Carrerahill

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.

Go 16mm² 2 core SWA XLPE. Don't trust the TLC calculator it doesn't add in enough variables, only volt drop in clipped direct installs.

I am so tempted to make one of these out of sheer interest. I have an old boiler that I can strip the pump from and I am sure an old kettle can be found!

Hang on a minute, how long is the cable? What is the route? Do you have a proper load analysis for the pool house? Lighting, heating, water heating, pumps, small power, ventilation, any other electrical loads, then realistic diversity added. Post up some details and if need be I can run a cable calc for you.

What sort of attitude is that? Every customer should check trades work, the workmanship is clearly poor and the OP is right to question it. That is the sort of thing I would expect a disgruntled, careless, job price trade to come away with. So if I came to your house and put things up a bit squint you would not be upset? If the grey spacers were taken out I would want to know why, and investigate it further as it may have been the installer bodging them in and creating some wriggle room by letting the frame flex to get something to fit. Scratched fittings and fixtures and squint installs are not OK.

Gas is really going no where any time soon and it is not actually being taken out of new builds, you can still have gas in them for cooking or a CHP for example. Basically they are making the SAP targets so strict so that it will be difficult to make a gas boiler work, however, if you loaded up on enough PV (or other renewable) you could still have a gas boiler. Things may be different in Scotland though as the inept lot that are the Scottish government make brash moves without proper consideration and consultation.

I believe you can close or partially close a right of way to carry out repairs or works. Why don't you start a long term project with many environmental and ecological hurdles and dig bits up so that the ROW is at a point, near impassable? It is difficult to understand how the ROW works across your land and what other access they may or may not have is. If this ROW was closed would they still be able to enter their property, is the ROW only being exercised because of the necessity for them to bring contractors and equipment/materials to the rear of their property? I am sure you could do something, just make sure you can back it all up and justify it all. I would put up 2 notices, 1 facing each way, very soon, stating the ROW will be closing on the 7th of October for critical safety and upgrade needs. I'd perhaps install an annoying fence across the ROW with a small opening in the middle, like they do at the end of footpaths onto main roads to stop kids running out onto roads etc. What about a stile? What about that much needed drainage project you had planned. You only need to do a bit of the trench... In the first instance I would briskly investigate legalities and rights and seek some help from your solicitor simultaneously or shortly after I would then go for a project.

In this situation I'd tend not to disagree with people based on what I have witnessed. It is a bit like the old, "But he did it Miss". Maybe so, but it is not right. In your case you have witnessed the worst, a large house developer! We all know the build quality is awful and they get away with murder. If we all built houses like large developers we would not need much cement, much insulation, good workmanship, quality fittings and fixtures, quality brick and block work, straight and plumb walls and openings... the list goes on. Large developers self-certify/pay an independent firm who just want to get the fee's so don't tend to find too much wrong. Show those flues/exhausts on any warrant plan and you will be knocked back every time. This is not my discipline, but I believe it is 600mm for boiler flues from a boundary and same for fan exhausts. It is also in the Gas Safe regs - if your boiler was reported, then technically, it would have to be moved but no one enforces these things sadly.

I made a lot of my own custom fit furniture, under stair drawer system, alcove shelf and cabinet units etc. and I always spray them with industrial 2k epoxy paints (same as auto paint really). Result is cabinets that looks like something from a showroom for not much cost, but certainly a good number of weekends in the garage! I spray paint everything that can be sprayed and the results are far better, before fitting all our window sills I spray painted them in a 2K while satin paint and they are tough as nails and if they do scratch you can buff it out with something like Farecla rubbing then finishing compound.

Maybe the caravan had a 10kVA diesel genset in the back!

Out of a matter of interest, why did they offer just to re-felt and batten? Not just replace the roof at that stage? It strikes me as odd that the membrane needed done but the tiles were OK or had someone retiled without a re-batten and felt at some point?

Sounds like you hate it... demolish it?!?

There are loads of them around now I think. Very cheap TV to make.

Walk away! All I can see is something akin to chipboard flatpack furniture, possibly screwed to a wall and a batten scribed to the wall/skirting. Save you pennies or spend the same and get proper wooden furniture. It looks a bit like a student dorm room or budget hotel if I am being really honest.

Maybe this is one for one of those cowboy builder shows... its that bad!

What a mess, the sad thing is that I have seen really bad DIYers make a better job than these total pond-dwellers. It looks like they really don't know anything about roofing at all.