Thorfun

+1 for Ubiquiti. do a search on here for that name and you'll find lots of information that will help you should you choose to go that route.

https://apple.news/Al4u-EmdXStyfo8_xV41qFg

we enjoyed that episode as well. on this comment he did mention that they would own it outright so if they didn't have the inheritance maybe they could've gone down the self-build mortgage route?

taken from Flight Timber's social media feed:

we have those flood/NRVs between our STP and RWH and the ditch but I have another 2 pipes which don't have such a thing. plus I want to stop anything nesting in the pipes even if they can't get past the NRVs. I'm thinking mesh covering the outlet and then held on with a plastic sleeve/collar on the outside of the pipe which I can 3D print. will take a photo once the solution is in place for everyone to see my cowboy work.

thanks all. sorry to hear about your issues @joe90 and glad my paranoia is justified. I will forget plastic as I know a determined rat will/can chew through it. we're leaning towards some kind of steel mesh fitted over the end of the pipe and held with adhesive of some kind. we walk up the road past the ditch most days taking the dog for a walk so we can always keep an eye on things to see if it's come lose or fallen off or something.

greetings. we have 3 drainage outlets from our new build into a ditch running alongside our property, one from STP and RWH, one land drain from our green roofs and another 110mm pipe from other roofs not feeding our RWH tank. I'm thinking of adding something to the end of the pipe to protect from potential rodent incursion. firstly, is this paranoia gone too far? I see there are metal NRV for this but at £50 a pop seem a little excessive and we have NRV on the outlet pipes from our STP and RWH tanks anyway. so I was wondering if anyone had any other recommendations for this? I found these on Amazon which might do the trick although a determined rat could probably gnaw through the plastic. I've also though of 3D printing something like this but I'm not sure of the effectiveness of it. and a final thought is a simple 110mm vent like this from Screwfix but, again, don't know if it will work. anyone else paranoid enough to worry about rats in the drains and done anything about it?

it might be easier to ask a solicitor to hold the funds in an escrow account and perform the transactions at certain stages. but the TF company would always suggest that they have to buy the materials so need some money upfront. although I'm sure they buy materials on account with good terms. but I don't run a TF company so don't know the ins-and-outs!

so sorry to hear this. I have a Flight Timber house that was erected Sept/Oct last year. have no complaints at all. were great to deal with, good price, panels all fitted together which was nice. our carpenter has said he had no real complaints with the way it was put together either, in fact he said an MBC house he'd worked on was a lot worse for squareness/plumbness of walls etc. all in all very happy with Flight. I am shocked that they've gone in to liquidation. they were definitely (at least seemed so to me) completely legit. maybe the high material prices did them in? my blog on our Flight Timber TF is here

Will be watching it on All4 when we get a spare hour.

when you say 'package treatment plants' are you talking about modern sewage treatment plants? if so, the outflow is pretty clean and shouldn't smell at all. if it smells then your STP isn't working properly! we will be discharging ours in to a ditch that runs outside our property. I think location matters as well as I believe there are different regulations in Scotland.

We have external venetians and they seem to refugee solar gain although our house isn’t finished yet! We like them as they still allow light through.

just finished pulling through 35m of 25mm 5-core SWA. that stuff is super blooming heavy! but it's in now ready for the sparky on Thursday.

thanks all. although this turned into a metal vs plastic thread I have learnt a lot. never thought about mixing the back boxes which actually sounds like a good idea. If I go that route I will make sure I use Appleby plastic. 🙂

Would you be able to share when metal would be a better choice? I’m struggling to understand as I thought professionals were metal all the way!

Did you use plastic back boxes in your house? Or galvanised steel? I don’t remember reading either way on here.

Cheers. I want to stay away from the plastic boxes. Just don’t like them! Had a new build before this self build and the tabs broke off and didn’t seem like they’d last.

Yep. Don’t worry, I am definitely shopping around. I’ve found that T&E at SF is really cheap when compared to electrical outlets and even online sellers. So I’m stocking up.

I will ask him tomorrow. I always feel guilty sending him a message this late at night but the lovely folk on this forum are around at all times of the day.

I’m up to about £500 so far so could be a nice little saving. im sure LAP and Appleby are known brands and not own brands though, right?

I've got a 10% off voucher for Screwfix so I'm filling up on bits for our electrics first fix. Got the Prysmian cable in the basket and now looking at back boxes. on the advice from @ProDave I have a 25mm service cavity and so a 35mm back box will fit perfectly in it with the plasterboard. so..... LAP at £0.51/double box https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-2-gang-galvanised-steel-installation-boxes-35mm-10-pack/88287 with a bulk buy or Appleby at £0.58/double box https://www.screwfix.com/p/appleby-2-gang-galvanised-steel-knockout-box-35mm/42695 with a bulk buy I know we're talking pennies here but at the stage I'm at they all count! is the Appleby a better back box or is there no real discernible difference? I will be labouring for our electrician for first fix so need to be suitable for a special boy but I don't want to pay the extra £3.50 or so for the Applebys if there's no benefit. but I will also take the responses to this question on to the single back boxes for network ports so the savings could increase. damn....I feel really cheap even posting this question! 🤣

I'm kind of loathe to put them outside to be honest as we're surrounded by trees and anything that's outside for more than 5 minutes gets spiders on them making webs! plus, I don't really have anywhere out of direct sunlight to put them that doesn't spoil the external facade of the house. even if I built a shed for them we have hornets, wasps, bats, spiders that like to nest in our existing shed so, again, kind of loathe to do it.

don't worry....I've been wrong many many times before

I'm sure you'll get it right this time. 🤞

I have enough space in the comms room to fit my proposed expansion plans near the CU. space is tight but I can make it work. I've sent an email to the supplier to ask for assistance and am awaiting a response. I'll chase it up soon if I don't hear anything back. it just seems such a waste to have a long cable carrying electricity back and forth between the batteries in the garage and the CU in the basement. that's why I thought having the batteries next to the CU would be best. but, it appears that those potential inefficiencies won't manifest themselves and so I guess my decision comes down to safety and convenience! good point about the concrete wall storing the heat though. I hadn't considered that.