G and J

In my naivety when I plumbed here in ‘91 I put a nice fat pipe straight from the top of the hot water cylinder (that’s what we called ‘em in the old days) going up into the loft to be the vent pipe bent over the tank. Perfect heat dissipation device. Sigh. How many litres of heating oil has that cost in the last 34 years I wonder. I’m thinking an insulated copper pipe up from the UVC outlet, then three bends, then me manifolds starting with the 10mm ones for the sinks/basins. I’ll draw it out beautifully, then the execution will look like spaghetti. But with the cupboard door shut it will look fine. Does the balancing valve go before or after the UVC?

Everyone needs a hobby…

I’m quite sold on the radial idea, absolutely no buried joints. Plus 10mm hot water feeds for each basin to deliver warm water PDQ.

OK, hands up, I admit it, I’m a tad surprised. Earlier today I drew up a list of the feeds I will be serving from hot and cold manifolds placed (as per current thinking) above the UVC in the utility room. It’s a shocking long list. Beam me up Scotty - I need rescuing!

The relevance of the 1m for building control is that the building must be constructed in such a way to restrict/control fire (for you and your neighbours). (Planning allows you to build as close as 50mm to a boundary). Our new build (on an existing site) will sit 1030mm from our neighbours one side and 1500mm the other. In both cases there is a shared access alley between us.

The trouble with allowing contingency is that when you don’t need it then it feels like time wasted. I guess it’s a bit of a drawing of breath really, much needed, but one’s natural bent (in my case anyway) is to automatically reach for my spade and start work - thinking not required. Oddly, we aren’t in a rush, in fact, the faster we go the quicker we run out of money unless our house sells, which in this market is looking unlikely. So taking time out is a good thing, it’s just that it feels like I should be making progress regardless. We had allocated this week to a week away, maybe going on a tour of timber cladding suppliers in our campervan (who needs airport security checks when you can be rained on in a muddy field) but other events kicked that into touch. So doing nothing this week should have felt ok. Twitch. In the end I did just two half days to pull up the wooden floorboards. We put them on Facebook as free to good home and after our standard allocation of time wasters a lovely chap turned up and worked hard with me to carefully lift them, remarkably preserving the tongues in the process. The lesson is that I should have bought a pallet breaker as then we’d have done it in one afternoon, instead of two. We did discover a few wasp nests under the floors, one mummified rodent, and an uphill poo pipe - that’ll be fun taking out…. But no other surprises, thankfully. The flow direction is left to right…. But with that and some of the internal doors finding new homes we are pleased with the amount of reuse we have achieved for bits of da bungalow (RIP). Anyway, I promised a demolition summary, so…. We got two quotes for demo companies to do it. One definitely wanted protective scaffolding (we are extremely close to the neighbours) and the other wasn’t clear on that. They were close in price and cheaper of the two was just over £11k and probably scaffolding (undefined). The cheaper one wanted a welfare unit too. The dearer one was willing to do a part demo - he pointed out that if I took the roof off then we wouldn’t need scaffolding and he’d knock £4k off. So despite agonising over which was better we ended up using neither. As part of getting quotes we were told we needed a demolition survey (AKA asbestos check). This cost £350 (zero VAT) and fortunately returned very pleasing results. Steve, our guardian angel, however, pointed out that a demolition company would do it quick but very dirty and with the big machines they’d use the probability of damage to neighbours was significant. Plus about 98% likelihood of really pissing lots of peeps off too. Not good. After some negotiations it was agreed he’d work with me on a day rate and the rest, as they say, is either history or a trauma that therapy will reduce in time, but either way we got da bungalow (RIP) down. To be fair, there remains a small amount of woodwork (floor joists) to pull up which will take me a short day, and there’s concrete to break up and cart away, but the ground worker includes that in his price (partly as there seems to be a local shortage of such stuff), and I’ve three catnic lintels to clean up and sell, but I call it done. Costs: Demolition survey: £350. Demolition notice: Can’t remember, it seems so long ago, but we don’t think there was a charge. Man days: Neighbour (to help get roof tiles off): 1 day at a cost of a lot of tiles (we were robbed!) Steve: 16 days. Expert guidance; lots of hard work; wicked sense of humour but oh, the singing! Me: 25 days - General dogsbodying and everything no one else wanted to do. Why did it always have to be me up the ladder? At least my singing is tuneful. I think. Total man days: 42. The answer to the meaning of life - how appropriate. Materials: Dust masks : ~£30 Gloves: ~£50 Makita reciprocating saw plus blades: £115. Heras fencing: £120 Hard hats and hi vis waistcoats: £22 Angle grinder discs: ~£10 Diesel for umpteen tip runs: £?? - but there was so many it looks like I’m going to be invited to the tip staff meetings from now on. Bath water, washing powder, lecky for washing machine, etc. £?? Total known materials ~£347 6 yard Plasterboard Skip: £396 inc VAT Stuff sold: Scrap (so far, there’s still some copper lurking around) -£292 Roof tiles -£320 Odds and sods sold on faceache -£200 Total sold: -£812 So, if I ignore the cost of my time, it comes out less than £4k. Rather pleased with that, and as the neighbours appear to be ok, it’s a good result all round.

Water main to pop up at the back of the attached garage, with softener placed just next to it. It’s there simply for the convenience of salt filling. I haven’t researched but I assume the softener will have a maximum pressure requirement so looks like I’ll end up with multiple PRVs.

Yet more evidence that I think incredibly slowly: Was laying awake last night thinking about plumbing, like one does. I was thinking through the above and was wondering why the kitchen cold tap needed its own pressure reducing valve. I'm expecting to put one on the whole installation as our static pressure is well over 6bar, so I’m guessing to 2.5bar or 3bar. All the mixer taps other than the kitchen will be fed from a balanced (softened) supply, but the kitchen is different. To allow the kitchen mixer tap to work correctly do I need to reduce it further just for that tap?

Does each drain/tundish require its own dry trap?

Da Bungalow we've demolished shows evidence under its layers of its configuration at birth. No wet stuff in the main part. An outhouse at the front had a potty (plumbed in and connected to the sewer, a bit of a wow for Suffolk in the 1920s), and some short, buried lead piping presumably for the scullery. So there really is nothing new under the sun…

It simply wouldn’t be the same. We’ll do it another time, maybe near someone’s site when they’ve something for us all to gawp at. Either that or we could have an activity thing like a steel lifting party or a team basement dig…

Seriously though - is that for an 8 bedroom 5 reception room grand design type warehouse?

Bummer. I feel for you. As for worrying about the wall plastered blockwork will need redecorating but otherwise is highly likely to be unaffected. The cavity will dry in time.

Bloody hell. Did Scotty sign this off? Which manifold serves the transporter room?

It’s been pointed out to me that my site consists of, errr, a rectangle of mud. To me it’s so, so much more. It’s a rectangle of mud I’ve sweated my bits off to clear. Therefore it’s the most consuming bit of real estate on the planet. But apparently humans might think differently. Sniff. So methinks another day another venue might be a good idea. I hear someone up near Sax is allowing peeps to play with his big bits of kit. It’s worth considering. 😉

They’re delivered sealed and pressurised? Good grief!

So a single cold water manifold that is after the pressure balancing valve serves all bathroom outlets? If so thats simple, I like that. I had assumed I’d have to have a balanced cold water manifold just for showers.

Was hoping for Zeta Jones in the lasers type gyrations, but Billy Elliot will do…

I’m not at all religious but reading that I had the most intense urge to genuflect and cross myself and touch wood. So it’s sounds like to the nervous novice (a rank to which I aspire) putting the manifold on, pressure testing, then depressurising prior to screed installation is a sensible plan.

So it’s a good idea to maintain access to the manifold during the pour? Good to know.

Can you turn it to your advantage and save money by reusing lots, the money saved being channelled into your toy (ahem), I mean tool fund? And maybe the pooliverse is looking after you, nudging you towards a more interesting place to do whatever than a simple barn type building, a building you’ll grow to love.

Well in all my years I’ve never fitted an UFH manifold with a pressure gauge on it! (That is, I’ve never fitted UFH…. every day is a school day. Shame about all the detentions lol)

I had assumed that keeping the pipes pressurised during the poor reduces the probability of ‘treading on’ damage. Are the UFH pipes tough enough without?

I once checked a section of pipe work that was about to be boxed in - it didn’t hold pressure. Worked the issue and eventually, after replacing half of it, discovered that my pressure tester was leaking, the pipe work was fine. Might be worth checking that the tester is working fine.

New (and better) bits of wood and glue it is then.