Dee J

Builders, self-builders and diy-ers often bring this upon themselves. Electricians and plumbers often find themselves brought into a fait accompli of structure and studwork where little or no consideration has been given to location of services, and with a limited time and budget for first fix. At least as an electrician I have some options on cable runs. Seen some awful drainage runs where the plumber has been boxed into a near impossible situation. A favourite challenge is the steel entirely filling a void right across the middle of a building with closely spaced timbers either side.

Metal back boxes securely fitted to dedicated noggins (or maybe the recently introduced adjustable metal noggin system) will be neater, more secure and easier to plaster/skim than plastic drywall types.... but need a bit more planning, skill and time to set up and board around. https://www.edwardes.co.uk/en/products/erico-187191-tsgb24-telecopic-screw-gun-stud-box-bracket?utm_medium=google_shopping&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=google_shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQjws5HlBRDIARIsAOomqA1s5_fSsykExl34rmc7ZovqTTDkVOFDzevTVqehQEZb166xnOhdLX4aAqgwEALw_wcB

1200 is max height for the lightswitches... if you want to put noggins at 1200 then switches in drywall back boxes can always go lower ?

"It's the 'C2s' anything wired in 2000 is almost guaranteed to have them". No, not at all. A C2 is a potentially dangerous situation. Just being to an earlier version of the regs is not a case for C2.

Many of the more decorative traps, like the chrome plated ones from screwfix, have a telescopic top tube giving a couple of inches of adjustment.

https://www.british-gypsum.com/white-book-system-selector/systems-overview/linings/gyplyner-iwl?tab0=0 maybe?

Vent axia solo plus. Been subject to loads of redesigns over the years. Still available. Can't remember how to get the cover off though.

These two quotes seem contradictory...

The service void is in the ceiling.... and the safe zones are where?

The situation I have is a floor-ceiling structure of closely spaced heavy joists (which would be a pain to drill), which for other reasons (complicated underfloor heating) has been counterbattened underneath. This gives a great runway for wiring, but every point it crosses a joist the wiring is held within 25 mm of the plasterboard. These crossing points are where I run foul of the regs above....

A quick google suggests 522.6.201 as requiring cables to be >50 mm above the ceiling or to be protected. (Physically, not just rcd). Haven't got my new blue book in front of me right now.

Yes. That's just it. Perforated is easily available, but doesn't provide appropriate protection for cables <50 mm from the plasterboard surface. Ie a plasterboard fitter could easily drive a screw through a hole in the tray and the cable without hitting the earthed steel first. Unperforated unistrut may well do the job, but it's just a bit on the narrow side.

For a property I'm working on right now, some unperforated steel cable tray would be very useful.. logistically it would be vey convenient if floor/ceiling cable runs could be <50mm from the plasterboard surface, and a unperforated steel tray would fulfil both the required of protecting the cables in close proximity to the surface and providing a fire-resistant cable support. Such stuff does exist... just can't find a convenient uk supplier yet. Can anyone recommend? Thanks Dee

Foul drain. At the moment the building only has electricity connected. Water and foul drainage would be very 'convenient'.

Related to our workshop and conversion possibilities. Our workshop land has a drain running through it (150mm at about 600mm depth with a chamber and an inspection point). It connects to the public sewer in the road. This drain serves two adjacent properties. Is this likely to be classified as a public drain that we can connect to? If so would that be by request to southwest water? Dee

Long runs of plastic pipe which experience wide temperature variations expand and contract alarmingly. So any hot water pipes which are straight at cold become alarmingly snake-like when hot. With or without clips it's still going to move.

It's how storage heaters (don't) work. 'Storing' heat with the small amount of insulation fitted in these devices is always a flaky concept. Even when definitely working correctly and set up by someone that understands them they're still crap. And won't be warm enough in the afternoon/evening. Scrap them. Have an electrician swap the heater circuits to a normal always-on supply and fit panel convector heaters with integral thermostat and timer (about £120 each) in place. Do not get caught by the snake oil of 'special' 'high efficiency' modern storage heaters at £800 each. And cancel the E7 contract and revert to ordinary tariff. HTH Dee

I see where you're coming from, but from what I understand the objections were based on the factors of 'change of appearance' 'disruption of the demolition and building' and factors relating to placing two properties on the site. Hopefully a more subtle and less intrusive development may be better received... thought I do wonder what we could do to lock the existing planning in place if we need to cut and run. Perhaps something to count as 'starting' to the current plans (short of demolition). Does getting services on site count as starting? Dee

So we own a workshop.... a two storey building of considerable age. It's street frontage has garage doors downstairs and a window above and a side passage to a small courtyard and an additional small outbuilding. Walls are a mix of stone and brick, some forming a party wall to an adjoining garage. Roof is corrugated cement fibre sheet. There is consent (gained on appeal) to demolish and replace, but for the moment we are contemplating converting the first floor to residential whilst retaining the garage/workshop downstairs. So questions that spring to mind. Insulating of floor and roof, fire rating of floor, replacing roof light glazing as well as the normal services, glazing, kitchen, bathroom etc. A chat with building control is on the horizon, but any advice is welcome. Btw, yes I have made a couple of posts about this project before, but it's moving up the likely list now. Thanks.

Pondering the feasibility of a cost-conscious conversion of a workshop building to residential, and one of the key points would be if we could retain the existing roofing. So its a fairly conventional pitched roof with timber A-frames and purlins covered in cement fibre corrugated sheets. It was re-sheeted recently enough for it not to be asbestos. Currently its insulated in about 75mm of kingspan and clad in 9mm ply.... ok for a workshop, but insufficient for residential. Also we'd need to integrate some proper insulated skylights to replace some sections of transparent sheeting. Any advice? Thanks.

Bit of a late response but ... I've bought windows and guttering in France. But the former were ordered face to face on one trip and collected on a subsequent trip. The guttering was just diy store stuff, but I did do a stock check online.

Sounds like a whole heap of trouble.... Trying to patch up a subsiding and old, previously underpinned building to convert. Unless there's some great historic or architectural value then far better to demolish and build new... with appropriate foundations and decent insulation... budget accordingly.

Thanks Ferdinand. Really appreciate the input. The key selling challenges for our house are the proximity of the main road and the narrowness of the entrance. We can't fix 1. But will do our best to improve 2. Just looking at the whole package and anything else which might help. Of course a stable government and healthy economy would help too, but the horse May have bolted on that.

So our old 4-bed Devon longhouse we have no 'automated' heating system. What we do have is a thermal store, solar thermal, multifuel rayburn, immersion heater and solar pv. There's partial underfloor heating and a few rads running off the store and rayburn (and a few electric panel heaters)... although the rayburn firebox is too small to run it all on wood (and we're not keen on coal etc). This lack of an automated system may be a disadvantage as we try to sell. Not keen to replace the rayburn with oil version.... so, options... electric boiler, external oil boiler, air source heat pump.... any recommendations or advice? Thanks.

Hmmm. On our potential plot there was 3 foot of land between the plot and the road that 'nobody' owned. . Even though it was a historic gateway into the garden plot. We could get indemnity for access over the strip, but not for services under the strip. That's what made us pull out. The plot still hasn't sold.