Gone West

Yes, we've moved house several times and most times the band had gone up one step. The Council recommends a band to the Valuation Office, who generally accept it in my experience. We have challenged these increases with the Valuation Office and been successful. The Valuation Office have backed down when the appeal hearing date is close.

We were in a very similar situation to you. In our case I think the District Council suggested a banding to the Valuation Office. We disagreed with the valuation and suggested a band two lower than they wanted. We ended up at the band halfway between the two.

That is all we used to keep the house cool recently. It was 32.8C outside at the hottest and we closed the curtains on the west facing windows. The walls are mostly shale cob 650mm thick and the temperature inside was 25C. Opening the windows in the evening when the outside temperature was below the inside temperature, cooled it down. It has taken a while for the fabric of the building to return to normal, that's good old 'thermalmass' for you.

Found it. I was actually thinking of your pergola, which I think is excellent.

I've got a vague recollection that @JohnMo built a freestanding covered area with timber louvres.

The thickness varies from 40mm to 90mm over diagonally opposite corners, over existing concrete slab. To be tiled with porcelain tiles.

OK, I've got a small area to screed and tile, around 8.5m2, and I was thinking of using a semi-dry mix and tiling within eight weeks!!

How wet was the mix and how long before you could tile it?

We were the first Isoquick installation in England, sixteen years ago. The Isoquick part was very straightforward, unfortunately the concrete laying didn't go to plan.

This setback will be pushed to the back of your memory surprisingly quickly. We had an insulated slab laid, which the workers cocked up badly and the whole lot had to be cut up and replaced. Just keep plodding on.

As an update, we finally bought a Kress 4X4 version and it's a cracking bit of kit. Can climb up slopes that I slip on. The only problem is the software doesn't allow it to drive up a 1.5m high brick walled walkway which is only slightly wider than the mower. Hopefully there will be a software update soon.

My last self build was all JG with collets, and I had no problems at all with manifolds or anything else. It's all to do with correct installation and then it doesn't matter which system you use. I favour JG for DIY as it's much easier to dismantle joints, especially in tight corners. I used the first Hep system in the early nineties and it was awful, but they've all improved over the last thirty odd years.

All the houses I lived in with water softeners, had septic tanks or sewage treatment plants. We never had any problems.

https://wrekinwatertreatment.co.uk/collections/non-electric-water-softeners https://aquasofsoftenersandsalt.co.uk/products/copy-of-minimax-innova

I've fitted several of the Harvey type twin cylinder softeners over the years, including the Twintec. If you Google 'Twintec' there are several suppliers offering softeners with long guarantees. https://newatersofteners.co.uk/products/harvey-twintec-s4