Thorfun

We don’t want/can’t afford the extra expense of grids.

10mm though? I guess so. paving expert says 40mm deep at most

I've been researching gravel types for our driveway. reading https://www.pavingexpert.com/gravel01 it states: I kind of agreed on 20mm with the ground worker but now I'm wondering why 10mm is the most popular? Paving expert then goes on to say I heard that granite gravel is a great solution but on a normal household driveway is there really a risk of crushing software gravels? it's not like 100s of cars go on it every day. so, I'm interested in opinions on gravel size and type for a driveway. it's pretty large (don't have an exact size but probably around 150m2) and will most likely be edged with steel. cost is definitely a factor as all we have left is a smallish portion of our VAT reclaim to finish off the landscaping

conversations like that are likely to end in divorce.

got the groundworker round to quote for our driveway and I asked him about steel edging as we have curves and I think it would look good. he said he doesn't use the cheap stuff online but gets rolls of steel and welds it together himself onsite. all sounds great and I said let's go for it. but SWMBO asked what would happen if we drive on it? will it damage tires? I found this post where @Russell griffiths said he's used it and driving on it causes no damage to the edging but no mention of the car or tyres! she's probably worrying about nothing and I said as much but I was just wondering if anyone had any insight on the potential for tyre damage?

I love our AC. It’s been on in our bedroom since April keeping it at a lovely 21 deg C. The PV powers it during the day and batteries keep it going overnight. so glad we installed it!

You can put the air gap above the rafters using certain membranes and fully fill the rafters.

won't you need Part P qualification to sign-off the new electrics?

Yeah. It’s crazy. Luckily I bought other Loxone equipment at other times and as they didn’t ask for those receipts they got repaid.

They were adamant that as the system is capable of audio the whole thing is not allowable.

I did exactly this! They still said no.

that makes way more sense! 🤣

hopefully this will help others not do the same as me....... I have completed our VAT reclaim and one of the invoices they asked for was for our Loxone system. Initially they rejected the Loxone system as it wasn't covered under the VAT reclaim scheme. I argued that it 100% classified as "allowable" under "Intelligent lighting as shown at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/goods-and-services-you-can-claim-for-under-the-vat-diy-scheme#goods-and-services-g-to-i and without the system we wouldn't have any lights. They responded with the fact that the invoice shows "intercom" and "stereo" means that the system is capable of audio which isn't allowed. even if the system isn't being used for those things. So, long story short, buy the Loxone intercom, audio server and stereo extensions and anything else that wouldn't be covered separately so they're on different invoices and don't claim for them allowing you to claim for the other stuff. this mistake cost us about £1k in VAT reclaim.

apt topic for me as I'll soon, hopefully, be getting our site levelled and will then add topsoil. are you suggesting that the topsoil is spread by hand? that's a big job for a large garden! would a 1.5T digger compact too much do you think or should I not be lazy and get the shovel and wheelbarrow out?

that does look easy to fit but it's way out of our budget.

Nope and it’s hardly used down there as it’s a pretty constant temperature but need something suitable in case we do want to run the ufh.

Yeah, nice. I also did a quick google and found a click system! https://www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk/products/spectra-luxury-rigid-core-click-vinyl-flooring-select-oak-plank also says it’s suitable for UFH

And is lvt ok with ufh?

I’m not convinced I can diy that. We’re pretty good at wood/laminate so was thinking about what we know we can install.

Another question while I think about it. Which solution would you choose?!

I guess another question is would the 1.8mm underlay be suitable for under laminate on the screed. With regards to it being enough to even out any small imperfections in the screed.

Looking at floor coverings for our basement but we don’t have a lot of thickness to play with (max 15mm). For laminate our choices then would be 8mm laminate with 5mm wood fibre underlay or 12mm laminate and 1.8mm foam underlay. this is being laid on a Cemfloor screed so it’s pretty level with wet ufh below. anyone used 8mm laminate? How does it perform? Anyone got both 8mm and 12mm and notice a difference?

Yes. Cold filtered water is lovely. Sparkling is just like a soda stream but more convenient! filters aren’t cheap though

i used to put the arm of mine in to the dumper loader bit so that to get the digger out was a lot harder! but we were living on site so didn't have the worry of no one there

I use the magnet trick to great success. Doesn’t take too long to find one and then I know the centre spacing from there.