LnP

There is a gap between the two pieces which are to be welded together. Throat thickness and leg length don't mean much if the welder is trying to fill the gap with weld. The two pieces have been bolted up incorrectly.

It's worth thinking about whether you're happy to drink softened water. I'm not an expert and can't give advice but in principle, water softeners work by exchanging calcium and magnesium ions for sodium ones. So e.g. calcium carbonate is converted to sodium carbonate. Calcium carbonate precipitates out when you heat it, i.e. hardness, but sodium carbonate is completely soluble, so stays in solution. The harder the water, the more Ca and Mg ions need to be exchanged and the more sodium ones will be in the water. With a water softener you'll be consuming more sodium ions and the harder the water is, the more sodium ions you'll be consuming. I found this from Kinetico.

I think I’ve found the answer to my own question. Some cameras have a time lapse function and some don’t. Most GoPro and Reolink cameras have it but not all. My Eufy one doesn’t.

Is it straightforward to get a time lapse video from these cameras? I have a Eufy set-up comprising a doorbell, external and internal cameras with events stored on a Eufy Home Base and I could use this kit during my build. I can view events and real time video on my phone and manually screenshot to my phone photo album, but I don't think there is a built-in time lapse possibility.

“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”.

Really enjoying your blog. You're clearly doing a great job of the project management. I hesitate to ask, as you already have enough on your plate, but I'd be very interested if at some point when you have a minute to spare (🤣) if you shared some of your knowledge on how to do that well, what tools you use etc.

I was building a flat roof very similar to yours with a parapet around the edge. The DPC was in place and copings had been installed but not yet pointed when we had a couple of days of very heavy rain. I had water dripping through light fittings in the room below. Water was getting past the copings because they hadn't been pointed yet and the DPC had not been installed properly. The builder had to take off the copings and a couple of courses of bricks to install the cavity tray with weep holes and sort out the DPC. It's belt, braces and a piece of string. It's quite likely the pointing will eventually fail so if you don't have the cavity tray, all you've got is the DPC. A cavity tray with weep holes is very cheap and easy to install during the build, not so easy to retrofit.

Should there be a cavity tray below the coping in the parapet?

I've read that rather than fixing micro inverters or optimisers to the PV panel battens, it's better to bring them into the roof space so they are accessible for maintenance. This is because if (when?) they fail, you can access them more easily. If they're on the outside of the roof, you'll have to use a scaffold to get up there and lift panels to get to them. This is straightforward if you have internal roof space behind the panels, but what do you do if the panels are over a vaulted ceiling?

Further information, it looks like they're making an orderly exit. If anyone had an order then they had to have it delivered by the 31st October, if not then a deposit would have been returned. But yes, sad for people who've lost their job.

It's been mentioned on here before, but now confirmed. I got an email today from a Potton sales manager telling me they have ceased trading. Kingspan is pulling out of Potton and as of the 4/8/25 is no longer trading. There is potential for someone or a company to come in and buy it and build it back up, but there are no time lines to this. I think I'm right in saying they sold more self build timber frames than any other company and were the cheapest of the ones I looked at. My thoughts: Relieved I don't have an ongoing project with them. If things had gone faster with our planning application, it is quite possible that we might have. But I wonder what this means for people who do have an ongoing project, paid a deposit etc. They haven't gone into liquidation as far as I know, so perhaps they will stand by existing commitments. It is a reminder of the financial risk with timber frame, with substantial payments required before the frame is delivered. Does it tell us anything new about the need for financial due diligence of timber frame companies or how to do it to avoid getting caught? With Potton's capacity removed from the market, will there be ripples out to other suppliers in terms of price and delivery times?

3 days for a joiner and a labourer, round here would be about £800 or £900.

Good advice. It's like any project I suppose.

Potton no longer making kits for self-buiders? Where did you hear that? It's not my experience. I'm currently evaluating quotes and they are still engaging with me.

Can anybody recommend a good way to calculate cooling load? There are a few tools on t'internet, but it seems to be more complicated than heat loss.

You've landed on two of the least trustworthy commentators on matters related to climate change. I wouldn't trust The Daily Telegraph journalism on climate change, net zero or heat pumps ... or much else to be honest. They have a well documented anti green track record. See this criticism for example from Desmog. And the Global Warming Policy Foundation are no better. Just look at who their trustees are - founded by the late Nigel Lawson, Tony Abbott, John Redwood ... all renowned climate sceptics. They share real estate at Tufton Street with other right of centre lobby groups. You're better off with the real world and honest advice you get here on Buildhub, for example @JohnMo 's well argued post above 🙂.

I'm not sure if this helps, but we bought kitchen cabinets from these people, TKC which is TK Components Ltd. It worked out well for us but might not work for everybody - they were supply only and would not sell direct to us as the client. We had a loose arrangement with a builder, who had an account with them, and had a joiner who installed the kitchen for us on day rates. TKC invoiced the builder (50% discount), we reimbursed this to him and paid the joiner to do the installation. TKC's design service was pretty basic but fine for what we wanted on that job. There were a couple of mistakes and we were happy we had an excellent joiner who could sort things out. The cabinets are fine for what we wanted. Very happy with the end result and the price. We bought the quartz top elsewhere. P.S. Well done mod @jack for sleuthing the conflict of interest with TKC Kitchens.

I bought glass as well as hardware from F.H. Brundle for a balustrade. Their glass was a good price.

I'm a bit concerned that external Venetian blinds will get dirty and dusty and be difficult to clean. Any issues with this? I looked at these external screens at the NSBRC and they look quite interesting https://www.solar-shield.co.uk/microlouvre-screens. You can see through them but they claim to screen out enough to control solar gain.

Hmmm. Food for thought. I plan to self manage and have as little hands on the tools myself as possible. I'm fairly well plugged into a network of good local trades who've worked for me before (not a full self build though) and have told me they will be happy if they're invited back. I have a friend who's a builder and is happy to advise and get me out of trouble. Tricky when you don't know what you don't know though. I've had quotes from four timber frame companies and asked them all the same open question, what will be left for me to do when you leave the site? And I've tried to estimate the value of the different scopes to compare the quotes on a similar basis. I suppose this is what the contingency is for? I'm in Cheshire. I'd appreciate any advice you can share. I'll drop you a DM.

They quoted for 0.15 U value external wall ULTIMA 90/50 (TW55/TW55) system, factory fit insulation between the studs, a VCL, a secondary insulation layer across the studs, and a service void batten. They also offer an upgrade to 0.12 U value external wall - ULTIMA 140/50 (TW55/TW55), which we would take if we go with Potton. The leak tightness they "target" is the same regardless. I agree, 5 is not sufficient. They said we could make the target 3, but I'd have to check my notes whether they proposed a charge for that.

I have a quote from Potton (but we're still wrestling with planning🫤) which says "You have not advised your requirement so we will be targeting 5. We will achieve this air tightness through the external walls. Air tightness of the overall structure is a combined responsibility between the principal contractor and all trades". Actually I have advised I want better than this and they are prepared to "target" 3. Did you have any expectations about what airtightness you'd get from them?

Catch up! He was talking about condenser dryers 😀. ... about which I didn't know much until this voyage of discovery.

Well, I think I know that you didn't read my post. I was talking about condenser dryers. The ~ 2.5 kW heat from a condenser dryer all ends up in the room .... well tbh all the heat from your heat pump dryer's compressor motor ends up in your room as well, however much that is 😉.

Indeed, I understood the heat exchanger bit, but I was confused about what air went where! The room air just blows over the condenser and then goes straight back out into the room. If your tumble dryer has a 2.5 kW heater, all the 2.5 kW ends up in your house which is maybe a good thing in winter. If you can move that heat into the rest of the house, you'll save on heating bills and if it reduces the temperature of your utility room, the condenser will work better and you'll dry your clothes faster. The guy in the linked YouTube video isn't a fan of HP dryers and agrees with what @Nickfromwales says about drying times ... link. Sorry if this hijacked the thread. I know a lot more about tumble dryers now 😀.