MikeSharp01

We are getting ready to fit the cladding which is formed of fibre cement slates hung vertically. The ones we have have the holes set for the roof pitch but I can get away with a 25mm smaller headlap when using them vertically, and save myself 200+slates! It means adding some new fixing holes 25mm below the ones in the slate. As far as I can see the old holes won't be visible so I am thinking there is no problem doing this but just in case I am being very stupid and cannot see the obvious I though I would seek the collective wisdom! Is it OK to punch new holes and carry on?

You have come a long way Charlie Brown

Things are getting very bad down your way.

That is 440m2! What thickness are you looking for?

You can always paint the steels with intumescent paint, assuming you can still get to them. We used Envirograf (https://envirograf.com/) not a great finish - you could not leave it exposed IMO but you get the fire protection.

Their Aberdeen Angus burgers are great - they cook wonderfully on the BBQ.

Given the amount you save on energy you can afford it as long as you visit infrequently...

Roofers call it weathering - IE it should stand the weather - maybe they didn't count on the rain so had not got it all fully weathered!?

Are you saying you would loose the vaulted ceilings if you go for Trusses.

One is basically weight 60Kg or a load at a point. The other is more like spread load. If you imagine 30 2kg bags of flour in a bag that is 60kg. Now mark out a 1m x 1m square and then spread the 30 bags out across the square and that will be 60Kg per square metre.

Wonder how big your passive house would need to be to stretch this heat pump to its limits: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65321487 it can boil a whole Olympic swimming pool of water in less than 4 hours.

Did you mean 'on'!!!!

We have our own digger, for a few more weeks. We got is second hand and replaced the motors at the start as one was leaking, and although we have had to re-build one of them since, fit new hoses in places, replace the aux hydraulic connectors - which were jammed, change the oils & filters a couple of times and fit new seals on one of the rams otherwise it has been very cost effective. I hope to sell for about what we paid for it in the summer so although inflation has nibbled away it it will go one for a long time yet.

That's not bad £75K per year, so that is what a one man band would have to clear to equal that.

We have had an HWAM 'WALL' for 20 years and still working wonderfully - the way the flames waft about when you control the draft is positively artistic , wall mounted 220Kg which makes maintenance hard - we have serviced the automatic burn / draft control temperature damper a couple of times - and that is a service recommendation. It has been great.

It is fibre cable! For optical networks.

Was that the kit that drilled those holes into the vault for the Hatton Garden job?

Have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay-with-Flints, don't know where you are but if any of the places mentioned it may well be that.

It looks like a desiccated clay, does it stick together when grab a handful? Big flints or shards?

+1 to the torpedo level. If you think about it you don't need the holes to be dead level, they just need to come out of the wall in the right place, so drill from the outside, I guess where the balcony is attaching. The slop in everything will do the rest. Also if you want level you actually need perpendicular - IE at 90 degrees to the wall in both planes.

What was the threshold like - it maybe that it was just a big tilt and turn window used as a door?

No Apparently not - here are a few I did today and I just won't go without them, so no robots here, yet, - perhaps a slightly more sober mower driver, Sunday lunch don't you know! (Perhaps that also explains the slight tilt on the picture.)

Very Smart

You can usually specify the window's inner timber profile so it is just square.

Looks good. Just one word of caution around the glass - glass corner window, we have one and although the window was not that expensive it was hard to source as not all the manufacturers do them and, the big AND, the cost of the structure to make it possible, two cantilevers or one very strong one and a beam depending, put about 15% on the cost of the frame, timber in our case - steel would be cheaper in this situation probably and the Structural Engineers costs. You need to hold the whole corner of the roof up but at least yours, like ours, is on the first floor.