Auchlossen

Thanks. That all sounds eminently sensible and logical, not always the case in this business.

I have spur for possible future electric towel rail, albeit that in short term I do not intend to install appliance. Cable was led out thru plaster board at c.100mm up for spur outlet. Tiler wants to know where outlet to go. Electrician says +450mm is formal requirement. But towel rail would likely extend well down in front of outlet, and no room to the side. Is +450 the necessary for outlet with no control switch (which is outside bathroom)? I would prefer+100mm from floor. Similar issue for low level light, which will be fully sealed and waterproof. Does it really matter what height it is, if it is controlled by external switch and local PIR? I would prefer to have tiler cut holes for the outlet and light at this juncture.

I have a sedum covered flat roof of 153m2, with a slope toward one corner, and an upstand all round. There is a border of stone all round in the 'gutter' area. This is all standard design. The outlet is at one corner. What size should the outlet and downpipe be? There is some info about gutter sizing on gutter manufacturer websites, but I have not found any very convincing clarification of downpipe size. My calcs are: Roof area = 153m2 Rainfall factor x 0.0208 = 3.18 l/sec = 190.8l/min 100mm downpipe has flow capacity of 3.5 l/sec = 210 l/min 75mm downpipe has flow capacity of 1.97 l/sec is this correct? Can anyone advise sources please?

I have just put in 12x285w panels in-roof, cost of kit = £2874 + vat inc delivery to site My son put the panels on the roof for a modest fee Plus fee to PV installers for wiring and fit application = £950 against which there is saving on roof slates and slater [tho not much saving there, since fiddling around to fit slates on roof beside and above solar panels took as long as slating the north roof. I am sure that it can be done cheaper, but all installers were excellent.

Adroit is installed and fully 'plumbed in' but not yet up and running. It will be a while....

There are various other brands of quartz worktop similar to silestone but cheaper. I plan to use Apollo.

75mm QuietVent red radial ducting - a stub of it is shown in the third pic in my original post.

You could use gabions. 1m wide will support 1m high. On Type1 foundation. There are lots of websites that offer guidelines. Alternatively if you asked my engineer, he would design you a concrete slab as footing for a RC wall, with 0.5m toe to resist against slip movement, and it would hold up most of the elephants that you expect to entertain on the patio during the forthcoming earthquake.

There are many proprietorial solutions to slippery decking, x2 costwise but probably worth the extra, eg rubber inserts. If BC have an interest, then horizontal SS cables will not be welcomed for the handrail. One cheap solution that I looked at was polypropylene mesh. Need to prevent folk Climbing and falling off. On design, I would be more inclined to extend round the corner, and use the slope to reduce the number of steps.

Thanks. I did not realise there was already a vibrant range of off-the-peg products on the market, with a [new-to-me] name of parcel drop box. I am impressed by the systems for posting and allowing the parcel to fall gently. I wonder how a box of wine would fare? Maybe not relevant since nobody has offered to send me one since my mother died last year At present I share the view of many that an open place is adequate, and the standing instruction to various delivery companies is to leave in the log shed at my present abode, tho' one 3 letter company usually declines to comply and leaves in the jcb parked at the cattle barns 1 km from home. However my new home is in the village, has no obvious alternative place to leave parcels, and I should like to make a provision whilst I am building the 'perfect' house. I don't really want a 'secure' metal box outside for aesthetic reasons. There is an ideal built in cupboard opportunity adjacent to the front door, wide and deep enough to contain a wine box should my fortune change. I shall just put a yale-type lock on, with instruction on the door for parcel deliverer to release the latch before closing. If it is a huge success, and I feel the need for more sophisticated control via I-phone from the poolside in the south of France, I can always upgrade the lock to something else.

On the verge of ordering strand woven bamboo floor. It will be glued down with Sikaflex, to chip flooring boards in one room and onto concrete in two other rooms. I have noted the cries of anguish from various knees. Is T&G better than ClickFix for glueing down? Is wider board easier than narrow? There are a few low points with 2-3mm below norm on concrete: should I apply self levelling compound here? What is the acceptable tolerance? Noted sealing: requirement for concrete. Thanks everybody for your help.

I plan to have an exterior built in cupboard by the front door for secure delivery of parcels. This is the age of e-commerce and white vans. Suggestions for security are: Yale type night lock, with instruction to delivery person to release the latch once the parcel is delivered; works ok for one parcel delivery. number code lock, with number code issued to delivery person number code lock, with latch released once parcel is delivered Any other ideas from you lateral thinkers?

On my overhang, I have cladding with a 2-3mm spacer between to allow breathing. There is black insect mesh behind the cladding, which is fixed with S-S nails. This pic shows the construction: On the walls the 100mm vertical boards are over 60mm under-boards, to allow a shadow gap between them of 10mm IIRC.Insect mesh top and bottom.

I am using gravel in Nida Gravel plastic grids [£8.99/m2 trade + vat + del]. The plastic drive systems solve the wheelchair issue, also cars. The gravel is open to water transmission. Simple, easy to construct and maintain. The real pain is when/if you try to shovel snow off the path, then some gravel ends up getting shovelled too. But otherwise this is a good solution because the residual snow on the path melts easily through the gravel, and there is good grip from the stone to prevent slip. When I looked at resin bonded gravel it seemed expensive.

1. Attached to the Y was a push fit plastic moulding, which connected the Y to the water tank. I removed this, cut off the lower part that fitted to the Y because it was in the way of my pipework, and taped off the upper end with Siga-tape, because the top end was a square push fit into the water tank, which it would have been difficult to seal off otherwise. The Y-branch had a sealing ring and some sealing grease on it, which mated well with the waste pipe fittings described previously. 2. Yes I think that is right: this was a part found for me by PlumbDrain, described on their receipt printout as 'MLY 82x50mm reducer SRM30:G'. The inside diam was a perfect fit for the ductwork, with a good tight fit when a rubber ring was introduced to make airtight. 3. the ductwork is QuietVent 75mm i/d radial ducting HTH

I was planning to use IKEA pax units. I shall probably have to modify them, due to odd shaped of rooms. If I take off the backs and fix them to the wall, maybe I reclaim vat too?

I have completed the connection of Geberit to MVHR, so here is the detail FYI. There seemed to be interest in the JSH and PeterW versions. Plasterboarding and second fix is delayed, so the fans are not yet functioning, so the ventilation performance is as yet unconfirmed. Geberit model #111.353.00.5 has a Y-branch for extraction of air[smells]. I removed the translucent plastic duct [part of the Geberit] attached to the Y, cut off and Siga taped up the end that linked to the top of the water tank. Into the Y was inserted an adapter from 50mm Euro to 1.5" UK [RHS: the most expensive piece of kit in the house @ £12 for a short piece of tube that was 50mm ext and 43mm int diam], followed by two UK reducers. This led via various slow bends through the house in 32mm waste pipe to near the MVHR unit, where it was connected into the standard radial ventilation pipe. 32mm waste pipe was used as it fitted within the service void and was generally unobtrusive and easy to slip in. I did not see that a large diameter pipe was necessary, nor would it have been easy to fit another 75mm pipe in. http://www.sanifix.co.uk/conversion_fittings.html Connection to the ventilation pipe was via 50-43mm and 43-32mm reducers [white] and a 50-82mm reducer [grey], which fitted neatly into the ventilation pipe with a rubber sealer ring. Any questions please ask.

I have been horrified by the price of Geberit push button controls, to say nothing of the details which fit around and about the tiling, as discussed on another thread here. Looking around I discovered: Abacus Direct Easi-Plan Press Panels Mode - Satin Chrome which cost £19.46 inc VAT from PlumbNation, which seemed to fit my budget more neatly. https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/abacus-direct-easi-plan-press-panels-mode---satin-chrome/ Does anyone have any views on their quality? Incidentally I know people on here get very excited about Megabad and that ilk, but I found that my plumber's favourite merchant in Glasgow could be persuaded to match their prices even on German products like Geberit, and they were actually cheaper on some products. And where they were not, I have gone to PlumbingforLess or PlumbNation. I also decided that I would pitch at mid-range products like Roca/Bristan rather than Hans/Grohe. happy xmas, happy building, may the sun shine on your endeavours in 2017

BC has now agreed to use of AAV Air Admittance Valve, which gets us out of a hole and should save a bit.

My solution FYI is to use a standard galv metal tubular handrail [eg Brundle] [as in guard rails in old peoples homes], bolted to the side of the stairs. DDA hadrail will be attached to this structure. The whole will be clad in Scottish larch in 100/60 vertical overlap cladding to match that used elsewhere. This should be relatively cost effective, satisfy the SE, and be easy to construct. Pre-cast stair is under construction now.

Thanks, yes it seems that 10' boards are available in oak veneered ply. Thanks for the pointer. On balance I am thinking that ply will be too municipal/office/hotel an aesthetic, and that flooring would make a more attractive solution. Happy xmas everybody. I put up a few more images on auchlossen blogspot if anybody wants to peep. Too busy lately to write up much.

I am thinking of panelling a wall in my hall in wood. The other wood around in this space is four internal doors in plain oak veneer, and a large feature bookcase/storage. The bookcase is soon to be commissioned, it may either be oak veneered ply to co-ordinate with the doors, or painted wood in a bold colour. The floor will be grey mottled slate, and there is [are] buckets of light from a large skylight. The wall is clad in osb as a base, and is about 2.5m rising to 2.6m It might be good to have a shadow gap here, instead of skirting. Several alternative approaches to panelling spring to mind: some flooring companies make engineered timber wallboards in similar lengths/widths, eg Panaget; this might be secret nailed to the osb in vertical planks, and would have joints at random intervals sheets of oak veneer faced ply or mdf, but they would not quite reach the ceiling unless i could source larger than 2440, and it might look too much like a hotel lobby Has anyone any experience of products, methods, sources, or design ideas that might advise me further, please? I cannot see any discussion on Buildhub of this issue, and my post may be located in the wrong place so moderators please feel free to relocate.

Across the boundary here there is a single storey wooden shed, about 4mx2.5m. No opening windows anywhere near, neither on my building nor on next door's. Elsewhere on the boundary there is garden ground. There are no current plans to develop there AFAIK, and the house is about 7m away. i have had a quick trawl through Sc Building Regs and through various proprietary guidance docs, and I can see no ref to vent clearance from boundary.

I require to construct an external staircase, up about 2.4m., in two flights with 90deg turn on landing. I am struggling to resolve the design and construction. Stairs to be precast, which enables sockets to be inserted for bolting on balustrade. This is not the cheapest solution, but it ensures a robust construction. Blockwork supporting structure. The balustrade and handrail are the problem. Architect suggests cladding blocks and balustrade in larch to match elsewhere. Engineer says balustrade must support wind pressure of xyz N/m2. SE suggests using proprietary metal structure, round galv tubing, bolted to stairs, which will then be designed to withstand the wind pressure. But my conversations with various handrail cos have not led to any scientific strength analysis, Esp because the handrail systems are designed as safety rails, as in old people's homes, and not for stairs. Previously suggestion from contractor was to use timber handrail structure, cos that is easy to construct. But SE then says uprights must be bolted on at every step, which defeats the purpose of using cheap timber construction. I wonder if the timber cladding could cover the blockwork, but leave balustrade open at every other batten, thus reducing wind pressure issue. Or use stainless steel metal framework for balustrade, for which there are many systems available, with some alternative infill that is not wind resistant, but still complies with BC requirements of no gaps ≥ 100mm, no horizontals that might be used for climbing on. Maybe polypropylene mesh? Fastened how? SE wants metal framework so that handrail can be bolted securely on to it. Any experience or constructive suggestions out there to help me out of this catch22 situation please.

You will find lots on fleabay, mainly coming from across the water. I bought from Maccaferri, who were able to deliver, and whose price was similar. There are various design systems on the web. Basically you need 1m depth to support 1m high, and pro rata. Use 2x1 longwise with centre panel. Make sure they are tilted back at right angle, and mounted on type 1 foundation, with terrain at rear to keep earth out. Relatively cheap to buy, but time consuming to face up, tie in mid ties, tie together. Look good and ecologically sound and fun.