

Ok, quick trial with a wooden former and I can get the pipe in with a 90 deg bend, so I will build formers into the wall and run it as one continuous length of HEP 2 pipe. PS Other air handling companies are available - but perhaps they don't give out free scale rules at exhibitions.

HEP do supply a former, it can deliver 120mm radius, I wonder if I can squeeze it down a bit more, will give it a try later. Yes but will they pay the bill for the damage or the water used I suspect not. One of my former colleagues had a push joint fail and it wrecked his whole house, he was out for 6 months while they fixed it. It was a new build and the builders blamed their plumbing contractor but in the end his house insurance picked up the whole tab and are, as far as I am aware, 4 years later, still chasing the builder. Yes that is the way I wanted to go but its a pain to get in, and I will need soldered joints somewhere. If I can get a 90 deg bend into 80mm I will go with HEP I think otherwise - given my colleagues experience I will find a way to get the copper in there. Thanks all for you support...

What will he say I wonder - he is something of an evangelist for HEP as I recall it.

Great idea - I have not tried bending this pipe tight, I will look it up, but I guess I could and I have got about 80mm depth to turn 90 deg.

Makes sense will have to find a virtual 'attic' as we don't / won't have one here.

I have to run some pipework inside the wall around one of our showers. I had decided on plastic (HEP / JG or some such) but I have to turn it 90 deg inside the wall and then another 90 deg to bring it out of the wall. I can get it 50mm deep and protect it behind a metal duct cover along the run and the wall will be tiled anyway. My concern is the two 90 deg bends and their reliability over the N years the house will be up. I wonder if I might be more sensible to run this in copper or use compression fittings on the plastic pipe for the 90 deg bends. (I will pressure test it once it is in and before the wall coverings go on naturally.) I have a load of JG push fit fittings that have held sound for 10+ years now back at millstone manor although I can get at all of them if needs be. Any thoughts?