Ferdinand

Reflecting, fan heaters might be an idea, as they would exclude incoming draughts. I think it would need a good seal - I was thinking a tarp with no holes (Which might not be a tarp) and an effective gaffer tape seal. Also depends on the power of your dehumidifier. You could stick a heater in there. If you had a scaffold tent you would need a bigger DH but the seal could be less good due to the increased volume. A fan heater in there would also really help, as DHs work better at higher temperatures - ideally 25-30C. You can also use something as simple as a hair dryer depending on the circs and the scale, perhaps in combination with someone holding a gold umbrella.

Not doubting, just musing on an unclear headline :-). Your new avatar has a convincing face. ?

Pizza Express 40% Off Interesting little 40% off offer at Pizza Express, which applies to all the food at a table. Very good for a party of 4 or 6. Applies all day Monday -> Thursday up until December 8th (has been active since Sept). It came inside a Pizza Express branded pizza from my local Tesco Express with no note on the box, which was itself 'half price'. I think they are promoting their app. Good excuse to avoid all the Trick or Treaters and go and sample some items off the PE menu. Best offer I have seen from them except for the 4x face value of Tesco points, which I think has now gone to supermarket heaven. F

Not claiming to be very knowledgeable myself, however dad ran a grp business for 25 years and I was often around - know all about getting resin off school trousers ? . I think, as you say, it is a redo from the wood. As to drying it out, have you tried a dehumidifier under a small taped tarp tent? That may speed it up but also potentially make it dryer than ambient would allow to make rework easier. Need to watch for potential fire risk, maybe. After the fact on bubbles and really for future readers, I think I might try cutting a slit and working in from the sides with the grooved roller. Potentially would leaving a small area undone and going back as if doing a repair allow moisture to escape? F

Have to admit that if it was above about 10ft I would wait for my next handyman or roofer visit, and leave it as a last hour job. Sympathy with the worry. Presumably like me, you don't bounce. F

I have recently (had) installed on our downstairs doors a set of doorstops that would prevent doors needing to be reopened from behind the swing, and hold them open when they do not need to be closed. Even oak suffers eventually from too many "Open that Door" impacts. This was needed to help make the house more accessible or an older person, who sometimes used a wheelchair. So the requirement was: Something to hold an open door, open. That would catch the door relatively gently. Such that the door could be closed again with a relatively gentle tug by an older person. This is the product I used, which is a "Rauken DS-002 Stainless Steel Soft-Catch Magnetic Door Stop in Brushed Satin Nickel, Wall Mount-2 Pack", at about £16:00 for a 2-pack. Reasonably easy to fit, well made and recommended. The magnet is strong (though a little variable across half a dozen examples). I fitted them half-way along the back of the door, but towards the edge of the front door for a stronger attachment to be less vulnerable to any draught-driven opening if both front and back doors were open at once. The only issue with fitting is registration between the two halves, if the door is not to be quite parallel to the wall. One way would be to attach one half, chalk the end, then test open the door to see where it touches the chalk. Another is to put it on with a single screw initially (out of three) and then adjust later. A third option is to have long, thin, arms and a stubby screwdriver and hope the dog does not tread on you. The main limitation is that this product requires approx 6 inches (150mm) between the back of your door and your wall. If you meet those requirements, then I can recommend. It also comes with Amazon Prime, so no delivery charges at this time. It is perhaps worth trying a smaller order first to see if they work for you, as it is on Prime. There are options which are a little cheaper, but I am currently short of pfaff-time so I went for the one with the larger number of good reviews.

Ambiguous headline: "West Kingsdown pensioner caught in flooding up to her waist" Does that mean that the flood suddenly appeared and she was waist deep, which is implicit, or that she was on a higher something and trapped in by waist deep water? Shades of Dr Foster...

Love these Typos. He means TPO. ? (The best recent one I saw recently was the turning of "sweet spot" - @epsilonGreedy referring to the best option - into "sweat spot". Covering the bases there ?.) And ... bonjour. Ferdinand

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but a common approach here is to bring the electric in to a cupboard or kiosk near the site boundary so you have a site supply from the go, then to put in on eg a zero standing charge tariff. Then your own electric superhero version of Storm (see Marvel) can do in-site work later. I do not see why that requires drawings. Ferdinand

But it drove you mad along the way...

Typo? Per year?

(refrains from posting Lolcat with piece of string) I would suggest 15%, or even 20%, if you are doing groundworks etc, but build in some variability in your plans for finishes and plan to use part of it for unexpected upgrades if you have not needed it earlier.

Welcome. My comments: Does that mean a small rental to rent out, or that you will be living in a rental? As an LL, moving into rental takes a lot of skills and experience now as the regulation changes like a kaleidoscope, and in the press you are public enemy no 5 or 6 after drug dealers and people traffickers and a few others, and you also need to have a significant team to advise you. No longer simple, and a lot of smaller LLs are getting out. The govt set out to professionalise renting, and they are well on the way. A far easier option to achieve a small extra income is to have a larger place for you and have a couple (not three - then it is an HMO) of lodgers - first 8k+ is tax free. Given correct configuration, you can largely isolate the parts if you wish. On the self-build, my comments are: 1 - You are looking at a 3-5 year project, so take enough time to think about what you want to do. In addition to the type of build, also think about how you want to build yourself - you will not do all of it, so decide whether you want to gain the experience in Planning, Project Management, Construction Skills, a Regulated Trade, Product Selection, Interior Design etc, perhaps with a view to skills you can reuse or build on later. 2 - Just be observant, and do not be afraid to talk to people if you see something interesting. Who built your house? Where did you get *that*? Talk to the type of groups who build stuff in your style - perhaps voluntary groups etc. 3 - Put yourself on the self-build list and the housing list (if appropriate) at the Council. Self-build is being promoted, and Councils sometimes have a say in who gets to do what and that is where they look. 4 - For a Grand Designs favourite of mine where the builder had to review and make their planned house less expensive, the the episode called "The Modest House". 5 - For your wooden construction, there are log cabins, but also kits, and also wooden bungalows that qualify under caravan laws. There Walter Segal system is still doable. And a couple of interesting small wooden builds in the blogs here: And somebody build an annex in their garden to live in, which might be your wooden thing ( @NSS?) Ferdinand

PS Silly questions do not exist. ?

Trust she still loves you ... ? (sorry)

+1 to putting conservatories on the N side not any other for practicality and use for more than half the year, and for maximising wall if you have one, plus high insulation etc. But for a relatively very small only 1/3 difference I would do the extension. If you are doing a conservatory you want it to be 60-80% cheaper imo than the extensions, as it will not add value unlike an extension, or not as well. If money saving is the real object then get a second hand conservatory ... loads of people upgrade to an extension, or put it on the south side and nearly fry their dogs, or people who buy a house with a conservatory, and want a real room. Then plan to upgrade later (eg make your slab thick enough for a timber frame extension). Look on ebay. You can save 90% on the conservatory itself. There are even companies that deal in them and will come and install. I did a 4m x 6m one for £7k toto (secondhand conservatory cost was £600, delivered) including excavations and the slab etc, and insulation to a standard that it is now the lounge, and a tin roof as it had wooden joists and could not be seen easily. I deliberately went for one with "insulated lower half" panels to have something that I could just attach to a flat slab and wall / wallplate with appropriate screws and thunderbolts. (And industrial amounts of sealant.) The trick is to know what will work for you, and wait for something that will fit within your parameters, then check it carefully. Wait for one that is local and GO AND LOOK AT IT BEFORE BIDDING. Or reduce risk and have a secondhand conservatory company do it for you. I put mine outside an external spec door to avoid some regs, and make sure that the house could be isolated. F

Halfords have some surprising prices on socket sets at present, especially second tier brands. But they also have really expensive ones. No idea whether they will meet your need, but I bought a set just for the extension piece recently as it was half price and I had filed all my sets in the garage. Go via web or sales or vouchers / cashbacks or click and collect, and I usually nurdle a quarter or third off. Even British Cycling or some similar memberships gives you an extra 10% off the whole lot. https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchRouter?storeId=10001&catalogId=10151&tabNo=1&action=listrefine&pageNo=1&pageSize=21&sort=we_recommend&srch=socket+set F

Not as bad as it sounds - there was a gap of about 50mm between the plug outlet and the top of the pipe. It is on a slab, so that had wet much of the tile screed. That came up anyway as we were retiling the floor with non-slip tiles, and a couple of days of one of my industrial dehumidifiers dried it out quite a bit. Since a screed was going back down, it would be rewet anyway.

One of the more interesting things about mine was that the drain connection had been off the bottom of the bath's plughole perhaps since 2012 ? . Due to coupling not being connected tightly enough. Plumber reckoned that 20% of the bathwater had been going into the slab. On the upstairs there was minimal sound insulation, and the use of a non-flexible grout over electric ufh. Ferdinand

The answer is no, you don't. @pocster is the bloke who sold Tower Bridge to the Yanks. (Allegedly.) But they did not take delivery when it turned out to be a couple of defective skylights. They are double glazed so you could make a tall fishtank for anorexic fish. I have a standing offer of £2.01 in, so you will need to pay £2.02. And welcome.

Worked example

Welcome.

Three comments: 1 - Take as much time as you need to understand it all, as I have argued before. 2 - When you discover unexpected things underneath, then fix them properly. I am sure you will. 3 - I have had 2 bathrooms done this summer, which were inherited from the self-builder and were the wrong way round (bath downstairs) with basic problems. I have written about one so far in exhaustive detail, with links here. There may be useful information there, (If you pay much more than about £100 for a normal 8mm shower screen plus steady bar, you are overpaying. Ditto about £250 for a walk in shower tray, Ebay. Unless you have a specific requirement.) As ever, the moneysaving ethos is to find products of an acceptable quality less expensively and being set up to exploit that (eg advance purchase, storage space, some flexibility in spec etc), rather thank getting cheap products that turn out to be nasty. F

Pun of the DAY. (will remove annoying owl later)

Welcome Andrea.