ProDave

I have 4 Oak doors to fit into Oak frames (already in) as 2 door pairs. The Joiner I have used before and who I know and trust, I can't get hold of. I have tried phoning him and leaving messages and no reply. I don't know what's going on there but I have tried several times to the point if I keep trying I feel I am hounding him. The trouble is I don't know who else to trust (I know plenty I would not trust) The point of getting someone in to hang them is I want somebody that will do a better, i,e, neater job that I would do myself. So asking if any of the other members on here in and around the Inverness area have a personal recommendation of someone they know who will do a good job of hanging my doors?

The issue is surely not the "cupboard" but the hooks used within the cupboard?

Lets do some rough sums. For the sake of easy numbers, 10MWh per year total for heating An ASHP with a COP of 3 will reduce that to 3.33MWh of electricity used. At typically 14p per kWh that will be typically £462 per year, so similar cost to burning coal. Assuming the heating is on for 180 days per year, that will be an average of 55kWh of heat per day. Lets say the coldest day is twice the average, so 110kWh per day and the heating is on for 10 hours per day, that will be an average heating power of 11kW So I would be thinking of something like an 18kW Air Source Heat pump. All VERY rough estimates.

So you burn 1.5 - 2 tons of coal per year to heat the house. Now if someone could look up how much heat you get from burning 2 tons of coal and convert it to kWh, you would have a pretty good measure of how much heat you need from another source. @SteamyTea

Engineered boards are available in different thicknesses. Use a thick one and it's a structural board, capable of spanning between joists so no need for a sub floor.

If they applied that rule here, the Highlands would be deserted again. We have no footpath, no street lights, 3 miles to the nearest shop and no public transport. It's bloody brilliant. If push came to shove I could cycle to the shops (but it's uphill on the way back) I would prefer to walk, along the riverbank.

The first house I bought, a brand new 1 bedroom house had that silly parking arangement of a car park at the end of each row of houses with allocated spaces. I absolutely hated it, both for security, and a right pain if you needed to work on your car. The No 1 priority on my list when moving on from that house was my own driveway with a garage or at least space to build a garage. That alone ruled out 90% of the houses that agents were sending me to view, to the point one agent labelled me as a "time waster" because after a certain number of viewing unsuitable houses I had not bought one.

I went to the local flooring material shop in town. They took my requirements, sent of for some samples so I could see them in the flesh, then ordered what I needed. I am not sure flooring is something I would want to buy on line without seeing it for real.

Ask the floor supplier for something they guarantee will be okay with UFH. That will almost certainly mean not solid oak, and whatever you choose will be narrow planks. Our last house had 90mm solid Maple and that was okay. (Present house has 190mm wide engineered oak and is fine) What have you got against Engineered boards?

862 wide I think or there abouts. The awkward thing was i had not realised the frame maker had made all the internal doorways quite tall so we needed 2040mm tall doors which really limited the choice.

A poorly made crimp connection. Look at the one that is failed, there is a gap at the front. Look at all the others, solid. It's a manufacturing fault but probably out of warranty. It is fixable if the case is not too badly melted from the outside, just needs that wire link replacing.

Building Supplies Online. Cheaper than any of the local merchants could offer.

No, those are more expensive XL Joinery doors. The downstairs ones have half moon glass panels.

Simple Oak veneered skirtings from Howdens and matching oak veneered architrave. Simple and un fussy. All oiled with Osmo door oil.

Do you actually need a buffer, if the UFH is only ever going to run when the whole heating system is on and other rooms are being heated by radiators? You might want a plate heat exchanger to separate the crud in the existing heating circuit from the UFH but then that requires the UFH to have it's own little header tank or small expansion vessel as a separate circuit. What are you doing to control the UFH temperature? I see no manifold or blending valve on your sketches?

SWMBO buys beans and grinds them herself to use in a cafetière. I just buy ground coffee in a bag and use a Bialletti percolator. All these individually packed things are just over priced and a waste of packaging plus you need a complicated machine to use them.

I am afraid I have reservations about this proposal as well. Planners tend not to like you going beyond the building line of the side street which this clearly does. Do you have PP for the front parking? I am a little surprised that was granted right next to the corner. The new garage will be awkward to get a car in,lets be honest you have no intention of that. I am not convinced the stairs to the third floor, disjointed from the main stairs will meet building regs, but that is not a planning matter. conversion to a gable end will be out of keeping with the other houses in the area. I am not convinced this particular house is the best candidate for a side extension.

Make sure you have plenty of extension leads then!!!!

If you have enough data, can you tether your laptop to the mobile? You then get a few hours on the lappy depending how good the battery is before you need to start the generator. Boil the kettle pre power cut and fill several flasks. Will your neighbour let you go and attend to keeping the fish warm?

How long is the outage? What sort of generator? I am guessing a portable one you will have to run an extension lead to plug in the router and computer? And hope the fuel tank lasts long enough to last a whole day. They will sometimes install a big trailer mounted generator in the street, they did that here at a care home when it was going to take 2 days to repair a power line that was down, but I doubt that is what they are proposing for you? Or phone in sick tomorrow?

Interesting idea. I fear it will be over burdened with restrictions, red tape and hoops to jump through. And the "cars banished to the corner of the site" would prevent me from even thinking of it.

I have a TF house. It does not move, creak or in any way feel flimsy. I chose this as I wanted every part of my wall make up to be insulation. So Insulated timber frame with external insulation and render. Very low energy house.

I am very cynical about MCS installers who seem to charge more than many might say is a fair labour rate. BUT you have to counter that with you are paying £4K for the install but will get a total of £13K in RHI payments. This example does seem unusually high, some quotes we have seen, the RHI payment barely exceeds the install cost.

Are you wanting to keep stained glass? Same design or something different?

I would have used my lathe.