MikeGrahamT21

No problems at all 👍🏻

Maybe these? https://www.huwsgray.co.uk/concrete-paving-slabs/monapave-smooth-slab-450-x-450-x-50mm-ms008-terracotta-red-100010772-5005907?srsltid=AfmBOoqIzwtJauqECJxTc_E9c5I5NcWbnXO0DDqrGpIkpZYL6xKZTleU https://www.monaprecast.co.uk/products/monapave-slab/ MKM stock them too

Not sure I could live without my home cinema. Had one in one form or another from day I moved out of parents, started with a Samsung DVD (forget if it had blu ray) with surround sound built in, and then moved onto a Denon 5.1 AVR with Boston Acoustics Soundware XS speakers. During lockdown I decided to upgrade the AVR to a Marantz NR1710 and got two in ceiling Yamaha speakers to make full use of atmos and dts:x, also changed my centre speaker from the Boston to a Tannoy which was much more capable for the centre channel. Physical media will always trump streaming when it comes to sound quality, the amount of data required for really good atmos/dts:x is mind boggling, and it certainly makes a difference, that said I find the streaming services really good, especially Disney+, but even the normal DD5.1 content gets a virtualised height channel via the AVR and it’s surprisingly good, not a million miles behind the real deal. So yeah it’s money well spent, and the sky is the limit with amount, but you really don’t have to spend crazy amounts to get a good system. If you can go with larger form speakers then you’ll likely get good value in terms of sound quality vs price, compared with small speakers which really do cost a lot to make them decent. I prefer mine to blend in and be compact as the living room isn’t huge, and the Boston speakers although really old now, cost me like £250 and have been a delight, of course I will look to upgrading them at some point in the future. I also tried two subwoofers given my AVR had a second port, but in my case it was too much for the smaller room. Ended up with a 5.1.2 setup. It’s my telly that’s the dinosaur in my setup, 17 year old Samsung 40” LCD, I’ve repaired it twice and it’s still going strong. A comparison with a relatively cheap 4K LG LED TV, gives a pretty decent fight, and that’s 4K content but running at 1080P on mine. I had an area of broken pixels on it a while back, which it repaired all by itself, and for that it earned the right to stay!

Yeah still same shade of black so that’s a win, thanks @nod!

Thats one very posh plant room!

Worked OK, hard to get an even colour but once again looks better than it did, I guess time will tell if it stays that way, will report back again later next week

Ok, have got one of those, will give it a go on a bit which isn’t too obvious and see what happens, will report back thanks!

My main fascia boards and soffits are white, but I have a continuous dry verge strip which is black plastic, and over the years it’s started turning grey. got up the ladder last week gave it a good wash down and attacked it with some plastic polish designed for cars (meguiars), and it came up great, back to black again and shiny, so thought brilliant I know what to do on the others now… a week has passed and already its going back grey again!! anyone know of a better way of getting these back black without paint? And then staying black at least for a year or two before needing doing again thanks for any ideas!

A piece of technology supported for 20 years?? For a starter it’s far too cheap at the point of sale, even with any subscription. it’s highly unlikely to last 20 years physically. It’s inefficient to support older products, think about still supporting windows xp and windows 11. I think you really need to set your expectations a little more realistic when buying into any technology

The replacements I’ve had from modernupvcwindows.co.uk seem to have been OK so far, though the larger panes did have to be remade a couple of times due to fingerprints on the inner pane. have just had another one start steaming up, but won’t be replacing til a couple more go to make it make sense delivery charge wise. Around 9 years old that one. I wonder if triple glazing is more prone to the units blowing?

Every 6m from memory, and yeah could be a cause, I’ve seen walls without expansion gaps literally rip themselves apart

yeah the lofts are definitely a challenging for pipework, you can only do what you can. If you are able to box in using PIR that would all help. how near are the pipes to your ceiling to work as a heat source? I’ve got 100mm Phenolic between the joists before the pipes so don’t get much heat input, although it’s scary how much gets through the timbers

I managed to reduce some of the pipe length in some cases, some of my routes weren't optimal it turns out, the 125mm pipe from the plenum to the ceiling was also too long in some cases, meaning that the plenum sat raised in the loft space, causing the insulation to sit poorly. I went up with the thermal camera on a cold day and found some areas where the insulation wasn't well placed around the pipes too, ended up buying some more and topping up around those areas, was definitely an improvement but i didn't get any figures

It’s the same one, they rebranded to unilin. care to elaborate on why you didn’t like it? By far the best system I’ve come across and used

I totally agree with most of the PIR products, but still think this one is head above the rest with its engineered parts that prevent a lot of the issues mentioned: https://unilininsulation.co.uk/products/cavitytherm/ct-pir-cavitytherm/ This is also the only system with purpose made components for different areas of the build, not relying on someone cutting them by hand and cocking it up

Full fill: https://www.kingspan.com/content/dam/kingspan/kil/products/kooltherm-k107-gb-and-ireland/kingspan-kooltherm-k107-brochure-en-gb-ie.pdf

Did you ever get in touch with cavity removal experts like i mentioned earlier in the thread? Some certainly noted that they removed foam cavity, though not PIR specifically, it may well be do-able. I think your options realistically are going to be removal and reinstatement if possible, or take down the outer skin, sort the issue and rebuild.

Good effort that is 🙂 During the warmer months of the year, my non-enthalpy is bone dry.

Or another equivalent of compacfoam, one I used recently called Brigifoam. https://www.affixit.co.uk/brigi-foam.html made by a company called iso-chemie who only sell to the trade, and these are a middle man who then sell it rebranded to the public, very good stuff and ideal for what you are wanting, and very cost effective compared to compacfoam.

I doubt you will have any PD rights in a conservation area. Whats the reason behind wanting them in a field and not on roof? Presumably more capacity? Do you actually need that capacity?

If you can get CAT6a cable in lots of places, this will future proof your home, and for very little cost. Termination is fairly easy, most patch panels these days are colour coded, its just fiddly work thats all, especially the RJ45 connectors, but absolutely doable, and you'll get quicker each time. The greater question is how much bandwidth do you need for everything communicating at maximum, plus some additional bandwidth for breathing space? How quick is your internet connection going to be? These are real important questions, for myself i'm still running WiFi-5 AC1200 on a fully wireless Mesh (Tenda), but my internet connection is a maximum of 65/20, and it achieves full speed with a wireless connection of 866Mbps, so for me it would be totally overkill to bother with anything more than this, i wouldn't see the benefit. Also, and I know its contentious, but consider locating access points pumping out serious amounts of EMF somewhere other than bedrooms, just in case the people who say it can cause health issues are indeed correct, i can't think of a requirement which means you need it in there. Range of the APs is often much greater than expected too, this becomes an issue with interference if you overpopulate, and can have the opposite effect, making WiFi slower. Hi from a fellow South Yorkshire resident btw!

Thats not (or shouldn't be) sealant, its window putty, usually linseed based. Give it some heat with a heat gun, should soften it a little so you can scrape it out, or failing that, knock the glass out towards the putty, and you should then be able to get at it to get it all off. No problems replacing with something like perspex of a similar thickness, you'll need fresh linseed putty and a putty knife to install it too.

Think i'll stick with ubakus to be fair after looking at that site! Looks like it was designed in the early 2000's lol. https://www.ubakus.de/u-wert-rechner/? Its made by someone who studied Physics, not some random IT Support company. I'd advise using a more accurate tool.

https://www.thomasarmstrongconcreteblocks.co.uk/airtec-aerated-concrete-blocks/airtec-xl Aiming for 0.18W/m2K for an extension, so still a fail, but very close

Change your glass fibre on to 0.032 and the blockwork to 0.09, currently the best values available for these, not that i'd want to use any more AAC blocks, but they're an option nonetheless