SimonD

I think it's almost impossible to picture how the space will be, even with 3d rendering. I would suggest that if you can (e.g you're having stud walls), you delay the decision until the space has actually been built then you can properly get a feel for it. However, something that jars with me looking at the drawing is the positioning of both the french doors and the accessible doorway - there's something very odd about the flow and balance of these together with the french doors. It makes me wonder who has designed the layout and their experience in design as it may affect the balance and function of the rooms as a whole. Just a thought..

I know, neither are google or Onedrive for me!

So, to break it down a little, I've totted up what a basic one man band tradesperson non vat registered might just spend on a monthly basis, with some assumptions. These are the kinds of costs involved which obviously aren't exhaustive - e.g. no tools/plant/equipment/premises costs as that can be a bit more complex - but representative. You'll see that the total below is just under 1.5 weeks work per month for the basics at £200 per day so essentially after these costs it's a mere 31k/pa, minus tax and NI and to cover any sick leave. The other important thing to consider is cash flow. For example, for February, my expenditure is 3x my revenue due to work on a large project where I supply all materials and which has only just been invoiced - there's a significant cost associated with this which is so often overlooked by newbie business people, especially if and when customers are slow to pay up - this is why so many young businesses fail in the 1st 18 months! In terms of estimating/quoting, I've recently spent several half to full days working things out because they're for large whole house heating system replacements that whether I like it or not require at least basic whole house heat loss calcs which I then caveat with a full calc included if they accept the quote. I'd say I spend at least 3-4 days per month just doing basic pricing work. And today, my afternoon was blown out because one customer wasn't there when I arrived for an appointment and then it took me 1.5hours just to get across town to pick up some bits for a job on Friday (To save time I mostly use a supplier that delivers directly to site either morning or afternoon provided I order before midnight or midday, but they didn't have the specific bits I needed) Some basic monthly costs: Accounting software 25 Customer Management app 25 professional insurance 35 professional registration 15 advertising 80 website 15 van 600 vehicle tax 12 fuel 300 accountant 50 equipment calibration 15 tyres 30 checkatrade 50 van insurance 40 bank transations costs 42 clothing 25 phone 35 IT 50 1444

I keep on getting similar stuff asking me to look my memories from 3,4,5,.... years ago. My recollection say different which is why I hate both google photos and MS Onedrive...

Consult the Blum catalogue and then choose the most ideal hinges for the look - e.g. overlay (the typical Ikea type), inset or dual overlay. The catalogue will also give you mounting options for achieving the overlay you're looking for - e.g where to drill the mounting plates from the edge of the door/carcass. Remember that if you have two doors opening back to back the Blum hinges typically have opening angles of 110 degrees so they'll fowl each other. Sometimes when working with this together with thicker carcasses/cupboard frames it can be better to use an overlay hinge - e.g. using a face frame cabinet design. Blum catalogue will also tell you how many hinges you need for your doors. Go to page 69: https://publications.blum.com/2022/catalogue/en/ TLDR; most of the standard hinges have 2-3mm adjustment but as @markc says, setup is important, especially the mounting plate spacing as this is what determines the overlay.

At those rates you're most likely to find a grumpy and bordering on broke tradesperson, depending on where you are in the country, of course. At that rate, take home pay after costs is going to be pretty lousy because to run a trade business successfully you can't just be on site to earn your money. The tax situation would depend on whether they're sole trader or Ltd company, and if they opted to be voluntarily registered for VAT. So many variables, it's difficult to provide a generalised figure. As @nod suggests the sensible ones do priced work as that can much better cover all the overheads without customers questioning the day rate (as many like to do).

This is my first attempt and I'm not a tradesman with plastering or similar products, just what I've learned through the self building experience. It's a tricky product to get to a high standard of finish, particularly a floor, so it depends on how much you're willing to practise and risk yourself. Many of the suppliers are selling with installation which is understandable as there's so much that can go wrong when you've got so many layers to complete to get it right. If it were for a large floor area, I would recommend getting someone in to do the work. At 240m2 it'll be both back and knee breaking!

It really depends on the pipe manufacturer. For example, Pipelife ( a huge manufacturer of plastic pipe) technical department say that any fittings and inserts can be used with their pipe as long as they carry the correct British Standard BS7291. Technically, all plastic pipe needs to comply with BS7291 as that gives the pipe dimensions which also ensures they're consistent with the copper pipe standards and dimensions - BS EN1057. Of course manufacturer's are going to say you've got to stick with their fittings and pipe for compatibility, probably with warranty exclusions, but the truth of it is a bit more flexible given the standards.

I have a couple of silverline's surveyor's tapes and I swear they stretch when pulling the tape straight.

F75 typically relates to the water pressure sensor but can sometimes also be caused by a faulty pump. To get rid of the error, you usually have to re-pressurise above the normal 1-1.5bar to get it working again. It's common to see people having to re-pressurise so much it ends up out the prv when the system gets hot. It won't blow up. However, if your boiler is just 14months old, it's not your plumber you need to call but Glow-worm as they'll sort it under warranty - your plumber shouldn't really touch it.

Here's a quite amusing take on the whole energy market thing and why that so called seperation of businesses between enrgy producer and supplier is essentially a false one:

One thing I'm going to raise here that never seems to get much of a mention is flow regulation. Many showers come with flow rates of up to 16l/min as standard but the flow can can easily be reduced down to as little as 6l/min without affecting the performance of the shower. This way you can provide satisfactory flow, often to multiple outlets without necessarily using accumulators or over-sizing the hot water storage. Definitely something helpful when dealing with comi boiler installations, but also very useful where there is water storage without the space or budget for accumulators etc. It also saves a lot of water consumption 😉 There's actually nothing in the water regulations to support this. The water regs basically state that fittings must be able to cope with 1.5times the maximum operation pressure. Although some fittings are only suitable for lower pressures and unvented cylinder installations typically demand max 3bar, other British and European standard fittings are designed to 10bar and tested to 15bar.

My biggest regret is not completely demolishing the bungalow we started off with, particularly when we realised the architect's designs could not be done without almost completely demolishing the thing anyway, even though the agreement was to just to remove the roof, lift and put a 1st floor on! I had that moment walking around the pile thinking sensibly and got disuaded.... it still irks me to this day. The second one is that instead of simply doing ground floor insulated suspended timber floors I should have filled the whole lot with eps beads and been done with it. I could go on....

Definitely DIYable but your main challenge is going to be forming the new tray/s, and flashings. Unless you have some spare preformed? The damaged tray may not be a standard width which could make it more niggly. To take the existing off, you'll need one of these: https://www.roofing-tools.com/stubai-seam-opening-tool-c2x9251590 I'd also recommend you give Metal Solutions in Glasgow a ring to see if they do tool set hire. They'll also be able to advise you. The rough and ready fix would be to use a hammer and flat cobble under the crinkled tray - you'd be left with some creases but it's doable. The rest could be rectified fairly well also with hammer and cobble together with hand seaming tools.

Can you share photos?

If you point him to Section 3, page 24 & 25 for diagrams and dimensions of Building Regulations Approved Document G, that should at least cover some of it - the plumber should know this as he should have an Unvented ticket, and so should the boiler installer re PRV if he's gas safe registered (if they're different people) - you could ask to see the tickets thet hold. Download it here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/504207/BR_PDF_AD_G_2015_with_2016_amendments.pdf

Yes, I think it is CSST rather than mdpe, but worth double checking if it's used as a continuous run from boiler to gas meter or if mdpe is visible somewhere along the run because the yellow coils in the other extension look more like MDPE. As mentioned, the PRV arangement is questionable and the tundish looks undersized for potentially 2 discharges, but not as bad as a recent job where the builders were about to plasterboard over the existing open end prv discharge in the new extension. The owner was surprised when I mentioned it, saying nobody had said anything about it, not even the gas safe engineer who capped off the boiler during the works...

Ever the diplomat! 😁 Looks bloody awful if you ask me...

I'll take the blessings when I get them 😇 And I'll have to take that as a compliment of my self-building skills 😊 For modulating multi-zone control, especially mixed ufh & rads, what products do you usually opt for instead? EPH? (whom I notice now do a PDHW pack but I've not used the controls).

I don't think that's too bad given recent inflation. I installed my standing seam roof myself, but before I did we got an installation quote of £8k plus the roof materials that I'd already bought at about £8k (inc Lindab rainwater goods), so that worked out to about £126m2 just as Covid hit. Our highest quote was just under £34k. Our roof has two different curves mind you but no penetrations.

Perhaps there is but that isn't the point. The point, and long running complaint, is the poor and inaccurate communication and technical advice from the company about modulation where they simply removed this function in the UK without telling anyone and have since then reintroduced it with poor communication in a rather haphazard way. If they made it all clear to begin with, this discussion would not have arisen. There are many boilers on the market, heat only too, that do provide this. Needless to say, with proper opentherm communication, you can achieve significant savings through modulation even with a flow temperature set at 70C on the boiler to facilitate the heating of your hot water. The moral of the story is to choose a boiler than can run at 2 distinct temperatures and then select compatible controls, many of which may actually be the boiler manufacturer's own controls, or if you're inclined like @Radian, hack the system yourself 😁 (PS I'd recommended my customer use the Vaillant controls but he insisted on Tado) Yes, and when I last looked at using a Drayton Wiser system it was very clear in the technical specifications that hot water support wasn't there. To re-iterate, I telephoned the Tado installer technical helpline to configure the system, which then didn't work at all. That's a very different case.

Which do you mean by it? The Evohome? Simply that you have a lot of configuration choice, Opentherm, it's compatible with traditional fossil fuel heating as well as heat pumps, it supports priority hot water etc. It's also very easy to use through the main controller - access to configuring each zone schedule for heating and hot water is a doddle, so is any over-ride. If connected to the internet, you also get a mixture of both weather compensation based on downloaded weather data (not quite as accurate as weather comp component) and load compensation.

Yup, so I wrote to Tado when having a moment. I wrote: Granted I received a very quick response, but: What I find particularly underwhelming is the claim that because s-plan operates using zone valves and relays it is not capable of modulation - a claim that is of course nonsense. Not even worth continuing the conversation with them, unfortunately.

This is the one I think is referenced about the rebound effect: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2269315-climate-targets-at-risk-as-green-tech-triggers-higher-energy-demands/ Yes, I have this discussion on a fairly regular basis with some profs and researchers I know working in this area - it becomes a closed club, a little like The Conversation website that closes down the discussion to academics only, even some academics that write about topics where they have zero implementation or real world knowledge and just a research background, always risky when dealing with complex real world problems.

Yes, absolutely. It's sadly so common to see this. I've done work at two extensions in the last couple of weeks where there are clear gaps in the insulation. It must be ignorance on the part of the trades, mustn't it?