ProDave

Ours works well as long as you open all the downstairs internal doors to let the heat out to the whole house and as above don't put much wood in at a time. Fill it full and keep the living room door shut and you will be cooking. It helps that we have double doors from the room with the stove to the hall from where heat can go up the stairwell and it nicely heats the whole house. We only have it because we have plentiful wood. I would not have one if I needed to buy wood, and if I did not have one I would be giving away or selling wood for someone else to burn.

I found an "insulated sleeve" for the purpose when I bought my flue. It is designed to clamp onto the outside of twinwall flue so must be non combustible to be able to do that, and is 50mm thick which then leaves anything that is combustible >50mm from the flue. The reality is my 5Kw stove even burning full tilt, the outside of the twin wall flue where it passes through the roof is barely warm to the touch.

I was surprised at the total collapse of the twin towers of 9/11. I would have expected the fire compromised floors might just have collapsed down leaving the largely undamaged floors above and below intact. I can only guess that when one floor collapsed, the momentum of the structure above put too much force on the floor below when it "landed" on it and so a chain of events started.

From the article linked above "Metroloft’s managing principal and founder told the New York Times the collapsed columns were likely not reinforced properly and could not support the weight above. He added: ‘This incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.’"

Imagine if that starts collapsing. That could be another 9/11 scale collapse (though without the casualties as the building has been evacuated)

I would love to know more. New building under construction? Old occupied building? That post that has bent looks sure to have allowed what is above to drop. How much above? I wonder what the SE's insurance premium will be for designing a fix?

So this was a test to replace the existing soakaway for an existing septic tank? The advice to replace it with a treatment plant is good, and it sounds like it needs a pumped solution due to the sloping ground and possibly high water table (or just saturated ground from the poor existing soakaway)

What are the issues with the test results? Draining too quick or too slow? Why were they done so deep? Why not re do at correct 1M depth?

Why position the posts directly above the pipe? Move them both towards the house a bit so they are not over the pipe, dig their foundations below the pipe and build up from that to support them without imposing weight on the pipe. Then a semi cantilever frame to support the weight of the extension on the posts now closer to the house.

Can this not be done under a building notice ? Is that still allowed? 30 years ago we built a much larger side extension under a building notice with a very good builder and it was a cost effective way to nearly double the size of the house.

I paid £400 for a new old stock Mitsubishi unit (they were exiting that market) and self installed it. The ducting, vent terminals, plenum boxes etc was about £1000 bought from BPC. It was an easy job at first fix, made easier by having posi joists everywhere. I borrowed the forum anemometer to balance it and fill in the spread sheet, and BC showed no interest in that whatsoever. They just noted we had "mechanical ventilation" so they didn't go looking for trickle ventilators.

What you want to avoid is long HOT runs from your tank to the taps (unless you are having hot water recirculation which is another discussion) So I chose my layout based on that. HW tank central to points of use. That made it nice and simple. One direct WH run from the tank to the kitchen. No manifold, just an isolator at the HW tank. The rest of the HW taps were the opposite direction, so I ran one pipe to a manifold under the first floor below the main bathroom, accessed by a small trap door in the utility room ceiling below it. There is a a manifold to feed basin, showerand bath for main bathroom, basin and shower for en-suite and basin for utility room. Cold you can do what you like, length of runs does not really matter. All soldered copper, I trust my soldering.

My over thinking brain is thinking that you took the USB charger apart. Can you clarify what is turning on and off? Is it the SAME think also turning on and off now it is in the bedroom? Can you post a picture of exactly what is turning on and off? (sorry if I sound dumb)

We have LPG in bottles for the hob, no standing charge and usage is so low, gas cost is irellevant.

I prefer to keep things simple and assume a heat pump will cost about the same as gas as long as you can achieve a COP or 3 or better. Yes with TOU tariffs you can do better but that means running your heating at the cheap times not "when you want" which will work with a well insulated house and an UFH slab with a bit of mass. But no use pedalling that off peak usage option to someone retro fitting an ASHP to a mediocre house that does need the ASHP on at times when you need heating. If you do insist on a competition of "look how cheap mine is to run" then all you do is build up a lot more disappointed convertees when they can't time shift the usage in their mediocre house. So keep those ideas here for those with good houses, not for the mass market without.

It's a bit like a classic car. Keep it under cover so the only time it gets rained on is when on holiday. Even a tarpaulin or custom made cover would achieve that. (see my car port thread and why it is so high, to get the camper under)

Usually hardboard on the inside of a caravan, or something similar perhaps thin ply etc. My thought is still leaning to a very slight leak or condensation within the structure that has led to a gradual build up. That's why I would be trying a dehumidifier and I mean a proper mains powered one not a tray or magic crystals. This weather is perfect for it, heat to drive the moisture out and the dehumidifier to remove it. Repeat you damp readings after a week of that running.

Let us know what you find when you open up a trial area. I still have mixed feelings on this, if the damp is not causing a real problem, I would carry on and live with it. If you take what you have been told literally it is scrap now with a repair cost quoted to you of what it is worth. A bit like in the boating world, scrapping a boat with osmosis. While it is warm, get a portable dehumidifier in there to dry it out. Can you post some pictures of the outside, roof to wall joints and wall corner joints.

No 1. Avoid putting services under the floor. I did in my last house and had 2 hatches, one in the office (posh name for odd room next to the stairs) and one in the utility room. Covered with a rug when not needed. The under floor space had access gaps with lintels in the sleeper walls so once under the floor you could crawl around under the entire house. Present house was designed with no services underneath and hence no need for any hatches. Makes air tightness a whole lot easier.

If you can't see or smell damp or mould, what makes you think the structure has got wet? A well designed caravan / motorhome will be built with all joints lapped the correct way so water does not enter and the sealant is for good measure only. The one exception to this was an ABI we had in the 90's that when investigating damp (it really was damp and showing) I found to my horror and disbelief the wall to roof joint was lapped the wrong way so it was only the sealant stopping water entering. If there really is water getting in, I am not sure I would be ripping it all apart from the inside, it is the external joints that need investigating and re sealing, mostly roof to walls, and wall external corners.

And THEN the government wonder why not enough houses are being built.

I have a portable AC unit bought many years ago when I lived down south and it got too hot a lot more often. I hate it. Not because it is inefficient, it does work, and it does cool the room. BUT it is so damned noisy. I don't want a noisy poorly designed rattly compressor running in the bedroom when I am trying to sleep. We had the same issue on our last 2 visits to the USA. Hotel rooms with an AC unit in each room. You have the choice of not sleeping because you are too hot, or not sleeping because the AC unit is on and it is so damned noisy. Why would anyone WANT an AC unit that puts the noisy compressor in the room that they are trying to cool?

The bottom of each post sits in a bracket like this, bolted down into the concrete. And at the top, each post attaches to the structure with 4 coach screws through into the post, and then two M12 threaded rods drilled right through with a nut and big washer each side. Now I know the height is okay the tops of the posts will now be cut off.

The posts are each fixed to the ground with two M10 rawl bolts into the concrete base, and the garage side additionally bracketed to the garage wall. I can't see what more I can do to hold it down.

Thanks for that. Back to the car port. The final "test" today, demount the camper under the car port. This involves jacking it up on it's legs clear of the truck then driving the truck away, this lifts it higher than in normal use and I had to be sure I had built it high enough to allow this. And yes I have. S next job, start looking at roof coverings. It measures 602cm wide and 584 cm front to back. Suggestions welcome.