jack

Could you hire or borrow a large estate car? We have one and it's definitely not classed as a van by our local tip.

If you only knew how many of yours I correct on the sly...

We have the same type of slab. The thickening in many places is due to point or line loads. Thickening the whole slab would add an awful lot of concrete.

That's great news. So pleased to hear about the improvement in your lives. I had bouts of serious sinusitis at least a couple of times a year starting about 15 years ago. Since moving into our new house with MVHR two years ago, I've had only a couple of minor bouts, and none have ended up with the secondary infection I nearly always used to get. Nothing like as serious as your situation, but better health of any sort is always nice.

Our slab was poured by MBC in slightly milder conditions than this (down to around zero on the first two or three nights after pouring) and we had terrible problems with spalling. There may well have been other factors involved in our pour, but personally wouldn't risk it if you're relying on a decent surface finish.

I guess you know this, but angular gravel works a lot better than pebbles. It always surprises me when people use big round pebbles on driveways.

You're pushing moist air outward through the fabric of the building. Is this not a recipe for wintertime interstitial condensation?

Good memory - it was me. The product itself is fine, the people who installed mine were incompetent. As others have said, it's a finishing layer. They do a product specifically for going under green roofs, but I don't think that's what you're after either.

Welcome to the forum. I take it you've had a look at the basement sub-forum? Not many posts, but @Bitpipe's provide quite a bit of detail about what he ended up doing.

Agreed, which was why I was happy to take it for free from my parents in law when they got rid of it less than a year after moving into their new-build (they removed it to make room for a cupboard beside the fridge). Free is the best mark-up!

Ah, okay, thanks. Following our nightmare experience with John Lewis induction pans, we bought Le Crueset. Just moved to Miele for washing machine - hugely impressed with it. You can just feel the quality. AEG dryer - again, very good, and came with a 5 year warranty. Siemens fridge - seems fine. Hand-me-down 3 year old Miele freezer (which I believe is made by Liebherr) - again, seems fine. Siemens hob and ovens. Hob not that impressive for the reasons above. Ovens seem good. I did look at VZUG ovens (Swiss, I think?) but from memory they were a lot more expensive.

That is truly a thing of beauty. Puts me in mind of those amazing structured cable installations you sometimes see:

We have one, and I'd agree with that assessment. I know they all balance power across the different zones as power increases, but even if there are just two zones on, one in particular will tend to pulse its power every couple of seconds. Annoying when you're trying to just heat something evenly. I don't have anything else to compare it to, but I'm also not convinced that the magnetic field distribution is that great, based on what I see at the bottom of our saucepans.

Result! Common sense for the win!

Yes, they can be received right up until the decision, but since most people don't know that, it's most likely that there'll be no further objections.

Ditto for us. The local parish input was the only negative feedback we had from anyone, and it wasn't even discussed by the planning officer in the approval. The only thing they count for is the potential for bringing it into committee, as @JSHarris says. In our case, I can't imagine that the councillors involved would have done anything beyond submit the negative comment. Had there been 4 other objections, theirs would have tipped the balance, but that wasn't an issue for us.

I made this mistake. I don't really know what we were thinking at the time, but my best recollection is that we were paranoid about overheating. I doubt it has anything to do with cost. Upon reflection, we could have just turned the system off in hot weather. In cold weather it would just have contributed to the background heating of the house. You can also run such systems off PIRs, so they only operate when someone actually comes into the room. Live and learn - I'd definitely have pumped hot water circuits if I were doing it all again.

Been there, feel your pain. I don't know why it's so hard to just install windows properly the first time. I know @Bitpipe used magicman and I believe he was happy with the results.

I'm sure it's a combination of simplifying the machinery/jigs they use for cutting and assembly, and minimising the number of material types they need to keep in stock. Also, the outer stud does have panels attached to it, plus may need to hold potentially heavy cladding. I think it would be a challenge to greatly reduce the cross section of the outer stud while still providing a good fixing for, eg, battens.

Great news! Now for the easy bit!

From memory (I looked into these guys about 3 years ago) they use an oversized evaporator. Not sure about the other two things.

Amazing they'd skip something like that rather than sell it off cheaply. Serious bargain though, well done!

The peak was actually well over $11k. It spent a few days getting to $10k, then hit $11k less than 24 hours later, crashed to nearly $9k in a heartbeat, bounced back up and is now oscillating its way down. I expect more correction - it regularly loses well over half its value before consolidating and heading up again.

Just the sort of thing Hitler would have said!