ProDave

^^ That's an issue with door opening swings. As I assume the doors to the living room and kitchen open into their rooms, not onto the landing, it does not apply anyway.

I would want to research that to find out the details. It seems a bit bonkers that building regs can stop you having doors opposite each other on a landing? In some ways your house is an upside down version of ours. We have a familly room one side of the hall and a snug living room the other, double doors to each directly opposite each other across the hall. If you wan to, open both doors and it opens it up as a big space. I would need to see a GOOD reason why you can't do that upstairs. How about moving the stairs right to the back and have as we have 2 flights with a half landing. It could give you a large (tall) cupboard on the half landing, free up more hall and landing space for doors, and allow an 1800mm wide hall and landing to make the other rooms bigger. You would have to relocate the upstairs loo though.

A few little things The two upstairs rooms, put the doors to them opposite each other on the landing, not staggered. Make them double, glass doors so you can open up the space as one when you want to and let light into the landing. Make the upstairs loo slightly larger, to allow you to bring a solar tube down inside it (boxed in) that will come out just in front of the downstairs cupboard to give some light to the back of the hall. A window above the loo door for a bit of borrowed light as well. You might need to push the stairs a bit nearer the front door for some of that. The proportions of the downstairs bathroom and en-suite need some work to properly use that awkward redundant space behind the wardrobe.

That is still larger than the original. The original is a bit of an odd ball, it appears to have a rating of about 8Va but in the same size package of a 6Va transformer. I don't want to fit a 6VA so the standard 12VA sizes look the best bet. Now I have confirmation there is space for a slightly bigger one, I will order the CPC one, so much simpler as I have an account with them.

Okay this is the closest I can find https://cpc.farnell.com/camdenboss/ctfc12-12/transformer-12va-2-x-12v/dp/TF01339?st=12v transformer you can get that from any number of suppliers but they are all the same size. This is a little bigger than the original. I don't think mounting it on the back of the plastic tray moulding will be a problem, BUT it will stick out 10mm further than the original transformer. Can someone with sight of how the plastic tray fits into the unit tell me if an extra 10mm clearance for the transformer is available? EDIT: Just taking a look at the link above that may be more suitable

Yes it's a standard chassis mount 240V ac in 12V ac output 667mA transformer needed. The 2 mounting holes are 60mm apart. I am trying a bit of careful disection to see if I can see a thermal trip but initial thought is if there is one it won't be accessible so will be looking for a new transformer. I have to go out just now so back later to continue the search.

@Gav_P Your board arrived this morning. I am glad you sent the complete assembly including the transformer. First finding, there was no output from the transformer. Primary winding appears open circuit. Step 2 try powering the board from a bench power supply fed into the transformer input. As this feeds into a bridge rectifier, the polarity from the bench supply should not matter. The board powers up and the LED is flashing away. giving 4 flashes, a pause then 1 flash. No doubt a fault code as just about everything is unplugged. It looks like the overload on the power supply due to the short circuit caused the thermal protection in the transformer to blow. It may or not be possible to repair the transformer, it might need a new one. I will keep you posted.

Ah sounds like another rag and stick member on the forum then.

I find friends don't visit so often, if every time they turn up you start with "oh while you are here, can you give me a lift with this, yes that's correct, right up to the top of the scaffolding, what do you mean you don't like heights......"

Well the list of different width door liners are 180mm 120mm and 95mm I don't see anything "non standard" about using 95mm 0r 145mm C16 regularised plus plasterboard and skim as a wall make up. Add in an OSB racking layer (for a load bearing wall) and yes it might be less common, but I would hardly say non standard.

I am sure you all know I (plus help from SWMBO) am doing it "solo" Still ticking along. Not much in the way of blog entries lately as I have started a lot of stuff that is not yet finished so no blog entry for a while. I am currently held up waiting for the plasterer, one of the very few tradesmen I am "employing" just as I had a room ready for him to do, I phoned him only to find he was about to go off on 2 weeks holiday. I now have 2 rooms waiting for when he can fit me in. Until they are plastered and painted, I can't get on and lay the last of the UFH then lay the oak floor and start using those rooms. Until that is done, the house is being heated entirely by the UFH in the family room at the moment. Getting ready to install the flue pipe for the stove, flue should be here this week, scaffold is up ready, just need a decent weather window which is not so easy this time of year. Too cold and icy "up top" to even think about it at the moment. We have had a reprieve from the council tax valuer. He phoned the other day to see how we were doing, having noticed on one of his snooping visits we did not appear to be living in the caravan any more. So I started describing where we were and as soon as I mentioned no rooms have doors on them yet, he decided to postpone valuing it until early next year, so a few more months on band A council tax.

This is what drives me mad with joinery, you just can't seem to buy stuff that fits standard construction. i.e ready made door liners are not available in the required widths. I think your choice is buy the larger ones and rip / plane them down, or just buy some flat planed wood (available in a wider range of sizes) and make your own. much harder with oak as if they are just veneer then you can't just go planing them to size. Door liners hard to floor, cut carpet around them. If you have mvhr allow a larger gap under the doors for some air flow. I fix with screws, carefully positioned so the door stop when fitted hides the fixing screws.

These are mine from Stairbox, they must be the most basic you can get. The stringers will be varnished (have been now but not photographed) and they will be carpeted hence the mdf / ply treads. Note the dwarf newel posts ready for the fusion system handrails I linked to before.

Hi and welcome. That sounds all very interesting, we like pictures, look forward to them.

Mine was put there by LG the manufacturer of the heat pump, it's function being to help heat hot water, as an emergency heater if the heat pump has a fault, and to help defrosting. The pipework looks to be about 22mm.

My LG heat pump has one built in and I can confirm the element enters the tube from the bottom. It also looks like a right pig to dismantle of you ever want to get at it. The Willis heater just goes in series with the heat pumps heat exchanger so just in the flow from the heat pump. If you are not using the heater then water just passes through it.

Welcome from the North Island. I believe you are the first member on the South Island

A good compromise might be what we are using, the Burbidge fusion system. http://www.stairpartshop.co.uk/acatalog/fusion_system.html Get the stairs made with dwarf newel posts to match then buy the handrail system later. The handrails are available in pine or oak, and you can either have chrome or nickel spindles or glass panels. All easy to DIY install. Our stairs came from stairbox and they were happy to supply with the suitable dwarf newel posts for the fusion system handrails. Choosing something like this means you can leave the final decision on exactly what to have until a bit later. Our stairbox stairs do not creak.

With these things there is a huge difference between what a suit at a desk says, and what the men on the ground will do. If you can get the suit happy, the men on the ground will not bat an eyelid at 4 metres of cable inside the house.

Remove a brick again, pour in some rat poison, and replace the brick again.

Hi and welcome to the form. That looks stunning. What is the access track like? In my rambles I have passed by several derelict houses like that, but mostly inaccessible by vehicle. Some used as holiday homes. If you have a decent track so you can drive to it you are in with a fighting chance.

Try a simple wireless thermostat, NOT a wifi one. Don't know the range but it has to be worth a try.

No problem fitting sound insulation between posi joists Just some odd bits of 4*1 slotted through to hold it in place (okay, yes I admit, from a pallet or 2) Didn't bother actually filling the space between the webs.

If I have success with the first board, I will gladly take a look at yours @joe90 but I fear yours may be more terminally damaged.

You are not the first that I have know have a treatment plan float out of the ground. At least it was only water in it!!!!! Ours is concreted in, but even so I would never push our luck and will only get it emptied in the summer after a dry spell when I can be certain the water table is low.