Alan Ambrose

@saveasteading - was that a local BM?

Thanks for that. Reporting back after talking to Hallmark re their external ‘Trojan’ Venetians I’m learning that: + the blinds install from below into a 120mm slot so that would also be how you would replace them. Depth of slot is a function of how long the blinds are as the 80mm slats stack inside. + the vertical guide rails could be inset but often are mounted directly to whatever holds the window frame - in our case a ‘window box’ as we’re building a timber frame. + costs are about £0.7K for a 1x1m window to £1K for a 2m W x 2.3m H. + they sit on a 4-core cable. You can route that to their switch or back to your own fancy control system.

Yeah it’s a bit nonsense, but we’re finding the better quality timber doesn’t warp even if it’s wet.

Anyone used the ally stuff formed on site to length?

Yeah, we even did some groundworks in all the mud on Monday. I am calling off any day that has more than a few mm of rain though.

Neat Can I ask about the transducer - is it reliable & accurate? I need some set-ups where I control a pump based on water depth in a sump….

Stating the obvious - screw piles are fairly novel still. Anything novel gets a bit of extra scrutiny and probably some higher safety factors (explicitly or implicitly) as it's perceived to be higher risk. Nobody wants to make a mistake. Your BCO has called in their engineer because they don't feel able to sign off themselves in the same way they might for a more conventional foundation. Your BCO and their SE may not have dealt with screw piles before (although the BCO's SE is sounding v confident). Your BCO's SE has called your own guy incompetent (or at least that was the BCO's interpretation), which means it's all got a bit out of hand. Suggest your own guy has a call with the BCO's engineer to see whether they can square their differences. It should all be quite simple to agree which is the right design code and determine whether it meets that code. Looking at the situation positively, any extra scrutiny reduces the likelihood of any residual error.

I'm finding that even the ones that claim to be UV-resistant have fairly woolly specs. UV Resistance ? 'Long Term' it says for POWERLON® UV Façade. Yeah, what does that mean? Maybe someone who has gaps between their cladding has done the research?

There’s also Metal Gutta stainless e.g. https://www.roofingsuppliesuk.co.uk/products/stainless-steel-125mm-gutter-2-4m-length Anyone used that?

Anyone use these and have any recommendations? Our build is slowish and our LPA is properly difficult. Therefore I’m anticipating we’ll have the external roof and wall membranes on show for some time and therefore liable to UV. I can see stuff like Tyvek UV facade, but it still has only a 4-month UV life?

For budgeting and decision making purposes, does anyone have a rough idea of the cost of these? Any other competitors you considered? How did you provide for inevitable maintenance? Dropping them down from their slot or somehow extracting them from the front? Did you bury the side channels in the window surround or leave them proud?

Can I ask - does the recirc pump somehow not interfere with the mains pressure supply from the UVC?

Interesting take in NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/business/britain-wind-farms.html?unlocked_article_code=1.EVA.WLzl.GhDlPJD9mxzg At the bottom: Some analysts, though, say that the British system locks in high prices. “It is hard to escape the conclusion that when all the costs are factored in, the deals struck today will push bills up at a time they are already high,” wrote Sam Dumitriu, head of policy at Britain Remade, a research organization. I also learned that the thing being auctioned is the guaranteed min price. Not sure how long for or for what quantity of power.

BTW if you've bought electric Veluxes over the last few years, there's a free app control kit going: Get a Free VELUX App Control and Extended Guarantee

>>> old wooden lentils With gruel? People were a lot poorer in those days. Yeah it does look like it propagated from the window aperture and then died out doesn't it. You have steel lintels now? The fix looks a bit of a bodge. You could get someone up there on a ladder, clean it up and re-grout properly. Then see if it re-appears over the next few years.

>>> taking back control of its energy, and lowering bills for good Yeah, right. Until the big US tech firms double the load on the grid. Err, what is being auctioned here - the right to build off the coast?

Yeah, there won’t be much variation in price and they’ll probably be shipped direct from Velux (or to local merchants and then they’ll deliver locally). In our case a local merchant was equal price and delivery was free.

I'm having trouble facing up to the thought of vast quantities of access holes for blowing in insulation punched into the underside of my wonderfully (well maybe) airtight roof. Can anyone put my mind at rest?

I wonder whether they've relaxed that rule now? I've have had / have now direct comms between myself and the other side's solicitor. While there's a risk that you balls stuff up procedure-wise or law-wise, there are also advantages. Similarly, I always attempt and usually succeed in obtaining direct comms between myself and a property buyer or seller. Allows much more scope - e.g. you can put your heads together and figure which part of the client <-> solicitor <-> solicitor <-> client chain is holding up proceedings.

Following this up - anyone used the Velux 'smart' stuff - VIG 300 (for app control), VIX 300 (for smarter app control)? Does it work reliably?

>>> you can keep Koi in there. What a fantastic idea - maybe a fish tank in a niche in the wall? Or is that all a bit dentist’s surgery?

OK this is fairly easy, although please take care to give the key relevant info when asking a question, otherwise you're asking us to write very long mostly irrelevant if-then-else replies. The most obvious questions are what is your drainage situation / what soil-type do you have / where will this drain to?. So: Pay 'Freeflush' £100 for the SUDS calc. You need to supply the plan area of your roofs and non-permeable hard standing and your location. Hint: make your hard-standing permeable and draining (using say, MOT3) to vastly reduce that requirement. That gives you your tank volume. Figure out whether you (a) want to use crates, tank, pond, swale, lake or Versailles-like water feature and (b) where it eventually drains to - ditch, culvert, soakaway, drainage field. You will need a soakaway test for the last two. Draw a simple drawing showing the arrangement. Check the levels and drainage fall if you're not sure. Add a short narrative written in the language of a 5-year old for people who don't understand numbers or drawings. Example calc below and no, you can't use those numbers.

Buy a 2nd hand Armorgard box. (Yeah, I don’t know why the Americans can’t spell either.) Put your most valuable tools in that or in the house somewhere. All the rest of the xrap - nobody’s going to steal it, in fact you would have to pay someone to take it away - stick it under a tarp and then that’s an incentive to get your new shiny workshop up and running in less than a year.

Depends on the circumstances of course. Being given a bit of your parents land with pp. Go for it if you fancy. What could go wrong? Buying a brownfield plot for a bunch of cash with questionable access, drainage, utilities, newts, bats, rights of way, historic covenants, disputed boundaries etc? Don’t get any old conveyancer, get a land agent, commercial property specialist or someone (there are not many of them) with experience of buying that kind of land. This’ll cost more than minimum conveyancing fees too because of the amount of work required.

@Nickfromwales Re: clear CT1 I saw recently that the clear version is not intended for external use. Not sure why not - UV maybe or maybe a different formulation? See: