Carrerahill

Floplast solvent is 36mm but pushfit is smaller. From floplast: 32mm is a nominal size. There is a tolerance allowed within the pipe dimensions so the internal diameter is between 29.6mm - 31.2mm and the outside diameter is between 34.4mm - 34.8mm.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-push-fit-pipe-white-32mm-x-3m/26334 that must fit - surely Sani don't make it so damn awkward?!?

I'd have thought it would have taken the 36mm as the compression is often the open used when going from solvent to pushfit change over. I think you will find pushfit pipe will fit.

What is the coupling on the sani? Compression? I think solvent weld is 36mm OD but push fit pipe is smaller...

Not quite, because I call architects and builders/contractors eejits in the same breath! I am looking at drawings at the moment for some low rise private flats, no riser... no space for multi-service board, no space for a dry riser, no space for sprinkler tanks, no space for booster pumps, no space for anything really. Architect is in a huff with me now because I sent back her drawings with mark-ups of where I want risers and plant space. Builder/contactor will still build it wrong.

Your architect has shown a flat segmental arch. Some options: https://www.ibstockbrick.co.uk/arches/

You would need custom cut/made etc. bricks to do what your architect has done. The centre bricks are parallel sided, then the rest need to be cut to work if you are to have even mortar joints and it to look reasonable. The second column out is where the diagonal aspect starts, so on both sides, from the centre, would have a perfectly vertical edge nearest the centre then a diagonal cut. If your builder was good with a diamond disc you could ask him to cut the top flat to see how it looks and advise it is only as a possible option. I would also ask for your architect to detail this rather annoying little detail fully c/w proposed materials and examples and setting out including mortar joint detail. I work with architects drawings 5 days a week and we constantly need to go back to them with screeds of mark-ups and comments to get buildings to work, for me it is building services I am interested in, but its common for the engineering team to have issues with architectural drawings. The builder is not blameless but I don't think the architect is either.

Unacceptable to bury any joint in my opinion although if there was one that was acceptable, I may agree a pressure tested solder joint would be OK. I can only assume they didn't bother their backsides to pressure test the pipework they intended to bury, had they done this, and it had held, you may have let it slide, their laziness has got them twice, first for burying it and not running it in a duct that could permit the pipe to be pulled back and fixed or via another route and secondly for not testing it first!

Holiday let? So you will pay the bill and guests will not care about leaving heating on and wasting energy. Bad idea to be honest. I'd look at getting gas in there if you have a gas supply or look into a ASHP or you will need to add literally £20's per night stay to cover electricity costs. Unless it is super well insulated and unlikely to need much heating... Is it rural?

Paxton do systems like this -would be pricey, I would look here: https://doorcontrolsdirect.co.uk/20-access-control or similar for the bits you need. A video door entry with finger & fob is easy enough. You say key, that would usually be done via using ironmongery which also allows key on a solenoid receiver as a mag lock will hold the door shut and cannot be override with a key. As for combining the CCTV you would need an output from the door entry onto your HVR/monitor system which is fine. Or a door entry unit with a standalone CCTV output you can incorporate into your CCTV system.

People keep saying Hep2O rather than say JG or others - am I to take from this Hep2O is better? Easier? Cheaper?

I go soldered copper every time, it costs me lots of time and extra £ as I have not been convinced otherwise yet. However, pipe unions and couplers are far cheaper and a bottle of gas, roll of solder and tub of flux will last about 6 self builds so apart from pipe being more pricey and longer to install, I think copper might come in about cost neutral when you can solder in a 90° for about 50p all in. Last year I wanted my boiler moving, I needed to move the cold feed and hot return, I did it in copper, took me a weekend. I could have used 2 pieces off a roll of 15mm plastic and probably done it in about 4-5 hours. The copper was all bent perfectly and soldered and run up through a cupboard clipped perfectly straight to the wall and through the first floor. It looks great. But on the day the gasman came to connect my new pipes to the new boiler he did the change over within the first floor on plastic... I was not pleased. I plan to change it to copper unless someone can really convince me its OK. He used JG. I have done lots of JG Speedfit over the years from putting kitchens into our business premises and for family who want plumbing done and just buy JG as they can do it. But not in my own house. I need to increase some CH pipes from 15mm to 22mm and its going under the floor, getting copper in will involve drilling a hole in the house to feed the pipes under the house, maybe I should just use plastic but cannot bring myself to do it...

PM sent.

As it would be a bespoke piece of limited run there are no regs, certainly no legal issues. Any unskilled person can make a panel or machine or light. In this case, technically the minimum requirement would be a PAT test. Most don't bother. Install it and then do a circuit test and earth check.

Does it impact you? Has the house been externally visually impacted? If not I would leave him alone. If he is a total p**** then maybe fair enough, report him. Or just live and let live and don't let it bother you.

200mm of mineral wool could never match the U-value of 200mm PIR - if 200mm was what is required then it will not be enough, if however, it was calculated that it would work at 100-110mm PIR, which equates to a U-value of 200mm mineral wool, but 200mm PIR was spec'ed to get a really well insulated envelope, then there is a chance a good 200mm mineral wool will work. If you can find your original insulation calcs, you can probably work it out and submit your rational, there is a chance they will accept it. If there is 200mm mineral up there, and we say that is comparable to the 110mm PIR, then you may be able to get it to work, if it came to it, with 40mm insulated plasterboard on top of what you have - not ideal by any stretch but better than ripping it all apart. Or you might be able to do notional calcs and get other areas to work better than others thus balancing it all out.

All LA in Scotland, only developers get some indy/self cert allowances.

How much pipe are we talking about saving here? Honestly, it seems a bit "crazy". It doesn't allow for consecutive use where hot water might end up going into the toilet, these fill valves are a bit pathetic as it is, even warm water might let the plastic valves flex a bit when warm to a point of leaks/damage. Do you just fit cold water... if just a little infrequently used toilet then cold would probably be fine.

OUCH! 64p!

Mine came in on Sunday:

I'd be getting on the chat with the site guys soon about bringing you in concrete and other materials at site prices...

On the hollow block topic, I have never actually seen them for sale in the flesh and I frequent merchants as often as I do supermarkets. I've seen them come up on Travis Perkins website - they also seem pretty expensive given they are only thicker and offer no additional height or width. So, is there regional availability differences of these? I can also say that in my professional life which often finds me on sites, I don't believe I have ever spotted hollow block. I see it a lot on YouTube videos, mainly North American builds. Can anyone offer any insight into these, to me, unobserved blocks? The only time I think I might consider using them was for a garden wall where I wanted to have a single skin but appear thicker. But, at the price, I would be cheaper building a 4" cavity wall. I can also see the benefit if I wanted to build a near bomb-proof structure, I could fill the hollows with concrete.

I'd go masonry every time. I have done TF and I am very happy with it, but I just prefer the robustness of block/brick builds. I have just finished the shell of a garden office for my parents and its block/thermalite with 50mm PIR in a 100mm cavity. From foundations to wall plate it went up faster and cheaper as a single piece of work rather than building the TF, wrapping it, insulating between the studs etc. The masonry approach has also had many benefits through the build too such as penetrations, you just core what you need when your ready, on my TF I had to pretty much know the layout of things at a really early stage to get vent duct and pipework in and through the TF neatly and sealed up properly. It has also saved us heaps of ply as I will not need to ply the walls out before the plasterboard where wall hung cabinets etc. are going. Things it will slow down a little will be electrical install, but in a shell of a building I will just chase and cap where needed and I think it will still be easier than fishing cables through 100's of studs! On a bigger build, i.e. whole house, TF does have the speed to watertight benefit, but this is a benefit we often mention, but one that only impacts a small period of the buildings life. Almost as if TF is built for the benefit of the builder and then the rest of its life it's not as good as it maybe could be... just thinking aloud here, not knocking TF as I have it, but I know what I would do next time round.

I can second this as mine is the same. The only issue I ever get is when its been quite cold for a few days, and the outside air temp rises, the garage/workshop remains colder, a dry cold, you then open a door and a rush of warmer damp air enters the garage, I then sometimes get condensation on big metal objects, the Land Rover 90 being one of them and my tool safe, however, this phenomenon only ever happens about 6-8 times a year and can be limited by entering the garage and shutting the door. I had considered forced ventilation on a humidity stat but I also then decided that warm humid air was the last thing I wanted coming in!

Use the armour - up to about 95mm² SWA you can use the armour, over 95mm² the cross section is usually not sufficient unless a very short run. Very rare to see a SWA cable core used as an earth commercially.