Gone West

Perspex is softer than glass so scratches more easily, but also polishes out easily. It doesn't go cloudy, you may be thinking of polycarbonate. Before deciding to use Perspex I read that there are pieces of perspex from WW2 aircraft canopies that are still clear.

Blimey I had forgotten all about Comet, that was some time ago. I like their long guarantees, sometimes they have offers where it can be increased to ten years, although we've never had anything go wrong as far as I can remember.

We used 10mm clear perspex in our balcony. Lighter and easier to handle than glass.

This thread may be of interest.

We have always had Miele dishwashers that have always had a cutlery tray at the top. We wouldn't choose any brand other than Miele for washing machines and dishwashers.

That may be because some solid walls are more solid than others. Our 600mm stone walls have a rubble layer in the centre so could lose less heat due to the air surrounding the rubble, than a 600mm solid concrete block wall. The more accurate the data fed into modelling software the more accurate the results.

Ooops, sorry finger trouble, should have said "less" rather than "more".

Thanks @SteamyTea. I'm not surprised at the CO2 figures but am amazed that coal produces more PM2.5 than wood and that oil is so much less.

Yeah I know, just teasing.

What you need is a PV array 😃. Our last quarterly electric bill was £160 which I guess is due to the PVs and ST.

I'm not sure about that, but I don't have any data. The only coppicing that was carried out near where we lived before was Sweet Chestnut. IIRC it was coppiced every seven years. The trees were never allowed to reach any where near the size where they were able to absorb the maximum that a fully grown Sweet Chestnut tree would absorb. The trees were used for fencing posts and pales so at least were not burnt and the sequestered CO2 was not immediately released back into the atmosphere. Again I don't have data but it would be interesting to compare the CO2 and particulates released when burning oil in a 90% efficient condensing oil boiler and burning wood in an efficient wood burner. I can't imagine burning coppiced wood is better than burning gas though. @SteamyTea may have some data on that.

Only when you're trying to save money. When you're trying to ensure continuity of supply you need to store at any price.

Oh dear. How many young trees would you have to grow in order for them to absorb the same amount of CO2 as the tree you cut down and burnt.

Unlikely. You really need specialist paint for a concrete retaining wall. I used Durbocem on an old concrete block retaining wall in the garden last year and it still looks as good as when it was first painted. There are other manufacturers that have good reviews. https://andrewscoatings.co.uk/shop/interior-exterior-walls/damp-mould/durbocem/ https://www.brewers.co.uk/product/BN6065E

I recycled all the rubble from the garage blown down by Storm Eunice. I filled the garage pit that I didn't want, and used the rest in the gabions I put up to support the rear wall of the garage. I faced the gabions with sandstone found in the garden. BEFORE AFTER

It answers your question, "I wish there was a published schedule of when / if BT/OR are going to provide a fibre service here." You have fibre at the cabinet you are connected to, but it won't be connected to your property in the forseeable future. Much like my situation.

Don't know if you've seen this before but I used the broadbandchecker site and I was told no fibre in near future. https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

At our last place we used a private company supplying a WiMAX service as we didn't want crappy BT. The speed was around 20mbps compared to the BT 3mbps. We didn't have any problems during the three plus years we used it.

This one is even cheaper. https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-hose-connector-40mm/48625?kpid=48625

I fitted a Solar iBoost a few months ago and it was £300. I think they have gone up in price since then. I was exporting most of what we were producing, and using oil to heat the water, but now a lot goes to heat the DHW tank.

Bloody SSE don't pay my FiT payments until the very last day anyway.

I did the same on our build, even put a small one in the kitchen ceiling so I could access the ensuite shower tray trap. That was the most visible one, but had others behind mirrors and wardrobes. Wendy wasn't as anti as your wife though. Bitter experience from previous houses with water leaks.

Christ that was a long time ago. I'd forgotten about that, I can't even remember what model it was. Bad news, they don't like being unused for a long length of time. Living here, with naturally soft water, saves us around £70 a year on salt.

It took us eight years to build our house and we had building materials in our front garden for most of that time. Ask the council in writing to supply a copy of the ruling that they are working to. Point out it wasn't in the list of conditions of the planning permission, assuming it wasn't of course.

Does your front garden already have a large enough paved area to park your car or do you intend to create a paved area. If you pave the front garden your LPA might have questions about runoff and drainage if someone dobs you in.