PeterW

What you’re saying is you need to support the upstairs floor from the underside and the engineer is proposing a beam under the ends of the joists and the wall ..?? You’re going to need an agreement with your upstairs neighbour anyway, so why not just ask them if you can insert the beam into the wall at floor height and capture the ends of the floor joists into the steel web..?? Alternative is to make a feature of it and step down at the same time - put a dining area in the lower section so it looks like it’s designed that way. How high are your ceilings anyway ..? Other option would be to drop the ceiling in the kitchen all around the edge for about 300mm from the wall and light it from behind the drop section giving the illusion of a “raised” section in the middle. Plans would help here btw

Sand and cement or pug mix will act as a short term heat store and even out the heating from the UFH

You will have problems with depth as you’ll end up with a floor of about 360mm or more to do that span and still have a bounce. Concrete beam and block floors are not as strong as some think. Go with a JJI / Posi at 300 centres and you’ll have no bounce. It will be 245mm joists IIRC and you’ll need to insulate between and possibly above to get to BRegs levels of insulation. Bigger issue may be the bottom of the beams being exposed to damp/cold. Have you considered making some sort of cassette type floor with 300mm Posijoists and OSB and then pumping it full of cellulose ..? Add 25mm battens / timbers and UFH in sand/cement and you’ll get the best of both worlds in terms of feel under foot and insulation

The whole point of rafts (which an insulated slab is) is to be able to cope with differential movement as the whole of the slab and house are a single unit. If you’ve got a split level then you will not be able to install the insulation for the upper slab until the lower slab and adjoining wall are complete. This will create a shear plane in the second slab, and unless you can work out a way of creating a shutter to pour a full monolithic top slab for the ground floor / basement ceiling. Ask your architect and engineer how they plan for it to be constructed to meet the passive slab you’ve asked for - I think they may struggle with the answer ....

That is going to need some serious structural engineering as you’re going to create a pair of load planes for the slab and connect them with a vertical wall. Partial basements can be done, but it wouldn’t surprise me if your steelwork and concrete for then wall/ slab junctions and the second slab would cost more than digging a full basement. It would probably be quicker and easier.

I use a very big plasterers stainless trowel - much more comfortable on the hand and you can put decent pressure on too.

Take the cost you’ve spent on the build, add 25%. Now add another 25% for demolition costs, and add 10% to the whole lot. That’s about as close as you will get.

You can’t negotiate CIL - it is statute law. Better option (assuming you have a significant other) is to make one your primary residence and the other theirs, and then you have the CGT argument signed off and you can “live” in the new house. Downside you will pay council tax on both.

They are usually well insulated so that shouldn’t be an issue. You would need to have some funky logic to balance flow and move the heat load from zone to zone to ensure you didn’t need a buffer.

No - but budget to potential replace your ASHP compressor every 5 years and that’s about £1000 for a Mitsubishi unit. The other big benefit with a buffer is they can be fitted with an immersion - in the event the ASHP goes tits up, you can still heat the dungeon.

You set them at 45 degrees in the angle between the wall and ceiling ... the ones either side of the bench work really well. A mate restores clocks and he has a light either side of a 10ft bench and one in the middle and there are no shadows anywhere on the bench and the light is fine.

Same answer as he gave above, just replace Boiler with ASHP. When they get close to target temperature the floor will need less and less heat and the ASHP won’t be able to modulate down far enough so will start to short cycle. That buffer sounds too small though - I would go minimum of 50 litres.

Acid works months after and will get it off engineering bricks no problem. Just need a stiff brush and a plant sprayer, make sure the bricks get a proper soaking before you use the acid. Wet the bricks, spray on acid, wait 5, scrub and rinse. Stubborn bits may need another spray.

I think it’s more that the last sparky fitted RCBOs everywhere and he is querying whether that’s actually wanted or requested as he can put either RCBO to match or MCB as it’s cheaper. But thanks all, seems MCB is the way to go.

Get them coated with boiled linseed oil to start with and you can just wash the snots off

Try these https://www.bltdirect.com/led-batten-complete-fittings?filterWattage=4275

Quick one ... Got a 40A RCBO feeding a sub main in an integral garage that has 3 circuits - lights, 16A Commando, sockets. All sockets are ducted / surface mounted and the sparky has been asked to do a pair of additional sets of sockets and has asked if RCBO or MCB is wanted. (He did not do the original install) His logic is that the main board RCBO covers the wiring to the integral garage and even if you manually trip the sub main RCBOs to test, it takes out the main board garage feed 40A RCBO anyway. Given that ... is it worth adding the new circuits (surface mounted in ducting) using MCB or RCBO, and secondly, any ideas why the main RCBO trips when the test buttons on the sub main RCBOs are used ..?

You haven’t read my message ..... Use LED Battens in the workshop - nothing in the ceiling Use LED panels/round lights in the bedroom - 4 to 6 is ideal

Didn’t see that it was a fully open L shape as it looks like a wall inside but realise it’s a shadow now. Would agree - that’s a big steel ..!

LED Battens - a 5ft in the middle and a pair of 2ft ones, one at each end. Mount at 45 degrees and you will have no shadows.

Don’t bother, just fit anti syphon traps to the basins in the EnSuite and the bathroom. If they insist on an AAV then run a 110mm tee under the corner of the hot press, reduce to 50mm and take it into the attic space and put it there.

Yep - go for a Telford HP cylinder and they have a 3.6m2 coil in the bottom of the tank. Speak to Trevor at Cylinders2Go and tell him you have the photos of @Nickfromwales in his Saturday night outfit and you should get a decent price ...

these https://www.ledkia.com/uk/79-buy-basic-ultraslim-led-downlights The K rating is the warm to cold change - basically lower the number, warmer the light.

They don’t behave like a GU10 Halo spot, the beam width is wider and they are much nicer light And @zoothorn your link is to a glazing company and not a light

Don’t use spots. Use LED in both the upstairs room and the workshop. Use LED batten on the walls in the in the workshop mounted on angled timber at the wall/ceiling junction and you will only need either end of the work bench and possibly one on the other side of the room. They are really bright and it also means you don’t need to cut into the ceiling and you won’t get dark spots. Upstairs use the small round LED units that me and @Jeremy Harris have used and they are very clean and bright.