Gone West

It's also down to the manufacturer to produce something fit for purpose. If you have to test everything you buy before using, it will slow down work ridiculously. Have you gone back five or six years later to check the stainless steel inserts. Do you know what grade of stainless steel they are?

I first used Hepworth Hep2O in around 1994 after seeing it at a self build show. I thought it would make replumbing my house much easier than using copper. Everything went ok even if the fittings were a bit clumsy. After a few years a radiator rusted through and I thought I must have used the wrong amount of inhibitor so flushed the system and put in new inhibitor. Then another radiator rusted and I started looking for other reasons and discovered that Hepworth hadn't used a barrier in the pipe. After contacting them I was told they now produced a barrier pipe and I should replace the old pipe with new at my cost. So after telling them what I thought of them I did replace the whole system but with Speedfit and never had any problems. I never go back to using something that caused me problems in the past, even if they have improved.

I've got standard folded ali sills as in your first link and I've had no problems. As you say the other profile could result in people catching on it.

Yes it does sound like Himalayan Balsam which is a problem around here along the ditches and streams.

I haven't included the cost of tools or paperwork but have included landscaping. It's coming out at £1634/m2 at the moment.

Yet another related question I'm afraid. To calculate the cost per m2 do you include paperwork such as SAP, air leakage, architects fees, BC, planning, etc?

Thanks Jeremy I'll contact them.

My borehole, which was drilled six years ago, isn't on the database. Where did you send your data to?

Thanks for the link, it is useful seeing it in drawing form.

Thanks Jeremy. To clarify one point, is a porch a non-habitable area. Mine is around 4m2 double glazed and insulated.

I hope this is in the right category if not please move it. What is the standard way to calculate the overall cost of a build per m2? Do you use the external dimensions multiplied by the number of floors or the internal dimensions? If it is the internal dimensions do you subtract the area of the internal walls?

I dug a 2.5m deep x 1.2m diameter hole down to the running sand and then had a 47m deep borehole drilled. It started off as a deep bore soakaway but when the drill finally hit chalk we found that was water bearing as well so we ended up with a borehole. One day I'll install the pump and use it to water the garden. It cost me £3000 plus the cost of the pump, controller, etc for something I don't really need.

Our case was almost the same. They don't want to go to tribunal and if you have a reasonable case and don't back down, they give up at the last minute.

My neighbour is having a bungalow built next door. The builders installed a Klargester BioFicient, with a central anchor. They filled it with water and concreted it in. They pumped it out the next day and it popped out of the ground, the water table can be high here! After lots of digging out and then back filling completely with concrete they got a tank which is not level and can't be moved or adjusted!

I used the WPL Diamond DMS2.

Different sewage treatment plants use different methods of installation. Mine for instance doesn't use concrete to hold it down. It has an old 2'x2' stone slab which the base sits on. It has four galvanised angle irons driven horizontally into the sides of the hole which it is strapped to with galvanised chains to prevent lift. It is back filled with sub-base. I chose it because it was a relatively easy DIY.

My Highways Dept. and BCO were happy for me to discharge roof drainage directly onto the road. The water table can vary by 2.5m from road level downwards and they accepted that trying to put large volumes of water into already saturated ground was pointless. The road runs gently down to a ditch and then stream.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been out of the country for a few days. It sounds fine to me, no problem with minor assembly work. Hope the internal antenna is successful.

Our duct comes up through the slab and they are happy with that. They supplied the hockey sticks, ducting and a lot of drawcord and told me originally that they would mole under the road, but that was six years ago!

I'm in the process of having an underground Openreach connection. The pole is on the other side of the road and when the Openreach engineer came out for the survey I asked him if they would impact mole under the road, as it's a 4m single track lane. He said no because because it would cost too much. I asked if I paid and had the duct moled would that be acceptable but he said no because Openreach are responsible for their ducting and therefore they would have to install it. So I'm stuck with them digging up my new kerbs and fencing etc.

That's interesting. Do you have any data for the 3M Prestige film?

I looked at SolarGard Sentinel Plus SX 80 but as far as I could see it was less effective. I think it depends on whether you want the film to be as clear as possible or whether you're happy for it to look reflective.

Here's a list of suppliers I looked at. I'm sure there are other DIY suppliers but I was looking for supply and install. http://www.windowfilm.co.uk/residential/heat http://www.solartekfilms.co.uk/solargard-window-film/ http://www.solargard.com/uk/product/sentinel/ http://www.purlsol.com/exterior-reflective-film/srf-60x-medium-exterior-reflective-film/ http://www.prsolarwindowfilm.co.uk/solar-window-film http://www.sun-x.co.uk/workplace/solar-window-film

Sorry for not getting back sooner. I have several DIY film suppliers listed on my PC, which is causing problems at the moment. Off the top of my head prsolarwindowfilm is one. I'll put links up to the others later.

Sorry for not getting back earlier, PC problems! I'm on my tablet at the moment. It looks excellent, and I too would like the larger backlit unit. I think the price is fine, if you added all your time spent on it then the cost would be a lot higher. Thank you for all your effort.