Alan Ambrose

>>> Was told by last 2 BCO’s to “fill it full of water” Then you time it and take pics of your phone for stop / start times. We did today and everything was good:) I still wouldn’t mind a decent testing kit for UFH etc.

Ah, as Dunc says there are some calcs - by and large they ignore the roof materials and sometimes the location/rainfall characteristics. Don't know how I missed those...thanks guys. e.g.

Yeah, used that for some 110mm drainage, but strikes me it won't really detect v. slow weeps? Does leak detection dye have any use? Also kit, for say pressure testing UFH or Hep20 pipe?

I see that even the janky £200 Rotherburger pump doesn't get great reviews. And the Bailey bungs and manometer I wouldn't give to a 5-year old. What do peeps really use and recommend? My pressing need is for testing some solvent welded 50mm MuPVC. It won't have any real pressure in it, of course, so just for leaks.

Yeah, my experience has been unfortunate in that the two pre-apps I have been involved in gave results at odds with the later planning application. You might be luckier, but some LPAs treat it as non-serious and non-binding work for the junior planners. +1 for getting a quick heads-up from a consultant.

We did above and below - XPS is much better than EPS but still absorbs water a bit and thus loses it’s value as thermal insulation.

@MortarThePoint - can I ask (as I'll hit this subject soon) what you plan to soften and what you don't?

Neighbours are often confused about when the planning process starts and stops. I know mine are - they're still bitching about everything even though permission was granted 18 months ago. As long as you build to the approved plans, the discussion is over when the permission is granted.

BC won't care a bit about them and no need to tape the ends. At some point you'll want to terminate them and plug them into a big hub/switch. But until then, yeah maybe some fire stopping implications for the penetrations(s).

OK reporting back: after trying out lots of options, we cut the angle with a Proxxon Thermocut 650 and a home made jig. It lacks a bit of oomph and was fairly slow, but the flipside was that it didn't burn or smell much. We made the straight-through cuts with a big-assed circ saw - not crazily messy. You can get bigger hotwire cutters than the Proxxon and specifically for insulation, but we wanted to specifically cut 200mm deep. p.s. the wire is very thin and breaks quite easily. Although it comes with 30m of wire on a little spool, you might want some extra.

Yeah, OK I've learnt that while some windows suppliers are keen to claim they 'offer the open/close contact option' - when you ask them 'great, so where should I place my cable ducts then' they go all 'errr, nobody here knows, I'll have to check with the supplier'. So, my advice is to start this conversation v early.

I find this guy a bit dull, but e.g. (below) - he talks a bit about the export & inverter limits and how this varies with DNO and system etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvpl9pvg8zk >>> Where have you heard DNOs are interested in panel capacity?? Good point - I was extrapolating this from typical mppt clipping limits and no of mppts per inverter. e.g. Sig single phase hybrid has 2 mppts and max voltage & current limits giving roughly 46% PV panel over-capacity / clipping limit (depending on size of inverter). So, a limit on inverter size seems to result in an effective limit on the number of panels. A subsidiary question - what significance does the installer nomination have on the DMO application? i.e. can you use one installer to do the DNO application and another later to do the later installation. i.e. is the Spirit Energy offer a way of blocking in installs?

I’ve heard that some DNOs also want to restrict the size of your array / inverter output etc.

@nod >>> I use Venetian polished plasters Clayworks etc Without wanting to disrupt the thread, I would love to hear more about that finish. Do we need to search for a specialist who knows the material? Are there useful differences between the various options? Would you be willing to start another thread to give us all a basic primer?

I’m tempted to use Spirit Energy’s £150 DNO application. We are going ‘max-PV’ to try and get self-sufficient power into the shoulder seasons. Is there a sense that you need to tread lightly with the DNO and finesse your application to get closest to what you want - or just go for it and see what they say? Our DNO is UKPN, we have single phase supply, and we want oodles of panels to support shoulder seasons use. House is PH-like but not particularly low energy because of the geometry.

Maybe it’s worth re-visiting potential guardrail designs? You have one round the rest of the terrace, would one using the same aesthetics not blend in well? Maybe an hour or two of SE time to ensure the fixings work and satisfy BC? You might need that anyway for the rest of the rail.

In a word, ‘no’.. does the fence not do the same job, anyway?

Yeah, we’re just starting the basement part of our build. This is ‘not easy’ (basements are quite unusual in the UK remember) unless you’re very comfortable with risk and/or have deep pockets. Most UK suppliers won’t want to guarantee water-tightness, the odd European supplier might, but my experience is that they are v difficult to deal with. As others have said, without some kind of sketch - to give an idea of size & shape & ground levels, we’re fairly much in the dark, so can’t say much.

@FarmerN - very useful thanks - there's a Huws Gray that says it has a 'brick centre' 20 mins away. Lovely.

This is from a local church and is the look I want for the brick plinth around our black Suffolk-barn look-alike. Some of these will be under nominal ground level. Any leads on how I might find bricks with similar mixed colours? Any specific recommendations?

Just a warning - some window & door suppliers show windows on quotes & drawings as viewed from inside (e.g. 21 degrees), some from outside (e.g. Rationel). This makes a difference re handle / lock positions etc and other asymmetrical detail. Also, some UK suppliers show the handle position at the point of the triangle e.g. 21 Degrees, some e.g. Rationel show the point at the hinge side. Often this is fairly obvious, but sometimes not. Just to add a bit of spice ... if the suppliers source extra detail drawings from their European suppliers, they may well be the other way round.

OK many thanks for those thoughts. I see the Hotun tundish guys re pipework say: "Polypropylene (PP), Modified Plasticized Polyvinyl Chloride (MuPVC) or High-Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE) are all acceptable materials." So, I'm leaning towards one of those, probably in 40 or 50mm as the tank I'm looking at has 1" BSP connections (i.e. ~31mm ID) and a long run so suggests I need to go 2 sizes up. Also a waterless trap.

>>> you send the neighbours round to isolate the leaking component If I sent my neighbours round, they'd probably set fire to the place .

OK I need to run a drain out of my attic to handle MVHR and maybe AC condensate / unvented HW tank tundish / water softener drain. It needs to fall about 3m and run inside about 10m of wall through a bunch of posi-joists and around a 90 bend eventually joining a 110mm toilet waste. Would you run this in 28mm copper or welded 40/50mm PVC or, say, 28mm Hep20? If not all copper, would the first bit from the tundish need to be copper and for how far? What would you do?

Btw dc isolators are frowned upon these days unless the inverter doesn’t have its own dc isolation.