ProDave

You will get recommendations from me and probably others on here for Rationel. Of all the windows I got quotes for, they were the cheapest, and the second best. The only ones that beat them in performance were internorm, at twice the price for a very small improvement in Uw values. These were tripple glazed ali clad. It does seem to vary a lot, and in spite of my internorm quote being so high, some have reported them to be the cheapest quality windows.

The council planners could issue an enforcement notice to order the demolition if that was a planning condition. Until they do that I don't see any rush. As there is no time limit on completion from a planning point of view, that would probably only happen if someone (who knows it must be demolished) complains. Since the new build is signed off by building control you have nothing to worry about in that respect.

I would not rely on just the DNO's earth over that distance. I would probably still connect to it and add my own local rod(s) making it a true Protective MULTIPLE Earth

SWA can be joined and if joining underground you get a joint box that is then filled with liquid resin that sets and encapsulates the joint. As to re use, depends what size it is. My guess is volt drop did not figure in the original install, they just wanted something that "worked" EDIT: Typing at the same time as Jeremy and said much the same thing

A friend near here is building a new house. He originally went for the daft sounding idea of trickle vents in the windows and mechanical extraction from "wet" rooms permanently on (a centralised extraction unit) Then he had an air tightness test done and it was too good. Building control told him he must have mechanical air input as well. He did look at adding a separate air intake system, I kept telling him the whole idea was bonkers (no heat recovery). In the end he has ripped it all out and installed mvhr, which is what I advised right at the start. My mvhr unit was about £500 and ducting etc about £1000 you should comfortably get a system for £2K At it's lowers speed (which I am hoping is what I can use as the trickle ventilation rate) my unit uses about 30W of electricity. Sure in summer, turn it off and open the windows.

I assume your meter box is at the top of the picture? What size is the existing blue cable? it has after all served the existing house for some time. If it's large enough, why not re use it?

Please don't tell me that all wet room shower trays must connect directly into 110mm Not only have I already plumbed for 50mm pipe to each shower (with solvent welded bosses) but I could not fit 110mm with enough fall as they have to pass through the web of a posi joist.

Our last stair was fitted like that. The stringer was fixed directly to every stud and then the plasterboard fitted. There was no "movement interface" Nothing moved and the joint remained closed.

It all depends what you want from your house? A lot of us here are aiming for very well insulated and very well sealed houses to make them energy efficient. Once you get to a certain level of insulation, then the heat loss becomes more dominated by ventilation heat loss (you must ventilate the house somehow anyway) and that is where an mvhr unit really comes into its own to reduce ventilation heat loss and so improve energy efficiency. It also improves air quality. Ventilation by natural means is so hit and miss and variable.

The issue is not the current carrying capacity of the cable, if it was then 25mm2 would be fine. Rather, over that length, it's the voltage drop that will dictate the size of cable that you use. It would not surprise me in the least to find you do indeed have to use something as big as 70mm, I would need to look it up and do the calcs. The DNO use larger cables, here the main running down the road is 95mm2 which then they tap off a 25mm feed for the short tun to each property. If you get the DNO to move the supply closer to the house, the cost will be for such a large caable, and the non contestable work of them making the connections, which they will almost certainly do live. It will cost a lot more than you just buying suitably large cable. Unless of course moving it closer to the house would mean shortening the DNO's cable run? It depends where it comes from? +1 to getting a 3 phase meter fitted and running 3 phase to the house. By spreading the load over 3 phases you might be able to reduce your max demand per phase and use a smaller cable, though of course more cores in the cable. I would use SWA buried direct in the ground. Single cores in conduit is acceptable, but I am not sure I would describe an underground duct as "conduit" so I would not use singles.

Do you want it to switch directly from heat to cool at a certain temperature? If so a single stat and a relay will do that. But I would have thought you want a "gap" between the heating switching off and the cooling turning on at a higher temperature?

They always USED to do that. Remember when they had a throttle lever on the handle, put it down to idle when you took the grass box off. None of this dead mans handle and having to stop it to empty the box. My Suffolk Punch was like that. I bought it to mow the 10ft by 30ft lawn of my first rabbit hutch house. Everyone else mowed such a tiny lawn with an electric mower, but such was my hate of dragging a cable around........ I was also the first to make a gate in the back garden fence. Everyone else in the terrace carried the lawnmower through the house to cut the 10ft square front lawn, another bonkers idea.

Is this a condition that can be appealed if you can't meet the extra 40% allowance but could meet the basic 1 in 100 year flood risk? In any event you, or the vendor is going to have to dig a few test pits to establish the soil type and measure the percolation rate before you can proceed.

There is a lot to digest there, and I have to go out just now so can't give a full repply. Tread carefully here. If you make an offer to buy the plot, make it conditional on finding a solution to the drainage issue AND satisfying both building control and planning that the solution is okay. Drainage solutions can take up a LOT of space on a plot, make sure it will all fit and still leave room for the house. Remember is is possible to get PP for a house that is impossible to actually build.

Hi and welcome to the forum. I think that now makes 3 electricians on here.

I used one of the ECO+ brand tripple glazed roof windows. The quality of finish is definitely not up to the Velux / Facro standard, but in your case that may not matter as a roof light you are unlikely to look at close up. I had no trouble fitting it and that supplier provided prompt delivery. The cheap ebay one I would avoid. I am not even sure it would meet building regs.

I allow 1 our per point for first and second fix, and it's usually less than that. So 160 points is probably 80 hours work for second fix, so 2 weeks.

I fitted it myself. The joiner just wanted to avoid the "it doesn't fit" complaint.

Just be wary of time limits on building control. Up here a building warrant is for a fixed period of time. you can extend it as long as you do so before it has expired. If you don't then you may end up needing a new building warrant and having to comply with anything that has changed in the regs since your first application.

It would be interesting to know if the issue is the meters themselves catching fire (design or manufacturing fault) , or the installer failing to tighten the terminals properly leading to high resistance joints, heat then fire. I doubt (unfortunately) any of these programs will tell us that. There is / was an "issue" with consumer unit fires, and rather than tackle the issue, they changed wiring regs so all CU's must be non flamable, which in reality means metal. So rather than investigate and fix the problem, the solution was contain it.

I'm even more confused now what the root "issue" is? Did the builders build the wall wonky? Or did the storm move it before the mortar was set?

When we had the staircase made for our last house, the joiner insisted on coming to measure the opening, and floor to floor height. He was not trusting anyone elses measurements and wanted to be sure it would fit. HE then decided what tolerance to apply. It's not just ensuring it fits the space, also check the rise, going, width and angle all meet building regs.

This is one of the multi foil thin "insulation" products. I don't think you will find anyone here that recommends them. They seem to work by reflecting radiant heat, and are not necessarilly a true insulator in the normal sense. If you are thinking you can insulate your house with a thin layer of this sort of stuff instead of thick layers of normal insulation, you are going to be very disappointed indeed.

This is a good point. WHY do so many commute so far for work? Something the likes of HS2 will only increase. What is driving people to live so far from work? Commuting has never done it for me (an hour each way on the works bus during my aprenticeship put me off that for life) I have always wanted to live somewhere close to my work, and more importantly, somewhere with not traffic jams en-route. It we tackled the commuting issue, that would go a long way to solving the vehicle emissions problem.

Of course the cynic will say this is just a sticking plaster ignoring the "real" issues. The thrust of this is to solve the air polution issues in city centre streets. The real issues are why the hell do so many people want to cram themselves in close proximity to so many others? Country living in villages is so much better? And the real issue is there are simply too many people, but that's the taboo issue nobody will even mention let alone debate. So we "solve" this by everyone converting to en EV. Where do you think the electricity to charge them all will come from? The FIT scheme is effectively dead so I can't see a massive growth in personal solar PV. Besides most will want to charge them at home in the evening and there's no sun even if you have PV. Charging your car from self generated solar PV is a luxury for the retired. And with all this extra demand for electricity, what's that going to do for overall polution OUTSIDE the cities? and which way do you think electricity prices will go with all this extra demand? That's not just EV charging electricity, but your domestic electricity as well. Someone needs to "invent" red electricity (the equivalent of red diesel) so the tax bandwagon can tax vehicle charging like it presently taxes road fuel. We are being sold the myth that EV's are "green" which can only be true if the power to charge them is not from fossil fuels. THAT is one hell of a big challenge. We can't even generate enough of the present electricity usage by green means, yet we have put in motion a plan to massively increase electricity demand. (off to get my tin hat)