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Everything posted by ProDave
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Just re measured. My top hung Rationel the 1400mm is just the dimension of the opening sash. the window including the frame is 1500 tall. Rationel do top hung and top swung. I forget which is which but one just hinges at the top, the other is hung on side slides that allow the window to slide down and reverse for cleaning the outer pane from the inside.
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Where to live? If your plot is big enough and you can stand some hardship, a static caravan on site is the cheapest.
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Rationel supplied 1400mm tall top hung for us, so worth asking if they can go the extra 100mm?
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Static caravans good, bad dont touch ?
ProDave replied to Post and beam's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
Not much point asking for a particular recommendation. Look at the market where you are and choose the best you can. We actually chose ours not because it was good, but because the internal layout was unusual and suited the plot and it's continued use after the house was complete. All the ones available here are ex holiday static caravans, if you have the choice and ex residential park home might be better, but they tend to stay on site longer and get repaired and upgraded and continue in use, compared to holiday statics that often have to be removed from the holiday site when X years old. -
What fixings may I need to stop leaks?
ProDave replied to David001's topic in Roofing, Tiling & Slating
2 comments, hope they are not harsh, but whoever put that roof on did a poor job imho. Firstly none of the fixings are in line, that shows a lack of care. Secondly, I always fix that sort of roof on the ridges. Little water flows down the ridges, it falls into the flat valleys and runs down there, so you don't really want fixings in the flat valleys where there is more water and more chance to leak. Agreed the one photographed close up does not look very tight. -
Fischer Aquaefficient heat battery vs cylinder
ProDave replied to anonymous's topic in Other Heating Systems
Fischer are a company well known for selling very expensive panel heaters claiming they are more efficient than any other panel heater (impossible) They are now selling re badged sun amps. Many members on this forum have had reliability issues with sun amps ans some found them unrepairable. Good they have a 10 year guarantee, but what if it breaks down at 11 years and it unrepairable? -
To add to @JohnMo answer that would mean the HP has to run at least at 60 degrees all the time it is heating water which is right at the top of the range of most of them and the COP would be very poor.
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Yellow is GAS. (water is blue or older pipes black) So get advice what to do with a GAS pipe.
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We had distemper in a previous 1930's house. It could not even be painted over (it peeled off and wrapped itself around the roller in places)
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It would be good to see what it connects to in the floor? I suspect the duct tape around the tundish means there is no trap and that is a bodge to stop the smell. Ideally a normal wet trap for the washing machine and a waterless trap for the tundish.
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As one unit. Which I don't believe is possible.
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That's what the "static" in "static caravan" is all about. They don't move apart from when they are delivered or when they are removed at end of life. Traditionally a static caravan was limited to about 10ft wide for road transport reasons, though larger can be transported with additional restrictions like needing an escort vehicle. So to make a large static home, twin unit residential caravans were made. 2 separate typically 10ft wide caravans that when on site bolt side by side to each other to make a 20ft wide home. If you ever expect to move one you would uncouple the 2 halves and move them as 2 separate units. That I am sure is where the original must me moveable in no more than 2 parts came from. This amendment to the HC definition of a "caravan" has been poorly thought out and appears to exclude twin unit mobile homes that are genuinely caravans on wheels, from building regulations exemption. I would like to see that contested. Are the HC really going to insist a twin unit mobile home would require building regulations? which it would fail as they are built to different regulations? It sounds to me like they have bade a huge cock up with this update to their policy note, and it needs challenging.
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I would drop Building Control a line and question this change in policy and specifically the point about normal twin unit mobile homes which would no longer appear to qualify as "caravans" under this new interpretation.
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That's an interesting change. It seems it can be constructed from as many sections as you want, but once complete must be capable of being moved as one piece. That seems to rule out the traditional wheeled twin unit mobile home. While no doubt you could try moving that as one piece still bolted together, I suspect it may not work very well and the joint would separate and break. Could your extension include a new "chassis" strapped underneath the whole thing so at least theoretically mean it could all be lifted as one?
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Double or triple glazing options, what is the difference?
ProDave replied to JohnnyB's topic in Windows & Glazing
Very pleased with our Rationel triple glazed windows, definitely not cold so sit next to, but they are probably a bit modern looking compared to the look you are wanting. -
My neighbour had one last year. I have no idea what make, but it was orange, round and about the size of a dustbin lid. It was the type that had a wire around the perimiter and it turned round when it sensed the wire. It took a lot of adaptations of the garden to make it work. It would sense and turn round if it detected something like a solid border around a flower bed but it was no good at detecting imperfections in the ground like the rounded top of a boulder sticking through the ground and would get itself stranded and unable to move. He eventually got the garden sorted to keep it mostly happy. In use, it was completely random, no attempt to go up and down methodically cutting strips side by side. It just trundled until it reached a perimiter or an obstacle, turned around and went another direction. Never turning 180 or 90 degrees. So it eventually covered the whole lawn by the law of averages, but went over the same parts many times. It would trundle back to it's charging house when it needed or when it rained. He has not deployed it this year, I don't know why if he has given up with it or what.
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Seriously, anything you do by way of patching up is going to be a short term measure before the rest of the fence goes. The only real solution is take it down and rebuild. Because you don't want to dig out the old concrete, your new posts will all be displaced one way by a distance. It will mean short section of fence at one end to reach the new, now offset, post the the remainder of posts fitted at normal regular intervals. While it is down have a serious look to see if the rest of the fence is worth saving, if it is give it a good clean and treat liberally with wood preservative. For the new posts, use short concrete posts with the wooden ones bolted to them above ground.
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Fridge in hallway / fire regs and ventilation
ProDave replied to makingprogress's topic in Building Regulations
They all work by convection. On the back there is a "radiator" which is where the extracted heat is removed. sometimes it is exposed sometimes as a concealed flat panel that gets warm. The built in ones have grilles in the bottom to allow cold air to be drawn in at floor level, under the fridge and up the back. They need a gap between the back of the fridge and the wall and the top of the cabinet needs to be open. So they are certainly not "enclosed" and definitely not in a 30 minute fire compartment. I still think rather than argue against dubious implementation of a probably non existent regulation, just make sure the fridge is not there for the completion inspection. -
CU with SPD's is likely to cost in the region of £200 Full days job to change it and test everything properly so £300 would be about normal. So £600 is not extortionate.
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Fridge in hallway / fire regs and ventilation
ProDave replied to makingprogress's topic in Building Regulations
Just make sure the fridge is not there for completion inspection, out it in the shed, in your car, anywhere out of sight. Then just put it where you want. Too trivial to do anything else with imho. -
So a chimney on a hipped roof, will have a (usually lead) valley behind the chimney to catch the rainwater that runs down that bit of roof and divert it around the chimney. It sounds like that has failed. Being a bungalow it should be an easy repair with no scaffold or perhaps a small scaffold tower. A roofer who won't climb a small ladder to look at that is not the one I would choose to do the job. Find a different roofer to go up and have a look.
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Fridge in hallway / fire regs and ventilation
ProDave replied to makingprogress's topic in Building Regulations
Why is the fridge not in the kitchen? That seems a major design flaw. As above put it somewhere "normal" for BC sign off. Awaiting the picture..... -
Our house is well insulated, air tight and ventilated with an enthralpy mvhr unit. The hygrometer barely moves currently sitting at 58% I have never seen it above 60 or below 50 and it only ever changes very slowly. That is no guarantee that it would help your condition but it sounds hopeful. A house without mvhr has pretty much random ventilation, largely depending on how windy it is. At times it will be unfer ventilated and stuffy, at other times over ventilated and cold. Our new house is never too hot or cold, never draughty yet constantly has fresh feeling air inside.
