Carrerahill

He really must be assuming he is an electrician, he needs to basically be on a registrar of one of the clubs. Simply ask him in conversation. I'd go, oh BC are involved I assume you're OK to give me a NICEIC approved type cert for the works for BC sign-off - if he says yes then he knows the score. That sounds less like a grilling than outright asking if he is a pukka spark!

No, the final sign off for your electrics is what seals that deal - until then the electrics are a work in progress. All BC want is a signature on a test cert and usually the electricians NICEIC or SELECT etc. registration No. will be on it.

I think you are sorted then! People will be jealous of this! It is always good to have friendly contractors of all sorts of trades on speed dial. Due to the nature of my work I come across contractors a fair bit and the ones that impress me with good work on site I usually end up extracting their number! I have always done and always will do my own electrical work, on my extension as BC are involved I obviously need a piece of paper with a signature on it. Years ago in an office I worked in, I PMed a refit for our firm, I was very impressed with the electrician who came in to do all the electrical work, decent guy, we had similar interests and I took his details at the time in case I needed anyone, this was about 10 years ago. Over the years he has become more of a friend and I have recommended him to friends and customers over the years, so although I have never used him myself he knows he has essentially had a lot of work because of me, including a big NHS hospital refit. He came round for a cup of tea a couple of months ago and we agreed the electrical works program. The extension is fully wired, home runs back to the DB, and I am nearly ready for PB - yet he has not lifted a finger. He works up in the Highlands most of the time so this suits him. I am more competent at doing this than most of the apprentices you see on sites these days and it is usually they who pull in cable, clip it, drill studs and mount back boxes - so really no one could say a thing about this at any level.

No, of course you can but the issue is working out how to go about getting it tested and signed off - solve that aspect and you are sorted. There are ways and options - one is a friendly electrician, usually one who is too damn busy, who would be wiling to let you first fix - let him inspect then have him back for second fix or, and this is where it gets tough, ask if you can second fix and have him check your work then at the end he will test it all, sign it off. Now this is possible, and people will say, you will never get someone to do this, but that is not true, it happens. I know a friend who first fixed his entire extension himself, I gave him guidance re. the regs, when it came to second fix he got a recommendation of an electrician from his plasterer, he came out and the friend said, "the electrician who wired this won't pick up his phone and I cannot get hold of him". Guy said no bother, checked some bits and finished it off - only took him a day to complete and cost about £260.00 The issue then comes as to how competent you are and did you not only run cables appropriately, but did you ensure you didn't snag them and kink them and rip them through holes and cause damage where the second fix chap cannot see! An extension or outbuilding is always easier - especially if the DB is of newer style and has spare ways - that way it is easy to add circuits and have them meet current regs. I have seen friends have new kitchens installed and end up needing new DB's as the old ones just would not cope with the electrical demand, so before you know it you are onto a partial rewire and a new DB! I makes sense and is the right way to do it, as much as sometimes we don't like the thought of that! The issue is that in theory you can do it all then have it inspected, but you wouldn't have the necessary test equipment. My gas man let me run in all the copper pipes under my house, he came in, spent an hour and soldered them all together - one guy was not interested and said he would need to supply and fit pipe, I told him I was not interested in him then and he told me no one would do it. Next 2 guys were more than happy to do this and the one that got the job only did so through ability to get here sooner.

Move to Alaska!

What type of lighting are you going to use? There are sometimes options to be quite imaginative with light fittings. When I do our bathroom next year my intention is to incorporate the plenum into a lighting raft then use the fittings themselves as the extract points - likewise with clean return air, I don't see an issue, it is done commercially all the time. I like double-gimbal rectangular down-lights, we have things like this: https://www.lucent-lighting.com/products/prospex-light-fixtures/gimbals/gimbal-maxi/ they are fully vented and I was able to actually incorporate them into a plenum in the ceiling void.

I know from experience that temperature differentials on materials, typically timber based materials such as those used on kitchen cabinets and other fitted furnishing style doors can cause distortion issues. So as an example, a cool inside wardrobe caused by a draught in a floorboard and then the other side of the door on the warm heated side of the room can cause doors to start to bend inward slightly as a result of the warm side drying out the materials. I had this happen on some custom doors in my understaid drawer units - they look stunning and we get a lot of comments about how smart they look, but what most don't notice is that most of the drawer fronts (range from 450mm - 2200mm in height over the diagonal) have taken on a slight outward bow from the edges. It really annoys me. So bear this in mind if you do fire in heat below cabinets and the impact it may have on them - I could foresee doors going out of alignment etc. This problem is known to the extent that Hafele do tensioning systems that are rebated into the backs of door/drawer fronts to pull them straight again.

Do you have an open end in the extension or does it just take a 90 or whatever into the pan connection and thus it is sealed? If so then there is nowhere for gas to escape, if you have an open end soil pipe then this must be addressed. Mainly just for smell issues.

All seems reasonable to me, essnetially you are creating a support column. You could even put in a single wide window with a suitable lintel above it and then the beam load comes down from above onto it - it all comes down to the structural design. We did something sort of like this, but we made it one big window and just used lintels to suit the job. Looking at what you are planning I would say BC will ask for a structural engineers calc/detail - so go for what you want and have a SE design it and make sure your builder reads and understands it while quoting as the lintel may end up quite beefy and or the use of steels - I'd use steels. Details you will need to spec up are the make up of the "column" you are creating which supports the beam above, and the insertion into it's side for the window lintel and making sure that the detail allows for adequate support from the column.

Absolutely, which is why really it's a fallacy using UV as the means of "cleaning" the water. As said above, the spec is not even clear on the UV aspect, so you will get people getting an Alibaba $10.00 special and expect all is safe!

Looking at the official parts list it uses activated carbon, sand filter and UV - the spec is, shall we say, loose! Bacteria needs to be zapped with a specific wavelength of UV for about 10-15 seconds, i.e. the water must travel slowly enough through a UV tube that the water is being exposed for 15 seconds, that is a slow flow rate, or a big long UV unit. Now I am not an expert in these matters but know enough to know that you cannot cobble together some filters and a cheapo eBay UV filter and have water with no bacteria of viruses present, if it was that simple then people could have little boxes clean up all their water! The whole thing is going about an issue, that in my eyes isn't an issue, the wrong way. I honestly think that humanity is going about environmental issues the wrong way in many cases, the answer seems to be to generate vast amounts of carbon and pollution in order to solve something that didn't really need solved, or if it did, there is a better way. In reality it is back to the problem that creates pollution in the first time, greed. So people invent "green" solutions, that are actually just business plans! First thing would be to, encourage local businesses to setup and sell fruit and veg, meat, fish, general groceries, almost like a row of shops on a street would be a good idea! Then a street like this could exist every mile or so, then people like me would walk to these shops and pickup produce as they need it, but instead we drive cars once a week to the supermarket or if you plan like my wife every 2 days! Every night after work our dog gets a walk, if it is my wife and I we often pop into our local Co-Op and pickup bits and pieces, I am going to buy a little rucksack so that I can take it with me when we go and start buying more locally when out on foot. During the bad snow people were panicking about getting to the shops, I didn't see an issue, I just got on my boots and walked, 4 mile round trip for Asda or about 2 for Co-Op, nice walk in the snow and had what we wanted for dinner. But apparently the world had come to an end. I know not everyone can do this for distance or health issues but really, as a nation we have just become so lazy and everything is such a bloody rush.

If the stack is internal then you must fit an AAV on top, the AAV only opens, assuming the diaphragm is working properly, when there is suction on the stack, it's the suction which opens the AAV, so if the pipe is in vacuum then nothing can be coming out of it.

It seems like a lot of difficult to recycle metal and plastics and other materials, maintenance and filters and fuss and money to save on some heating energy. I would just invest the money into some solar or ASHP etc. and just use that energy to heat my clean fresh water. We are getting good at heating with renewable sources etc. people have ASHP and Solar and all sorts so heating isn't the issue it once was. I know people who have basically unlimited free hot water now, they use tumble-dryers that cost them £0 to run from an energy standpoint and create only one off carbon emissions (i.e. production emissions from manufacture of the systems). Water is not such a huge issue, the water board clean water for us for less than a penny a litre, it leaves your plughole as grey water, it easily cleans up and helps the dirtier waste water in the system to become more dilute. I see this more and more, we are trying to solve environmental issues by using more and more resources. Frankly the whole climate change movement is targeting many of the wrong industries and environmentally "dirty" objects.

I literally just grabbed the nail gun and some 2x4 and a some scrap 2x6. I nailed a 2x4 to the side of another 2x4 to create the corner sections, of the 2x4 the 4" section "clamped" the inner and outer parts of the wall, the two corners were then linked with some 2x4's face nailed to the side. That gave me a timber frame each side that didn't damage the block, I then put in a sill and a header to "jam" them into place. Studs to support the joints and screwed on the sheet. If I wanted this to last longer I would have added another 2-3 studs.

- I don't mean this to sound the way it will, but here goes. - Can you though? If you have concreting experience then fair enough, but I suspect given the questions you are not, concrete isn't "difficult" but it has lots skills and experience required to work it properly, 100's of tips and tricks required to get it right, I have respect for a good concrete crew, they know their game, they know how to work the product and they know the time constraints. Concreting isn't something you just grab a barrow and toss in a form, founds maybe, but slabs and things take some skill. So you may try and save money here and totally regret it. I paid people to do my slab, there were 5 of them, they made it look easy and not one of them was stood doing nothing all morning, these boys hustled, I was thinking of doing it myself and getting in my dad + a friend - so three novices - what a joke that would have been. I'd have cried. I know I did the right thing. I have a crew on site just now doing the dry dash. I was going to do it myself, I can do it, however, there are 2-3 of them, been at it for over a week now - how many weekends and hard effort would that have been for me! Nah. Got to be wise sometimes.

Tarmac's Topflow was almost going to be used here however it suffers badly from surface latency, due to the high flowability of the product it leaves cement and fines near the top with a high % of water, this stuff will be weak and will dry like a surface layer of digestive biscuits. As it has more water and liquid chemical additives to give it strength in the first place (as too much water is the Achilles heel of concrete) then you end up with this issue, Tarmac rep who was here said it's great to slam in-between your foundation block work, then whip up a timber kit soon after but it cannot be a wearing surface and should ideally be covered up fairly soon. He didn't recommend it for my project but we did cost it then are there and the cost was only about £75.00 more per wagon. He commented that Cala just pour it using normal labourers with no concrete finishing experience it self flows and levels they rake it it about a bit, then use the tamper to swish it about then walk away. 24hrs later they can be erecting a TF - which he didn't recommend but says they do get away with it.

A vertical mounted sheet of 11mm OSB exposed to the elements, I can report, will last well over 2 years without paint! Also amazing the surface has not done that thing where the strands on the exposed face start to expand and peel off - so this temporary garage wall of mine will be recycled into something else when it's taken down! I did a temp main garage door, or rather "wall" while I went on holiday last year (just to secure the materials and fixings and all sorts I had out there), 3.2mx2.2m, I made sort of frames to go round the blockwork like a "C" section, they slid over the walls then I screwed sheets to the frame. I put a couple of studs in too. It was during all those storms last year and it all stood up fine.

Two single lifts, with planks between is how the guys are working here - they just drag or move (takes about 6 minutes if they must dismantle and rebuild) the towers when they want to move. I also built them a nifty 2x6 mid section support so they can span near on 14' on one section using some 2x8's. They have about 4 isolated pieces of scaffolding up just now and the quick-stage towers sort of move about. I know it is not ideal but it works.

I would not trust those to stand on let alone anything else, i.e. load with the weight of some blocks and mortar. My builder is using something like these for the lower bits: https://www.toptower.co.uk/builders-trestles-swivel-leg.html I would say his a much more heavy duty. A small scaffold could also be bought and made up in 2 sections with boards inbetween. http://www.scaffold-towers.net/summit_size.php

If you have endless seasoned wood and or a means to produce it and want to use it as a source of additional or maybe primary heat go for it. Personally I would not use it as my sole means of heating, as when I go on holiday in the winter I can setup my gas boiler to take care of background heating and personally I did not go for a back boiler because it was going in my living room - I wanted all the heat in that room and didn't want the issues that back boiler stoves can cause (getting firebox up to good temp etc. due to water jacket cooing it things like this) I would consider a Bosky or Aga woodfired backboiler/oven but we have the means to heat the living space with a WBS and that suffices for us. My friend heats his house with a Bosky - he did have the oven version but eventually it was replaced with the heater/hob top version only. He lives on a farm so it was a no-brainer. Downside, however, is that it does his DHW too so he needs about a 45min burn in the morning to top up his 240litres of DHW - can make his kitchen a bit toasty in the summer, he does have 6Kw of electric plate heaters in the tanks too but he tended to chuck an arm-full of logs in and do it for free. Mind you - he also has a waste oil fuelled diesel generator that feeds directly into the tank heaters - also free. So many pro's and con's that this really becomes a full conversation.

The government aren't doing away with them, they are just tightening controls, eventually, as with gas boilers, diesels etc. these things will all be phased out in most areas - provisions for remote areas may allow for a relaxation of controls. Even if they ceased to sell such appliances they would almost certainly allow the reduction in wood burning appliances simply to reduce over time through appliances reaching the end of there life and not being replaced etc. It would also be very difficult to police. I think that they should simply control the sale of wood fuel. If you cannot run your wood stove on locally gathered wood that you arrange and process yourself then having a stove is not really worthwhile in my opinion. Limiting what people can buy from B&Q or the petrol station would essentially control WBS use. Also an outright ban on the sale of any unseasoned timber would help vastly. Asda had bags of green pine for sale, I had a look at it out of interest and wondered how many stove novices would buy it and chuck it on their stove that night. It said in small print on the bag that this wood was unseasoned and it would require to be seasoned. If only well seasoned hardwoods and smokeless fuel was available that would solve a lot of issues. I think there are many many stoves that were bought as a piece of furniture for the living room and get used on a Sunday night or Christmas day - yet the ONS decided to use the number of stoves that have been sold and multiply that by "average" burning hours which were frankly ridiculous and came up with these preposterous emissions figures. I know a lot of people with WBS's which just don't use them - they wouldn't even know which end of an axe to hold and have no clue how to, or indeed incentive to, sort themselves out with firewood - I think they buy some wood for special occasions and that is it. Fine, leave them to it, that is a nice thing. What about BBQ's/Firepits in the summer? It is probably fair to say a lot of BBQ's and fire-pits smoke away during the summer - more people BBQ and use fire-pits than run WBS's and the burn time is probably comparable for the majority of WBS owners as many do not have access to unlimited amounts of firewood therefor it is just an evening event and probably only weekends at that. Ban all the plastic tat they sell for parties, or stupid little solar rechargeable garden lights that last a season and end up in the bin, what an environmental disaster these things are, think of all these little cells now rotting away in landfills. People jump onto the things that are easy to jump at, like WBS and diesels, but look at the utter rubbish people buy for an event and bin the next day. I saw a car air-freshener the other day that resembled a small Pringles type tin with a grille on the top that the fragrance emanated from - I looked at this tray full of them and thought what a total waste of resources, time and money. Ban crap like that. I bet people exist who buy this tat yet lambaste those of us with a diesel or a WBS as being environmental disasters. I might write a book!

No issue at all - in effect an unused leg is just the same as a radiator on the circuit which is off. Water cannot move in it and you will not waste any heat. As with any plumbing setup the more connections and stop ends and valves and taps the more likely there is to be a leak, but I think it would be worth it if it enables a "perfect solution" in the end. I would however cap them all, fill the system and test or pressure test them. I made up a testing system with some push fit stop ends and one with a Schrader valve on it. I put some water into the pipes then pressurised the pipes with my compressor to about 3 bar and left it like that. You could use a bicycle tract pump or little car tyre compressor.

A slightly different approach I used for the similar issue. I made some angle pieces in timber just slightly short of the height of the defect, clamped/jammed etc. them onto the corner and made up a concrete mix - I used some "Ciment Fondu" in the mix to speed up the setting time and trowelled it down the gap at the top occasionally tapping the form with a hammer to remove voids. At the top my mix was of a low slump that I could just trowel it into the gap and flattened it. I took the forms off before it went super hard and scratched it so the render had something to adhere to. I was really pleased with the repairs, looked smart and must have taken me about 15 minutes all in!

Got to be a Numatic product, I have used a Henry for essentially building work and with good bags and keeping it well maintained he has been a beast, we now have a George and a Hetty. I would not recommend the Henry quite for your level of stuff, he could cope, but the bag would fill quickly. If I have major stuff to do I get the 15litre bag for George and use him, I managed to fill Henry right up and all the way along his pipe with sawdust once and it was still vacuuming away no bother - sure it was reduced but it was impressive. Have a look at this stuff - there is a reason you see these guys all over sites, schools, airports etc. they are good. A standard Henry is HEPA 15 I think which is 99.99???? and then there is a HEPA 17 which is 99.999995% which is basically the particle arrestance ability. For your needs, you can get ones that are even designed to vacuum up asbestos dust and will not re-emit the dust into the room - so the point is, if you got one, keep it pretty clean, you could then end up with a really really handy machine for bigger cleaning jobs which will give you better dust control than any domestic vac you can buy - Dyson - eat your heart out. https://www.numatic.co.uk/product-subranges.aspx?r=6 You can get the big blue one for about £200 which is 20litres.

No, ADW are just a rip off, they were the most expensive quote we got for windows too. They took ages to return the quote too, so when they asked if I wanted to proceed I said, well first of all it took you weeks to return a quote and you're the most expensive by a long way. No thanks!