Onoff

Are we all turning into our dads going round switching lights off and moaning? I am!

& you called me landed gentry! 😂

Any land to the side? Have you got another 8 years in you? 😂

My understanding is it's reasonably OK to do this as long as the battery types are the same e.g. both lead acid but never say lipo + lead acid. Where issues can occur I think is if the lower capacity one over discharges but you don't realise as the bigger ones are "taking up the slack".

& they're only in Chatham. Spitting distance from...where you were! 😂 Just emailed them to find a stockist near me.

What's the best fixing to put 25mm of Celotex then 12.5mm of pb onto these reveals? Screws and plugs or hammer in? Ideally they want to go below the surface of the pb. Cheers

Except knowing my luck I'd hit a pocket in a solid wall and think it a cavity!

Erm..are you sure you're not me? Like a parallel universe Our one was originally 9 month holiday lets. No market. Owner applied to build 2 detached houses. Neighbours kicked off (nimbys). Owner sold to travellers out of spite. As soon as there were families in with kids at the local school and they just ignored the 9 month rule.

The trouble is if you sold to travellers to pi$$ the neighbours off, the council would privately love it. If like here they have an obligation to provide sites for so many pitches. The reality seems to be one of the caravan club fraternity buys the land, convinces the council it's a legitimate site for travellers then rents the places to immigrants at extortionate rates. Even sets their own leccy and bottled gas rates. Council don't give a sh!t as they've ticked box.

Trench dug through the ivy covered top layer with 3' wide bucket. Down to the clay. Not quite 2' deep, 18" maybe and the length of the frame. Bunged all the hedge and branch trimmings in and set fire to it. Nice bit of wood ash!

I think the Dining Room, Hall, Bedroom and Stairs are the very, very original house along with the stairs room and most of the Kitchen. I think that is solid 9" brick. I don't know for sure. The D'Stairs Bathroom is a later addition brick cavity with of course all the work I've done lining the walls inside. The Study was a 4" block construction originally. I added an inner 4" skin with 60mm cavity filled with 50mm Rockwool batts. I added battens and another 50m Rockwool batts inside (don't as why, I had less of a clue then than I do now!). Saying that, warmest room in the house.

Tbh I thought the lounge was solid block wall until yesterday when I found it was in fact a cavity. I don't know for sure therefore, which walls are cavity and which aren't. Once you have the render off down here the same wall can be made of breeze and half a dozen brick types.

Euphemisms abound.

This strong sunlight coming through the patio doors is lovely and warm. As soon as the Sun goes in its back to bloody freezing!

The lounge diner knock through is on the cards. Got a few mates who've said they'll come down for a weekend and gut both for beer and a barbecue. That would be: Lounge: -Ceiling plasterboard down. -Hardboard and batten wall linings off -5/8" chipboard flooring up -4*2 timber sub floor up -Concrete base up Dining Room: - Wallpaper off -Floorboards up -Floor joists up -Dwarf walls removed All debris can go straight out the patio doors which need replacing anyway. Then assess what I've got to work from. Reinstating would be on the lines of putting a steel in and opening up the two rooms into one. I reckon I could hide that to end up with a new, flush ceiling. There would be lots of battening and packing to get the ceiling level between the two rooms. The floor would be dug down and built back up with insulation and UFH. This could be the new Bathroom thread! First though I need a temporary lounge! 😂

SWMBO just said "Can't we pay someone to do EWI?" Wouldn't that bring its own set of issues doing it as the house is? It could only go up to the eaves (bungalow). The paths, ground need lowering all round as in removing. The patio doors need replacing as does the front door. Then there's the mixed floors details, the noggin-less ceiling joists, the cracks. It just goes on and on. SWMBO wouldn't go for the knock down / re-bulid I know. Best I can aim for is the room at a time approach I've taken with two rooms so far. The study that was the old boot room is the warmest room in the house. That was just the single skin boot room I re-lined. It warms up and stays warm. Even there there's room for improvement. I'm hopeful once there's some heat in the bathroom my attention to air tightness and insulation efforts pay off. The temperature is a constant all year round in there at the mo even at the height of Summer...bloody freezing!

Since VVP invaded we've had the oil central heating off and subsequently been freezing. Running a 2kW fan heater in the lounge, a convector in the study and got a couple of oil filled rads as and where needed. Let's be honest we've all been spoilt for years with cheap energy but now it's really hit home how badly insulated my house is. The lounge is proper cold. Because of the house orientation it is often colder inside than out. Convinced I could feel a draught around the window I pulled the lounge sill off and there was a gale coming up the cavity (we've external brick vents). Then I stripped the trims off and the boards lining the reveal which were 5/8" chipboard. Cavity is only 35mm if that. Existing cavity closers consist of The Mercury from October 1998! 😂 Gaps, oh yeah! So far I've wedged some cut down pipe insulation in the cavity and foam filled. Going to line with some 25mm Celotex then pb over. Sticking plaster really as the inner brick/block skin is 1" batten, hardboard then woodchip paper. Draughts are still coming through where I'm pointing the pen at. I'd take the window out and move it inboard but where window sills are concerned SWMBO likes it deep! Onward with this pointless journey!

I'd first identify the high point on those walls. Foam fill the gaps and or wedge foam packing down there. Get some big, long clamps. Clamp long boards either side and concrete level. I squared all my bathroom walls off by shuttering / casting. Same deal. Where your walls are a bit more wiggly you'll need to gun foam the gaps and clean it off afterwards.

Got a couple of HIVE cameras in my Dad's place. One in the lounge and one in the kitchen. Can keep an eye on him via the phone.

Rebel that I am, I'm not sure I've ever read any forums FAQs, welcome page etc. I'm just not made that way. Dive straight into etc. Same with TV instruction books. "BE SURE TO READ HERE FIRST!" just doesn't compute with me.

It must go in cyles then 'cos "they" never learn!

All this stuff is though the preserve of the few who know about it or are lucky enough to have implemented it. The masses haven't got a clue about air tightness, most builders either don't care or won't go to the same level of detail that people on here do. It is simply not in the government or big business interest to save energy.

We really are the architects of our own destruction? A great headline in Sky on the lines of "Can Renewables Solve The Energy Crisis?" Talking to East European friends and colleagues and they are forever amazed at how poorly insulated British homes are by comparison to say where they come from in Poland. Insulation is what could solve the energy crisis. That's the bottom line, stop wasting what we have and using it inefficiently. We're fed this constant diet of b@lll@cks to switch to an EV, fit PV or a heat pump etc. The utter insanity of people getting free heat pumps fitted to totally unsuitable houses. Why can't the government beat the "You Need Only Fit Insulation Once" drum? The key being to do it right. It's all about the coin, how many times do we see mass house builders skimp on insulation or miss it out. Hell we've even had folk on here building high spec, low energy builds where they've entrusted the insulation works to a builder. The ensuing lack of attention to detail has meant draughts and higher energy bills.

😂 I've been playing with a section for a garden room on similar lines. Timber cladding / rain screen not shown...well not finished. Don't forget to add a good insect mesh detail at the bottom!

Imho you want 150mm min below your timber cladding and block pavers or rain will just splash up and soak the ends.