Ferdinand

ignore that hat the current ones do not align ... steady bar is still to be fitted. The 18mm is the end to end gap between the two pieces of glass. F

I am looking for the above .. a magnetic seal for a shower enclosure door approx 1.9m and an 18mm gap between 10mm thick pieces of glass. Does anyone have a good source? I have tried the ones I know, internet search and a couple of specialists. Plan B would be to remove the door and find a u-channel to hide the hinge cutouts. Cheers Ferdinand

Think I have resolved this. An overnight test revealed that the meter was indeed running at 1-2 cubic m per day. Resolved for me by adjusting the loo overflow, and also turning the water off for the void. Meter is old so may indeed be part of the problem. T will have a sticky situation to resolve with the provider, but as a reading has not been done for some time that may be arguable if pitched carefully. Nearly got licked to death by a dog, as it turns out T has been giving dog biscuits to regular canine passers-by on their daily walks, and particular doggo was expectant. Suggested that doggo commit burglary on next-door's burger van; refused, Packet of Bonios now supplied to the other shop next door, and a sign "Dog Biscuits Thataway" will be deployed. Have not warned chap next door as to the precise number of dogs that were supplied with biscuits. F

WA business tenant who has just left my shop has received a humongous wrap up bill, which is the best part of £1000 more than expected, which the water company alleges has built up over 18 months. The only thing I can see that is wrong is a constant leak in the loo from what looks like a badly sealed flush mechanism. Is anyone any good at visual estimation? This (attached) is a vid of the leak - what do we think the volume is roughly? My guestimate might be 10l per hour, and I need to go back and measure it then turn off the stop tap. I have little experience of estimating this, however. There could also be some runoff down the surface of the bowl. 20191010_180319[1].mp4 In the 2 weeks or so since they left the meter reading is up by 20 cubic m. So clearly something is going on. 1.5 cubic m per day is 1500 l per day, which is 0.4l per minute. Any comments welcome. Ferdinand

Congratulations on not vanishing without trace for some time like Dr Livingstone. I’ll try and come back on some of this later.

Cheers. Unfortunately it is behind tiles we are not refitting - had to create a one tile sized hole because the Ikea sink is different to a normal sink. F

Er .. no. Will not be ripping out all the walls to replace pipes ?. The horror - have just upgraded both bathrooms. If necessary I will apply a pump instead.

The hot is from a Combi. He has done a few other idiosyncratic things in various places. Its the swings of buying a self-build compared to the roundabout of a developer house ?. The structure is relatively over-engineered compared to the first fit, which is relatively skimped in some places. I put that down to "bugger - budget consumption is ahead of house production". F

Not really sure if this is sufficiently boffin-y. However... I am currently having my upstairs bathroom redone, and when we exposed the pipes supplying the whb, it turns out that the Hot is a 22mm pipe, and the Cold is a 15mm. This was built by a self-builder, and we were trying to fathom why this might be the case. My fitter commented that making it 22mm would probably result in a slower supply of hot water, and mentioned the Venturi effect. Plumbing and fluids not being my thing, can someone supply an explanation as to why this is the case (or a link), and why he may have done it? One impact of the new bath I have installed in addition to the shower is that there is now backwash up through the plughole of the downstairs shower (which has replaced a bath) and it now needs a non-return valve. What fun. Cheers F

Perhaps !!!! (The proof is the missing "-ly" on that "wrongly".) /pendant

I trust that you have run the overall numbers. I have tried on about 3 different period properties, and have never managed to make EWI add up economically (installed by contractor) once I have cut the bills by the usual renovations, F

Hoping that Zoot’s Gaff does not become Zoot’s Gaffe.

Allan Corfield Architects are specialists in self build and only 100 miles away, and do fixed fees, but more like 20k than 12k I fear. Talk to them? https://www.houseplanninghelp.com/hph168-an-example-of-how-much-it-costs-to-hire-an-architect-with-allan-corfield/ https://acarchitects.biz/ Not a recommendation, but seem to be flexible. F

Welcome. No need to worry about language, unless it interests you. Some of us - including me sometimes - enjoy debate about language. We do need to move from "eco house" being some sort of weird exception for hipsters and freaks, which gives an excuse for *not* building low energy houses, and to make such the norm and "non eco house" to be the eccentric option. But for any single project it is very much a side-debate. Personally I like the term "low energy house", though I would prefer "house", and a "high energy house" to be more like "gas guzzler" is for an inefficient car. Ask questions and enjoy building your house :-). F

It turns out that the one I need is this one, which has a wall bracket adjustable by angle which can also be rotated round the bar: https://www.kerolhardware.co.uk/shower-stabiliser-bar/wall-mounted-shower-stablise-bar-with-adjustable-wall-bracket.html Cost to have two for tomorrow is just under £100, which is quite a bill but a lot less than the screen. It comes with 1m of bar each, and I need just under 30cm so I have enough bar for 4 cockups. I think that Kerol Hardware are a bit of a find. F

Why do you need two?

The most prominent Countryside Museum case I have seen recently was probably that chap who owned the slate mine in the Lake District and had various projects stopped ... was there not a Zip Line and also a Via Ferrata, then he was killed in his helicopter one day. I do not think the Iberian Lynx will stop that many developments, as there are about as many in existence as Scottish Wildcats, and I am not aware of any BH questions about those. And I am not clear how well we engaged with the Bat Protection etc stuff at EU level. I think the legislation was eary 80s then early 90s. Not sure if there is different enforcement here than say France. F

TBH I think I need to see a plan to say more that is useful, and that is not needed if you now have the info you need, @Triassic. From the elevation you have a 4 floor house. One of which is basement, and three more to the top of the ‘tower’. I am not currently clear whether it is a single staircase all the way up etc.

So relaxed it is almost horizontal...

I think you want either symmetry with each half of the facade, or both asymmetrical so as to balance each other. Needs to look Ok overall, and you are best placed to judge that. I would go for both symmetrical within themselves, which says either the Wormwood Scrubs option or something balanced in a different way. Doing what @Dreadnaught says to the door could actually help, but that also depends on alignment inside. Do what we did at the start of the thread .. grab a screenshot, monochrome and edge detect, and draw some pictures to get a view.

I prefer B. A is less symmetrical but has a whiff (northern whiff with an h) of Private Walker giving a guilty glance left watching for the coppers, whilst handing over pilfered silk stockings made from Douglas Bader’s stolen parachute. So ... choose A and you advertising to the world your views on the theft of silk stockings. ?

I missed that. I always say make stairs more relaxed to fill gaps, but I would also say keep an eye on maintaining a measure of consistency if more than one staircase will be seen as being conceptually part of the same run stairs, where a variation might throw guests off. Would not imo be a problem if eg there was a main staircase, then one to further bedrooms - there is a conceptual break in the type of area within the house and they will be seen separately. Just keep an eye on that if you go that route. F

It is an interesting little subject that is like Arthur Dent's tea machine ... loads of options, and all of them are exactly slightly different from the thing I actually need. @Temp - thanks for the suggestion. I found those. They seem to have the normal limitation in that the adjustment is in one plane only, and it always seems to be the same plane at both ends of the steady bar. It is possible that they can do more - will need to have a conversation on Monday. @Adam E - (aside - we seem to have lots of Adams - popular name. One of my Ts has so many friends called Adam that I just use it for anyone I meet in their house :-). Thanks. That one has the same issue. The real issue for me is that I am attaching to a sloping hipped ceiling not an angled wall. I need a universal joint on one end of the steady bar, or alternatively to have the ends pivoting in orthogonal planes, or for the 45 degree sleeve above to rotate freely rather than having 2 fixed points. Thankfully my ceiling slop is approx 45 degrees. For the first of my pictures I can maybe use a normal adjustable bar attached to the side of the screen, not the top and running across to the right. Need to check very carefully because that corner is a shower door hinge, below, and shattering that door would be very easy. I am sure this is doable - just needs to keep prodding away at a solution that will give me support both sides of the door. It may seem like a lot of palaver, but that shower screen is custom, and must have cost £500-£1000, even well-sourced. So I thought it worth keeping. F

I am looking for a "Glass to Wall Adjustable Support Bar" where the wall of my shower is at 45 degrees to the glass. These are available, eg here, and there are some really elegant products: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stainless-Support-screen-shower-enclosure/dp/B00GABTC52/ However I cannot find one for a 10mm glass screen. My bar needs to be about 25-30cm long, but most can be dismantled, trimmed and pics below but difficult to show. Ideally it would be from Amazon for quick, free delivery as I have Prime. Can anyone recommend? Cheers Ferdinand

I find the interactive designer at Stairbox useful, and quite sophisticated. But may not be up to what you ultimately need. Quite a lot of options etc. https://www.stairbox.com/stairbuilder.html F