Carrerahill

I am going to guess, based on logic taken from plumbing and ventilation, that for each 45° bend you are adding a restriction in the flue, a restriction which I assume slows the passage of combustion gases, therefore adding more height allows a good tall straight run to create some vertical acceleration of the gases and thus create a good draw. Having seen plenty of stoves in cottages with all sorts of bends and joints, and terminating just above roof level, I cannot see that the extra 3.5m is really needed, but maybe on paper that is indeed what you need - ask them for the flue calcs and get them to show you the workings of it all. I also find a lot of these so called "experts" have misread regs and guides or want to sell you more than you need sadly. As an M&E consultant myself I see it all the time.

I am sure there is a joke there... I won't go there. I think it is just the PB/plaster shrinking, maybe a little flex in some timber that has caused the plaster to crack at the natural position for plaster to crack - along the joint. Can you detect any scrim tape in the joint? If it was done cheap they maybe just slapped on a skim coat with no scrim. Could also be that they did the works, then it sat about unheated, then you bought it, got some heat and the final dry out has now occurred - it can take a year or so for the fabric to fully dry out and settle. Stand and look at the crack and have someone jump a bit, as near to as, directly above it as you can - see if you can see any deflection - every SE's first "test" when it comes to checking an existing floor it would appear!

That is a new one on me! Smart. Thanks for showing me another option! However, having watched Skill Builder's videos, I am going for a Mira Flight shower tray. I think working in engineering I am too hung up on mm accuracy, to a point I cannot understand how the tray waste first fix works out. In my eyes I think it needs to be -+0.5mm to work out! Given laying a shower tray is like putting in slabs I must be overthinking the process. Buy the bits and go for it I think!

That is quite intentional. It puts most people off these days.

No that should be fine, if it was sitting cold - we had problems at 12°C - then that could cause it. What is above this ceiling?

Chainsaw? I assume, however it was setup, that there is no way to have them move it on the grounds you want it out your property and they have no actual right to have it there? I expect you have investigated all that?

I think that looks good. I don't see it coming off, the mortar haunching round the top will lock it in well. Worry when the mortar starts to fall out in chunks in, hopefully, 25 years.

In this situation it is unlikely to be structural. It can of course indicate issues but these just look like shrinkage/small movement cracks, daft question these days, but are you heating your house well enough? Years ago after we renovated a house we went on holiday in November and I left the heating on tick-over, well, that was not good enough, almost all rooms had cracks form around new plaster work and all sorts. As soon as we got real heat back into the house it was OK, but some needed catching on the new decoration. Our extension was quite different. Timber frame was up and dry all summer, it dried out well, was left till nearly December before it was boarded, and plastered in January not a single crack in 3 years.

Latex/acrylic caulk is the very stuff that is prone to cracking and shrinkage. OK for caulking when used properly, i.e. a deep fill without half of it removed with your finger leaving a thin bead. If you want to seal things and overpaint then a PU sealant is critical.

+1 on above. Ask him to use polyurethene sealant. Better than silicone in many ways and over paintable.

So, if I measure up and put the waste in, where does the adjustment come from. If I set the waste as needed, and measure for height, I am going to need, I assume, 4-6mm adjustment for the sand/cement or silicone bedding, do I run the risk of the waste being a bit too high or low then forcing it into position or is there enough give on the associated pipework that it is OK? I did the whole build in solvent weld so know there is some wriggle room. Does that sound about right? Impey, thanks.

Over what sort of footprint? 300kg over 0.25m² versus 300kg over 2m² are quite different. Un upright piano can weigh 250kg (some can weight in at 400 odd) - but each wheel may only be 62kg odd.

It's not actually "mandatory" - the reg is certainly open to a bit of interpretation. I could think of plenty instances you could make it compliant without. He asked about a surge device in fairness...

The DNO's, depending on which one, state 2m or 3m. The 3m probably stems from the positions of devices for protection against overload reg, 433.2.2 (ii) which states, and I paraphrase, that the protective device can be along the run of the conductor as long as it doesn't exceed 3m. In other words I can protect a 3m cable from overload at the 1.5m point if I want. If you wish to extend the supply from the DNO fuse/switchfuse some distance, i.e. greater than 3m, then you need to add a layer of protection before you head off into your property. This is often done with 25mm² SWA and a switchfuse or MCCB. The 25mm² SWA will carry a full 100A (probably pretty unlikely load requirement!) up to a max of 27m before voltage drop would be too great at max rated current, greater than 27m you would need to go 35mm². The 80A may be to discriminate, but, I'd just keep a spare fuse quietly somewhere in case! It's not that easy to blow a DNO fuse. Also, when you look at the breaking curve of a DNO BS88 80A and 100A fuse - there is not much in it... you could draw 100A through an 80A fuse for over an hour before it would blow.

Do you get solvent weld ones? I don't like the idea of the compression union which I cannot really fully water test until its buried! Can you recommend a good waste? Anything McAlpine I assume? I am tempted to start ordering all the bits and putting them in the garage.

I see. Electric mixer shower! Jeeze, we are getting fancy now! Remember we used to turn the hot and cold on a bit until it was about right! However, if he suffers these issues, and it is now commonplace and the regs (18th AM2) basically require that surge protection is installed in consumer units, I think I would install it.

When you say your shower, do you mean and electric shower or do you mean a pump? What rating is it? You could just fit a whole house surge device if you suffer powercuts and surges. Depends on your setup you can put it in your board if space, or a little dual enclosure adjacent to the main board and wired into the consumer unit.

I watched some videos today at lunch, looks like I will go for a Mira Flight tray, they seem to be bomb-proof according to skill builder. I just don't like the idea of a hidden waste connection that you fit and can't check.

One thing I have never done is a shower tray or wet-room floor. I have done bathrooms with baths, but not these, so I would like some help and guidance on how to go about a new shower. For me, a key requirement is near bomb-proof water tightness/proofing on the shower. The bathroom is on the first floor so it is timber joists - my plan is to remove the whole floor, wire and plumb as required and replace the deck with 18mm ply. At this stage I assume I will have incorporated the floor level waste for the tray - do I just hook up a shower waste to the pipe in the right position, are they flexible - or do I need to get them sitting absolutely bang on before I offer up the tray? How do I then seal that to the shower tray? Is it just like a sink waste except installed into the tray from above? Or, do I put in one of these tanking kits, floor waste and tile it? All thoughts, information and any photographs of these going in would be greatly appreciated.

If you can smell combustion smells in those houses, you must immediately let them know they have a problem. Then the owners need to immediately cease use of the stove investigate or seek professional help. If you can smell a stove or open fire combustion smells in the room, be it coal, wood, oil or gas, you have an issue. The stove box should be negative air pressure, it should be drawing in air, not allowing gasses to escape! Myself and someone else on this forum have done experiments and taken readings with our stoves on, the other BH member thought his meter was broken and lit a match adjacent to it to get a reading and I found that we had more pollution in the room when my wife lit 3 tealights! So these statements are highly inaccurate - much like saying "Gas boilers are poisoning occupants of the house" - they do in a round about away, but not in as much as your being choked with combustions gasses, unless, of course there is an issue. Visible smoke is a big part of the issue because many people produce clouds of the stuff through incorrect operation of the stove and usually by burning green wood or other unsuitable fuels The smoke is heavy, it can linger for hours on a cold day, it is full of combustion smells that can taint clothing and soft furnishings and inhaling that will immediately irritate the throat, lungs etc. and will irritate the eyes if exposed to enough of it - think standing next to a bonfire when the wind changes! The heavy smoke is loaded with loads of particulate, unburnt gasses and other nasties, full high temperature combustion will reduce those. The PM 2.5 particulate exists from many sources, cars, lorries, planes or stoves. It is there. The figures used for stove emissions are highly inaccurate, they use all stoves sold x burning hours per day. Every one of them. The figures are badly skewed. Our neighbours have one, it's never lit, my friend has about 4, he doesn't use them much - I know of about 72 holiday lodges each with 1, hardly anyone holidays there in the winter so they are never really on. Gas boilers produce pm 2.5 too around 50% more than the average car per annum, they emit around 1/5 of NOx emissions, they also emit other nasties like VOC's, SO2, N2O - or your could burn a locally sourced firewood, seasoned and burned in a well maintained stove which will have fewer emissions than a gas boiler, in managed firewood the CO2 will also be near totally cyclic therefore you could claim near zero CO2 emitted, v's the equivalent of 7 transatlantic flights a gas boiler will produce in a year.

For a friend of a friend, £60K - so he is off gird, he spent a chunk on PV, batteries, and a genset to boost batteries in the winter.

I am fed up with these terribly written articles in the papers and media every other day giving wood burning stoves (WBS) a bad name. I have written to many of the broadsheets "environmental editors" when they run inaccurate articles pointing out the mistakes. The one I love to debate is the often reported, yet highly inaccurate statements about the WBS smoke coming into the room in which it operates. I collect, pre-season, split, stack and season all my own firewood; softwoods and hardwoods. I reckon I am on about a 36month seasoning process with the firewood I have just now. I use pine kindling and some smaller softwood logs and a piece of hardwood or two to get the stove lit, I manage the start up in that I keep a close eye on it, lots of air, get the fire caught well, you want to get the flue warmed and get a nice draw, at this stage. Usually seen when outside getting an armful of logs, there is a gentle whisp of smoke from the chimney. Once the fire is going well, I close down the air supplies to normal running mode and let it go. I was outside most of yesterday with the stove on inside, I saw no smoke all day. The issue is idiots with stoves.

But only if he had a permanent live up there too. If he had permanent live and switched live he could trigger the light in toggle mode on the shelly and also control via app/schedule.

https://ledsc4.com/en/collection/play-0 LEDS C4 Play - all accessible from below. Proper LED engine version available.

Your roof may not be rated for the weight of tile - speak to your design team first. Probably will be fine but roof could have been sized and calc'ed on the lighter option.