ProDave

Well I have been and checked. The air blower is blowing and you can see and hear the contents sloshing about agitated by the air bubbles, so all appears to be working correctly. It was just that it was over due a service.

This is for our old house, to cover the top of the pumping station. The neck is 600mm diameter but pushed a little out of round by the backfilling (but that could be corrected) When installed 18 years ago it was supplied with a standard, lightweight, 600 by 450mm galvanised lid and frame. It was too small and was bodged in place by some poor cement that overhung the edge of the neck as it was too small. Anyway that as rusted through and needs replacing preferably with something right for the job. But I am having trouble finding anything. I have had a look here https://www.drainagesuperstore.co.uk/browse/underground-drainage/manholes-and-grates/pedestrian-manhole-covers.html The only one that looks suitable, is the bottom right an 600mm by 900mm but is a lot more expensive and in any case out of stock. I would have thought a 600mm round drain cover would be a standard item?

If plumbed wrongly, there is a risk of "swapped contents" I think it was @joe90 that first mentioned this some time ago.

"Plug In Solar" is a name of a dealer. It does not mean it comes with a 13A plug on the end and you just plug it in to a socket. Though I bet some people make the mistake of connecting it that way?

There is no FIT any more, that finished (for new applicants) a couple of years ago. So any solar PV you install now is for your own use. If you pay the premium and pay for an MCS install, and have a smart meter, you might qualify for a mere 5p per kWh exported. So just buy te cheapest you can and get an electrician to install it. You should be able to get a 4Kw system for that. Keep an eye on ebay, you may be lucky and find a complete system for sale near you.

Looks like when this rain stops I will be going and checking the air blower is working and blowing bubbles properly........

So what happens to the shower trap level when you flush the loo in the cloaks? The plan does not help much without seeing a plan of how the pipes are actually connected.

Yes, I have a relative who boasts at how long since his tank was emptied. It seems counter intuitive to me that a treatment plant with all it's working bits does not "digest" the waste better. It's almost as if the cleaner effluent from a treatment plant demonstrates that it is better at separating the liquid and the consequence is it leaves more solids behind so need desludging more often. I am pretty sure a treatment plant would not go "forever" without desludging. We will try 2 years next time and see what the verdict is from the tanker driver.

I think what surprised me was the septic tank, also at 4 years did not seem to be an issue other than the fat, yet he was adamant that our treatment plant was well over due. So for some reason I am sure someone else will explain, a treatment plant is less forgiving if you don't desludge it often enough.

I have fitted a couple of these in Offices where they just want a sinkfull of washing up water. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183802471233?epid=1161120738&hash=item2acb7b2341%3Ag%3AvgQAAOSwxeNgL~bl&LH_BIN=1

What is the detail of the wall make up? I see a flaw there. the gap between the door and the tile edge, lets any water that gets through onto the top of the wall that the door sits on. I had exactly this discussion when fitting my slider recently. Our door is set further out, so any water that gets through between the door and (in our case) decking runs down the front of the wall (protected by DPC) not onto the top of it. Look carefully at your wall build up and see if you can set the sliding door further out.

I thought I would post my experience of getting out treatment plant desludged today, with some local knowledge for those in the Highlands. Previously we ad used Sureclean in Alness. They got taken over by another company last year who promptly closed down the Alness branch. Shame as they used to charge us about £150 each time, i price I now find was astonishingly cheap. So time to find some others. Euroloo wanted about £450 Ouch. Scottish Water and Hielan Loos both wanted about £250 but had long waiting lists. Eventually we landed with Denholm Macnamee in Invergordon, formerly MSIS. They could do it today (booked last Friday) They charge by the tanker hour and per 1000 litres of waste. So today our treatment plant, and the septic tank at our old house down the road were both done. £518 for the pair. Our treatment plant has been running 4 years now, longer than it should, but last year we could not get anyone to do it as everyone was on Furlough (I argued at the time why was an outdoor job that you do on your own shut down) the guy did say it was overdue and we should not leave it as long until next time. We will try 2 years for the next pump out. The Septic tank down the road never gives any problems though he did notice a lot of fat / oil so we need to have words with the tenant. There was a lump of fat half blocking the inlet pipe which I had to clear.

You might as well make it to just above the roof or the caravan or outside toilet.

Make a shed to store all the "future projects" in.

Not seeing this high demand here, my workload is only just starting to increase from the doldrums of last year.

You don't need a P trap, the toilet has it's own trap, so trap following trap is a bad idea. You just need a Y branch to take the 'van toilet in one side and the outside toilet in the other. While you at it put in a 90 degree branch to feed a vent pipe that you can strap to the outside of the outside loo building to vent the run. Depending on the eight of the existing pipe, you might need a raised platform for the outside loo.

Happy with this Rationel triple glazed lift and slide door I just fitted, timber frame aluminium clad.

Floor or wall, however it fits best bearing in mind you need access for filter cleaning / replacement so you need space to stand or kneel while servicing it.

I will just add my thoughts to this. Most of out house has triple glazed Rationel windows. I faced this 2G / 3G question when looking for roof windows for our en-suite. To be frank I found the market offerings disappointing. But anyway, at a time when we were short on funds I compared the heat loss of a small 2G roof window with a 3G version, and concluded the heat saving of 3G in this small window was tiny, so i bought 2G. That was a bad decision. This is the ONLY window in the house that gets any condensation. Only a small amount around the edges, but I wish I had paid a little more for the 3G version which would hopefully have prevented that. There is more to choosing than pure heat loss vs "payback" time.

My LG ASHP does not have a condensate drain either. Any condensate just drips out of the bottom onto the paving slabs and runs off into the surrounding ground. This usually only happens when it defrosts.

So they are putting up £150m for a scheme that hopes to build 30,000 self build homes. That's £5K per self build home. That level of "subsidy" is going to do somewhere between nothing and not very much at all to help self builders. As noted the problem is finding a building plot. Solve THAT problem and more self build houses will follow. How about on all big housing developments insist a percentage of plots are sold as serviced self build plots at the SAME average cost as it has cost the developers?

It does not need to be so complicated. Locate the studs in the 2 side walls. Attach 4 by 2 (100 bu 50mm) timber horizontally fixed securely to each stud. Fit 4 by 2 joists spanning side to side attached to the bearers on the wall with joist hangers. Fix the joists at 400mm centres and floor with 18mm chipboard. Make sure the front edge of this new floor is at least 2 metres above the stairs to preserve required headroom. Fix further timbers and studding to form the front of this new cupboard. Access to this cupboard can either be by cutting a hatch through to one of the bedrooms, or by having a door on the front and accessed from the stairs with a ladder. Clad the structure in plasterboard. It may look better to form a sloping ceiling under the cupboard matching the slope angle of the stairs. That might form a handy void to route ducting etc.

I never see the point is taking a break as such. I drink my flask and eat my sandwiches on the go. Most trades will go and sit in their van for half an hour and read the paper or play on their phone. I would just rather get the job done and go home. £22 per hour is cheap for a plumber. So you are getting about 7 hours of actual work for £176 that's about £25 per hour. Still a good rate for a plumber. Is he any good, that is a more important question.

All I am saying is you don't get those PD rights until the dwelling is completed. So before then you can't just site a caravan under PD rights.

The difference between an occupied and empty house? About 14kWh generation here, almost all self used. What size is your PV?