Ferdinand

First of all, Welcome to Buildhub, Rob. We try to help you turn slightly less grey than would otherwise be the case. On the question, it is some time since my solar was put in (2016), but can you do anything to reduce the 'earth loop impedance' number to circumnavigate the issue? I am not sure whether this is defined here as looking from your installation to the network, or the other way round. Could you affect the number, for example, by improving the earthing of your domestic network? (This probably needs input form someone like @ProDave.)

Thank-you all for the replies. Up until recently, I read it by looking down that hole with a phone camera, which is immediately on the threshold of my drive entrance. I may even have a piccie from a couple of years ago. Nothing else has been fitted to my knowledge, so they are getting the readings from somewhere. Is it perhaps a remote sensing / reporting unit? I'm not aware of anything else being fitted, and I've lived here for 10+ years now. However, my water is now back at full pressure, so I have no idea what happened. Interruptions here are very, very rare. I think I may have had one unscheduled interruption in a decade. Out looking at manholes this morning I found one dating from our very first cable tv / internet installation, by Diamond Cable going back to the mid-1990s. Call me Jeremy - I have spared you the 5000x3000 images.

Should I not be able to read the water meter there? That used to be the case.

A couple of days ago my mains water volume fell by about 3/4. This is a piccie inside my meter hole. I think it means the supplier thinks there is a problem with the account. I'm not aware, but given recent illnesses I would not be surprised. Can someone confirm? Thanks F

The surface of the water will be perfectly level, so you can judge the gradient of the patio it by measuring the depth of water in mm at each end. If the measurements are too small to measure easily, add more water .... 😛😉. (TBH I'd suggest that the water escape routes are perhaps blocked with all that dust'n'gunge.)

Reading up a bit, Eco 4 Boiler Replacement grants seem to only be available to rental properties with an EOC of E F or G, whilst for Owner Occupied it D E F or G. Bizarre.

Yes there is if necessary - I need to think a bit about running pipework. It may require a little creativity. Fortunately it is the heating side of the boiler which is under question, so I do have a short time to think about it. A boiiler swap under ECO 4 is currently looking most straightforward at present.

I have a boiler that needs repair or replacement in a rented house, and I'd welcome thoughts. The situation is: - I bought property to rent to this tenant in 2016. It is unusual in having 3 double bedrooms, which was why they wanted it. - Good tenant, and I expect the family to stay for another decade (kids are 5-7 old years in local schools, family are all here incl. parents and siblings). They love the house. - It is a 2016 renovated 1910 done by someone else I bought it from - solid walls etc. Not to my standards, but adequate. I keep having to have bits done, which is fine but a small pain. - T is in receipt of housing elements of UC, and child benefit (whatever it is called now) -> may be eligible for Eco4 scheme, which is boiler replacement, or a Heat Pump grant for an ASHP. - Boiler (8 years old) is repairable, but not the best brand. Engineer recommends replacement (they would, but I'm inclined to agree) with a Baxi. I am mainly Ideal or Worcester Bosch. Repair cost £500-1000 suggested. Replacement cost £2-3k depending on model. - EPC is 60D on the sheet, but imo is better than that (I've done a few things, and there are some 'average' assumptions in there.) Had I renovated it that would be at around 75C. - Implication of that is that fitting at Heat Pump could get me over the EPC Grade C requirement which will be coming back at some stage, after Rishi Sunk's "how can I save my arse" 2 year panic attack burning all their achievements - including the landlord EPC ratchet - down. - T says house is comfortable running at a lowish boiler temp (need to check that). - My long term intention is that I prefer no gas (safety and hassle reasons). Options AI see it I have 3 options. 1 - Replace boiler, ideally under boiler upgrade scheme. 2 - Go ASHP with a grant, perhaps via Octopus. Octopus use I think Daikon units. 3 - Go with A2AHPs with a couple of multisplits, and units in relevant rooms. 2 and 3 would require a hot water tank to have space found. Should be doable. I'd welcome all comments, especially around if the Octopus ASHP packages are good, whether ASHPs are easy to manage for tenants, and what lifetime I can expect from ASHP or A2AHPs. Thanks Ferdinand

OK. Answering your question, and a couple of adjacent thoughts. I do not know what is in front of the photo, or to the sides (relevant later), nor what storey it is on, nor what "appearance" constraints you are under. For covering the join, as you ask, lead flashing could do it, as could a lead flashing alternative such as Ubiflex. Done properly, ie mortared 40-50mm in to a ground out joint above, either should give you 20+ years with little trouble. I do not think that something like flashband is suitable, which is a mistake some make. Ubliflex or similar is less flexible than lead, but can be shaped. I have used Ubiflex to flash in a lean-to conservatory roof, which has not been in place for nearly a decade - with no problems of which I am aware. One problem may be attaching it to the very not-flat stone cladding. One downside of something more or less following the face of the wall is that you may get staining depending on how the water drains / flows and whether it will still run down the front of the cladding. And we are assuming that the stone cladding cannot be penetrated by water running down it. An alternative is to build your stone-cladding protector a little away from the wall to throw the water off more thoroughly. That could be your Ubiflex which may be rigid enough to stick out mounted on a batten. Or you could take a different idea and build out a mini roof to put container plants under, or for parking bikes, or even build out a veranda with a table or bench underneath. That would keep the water off the cladding. Potentially if the design matches you could use corrugated steel of various colours or designs as your stick-out small roof. Or you could go the other way, and make it simpler. Personally I don't like stone cladding so I might be inclined to chip it all off and render the entire wall. Apologies if that is stone cladding you put on ! That's a few thoughts, including I hope addressing your actual question from a couple of angles. Ferdinand

OK. I would not particularly like this one (I don't like gardens covered in tarmacadam), and I am an activist for safe walking and wheeling, so I'll try and give you an objective assessment as someone who might be objecting like your neighbours. Yes, you would need sliding gates as you will not be allowed to obstruct the public highway (there's an offence in iirc the Highways Act). If your drive is going to be longer you may have space for inward folding gates, but that would depend on your amount of vehicles. I think you are looking at what is called a Material Amendment, which you apply for after a grant of planning permission. There is a separate type of process if it is Planning Conditions you want to vary. I think you have done well to get approval for a drive that is only 5m long on the approved plan, as that is very short (my car is 4.87m long, and 5m will not fit afaik any of the crew cab tonka trucks without obstructing the pavement). TBH a competent planner they should have caught that as it builds in future conflict, but local government has been stripped to the bone in the last decade. One of their principles is to consider potential future use, which imo they have not done here; perhaps the planner was in short trousers. First time round I'd have objected to the short 5m length on the basis of the risk of pavement blocking if you or a future owner has what are now normal size vehicles >5m long. If something is possible, there is always some future hoon who will do it. Ironically that is closer to what you want to do 😉. I think that such an objection may caused them to make you make it 6m or 7m long. Were you to apply for such an amendment making it 7m long, I would have written a letter of support for that aspect. The gate geometry, and entrance width to allow practical access for multiple cars, looks potentially very tight, so I would perhaps suggest getting an electric gate man in 'to quote' and advise you what will be practical - then checking carefully that all the manoeuvres you might need to do (eg going past the corners of all the cars that are already in there). If you have neighbours who are watching closely, you need your ducks in a row and probably need to identify everything in your application that you are doing. It would depend on how good they are at doing research into planning requirements, identifying and sticking to relevant planning matters, and writing objections - or they may employ a planning consultant to write their objection. Here are my things I would have objected to, or tried to ensure that you got good enough so as not to potentially inconvenience neighbours and pavement users. 1 - Number of vehicle movements reversing in or out, and more vehicles turning in the street. That may be OK with the one / one and a half off road spaces you have approved. If it suddenly become 4 or 5 spaces the Council may think that is too much. 2 - Visibility of the pavement (eg seeing wheelchair users and small children, say 4 or 5 years old, when reversing out). They can't regulate to make you go in forward. Similar concerns to point 1. That also speaks to the height of your wall. Could you use railings for a better view? 3 - Drainage. It looks like a principal (ie road facing) elevation so your surfaces should ideally be permeable, or you will need to demonstrate management of runoff within your own boundaries. 4 - Noise? 5 - If your approved plan includes an area of "garden", as it does, I think your neighbours will be able to complain to enforcement after the fact with a hope of success if you do not implement the scheme, who may enforce on you. Councils are likely to view the garden as a mitigation for the damage done by more tarmac area - so I think you need to be clear about what will actually be there for your future protection. I hope that helps - and that you end up with something that works for everyone, with no permanent conflict. Ferdinand

When you say "go onto of stone cladding", is a typing disguising what you mean? Coiuld you clarify - is it "go on top of", and if you mean that do you mean go above it to throw the water away from the wall and from seeping behind the cladding (like a flashing), or do you mean a coating to go on the surface of the stone cladding such as a transparent sealant? Is the cladding a legacy, or have you had it put there? Cheers F

It sounds like you need a flexible system not a rigid grid. This was done on one the very first Grand Designs, back in 1999, with Kevin being introduced to landscaping mesh as used on embankments, which comes as a folded concertina of large hexagonal cells. This was when he was still an interior decorator and had hair. Series One Episode 4. Probably there are now "biodegradable over X years" products made of organic materials. The Amersham Water Tower. Lovely background music. Here's the C4 link. You'll need to tolerate some adverts. The first GD with application of "commercial architecture" techniques. They have done a couple of revisits since. The bit you want is at about 37 minutes, but the whole thing is worth a rewatch. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/26262-004 Look under "soil erosion prevention" or "gravel retention" or "GEO grid" categories.

I follow the two methods mentioned. I normally run a bypass paywalls extension, and use archive.ph. Incidentally I find that Adblock Plus and Adblock Pro together (think it is mainly the latter) are quite effective at skipping Youtube ads.

I live in the North Notts / Derbys coalfield. It is possible to build on subsidence liable land - eg the entire CLASP system used for schools, public buildings and stations was designed with that in mind. You will need to use sufficient outside advice and eg pre-purchase reports to satisfy yourself that it is OK. But it is certainly possible to build there without excessive extra expense - the main things will be to understand you site and choose appropriate building methods.

I think the best hope here is that interest rates will be going back down again soon, but maybe not as far.

I haven't needed to try so far - not very prominent foxes to date. And even Roland has been less common - I think because of warmer winters and nearby housing estates having done with the fields some time ago. But tbf I've had an entire year and a half out of being able to pay attention to anything but absolute basics. Coming out now, but I'm still regularly sleeping half the day.

@Onoff's is probably made in Scotland. From Girders. On a more serious note, no one has mentioned Amazon Man who will give you 3.45s then chuck whatever-it-is over the top. I'll be looking at an electric sliding gate, but I have no answer to Amazon Man, short of putting the open-to-1m code in the parcel instructions. Currently I say "in the porch out of sight if one answers", and since I can't get to the front door in 3.45s that is what happens. Which has worked so far.

Door height may well be your physical issue, and sealing a space you need as much attention to ventilation as insulation. Try the forum's heat calculator as a place to start written by a member which many have found helpful - including me. 20mm XPS in a floor (unless maybe you control the flat below as well and treat them effectively as s ingle unit) seems ridiculously low. The last one I did (bungalow) was 100mm Rockwool under the existing floor (~equivalent to EPS) + 25mm of PIR on top - and that is less than ideal. Rather than 0.7 R-value, normally for a floor we would be looking at 0.12 to 0.25, depending on the conditions beneath. There may be a minimum value building regulations require you to meet. Have you thought through what you will be doing with the walls (my suggestion from rental renovation experience 50mm->75mm PIR)? Ferdinand

Not having done that very much, though I regularly measure road corridor widths etc arguing that there is space for mobility tracks, how is this Google Earth technique affected by overhanging trees?

This is the sort of thing I am out to measure. This is a 1969 ish vintage footbridge over the M1 where it cuts through communities, which is the only non-motor-vehicle route for several miles. That slope in the middle is about 1 in 12 and 60m long.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I think my Android Phone has a facility (guessing a mercury bubble or something) in the hardware but not the software, but then I am about 4 versions of Android behind, so it may have one by now. Straight edges are fairly doable tactically - eg lay it on a fence rail since rails are parallel to the ground and posts to the vertical to within a couple of degrees. Alternatively I have things like a lightweight monopod or a walking pole I can take around with me to be a straight edge. Cheers.

Can anyone recommend an inclinometer app for my phone to help me measure gradients of pathways? My application is not building as such, but measuring the accessibility of local footpaths, greenways for wheelchair and mobility aid access etc. Some are diabolical - I came across one recently in the middle of the new Greenways around Salford / RHS Bridgewater which is an 8% slope down to a road, with a grit-over-base skiddy surface that means that progress in eg a wheelchair is difficutlt to control, and any attempt tp stop turns into an instant skid. I was able to measure this one via a photo of the fence rails and counting pixels, as they had a datum on the fenceposts when they built it. Accuracy I am after is not that great - I'm thinking +/- a degree or two. I need to be able to tell the difference confidently between say 1 in 8, 1 in 10, 1 in 12, 1 in 15 and 1 in 20. Since I tend to survey such things using a cycle, I'm not up for a 1m or 2m long sprit level. Thanks for any suggestions. I'm on Android at present. Ferdinand * Photos

For that if I recall I just used a normal clear roll, perhaps something like this, which is 4m wide when unfolded so it will do many rooms and lap up at the sides in one piece if you need that: https://www.screwfix.com/p/capital-valley-plastics-ltd-general-purpose-sheeting-clear-150ga-25m-x-4m/71880 I'd suggest going down to Screwfix and having a look to make sure you think it is strong enough. If not there are thicker ones available. If you need to overlap, then you can do it by say 0.5m and tape along the join if you think that matters. One rough check that your subfloor is properly dry is to tape a square of sheet to the surface, leave it for a couple of days and see if any moisture which has been evaportating into the atmosphere has collected underneath. One thing to remember is that if you have one lapped up at the sides, the first lot of water from any leak you have isn't going anywhere unless you have slits - which may be good or bad depending. But leaks are very rare. I get less than one per 50 years of house occupancy in my small set of rentals.

If you need more space around it, one possibly acceptable way may be to have a set of modern hearth rails at a suitable height. In concept think of the altar rails in churches, but made out of eg wrought iron or something shiny. Or a traditional fender if that is permissible. I think the only difference I might have done with the cast concrete would have been to use shiny sheet for the mould to make it very smooth - but that might have shown imperfections.

Is there a high build (eg crack filling) or premixed filler you can dilute that would do it? TBH I think you are forked, and will need to skim.