ProDave

You will get a reading in megaohms when set to insulation testing, and you are hoping for a very high reading, even infinity is good. anything less than 1 megaohm wants investigating, but typically a screw through a cable will read 0 If you get a low reading, look first at the other end of the cable in case the cores are touch each other.

Yes. If you look at the detail that is 2 double pole switches bolted together one normally open the other normally closed and that is a 2 pole busbar jumper across the bottom and the left hand terminals are only for connecting that busbar.

Most people consider that the old way of doing it but there is no right or wrong way. The disadvantage of loop at light, as that is called, is some consider it more tiresome terminating at a ceiling, and a lot of modern light fittings have inadequate provision for that many cables within the light fitting. Loop at switch I find easier to terminate as you are working at a nice height. It also provides a neutral at the switch if you want any form of smart switch, and in the case of say a string of downlights it really is the only sensible way to do it.

Yes test both cables individually

A changeover switch Mounted in a suitable enclosure with the generator in connected to a suitable INLET connector rated for the generator output.

You are testing that none of the cores of the cable are shorted to another of the cores of the same cable, which is typically what will happen if there is a screw through a cable. So start with one probe on bare earth wire of the cable and one probe on the brown, if you get good, high insulation repeat with one probe on the earth and one on the blue. To be thorough test again with one probe on the brown and one on the blue. Typically a light cable in the ceiling will go to the light switch box, as most houses now are wired "loop at switch" not directly to the consumer unit.

Please tell me you are not using a widow maker lead?

You will need an insulation resistance tester, if you are not doing it for a living you can get one cheap on ebay for example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256703940830 You need to measure insulation resistance between each of the 3 cores of each and every cable. Yes it can be tedious.

That earned the name "Tony Tray" on this forum a while back. Our builders erecting the frame did that for us with Intello air tight membrane. That paved the way to line the whole inside of the timber frame but using a cheaper membrane BarriAir (not sure how you spell it? Here is a picture

Looks good to me, you have done all the thin cuts well and nothing obviously looks wonky. There are threads on here of "professional" tilers doing a lot lot worse.

I would not do that yet. Pre existing condition that should have been noticed in the survey, might refuse the claim. For now I would monitor it. Get a long spirit level, cut a block of wood to go under one end that makes the bubble level, then keep that block, and keep checking to see if the slope gets worse. If it does, then consider the insurance.

Or, the house has been built on a raft foundation and the whole raft has sunk at one end. What is retaining the 2ft drop to the garden? Does the extension also slope the same amount? I would be asking the surveyor why he did not notice this?

Post a picture of how the floorboard joint will land with regards the notch so we can see the issue. It sounds like you need to get a screw closer to the pipes than the plate will allow, if doing that you have to be SURE you miss the pipes.

I think our record power cut was 3 days, being just a small cluster of houses we are well down the priority list for restoring power after a storm. That was in our previous house and we were very glad of the WBS to keep us warm, and the fact the hob was LPG so we could still cook.

I am assuming from the way he has cut blocks to fill the gap, that the notches in the joists were there already? It looks like a good job, a metal cover plate to stop nails or screws going into the pipe, recessed so the boards go down nicely, and a little bit of insulation so the pipes won't click and bang as they heat and cool.

I was reading on another forum of someone that made some oak doors for a kitchen unit. His SWMBO said she would paint them, so he gave her the brushes and the clear varnish. He came back from work to find instead she had found a different tin of dark oak stain and used that, and now they are too dark and don't match the rest of the doors.

The transducer is a high frequency speaker. It sends out an ultrasonic ping and then waits for the echo to come back and work out the depth. If you drill a hole, you then fill the hole with the sensor and seal it so the transducer is outside. The alternative is you glue it to the inside of the hull and then the hull acts just like your bath, to send the sound wave through and hear the reply. It is a little less sensitive when just glued to the hull.

That's a bit like I fitted a new ultrasonic depth meter to my boat this year. But instead of drilling a hole and mounting the transducer through it, I glued the transducer to the inside of the hull.

In this case it shows the disproportionate power the greens had, holding the one MSP that made up the majority so they say you must do this or we pull out. Now that coalition has been dissolved they no longer have that power. I am surprised it allows burning wood or peat is primary heating. A good compromise would be allow such burning as secondary heating only. But while DRAX continues to burn wood on an industrial scale and they say with a straight face it is "green" then it is totally hypercritical to claim domestic scale wood burning is not green.

Yes it did show floor area and average U values of walls etc, then went on to calculate a ridiculous high figure, so having pulled that data from the EPC and displayed it on my screen, it must have then gone on to use something else to calculate the heat load.

The first SWMBO here knew about me buying a digger, is when I said "you know that digger on ebay I bid for just before we went out today, well I won it"

Over 20 years ago I bought a cheap 240V SDS drill from screweys for about £30 It is still going strong, on it's 3rd set of motor brushes, second trigger switch and second (sensible length this time) mains flex. I think for serious work, a lot of the benefit comes from the sheer mass of the drill, something you don't get with even a good cordless. It's done a lot of work and looks very tatty and battered, but it refused to break in an unrepairable way.

Yes I got the impression this one just determined the age and it was (in my case) timber frame and then applied typical values for a new build timber frame of that era, totally ignoring the actual as built data contained in the EPC. I don't have a lot of faith in the EPC system and in 10 years time when my as built full SAP EPC "expires" I bet if we ever wanted to sell we would not be able to get anything other than a silly guesstimate next time. I am not expecting this house to be sold until I am in a box, so I won't worry about it too much.

Well I was going to start on my car port soon. That was a "summer job" that got pushed back in favour of decking, a bridge over the burn and a fence around the front of the garden. Good job i did delay it. The specifications of the car port have just drastically been re written. I will keep you all in suspense on what and why for another week.......

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxwg3pjxleo The Scottish government has confirmed it is ditching restrictions on the installation of wood-burning stoves in newbuild homes or conversions. SNP ministers introduced regulations in April - while still in a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Greens - to ban new homes and buildings from using direct-emission heating systems including gas or oil boilers. The rules were temporarily halted in September after concerns were raised that a ban on wood and peat burners would have a negative impact on people living in rural areas. The government has now amended the New Build Heat Standard (NBHS) regulations, external to allow "the installation of bioenergy and peat main heating systems - and any type of secondary heating systems".