ProDave

I had an interesting comment. When I had the home report and EPC done for selling my house, the surveyor said he can only take the solar PV into account if the generation meter is in the same place as your consumption meter (which it is in my case). If the generation meter had been in the garage with my inverter he said he would have to ignore the solar PV for the EPC. Bit of a silly rule if you ask me.

Okay, coming at this from a novice point of view, having never (yet) ducted an mvhr system. I would have assumed one could get (or make) an in line coupler to join two lengths of ducting together. then no need to work it out, just pull through until the roll runs out, insert coupler, start next roll, no waste. No I know why we don't do that with UFH as in line water connections that you can never get at are a bad idea. But an in line connection in an air pipe, that in many cases will be in a loft space etc where you can get at it does not sound like a bad idea at all. If in line couplers are not available I think I have just found a gap in the market.

If I am understanding it correctly, all the cantilevered bit is contained within the walls of the building so within the insulated envelope of the building. the only bit needing any careful attention being the "floor" of the pod. I think the cold bridging problems start when you are talking of cantilevering an external structure such as the floor of an open balcony.

Yes all sorted and the window fitted this morning. The flashing kit was overly complicated. Not helped by the instructions being purely pictorial with no words and not that clear. The confusion was the flashings down the sides which are made from a number of individual pieces. At first I thought it was meant to be something complicated whereby you interleaved them with each row of tiles but that wouldn't work as each flashing piece was shorter than each of my tiles. Once you understand the flashing is just to create a hidden gutter down the edge of the window and is entirely under the tiles and bears no relationship to tile size it all made more sense. The other thing set to challenge you is the kit provides twice as many side pieces as you need leaving you with one of those "what are all these left over bits for" moments. Also had problems with the top flashing across the window. For some reason the two ends were turned upwards which made no sense whatsoever and the upturn was not shown in the instructions. After much head scratching, I flattened the upturn and all made sense. Another little "challenge" I suppose. I think we have decided that for the bathroom windows we will use Velux. I know it's £100 more for each window but it's more important to get it "right" in those rooms. The things that let the Eco+ down are the finish is not as good, and the trickle ventilator mechanism is a bit cheap and nasty. At the end of the day, it is what it says on the tin. A budget priced 3G roof window that does not have the finish quality of more expensive makes.

That website is VERY short on details, and no prices.

We have a thermostatic mixer shower from a UVC that normally gives us a decent shower. but the old shower head was leaking, it had actually cracked so we needed a new one. SWMBO bought one while out shopping and tried it this morning and complained the flow rate was pathetic. I am an evening shower person so have just tried it, and pathetic flow rate was an understatement. What could be wrong. Well I soon found it. Inserted into the fitting on the shower head where the hos plugs into was a "bung" with 3 tiny holes in it. No wonder water was struggling to get through. The "bung" is now in the bin and normal showering restored. No mention on the packaging about water saving, low flow or anything.

That's because he has what we know as a "stink pot" rather than a raggie (rag and stick) boat.

The cheapest DIY 4KW system I have yet seen was on ebay for £2000 I haven't looked lately. Best to run the DC cabling over the 12M run, in conduit. Provision for four 4mm square individual cables. There are less issues with volt drop on the DC side. Long runs on the ac side can give tripping issue due to volt rise when generating at full power if your grid voltage is high to start with.

Yes, but I doubt they will be doing a visual. On my own build the last BC inspection was when they checked the completed timber frame. I asked what was the next inspection they wanted to make and they said "completion" About the only thing they are ionterested in with drainage is a pressure test.

Top tip. do NOT connect a PRV to newly installed plumbing. I did that when our water to site was first installed and I wanted to reduce the pressure to the static 'van. The PRV did not work. With no flow, the pressure slowly crept up. I stripped it down and it was full of grit from the new, unpurged pipework. Cleaned it out, re assembled and it now works. so I guess what I am saying is on a new install make provision to fit it but fit a bypass until everything has been purged and is nice and clean.

Sounds like the clutch. First time the drill jammed when I was drilling a stone wall with my SDS, the racket the drill made I thought I had stripped the gears in the gerarbox, but it was the clutch slipping, as said so it didn't break my wrist. Up to that point I didn't even know my SDS drill had a clutch.

This is the new build I have been wiring this week. That work of art feeds two bathrooms, so 2 toilets, 2 showers and 2 basins. What you see is under the main bathroom, one 4" branch being for the toilet, the other for the vent pipe. It then passes through a joist at the back of the picture for the en'suite. So by the time it reaches the furthest toilet, that's about 10 metres of pipe with hardly any fall, and 6 90 degree bends. Not a rodding point to be seen!!!!. And how will 2 toilets on the same run work with the vent pipe in the middle? Did I mention this house is being built by a plumber....

I have just taken my IR thermometer up to my new build. It's timber framed with a suspended floor and the under floor solum is finished in concrete. That is currently measuring as a surface temperature of 8.9 degrees. So not far from the estimate. It will be interesting to see just how much colder it gets in winter.

It's here, it arrived today. First impressions are it's reasonably well made. The trickle ventilator is an opening strip across the whole top of the window. I suspect when it's closed it's not a brilliant seal. Fitting the window itself looks straightforward. The flashing kit looks very complicated, however I am not convinced I have the right flashing kit so I'm discussing that with the supplier at the moment.

I fitted the very bottom of the range flat pack Howdens kitchen when refurbishing the kitchen in a rental house we were tidying up to sell. It was pretty basic but is what I expected from a cheap flat pack and it did the job. For my own kitchen I would spend more and get one of the rigid kitchens instead. I am not sure what they are offering. "supplied built" does that mean it's the flat pack basic range and someone has put it together? or it's one of the rigid unit range? The Lamona appliances are Howsens own brand but they seem okay. If you don't want them for this project then Gumtree is your friend.

This is just planning nonsense. I would press ahead with the application and make it know to your planning officer if they refuse it then you will appeal. Ask them to show you the written planning policy that prevents you having a brick garage.

When I lived down south and had a "proper job" the unit I worked at was being extended. Mostly a metal clad industrial unit it had a brick facade above the entrance. the shiny new brickwork looked very nicely done. Next day they took it all down, brick by brick and started building it again. Aparently building control had failed it because the width of the cavity was wrong. As you say, in this case someone wasn't looking.

Make sure there are no windows in the house when he comes and deny all knowledge of any windows ever being there.

How about roll it up rolling a length of rope into it. Throw the rope over the roof, pull from the other side and it will unroll the ladder up the roof.

Enjoy, I was out on mine on Thursday.

No, but SWMBO does have to make sure the wheels are pointing straight ahead, otherwise it "confuses" her. Me, if I have just parallel parked, I leave the wheels at whatever angle they end up at, on the basis that's the way I will need them pointing to get out again.

The Screwheads all lining up was an old British Rail thing on old trains with wooden interiors.

From my recent short holiday on the Isle of Mull A young Sea Eagle: Fingals cave on Staffa Puffins on Lunga (Treshnish Isles)

+1 to hardwood flooring. Ours is Maple and 13 years on is looking like new. We chose the laquered maintenance free sort and would do again. In our previous house we had oiled wooden flooring and found the task of emptying the room to re oil it a tedious job we didn't want to repeat. We have real slate tiles in the hall and they are also as good as new. Ceramic tiles in the kitchen are starting to look tired and scratched we would not choose that again.

Our problem of course is poor mobile coverage. SWMBO has a 4G phone put it only ever gets 2G here so from a data point of view worthless.