scottishjohn

I,m electric only heat pump and UFH Ishould aslo say the house is 400sqm floor area

put solar on the new house last year and now having had a winter can say that i didi it wrong i went for 13.6kw of panels--no problem but went for 17kw of batteries -iwa going to go for only 4 batteries in the stack --but when they found they could not fit 30 panels and had to fit only 26 the deal was i get another battery instead the bottom line is that when its all working on a sunny day then the batteries fill up quick but in winter get nothing with the intelligent octopus tariff they pay you same as they charge you for electic ,so once batteries are ful it goes back anyway at 27p a unit and the batteries then discharge between 16.00 and 20,00 hrs at 29p sounds good but it will never pay back the cost of to many batteries I am electric only so I am always importing in badmonths so better just to fill smaller batteries sooner and just take the 27p for the rest of it -the 3p extra form storage will never pay for the extra batteries the other thing that happens is it priorities filling batteries ,so like today I am paying out for import even though its charging batteries -yes iget 3p more when selling back -but not the point If doing it again yes all the panels the roof will hold .but do not go over the top on batteries ,unless you are dual fuel and then you would store and use it later

you sure you cannot change the design to reuse the muck on your site for landscaping etc ?

I had same problem and Ihave it claim it back for hmrc -with vat reclaim same as all the other stuff you will be buying zero rate will only apply if work being done by main contractor vat reclaim

I would not use CT! --just use the wate plugging cement even on damp surfaces

I had a similar but larger problem when trying to control the water leaks on my firepond there was pressure as well with my leaks in the 5 meter wall behind the pond and a constant flow it was a sika _plugging fast setting cement mix it up and you got 5mins to get it on -so small areas at a time and can be use under water if you press it hard onto the leak took me 2 days frigging about to gat all the leaks plugged but it worked mix it up till its like sloppy putty --then GO I even used it on my water course --old water supply made from stones just laid on each other problem was it was leaking too much from the stone culvert and coming outanywhere it like where it went through the wall and not where I wanted it contained in the stone work imagine a stone culvert coming to a dry stone dyke and trying to get all going where you wanted on the other side --then you will get the picture did not matter with original set up as all the leaks ended up in the open collector at other side of wall , but as i was piping it in 300m twin wall all the way down to firepond 8mm drop and 20m downhill to where it meets the wall above the firepond I did not want it to form another stream under the piping and end up with the wall collapsing as it had done in the past - not a problem then as it made its way into the stone culvert which heads off across my courtyard and down the 95m drop into the quarry that stone culvert I replaced with more 300mm twin wall problem sloved but alot of frigging about

so far from my searching I can find a few different products that would work however because granite is non porous it will sit on top if i do it all voer and permagaurd say it it will discolour with age if it is not absorbed so best idea so far is to just paint it on all the pointing joints I can see now where new stone work has been done that even though waterproofer was added to the mix it changes colour when its wet so first trial will be to coat those areas and see if it then does not change when it gets wet then we on a winner my real problem is it was pointed --80-100years+ ago with a mix using granite sand + cament and ground cockle shells -- not lime mortar being a quarry with a stone crusher it is obvious why they used free granite sand and probably some of the beach as well it also looks similar colour to the stone work which is why all my repairs to insdie walls were sone in nornmal cement mortar no point in going lime which gould take weeks to dry I wanted to get on and as there was always going to be a gap to the TF inside any water could evaporate up the gap to the cold roof the small area i have repointed with modern cement mortar , were an absoute nightmare to chip out the rock hard old motar although the actual walls of course were built with lime mortar they even used the cockle shells in the infilll mortar and small stones in the center of the walls I have solid walls . not the usual outer skin then rubble and an innner skin its been mortared up all the way through that could acount for why the walls were basically so solid after best part of 250 years and why the trees growing around it when i came did not manage to move anything -that and the stone work is built on solid rock for most of it I dug down 3ft outside the walls before i started and it was built to 3 ft below ground level in most places I got more water ingress last year and i am guessing the walls which were open at top for 60 years were still drying out only showing above the downstairs window reaveals so some special attention will be paid to make sure its not coming around them IF i was doing it again i would fit lead around all the window openings ,full depth of wall but that would have meant pulling out all the lintels to do it but If anyone is doing similar and making window openings larger i would strongly advise that is the way to do it since istarted asking questions and looking around ifound that was the 100% cure for old stone walls especialy with lime mortar I have another water problem with my garage which was built from blocks attached to the unrenvated part of the building -- If I ever get round to doing that then this wall will not be showing .so iwill try the cheaper silicone cream on there which has a shiny finish TEMU special at £40 for 4 kgs as opposed to £150 for premagaurd --worth a try and disclouration will not be a problem there

now the winter has come with very high winds and driving rain --lots of it 50mph + i am experiencing some slight water penetration in some areas what is the best product to coat all theexterior walls with without making them shiny and changing the colour of the granite I suspect there are very small cracks in the pointing and maybe some of stone work certainly small as ther isn,t much you could repoint and as they used granite sand in the pointing its a real problem to chase them out

same old story "you pay peanuts --you get monkeys" spend on a decent one and you,ll be able to move it on later for litlle or no loss the way prices are going up

I bought a 3 year old one under 2000 hrs --will be abe to sell it on for same money when done--or very close

russel is correct --ground conditions control it all me I have free draining granite rubble etc iwth 45 degree babnk about 10metres away follwed by a 8o m drop into the quarry about 30 m,.s away so dig was hard work for digger but no need to do anything but backfill hole open for 3 days and it was raining and all water just drained away

you doing well there 6ton is £380+vat for a week --but plus deliver=pickup --that adds another £220- hence why I very quickly bought a 3ton myself

pir =0.022 std mineral wool 0.044 you quote nigh spec at 0.032 but now expesnive is that compared to std ? and even then its still neraly 50% worse and if is a non scottish roof with no sarking --then you will definately get some sort of air flow through the mineral wool how much is not easily deefinable why anyone these days would not sheet a roof and use double batons is beyond me plenty of air gap and no where for crap to gather up and then become a moisture trap and cause rot in20 years time I have a cold roof with sarking boards and insulation is in loft on top of ceiling,which is mineral wool -300mm, along with some slate vents as there are no battons --slates nailed direct to sarking

still means you need half as much PIR to get same value --or twice as much mineral wool I like NOD idea cut on small side --nail to hold inpklace then some foam to fill in

we used to use spray can matt black when going filler jobs on cars trying to get large panels flat just half a mist then a gentle flat with a long bed sander --longer than a pole sander if you can if its flat you want you ,ll soon see everywhere that needs filling no body does much in repairing panels now --same problem no skilled staffand insurance don,t want to pay no door skins fitted now --new doors --same reason I suppose my claim to fame in painting was the customer who complained that back to bare metal the paint job on his rotten old silver shadow was too shiny RR panels are never straight thats why they use lots of lead filler and need 20+coats of cellulose from factory he took it to derby to get some mechanicals done and they chipped the door where the two tone join was they rang me up and I gave them the colour codes and offerd them the paint I had left over from the job "we don,t want that we want you to quote us to repair it " needless to say I hit them hard for what was a half days job, "when you see a stick --cut it" as they say round here I never made money on full job ,as I underestimated the work -- It was 1980 - £5000 for main job RR quote_ hit with £500 for the minor repair