Hobbiniho

as said a bit strange to have putty holding in DG, it may be quite difficult to replace the DG units with something much thicker, needs careful measurement to see what size DG unit will fit and still allow glazing beads to be fitted, ideally you want the largest spacer bead in the unitthat you can fit, i have in the past had to make custom beads with a rebate so i could get a fixing through the face. the DG unit can be measured with a quite clever device called a glasdickenmesser although i suspect most tradesmen wont have one and will advise removing the glass and measuring it

local MP alistair carmichael has been poking the government about this very issue https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2023/03/02/alternative-fuel-questions-raised-by-carmichael

if they are structural you will probably have to "sister" new studs alongside them and bolt through but would need the input from a structural engineer, if not structural then just cut the bottom off and scarf new bits on if you cut the angle shallow enough and use plenty of glue and screws they will be plenty solid enough for a partition wall

my sister has an immersun diverter powered by a wind turbine and she uses it to heat her hot water, she directs excess above the 3.8Kw to a combination of a electric panel heater and an old storage heater (not sure if this is the immersun or the wind turbine control that does this) meaning basically nothing is exported to the grid this has meant that only on the very coldest calm days in winter she has had to fire up the oil boiler, her electricity bill for the last quarter was about £10, unless you were an early adopter of solar like my dad you wont get any payments for the electricity you export so would benefit from self using as much as you can

yeh structural hole is too big, the way i would have done it is make the door jamb the depth of the wall then had facings on both sides, this then gives you something that the skirtings can meet into, you now have a massively uneven reveal on one side, this screams to me of someone that is in way above their ability to plan things, in the first photo you can see that the door is too close to the wall not allowing a facing down that side, this meens your skirting on that wall will be a horrible detail, there is absolutely no excuse to make so many mistakes on a new build, if it was a refurbishment there would be compramises but even then you would at least have got the head height correct

4mm plywood is really a bit thin, i usually use 6mm, i take it you glued and nailed in a 100mm grid?? and im presuming that you used a latex based screed??

you might be best looking for a "magic repair man" "snagging repair man" rather than a local worktop company, a good skilled person will be able to make that joint look better than new

i have fitted a few big shelves on timber stud walls and used these brackets https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114328853072?hash=item1a9e87da50:g:1eAAAOSwXKdeTY6s&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4ATIIWPI2wpBIExfpsusBsV0kc1Irjn6FmpJ8WARl0TeNd3hFS7EMfTvzX0W9n%2FZsr1yrT4r4RuIc5GhqMUnQS5LUX4NriFaEkcTlbS%2FSwZ%2Fq3efpqF1lY0%2FwYMiq2RxAgSihd1XE0Qy9yAKl1PKkWUFVh52CSFwxqRAHPoahO5kzXjSai53g%2B6mC%2BhxYu8YaRiAjvLuchWqZr4kRXZsa9JlIX78%2B%2F1u852aPQMFxqnS96MOwH%2FiAepI4M9iGnkBpnX1Su6Gazjmr19sXZKjKB5YWieZeYs5jZC62VZoWuFZ|tkp%3ABFBM4PaJwPVg they work very well and i can easilly support my bodyweight on just 1 bracket, admittantly i sunk the bracket into the studs before plasterboard making the fixing plate completely hidden as can be seen in this photo https://photos.app.goo.gl/ojAfDDAswKvb2NQw6

looks good so far, do you have any vertical lines to make sure you keep your spacing even? i always enjoyed working with slate roofs although up here it was direct to sarking

as said it could be anything, try using zoom earth and see if you can get a clearer picture

first thing i would be doing is getting a "podger" a thin bit of round bar with a T bar handle on the top and finding out how deep the peat is, you will also be able to tell if what is under is hard or soft, i cant really tell from the photos what you own but if you own most of what is in the second photo those raised bits in the foreground will likely be old dry stone walls so would be suitable to be reused for road construction, without digging trial holes you wont really know if what you have underneath will be hard enough or if it has too much clay and will turn to soup, i presume you are in unst given the reference to 1 quarry and the spaceport

i presume that the worry is voltage drop?? do you have an official quitation for a supply showing cable route and cost??, when my mum had her electricity supply converted from overhead to underground then she had an official quote from SSE done from plans which showed the proposed cable route, when the guys came to site then they realised that the cable route was too long for the voltage drop of the cable that they were going to use and had quoted for, to counter this they had to install a larger cable from the pole to almost all the way into the house then jointed a smalled diameter cable into the house to the new cutout fuse, this additional cost was not passed onto my mum as it was SSE who had made the mistake in the calculations

realistically what he should have done is chip down all the rest of the sole plates by 8mm and then tapered the sole plates at the problem area, providong that the rest of the blockwork is level enough this would then have given him a flat level base to work off, timber packers etc is really just a bodge you would really need to use grout to take up a gap that big

i presume that your liquid screed floor isnt perfectly flat?? there is no real need to use latex on a concrete floor but they are maybe taking a belt and braced approach, the plywood is needed and should be glued, nailed at 4" grids then a latex acreed applied over the top dont underestimate how little it takes to show a flaw in karndean, if it isnt completely snooker table flat you will see the flaws

iv just had a look at the instructions https://www.velux.co.uk/professional/technical-resources/installation-guides and dependant on what flashing kit and window you have depends on how the cill sits, what window and kit do you have?? to me it looks like the cill is too high and possibly not the right shape to work with the velux windows, the flat bit of the cill should be under the window, but it is likely too big if you mastic the gap at the bottow as the instructions suggest you will have a flat bit that water will collect on

i have built/worked on several houses where the client hasnt had the money right away to complete the upstairs, they have fitted attic trusses but just left it bare, the key thing is to construct the structure it as if you are going to finish it and just fit infill panels where the windows are going to go and clad/roof over them, this means that when the time comes that you can afford it you simply just cut out the infill panel and fit the windows and there will be no structural alterations, the area where the stairs goes usually just becomes a very large cupboard until the time to convert

surely the solution is to remove the paint and tile the aquapanel. although you will likely have to replace the aquapanel. The aquapanel is up to the job and as it is a tile backer board buying it and expecting to not tile it is a bit misguided, did you supply and fit the aquapanel or did the stove fitter do it? what warranty did the fitter give you and are any of his recommendations in writing??

yeh those type of nail pullers will pull out twist nails easily, if they are hammered through and bent over i would first cut off the bent over bit with a grinder with a slitting disk, and then give the nail a good smashing from the back, this will break the "seal" that the nail has, always funny trying to explain to people the best way to remove an old nail is to hammer it in first ??

when you say timber packers, what size of packers are you talking about? as if its just small thin bits of wood then a powder nail gun such as the hilti dx 460 or the spit suggested above will not work as it will just split the wood into a million little shards, i wouldnt use them to nail anything less than a 3x2 or you risk splitting it and the fixing not really holding, the self tapping screws suggested above would be another good option if you only have a few of them to do but go with a decent brand like hilti

depends if you are going to be fitting the BDX insulation collar or not as the collar needs more room to install

What is typical up here is for a 25x25mm batten to be fitted to the inside of the kit (at the outside) the window then sits on this and you can put 25mm PIR on the reveals and tape them to the internal PIR/ window to complete your airtight barrier, this relies on the window openings being made big enough though, your frame is already up so i think you will struggle to fit insulation in the reveals as there will not be enough room around the window

its dielectric grease, grease thats safe for electrics/electronics, means it wont go hard and brittle and will allow movement while also staying sealed, the sparkies at work use it a lot to keep water out of JB'S/ connections, only down side is the mess it makes although in a tube like that maybe wont be too bad

i presume the flitch beams are above a large opening?? some pictures or drawings would give an idea of the work involved, you say that you have paid a structural engineer to specify these beams but surely these would have already been designed before the structure was put up?? or was it a case of the guys doing the work just were called bodgit and scarper ltd and didnt have any drawings/ structural calcs to begin with?

I have panasonic air radiators in my open plan living room/ kitchen and you can just hear the rads but it just fades into the background noise, the noise of the fridge/ dishwasher is louder

most have a plastic "frame" that you screw to the door then "clip" it onto the dishwasher and fit screws through the door to hold it, all integrated dish washers will be expected to fit most off the shelf kitchens. for example this is the fitting instructions for a lamona dishwasher https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1479391/Lamona-Lam8303.html?page=8#manual