jack

Well that was an unexpected surprise. We just had a signed-for delivery arrive. I wasn't expecting anything, and then had a slight panic attack when I saw it was from HMRC. Big bundle of docs, so assumed they were just returning the invoices, but turns out it came with a letter confirming they'll be paying in full within 20 days! A few notes: We moved in around Christmas 2015. It's taken us far longer than I'd ever thought possible to get things signed off, and I was convinced we'd be going to appeal as a result. We were upfront about the delay (i.e., we put in the correct moving-in date on the form), but did not give any explanations or excuses. The application was filed at the end of October (about 2.5 months after issuance of the completion certificate), so it's taken almost 4 months to get the decision. We had some oddities - a few invoices in the name of trades, an invoice in the name of someone completely random (something bought at a trade counter - our guess is that they made a mistake and used the last customer's account?), some cash receipts for cheaper items (each under £100, I believe), and one weird invoice for bathroom stuff that combined the amount owing and deposit paid in a difficult-to-fathom way. We put a brief explanation on each point in the covering letter. All invoices were accepted, which surprised me a bit. We did have some decent expenses in the months leading up to the completion date, which may have helped paint a picture of the work being ongoing. There were, however, periods of a year or more where nothing happened, so certainly there's nothing to suggest that the work was continuous. In any event, the money is nice, but not having the stress of a potential appeal and tribunal hearing is even better! I do hope this is indicative of a change in practice at HMRC. I genuinely feel for the people who lost significant money as a result of HMRC's behaviour.

I think that diagram is just one he's found elsewhere, rather than being related to his plans.

Yes, the upstands are above ground level. Here's the equivalent detail for ours - you can see the radon barrier, although its path isn't that clear (sorry for the resolution - this is all we were given): Pretty-well matches what you've posted above, although our DPM/radon barrier as installed continues down the outside edge of the upstand most of the way to the bottom edge, from memory.

On our MBC raft foundation, the DPC goes on top of the lowest 100mm layer (of three) of EPS, and then up and over the upstands.

For sure, but somehow you need to come up with a solution that allows for protection while ensuring safety. That said, I couldn't get most trades on my site to wear even basic safety gear. I think maybe 20% of them (mostly the frame builders) wore steel-toed boots. Most refused to wear masks or hearing protection even when using insanely loud machines. I even had one guy shake his head when I tried to hand him eye protection while he used a diamond saw to cut concrete. Crazy.

You can buy bulk plastic overshoe protectors for not much.

My Makita brushless 18V works well enough, but it can chew through batteries like there's no tomorrow. It depends what he plans to do with it, but if he's expecting to make lots of long cuts, especially through thicker stock, I'd consider one of the twin-battery models and pay the premium for two batteries.

People want to live in or near the centre of the city, because that's where the action is and that's where the jobs are. That's also somewhere where there categorically isn't space! In a way, the space is the problem. Sydney's a bit like LA, in that the suburbs have sprawled an awfully long way from the centre of the city. A lot of the places where there's space you probably wouldn't want to live.

Does exactly nothing to encourage individual landlords! I was in Sydney a couple of years back after a 10 year absence. I couldn't believe how the character of the place had changed. The number of apartment blocks that had gone up in suburbs around the city was utterly staggering. Over around 10 miles I must have seen hundreds of large apartment blocks that weren't there when I last drove around the same area a decade ago.

This particular policy change is focused on encouraging the building of large housing developments specifically for the rental market.

Brick and block?

@pocster has more warnings, sure, but your content more frequently has to be moderated to remove inappropriate comments and off-colour jokes. The point doesn't change even if you're the second or third most moderated member. In fairness to the original poster, I'm going to leave it there. Feel free to have the last word - I've said all I need to say.

This from the member who has needed more moderation for his shit-stirring than any other in the history of BuildHub. I'm clearly posting as a member, not a moderator. I'm pleased that your experience as a teacher has taught you not to let people's comments get to you.

Of course, it was my explanation that led you astray For someone who spends as much time as you do criticising the minor errors of others, you're hilariously thin-skinned when you get it wrong yourself.

Who said he was wrong about that? In any event, he just posted it to distract from the fact he used the wrong equation in the first place!

Absolutely not. It isn't a democracy! The only practical impact of lots of objections is that they may trigger the application being brought before committee. I think that happens in our area if you get more than 5 objections. Of course, I think counsellors are entitled to bring it to committee of their own accord, even without any objections having been lodged.

Larger pumps typically have a higher minimum output though, I believe. This can be an issue in a highly insulated house with an oversized heat pump, because the minimum output might be higher than is desirable. By way of comparison, I ran some figures a few years back when comparing a nominally 8kW unit against a nominally 5kW unit from a different manufacturer: At the conditions the ASHP would experience most of the time where I live, the 5kW unit had a comparable output at worst. No idea why the Nibe 2040-8 is considered an 8kW unit given it doesn't seem to ever output 8kW. Maybe there's some specific combination of exterior temps and production temps where it peaks at 8kW capacity?

It's kWh. Oh, wrong thread.

I initially read it as that, but talk of stepping it down suggests it's an actual pipe.

It's both of these. You could presumably tweak some of these factors one way or the other and balance that out by changing one or more of the others, but in essence you roughly double everything.

You're calculating cross sectional area, but the surface area of a pipe is circumference x length.

You sure?

Welcome. 50mm is bigger than you need, but the other issue is insulation. 50mm pipe has nearly twice the surface area of a 28mm pipe. Water will also be moving at a third the speed, so more time for it to lose heat. Have you insulated the pipe well?

I'm sure there're higher radiative losses via glass (less with low-e coatings) than walls, but I believe the perception of cold is partly convection-based drafts and partly the colder surface not reflecting back as much of your body heat as the warmer surface of a wall.