hendriQ

What’s the benefit of this?

Ok, that’s reassuring. So how does one patch up the holes in the plaster board?

First fix is almost finished and I've spotted a couple of mistakes. They are not the electrician's mistakes. He followed the plans. These were wrong in places. Might need to move three double socket back boxes and two triple gang switches by 8cm or so in one direction and two wall lights by 8cm or so in one direction. Is that very fiddly? Will it ruin the plastering in that instead of having a nice solid wall to plaster, they will have to plaster over (presumably patched up) holes in the plasterboard?

Just bumping this up in case anyone has purchased one of these in the last 6 months Or one of these?

Okay, but this isn't a commercial project. It's my house. But maybe that's all the more reason to spend more to get a safer product. What have forum users tended to specify for their overhead glazing?

Would the same work to speed up the curing of screed. Mine was poured over the UFH 5 weeks ago and really would like to start tiling it in another 5 weeks' time, but that's only 70 days which isn't enough for 70mm of screed I think.

Well the structural engineer has approved the overall design of the house from a structural perspective, so that's something I hope! Not sure wind is an issue as the skylight is effectively flanked by one wall on the long side and another wall on the short side; it's above a ground floor extension, so not very high up either, so I doubt there is much wind there. When you say your windows were approved by a structural engineer, do you mean rooflights (that are almost flat) or actual windows which tend to be orientated in a plane that is perpendicular or close to perpendicular to the wind?

About to order a rather large glazing unit that is 3900mm by 820mm in size. It is double glazed with no joins (so each pane of glass will be 3900 by 820). Weight is about 180kg. Asked about the warranty and the vendor said "well obviously I can't guarantee it won't spontaneously fail". I asked what he meant and he said that all glass can in theory spontaneously fail. On probing further, he tells me the inner pane will be heat treated so that if it fails it will shatter into thousands of pieces, each piece no bigger than 1cm by 1cm. I asked if heat treatment is in accordance with BS EN 14179-1 and he is going to find out. The outer pane however will just be regular glass. With heat treated glass in accordance with BS EN 14179-1the rate of failure is 1 in 400 tonnes of glass. So for a skylight this weight, there is something like a 1 in 4444 chance of failure of the inner pane (assuming both panes are of equal weight, which I think is likely as they are both are same thickness). So not too likely, though more likely than I'd like. But failure of the outer pane is much more likely and if that fails it won't shatter into tiny little pieces, it will shatter into shards. Surely that would then cause the heat soak tested inner pane to also break? This unit is going in an upstand we've built to make a skylight directly above our dining table. Not so enthusiastic about this now. Window company said laminated glass would be about £800 to £1000 more. Not sure why that's so expensive. Do people worry about this sh!t, or am I being paranoid?

I feel your frustration @Adsibob. I only just received a Siemens hob after a 14 week wait and upon unwrapping it, it appears to have some cosmetic damage to it. Damage is probably an overstatement, but I think this has been installed before and then returned. Normally I would complain but given I can't wait any longer I will just accept it and hope I don't have any issues. Maybe @ryder72 can give you some tips, I think he works in kitchen design and supply.

I don't know, it looks tight. I think you will need to overlap the lip of the sink onto the tops of the sides of the MDF kitchen cabinet and I'm not sure those are designed to have the weight of a kitchen sink rest on them.

Good luck @Adsibob, this sounds tricky. I always find that if you ask two plumbers the same question, you will get three different answers!

So more than six months on from my original post we are now a week away from our MVHR install first fix and we still haven't figured this out. We didn't go with the odourless toilet in the end because builder hadn't installed one before and wanted to charge extra and budget is already stretched. We decided instead to have boost switches in the bathroom and to install sound attenuators to deal with the extra sound issue. But now that we're coming to the install someone has pointed out that BCO might object to a retractive boost switch being installed in the bathroom. Would it be okay if the IP rating of the retractive switch module was high enough. I've found an IP20 which is probably not high enough, but maybe this IP66 would work (if I can find a compatible face plate): https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/KBOP21.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=415703895087&placement=&kw=&network=u&matchtype=&ad_type=&product_id=KBOP21&product_partition_id=963257115964&campaign=shopping_switches_sockets&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=CjwKCAjw-sqKBhBjEiwAVaQ9a8RaocJ_oVgq-bPkPjtdR3nrAMlpemYZDzKyhWofGEsKhISb9RqrMBoC0loQAvD_BwE

So after much prevaricating, I finally decided to pay the application fee to get a quote and a "design" from Thames Water. Daylight robbery. To dig up 3m of footpath (and I don't know how they calculated that because the footpath is no wider than 1.7m) and 1m of road and do the connection, they are asking me for £3,900 and say it will take up to 3 months to get it done. What is baffling is that they do not state, anywhere on the quote, what is the minimum flow rate and pressure that they will provide for this crazy fee. I will call them tomorrow, but I am not hopeful. Other option is to spend money on one of the accumulation tanks or pump systems discussed on this forum, e.g. here, but that has it's own problems as the only real place I've got space for that is the Loft and there, even though we have new posi joists at 400mm centres, I don't think they were designed to hold so much weight!

I'd also be interested to know. Annoyingly Thames Water are not very precise when giving estimates. They just tell me to pay their survey fee and then I can find out after the Survey. I just don't have a feel for whether my current pressure of about 2.8 to 3.0 bar and a flow rate of 20L/min is sufficient for our purposes. Say I have a rain shower on, a normal shower on and then somebody turns the kitchen tap on to do some washing up. Will I lose a lot of pressure in the rain shower?

I need to get some cobblestones for my driveway. Can anybody recommend somewhere that is within an hour or so of North or West London? I would prefer to go and see them in person, but I really only want to do that if they have a good selection. I'm after traditional looking cobblestones in a mix of greys. I'm aware of Rock Unique in Kent which are very knowledgeable, but I wanted somewhere else to compare (and Kent really isn't that close to me).

I think this is a case of horses for courses. PIR sensors can also improve security as they come on whether a person is invited or not. Whether that works as a true deterrent or not, I do not know though.

It looks fine - can't really tell the difference between this and normal glass to be honest. Makes me wonder if they have actually fitted the SN70/35 glass I ordered. How can I test this?

How big are your first floor windows? Usually hoisting hooks are sited outside and above the window, so whatever is being lifted and then be brought easily into the room through the window.

He had actually already bought them when I raised it again this morning. Two flashing kits and two insulation collars for two of Velux’s largest windows. £240. I apologised and said I would pay him for it.

Yeah, our roof tiles had a 14 week lead time. And some suppliers were quoting even longer.

Well this is what’s bugging me the most, not so much the cost but the responsibility for sourcing. I emailed him in April saying, I’ve ordered the rooflights, these are the ones I’ve ordered, and looking at the details, these are the flashing kits and insulation collars you need to buy. The day after, he raised it, and I said I was assuming he was covering it. He reluctantly agreed. Then today out of the blue he’s telling me “I’m fitting the roof, where are the flashing and collars you were going to buy.” He’s basically forgotten that we already had this discussion. Hopefully lead times aren’t too bad, but roofgiant is out of stock.

Okay, I'm clearly in the minority here. Just very confusing how one is meant to deduce these things. I will do the right thing and speak to my builder (who was quite upset when i told him I was expecting him to pay this).

so why is it sold separately? Appreciate there are different kinds, but why aren't they all sold bundled together with the purchaser just having to choose from a drop down menu which kit they require? Very confusing. If I'm supplying doors, frames and architraves and the builder is installing them and the contract is silent on hinges, do I have to buy the hinges? What about floors? I'm supplying those and he is installing them, but who pays for the flooring screws. There are different types of flooring screws after all.

No, definitely doesn't need to rotate.

You might have a point about the insulation collar. But surely flashing kits are the nuts and bolts of these things, as in they are certainly not optional.