Carrerahill

BS7671 states that as near as possible to the entry point you should protectively bond metallic pipework or services - part of the protection is about what may come in from external sources. What is your water pipe made of as it enters the property? The gas will certainly be metallic so the answer to your question is probably yes to water and for sure to gas. I say probably yes to water because if you have an MDPE pipe in, a metal valve and a PVC pipe out, there really is no point - and the regs do say "metallic".

Correct just a single product. For a cheaper alternative and so you don't have a tin of stuff you may never use again you could try LSX. If you only did 12 wraps of PTFE I would go for 20 and try again. It should seal with PTFE. If you stage it so you can get it threaded then it gets thicker on the tape it will bind up well, it should be a fair twist once you get going, if it spins on easily with fingers after the first few threads then you didn't use enough.

Normal for threaded unions like this not to have any seals or gaskets, when jointing iron pipe with threaded ends onto malleable iron fittings it was common to use water hawk or white hawk for gas. Those lines then last for ever. Get it stripped, dried and get a good dose of Water Hawk on it, do it up and leave it to set up a bit, it says instant and if it doesn't leak then it's good for ever but I tend to give it an hour or so. It will seal. Out of a matter of interest, how many wraps of PTFE did you use? It is common to need to use a good 15-20 on larger threads.

I quite like everything looking the same! I was a Bosch man but I ended up going Mak a few years ago. I still have my corded Bosch angle grinders, 4 1/2" and 9" and a 18V drill that gets used often. But most other stuff is now Makita.

Could be. A gardening company who used to come around our area had a "tip car" - it was a Peugeot 306 with the passenger and rear seats stripped out, no carpets or anything - it was a skip on wheels. They would literally throw stuff into this little car then go to the tip in it, no one questions a little hatch going to the tip. He used to do garage demo's and take asbestos sheets to the free asbestos drop our tip has. My attitude was, good on him, at least he had a reasonable plan unlike some people who chuck it down a country lane. I'd rather pay a few quid more in tax for the council to deal with people sneaking commercial waste into the tip than see it tipped on roads and laybys.

I am sure it is the 153Z I have, certainly a BL motor version. Really nice bit of kit. Use it almost everyday on my build and weekends, battery lasts seriously long - I also have a Mak drill and 1/2" impact driver all using the same 18V battery - I am always very pleased with their kit.

This is the sort of thing I would do. I went to the tip once in my Defender - I had a single arm-chair in the back - I went to the normal gate but knew I would not fit under the height restriction bar - I got out and told them I had a chair to bring in and that my vehicle didn't fit. They told me I could not come in then. I said can't I just come in via the truck entrance (right next to the main public entrance) and he said no. I said I was being discriminated against because I had a tall vehicle and said no wonder you guys have to go about picking up shit from the streets if this is your attitude. I went back and got the chair, and dragged it into the site, he came and said I could not do that. I said "well I am doing it" I dragged it to the general waste tip and left if there and walked back out.

I have a set of number plates you can have... Velcro on? All joking aside, I would alter my number plate by a digit using black electrical tape just before I drove in - as soon as I leave I would remove it so I am not on public highways with an illegal plate. In all seriousness it is not a crime so I would be being inventive - if it came to pass then you could start a fight with the right muppets.

This seems MAD! Surly this could be resolved by turning up to the tip and go and speak to someone who can "do something".

Same with DNO's - there are parts of the network they don't even know what it does or where it goes. There was a linesman out doing some work to an 11KV line near a friends farm - he drove out to see the linesman and suggested the overhead line ran into the middle of one of his fields and ended, what was the point - the linesman said that it wouldn't and it would be a pole drop to go subterranean. My friend knew fine well that there were two poles and a transformer on it and nothing came down the pole so after some talking the linesman agreed to jump in my friends Land Rover and across his fields they went. The linesman couldn't believe he had been sent to do some repairs and upgrade to a line that went no where! The transformer used to feed agricultural accommodation - the accommodation was long gone and the cables had all been removed. A local farmer also has a 3 phase supply that a linesman installed for a few beer tokens - it happens to end in his barn...

It certainly looks like you will build partially over the 150mm vitrified clay sewer where your proposing your turning point. I would remove all the tree's from your plan, simplify it and overlay the sewer plan onto your site plan (if you have your site plan in CAD format and assuming the scales on the SW water plan are correct I can scale and overlay them for you. Then for the looks of it all you need to do is confirm no building and just some hardcore and gravel or slabs or something and they should be grant.

We have that but also the mesh round it. Be careful that the one you buy says suitable for solid fuel - our first one was sold as such but it became apparent it was gas only and rotted out in about 11 months! The supplier gave us a new one FOC as he admitted it was not correct - but be aware!

It should be indeed... but these guys like to charge these days. I was quoted £500 to render the front of my garage on Tuesday! It's timber above the door so only the 2 pieces of wall each side of the door which are basically 4.4m² each! I think the guy may have thought I was insane. I am going to pickup the pre-mixed bags of stuff this weekend for the scratch and final coat for £28.00. £472.00 to render two bits of wall!

Even easier then - veneered and edged sheets stood off the wall to create the shadow-gap then have a joiner (or yourself) make up the little cabinets in veneered board and wood of the same type, rub down then a satin lacquer over the lot. We have an oak bed which is 75% solid oak but the headboard is a full oak panel - so it's a 2mm real wood veneer on MDF set between two solid pieces of oak and a top rail so edges are all hidden. All done in English oak so by the time it was rubbed down and coated in a lacquer it looks brilliant.

You could get a real veneer MDF or Egger or something in 18mm for the rear panels from the likes of Timbmet and then get 38mm for other bits, mitre them up so you can use all the veneer faces only and you could make that.

What a bodge! If we each had a pound for every time we heard a contractor say, "It will be fine!". The issue is the builder probably doesn't understand it - won't understand air dynamics and is too ignorant to see his own mistake. The warren of bends and T's and small bore is not going to work. Basically you are meant to sure 110mm soil pipe or similar sized duct. Get that ripped out and have him start again. He probably spent more on solvent weld bends, tee's and pipe than a piece of soil would have cost. If you need to use leverage tell your builder to do it right you can comment building control will not accept it.

The old conservatory conundrum. I'd take it down and build a proper room.

Thank you for this! I may come back and pick your brain at some point! My plan is to build the system up in my workshop - then deploy it once I have it doing what I want it to do as I would love to be able to collect data like this.

I used a lot of 6F2 in my garage build, basically concrete and brick crusher run - ideal for my first fill. I like to think that it helped a little bit.

If I have a cord of wood ready at the end of each summer I have a gas bill of about £6 a month all winter!

Always the case, also if they are on say 20% cover on the boiler, for every additional £100 the boiler costs he is on £20. My brother had a new boiler fitted a year or two ago, boiler man sold him the biggest Worcester Bosch domestic unit they make - he was happy with this and asked for big, but part of me figures he actually created an issue for himself. Sort of luckily for him his Victorian property with 3.2m ceiling heights and no insulation probably actually benefits him in this situation.

You keep producing lots of good graphs from your house, it makes me think you have a control room and lots of sensors and a home management or at least monitoring system that I suspect you made, can you elaborate if you do? I love metrics, I am looking at an Arduino based BMS for my house just because I can and I love this sort of stuff.

Should be good, the load on the boiler from the rads would probably stop short cycling - it's easy enough solved to be honest so I would not worry.

Yes totally, I agree and that comment may have appeared daft, but, in my case a roof fire at the sides could sit on these firestops and burn them through then burning debris would fall to the bottom, quickly melt the membrane and start to ignite the OSB.

I don't see why having some founds in the ground will help you cost the rest. Assuming you know your ground type and size of the founds then you will know fairly accurately what your founds will be then everything else just sits on top and can be priced easily enough. My worry would be starting it, then costing it and discovering I have poured a house bigger than budget would permit. Just cost it up.