ProDave

SWMBO and I were discussing this. "I want a larger HW tank in the new house" "Why, this one never runs out of hot water" "You haven't seen the shower I want in the new house".......

Re the Electrific £10 voucher. You can NOT redeem it against a "click and collect" order. SWMBO is going into town tomorrow so I will get here to pick up some stuff and spend the voucher. I was going to do it as a click and collect but thankfully I had a read of the T&C on the back and it specifically excludes that.

Can I ask how that glass was fixed? i guess the glass was bolted or screwed to the structure, then "something white" was applied as a cladding over it with no visible fixings. It's the lack of visible fixings that give it the crispness, but my simple mind can only think of "glue" for something like that.

Why was that? Did you go to "the other side" first to get your cup of coffee, then take it to the peasants side? I so rarely go to the trade counter as it's so far from me, I almost always order on line. EDIT a few weeks back, SWMBO was going into town, so I gave her the "special card" so she could use the Trade counter. But she didn't bother with the free coffee.

Reading this thread just shows how awkward some planning departments are. I had a number of pre commencement conditions and these were just dealt with by email with my planning officer. No long delays, no fee, and no need to "submit" my solutions formally. At the end I got an email, followed up by a letter in the post saying the pre commencment conditions had been discharged. Oh so simple. I then had to notify them when I "started" the development. I queried what constitutes "starting" and it was simple. condition 1 of my PP said I must create the tarmac entrance from the road before any building begins, so when I started work on that entrance, I had "started" the development and had to notify them. It wasn't relevant to me as I was proceeding with the build immediately, but it would appear that just making the entrance and "starting" would have been enough to lock in the PP if I had intended a long delay before actually building.

Occupancy sensors are available, though not he most reliable technology in the world. But I don't know of any touch sensitive switches so I can't help you with that. Low level low power LED's to "light the way to the loo" aka aircraft emergency exit lighting on the floor?

"A percolation test hole 300mm x 300mm x 300mm deep should be excavated below the proposed invert level of the effluent distribution pipe. For most sewage treatment units this depth is from 700mm down to 1 metre, i.e the base of the percolation test hole below is 1 metre below ground. This usually requires a large hole to be dug to stand in whilst digging the small percolation test hole." As I thought, you only have to fill a 300mm cube hole = 27 litres of water.

Are you sure you have your hole size correct? I thought you dug a 1 metre cube hole (1M by 1M by 1M) and then in the bottom of that dig a 300mm cube hole and it was that smaller hole you fill with water and measure the tiome it takes to go down from 75% full do 25% full. Is the English test procedure different to the Scottish procedure?

^^ In the crofting world, that's what old coal bunkers are for (next to the post and microwave for the smaller items)

I mentioned the Microwave on a post thing. The reply was "knowing you, you would fix it and use it rather than nail it to a post"

There are indeed some "strange" things in the way the RHI scheme works. It is supposed the be based on how much heat you need. For instance, Jeremy's house is so well insulated I think he worked out it would be due for an RHI payment of less than £100 per year. But I did some work for a house that had just had a biomass boiler installed. The owner made two statements that just did not seem to fit with each other. The first was "the surveyor said this is the best insulated house he has ever surveyed" and the second was "the RHI payments will be about £200 per month"

Thanks for the heads up. I will watch or record that. I assume NI has the same RHI scheme as the rest of the UK? I mentioned in another thread a friend of mine has paid £16K to have an air source heat pump installed. I calculated the parts cost and a reasonable estimate (no a generous estimate) of the labour it took to install it would work out at £6K. Therefore it appears to me he has paid a £10K premium to have it installed by a registered company in order to claim the RHI payments, which I hope for his sake add up to a lot more than £10K

My windows (Rationel) were 50% deposit and remaining 50% BEFORE delivery, so that won't help you. I did have a rather unsually favourable deal with the builders of stage payments in arrears, so they had started work and bought materials before they even got their first payment from me. That was not from a timber frame company, but a local small firm of builders who built and erected the frame, as well as laying the foundations.

And my situation was even more unusual because I genuinely did not know how far I would get with the money I had. So right from the start it was agreed to have a regular review of where we were and there would come a point where I would have to say stop. That point turned out to be a complete structural frame with windows and doors, but no wall cladding, no insulation and no roof covering. That was where I took over on my own to eek out the budget. We parted on good enough terms that in the future they are happy to do more work for me as and when the budget allows. Oh and I will be doing some wiring for them in the new year.

Well I just went by the fact they sent me two packets of screws. Short ones for screwing metal to metal for the ridge and verge pieces. And long ones that were long enough to screw through the ridges and still have plenty to bite into the purlins. This is narrow profile ridges and tightened to the point you just see the metal start to deflect. To me it's obvious that little water runs down the ridges so that's the best place to fix. If you drill the valleys then it's obvious a lot more water will run there and it's so much more important that any fixing screw seals 100%. Again being relatively wide valley sections, you might argue if fixing through the valley you would need two screws in each valley section, one at each side. I also pondered whether to screw into every ridge piece or every other ridge piece. I counted the number of screws they sent and there was just enough to screw into every ridge (I had just ONE of the long screws left over)

^^ Don't give me ideas.

It is indeed a good feeling when you have a builder that you know and trust. Mine was the same. I had worked with them before (I wired a house they were building) and knew their craftsmanship and attention to detail, and knew they had a skilled team that worked together well, and were very easy to work with. It will surprise some on here that I employed them without a written contract, just a handshake. I paid in stages in arrears so they put trust in me to pay for the work done, as I put trust in them to do a good job.

So I said to SWMBO "We need a house name sign. Underneath it will be an arrow pointing left saying post, and an arrow pointing right saying visitors" "No. This is not bloody tesco" (other supermarkets are available)

I wired a whole house where the owners had OSB as the finished internal face. They loved it. I hated it, it looked like an erm, shed. So 2 by 2 frame, 18mm OSB inside and out, and timber cladding outside. Sounds good to me.

I think some sineage may be necessary. I notice next doors new front door doesn't have a letterbox, and neither do they have a post box on the wall. I wonder how the postman dealt with that today?

I think the WC door issue is a little more complicated. The WC has to be "accessible" and that means a certain amount of "activity space" in front of the pan, and nothing is allowed to intrude into that activity space (except a basin may partly overhang that space) and the door must not swing over the activity space. So unless you have a very large WC, the door would swing over the activity space, hence solving it by hinging outwards. Our downstairs WC is unusually combined with the utility room, and the door into it will be a long way from the pan, and will open into the room. building control have confirmed this is okay as it will not interfere with the activity space. They have also agreed that the door through from the utility / wc into the garage, would not normally be used by anyone in a wheelchair (due to the mandatory step between the house and the garage) so it does not matter if THAT door swings over the activity space, so that too can open inwards if we wish.

Main house has triple glazed doors and windows, no letterbox (or cat flap) We were originally thinking of an external post box on the wall. Due to the tight budget, when I built the garage, I left out the doors for now (both pedestrian and vehicle) Yesterday I noticed my neighbour was having a new front door fitted. A quick word with said neighbour, and that door is now the pedestrian door into my garage. Remarkably they got the frame out undamaged and it fitted the hole left for a door almost perfectly. It's a good quality Swededoor in good condition, so it might well remain as the permanent door. So being an ex "front door" it has a letterbox. So now we are thinking to just educate the postman that the post goes through the door on the side of the garage and no need for a box on the wall by the front door.

I think the radio interference issue will depend how close you are to your local radio transmitter. At the moment I am sold on using GU10 downlights with LED lamps. You just can't beat the simplicity. The only caveat being the variation between brightness and colour of different LED lamps, so the plan is to buy enough to do all lamps in the house plus a good number of spares to keep in stock. The new build I have just finished wiring has all GU10's with 6W LED's and it's very bright indeed. Downlights about 2 metres apart.

So have I. What a shame that first thing this morning I submitted an order. I now have until the 18th to make another order, large enough to get free postage, in order to use it.

^^ and that shows the substantial gusset plates either side of each beam at the joints.