Alan Ambrose

Ah, strikes me the HMRC rules are over-complicated. Also, if this is meant to put us on a level footing with small builders (who can presumably claim back all their VAT) ... it doesn't. I'm guessing our VAT reclaim/zero-rate is actually applicable to ~50% of our actual costs. Also, is the obvious 'mitigation' to get, say, a groundworks company to incorporate muckaway and labour in the same same job, which will then mean the muckaway is zero-rated?

See: Why are Solar PV Panels Getting Bigger? • Solar Energy UK It seems this is not helpful for later panel replacement, so I'm now assuming something like a 20-year complete rebuild of fixings + panels.

Ah, I found out why my joist manufacturers didn't call me back following my email enquiry with some teaser drawings. I broke down and called them both today. It's evident they regard the sale/purchase process as a power battle - I need to prove that I'm worthy of their product. If I can jump over their hoops and satisfy their requirements, they may deign to deal with me. I've never dealt with a Ferrari dealer (one day maybe) but I've heard they take much the same approach. Mutter mutter mutter, 12-week process, duty-of-care, British Standards, mutter mutter mutter. They both spent most of the call telling me what their requirements were, about the limitations of their software, how they need to avoid being sued etc. Why did I want roof joist that deep, that's very unusual (Passive house standards maybe)? The Easi-Joist guys said their software doesn't figure out the roof lights in their deep joists. They both ignored my stated needs and wishes. A good job we don't have all that BS when ordering standard timber.

Congrats

Looks like someone has had a look at this and not found the problem yet. Maybe check out other odd possibilities that have not been fully checked out. Is any silicone seal 100%? Possible that it’s a leak behind the mixer tap? I’ve seen both of those cause a hard to find leak.

Unfortunately, I doubt it. The thing that I find odd is that the tiling looks quite neat which suggests a careful job. If you’ve regrouted, the grout should be fine, so might it be a plumbing problem? Worth checking that the pipework joints are tight. I think unless you can see where the leak is, it might be quickest to rebuild the whole set-up from scratch. Try an endoscope camera maybe? Post up a pic from underneath?

Btw those wifi devices are partly cute but note that Mike of mikeselectricstuff thinks they’re quite dodgy:

I have an old site office container and it’s fine. Not sure how it’s insulated, but so far (we have not used it for a winter yet) it’s good.

Might be easy to cut a neat 1 foot square hole in the plasterboard in the ceiling below to get an idea what’s going on.

Fantastic, and good timing 😃

Reckon, 1.5mm will take >4kW, box is probably <100W.

@Nickfromwales - yeah one was the local Pasquill office.

I just got my Octopus bill, which reminded me of the weirdiama billing they've been doing over the summer. I wonder whether Octopus was hacked - no company fails to bill for nearly 4 months unless they have major systems problems.

Yeah, I contracted two posi-joist manufacturers on Monday, attached a few drawings, and asked them to contact me. I'm expecting to spend well into 5 figures on joists. Think they can be bothered? Well not yet certainly. I also have a couple of suppliers that I expect to spend over £100K with. Think they can be bothered to act like suppliers that give a .... monkeys?

This has been discussed on 't 'ub numerous times before - feel free to search.

OK I thought I would report back for anyone else looking at this subject in future. There don't seem to be an great timber-specialist suppliers in our area BTW. DIY Building Supplies, Materials Market & Sheet Materials Supply Wholesale will ship both small and large quantities and put up bulk quantity prices on their website - at least for some variants. Their prices are look cheapish and the product is almost certainly Chinese. Proper external grade i.e. 'waterproof' is BS 1088 Class 3. I also found these other professional suppliers - they actually have datasheets / certificate for their ply which gives the structural strength, country of original, wood species etc: Meyer / Robbins / International. There are probably a few others. They don't have prices on their websites and most likely supply wholesale only. But they have great info - apparently the best plywood is Gaboon or Sapele species from Africa and Meranti or Eucalyptus species from Indonesia or Malaysia. The glue for all class 3 products seems to be formaldehyde.

I've also seen some kind of surface treatment to the inside roof - ah yeah, one is called Grafo-Therm. Don't know how well it works. Also Absorpoles. Think I would keep clothes in one of those airtight sacks you suck the air out of.

>>> What ply are you after? Good point, a lot of 15mm and some 25mm exterior grade or, if I can afford it, marine - for the outside of a load of wall & roof cassettes. Yes, they'll have some rainscreen, but I would like them to last as long as possible. Will buy it by the pallet if the first sheets check out. Surface finish not that important, weather resistance is. I've been looking at sheetmaterialwholesale, materialsmarket & buildersmerchant but yet to be inspired - probably a dumb approach.

Your tunnel should be good - OR have their own ‘BT duct’ that they want you to use (50 & 90mm from memory) but it should go through your 110mm fine.

That's it really...say in 50-sheet lots.

As it says - I don't have PV shown on my planning drawings. Now it seems to be a convention that drainpipes, TV aerials, SVPs etc are not shown on planning drawings but nevertheless still built - does that apply to PV?

Easy enough to just dig down besides the foundation in a few places to see how deep it is and how it’s made. Probably a couple of hours work for someone who likes digging. My big question with those is how long will they last?

Re SSRs - suggest din mounted and a brand name - meanwell, xpower etc (the kind of thing you could purchase from RS) - the off-brand ones tend to be a bit dodgy.

Your stamina will improve over time. But a bit of self management mixing hard labour, light work, driving machines, paperwork etc will help together with some proper rest. Also, employ other people with muscles to manage your own labour. The bonus is that you will get a lot fitter.

You should get a lot more sense from Octopus. From memory, calls work better than emails. Try not to deal with their Indian call centre which I found very unhelpful. Mind you, 2 x £140 plus 1 x £180 is very cheap on any DNO scale.