ProDave

Roy Homes built the shell of our first build in 2004. It makes me feel how lucky I was this time around having a builder I knew already and we trusted each other and everything was invoiced and paid in arrears.

Reading that article, it suggests Ptarmigan homes is what grew out of the ashes or Roy Homes? Is that right?

Just because it is an existing plastic CU does not mean it must be replaced. There may be other issues that made him say that. Even a split load could back feed all circuits as long as the MAIN switch is turned off. Post a picture of what you have.

The pipe will leave in line with the valve and water meter so just about horizontal in the first picture. I would expect it to be 25mm mdpe Dig down on that line at the edge of your property and hopefully you will find mdpe. Worst case there is a joint to something smaller under the pavement. If you do need to dig up the pavement you need a road opening licence from your council and you must employ a contractor with a minor streetworks permit. Dig in your own garden as close to the pavement as possible to see what you have.

They are proposing a 260A 3 phase supply. You won't get that with a single meter easily, it would have to be a current transformer meter at that rating. It is possible (or certainly was possible) but it won't be what you recognise as a simple "supply head" It would still be via a Multi Service Distribution Board to split into separate feeds. Why do you want that much? 180KVA is 18KVA per flat, so that is an 80A feed to each flat. What are you putting in the flats that needs that much, a shower, sauna, and all electric heating? I think you need to properly design the installation, work out the real loads including diversity and when you are clear what you want, get them to re quote.

We know what the new rules are in theory, but I have yet to hear from anyone who has succeeded in getting upgrade charges removed or reduced.

I am saying it is insignificant. That little bit of the field is in a dip, when the ground water gets high, it floods. It only floods until it gets high enough to spill over it's little dip into the burn and run away down hill. I would call it a feature of local topography. I am sure the farmer could easily solve it by infilling the dip or digging a channel for this dip to drain into the burn. So it is really insignificant. Even if you had this particular "flood" on land you wanted to build on, you could easily mitigate against it. It is totally different to a flood of the sort where houses get flooded and then take days or weeks for the water to go down, yet it it highlighted the same.

Okay I tried looking on a different flood map, and got exactly the same result. Interresting all the main LGW buildings are in Flood Zone 3. Ask yourself, when was the last time you remember flooding there? I mentioned on another thread that the flood risk maps up here have been updated, and we suddenly now appear in a medium risk of surface water flooding, which means 0.5% chance of surface water flooding each year. The previous map did show a small patch of the field behind us prone to flooding, and that was the case, but more of a bit of a puddle in the field when the ground water level gets too high for it to drain and nowhere to run off to. I get the impression we are now becoming over cautions about the issue? Is it possible to get any data on how high a potential flood may get so you could mitigate it by a raised ground floor level (possibly meaning only a single storey building?

6 months max, yes it was an old car. But it was a lot easier than the likely grief of 2 rusted snapped studs trying to fix it properly.

It worked for us. We had an old VW Golf that was leaking where a plastic flange bolted onto a cast iron block for a heater hose. One look at the two rusty studs and nuts holding it on and I thought there is no whay that is going to undo, and I don't want to be drilling and tapping new holes. So Radweld did it and stopped the leak for the rest of the time we owned the car and didn't upset anything else.

I am trying to look this up on a different flood map, but can't find it. Can you post or PM me the postcode of the site please?

Reverse the problem. Tell your screeder to screed level with the top of the box extenders.

Yes I don't want all that "control" and heaven forbid if someone decides all ev's plugged in must be able to discharge to the grid on demand. So should I buy a dumb EV charger now, to put away for when I want one, and dumb chargers are no longer available?

The split roof and roof terrace seems to add a lot of complication, a lot of cost, and a lot to detail to get the air tightness and insulation right, for little benefit. Fine if you have a big budget and you really do want that. A conventional roof that meets at the ridge would be way easier to detail and get right, and if you already have a balcony at first floor level for the view. I would want some more windows in that blank wall, or some form of contrasting cladding panels to break it up. The big overhangs will look nice if detailed properly, but have the potential to look poor if the detailing is wrong. It's all about detail.

I don't like the sound of that. Although I don't have an EV I feel I need to buy a dumb, simple unmetered EV charge point ready for when I might need one, ready to fit when I need it without having a smart meter. I hear talk of EV chargers needing to "communicate" with someone or something. Not at this house they won't

Can we have a floor plan of the house?

I am one of those "fit too high" people because if you fit at the stated height, it looks silly, and if you lean forward to stir a pan on the back ring you hit your head on the hood. And I am not exactly a tall person. I had to shorten the brackets on the present one as it otherwise would not allow it to go high enough for how I wanted it.

This sounds like the "argument" I had with BCO about our stove. I had showed him the instruction manual for the stove showing the "distances to combustibles" but he still went away and then asked for proof. I ended up sending a copy of the whole PDF manual and a screen grab of the one table that showed the distance required then a photograph with a tap measure showing the gap we had was comfortably larger than the minimum required. It seems they want everything spoon fed to them in words of one syllable?

I trusted this to the SE. He specified JJI's on the GF at 400 centres where there were no services down there, and Posi joists upstairs at 600 centres. All rock solid no bounce. except for one detail. Posi'swere specced for the longest span and then continued over rooms with shorter span. Except in one room where the span was interrupted by the stairs so no need to continue through so one room as the over sized joists on one half and smaller joists on the other. I wish I had noticed that and specced them the same.

If the house really is "super air tight" it will need mvhr to meet building regs. Perhaps you have the wrong make of recirculating cooker hood I don't find ours any noisier than a venting one (some of those can sound like a jet engine at full speed) and ours exhausts the air at the sides and we don't notice it.

What is your issue with an ASHP? Heating just low temperature UFH it will use less than one third the amount of electricity than a heat battery will. So your off peak rate would have to be less than 1/3 the peak rate to make it cheaper. If the rest of your house is oil, why do you want off peak? a penalty of off peak is the day rate is higher, so you have to use a lot of off peak to make it worthwhile. The cost of buying an ASHP must be very similar to the cost of a heat battery so would seem a better and simpler choice to me.

How can there be no cover if it's under a driveway? how do you know it is still in use? It sounds more like something disused that was filled in to enable the driveway over it if no lid?

Yes that's it, turn off the electric undo that nut and remove the plastic cover then post a picture of the inside and someone will tell you which is the thermostat. No water will escape doing that.

Does anyone admit to actually eating a Fray Bentos pie? Once as an experiment can be accepted but to eat a second?

This is the immersion heater. Follow the white cable, it should go to a switch on the wall. Turn that switch off. Then remove the screw that is visible in the picture, that holds the plastic cover on. Post a close up picture of the inside and we will tell you what to adjust. No it won't leak water. Turn the switch back on when done or the immersion heater won't work.