ryder72

A couple of German manufacturers are experimenting with solutions. One uses what they call 'activated plasma' which in effect breaks down the odour causing molecule into its constituents, releasing CO2, H2, N2 and O2 in the air. I dont know the details of the technology and its mechanism. I have seen it work so I doubt its marketing gimmickry. Another uses a system that ionises stale air over a filter to neutralise odours. I wasnt convinced that it was doing anything. I dont know if either use ozone as part of the mechanism but it may well be how it works. Does the ozone principle work by exchanging the third oxygen atom with the odour causing molecule to form something more stable and ozone in turn turning into a more stable O2 molecule?

Slightly unrelated but I have found a very effective way of preventing irons from scaling up. Use the condensate water from a condensing tumble dryer. This water is devoid of any salts and I have managed to use the same iron for 10+ years now without any problems. In fact its sort of cleaned up an old partially scaled iron

I have finally opted for a Gutmann hob with inside downdraft extractors. Following @JSHarris advise I have gone recirculating. I am not convinced that the average extractor out there with a standard charcoal filter is generally good enough to adequately contain cooking smells not are the average filters up to the job on trapping grease. A number of high quality products are available but there is a massive amount of resistance to spending that amount of money. We have specified plasma activated extractors a well. Niche German product. Rather expensive but its brilliant.

Avoid acrylic. Toughened glass is much better. Acrylic is poor heat resistance and will scratch easily from cleaning.. Glass will be dearer but much better.

would it matter which way it worked - ie pump company supplying pump and concrete or concrete company hiring the pump and offering the same service?

My understanding is that a single entity supplying and pumping the concrete will not incur the charge as they are provide the whole service. I decided to let my builder supply cranes for lifting windows. It was a bit dearer but no VAT was charged and he handled the whole process.

HMRC will give you a guideline and let you make your interpretation. Its only at the time of making the claim that you will find out (or not) whether they will entertain the refund. Its crazy. You probably already know this, but hiring the pump on its own will not give you the opportunity to claim back the VAT. This will be classed as plant hire.

Just remember Bosch though the 'value' range of the BSH stable isnt necessarily the cheapest so look at base spec Neff and Siemens. You might find a cheaper deal on the other two.

Avoid Howdens appliances. They are diabolical. Get a good brand. Less likely to go wrong and cause you grief running around.

Why I always recommend buying a base model of a quality brand rather than a pimped up version of a cheap brand.

Lot of this comes out of market research where leading questions are asked and no one says no to a question that might ask 'do you want your oven to send your wife a happy anniversary text on your wedding anniversary'. Its a waste of space but gives geeks their moment in the sun.

Even this isnt completely accurate. In 2015, Bosch acquired complete control of the group by buying our Siemens. BSH own the Neff and Gaggenau brands and manufacture and distribute the Siemens brand under license from Siemens. Granted they dont make everything in Germany any longer but I dont think this is important as they still apply certain manufacturing standards to the product. Audi make the TT in Hungary. A Panasonic factory in Wales makes all of the base model BSH combi microwaves. Does that make them German, British or Japanese.

I would always recommend the basic models from good brand appliance over the cheap stuff. Bosch/Neff/Siemens and Miele are the best of the large mainstream brands. The first three are made in the same factories using the same components. Think of it as the Audi/VW/Skoda/Seat scenario. The quality of BSH group and Miele is hard to beat but its not the cheapest around. Contact your local kitchen specialist as there are often ex-display appliances available which of effective unused/mint with full warranties and sell cheaply. Below is a list of sources of major brands in the UK. BSH group does Bosch, Neff, Siemens, Gaggenau Electrolux group does AEG/Electrolux and Zanussi as their main brands. Generally overpriced compared to quality. Whirlpool does IKEA, Fisher Paykel. Patchy build quality Hotpoint, Ariston, Indesit are part of the Merloni group. Budget end brands Candy/Hoover are another italian group but mainly chinese made. Budget end brands Beko /Grundig is Turkish. Budget end brands, thought Grundig tries to sell the German connection on a cheap base product.

We have finally settled for 47*50 treated battens and counterbattens to create a 94mm cavity. As per TRADA guidelines, battened and counterbattened cavities dont require tapered horizontal timbers. I cant find definitely guidance on the type of fixings to use. Are ordinary nail gun nails sufficient or is it essential to use stainless steel nails for battening and counterbattening given that they are very unlikely to get wet. We will be using annular SS nails for the cladding.

I bought a new house from a national housebuilder (am I allowed to name them?) in 2005. My wife's relocation package paid the purchase costs so we had a snagging survey done. On a 5 bed detached house, this picked up 119 snags. The housebuilder didnt object to the snagging survey as long as it didnt delay completion and we got the solicitors to insert a clause for a timeline to get the snags sorted and it was ultimately sorted out. The snagging man was a retired building inspector and he told me in a conversation that inspection was delegated to NHBC who inspect one house of each type on an estate and even this isnt a thorough inspection. So in effect its a box ticking exercise. NHBC itself is a very questionable setup. The worst builders are the highest contributors and I cannot see how NHBC management will every want to crack the whip with their paymasters. I have also dealt with private building inspectors and I must say it was pretty poor. I was also more than a little bit surprised when the building inspector showed up in a Porsche Panamerica (or something like that). On the contrary, by LA building inspector on the build has been superb. Very thorough, knowledgeable and helpful.

I suspect this is the expansion joint needed when your render spans multiple floors.

One point thats emerging is that the 25*47 batten for the renderboard wont suffice as most render boards specify a 60mm wide batten when 2 boards are jointed at a single batten. Has anyone faced this?

This is brilliant. I was thinking steel was scouring pads. Cheap and does the job.

Thank you. Will look into this. Any chance you can post a photo?

The slope is meant to be away from the house. I still think the slope is still required and I am not sure battening and counterbattening is going to help. If anything, it would probably be more expensive on labour.

Jeremy, did you stretch the scourer mesh. Its generally pretty tightly packed isnt it? I have seen the quantity I need for under £50. I havent seen that guidance specifically but all detailing for board on board batten shows this type of battening. I suppose you are right in that the change of water getting in with board on board detail is very small but there is the possibility that the boards arent perfectly straight and prone to come degree of warping opening up gaps for water ingress.

Our specification is an aluminium capping at the top and open below. At the top, the coping will overhang the render or cladding by a minimum of 35mm and both will stop 20mm shy of the capping to allow ventilation. I like your idea of using cant rails.

Thanks for all your replies guys. I am looking at multiple systems but getting quotes is proving difficult. Lots of local chaps willing to buy some off the shelf product like Johnstones, Weber etc and put it on but completely clueless in working through the merits and demerits of the various available options, cost/benefit ratios etc. I have a rather unrelated query. We have render on the lower level and cladding on the upper. Render is to be applied on a render carrier board and the board or render system itself doesnt require a ventilated cavity. However, the frame will require ventilation achieved with treated battens with cavities closed off with insect mesh, top and bottom. The only recommendation I can see is from TRADA stating that the batten must be a minimum of 6 times screw diameter and the screws for 12.5mm renderboard need to be 4mm making it a minimum vent cavity of 24mm. The obvious solution is a 25*38mm treated batten. The cladding needs to overhang the render and the render system build up is 12.5mm render board and 6mm render making its 18.5mm, say 20mm plus batten thickness = 45mm. The cladding is going to be board on board using 18mm boards and the renderers recommend that the inner boards are ideally 30mm past the render (more is better) to minimise any render staining risk. This makes the need for the battens for cladding a minimum 75mm so making 47 * 75 battens the obvious choice. This is obviously going to be both expensive and heavy. TO make things a bit more complicated, the battens are to be horizontally fitted with a taper to angle any water that gets on it to run down the taper and flow away. I cant get my head round what this tapering will do to the treatment. Does anyone have any thoughts on- 1. The battening solution proposed 2. The 25mm cavity and whether this is adequate? 3. The taper required on the cladding battens Thanks

There are two induction versions of this hob and the pictured one is the higher spec of the two products. I personally like the controls but the premium over the more basic version is perhaps unjustified.

Thats the Bora professional. The knob control is a very German think which in my mind detracts from the idea of clean lines.