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Hi guys I've bought a basic single metal e27 pendant. It's got neutral, line and earth but the metal rose requires earthing and no fitting (usually ring attached with earth lead to casing all done) is provided. It's just an earth wire and instructions just say make sure rose is earthed. I'll need some connectors to attach to house wiring but what is the best way to go about sorting out the rose? I've googled but you just can't seem to buy a small earth lead with ring as normally seen in other light fittings. I'll probably get the electrician to do it but I like to get all parts ready before he gets here. Thanks James

I can't help with the AC/DC thing but we've just fitted a bunch of techmar stuff and first impressions are that it's great so far. Went for 11 deck lights in our composite decking, that has 3 terraces, 5 uplighters and 2 waterproof rock lights for our little stream. I want a pond now so may get another rock light.

I am using stone market lucent in copper. 170 slabs in total. Cost us a lot of money though as quite a lot to laying them! Looks great though, will put up pics asap

I should have made clear, the products I have are Marley alutec evolve and evoke

Nice looking as I've had both fitted to my house, extension and garage and using leftovers for the new shed. We replaced all uPVC stuff on current house so not new build Very expensive to buy Very expensive to install for me as none of my eaves etc were level Everything needs to be spot on level Downpipes and gutters are very noisy when raining. The noise just travels through our walls for some reason but the aluminium is very thin so no mass to it like a cast iron setup and plastic just gives a bit so less noise I guess

Look at sf20 glass slide system from sunflex, only need top and bottom rail and could fit the rails into the stud so the glass doors all slide into the wall. They are designed for partitions mainly or external use where fully weather proof is not needed. They are far from cheap though. We used them for our new garden room extension as a way to close off from the lounge. Wish we didn't order the jambs now but you live and you learn

Ok thanks all, I'll look to improve it anyway and make sure the tape is more than good enough and may even triple wrap the intake and look to extend the celotex as far as I can from the main unit to anything close by

Are we talking 150mm exhaust duct? If so I can't see solid duct insulation that big. Im slightly worries now my exhaust and intake ducts aren't insulated well enough if you guys had to redo yours. Mine is in the loft and double wrapped with foil backed Rockwool but I'm doubting it's good enough now. It's not on yet but will be soon.

I will take some pictures of my mvhr in the loft soon. I'm building an insulated board box for the unit itself out of 100mm celotex. Might even get to switch it on soon!

I don't see why your can't just get a loft unit and as you improve each room , add another duct run

Well we have fixed the insulation in th cavity by adding dritherm 32 and also added it where the blocks are missing. This has instantly warmed up my ensuite floor and master bedroom as they are the rooms where you could see the floor joist through the gap. We will also add celotex over where the pipes and cables come in the wall from the garage as above the ceiling there is a cold roof. This will then be joined to other 75mm and 100mm celotex directly above the plasterboard ceiling and we will wrap the cavity wall insulation from the wall over the wall plate and across all the celotex. Cavity around the entrance door is now properly closed and insulated ready for the new door. We are moving the light switch slightly and moving the alarm number pad whilst we have the plasterboard removed to get it all tidied up along with fixing/replacing some cables and an additional cable for a light in the new porch. Also at some point we will change the tiles in the ensuite and when we do we will fix where the pipes and cables come in from that point too. Maybe I should give the bill to the original builders who are right now decorating one of the 2 houses they still own next door that they rent out. So tempting to ask them if they knew what they were doing when building these houses!

Let's hope the price reduces but as with all construction, it's only as good as the guy doing the work. If I look at how my house is built and the work I've down so far to fix it, these bricks in the wrong hands are a waste of time.

Hi guys RK door is supply and fit but I have no date yet so that can be pushed back a little, I can get them to fit the new garage door in the meantime when that arrives. Builder has re-sleeved the copper pipework where it touches any mortar. Reseated the pipework from the garage so the block they were sitting on no longer bridges the cavity. Removed all snots and debris from cavity between garage and hall. Added new cavity slab insulation to the cavity where it was non existent. Redone the blockwork that you will see in the photos further down. Wednesday we will see how we can sort the cabling out, one plan is to disconnect all cables from CU so we can see if any can be adjusted to get some slack and can then maybe add them to conduits to better seal the opening as will be a lot easier to manage the conduit rather than just a large knot of cables. The difference in warmth already from the fixes today is massive and it's not even sealed up yet in the hall ceiling, lots of fixes still to do by me with paint on blowerproof and insulation board sheets before we add the new timber frame for the ceiling, light will also be fixed to a timber back board with hole cut and conduit sealed to it for cable and then a Pro Clima stoppa, these are tried and tested in my extension and the combo works well! Some links to pics below This one is the larger chunk of cables coming in at top middle left of picture, you can see the pipes of course too. https://photos.app.goo.gl/KmpHCeVaEivCp9Ix2 These two is of the few cables going to the right hand side of the open block. https://photos.app.goo.gl/bhH5kC2WDX0KjQAf2 https://photos.app.goo.gl/1yjZiyXJk6bGOLxo2 Now for some other examples of the classic plasterboard hides everything: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6b1ANbTnR9KFe4Cu1 Some more plasterboard removed to see what other fun hides behind it. The foam is the work I've started on. https://photos.app.goo.gl/vq91C0jvzusuOy9e2 Below are some fixes as of tonight of the above couple of photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/tSzTHGTRqBMeYbht2 https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y4sLEkuAzsV6dyYg2 https://photos.app.goo.gl/T4TIqcGUF6qN0rK33 thanks all. Hopefully you might give me a new avenue or 2 to look at too.

Well my worst fears have come true with the ongoing house improvements in hunting down draughts etc We have an attached garage which is where the boiler, alarm panel and consumer unit are housed. Pipes and cables all come in to the main house over the hallway ceiling which part of is in the garage attached part of the building and then the rest of the hallway carries on into the main house. The issue is the ****wits who built the house just removed a block both sides of the cavity and the the cables are not neatly bundled or tidy and come through this gap and on through a joist on 2 sides of the removed block. The pipes they managed to be more tidy with but I have no chance of sealing this up as it stands right now. I'll get a pic when it's light in the morning. There is no slack in the cables, not much room for manoeuvre at all. Anyone have any suggestions of how to get this sorted? Plumber is coming in 2 weeks to add new radiator to new extension so he can sort out the 4 incoming pipes so my builder could do something with the gap, electrician is coming in 1 week to do 2nd fix in extension and add a new spur for replacement garage door so need to iron out a plan this week hopefully. My builder is worried that the cost is just ramping up with all we've found so wants to try to make it easier for me cost wise. His work is meticulous and very high quality but I need to guide him with what I want done ideally. I'll discuss again tomorrow with him as we've not gone through all options as it was late Friday we found this issue. My only thoughts are to move the consumer unit to the utility room which is just near this part of the hallway, easily enough existing cable to do this. Also replace the alarm with a more up to date system and add a couple of new sensors to it too and move the alarm brain to the utility room. We've already ripped off all the plasterboard in this part of the hall to fix other issues with massive holes in the blockwork and around the entrance door. The rush here is that a new RK door is soon to arrive so want the mess dealt with. This is going to cost me

No nothing on the box. Someone on gbf forum analysed it some time ago and worked out how you could cheaply make it but I don't remember the thread it was in

Sorry no but my builder reckoned they were similar when he saw the blowerproof.

I'm using blowerproof in my house, wasn't aware of the change in advice with regards to plastering but then I'm boarding and then plastering so hopefully it'll be ok. Also only doing corner junctions, wall/ceiling , floor/wall and any cracks anywhere in mortar or aerated block. It certainly works and has made a difference in my lounge and its still bare blockwork in the offending cold corner. I used foam first for the larger gaps and adhesive/sealant and then blowerproof

We have the synseal warmcore windows on the back of the house. Happy with them mostly. What do your need to know?

Right now I'm battling draughts left right and centre! The icy wind has just been cutting right through the house but the good news is I'm finding out why it's so bad. Nice big gaps in the aerated block work mortar joints just might be the issue! Unheated new extension becomes a sauna though when I chuck the oil heater in there but the silly double set of bifolds even though triple glazed doesn't keep the heat in forever on the north facing side of the house but heyho. Weve sealed up an old wall vent which has made a big difference and as said I've started sorting out the inner block work and then will seal up the foam I've used to make sure it remains airtight. The amount of time I've spent already which hasn't dented the amount of work I still have to do is quite depressing but bit by bit is all I can do New front door going in at some point which will then allow me to sort out cavity in the door reveal with the builder soon as I know there are no closers there and large gaps around the existing door with no sealant which just allows nice air to flow in behind the plasterboard and wherever it wants to go.

Well I'll need to extend the eaves trays as they are 120mm short for 400mm of cellulose. I've already started with 25mm celotex. Need to use it to protect my hands on some of the plaster board overboarding we had done 3 years ago, the builder decided not to use nogins and put the drywall screws in at angles. Ive already punctured my palm and lacerated a finger, that was within 5 minutes of each other!

Thanks guys

We are likely to get a new entrance door soonish and it'll be an RK door I expect. I'd like to set the door back slightly further in the reveal but I'm not sure on the best way to attach to the wall due to the cavity. Should I consider lining the reveal in ply and screw the door to the ply? We will be cladding the external brickwork in cedar once the door has been fitted so I can add lashings of sealant before we clad up to the door Thanks James

I've been sealing and taping my triple glazed velux windows in our extension today and I can feel cold air at the bottom of the window where the rubber seals are in the actual opening part of the window frame. It's right in the corners. We have 2 velux, one seems fine, may be a very faint airleak but the other was much more obvious but not horrific. I assume I shouldn't be able to feel anything whatsoever? It's going to be a real pain now everything is in/on to get velux involved but what are my choices? Complain to supplier and velux. I'll raise it with my builder tomorrow anyway but thought I'd get an opinion from you guys Thanks James

Thanks everyone. If I were to use cellulose would the combination of a denser wool at the eaves plus eaves trays be a good enough barrier for the cellulose or should I look to add something else to hold it in place? The dritherm in the eaves hasn't budged at all in the high winds we had recently and with an additional piece at 450mm high against the existing wool in the eaves I would have thought that should provide enough of a block/dam for the cellulose. Please do comment if you can think of a better way or even if I'm on the right track. The knowledge you guys have is a massive benefit and I really appreciate your input Thanks James

It's aerated blockwork. It's more about comfort than just savings in all honesty. Would it cause issues if I used cellulose in my circumstances?