pudding

Indeed, at the moment it's a recommendation from the Council's Ecologist. It will be included as a condition of planning when you get the final decision notice. The council planning officer would need a very good reason to ignore their own ecologist and not require you to get an initial survey done, and tbh I dont think they're going to ignore their own in house ecologist based on anything you can say unfortnately. So, get prepared and contact a few ecologists to get some quotes for initial habitat surveys and be prepared i reckon.,

If bats have already been mentioned and you're rural with a farm nearby with likely decent roosting places, get cracking finding an ecologist and get the initial survey done asap, as it sounds pretty likely they'll recommend a bat survey. If that doesn't get done this year, before the autumn when it becomes too late in the year to do the bat surveys, it'll be unlikely to begin building next spring unfortunately.

You need to choose an Ecologist to carry out an Ecological Impact Assessment, that covers the points they mention and request?

Good video here on how to do it using the Fugi kit, but i guess lots of the principles apply to all mehtods of finishing -

Ta for that. In between Bodmin and Lostwithiel, on the side of the Fowey valley so nice and exposed to the elements so good seals are def important when the wind whips up here!

Sorry, missed that bit. Can you say which company as I'm just down the road from you, and price if possible?

Thanks for the reply. What brand are yours?

Mega bump! Thinking about an extension and possible using bi-folds. This link has popped up in my browser ads - http://panoramicdoors.co.uk/product-details/ Looks slightly different to the usual bifold design and quite interesting and appealing, although there's not a ton of detail on the website, and the specification section is not too informative. Def one that needs seeing in person to check construction details/seals. Any body heard of this company or seen them before?

Yes that's true about the heat loss through the glass vs through the oak posts, although every little helps, especially if it would add virtually no extra cost. The building i dont imagine would be massively different from our main living area in terms of heat loss. At the mo we've got 2 large 3G sliding doors (2.2m and 3m wide), plus another two 2-2.5m wide windows., so lots of glazing. The new orangery extension wouldnt be vastly different in terms of % glazing i'd guess, but would have the extra heat loss through the roof/skylight. Quick crude sketch here, shaded areas would be oak posts/wall:- It would be off the 2.2m wide sliding door from the kitchen which we'd leave in place so easily shut off from the rest of the house if needed, although ideally we like to make the new extension usable all year around.

Hey all, I'm thinking of adding an oak framed orangery type extension to our house, with a flat roof and a large skylight. It would have a dwarf cavity wall, say 3ft high, stone clad to match our house with some form of cavity insulation (full fill PIR trying to keep wall thickness as low as possible?). Then atop this would be the oak frame. Insulating the dwarf wall to good standards wont be hard, but what about an oak framed glazing system. I'm thinking it would be fixed glazing, direct to the frame such as this:- I know this isn't going to be the pinnacle in terms on insulation but we'd like oak on view inside and out. I was thinking about improving the above standard detail by replacing the softwood spacer with some form of insulation (PIR strip?) and going triple glazed which would match the rest of our house. Anybody seen this done before or have any better ideas?

at the bottom of that message isnt there an 'advanced' link you can click on, then you can 'ignore and proceed' to get into the controller? Just looked in IE, you can click 'more info', then 'go to the web page, not recommended'.

+1 on making sure the trap is against a wall. I've used mine mainly without bait this year, but against walls where they run and caught over 10-20 mice.

Peanut butter works a treat.

So, picked up most plumbing bits from screwfix, and the rest of the bits arrived today (brass tube and pvc tube). So it's all a bit heath robinson and now looks like this:- It now consists of 1" - 22mm adapter, 22-15mm internal reducer, non-return valve from the fill loop flexi-pipe, shut off valve, flexi pipe to pvc tube. Most important thing is it works! Had a bit of the glycol solution left over, diluted it a little, and have added 2 litres or so to the loops. Pressure gone from 0.7bar to 1.2bar. Result!! Saved me over £200 on a callout.

Perfect, shopping list formed methinks! Will hopefully get it put together next week and give it a crack.

Execllent, thanks for the idea. Already got that exact green sprayer here, so will look into the parts needed to adapt it.

Hi, I've had my GSHP for 4.5 years now. All running well, only niggle is i've had to have the pressure topped up twice in the ground loops outside in the field. We've got about 550m straight pipe outside so a fair amount. The first time the pressure was topped up was after less than 1 year. The last time it was topped up was nearly 2 years ago, and the pressure is very slowly falling, so the time between refills is getting longer and I'm hoping it was entrenched air in the pipes and a little expansion which is now coming to an end, only time will tell. In the meantime, i'm reluctant to spend over £200 again for less than a half hr job, esp if the pressure needs topping up again, so would like to do this myself and with winter approaching i thought now is a good time to think about it before the system cuts out due low pressure in the middle of winter. Here's a couple of pics of the manifold chamber outside: Any tips on the best way to re-pressurise the system. The installers used this - https://www.gogeothermal.co.uk/category/27/Filling-and-Flushing-Station which i think would be overkill for my situation and even doubt they would sell to me as a private individual. I've seen this pump https://www.screwfix.com/p/rothenberger-rp30-pressure-testing-pump/83797 or even this https://www.amazon.co.uk/318927-Installation-Heating-Leakage-Pressure/dp/B00KBQPMII/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1536048793&sr=8-6&keywords=rothenberger+rp30 which look like they could do the job given the appropriate fittings/couplings? I'm assuming this is fairly similar to pressurising an UFH system and doesn't need anything too fancy like the installers used? Will be looking at getting about 2bar, and the the pressure is measured on the GSHP unit itself so the accuracy of any pump i buy isn't essential. Thanks.

Do you actually need screws? This foam will easily hold on those boards, no screws required at all. (apologies if this is just adding more complexity )

Very true, cant argue with that. However, YouTube is a wonderful thing, and £20 will get you the plugs and crimping tool and away you go, nothing specialist required at all in the way of qualifications/tools/skills. If it doesn't work first time, nothing lost apart from a plug, try again. Bit of fun to learn a new skill.

I put plugs on the end of a CAT 6 cable and plugged one end into the NVR and the other into the camera. So apart from crimping RJ45 plugs onto CAT 6, it was plug and play. The NVR i have does have Power over Ethernet (PoE) on 4 ports, and the cameras connected to these ports are detected automatically so nothing complicated in its setup. I did have to add the other cameras and have tinkered with other settings etc. Maybe I'm a professional?

Yeah they're good, ive no complaints at all. I've got a variety of different cameras, initally bought 4 cameras and the NVR from Aliexpress. Then a few more cameras from the UK here, some are indoor some outdoor. All good. Not thought about spraying them, nice idea.

Why is it a professional job? I've got CAT 6 and use power over ethernet and have 8 Hikvision cameras connected to a NVR. All it involved was connecting the cables together, nothing professional required over and above what's being proposed with the CAT6 currently? Also got a Ring 2 doorbell in my crashpad home, happy with it, but would be happier if I had cables to the front door so didnt have to rely on battery power and wireless. Get pwr and CAT 6 to the front door too just in case. Also, i use these cameras there - https://www.amazon.co.uk/YI-Camera-Wireless-Security-Surveillance/dp/B074395R84 and https://www.amazon.co.uk/YI-Wireless-Security-Surveillance-Available/dp/B07437XNQH/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_60_lp_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JKJY1HND7GY2Z1Z80924, bought on offer for even cheaper prices than that. V happy with them, records to sd card, app on my phone and get an alert each time motion is triggered.

Theyve been up for 3 years now, no hint of changing colour as far as i can see. If they are, they are changing at the same rate as the ceiling paint!

I've got Nest, looks pretty nice as far as detectors go, with it's little glowing ring that goes brighter as a night light when you walk under it. Dont think you'll find 'prettier', just you pay for it, but do get a bit of added extra functionality.

Hi, thanks for quick replies. Journey is about 2hrs to the flat, which is actually a 2 bed coach house, so nobody above or below to help with passive heating me I live in Cornwall, flat is in Weston, work is Bristol. Journey to work from crash pad is about 25mins say. How often am i there? Well, bit tricky, but on my 5 days or work there, either 5 are early shifts, so im out of the house from 5-6am and home 3-4pm, and the other 5 days are lates and im out of the house from 12-2pm and home 23-01 on average. Prob not going to work heating it constantly. It's 15yrs old, and i guess building regs minimum. The spare room was intended for my family to come and stay at weekend/school hols when im there, but will see how that goes with regards to renting it out. Tado was one that i thought looked ok. Does it need motorised rad valves? I thought it was just a thermostat/timer replacement that will work with my current TRV's and old current thermostat/timer, and just turn on the boiler when it demands either via program/internet activation/geolocation? Was the range setting within the app, or was it via IFTTT?