garrymartin

This is just getting ridiculous now. Don't you know you're suppposed to have disaster stories, compromises, rogue workers, and budget failures? 😉 You and you're wife must be so happy and proud - deservedly so; you've done an amazing job. Love the terraces, and as @MikeSharp01 notes, we at least deserve an update once the planting has settled in, just so we can be a little more jealous than we already are. 🤣 Love it! ❤️

This post came up whilst I was doing some research for my Timber Frame notes after @Great_scot_selfbuild mentioned Broadaxe. Frame Technologies aren't just based in the same location, they appear to be based in the same yard! All the signage on Google Maps Street View says Frame Technologies, but the location also shows Broadaxe Timber Frames and Firth Construction on the general map and it is the location both companies list as their address (Broadaxe and Firth). And yet Frame Technologies and Broadaxe Timber Frames do not appear to share directors or any form of ownership of one another. Not sure whether anyone else has information on the links between the two companies? Perhaps @Great_scot_selfbuild?

Looks like it should have been millions not billions... "Compensation costs for the curtailment of renewable energy fell by around 22 percent to 435 million euros in 2025, compared to the previous year (€554 million in 2024), showed a response from the German economy ministry to a question by Left Party parliamentarian Dietmar Bartsch, seen by CLEW." https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/renewable-curtailment-compensation-costs-germany-decrease-22-2025 and https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032118300091. The second link is interesting as it compares the UK and Germany.

I bought a spare handle set when changing all the handles on the doors in our house. The previous handles had all been on for twentyish years and I'd never had to replace one. Less than a year in with the new ones and a bunch of stuff fell over in the garage, against the handle, and bent it badly. Now, the handles are still available to buy, but the moral of the story is these things do happen sometimes, and it's a small price to pay for a little peace of mind. I have a spare handle set (or more accurately, one side of a door now!), spare catches, a couple of spare hinges, a spare LED spot for the ones used across the whole of downstairs, and a few other bits and pieces. Never had to use anything other than a handle yet, and I'm sure some things like the hinges wouldn't be really difficult to replace, even if I had to do all three per door, but it's just a lot easier and my mind is a lot more peaceful knowing I have some spares to hand to fix issues almost immediately. I do make a habit of very meticulously keeping things like part numbers and supplier information when I do projects, so I don't always keep duplicates of everything, more so the things that I'd feel forced to change as a set if one failed and I couldn't source an identical replacement. I've thought the same thing about larger items and don't know where I'll end up for some of those in the future. Solar panels are a good example. Do you buy an extra one just in case one fails in an array of eight identical panels or end up with one looking slightly different to all the others if you have to replace it with something different because they are no longer available?

You asked about replacing and then talk about repairing and covering. They are different things. If you replace your tarmac drive, then you need to do so with permeable material or meet the other criteria. If you repair your tarmac drive, it is not new or being replaced. If you cover it with something else, it is not new or being replaced. You don't have to do anything with existing drives, otherwise the whole country would have needed to rip their drives up and replace them.

You need to remember that the valuation of the plot would likely have been made by calculating all sorts of variables in a standard manner, working backwards from the market value of a finished home. What you paid for the plot doesn't necessarily equate to the calculated value of the plot, especially when self-builders are involved. The plot may be worth more to a self-builder (and to you) than it will be worth to a small developer, but the mortgage company valuation has to account for the lower value when they are looking at potential recovery.

Unfortunately, yes, it does. New or replacement. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/permeable-surfacing-of-front-gardens-guidance/guidance-on-the-permeable-surfacing-of-front-gardens

If the runoff can be managed on-site naturally, then the surface does not have to be permeable to be SUDS compliant. There should be lots of options that don't require you to rip it up.

It was mentioned at the start of the thread that they might be looking at multi-room fan coils. I presume the ducting runs were discussed in relation to that device. The conversation then seemed to move on to single-room devices due to the potential complexity and lack of design experience.

Absolutely possible. You can pressure test individual loops, or you can connect all the loops to each other and just run one pressure test. The manifold does not need to be in place to test the pipework.

No, it does not sound correct. New drives in front gardens over 5m2 need to be permeable or discharge to a permeable area, but that is only to avoid the need for planning permission. So, two questions. What did your planning approval say about the drive surface (if anything), and does the surface water from it discharge to a permeable area, or can it be made to? It's all about flooding and reducing pressure on public drains, so if that is not applicable, it's unlikely you'll need to change anything.

Difficult to tell from the angle of the photo, and you may need to bend the pipe to get round the vertical stud, but the first logical thing to do (as you have one leg capped and not in use) would be to use that leg to feed the connection through the wall (bit of extra pipe required), and put the cap on the vertical rising leg. That would remove three 90 degree bends from the flow going through the wall and is something you could do yourself with push-fit fittings.

In real life, copper pipes under the floor might spring a leak (pinholes in bad copper that had been down for 20+ years and eventually corroded through) and you might need to dig stuff up to find the leak and effect a repair...

Not for this particular topic, but for future reference @Nickfromwales, can I assume that where you are struggling with floor height differences, you could either rip the P5 up and ply directly to the joists, or you could put ply down instead of P5 for tiled areas in the first place?

I have Tikkurila Anti-Reflex in bathrooms and in my kitchen. Technically, for the same reasons F&B quote it's not specifically recommended for those areas, but I've had zero issues with it.

Not sure about the Tikkurila, but you can definitely get Johnstone's tinted. Our local Johnstone's definitely used to have the F&B codes for mixing.

Following up on Russell's post, I've used Tikkurila Anti-Reflex throughout my home on the ceilings and would never use anything else. Excellent paint. Hides many issues. Not sure Farrow & Ball have premium paint, but they definitely have premium marketing... 😉

That's still the modern way of doing it. It's a 5A socket used almost exclusively for lighting (table, floor, bed-side, etc.) and they're almost always operated from a wall switch. You see them a lot in high-end lighting installations.

When we asked this question of MBC, they said they didn't, but they did have a partner company they work with that you could contract directly with if you wanted. Or you could use your architect.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one @Mattg4321 - even the OSG states "The current demand of a final circuit is determined by adding the current demands of all points of utilisation and equipment in the circuit and, where appropriate, making an allowance for diversity." I'd argue that it isn't appropriate when you have a final circuit (radial) feeding a single appliance such as an induction hob or an oven as there aren't multiple points of utilisation. AFAIK, the Cooking Appliances calculation has been in the guides with the same information since at least 1966, so I'd argue it's long overdue for an update to take into account modern cooking appliances and installation approaches! 🙂

I think the calculations you are referring to relate to the design current for the protective device, not the size of the cable you should put in. But caveat, I'm not an electrician either... 😉

Diversity only applies where there are multiple loads on a single cable. Whilst it might be appropriate for my combination oven and warming drawer example, it's not appropriate for the induction hob, as this is the only load on the radial circuit. Same reasons as for an electric shower - diversity isn't applied because it's the only load on the circuit.

There's a whole series of tables and calculations related to cable and protective device sizing in BS 7671. Start with this video to understand how complex it can get and why your electrician should be doing the relevant calculations. By the way, 100% agree with the comment about personal research so that you are informed and can pose sensible questions and query statements. But you really want the electrician to be professionally responsible for the calculations and installation.

If you've got an electrician, why aren't they doing the necessary calculations? You have to consider voltage drop over the distances you mention, as well as the route the cable will take and whether any of that route is insulated. Some induction hobs are in the 11kW range. If your oven uses pyrolytic cleaning, and it's a double oven, even 6mm2 may not be enough. At the extreme, an 11kW induction hob at the end of a 25m run of cable enclosed in insulation could need a 25mm2 cable and a 50A RCBO or equivalent. Can't stress strongly enough that your electrician should be looking at these sorts of considerations and advising you on the appropriate cable sizes. Like @Russell griffiths we have 10mm2 to an induction hob, 6mm2 to a pyrolytic single oven, and 6mm2 to a combination pyrolytic oven/microwave which also serves a warming drawer, all on radial circuits with their own RCBOs.

Perfectly fine. Crossing has fewer issues than running in parallel, and even that is not a big deal given the number of cables and voltages we are talking about in residential construction.