Russdl

I guess piano hinges is going to be the best option. It’s got to swing out legs to support the leaf and they wouldn’t get past a piano hinge so I’d have to put the hinges in 3 sections so there are two gaps for the legs to swing through. Thanks all for your input.

I’ve build a wheeled work bench with a ply top, cut the ply down the middle so that I can fold it in half and then wheel the bench out of the way for easier storage. I had some little cupboard hinges left over so without much confidence in their ability to take the weight, I gave it a go. They hold the leaf well enough in the folded position but can’t take the weight of the leaf when it’s up, leaving a step in my otherwise flat workbench top. Does anyone know what sort of hinge would be up to the job?

A Combimate solves the potential problem of drinking softened water whilst still keeping lime scale at bay. (There are probably other water conditioners out there but I don’t know of any).

As it’s a new build do a warm roof, put the stairs in and floor the loft. VAT back on all that. Great easy access storage space and then stud walls and windows at a later date if the mood takes you.

As well as the Combimate for drinking water we have a MiniMax (aka Harvey) Water Softener for the rest of the house. These water softeners do not require a mains connection, but do require the block salt being topped up every few months. I highly recommend the set up for an effective defence against hard ‘as nails’ water. None of it is cheap in the short term, but even factoring in the salt/phosphate refills I reckon it’ll end up a very reasonable price to pay in the long run to keep the lime scale away.

@canalsiderenovation I’m guessing you don’t have anything to counter the hard water? As it seems you have a working Quooker/Cube combination for the time being and their after sales service is pretty good perhaps you should tackle the hard water issue first as that is going to kill any replacement boiling water tap you install. We are in a very hard water area as well and we have a Combimate in line before our Quooker. So far have had zero scale issue in 4 years (but we have enjoyed Quooker’s after sales service for numerous other faults - we’re on our third Cube already!!) If you were to go down the Combimate route and still decide to replace the Quooker then at least the replacement tap wouldn’t be killed off by the hard water. The Combimate can do the whole house or just one appliance, as in our case. If it’s just for the one appliance then you only need a half fill of the Combiphos balls every 12 months which would cost around £17/year at current prices.

What could possibly go wrong? (I’m delighted to report that somehow nothing went wrong)

I presume it’s still in its box? Get some rope attached around the box for starters - something to grab hold of when gravity tries to do its thing. My son and I dragged a similar heavy Lusso bath upstairs during the build. We laid scaffold planks on the stairs to make a nice smooth slope and then push/pulled it up, belayed with a rope secured at the top of the stairs. In the photos you posted it doesn’t look like the belaying option is available without trashing your finished walls/carpets, but plenty of muscle as a backstop should work just as well. As we got to the top of the stairs with the bath at a precarious angle we lifted the last two scaffold planks (joined together after the bath had passed) to get the bath horizontal and then slide it sideways onto the landing. Looks like that may not work in your case because of the bannister but you could probably get the bath vertical at the top of your stairs and then with all the muscle around and rope around the box manoeuvre it into the bathroom. Piece of cake!

@Selfbuildsarah that went well didn’t it. ~~~ I don’t have a pie chart, but I do know that the pie I envisioned for the whole project wasn’t big enough, fortunately we managed to find enough extra pie to finish off. That doesn’t help does it.

It looks like two things going on, it’s got wet at the bottom and soaked it up, as @Brickie says, there should be something other than render for the first 150mm up. The other, and most obvious damage is coming from the water tracking off the slabs down the mortar lines and straight onto the render. You need some kind of drip edge under the slabs to stop the water tracking back to the render (plus the mortar needs to get to the end of the blocks). it looks like there are some weep vents in the wall, do they weep or are they blocked/just for show?

How many times a day do you use the kettle? In other words how much is each ‘boil’ costing? No idea what our Quooker cost to run a day producing, on average, 8 or 9 cuppa’s. Perhaps I should monitor it.

I guess that’s to the 8/8th not 8/7th?

Not much. Here’s ours being put together over a terrible sub base and the finished article from a few years ago.

+1 for the pedestal option. I put an ACO drain up against the house and underneath the patio. My pedestals are sat on the ACO and the tiles on top of the pedestals, finishing within 10mm of the window frames. No visible drain.

£?