Carrerahill

A friend of ours got PP then built an extension about half the size of his house again. BC as far as he knows are completely unaware of the buildings existence, that was built in 2004. He is still there now.

You know, this is an utter joke. Your lender would probably give someone a mortgage for a major house builder home no questions asked, which as we know have often been found to have major structural issues and mortar with little cement in it and bits that are just down right shocking, yet because it is a self build immediately it is deemed as being risky. Our extension is a quality build, a solid, well engineered thing, yet I could see me in some years potentially having to do battle with a potential buyers solicitor over warranties and what not when actually they should be more concerned about the non-BC signed off, self-certified mass produced houses built with little care or quality.

Indeed, or having enough money to heat their properties! There is also the issue with people thinking, "I am paying good money to heat my home so why would I open a window?" It is just mad in their opinion, but often heat and ventilation can, as you will know, create an healthier, nicer environment within a building. I think if people were more aware of their habits and behaviour they could save a lot of issues in their house. I am very aware of damp creators, we don't have any damp issues (as far as I know!) and I adopt good practises in my daily life to keep it this way, we are very fortunate to be able to afford to heat our house well but cooking (old kitchen about to be demolished) doesn't extract externally and I love to cook, so in the kitchen I always open the window and the difference is windows with condensation all over them, or hardly any when open. I also tend to open the bathroom window all year round before a shower or immediately after and close the doors to the rest of the house. However, I will have little 1 room MVHRs going in this summer to deal with the bathrooms.

How well is she heating the place? Does she open windows? Even in the winter I have always liked to freshen up the air in the house and I think it pays dividends. We dry a lot on a clothes horse but our house is warm due to the near 24/7 wood burner. The RH in our house is about 34% at the moment and we dried 2 full loads of washing last night. I do however see this in our loft sometimes, it is fully insulated and lined, carpeted and what not but it is still just used like a typical loft, i.e. to chuck stuff into to "clear it away" so it has not been heated for about 5 years, result is small areas of mildew and a slightly damp feeling to the walls. Goes away in the summer certainly and it can be brushed off easily enough. I do plan to bring the room into use this year so heating it up will help. So if she dries a lot of clothes and cooks a fair bit generating steam from pots etc. then I think she needs to apply more heat, ventilate better (even open a window when cooking etc. dry clothes near an open window) or possibly think about drying clothes slightly differently - laundry room etc if available? Ask her if she sees much condensation on the windows, particularly if they are double glazed - that would possibly indicate she is not heating the place quite enough to deal with the moisture. I once read somewhere someone commenting that damp tends to be more prevalent in properties of the less wealthy and I think that is very true because generally when you hear of damp issues it is usually in lower quality housing stock that is not heated as well obviously due to cost. However, the same can also be said of those who do their bit for the environment and turn the heating down and wear a nice jumper, even a house with a water ingress problem can be perfectly fine (except directly at the damp source) if adequate heat is applied. Students can have bad habits that cause damp, we had new student accommodation we were involved in, brand new build and the heating was metered hot water, so students were not heating their rooms well to save money and they were hanging clothes to dry over everything in their rooms instead of paying to use the tumbers in the laundry room. Result in some areas was a damp problem which was initially thought to be a building defect, transpired it was money saving practises or rather cash strapped students dictating necessity - the pub was busy though!

Starting out as in, building it or planning it? If planning stage then usually work out chamber height then work up through the layers to see where that gets you, in our extension we had to work from the lead flashing down! I wanted to make the most of the height available to us to maximise internal ceiling heights. I then made the eaves of the roof as high as I could while maintaining an adequate pitch for the roof tiles I wanted to/had to use. The thing that would drive me initially in determining a wall height would be to get the existing building plan, know the existing building ceiling heights (if you want to copy those) and then draw some vertical lines across at various levels to determine where the roof abutment would be, or a max ridge height or a gable etc. depending on the orientation of the existing and proposed. I would then ascertain ground level, and finished floor level (FFL). At that I could then check the spaces available to me permit required roof pitch and that windows and doors will then fit suitability. That is a 10-15 minute basic task which is where most people involved in planning would start. There is little point in doing much else until the basics check out! I think it is things like this that sometimes people forget or don't understand which can lead to big mistakes if you try and DIY something you have little knowledge of. We had friends try and copy what I did, they ended up building an extension where the ceiling was going to end up lower than standard door height... He had not allowed for the height of his lintels when he worked it all out, so when he dropped the heights for the lintels, the lintel was going to come in about 1800mm so that his roof height remained untouched.

That reminds me, I need to pop into the pharmacy tomorrow to ask about an oil change on my car... Fairly typical of a trade who knows think they know a bit about a lot, he has heard something in isolation and become an "expert" I expect. If you are in England, part F applies here, if in Scotland it's just the Building standards. Part F I believe was last reviewed in 2010 and amended in 2013 so nothing "new". The Scottish building regs simply call for a ventilation rate and make no particular reference to type of fan or position.

Much like MoT's!

Honestly, given it's a new build, if you can I would replace it - another option is to replace a section of it and add another socket somewhere so you can make sure of the now shorter cable and thread a new bit in. Of course you can join it, but, I never like it. You could simply fit a 1G pattress box connect with Wago's and then fit a blanking plate. But then you have a blinking blank plate. Basically it needs to be accessible unless you opt for a maintenance free option. I have in the past done a staggered joint, soldered and heat-shrink it all. What the regs say: Every electrical joint and connection shall be of proper construction as regards conductance, insulation, mechanical strength and protection. Every connection shall be accessible for inspection, testing and maintenance, except for the following: (i) A joint designed to be buried in the ground (ii) A compound-filled or encapsulated joint 146 (iii) A connection between a cold tail and the heating element as in ceiling heating, floor heating or a trace heating system (iv) A joint made by welding, soldering, brazing or appropriate compression tool (v) Joints or connections made in equipment by the manufacturer of the product and not intended to be inspected or maintained (vi) Equipment complying with BS 5733 for a maintenance-free accessory and marked with the symbol MF and installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

Are you sure? You said you got a belt? To get a belt something must exist... On your PCB I can see marked zones, which zone is this valve on - are you getting 240 across live and neutral on the board and the respective zone terminals? The next thing I would then do is confirm that the other end of that wire, i.e. at the valve is delivering power - which I think it will be given you got a jolt. Could wire damage be present anywhere? A damaged neutral/earth but an OK live would result in 0V across the 2 wires yet still very much live!

600 as 200 is peak 200 so will read a null reading, yes black to COM and red to the max 600V (there may be another terminal which will be for non-fused current measurement up to about 10A).

No - it isn't working anyway. Just ensure electrical connections are made safe (terminal block or a tape even for a temp fix).

Go make a cup of tea/coffee and view this. When he says "top piece" that is what has been called a "Head" above.

On the back of your motor, it says Synchronous Motor - Original - 230V etc... then there is a code, what is the code, I can't quite make it out. However, looking at your motor, and the box you posted a photo of and the cross reference of the part No. I did, I think yes from what I can see. You could always take your motor to the parts store and ask to compare the new one out the box. Look at my link and your motor, they certainly look very similar to me... they all tend to use the same motors and parts as few people actually make them, Drayton & Honeywell etc. However, if in doubt run the part no. physically engraved in the back of your motor through Google and check. What make of valve do you have?

Yes the silver round thing, also look at my link to Screwfix which shows what it looks like in isolation. Look like it will be 2 or 3 small screws that hold it on and 2 wires which you can just leave alone.

Yes - it is quite a common fault in these systems. My in-laws had these replaced about every 2.5 years until British Gas finally replaced the cheap part that they fitted on the first fault call out with a Honeywell and it has been fine ever since - the engineer told my father in law that the one he fitted was all metal gears and would not fail for a long time.

According to the part no. on the side and a quick Google search it appears to be just the motor with an integral gearbox: https://www.screwfix.com/p/drayton-synchronous-motor/28670?tc=ET5&ds_kid=92700020956158103&ds_rl=1241687&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249404&ds_rl=1249799&ds_rl=1245250&ds_rl=1249481&gclid=CjwKCAiAyeTxBRBvEiwAuM8dnb3pVx19nwtu5X8NA6JZ5eL4liyTvPdCK_LVKYXDA2ldTHlkdaMLIxoCQQoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Note the brass pinion gear as mentioned above. I would pull the motor off, then have someone call for/cancel the call for heat (wait a bit between as it is not always instant) and see if the motor spins - just leave it hanging safely and watch it. Then look into the hole where the pinion gear goes and see if you can see mashed teeth - if mashed teeth this motor will not help.

By "Head" he just means the whole actuation caboodle, the "head" could be unbolted and chucked and a new one bolted on. These things are very simple; it is to all intents and purposes an electrically operated valve, a motor/servo turns, moves some bits via a pinion gear and rack usually or just two gears. Often the issue is plastic gear teeth actually, the pinion is usually metal (often brass) but the others are plastic and they wear or a tooth breaks off and the thing cannot work on the motor anymore - chances are the motor is actually OK, it could certainly have failed but more likely an actuation issue from the drive gears. Do you know this valve is getting the "signal" i.e. a supply to actuate it? If so I would suggest you just change it out on this occasion and next time you will have more to knowledge to play with. If it was me I would take it apart and cut new gears in brass!

Not at all, I think what you have done is excellent. Start as you intent to go forward! You basically almost have your BC drawings. Depending on your LPA you may just need to add the "text collage" around the drawing to detail it all and a couple of small drawn details for anything that needs it and that is you!

Um... where are you?

Yes, I fully understood that. But my point was, "If you are going electric then I wouldn't bother with the boiler, just fit electric heating". Electricity has the benefit that it can just be wired to where required and used, whereas oil, gas & solid fuels need to be burnt centrally and conveyed via water to the UFH/Rad's for obvious reasons but I just would not use grid electricity to heat water centrally as said above the costs would be high - probably painfully so. However, I understand what you are saying, if you think you may eventually heat the water with an alternative source of heat then can you not just keep your oil boiler going for a bit longer? How long are we talking? Bearing in mind it will be summer before we know it, could you do something about it in September? Or do you foresee another winter or two on the oil? If it was me, and I had the intention of going ASHP fairly soon then I would fit a wood burner with back boiler for now, which would then be a backup and supplementary source going forward. Other benefit is they can be run if there is a power failure with a pump running on an inverter.

I would say an electric boiler is not a good idea unless you have some solar/wind on site to generate electric for you. If you are going electric then I wouldn't bother with the boiler, just fit electric heating but then I don't much like the idea of electric UFH from a fault and longevity point of view. Any figures I look at for electric boilers just seem insane. You are about, say, 4p for a kWh of gas and about 13.5p for kWh of electricity. Boilers are in the 10's of kW's range. Our gas boiler has a max output of 32kW - even if we disregard all the conversions and just take some simple numbers if it was running about 50% capacity on electric that is 16kW - that is going to cost £2.16 an hour! Then think about all the losses in getting the water to the heating area etc.

I'd save yourself some time, money and hassle and just do that. If it's really just your shed then I see no issue with this. As with any extension cable just keep an eye on it and make sure any damage is rectified.

The thing with BC drawings is that largely you can get away with a plan of the house and loads of text laid out with details here and there, that is what we submitted. Any structural stuff obviously needs detailed but nothing drastic, in our case it was a letter in the form of, yes that wall is suitable - it wasn't even referenced as such in the BC drawing. It also depends how big your house is, anticipated build cost and anticipated final value, if it's a 80K build then that is nearly 3.5% of total cost, if it's a 300k then shrug it off as a cost. Also, never trust a builder to do your drawings. They will always think with their back pocket and you will end up with a self-build Cala home!

Been speaking to some kitchen firms about the kitchen, truth be told I will use some of the free design services to get some ideas and basic layouts pulled together then I can proceed with whoever or whatever I want to use. Called one lot up, spoke to their guy, sounded pretty clueless really, and I said, "Can I send you a CAD drawing, are you able to work with those" - his reply, "yes yes we can do that". Perfect, I take our architectural drawings and tweak them to as-built sizes and add a sink block, hob block and some notes to the kitchen designer, spent maybe an hour on it all told. I get a call this morning, "I have got your drawing, that is one we did for a customer the other day, is that what you want" - Hmmmm. I explain that no, he must have the wrong file as I sent "Kitchen.dwg" and that was my kitchen as personally drawn by me. "Oh, right, I am clicking it and it just says I need to save it to disc, it won't open". I do some questioning and ask can they in fact open CAD files, and has he saved the attachment out of his email onto a disc? "No no, I don't have a disc here - I'd need to do it on the computer, can you send us what is called a PDF file?". So I told him I could send a PDF file but it would not be of much use as there are no dimensions on it and unless his software can import and scale a PDF I see no benefit. "Oh, but I would need full dimensions" he exclaims, I explain that a CAD file is a fully scaled accurate (well should be) drawing as used by architects and engineers and all sorts, we only dimension things for the end user or construction drawings and it is not common to dim everything. So, has anyone dealt with a firm who actually use proper drawings? For this I will dim it all up and going forward send them all the DWG, DXF and PDF but I just wonder what sort of software they are using that they cannot at least import the drawings as a background for their design.

Photos!