Carrerahill

As usual, they are trying to be seen to be doing things and have not consulted with the relative design and engineering bodies who design buildings to actually work it all out first and instead just slap out a new, more onerous figure and think they have done a good job. I am all for improvement in these areas, but improvement must be considered carefully and the impact of other aspects of construction taken into account.

No they are not, far from it. They are a useless non-departmental public body of the Scottish government, there are too many of them, each of them do very little (OK, some may work hard) and are not value for money at all (like most government departments). The only way they will ever be taken seriously is if they are given some realistic power (without going too far clearly) to deal with serious issues. There are reported cases of garages dumping oil in drains and rivers and SEPA have been involved, written a letter to the garages to say, "Bad boy, please don't do that" and yet the issue continues with no meaningful enforcement. I have a farmer friend who knows that raw sewage runs along the bottom of one of his fields, SEPA didn't care. They even know where the outfall is and where it is from. A letter was written I think.

What stage is the roof at? Rafters and sheeting with membrane? Just rafters? Is it 8x2.9 per side or total? If you are at all handy, and the materials are lying there, you could have it finished by Sunday afternoon if you got the sheet on tonight, membrane, counters tomorrow night, batten it on Friday night/Sat morn and have it tiled by Sunday morning ready for verges and ridges on Sunday. Once I have more details on the actual roof make-up I will say how long for sure.

Another thing about SEPA, is that they will rarely enforce anything and actually have very little by the way of powers. They are a bit pointless as an organisation (I worked with them for a couple of years), a lot of civil servants working flexible hours (this was back in the early 00's), not much seemed to happen, the corporate office was quiet on a busy day and really they wouldn't say boo to a baby bird.

This is what I have been looking for! What is that made of, hardwood with MR MDF panels? Who made it for you?

Yes, I know of a large housing development just outside Glasgow where this is the case. Where required, to comply, you must put X m² on the roof, I keep asking why is it done in m² - it should be measured in kW for crying out loud, stupid unit for PV, anyway, so you can go and get the cheapest, lowest efficiency panels and install them and still comply. At work the mechanical engineers will give me the SAP calc results where PV is needed and I based the PV intent drawings on the required m² (rounded up to whole panel obviously), I then take that area and find the most efficient and best peak generation panel I can find at the time then convert it into kW Peak - that is the figure I put on the intent drawing and electrical specification in the tender package, this means the contractor only knows the peak generation figure and will stick to it. I also ensure that the intent drawing (for roof PV arrays) and other associated drawings show inverter positions, isolators and connections to the main switch board to ensure that the design is complete and that it is not just panels I want them to install. The use of a note along the lines of "Contractor to complete design, supply & install fully commissioned operational PV generation system of x kW peak" also helps to ensure that we want a working system and that is what they must tender for. It is usually the big house builders who skip on the inverters and just install the panels as they are doing it all themselves.

But I then fret about the lack of ventilation...

I've seen some blocks omitted every so often to allow final clean out, then a block slid in to close, thinking about it, I think they actually put the block in with a very weak mortar so it could just be easily dug out. The walls were not big (max 4m long) and they got in and pulled out most of the slops. Other options may exist, thinking of my build, I can sort of get into bits of my cavity from the solum through the vent sleeves that go through the inner leaf - if I wanted I could have had more of a honeycomb affair which would have allowed clean out. There will be lots of options from vent-bricks that are left out to other access points. Another option, and one I firmly believes exists, is a skilled brickie who will drop very little down the cavity. Our brickie who has built everything for us, laid our cavity wall blockwork with a bed and mortar mix which just squeezed out and left a slight bump and when it did go a bit further it always seemed to stay put. If the mix is a bit sloppy, you're going to get lots of slop so a good mix is key, and a good brickie who is good at putting down a bed should not really be putting so much mortar down that it is squeezing out enough to fall constantly. On a new straight and level build with good coursing the bed should be pretty consistent and should not be so deep as to be wasteful.

An award for what, 6 brick columns and some lintels over glass? What a wasted oppertunity. If that is what can win you awards then I am going to start using my son's wooden blocks to model some award winning architecture.

No, all BC care about, on this topic, is that you install the correct generation capacity of PV in new builds where the SAP calc needs it to work, otherwise it is just treated as part of the electrical installation and must be installed in line with BS7671. That is it. The batteries really are just not considered. Where BC come into it, is where we need to get structural sign off on existing buildings, etc.

I wanted to run this past the collective minds of BH. I am getting a new roof done at the moment, with the scaffolding up I used it as an excuse to do everything I could, that needs scaffolding, so the chimney has had a makeover, parts rebuilt, new render etc. last thing to do is fix the concrete cap the 4 pots sit on. What has been used before was 2 No. 3' x 1.5' concrete chimney coping stones put on the top side by side, they each have 2 holes in them for the pots and the pots would appear just to be sat on top, maybe slightly countersunk into the coping and mortared into place. I didn't want to totally remove the 4 pots and concrete and mess with the 2 liners for stoves etc. so I left them be and rebuilt everything under them, now the tops are a mess of old mortar and the joint between the 2 stones have missing mortar and what not, so my plan is to screw some formwork to the outside edge of the existing stones, maybe 2-3" high and pour concrete in, it will seal and lock the whole thing up and will trap the chimney pots solid, I'll put a slight slope on it and everything should be good. I'll drill in and add some steel to key it all in, I also have concrete water-proofer I can add to the mix. What do you all think? I do like a bit of concreting and I am, if I do say so myself, jolly good at it, so I know I can do a good job, it's just the actual concept I am not sure if there is a better way. I could always just make up a sharp sand mortar and haunch it all, but I feel that won't be as good, long term, as a solid concrete cap

Do you have a water meter? See if it spins with all water switched off - or take a reading, make sure no water is used and see if it has moved over night?! I know you are certain there are no pipes, but would you bet your house on it? What are the water table levels like, could they have gone a bit deep putting in fixings, and created a route for ground water to come up? I would assume not but I have seen something like this where the house is built on a hill and water coming into the property was an easy route.

Exactly, I drove a 1.6T machine over freshly dug soil yesterday, the machine, obviously, sinks in a bit, but it rides up over the freshly dug soil, I step out and my foot sinks into the soil deeper than the machine has sunk, this tells us that we would be better walking over material to compact it!

He should write a guide to building with those skills!

If you keep a rotary blade nice and sharp it will give a relatively clean cut, the thing to look for is brown tips once you cut the grass, a clean cut will recover quickly and leave less/no unsightly brown tips, golf courses use cylinders for pristine lawns that recover quicker, so grow stronger, and look greener, but they mow fairways and greens daily in the summer, the time it takes grass to recover helps us with reduced mowing frequency in the summer. My lawn needs cut about every 5 days at the moment. Next time you mow your lawn check the tips of the grass about a day after you have cut them, it there is a lot of ragged brown tips, then think about sharpening your blade. For a domestic lawn, even a well kept smart domestic lawn, a rotary will be fine if in good condition. You can even leave stripes if you have rear rollers.

I always use Sky Plastics, they destroy Screwfix on price. My builders merch is pretty good too, but couplers for £1.25, or double socket bends for £2.19 you just cannot beat it.

How soon after the block went up was the plaster put on? Also in which seasons were each done?

Based on the age of your property I would suggest it will be combined, but do some checking. Note, to avoid confusion, a soil pipe or drain, only becomes a sewer when it is a utility service serving multiple dwellings. People use the terms interchangeably and it can confuse matters quite considerably if people believe you are talking about a sewer, because in this case, you have no right to make a connection to a sewer, you would need the water board to give you a tie into their sewer. If it is your soil or rainwater pipe, then you can tie into it for various connections be it storm or foul.

This guy knows what he is doing and takes pride in his work.

I have a small section of flat roof above a bay window, less than 1000mm deep and maybe 6000mm long, I have a Bauder torch on felt system ready but want to sort out the edge detail. At present it looks like it has just been folded round over the deck and returned towards the fascia with a rudimentary drip edge formed, it's pretty ridged and holds its position so I assume it was a torch on product that is now just old and brittle. So, has anyone done a flat roof recently, how did you do it, any photos, open to all ideas and suggestions, including if need be abandoning the felt and going EDPM or even building it up as a little pitched roof with the same tile as the main roof. At present the plan is, get all the bits in stock, first nice Saturday morning, take the whole lot of, PIR insulation between joists, new OSB deck, new facia timber, then get this felt on, I can do all of that, I can get the flashing done, but I am just not clear on how I detail this gutter edge. Is see products for this detail but many are lacking clear TDS's or installation details and I just want a really robust solution.

Well yes, the water would run away. Use a spirit level or long straight edge to see how flat the tiles are, it also just takes one to be slightly lower and you are going to have a puddle.

Several things, although there is, you suspect, a fall on the patio the tiles might not be dead flat, especially if they are trying to mimic a granite look/texture, so a lower spot with the texture will trap water.

It would probably cause more issues. The key question is how wet are they getting, if they are sitting on sub base, and the slabs are pointed up with mortar then the only bit that might ever really get wet is the face, which will then air dry. So they might be sitting soaking wet, in which case they will rot out in 6-10 years (depends on grade of timber and treatment, old railway sleepers were bombproof, but the new "sleepers" aimed at landscape use are wimpy things), or they will be sitting pretty much dry and could last 50.

Are you sure he is an electrician?

OK fine, not really any reason electrically and its becoming more common, however, consider 2.5mm² 20A radials for smaller areas/rooms etc. that will make terminating easier and save you some money on copper. Small power loads in houses are not really heavy at all, it was different when every lamp was 100W and people had the odd 2kW fire here and there but consider what you actually plug in. Treat kitchens differently, I did an appliances (grid switch) circuit and a small power circuit with a dedicated 16A radial for the fridge/freezer.