ProDave

The stove is doing a good job of keeping the static caravan warm in this cold spell. Another 6" of snow last night and well below 0 all day. At least the wind has dropped. Still have @Onoff problem that the floor is cold, in spite of me adding extra insulation under it. We burn wood in the day, then bank it up overnight with coal then shut it right down. It stays in overnight giving out a gentle heat. In the morning put some logs on and open it up and it's going in no time.

I went around in the static 'van in the last few days taping up the ridiculous sized vents in the loo and shower room. I would rather open the window a crack after a shower to let the steam out than have an arctic gale all the time. Ditto the loo window if you have made a smell. We have @Onoff problem, just can't get the 'van warm at floor level.

The ever increasing levels of traffic were what made us give up with the SE and move to the Highlands. Every town or city is expanding it's housing stock, but there are no new roads joining the towns together. 30 years ago, I lived 6 miles from my work, a journey I could do in not a lot more than 6 minutes, certainly comfortably in 10. It was rural roads, passing through one hamlet and one village, with the only "obstruction" being 1 roundabout. 10 years later when I left that employment, most of the route had a 40mph speed limit slapped on it. The hamlet that had previously had a staggered crossroads just with give way junctions (and no serious queues) had been "upgraded" to two sets of traffic lights, resulting in long queues in all 4 directions. Further compounded by another road in the hamlet being closed off. My journey now took close on half an hour. It was that sort of nonsense repeated all through the county that led us to realise it was never going to get better, and for the sake of my sanity we had to move. My last job before finally leaving had me commuting daily up the A34 west of Oxford. The only way I could tolerate that was on a motorbike, even in winter. I loathed the days when I got up and there was ice on the road and I had to use the car for work. It doesn't take long when we return to visit, to want to get away again.

@Cpd I wasn't trying to imply you were going to do a poor job, just mentioning that the vast majority of builders do. One in particular I rewired a few years back, builder doing the refurb "insulated" it by including 25mm thick kingspan behind the pasterboard (still the usual plasterboard tent behind that kingspan) He genuinely thought he was doing a good job. He even told me that when he did his own house, he went overboard and fitted 50mm thick kingspan to insulate his plasterboard tent. It will be interesting to see how you make a proper job of doing it.

Not directly related, but our previous house, a timber framed house with UFH on both floors. When we fired up the heating on that, in November, it took about 4 days to get up to temperature. Initially I doubted the heating was adequate as the first day didn't seem to do much apart from burn a lot of oil. But once warmed up that proved to be a reasonably economical and certainly very warm and comfortable house. 2 bottles of gas in 4 days sounds like a lot.

£1000 for a CU change? Something is not right. Unless there's something unusual (like an all rcbo board) then the CU will cost about £100 and will take a day to swap and test everything. So either your electrician is on a damned high hourly rate, or he spent a week doing alterations and remedial work to bring it up to standard. There is no requirement to upgrade circuits you have not made alterations to. At the end of the day, all building control need is an EIC. I doubt they ever read it or would understand what it said if they did read it. It is just bit of paper to file away to show the electrics have been determined by someone to be safe.

The big mistake just about everyone makes with old Scottish croft houses, is to make a "plasterboard tent" inside them. I can almost guarantee that when I remove a switch or socket from the wall a howling gale will emerge from the hole. In almost every case, the framing and plasterboarding that lines the walls is open up into the loft space from where cold air can get between the wall and the plasterboard. Add to that, most have no insulation at all in the room in roof ceilings, no wonder they are cold.

There is an electrian on another forum who was complaining it regularly takes him an hour to do 10 miles from one side of Birmingham to the other. We once (never again) set off from Oxford to the Highlands on the August bank holiday Friday after work. We gave up and went to bed (in the caravan we were towing) at Shap. I calculated we had averaged 30mph from Oxford to Shap.

Surely the simplest is divide the plot. Sell one plot (your old main residence so no CGT?) Build new house to live in and reclaim the VAT. I think as soon as you start along the road of build 2 houses you become a "developer" and different rules apply. So the issue becomes either how to fund building the new house before you sell the old one? or sell the old one first then where to live while building the new one?

I briefly questioned whether to run the UFH without a blending valve and simply set the UFH temperature by setting the buffer tank temperature, but the consensus was that was a bad idea.

And why would increasing the ASHP flow temperature overheat the UFH? does that not have it's own blending valve?

Off topic perhaps. But wasn't this change to window installs supposed to mean they comply with building regs? The old bungallow that I am working on this week during it's renovation is having new windows fitted by Everest. The living room windows only have opening fanlights. I thought it was now a requirement to have at least one means of escape window?

Those things terrify me. If just one of the 2 per rung locking devices is not latched properly, or fails, the whole lot could collapse. The very last sort of ladder I would ever trust my life to, I think they are an accident waiting to happen. Give me the loft ladder any time.

Well I tiled our roof (concrete tiles) on my own, with a lot of help from SWMBO to help lift the tiles up onto the roof, so if you can practice and master the slating bit, I see no reason why not. P.S don't use the nail gun on the slates

Plenty of time for you to wait out firstly for an official enforecement action, then for his planning application, then for the appeal. Even when that fails, a court order will be needed to evict you. Just pay you CT and settle in. You will hopefully move into your new house and leave the mess for your neighbour to sort out. P.S was this the neighbour that gave you so much grief over your planning?

You don't order enough. I got an advent callender and the £10 discount code. Since the code does not seem specific to any particular account, I thought it worth sharing. I don't think you can use that code in store as the instructions say "hand over the card" but on line you just type in that code.

Would / could it still have an impact on future planning applications if you first get a certificate of lawful development?

£10 off an order at Screwfix Enter the code ADVENT17 when placing your order. Valid until 12/12/17

Our old house has UFH upstairs and ordinary carpets (i.e not especially low tog) and the bedrooms warm up okay. It takes a little longer than downstairs that has wood or tiled floors.

My vote would be a switch fuse in the meter box to feed the house, and a CU inside the piggery for it's own stuff. Keep the piggery CU within 3 metres of the meter box to prevent that too needing it's own switch fuse (i.e just put it on the inside of the wall backing on to the meter box) So out of isolator into a pair of henley blocks, from those to the switch fuse with one pair of tails and through the wall into the piggery with the other. By the way, is that one of those smart meter thingies? Did you choose that or was it forced upon you?

It's all done with mirrors

I have just finished wiring a house all built of I beams. All I know is where they cut large holes in the web for soil pipes etc, they reinforces on both sides of the web with gusset plates. That tends to suggest a large hole would otherwise loose too much strength.

It is complete nonsense, not helped by the surveyors. At least in our case we still have the building control completion certificate and also the nhbc warranty certificate, though that has now expired so of no value other than to prove they were happy with it when built. And no alterations have been done since. Honest.

You would need a serious silencer on the chain saw.

Interesting. When I did the comparison, well over a year ago, Frametherm was half the price of celulose. Perhaps the installers that blow it in charge a lot more up here?