G and J

Fab.

I think it’s first and foremost the responsibility of the self builder (in our cases at least) to design stuff that looks right in its place. Some peeps seem to feel it’s an exercise in getting as much over on the planners/neighbours as possible, which I think is a shame. I know it’s an ‘only rain at night’ type of notion but trying one’s best to build in harmony has got to be the best starting point. But I recognise that we need planners to limit the unharmonious.

I’d have assumed even a couple of amps pushed the wrong way through old and/or one way RCBOs/RCD would have given them a problem. Nicely inclusive though. I can imagine the real payback being in change of attitude from apathy/impotence to yes, we can do a bit.

No sure if you were referring to our comment, but just for completeness (in case helpful to others) we are bound by B4, so the relevant walls have cement board over our timber frame and fire treated cladding, in addition to the appropriate cavity closures and intumescent strip.

Presumably they come with a remote clamp for the meter box?

Some will be better than none, even if it isn’t in the perfect place. Let’s hope they are never tested.

Other than the fact that my multi tool wouldn’t back to back blades like that ,no, I give up. Do tell.

Remember the first priority of any politician is to get re-elected.

It is indeed beautiful! We also missed step 2 (England) although we were careful to include as much detail of what we wanted in 1., with a statement "we expect to fine tune materials etc" and listened to their feedback for step 3. Application. Worked for us. Good luck

Our sides are within a meter of our boundaries and so we have to demonstrate reasonable precautions to prevent fire spreading from one property to another. Whilst they aren’t technically enforceable it would seem odd to me to be willing to spend money on things like a robot vacuum (a similar cost level) and not on something that might save a life. In my mind once a fire is bad enough to operate the strips the house is in real trouble, the key drive is to slow stuff down long enough for everyone to get out and the fire service to prevent spread between buildings. As for positioning, I’d agree that they will be less effective at ground level, but I’d also argue that one wouldn’t want a single strip atop a 6m cladding ‘chimney’.

I can imagine steel cavity closures round penetrations. I think the key thing is to close off the chimney (behind the cladding) when there is a fire.

We ran out of time before the plasterboarders booked arrival to osb every wall, so did this on a couple of areas of wall where we knew stuff was 'vaguely' golng. Has worked for us.

Didn’t know all that. Yet another French thing I like. There’s quite a long list of them.

Wasn’t ours either. But we really liked the fancy 8’ high front door with the long metal bar handle. It was only when it was installed we realised that it locked itself like a Yale lock, and that to open the door the key has to be turned with a fair bit of force as the key acts as a sort of door handle operating the mortise latch. Most of the time there’s a key sitting in the outside of our front door as I’d be forever locking myself out otherwise. The things one doesn’t think of asking/checking!

I’ve a distant memory of being told that it is ok if the bottom step is slightly less high than the rest, but a real no no if it’s higher. 25mm would be a lot to raise the bottom step by.