jack

@craig, is this something you could help with? Many thanks.

Have you asked why they're making these decisions? I'm sure they aren't doing it just to be difficult. It could be about routing needs, including competition from power, electricity, and water routing, interference from building elements such as joists, and/or limitations of their build system. In our case, we'd initially planned to put the MVHR in the pantry, but ended up moving it to the plant room right next door. Admittedly, a large part of the need for that location was my fault, because I didn't give nearly enough thought to the plant room layout before everything (drainage, power, water) was permanently positioned when the slab was poured. In the end (and possibly more relevant to your situation), we also decided to move the manifolds into the utility room, largely because it was clear we'd really struggle routing the per-room ducts around all the other power, water and drainage passing through the ceiling in the plant room. Similar issues could apply even to a couple of large ducts, depending on the routes they might need to take. I suppose my point is that there's generally a reason for every decision. They should be able to articulate that reason. If you end up with the MVHR in the utility room, you could box it in. We did that with ours in the pantry. It just looks like another set of cupboard doors. We did similar with a dropped ceiling below the manifolds in our utility room, with flush access panels for maintenance if needed. It worked well for use. The access panels have have never been opened in the decade since we moved in.

It might be just a case of spreading the load across as many timbers as possible, but you'd need an SE to confirm the mass needed, and whether your roof has the necessary load capacity. We have a low-angle ballasted system on a flat roof that uses concrete council-type slabs as ballast, but with a frame system specifically designed for PV. I can't easily check, but it's something like a couple of slabs per panel, I think. I'd have preferred a through-membrane system bolted down to the roof deck, but unfortunately didn't plan ahead and so it wasn't a reasonable option at the time. Hasn't moved in 10+ years. I appreciate it's desirable to avoid roof penetrations, but if done properly it needn't be a significant leak risk. You'd still need SE calculations for load, lift, and fastener pullout, but I still think that's preferable to using ballast. Even it's within your roof's load capacity, you'll be putting considerably more pressure on the membrane and underlying structure.

We used Express Glass Warehouse about 6 years ago for the laminated glass on our external balconies. No idea whether it's still the case, but back then they were the cheapest decent quality laminated glass I could find. I assume you know exactly what specs you're after. We went for 17.5mm clear laminated & toughened panels. Incidentally, if you want suction lifters, for the cost of postage you're welcome to the ones I used. What channel or other mounting system have you gone for?

Had boys growing up in our house and can confirm! There's definitely a move towards compatibility with a smaller number of standards, like Matter and Home Assistant. Admittedly it was ten years ago, and I'd certainly do a few things differently now, but I personally went for a centralised home automation system that meant I could use relatively dumb lights, with DMX control. You can also get DMX relays for very little money. That puts all the "smart" stuff (dimming, automated on/off times, different scenes depending on different times of day/year) in the central system. The big risk, of course, is that if the central system breaks, everything breaks, but a spare raspberry pi and SD card don't cost much in the scheme of things. Getting back to your point about branded systems, blinds are one of the worst areas for this. Typically you have to use their proprietary wireless system controller or a dumb relay. Of course, you could use a wireless relay (e.g., Shelly and the like) controlled via a home automation system, but it's a shame they're so insistent on using their own standards.

I have Scolmore Click (Definity, from memory) retractive switches throughout my house. Admittedly things might have moved on in the 11+ years since I installed mine, but they are loud and very heavily sprung. It's difficult to double-click them, especially if you're (say) turning off a light late at night and don't want to wake anyone up. I'd definitely be buying a sample of whatever I was thinking of using. Obviously it's a matter of personal taste, but I wouldn't buy screwless metal faceplates again. On white/light walls, they draw a lot of attention. They also mark fairly easily and I think metal cover plates can look/feel cheaper than good quality plastic. If I were doing it again it'd be white plastic all the way, focusing on how the switches feel in use.

The stuff you saw was definitely the dry-installed type. Wet cellulose is applied in a completely different way. You start with the wall cavity open then spray in damp cellulose and scrape/compress it flat with the studs before plasterboarding. I've never heard of anyone offering the wet-spray stuff in the UK. My recollection is that Jeremy discussed it in response to expression of concern about post-installation slump of the dry stuff. Personally, I do have some concerns about how perfectly dry-installed cellulose fills cavities, especially for flat roofs, under windows and the like, and tall walls where there's a lot of weight compressing the cellulose at the bottom. I'm sure there's an element of installer skill, too. Water can travel a long way through cellulose. I guess the thing you have in your favour is that you only had a fixed amount of ingress based on the one-off snow event, so hopefully it won't have gone too far. In our case, we think the leak was there for months, which allowed it to saturate a lot of cellulose. We had two leaks - this was the worst of them: With an area as (hopefully) small as this, @lizzie might get away with making a smallish opening, pulling out the wet stuff, then manually pushing fresh stuff back in manually. To be honest, with such a small amount I'd be tempted to pull it out, dry it properly, and re-use it. Except for the re-use, that's what I did when we had another leak (scaffolders punctured an aluminium trim on the flat roof above the garage and didn't tell us about it, so first we realised was when we spotted the leak). Not the most pleasant job in the world, and you will make a mess, but it worked out okay. The cellulose sort-of stays put when you compress it, so you just keep stuffing it up until the space is full. For a small patch, allowing it to dry out is a possibility. You could consider piping dry air from a dehumidifier into the service void for a couple of weeks. Personally, I'd be happier if I knew it was all properly dried out, including any wooden elements in contact with it, so I'm not sure I'd risk it.

Random attempts to access shared resources is common across a wide range of communications protocols. It's used across all the major mobile standards in the form of a RACH channel.

Some mini-diggers have retractable tracks that let them get through doorways as narrow as ~700 mm. One of our neighbours had new fences put in about 5 years ago and two of them have already failed at the base. This is in a very damp area that gets no sun. I see similar all the time around me. I wish I'd known when getting the fences done how long ordinary treated posts tend to last. Our fences are 10 years old and no obvious issues yet (we're much higher up than the neighbour and on sandy ground), but looking at all the failing (and not that old) fences in my area, I know it's only a matter of time. As for longevity, perhaps not ideal for OP if they plan to sink a load of vertical posts, but for fenceposts in general, postsaver sleeves have a good reputation.

Welcome to BuildHub.

Full details in this BuildHub thread. Thanks Jack

And by quite a lot in some cases. https://www.reddit.com/r/OctopusEnergy/comments/1rwgpp5/wtf_octopus_just_slashed_iog/ Just in time for the sunny weather when my solar produces more than I can use!

Hearing this would make me very keen to consider them if I were building again, even without the door and window installation nightmare we had with another supplier. A supplier who's willing to take this sort of responsibility is a rare and beautiful thing.

It's worth having a look at installation specs and limitations. Higher spec cables tend to be thicker, stiffer, and have larger minimum bend radiuses. Cat 6a can be more challenging to route and terminate than cat 6, for example. I also think cat 6a needs different terminations compared to cat 5e/6 due to having thicker conductors.

It's possible I suppose. Of course, all of this assumes Iran agrees to back down, or is incapacitated, and I don't see either of those happening in the short term. Insurance or not, would you agree to take a ship through the state of Hormuz when the Iranians have been laying mines and are threatening to blow up shipping?