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So after messing around with a wifi scanner app and trying various things, only to discover that the best my doorbell can manage is a connection that varies between -68 dBm and -72dBm and latency that was 102ms, I have admitted defeat and accepted that to have a better doorbell connection I will have to spend some money on a PoE one. The decision was made a lot easier by the fact that my BRILLIANT electrician had chosen (without my knowledge) to use CAT5E cable to take power from the ring transformer in our fuse box to the doorbell, so happily there is already Ethernet cable imbedded in the wall, meaning no plasterwork and paintwork needed to be ruined. The challenge was getting some cable from the closest existing Ethernet point to the fuse box. But my sparky is a an actual magician. I simply do not know how he did it. He created a small hole in the wall 3m high up and managed to drop down some cable, connect that to the Ethernet port 2.2m below, then take the cable through the wall, under the stairs, over a under stair WC, and then pop it through another wall to come out in this tiny 9mm gap between the wall and some floor tiles, that we were fortunate not to have finished yet. So the ONLY visible bit of cable is from that point, 1.25m up to the fuse box, but that is all going to be covered up when the coats wardrobe gets built. Now to decide whether I ditch the ring system completely and go with a different PoE doorbell, or spend the fortune that Ring is asking for.

The problem with this approach is that I’m not willing to lose the benefits of the 5Ghz network for my high use devices such as phones and tablets.

I’ve identified the problem. By accident. I thought it would make sense to switch the boiler off, just in case the call for heat at 6am to heat water might cause some issue with no water. I was too lazy to switch the boiler off directly, so went to the fuse board to switch it off from there. There I see the fuse labelled “priority demand valve” has been tripped. This is a valve to give the internal imist system priority over every other tap in the house. I switch the fuse back to the on position, and everything is working again. i report this to SWMBO, who responds: “oh yeah I forgot to tell you, when the fence was being installed this afternoon, they kept tripping a fuse with their power tools.” Bloody hell! I know we are bad at communicating, but this!!! So rather than get a plumber out, I need to speak to my electrician. Luckily he is coming in the morning.

I tried turning it. It only turned in one direction, and only a quarter turn. So it basically has only two options: on or off. Neither do anything for me. We have a water softener salt based system. Could that be the culprit? I checked and it still has a few shards of a block of salt left, so I doubt it. Just so strange to be without water like this. I paid something like £4k to have our connection to Thames Water upgraded which was done about 6 months ago. Feels very much like a downgrade right now!

There was a very very tiny amount of drizzle, hardly noticeable. Why do you ask?

Anyone know what this is? Found it on the public pavement outside my house.

Well I’m not entirely sure where the stop tap is (I know, I know, … I’m a fool), but we haven’t touched anything in the house or had any workmen or even our cleaner as everyone has been away in August. Only person who has been here is a guy to fit a new fence, but he didn’t have access inside and I can’t think how he could have damaged anything from work he did in the rear garden. That’s a good idea about walking around outside. Just tried that, but no joy.

We ended up £50k over our £40k contingency on a £400k budget (so 490k in total - although house still isn’t finished, so will only get further into the red from here). That was/remains bloody stressful and was only salvaged through a combo of a very inventive mortgage broker and a £20k loan from my mum. If this guy managed to Magic up £1m, he/she must live in a very different reality to the one I live in.

Got home to discover very low water pressure. On testing the taps, each one just had a few litres in them, probably what was in the pipes. Have checked with two neighbours and they don’t have a problem. Our garden tap is also out of water. Cannot think what could be causing this, as we have had no building works for the entirety of August and water was working fine since we moved in May. Have called the plumber who installed the whole plumbing system since scratch and he’s away on holiday. Have called Thames Water and can’t get through because their voice recognition software is so f&£king atrocious! Very strange. Any ideas?

So only £1m over budget. Makes me feel so much better about our overspend.

The bespoke joinery market is a complete jungle in this country. Our architect designed quite a lot of bespoke joinery for us. A few wardrobes, a large bookcase with a concealed desk, a very long credenza, some wall cladding, the drawer fronts and cupboard doors to a dIY kitchens kitchen and a wraparound bed bedside table thingy. It was mainly made of oak veneered birch ply with some solid oak pieces. The quotes we got varied from £40k to £200k. We went with joiners towards the bottom end of that range and have been let down massively. We are now going back to one of the more expensive outfits and paying quite a lot just for one piece. It shouldn’t be so expensive, but unfortunately it is, particularly as most birch ply came from Russia. I wouldn’t accept chipboard or even MDF for bespoke pieces that cost this much, so surprised Hammond’s is charging so much for what appears to be made from man made materials, but I may be wrong.

Just to clarify, something I’m trying to achieve is this: Good lighting draws attention to what it is lighting, not the lighting itself.

We have had a large bookcase/set of cabinets designed for us that doubles up as a home office, as one of the cabinets opens up to make a desk that houses our computer. We were about to press the button and pay a deposit, when we realised that it might be a good idea to have the shelves illuminated by LEDs. The designer has pointed out that to conceal the LED strips so that only light is seen, not the actual LEDs, is quite tricky and requires a C lot of the bookcase design to be re-thought. He isn’t trying to create more design fees; I think he has a good point as we don’t want to see the LEDs, we just want the contents of the shelves to be illuminated. Has anybody achieved this, and if so, how? Best Option I’ve seen so far is to build a pelmet onto the uprights of each bookcase, have the LEDs each side of that, with a strip of wood that acts as a diffuser, sending the light backwards and into the bookcase, whilst preventing the light from shining directly into the room. But this doesn’t work with other aspects of our bookcase, so looking for alternatives.

I used a company in Enfield, North London. It works very well but was ££££. PM me if you want details.

I think soot would work. In the end, the builder pointed out that the sealant he uses usually darkens the mortar a touch. So he sealed the mortar, and it does look fractionally better now. I only really dislike the colour in very very bright sunlight. In all other light I like the look of the colours. So maybe it’s the sealant or maybe I just got used to it.

True, but my understanding is that all manufacturers recommend the ducting and the machine are installed within the thermal envelope, so if you follow the manufacturer’s recommendation, you should be achieving the maximum efficiency.

Where did you get this 80% figure from. Most modern MVHRs achieve 90% plus. E.g. The Brink Flair is marketed as “a highly efficient heat recovery unit with a thermal efficiency of more than 95%”. I think most Zehnder machines are similar.

Yes, but that isn’t going to address my concerns that there is some structural mistake. Surely the point of a BCO isn’t just to get the certification, but also to ensure the house is actually built correctly. Surely the BCO should have checked the calcs BEFORE all the structural works were done, but a year later!

I didn’t like the look of such big gaps, so went with the widest doors I could fit and went down to 7mm or 8mm. On the 7mm gaps, I’m probably a bit short of the 7600mm2 sq requirement but my MVHR designer said it wouldn’t matter, and he was right.

Not sure that is quite right. It depends on the width of door. Required area of under-door opening is 7600mm2. So 10mm works for a 760mm wide doorway, but you can get away with a shorter gap if you have a wider door.

I’ve been surprised by the fact that our BCO wanted so much detail and he only asked for it very late in the day. I thought he had been inspecting at the build was progressing. Then a month ago just as we were moving in, BCo wrote an official letter detailing all the potential non-compliances and asking to see various bits of paper and certifications. One of the things he asked for was SE’s calculations, in addition to the many pages of SE drawings that had been provided to him at the very outset of the building project when we served notice. The house is very much finished now, so if he spots any issues with the calcs, what am I meant to do???

In short, yes. In longer form, read this:

That would be good except that it is wired in. I guess I could run an additional cable from the transformer inside.

Hmmm, this doesn’tbode well. Did you replace it with a different smart doorbell or just give up on the concept altogether.

Thanks @Dreadnaught. Yes, I think the foil membrane must be a major issue here. We had damp on the wall and this was part of the solution a RICS surveyor recommended. Seems to have worked well in that it is allowing the damp to dry out without affecting our plaster, but I just didn’t factor in the potential affects on wifi. Just didn’t even consider it. No, the only other items nearby with radio waves are some hue bulbs, but even with those switched off the problem persists. Incidentally the hue hub is right by the Dream Machine and although the external bulbs do connect to it, there was one that struggled, so maybe the fill in the wall is also contributing to that. in addition to the UDR I have two Ubiquiti in wall APs, but they are on the upper floors and checking the topology of my network on the Unifi app, I’m sure they are not the issue. So I guess it’s the foil. I think I have two options to fix this then: 1) Replace the doorbell with the much more expensive PoE version and then: (a) lay Ethernet internally to the location of the doorbell and drill through - this will require about 2m of wall chasing and replastering and repainting a bit of wall; or (b) instead of relying on Ethernet, use a power line plug to make use of a 13A socket that is conveniently located very close to the doorbell (on inside of the wall) so will save a lot of chasing, plastering and painting. I will still need to do some, but more like 40cm worth rather than 2m worth. 2) drill through near the router and install an external AP pointed at the doorbell. Seems like a stupid and expensive way of fixing this, but the problem with option 1(a) and 1(b) is that a ring PoE doorbell is stupidly expensive, so it may actually be cheaper to buy an external ubiquiti AP. They are pretty ugly though, and the front of my house looks so nice!