ThePoplars

When one becomes immersed in the world of storage solutions, one forgets that others may not be quite so knowledgeable interested. ?

Keep an eye on eBay. I was looking for a pull out unit for our bathroom and discovered Kessebohmer units were much cheaper than on the Hafele website, and, as well as the 300mm larder unit I was looking for, I bought a brand new 600mm Convoy Premio in an auction for £37 when the list price is about £700! I have no idea where I'm actually going to use it, but I'll find somewhere ?

Thanks for sharing your experiences @ragg987 and @PeterW. That gives me a better understanding, and I'm interested how you've used the adaptors for pendant lights. It's certainly going to be a lot more expensive than using my old wall lamps that I've got in storage and had intended to use because I was very happy with them. I've found this recessed track which is in clearance https://www.beamled.com/biard-2m-3-circuit-recessed-track-white-60877 (because I think it's been discontinued) but I don't like the lamps that they have from the same brand - hence my question about mixing brands. I'll have a chat to electrician and builder tomorrow to see how they would work the installation - single circuit might be perfectly sufficient if it's just spotlights for lighting the paintings.

I believe it may well have been. We often hear the police helicopter circling for the naughty boys.

Looking at lighting for our cinema room now. We are having a number of standard recessed spotlights and had planned a couple of wall lights. After looking at where we would be hanging a couple of large paintings in the room and I got to thinking about having the type of tracks you see in galleries so that we could reposition and add LED spotlights if we change the pictures around, add new ones, or if the suggestion of displaying a prized motorbike ever comes to fruition ? (however, having it in the cinema room may be the lesser of two evils). My electrician hasn't ever installed a system like this so I've done a bit of looking around on the internet and discovered recessed tracks exist; the ones I'm looking at are mains powered and don't require a transformer. I think the difference between single circuit and 3 circuit track is that you can control different circuits to do different things whilst still using the same track in some way, and the spotlights for single circuit and 3 circuit are not interchangeable. However, I don't know if spotlights for the same circuit type can be swapped between different manufacturers. Does anybody have any experience of using this type of lighting and have any recommendations or advice about what to avoid?

Thanks, good to have the recommendation ?

It's fairly rectangular - mats it is then. Thanks!

Thanks all, as ever, helpful replies to keep me on track. There isn't an existing wet system to tag onto, so I can see that the electric system may be better. Having had a bit of a look around on theunderfloorheatingstore.com and wunda (as Wunda seem to have been recommended a lot on here), there seem to be loose cables as well as mats now. Would the mats do the job or are the cables preferable for any reason? The Teesside countryside is a bit of a well kept secret isn't it @MikeSharp01? We are over in Stockton, so not as industrial, but the effects of the loss of industry are biting ever more. There has been a fair bit of regeneration in Stockton in the last few years with Durham University moving in on the Riverside and a number of businesses following so the High Street looks really good apart from all of the empty shops and drug addicts.... We are incomers to this area though, so I don't know my way around very well. I've been to Redcar once after they installed the wind farm at sea and the beach was littered with fossils. I love Saltburn though! ?

To give a bit of interest during the winter, you might want to go for things with interesting bark. I love Silver Birch Jacquemontii - I've bought Doorenbos but there are other stunning white bark varieties. It grows taller than 6m but you can keep on top of pruning relatively easily. Acer Palmatum Sango-kaku has stunning red stems in winter and Acer Griseum has fabulous peeling rust coloured bark but is slow growing. Amerlanchier lamarckii is a really good small tree for all round interest - flowers in spring, leaf colour in autumn. I know you said you're not looking evergreen but Photinia Red Robin is a tall red-leaved shrub which will grow to about 4m and would give you a layering effect.

Does anybody have a recommendation for what type of underfloor heating we should retrofit to a bathroom and utility room please? The rooms will be tiled, used infrequently and kept at low temperature, and we have a minimal amount of space before we would have to start trimming doors - so the thinnest possible solution would be desirable. I had an electric mat set up in a previous house with this kind of requirement but that was installed a long time ago and there may be better options you are all familiar with. Thanks in advance

In our ensuite, we currently have 1400 x 800. I prefer a 900 width and am currently planning a 1500 x 900 for our extension ensuite. Very nice hotel we stayed in recently had an 2000 x 900 for a double shower with walls coming out from the sides and an open 600mm entrance in the centre (I go nowhere without my tape measure). Very little splashing on the floor outside the area with that.

Well, the cistern hasn't arrived yet, but I'll know now to check about the water valves. I also got an ebay bargain Kappa50 flush plate @Onoff and it has just arrived. It is in bright chrome so this may be disconcerting for my partner given previous threads - I'll just be concerned about fingerprints ?

Mixing measurements - they're just trying to keep you on your toes ?

@Onoff Thank you. I wasn't looking in the right place, and there is something much clearer about somebody saying what they are doing rather than very fancy computer generated animations. I'll put my order in now!

There are some Cistus which are OK in windy coastal locations, good in pots and evergreen to boot.

That's the video I found when looking for how to install it @Onoff, but it has the Duofix frame being used rather than just the cistern. The product installation download also creates some doubt as the diagrams show it being attached to blockwork and used with a wall hung toilet but no Duofix frame!

If we don't have to have the frame, I'd be happy not to have to buy it, but I do want a good quality cistern that can be accessed easily for maintenance and the Geberit seems to provide that. Thanks for sharing those photos @ProDave - I presume the cistern is fitted to the wall in some way?

Hopefully somebody wise will be able to help because my plumber is on holiday and I need to order something soon. For our ensuite, we want to buy a back-to-wall toilet and install it behind a false wall which will have a slab of granite/corian/tristone (dependent on how much money we have left in the budget by that stage) across the top which will also act as a countertop for an undermounted sink. I've looked for cisterns for back to wall toilets that will do this and have come across the Geberit Up200 model with an installation height of 820mm. It seems to be supplied as a cistern only or with a Duofix frame but installation information I can find online shows it with the Duofix frame being used, and everything else seems to point to the Duofix only being used for wall hung toilets, not back to wall toilets (and whilst wall hung toilets look good, I have an irrational fear of one falling off the wall when I'm sitting on it! ?) Does anybody know if it is possible to fit a back to wall toilet using the Geberit Duofix or could you point me in the direction of some directions showing how to install the Geberit Up200 without it? Many thanks

And we're having a GRP roof because it's fairly flat to fit with the rest of the design of the house - not sure if this is much more expensive than tiles.

Our builder was working on the basis of £800 per square metre for a 6 x 7 m attached rendered garage for us as part of our extension, but, touch wood, he's currently well under budget for the stage he's at according to both our Estimators Online quote and another local builder who quoted build stage costs for us. He works on a fixed weekly fee and we buy all the materials and pay other trades so he doesn't go over the VAT threshold though so you would have to add VAT.

They will all be on one single storey flatish roof which I'm being assured will take the weight of a person. Also, since they're centre pivot, I think (but could be wrong) we would be be able to stand on a ladder inside for at least 3 of the 4 windows and clean them if necessary. What I've seen is that the coating works better on roofs which are exposed to ample sunlight, and being north facing, I'm not sure whether the coating will actually be effective for us.

To give some more context, is self cleaning glass worth it on Velux centre pivot windows on a north facing, single storey room, with a GRP roof, where the angle of the windows will be between 15-25 degrees (builder is going to have to build them up from a 9 degree roof with a ZWC kit so is suggesting a larger angle)? Current price differential is around £100 a window, which we would be happy to pay if it does work in practice, but I've seen commentary elsewhere which suggests it's not worth it.

I'm really not sure what low or high temperature is in this context. We normally aim for a room temperature of 19. Will have to investigate.

Ah yes, we have a pipe like that on the upstairs landing. The cats love it (visitors haven't found it yet though ?).

That's useful to know. Thanks ☺️