hendriQ

Thanks all. So a couple of things: The stove is designed for an MVHR house. It has a direct air feed pipe that brings in fresh air from outside. It does not take air from the room. The MVHR had already been commissioned at the time the stove was commissioned. The MVHR was set up to have a slightly positive pressure in the room where the stove is, as a bell and braces approach. I’m therefore quite confident this issue has nothing to do with the MVHR. By blazing hot, I didn’t mean that hot. All I had in there was kindling, made mainly of very dry hardwood, and two small solid fuel firefighters. All the kindling was alight, the firefighters had combusted and I was about to start loading the stove with logs. @Radian’s suggestion is a possibility. Although not technically a new build, it might have well as been. Apart from the walls, everything else is new. The stove is sitting on a steel tabletop which is supported by a reinforced concrete cast plinth, and that is sitting on a screed floor, which is sitting on a new insulated slab. It is right up against the party wall, which must be almost 90 years old. I need to go back and check my notes, but I think the screed was poured in early October last year. And the concrete plinth was cast in February this year. Then both the screed and the plinth were covered in microcement in late March. The stove, which weighs 90kg, was placed on top of the plinth in mid April to rest for a bit. That "bit" ended up being some 6 weeks because there was a delay in sourcing a connector. It was finally installed and commissioned in June. Some settlement is theoretically possible. Against that however is the fact that nowhere in the entire ground floor (which is the floor the stove has been installed in) is there ANY sign of movement. There are no cracks in the microcement, for example. No cracks in the ceiling plaster work either. No cracks in the clay tiles installed on the party wall behind the stove.

We had a new air sealed stove installed about 6 months ago. We used it the day it was installed to check it worked (and also because the installer told us we needed to run it for a few hours for the powder coated paint to finish curing). Appeared to work well. Have not used it since… until tonight. 30 minutes after lighting it, our fire alarms start going off and I see that smoke is pouring out the join between the stove and the first bit of pipe. The stove was blazing with a roaring fire, so there wasn’t much I could do to stop the smoke other than block off the air feed and open all the windows and put the MVHR on max. The heat of the smoke also caused the powder coated finish of the pipe to blister near the join which caused a rather horrible smell throughout the house. I have a video of the smoke egress and will use it to complain to the HETAS installer. But I’m now really concerned that there could be other pipe joints that are defective. The flue goes up into my son’s room, through his wardrobe then up into the chimney stack which starts in the floor above. There is a smoke alarm in every single room of the house, and now I will also triple the number of CO alarms we have. But it is still scary to think that a flue pipe could leak. Really scary thing to have happened and just so appalled by the rubbish install. Can’t believe this was signed off as safe. Sorry, rant over, just very angry and scared right now.

I got home from work today to discover workmen (not my workmen) in my garden, putting up a fence in what I believe to be the wrong place. Nobody asked me permission, they were just there. My neighbour’s choice of fencing is also bizarre to say the least. Legally, it is his fence. There is about 45m of it, running all the way down the side of the house and continuing to the end of the garden. About two years ago, shortly before I did my own renovations, he replaced about half of his fence. He used a particular style that did not match the existing fence he was replacing and did not match my fence either. I asked him if he was going to do the rest and he said he was, but he was going to wait till I finished my works. I thought fair enough. He’s now started to replace the remaining panels, and instead of matching the other panels to what he had previously installed two years ago, he’s installed something very different. So all along our garden we now have type A, followed by type B, followed by type A again. It looks bloody awful, with type B being vertical feathered wooden fence between wooden posts and type A being horizontal wooden fence installed between concrete posts. Because of two contrasting styles the type B sits 4cm further forward than the type A, which just emphasises the heterogeneity of it all. The colour is also completely different. Technically, as it’s his fence I understand I can’t complain about its appearance, just it’s location. I did this, first raising it with the workman direct. I was polite, but he got very defensive when he realised I’d picked up on an easily avoidable issue. I pointed out that if he had fitted the brackets to the wooden posts 4cm further away from my property, he could have made the position of the Type B panels the same as the existing Type A panels. He was then incredibly rude to me, which I really wasn’t expecting. I took it up with my neighbour, and he was just bullied by this idiot of a work man. All very unsatisfactory, and completely silly given that had he consulted me in advance of buying anything, I could have at least shared my concerns for him to take into account. Why do neighbours behave like this. It just beggars belief. Am I right I’m thinking that as it is his fence, I can’t even paint my side of it?

This looks too good to be true. Does it spread the wifi magic in all directions (including behind the wall you install it in) or will it only travel away from the wall?

I can handle a drill, a screw driver and even a hack saw, but apart from that my DIY skills are non-existant. The most I’ve been able to build with my own two hands was a wood store with a felt roof. However, I do remember seeing an Irish bloke on tv demo-ing a similar tool and it did make it look much easier. Do you really think it’s possible for a complete novice to use this tool to lay decent bricks?

I guess I could complain to Mapei, but still very odd. There also seems to be a bit of variability with parts of the grout looking whiter than other parts. I know @nod's advice is to re-grout, but I wonder if before doing that I should experiment spending £10 on one of these grout paints made by Mapei though I note that it says it's for internal use, the data sheet stating "Do not use for external applications or on surfaces subjected to continuous immersion (swimming pools, basins, etc.)." Not really sure why given that even if it rains once or twice a day in England, that's got to be a similar exposure to what that a tile would have in the shower?

If you are serious and can get to the job in London, please PM me.

I just got quoted over £2000 to build a small brick barbecue consisting of 360 bricks. Foundations are already in place and even the first course has already been done. I’m supplying the bricks. £2200. Madness.

Thanks @nod but are you saying you wouldn’t even consider the products that can be applied onto the grout to change their colour? I’m also pissed off with Mapei for not making it clear on their instructions that hard water could cause this whitening of the grout.

Went to tiling supply shop, got the little strips of Mapei colours from their display (the ones made of their actual grout) and picked one that very closely matched my tile, a nice medium grey colour. Had previously told the tiler on an earlier tiling job done a few months ago on same site that it was important he use distilled water because we live in a very hard water area and the hardness of tap water lightens the grout colour. Must have forgotten to tell the tiler this time. Grout has come out much lighter than expected. Really contrasts with the tile, whereas it was meant to match it. Really not the look I wanted at all. Two options: re-grout or use a grout colouring pen. What are the pros and cons of each? Really upset as this was a large and expensive tiling job that is really prominent on our house and it looks awful.

There is an alternative, which is to design in ceiling features that can conceal where the pipes go under the steals. We’ve done this in our master bedroom and created a nice effect in that we have a sort of decorative cornice all around our room, but it is much bigger than a regular cornice. Not only does this allow the ducts to run through that perimeter area (and past the steel) but it also offers opportunities for LED lighting in the recess and a concealed curtain rail as well. Create a really nice architectural effect.

@nod thanks for your help. Do you think it matters if we exceed the recommended maximum depth of that Ardex screed I linked to by 20% of so? Maximum depth is 75mm and we need to lay it to 90mm or even a few mm more than that.

That's very helpful. Thanks. We have to keep the external screed dry until the microcement topping is applied, so a fast drying flow screed is going to help, as otherwise we will need to have a tent up in the garden for 5 months!

Thanks @nod But is there any disadvantage to the quick drying one? If not, why doesn't everybody use them? I'm planning on using this externally, as a sub-base for a micro-cement topping. At the moment we have an external cement slab that was poured several months ago on top of hard-core. The plan is to put a DPC membrane on top of the slab, then pour a 100mm of screed on top of that and then the microcement topping. But I don't know which screed to choose. The quick drying stuff just seems to good to be true.

I'm confused by the general rule that is oft quoted here that screed dries at 1 day per 1mm, so a 50mm thick screed would take 50 days, and after that one counts 2mm per day, so a 70mm thick screed would take 90 days. That is a very long time. If that's the case, what is the downside of using something like this: https://ardex.co.uk/product/ardex-a-29/ which appears to dry much much faster?

We weren't expecting to have to have so many FD30 doors, but the BCO has (rightly) pointed out that we do need them, as a fire curtain we were originally going to install won't work (for various reasons). I need to use 2040mm high doors, but I'm struggling to find widths that fit our openings. For example, one opening is 2040 by 813, but we will need to shave the door either side by 3mm making it 2040 by 807. The closest standard sized FD30 door I can find is 2040 by 826, but this would mean shaving 9.5mm off each side, and I'm not sure that is doable as the recommendation seems to be to only shave up to 6mm off each edge. Anyone know how fast and hard that 6mm rule is? The other opening we need is 2040 by 710 which would require shaving a 726 wide standard door down by 11mm each side. An added complexity is that we would like decorative doors, not plain blanks.

Afraid not. Good luck with that though, hopefully someone here will have some they can spare.

Thanks, but I'm not sure this is relevant to my original question which was about doors, not windows. When I have probed the literature on this it is clear that the standards for windows are not the same for doors. The interpretative document you refer to here is this Secured by Design document, which explains at page 65 that for doors: "A doorset which conforms to BS EN 1627 RC3 would additionally be expected to conform to the following to meet the requirements of PAS 24:  Annex A Security hardware and cylinder test and assessment.  Cylinders falling within the scope of EN 1303 shall meet key-related security (digit 7) grade 5 and resistance to drilling security grade 2." It is perhaps not the clearest of drafting, but to my mind (as an English language teacher), what that is saying is that: doorsets that conform to RC3 do not automatically conform to PAS24; However, if an RC3 certified doorset can also be tested to pass those two further tests, then it will also conform to PAS 24 in other words PAS24 is more stringent thant RC3 because it has two additional tests that need to be passed which do not form part of the RC3 test.

Ordered a rather expensive front door. Prior to ordering I told the supplier that I wanted PS24. They said that being a European company they don't do PS24 (that being a British standard) but they can offer European equivalent. I gullibly said yes. Supplier has been very slow in general. Several months after I signed off on the post survey drawings, I get an email telling me that they design I want can't be done with 5 point multipoint locking and i can either change the design or accept 3 point locking instead. I ask how that will affect the security of the door. They say it won't make a difference because it's a standard level of security. I then drill into this pointing out i never orders a standard security and find out that what they are offering is RC2. I point out that RC2 is inferior to RC3 and that even RC3 isn't as good as PS24. I cite the guidance published by Secured by Design which explains the additional measures that are required for RC3 doors so that they comply with PS24 and also the definitions of RC2 and RC3: RC2 Occasional burglar uses basic burglary tools Increased protection for normal housing security 3 - 15 mins RC3 Experienced burglar uses heavy duty drilling and hammering tools High level of security for the premises in view of increased risk of burglary 5 - 20 mins I point out that they got their knickers in a fuddle by confusing windows with doors (in the window world, PS24 is indeed equivalent to RC2 or RC3 (can't remember which, but not in the door world). They claim that they only ever offered "similar to" PS24, not equivalence. I say bollox. Do people agree I'm entitled to my money back? Even if the description of the door was "similar to PS24" as opposed to "equivalent to", isn't a RC2 door sufficiently inferior to RC3 that it is in no way similar to PS24. It's like saying a Gold rated D lock and a Bronze rated D lock are similar because they are both D locks. Or a detached house and a terraced house are both similar because they are both houses. For contextual reference, it is abundantly clear that the door has not been manufactured, so the only loss the company might sustain from their negligence is the lost time in conning me.

That's good to know. Given me a bit more confidence in agreeing with the builder's recommendation to bond. What bonding adhesive do you recommend? We're glueing the base of the engineered flooring to 5.5mm plywood that we are laying over the underfloor heating, so wood to wood. The flooring manufacturer has only said "We recommend applying primer before gluing the planks; Use glue that doesn’t contain water". Any thoughts?

@Stones nice finish on that floor. I'm curious about your comment: "I have to say I'm still a bit unsure of the underfoot feeling that a bonded floor gives. I'm still finding the experience a little alien, compared to floating floors we have had in the past." We will be installing herringbone engineered boards onto a screed floor in the New Year, and the supplier has also recommended we bond it directly to the screed apparently to improve responsiveness to the UFH and possibly for other reasons I don't understand. What does it feel like to walk on? Have you got used to it now, or do you still prefer the feel of a floated floor?

https://intuboilingwatertaps.co.uk/product/4our-matt-black-apex-4-1-swan-instant-boiling-water-tap/ Though it was £100 less yesterday.

Ended up buying an Intu in their black friday deal. Will report back and how it performs.

Get one. I’m told it will sort any short cycling.

Thanks, very helpful. What combi boiler do you have and what is its modulation range. Do you also have a low loss header?