Jenni

Hi @Duncan62 I'm dragging up this old post as I'm planning on doing something that sounds similar to your idea. How has yours gone - are you happy with it? It would be good to have any info you're happy to share and I'd love to see any photos please.

Anyone willing to offer an opinion please?

For visual heat how about a bioethanol burner? My mum is considering one instead of a log burner.

Hi, I'd appreciate some opinions please. I'm building a log store, lean-to along a 10m long wall, projecting out about 1m. Facing almost south. I've got the structure in place and just thinking about how to add the slates. The easiest option would be to ply the roof, lay membrane, then slates directly on top. This allows for each slate to be fully supported but the nails for the next slate to go where is best for the required spacing up the roof. My concern with this option is the lack of ventilation gap under the slates, but for an outdoor log store is this detrimental?! Secondly, I'd like an overhang at the front, I read that for over house gutters this would be around 50mm, but what do you think I could push this too? I was thinking 100-150mm, but is that way too much unsupported slate? Many thanks. Jenni.

Hi TWPaul, I got an email saying you sent me a message, I've replied 🙂

Is anyone able to shed some light on this please? I'm sure others have had other triggers to get the pump running outside of programmed times, via occupancy sensors etc. Surely a boost button is possible??

To answer this directly, no - the cylinder has no restriction / mixing valve on the hot water outlet.

Hello @JohnMo I run my ASHP in eco mode at the moment, it means my cylinder holds the hot water around 43c this is warm enough for most of what I need, for washing up I don't add any cold water to that. I may raise it a few degrees at some point in the future. I could certainly use the Wilo pump to run continuously 7am-10am and from 4pm-10pm. But this strikes me as a bit wasteful regards to electricity use, but I'm not against it, if that's the consensus on here. But I can't see any way to run a boost button with it, and I would really like that functionality.

Hello. (My self build continues at a rather slow pace . . . .) ASHP fitted April 2021. Tank and pump for the loop was fitted back then and has just been waiting for me to catch up and need it. Plumbing went in last year. The unvented cylinder is next to bathroom (radial pipework there). I ran 15mm plastic pipe with 25mm climaflex insulation to the furthest tap (utility room, approx' 25m away from tank), via kitchen, then a 10mm return to tank. Have just come to get the pump up and running, it's a Wilo Star-Z NOVA T (https://wilo.com/gb/en/Products/en/products-expertise/wilo-star-z-nova/star-z-nova-t) My first annoyance is that the special "Wilo connector" to get this powered up has gone AWOL in the intervening time, Wilo do not sell this stand alone. My sparky thinks we can probably get over that one way or another. The bigger issue is it doesn't look like the pump will do what I wanted it to do. From what I can tell, it will run continuously within 3 separate time periods, which can be specified. I was initially planning on 'pulsing' the pump (for eg, to run for 2 minutes in every 15 minutes, within a specified timescale). But I've just had a look back on some threads on here and see that this isn't necessarily the recommended way of doing it. Life is a bit variable here, I would like warm water to be at the taps from around 7am-10am and from 4pm-10pm. This would mostly be for hand washing so warm (ie, if water had been pulsed but was in a cooling moment) would be fine, and when washing up - waiting for the hotter water to follow the warm wouldn't be too much of an issue, (and far preferable to putting hot on top of cold leg as I do currently without the loop pump working.) But I also want a 'boost' button, for when warm/hot water is required outside of these times. I don't especially mind waiting as such, just cant bear to see all that cold water just running through while I wait! Can anyone see a way I can achieve all or any of that with my current supplied pump? If not, any pumps that will? Many thanks Jenni.

I have these, very impressed with quality and price. Work perfectly, especially with dogs going through. Yotache Fly Screen Door 158 x 206 cm, Reinforced Polyester Double Door Screen Curtain for Sliding Door French Door Keep Fly Bug Out, Black https://amzn.eu/d/36DUU36

The poison ones are great, but they've stopped making them now, so other than diminishing supplies on ebay they are tricky to get hold of. The ones that work just by sticky are are bit rubbish in comparison.

Thank you everyone. Sounds like I can stop worrying about that now, and get on with installing kitchen plumbing. @JohnMo in 20 yrs of dishwasher use we've never rinsed anything before it goes in, just stack it well and it comes out clean.

Hello. I'm worried that the distance my dishwasher will be from my undersink plumbing might cause issues. I could add an extra U bend to be closer but this would be behind the dishwasher (not integrated) What do you think? Hope my sketchy diagram helps!

I didn't know granite could be cut to precisely fit a wonky/wavey wall. If it can I'll get some quotes. That size may not be liftable though!!

Hello. Resurrecting this post to ask about worktops. Mine needs to be 4050mm long, very wonky wall but up to 720 deep. Cut out for overmount stainless steel sink. I had in my head wide/full stave oak, but have gone off that idea. My partner suggested corian (his parents have it) as it is precisely templated which would be needed. Any recommendations please? Is dark coloured corian a bad idea? Thanks, Jenni.

I've used one like this before, but older model. https://www.agrieuro.co.uk/geotech-sa-510-electric-circular-saw-bench-on-stand-log-cutter-max-cut-170-mm-p-16436.html Log goes in the hopper, then you push the hopper toward the fixed rotating blade, feels very safe, is very fast too. Guess they can be hired?

I'm just about to have the final layers put on my patio. I've gone for resin, build up I've done as 100mm crushed concrete that went down on top of approx 500mm rough hardcore with clay below, then levelled with 70mm type 1. Company will come in and lay 50mm permeable tarmac followed by 20mm resin bound gravel. As the tarmac is the permeable kind it's fully SUDS compliant. One company tried to tell me they used permeable concrete, but I was bit wary about that as hadn't heard of it before.

Thank you ProDave. Pads are in, hopefully patio fully laid in the next few weeks.

Hello. Bit of a last minute thought to combine 3 functions. I've always known that in the future I was going to add a lean-to for rain cover over patio doors and to reduce solar gain. But a facebook ad caught my attention and seems a good idea to me to make the roof of said lean-to of solar panels. Mine will be a bit more modest, more like this construction - We're sorting out the patio build up this weekend, so need to put concrete pads in that can be attached to later on, they'll be buried under patio and not visible. My question is - how far out from the building should I lay the pads? Without solar as a consideration I was going to go for about 2.5m (with length of 5m along building, though this could be longer, up to 15m) But thinking there might be a 'sweet spot' on the eventual depth of the roof that is better for the solar panels?

Hi. I'm in the process of organising an oak sleeper edge to my lawn (260mm above patio) similar design to @DarrenP with flat one on the top. I've hammered meter long unistrut into the ground to secure the sleepers to and plan to also add brackets at the back to join the sleepers together in a line. I plan to back fill with shingle then crushed hardcore before final soil and grass seed. Couple of questions - Should I be painting on some kind of bitumen paint like @Radian has pictured above? Or use DPC plastic before I back fill? I was thinking of using slotted angle to attach top sleeper to the ones below, but interested in what you've used, and how you've done dowels please. I'm not keen on putting long hex head screws in a visible location.

On the question of Chelmer Heating, they're only an hour from us, we visited them (2019), got quotes etc, was very impressed. Then some very odd stuff happened, some fundamental things said previously were contradicted then denied, then the guy got very defensive and quite rude, even appearing to have a 'drunken' rant. Needless to say we lost trust and went elsewhere.

My heat pump installer said to just run the immersion / legionnaires cycle on bath night. No bath here yet but hoping that'll be OK when the time comes as I like a long hot bath.

It's on my list of things to fit. Quite a few ways to go about it. I'm going for an internal thermostatic mixer valve, so single warm tap on outside wall.

This is something I've looked at quite a bit. Mine isn't built yet, but have sorted it out for my mum's house - heavy duty long extension runners, similar to pic below. I'll get actual pic later. Mine will be same function but I'll put more solid cover/door on as I'm not a fan of open shelves in general.

Hi @Nick Laslett, I went with a single 22mm in the 50mm duct. All seems to be working well so far, although I'm not complete / fully functioning in general yet.