Russdl

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the soft water will slowly remove the scale from the tank so that may be what is happening, the soft water going to the tank is coming out harder because it is bring scale out with it when you run the tap. If that is the case you won’t get soft hot water until that process is complete. Found it from the Harvey website

Installed at a very slight fall. The rain drains down the gaps all around each tile, so drainage is good, having said that there is a minuscule lip to the tiles and that, along with surface tension, does cause a small pooling of water at the lower end of most of the tiles after it’s rained. The lack of grout was one of the reasons I went for the pedestal system as my experience of patios in the past is it’s the grout that fails first and starts looking cruddy/needs redoing.

Strong - but not indestructible. I would say ‘no’ and in all the blurb I’ve seen regarding the pedestal system, I’ve never seen one where they use a central pedestal as well as the corners. Ours are 1200x240x20 they are supported at the corners and mid point at the sides so that means there are two 600x240 bits that are unsupported. These long tiles we have do flex as the central supports are a nats knacker lower than the corner supports (I found it impossible to lay them without them see-sawing otherwise). The flex is almost imperceptible, it’s probably only me who is aware of it. When you stand on the middle of the tile it settles that ‘nats knacker’ on to the pedestal underneath. I have no fear of that unsupported 600mm section either side of the centre supports breaking. Well none of them have yet 🤞🏻

How about getting out of the car, is there room to do that? Driven in forward, will the drivers door open over the planter? Will the passenger have to step down to the steps or is there enough room to walk along the ramp to the pavement?

‘Ard as nails. >276 ppm (according to a postcode checker, I don’t know the exact figure)

Trying not to drift the thread too much, and I understand it will be difficult for you to do - if not too expensive/impossible but… We’re in the southwest-ish and moved half a mile from old house to new build, the water softener has been without a doubt one of the best decisions we made. The old place, scale everywhere, that shower spray stuff to clean the shower glass and all that guff. The new place, nothing, no scale, no sprays, 1 washing machine thingy instead of two etc etc. the salts not cheap but the pristine taps/glass and all that kinda stuff pay for it.

Now that’s interesting. Looks clever, I wonder what the boffins here think of it?

Sorry, the above info is duff. That price was for the larger format 20mm thick exterior tiles. The 10mm thick interior tiles would have been less but I can't find the invoice.

The tiles are called 'Myspace Cinnamon', they cost circa £50/m2 including VAT after discount, way back in 2021 when the world was only mildly mad. They are very hard wearing, our steel staircase was dropped and dragged a short way across the lightly protected tiles on its way to being installed. With trepidation I removed the protective cardboard to see a big black mark on one of the tiles which transpired to be powder coat abraded from the staircase, once cleaned off the tile was pristine.

In a word ‘no’ but I’ll try and dig out the information for you later.

We went with textured wood effect porcelain tiles. We live at the end of a lane which for about 6 months of the year is a muddy lane. So far the porcelain tiles have proved indestructible especially when it comes to mud and stone being walked in. The dog is the worst offender, he refuses to wipe his feet. After a quick wipe over with a steam mop the tiles are like new again. Repeated patterns would drive me nuts which I made the tiler aware of. I think he’s done a brilliant job. Most visitors think the floor is timber so I guess it’s ticking that box, the same tile continues outside onto the patio, they are twice the width and thickness.

One other thing, obvious but I’ll say it anyway. All penetrations through the tiles that are under the bath are surrounded by a little silicon wall so that any leaking water doesn’t get down the hole before it shows itself under the bath edge.

I couldn’t possibly comment.

Good luck, I guess the 3 certainties (death, tax, nurses) should actually be four - water will always find a way in.

At least you’re laughing!!

@Gus Potter It sounds like we’ve got pretty much what you plan on doing. Flexiwaste as described by @ProDave. Our bath sits on tiles and I was equally concerned about leaks. Sure enough one manifested itself after the first filling, evident by water on the tiles around the base of the bath. Despite the weight of the bath (220kg iirc) it was easy enough to lift one end and put blocks of wood underneath then lift the other end to do the same - rinse and repeat until it’s high enough to get to the plumbing. Turns out it wasn’t my plumbing that was at fault but the click clack waste fitted by the supplier that was leaking. I removed and refitted that properly and it’s been fine ever since 👍

I used ‘glass frosting paint’ on the window of our temporary site toilet, did the job while others were doing their job so to speak. It may work for you needs?

I used Jouplast (from Wickes). but they seem to be selling less of the range every time I look. Non level base, pedestals range from as low as possible to probably up to 200-300mm high. Easy to do and very easy to change your mind and re do it all. We used 1200x400 20mm thick porcelain tiles.

As above. We have 5 Aicos fitted. I haven’t seen them since I installed them. They’re there should I look up, but I guess I just haven’t looked up - they just disappear once fitted on the ceiling.

Good old Google, saves me asking too many questions!

Google enlightened me about flitch beams. Would I be right in thinking I would have to attach timber to an RSJ anyway if I used one, to hang the rest of the roof off - or is there another way? If that would be required, then the flitch beam has moved to the top of the pile.

Can you enlighten me? Is that exactly as you describe, sounds good to me if so. My drawing shows slightly off centre so that the joists (rafters) at the narrow end of the garage wouldn't be so deep, but actually its only 1" so a bit of a pointless exercise from me.

I like glulam for the reasons @joe90 mentioned but I think for what I’ll need it would be big and heavy. I’ve just been informed that a GRP ‘I’ beam at 6.5m would be “difficult and expensive” (the standard size is 6m). I guess I’m looking at an RSJ, just don’t want one.

I looked at them, for a previous iteration of my fermenting plan, maybe I need to look again.

I'm trying to steer clear of the steel, difficult access etc, but it may come to it.