jack

Absolutely. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it! We do say that something is "inflamed", so "inflammable" makes sense at least in that context. Annoying though, because "in" is used more often as a negative modifier. From memory, "inflammable" means more flammable than, erm, "flammable" - or maybe it's the other way around.

I can see why you of all people are avoiding using it then! Good on you. It's the little things that make life worth living.

It's not by accident that Screwfix's own brand is called Erbauer.

This "hewn" look is exactly what we wanted, but it would have cost far more than we were willing to spend. Also, based on my experience with trades since then, I doubt we'd have been able to find people capable of doing the perfect work required - even people who were referred to us as perfectionists let us down with the quality of their work.

As a point of comparison, our electricity bill was £650 for a 289m2 MBC house, with DHW and UFH handled by a 5kW ASHP. We do have a whacking great load of solar with an immersion diverter, which means hot water is more or less free for several months of the year, and I'm convinced there's still something to be saved by reducing the amount of immersion boost we use during winter and the shoulder months.

Almost word for word my plumber's reaction to our proposal for a 5kW ASHP for DHW and heating duties. It was -1 here overnight. Heating still hasn't come on this year (partly because it can't - the ASHP recently threw a fault and we're waiting to get someone out to take a look). The concrete floor downstairs is starting to get uncomfortably cool to walk around on without socks, but the house is still perfectly comfortable. I'll add a couple: Estate agent (an acquaintance who ended up at ours after the pub with a group of friends one night) [As we arrive:]"Ooh, can I have a look around? I've wondered for ages what your house was like inside." [After poking around:] "I don't really like modern houses, but the inside isn't as bad as I thought it'd be based on the outside. It's actually pretty good." In vino veritas, indeed! Random local couple who we know to say hello to, walking by [Brick skips going up]: "Oh, they look nice" [Us]: Yes, once they're done they'll be painted white". [Them]: "Oh no, I don't like that at all."

Ouch!

I personally suspect that for at least some people, architect bashing falls into the general basket of undervaluing industries where the product doesn't always reflect, to the untrained eye, the amount of knowledge, experience, and indeed graft that's involved in generating it. A friend is a graphic designer and is regularly turned down for design jobs because she's "far too expensive". She's highly experienced, does brilliant work, and is flexible and easy to work with. She makes an average of maybe £20 an hour! I wonder what people think is a reasonable price to pay?

Many of us appreciate your input Ian, and most of us don't think all - or even most - architects are tossers. There are unfortunately a number of people who seem to take pleasure in denigrating architects at every opportunity. I genuinely don't know where the animosity comes from, but there seems to be some sort of pride in putting down architects or proving that there's something about building that they don't have deep expert knowledge about. Perhaps these critics are great at all aspects of designing buildings themselves, or don't care about design or function enough to care, or have had a bad experience. I don't know, but it's no excuse for rudeness. All the architects I've met have appeared to be very hard working people who almost certainly didn't get paid anything like as much as most other people who've spent a similar amount of time in education and training. Of the roughly 10 architects we met before we built our house, one was a tosser. He was actually probably pretty good at his job, but I found him arrogant and would have found it difficult to work with him. Every other person we met seemed excellent, and we were utterly torn as to which one to choose. 1 in 10 being a tosser seems to be about right for people in general. In the end, we made a mistake. We went with one architect, only to find at our next meeting that the architect we interviewed was now going to be the "second" on the project due to where he was based. We met the new person, and she seemed okay. As it turned out, she was fine to work with (ie, not a tosser), but we didn't like what she designed after several attempts and versions. In the end, we agreed to pay them for what they'd done and parted company amicably. The guy we ended up getting to do the work was great. The house isn't perfect, but I believe most of the imperfections or shortcomings relate to things that we pushed ourselves.

Doors beside the extractor?

Jesus, how many of you are using these things? During the peak of our build (max number of people onsite) in summer, the toilet was utterly dire by the end of each week. Maybe they don't use much solution in the serviced ones, so it deteriorates faster.

The "no rails" thing has happened several times on Grand Designs. I've always assumed they installed something for sign-off and then removed it. I particularly remember this one by Kathryn Tyler in Cornwall. We stole a few ideas from that house, but not the rail-less stairs!

If it's the same as the one in my pics above, the washer is tapered so that it wedges into the gap between the telescoping pipes. Tightening the screw ring pushes the wedge tighter into the gap between the telescoped parts to seal the joint. The pipes are actually a reasonable friction fit on mine - the outer pipe has a slight flair to its inner edge at its end, to make space for the seal to wedge in. I've measured, and inner diameter of the seals I have is about 39/40mm. I'm happy to send you what I've got, but it'd be good to know that there's a chance it'll actually fit before I head off to the post office. Why don't you measure it up when you get the chance and let me know.

@daiking - BUMP!

But it's just about impossible to be a builder and turn over less than the £83,000 VAT threshold. Just paying two tradespeople full time for a year will take them to that level, even without buying any materials. How much of a house will two trades build, even if the client were to buy the materials? And that's assuming no profit for the builder. Any full-time "builder" who's not VAT registered is likely to be taking liberties with the tax system. A project manager who works on your behalf and has you paying all the bills may be able to avoid the threshold, but as discussed, it does raise some liability and compliance issues.

From memory, the VAT threshold is around £80k. I'd be very worried about a main contractor who isn't managing turnover of that order. Is he actually a main contractor though, or just a project manager? What's really happening, almost certainly, is that you're paying his sub contractors cash so they and/or the main contractor can avoid tax and other charges/costs. He isn't employing them, either formally or on a contract basis. You probably aren't either, although the danger is that if something goes wrong, there'll be an argument that you have to win to avoid being responsible for all sorts of costs and penalties. I'd be concerned about engaging a main contractor who's proposed this, even if he/she agreed to change the arrangement into something more conventional.

From memory, Howdens have a sale every October and they're pushed by the people upstairs to turn stock over. Make them a silly offer.

@daiking, I've got a brand new set of grey pipework that came with our Franke sink (plumbers just left it in the bag): It appears to have black versions of those clear tapered washers. Happy to mail the washers to you if they're the right size. What's the outer diameter of the pipework?

What is "policy 22"? Unless you're in the countryside, I can't see why the difference in size is relevant. We went from an 89m2 bungalow to a 290m2 house with attached double garage. We were surrounded by large houses though, and we're on a good size block, so the new house was perfectly appropriate. What're the houses around you like, and is your block big enough to comfortably take a house of the planned size?

Welcome. Sounds like a nice project. We definitely need some pics though!

150mm seems like huge overkill. Are you allowed to bury it before they arrive? If so, just drill the ends they can see! I can't imagine the guys doing the installation will care anyway, as long as they can get the pipe through easily.

Yes, they mention the 6 amp issue somewhere on the website I think. Fair enough, but you aren't trying to run a business off the back of your unit! Also, this unit will have a government subsidy associated with it for many installations. We all know what impact that has on the price of such things.

Brought to you by the people who designed the Immersun - basically the equivalent of an Immersun for EV charging: http://myenergi.uk/product/zappi/ They also do a version of the Immersun that's called something else, which can apparently communicate with the Zappi so you can set priorities.

This assumes no return on the £100 taken as a lump sum.

Perhaps I've been unlucky (and I certainly lack detailed knowledge), but I had trouble with an unmanaged switch when I last tried to use one. Admittedly that was probably 15-20 years ago. On that basis, and for the sake of a few metres of extra cable, I'll take separate outlets on the wall in preference to yet another device to keep plugged in and to go wrong!