ProDave

Last time I made a hot wire cutter, I used a bit of wire from one of those very old bar heater elements, the sort where the wire spirals round a ceramic former. They were 1KW elements so about 4 amps will get them glowing red. I just fed whatever length I was using from a bench power supply using the current limit facility and adjusting the current to set the wire temperature.

Ouch, those seem expensive. I had hoped t move off wired BB as soon as an alternative became available. Our community council was looking at a wifi system and were talking of £25 per month, but that has stalled as nobody has tendered for the contract. EE are building a new mast near us some time soon so I was hoping they would offer a decent deal. Our "problem" is we are on BT unlimited and there seems to be absolutely no way to tell how much we actually use so don't know how much we would actually need to replace that.

Which probably means you could have got it half the price elsewhere. Chandler's are not renowned for being cheap places to buy stuff.

@readiescards Are there any internal partition walls above supported by this sagging floor? That might be quite a difference. My long spans are just supporting the floorboards of the identical sized rooms above with no walls sitting on the joists.

I only see the joist sizes not the layout plan? As has been said, your joists look small. For my 4.8 metre span I have 300 by 100 on 600mm spacing.

You really don't want to be running 24V that length. If you do it's no use applying the voltage drop calculations for 240V. A 10V drop may be allowable for 240V but would be catastrophic for a 24V system, so you would end up with a monster sized cable. Stick to 240V and put the control box close to the gates.

That's a very good point made by @AndyT My heat pump wants control of the immersion heater for the ant legionella cycle. I am planning my own home made immersion dump controller, and it will include switching of a changeover relay so the dump controller takes control of the immersion and disconnects it from the heat pump for that time. That eddi device looks interesting but at that price I will stick with my home made one, which will be a derivative of the one I used at my last house using an arduino as the controller.

With no live load (just dead load) mine at 4.8 metres are dead flat as far as I can tell. I don't know if they were pre cambered or not. I have to say, yours look very thin. Mine are 100mm wide each, probably more like the two either side of your fireplace that are presumably thicker to take the extra weight of the pair in front of the fireplace.

Wasn't there a thread about putting these through a garden shredder to make your own "blown in" insulation?

We have a concrete parking slab next to the garage (which will eventually be covered with a car port) The builders were concerned rainwater might end up sitting against the garage wall. So they made a cast in place drain "groove" by setting a piece of pvc gutter into the concrete while it was still wet, weighted down with stones, and tapered so it was deeper at the back where it will drain off. There was no need for plastic sheet or anything. Once the compo had set, the pvc gutter lifted out leaving a very neat channel. I can't post a picture as it's currently under 4" of snow.

Since we got PP and put the static caravan on site, I think the Council tax valuer visited almost every month. When we did finally move into the 'van and phone him, he said "let me get the file. Ah I see I have photographs of your 'van, and I have visited the site 17 times" It would not surprise me if he is still visiting every month to look through the windows and see if the house is "ready" to start charging council tax on that.

You would be paying a lot for extra blockwork and labour and a thicker than needed block wall adds very little extra to the insulation. What is the wall make up in this proposed build? i.e. what goes on the inside of the blocks or is it "plaster on the hard" and what goes on the outside? Where and what type of insulation?

This any good? http://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d00324/tool-cart-300kg/dp/TL1058087?ost=tl1058087&ddkey=http%3Aen-CPC%2FCPC_United_Kingdom%2Fsearch Or a bit cheaper but more lightweight http://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d01982/plastic-dolly/dp/TL1489787?ost=tl1489787&ddkey=http%3Aen-CPC%2FCPC_United_Kingdom%2Fsearch If you really must make your own, it won't be a lot cheaper http://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=castor

Hi and welcome The only thing I would caution against is designing the house before you have a plot. You need to know the size and shape, orientation, views, restrictions, not overlooking neighbours etc before you can design what will work for that site. But of course fill a scrap book with ideas while looking.

That's about spot on @recoveringacademic All I would add is the type that SBS sells, with a dual busbar is better as you don't have the flying neutral lead from each rcbo to terminate. Point your sparky to SBS so he can see for himself. Having said that my board is all Hager rcbo's with the flying lead.

I think you would struggle to get airtight tape down into that narrow gap. I would stick the vcl down and stick the hood in place with something like "sticks like...." then foam around the hood with expanding foam, leaving the top of the hood exposed. Assuming LED lamps no heat problems. Make sure you seal the cable entry into the hood.

I have stated my view several times, that I think it is worth it as a cheap DIY install and not claiming the FIT. I am no longer convinced it is worth paying the premium for an MCS registered company to install them in order to claim the FIT. My model relies on you being able to use near 100% of what you generate, be that gig appliances in the daytime, excess dumped to water heating or even battery storage.

How "textured" I would be interested to see that exact definition. Do the planners want a sample of the finish? I know Rationel offer a slightly textured finish and gave us some samples that could be shown to the planners to ensure their acceptance? You would have to ask them though if they do curves.

I don't think the fire is the issue. It's simply providing the required room ventilation depending on it's size. If you employ a FENSA supplier to self certify you do not even need to notify BC.

Yes it's normal for your electrician to issue an EIC before they will give a temporary habitation certificate.

Looking again those strong backs look a bit small. Ours just abut fill the gap between the top and bottom chord.

Up here, you can get a "certificate of temporary habitation" that legally allows you to move into an unfinished house as long as it is basically functional. That also qualified it to be accepted for a normal insurance policy, and is also valid proof of completion for a VAT refund. Do English BC not offer something similar?

I suspect in that picture they are not yet fixed. You have to slot them in at that stage as it will be impossible later, but mine were not actually fixed to the joists until some time later. Is it possible that someone forgot to attach them?

Katzbeck was one that I got a quote from. Others were Internorm, Rationel,. Russel Timbertech, Nordan and a local supplier Treecraft. For me, Rationel were the cheapest and second best by a very small margin. Only Internorm offered slightly better Uw values but were twice the price of Rationel. There was at least one other supplier who's name I forget that others here have used, but they only do supply and fit, and they didn't cover Scotland.

I would run that past the structural engineer. Take the lid off and fill with concrete or just compacted hardccore in layers thus not disturbing any more ground than you have to?