Pete

I used the schluter matting which has a fleece backing. You put down a sloppy tile adhesive mix on a 4mm bed and lay matting down onto this. The top is like Lego so when you spread tile adhesive it is squashed down and creates a surface for the adhesive to bind to. The overall effect is if there is any movement underneath the matting it does not transfer through to the tiles. My neighbour has just used the latest matting that is not even glued down, it just floats made by Bal. The beauty of this is if you need to repair a tile or even tile over say some lovely Victorian hallway you can do without damaging the tiles/surface underneath or just cut the damaged tile out and replace. This product is dearer than my Schluter product but a lot quicker and you do not need to buy adhesive to fix it. YouTube Is good for a visual representation here

I only have experience with Catnic/Tata and it does not take that long to be honest. Putting the panels down is easy, if it is just a straight up and over detached roof with no hips/valleys then you could finish that in a day easily. The setting out and doing the edges, starter panel and ridge detail a bit longer but nowhere near £8000 worth. I went on the day course with Tata and saved a small fortune by doing it myself.

I used the schluter product and it was easy to use. If I remember rightly somebody used a matting on here (buildhub) that delaminated, the fabric backing separated from the plastic top and this created a tile that sounded hollow underneath when walked on

Our daughter is a physio and she said you need to keep using the stairs as long as possible to keep your muscles strong so we have two cupboards, one on the ground floor and one directly above so that if/when we cannot use the stairs we can put a lift in so as we can still use the whole house.

We had to pay £3000 gain access into the farmer's field for our drains, this included all legal fees for both parties

We have used Trespa and Tata steel on our build and very pleased with them

What does this mean Nick? I thought all PV had to go through a diverter before it was used in the house?TIA

Had my test done early when all windows were in but before plasterboard. Got a test result of 0.47 if I remember rightly with a big trim missing off my sliding windows so was quite happy even though I was miffed as it could have been lower. The air test people said they needed to come back to do another test when it was finished costing another £200 ish. I contacted my BI and asked do I need to do another test as he had never had such a low result before seen as I was doing all the work and he replied he was happy with just one test. I might add he already knew I was quite an anal self builder and would not be doing anything to jeopardise my airtightness result. Some may add it would be worth doing another test just to prove nothing had been done that would lower my result but I am happy with my efforts in being meticulous with sticking!!

Graphite Lava Stone, went direct to Norstone, guy called Jack Jago

Pictures of my Norstone cladding

Not sure really as Norstone only did the stone that we needed

I am putting some Norstone on at the moment, will put some pictures on tomorrow

Sieve your paint first! I am spraying soon and have always found that the internal in line paint filter just before the gun lasts alot longer if you sieve the paint beforehand. Took about an hour to do 60 litres the other day and it was well worth it with what I had in the sieve!!

Just about to get a consumer unit for the garage and wondered what you mean by this post? Are you saying to get a larger size than 40A if you are going to charge electric vehicles/ TIA

+1. I am sure both @TerryEand @Jeremy Harrisboth said this. KISS

Can't you make the mother of all riddles?

I take it you mean like an ethernet cable that has a plug on the end so you need to make sure your duct can accommodate this plug width?

Just about to put my Norstone cladding on the exterior of the house and need to ensure the ASHP pipes look the part!! I have put in some ducting and now need to decide how to finish the pipes off so it creates a nice junction as it passes through the Norstone. The ASHP will be sited approx 1 metre from the pipes and about 300mm from the wall. I know I need flexi pipes to limit the vibration but can I go with one long pipe from ASHP through the ducting and make the connection to internal pipework inside thus avoiding a right angled union outside or do I need to have a right angled union as the bend will not work without a 90 connection? ( Hope this makes sense) I could site the ASHP nearer than 1 metre if it means I can do away with the 90 union. TIA

What size cables are we roughly talking about pls @ProDave? And how many?

When we visited the local tile merchant I noticed the large format tiles (2.4m/3m long) had cracks in them were the tile had been cut to make a niche for a shower. The top two corners had cracks running at 45 degrees and made me think that they could be difficult to work with

The internet is your friend here. We priced a tile locally, 1.2m x 1.2m costing £112 per sq/m, I then did the internet search and it was about £42 per sq/m. When the local tile dealer contacted me to ask what we thought of the quote I told him the price on the internet and he undercut that price!! (Did not give him the business though as it was pure greed!)

Once you go into the large size tiles you pay an awful lot for transportation/delivery

Managed to speak with BPC and they said minimum of 500mm of space between ASHP and MVHR vents

This is mine that I built in. It has a 35mm gap all the way round and I can get the tv onto the bracket easily enough. Dis regard the cables as i have been trying something out, they are not normally there!