Ferdinand

Mine was exemplary, and I will forward you all the info in a minute. I had a couple of hours on the initial survey, followed by qs and consultation. A proposal and design, 2 quotes, one revised quote, not just model numbers but data sheets for everything (Optimisers, Inverters, Panels) attached to the two versions of the quote using Black and Normal panels. The Proposal was a 13 page document including method statements for both the panel installation and scaffolding build. I do not think it would make difference to the documentation supplied, which looks standard, but I did have quotes for 3 houses at once, which may have given it a little more attention. As an indicator of price competitiveness level, one was under £5k for a 4kWp black panel installation on a bungalow for an Oct 2015 quote. So they were potentially after a £20k order. They also gave me details of 3 other largish (7-8kW) similar customer installations within 5 miles I could drive by if required. If I was concerned I would have gone and knocked on the doors and asked for an opinion. The only problem was a couple of cracked roof tiles. But I spent perhaps 3-5 days of my time on all the stuff. Even though I was rushing, the process still took an elapsed 4 months, I think the single most important lesson for Self Builders is not to do anything you are not sure you understand. Once you do that, then the demand for detail will follow as part of that learning process. Take your project seriously and give it the time it needs, and a good contractor should do the same. Take the time, or have someone on your side who is a trusted and competent adviser. I think taking a detailed interest from the start is critical. I had some requirements like the potential to move a lot of panels onto the South side and needing the install to support that without buggering it all up, and interesting wire runs due to rooms in roof. I would add that the way to save money is always to find ways to reduce price for a good product or supplier without shafting either of you, rather than going for a cheap option due to price. Price opt8misation is step 2. My 10kWp system - perhaps not dissimilar to @Home Farm's with 35 black on black panels, Solaredge on the lot, and two SolarEdge inverters - came to £11.8k in Jan 2016. That was with them including all the paperwork for the larger G2 grid connection, and scaffolding. It is also 3 aspect on 3 E and W roofs - one with 28 panels is a big roof from 2.5m level with about 6 rows of landscape format panels (easier), the other two (3 panels and 4 panels) are difficult and high. I had 2 or 3 men for 4 days. I also got 2 spare panels and 2 spare optimisers as freebies when I asked just before signing the dotted line (following Jeremy's example). But that was a very good price I think - better than I thought at the time. Bluntly, I would estimate the equivalent at £6.5-6.75 k in 2019 for a 6kW system - based on £1100 per kWp in 2019 rather than £1180 per kWp in 2016 based on tech improvement but a smaller order, for my local company in our cheapish area (North Notts) for my particular house. I have ignored the probably unchanged scaff price, but been cautious on the improvement in panel prices. Would be negotiating to aim for just under 6k or less. Finally, @Home Farm, you need all the docs for the future: If you are registerinng the system (was it long enough ago to be done for FITs - I think before end of Match 2019?) then you will need follow up paperwork, commissioning etc. Another reason for needing your invoice will be guarantees etc as proof of purchase. And if you did not get what the equipment supplier thought was designed, you may end up with problems with future support etc. Sounds as though your supplier might not be friendly - mine has refocused on batteries so may still be around for the next decade or so. Not trying to grand stand here .. this is one I got right so far. And aiming to help you for do well on the next thing. Ferdinand

Incidentally. Ode to a Plecostamus. https://www.wattpad.com/245031034-a-book-of-themed-poetry-an-ode-to-my-dear-pleco-4 (Quite touching). Ferdinand

In the end they came to the view that private education would have been cheaper than getting through the process - at least for several years until the child had caught up. Child ended up in an independent school anyway for a few years due the LA school not being able to stop bullying. F

No worries. Just feeling a bit fragile today - ordering materials for a wheelchair ramp for mum, and organising care packages. Hospital seem mainly concerned to inform me that because we are self-funders wrt to the local authority, that means we do not qualify for any intermediate care on discharge funded by NHS (which is bollocks, because you get up to 6 weeks based on a medical assessment and it is not means tested). Not a type of battle I have fought before, but I do have a relative who had a child Statemented and had years of going to assessment meetings with their County Council a paid-for Barrister at her side, and it sounds like it was a paperwork version of the Somme. She'll go through them like a bulldozer. Have established (see other thread re: hospital bureaucracy and rules) that whilst our local hosp is much improved after a scandal of unnecessary deaths a few years ago it now appears to be run by an Accountant with an abacus. Whilst major tightening up was necessary, and given that the NHS is inevitably procedure driven so it required tighter controls, but they need to relax the arsehole a little in some areas of human contact. Tea lady on the ward said this morning that even giving a cup of tea to a visitor is bending the rules. Not cool - maybe letter required to Chief Exec, then MP. to fix the culture. F

Sorry - was commenting to the Op. Must have missed where he said it.

For the baby wipes (and nappies and sanitary products ?) as has been mentioned you perhaps want one of those small stainless bins a la hotel with an entry hopper such that you do not see inside the bin. This one is about a foot high. eg https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harbour-Housewares-Bathroom-litres-Toilet/dp/B01B87LXSG I have one rental with a long slack drain, and on a couple of occasions the outside manual has been bunged up to the top with wipes. After clearing and jetting the T now simply puts nothing down there like that at all. F

That looks like the GD couple who did the folly on return from London, but I will not be trying to track it down.

This is the solar panel version of David Cameron’s book. No one wants the particular model.

PRV - good things to have working. (See Three Mile Island ?) Sorry about your week, but good to see that your subscribers on the Youtube channel have nearly hit 50. Honest everyday stories are what brings them and keeps them. There a lot of people living in that world who keep stumm, or just ignore it - you are doing a good job ! F

I can see 9 rectangles in that puzzle ? .

FWIW I thought that student pods were an ensuite bedroom, and usually had communal kitchen + social area separate. (In addition to being a way of sometimes fiddling money from the gullible investor.) F

I probably still have my quote on the email. PM your addy and I can send it through for a comparison. Ferdinand

The last time I looked the minimum national standard for 1 bed flats was actually 37sqm. Perhaps the LA has had a brainstorm? (Open to correction)

Ouch. Sorry to see that. Are there any other installs on the site to give a quality check?

What sort of awful smell is it - poo awful smell, stagnant drains awful smell, dead rat in the wall smell etc? Can you learn anything from the timings eg after someone has done a number 2, or had a bath or something? Are there any external factors that may affect? eg drain work next door? My first thought is if there is something coming back up one leg from another leg. Had that when we had just done my upstairs bathroom last month - because a bath running away puts more water through than a shower water was coming back up the drain of the downstairs shower and bringing gunge up into the shower tray through the drain. It also brought smells. The solution was a one way valve in the waste pipe of the downstairs shower to stop backwash. We put similar in when we added the pipework for a bath upstairs as it was all done in the very personal style of the previous selfbuilder and his belt needed some braces. And as JSH says - check traps. Ferdinand

Taylor made credible reason to give plausible deniability when you are tipsy. Cool.

There are also options now which use textured porcelain tiles to get the effect. If you have larger tiles may be easier to fit. Not unlike a brick version of the "wood" porcelain tiles you get for your floor. Somebody on BH has them and likes them - @Christine Walker maybe (?) Example not recommendation: https://www.tilemountain.co.uk/blog/brick-tiles-exposed-brick-without-the-mess/ Do this properly and you just powerwash it once a year ? . Ferdinand

I have seen these used in rentals quite effectively. Very good for "generation Instagram". My Letting Agent also PM renovations for investors, and they actually did a "scaffold plank feature wall" (with real scaffold planks). Here's one that uses Brick Wallpaper.

Believe the MAFIA offer slightly expensive contract options for proving yourself right if that calculation does not work out. ? (Payment would be required in advance) You need to think about everything. You can also get and need to think about (you may have done this): - Potentially a saving on roof tiles etc if you go "in roof". - A partial insurance policy against rising electricity prices (and potentially against policy designed to drive out gas - potentially quite quickly if the rhetoric-over-reality lobby win). - Similar against potential supply issues. - Potentially the lecky car saving / ability to start using batteries for short term time shifting if required. But batteries are to a major degree probably dependent on having solar. - The price of tech may change by the time you build it. eg I would expect the price of solar to fall modestly over the next 2-5 years (I mean 10-20%) after a fall of 70% or so since 2010, but a greater fall in battery prices (maybe) due to tech and scale. - You could use secondhand panels if you need for some years, or tweak your install otherwise. - Those numbers will only get better if energy prices increase. Which depends on policy, whether offshore wind lasts, and whether they build any white elephant supply options. (See Tidal Ponds, or perhaps Nuclear). OTOH I can see oil prices falling depending on the level of demand - 25-30% of global oil goes into passenger transport and that will shrink by 95-99% in half a century if we consider ground transport. - As a temporary factor, it could be argues that current mortgage rates make the finance free or potentially below inflation if you have capacity. - The spec of your house may change (or not meet or exceed your aspirations). - It is virtually always possible to reduce the cash cost of anything by 20-40% depending how you do it. - Finally you may decide to invest for the environment. This was in some measure my motivation. Mine are currently probably on a 13-16 year payback, but I jumped before the subsidies were cut, and have a Plan to move half of them to a South Facing roof (2 strings, 19kWp install) when I get my car port / veranda past the management. I think my call would be to build a long term cost spreadsheet incorporating 200 years of bills to explore options, maybe increase the house spec somewhat, and at least provision for the possibility to do it effectively in future. Then play your best informed game of "spot the ball". And remember that there will be wrinkles in the process - this does not apply to you but it is a good example. Ferdinand

I have Solaredge on all my panels (I think), though only about 28 had a real shade risk, and they have me a couple of spare panels and optimiser when I asked nicely the day before signing the order. in extremis I can probably find one in the garage and take a photo, though at present it will interesting finding things.

May be a consideration as interest rates cannot stay at their current level forever. However, in the absence of a Corbyn or similar spendthrift government (sorry, politics but necessary her) I do bot see them returning to 10% plus. Cost / benefit call on your part. Ferdinand

Philosophical discussions are fun. Mine tend to end with either Roobarb and Custard, or Paddington Bear. Here is Roobarb demonstrating by analogy why it is possible to overdo following the crowd. Not particularly a comment on angled walls.

As I see it, you need either quaifications followed by credible experience, or lots and lots of experience. Then you need to find the jobs, usually starting simply or at the bottom. The impression I get is that training can be through Apprenticeship or a course at an FE College. When I did my "bit of everything" 9 month evening class abck in 2012 ish, at my local college they were teaching it as a skill. That will not help you find a way in, but there seems to be demand at present. I will say that imo being good is the thing to aim for, even if it takes longer. And I expect that the investment needs to be at least as much time as money - and then it will be to your advantage to specialise in a niche or several niches. HTH. Ferdinand

One question: Have Sunamp sorted their problems yet, and can they now be considered a credible and reliable-for-the-future supplier? I hope so. (Yes / Maybe / No and one sentence will suffice).

(Aside) Do you have a link to that shower? Cheers F