Ferdinand

This makes me smile every time I read it. It is what I do to fences, and @Onoff to gates. You are very fortunate that you did not end up with a Borders’ version of the Palace at Knossos, complete with Minotaur in the basement. You could recruit some toyboys and have a Scottish Seraglio. F

The whole thing, which I think may give them wriggle room .. depends on whether the para you quote is in series or parallel with the rest: Either way for Plan A you keep quiet until something happens. ferdinand

Just a warning because I have known people who got it wrong. It is better to go in a few hours a day or have an oppo if you are risking your back ... such a risk is not worth it. Use the sack trolleys, knee pads and whatever equipment it needs. And pay a man if you are dealing with any really heavy pavers. I have a problem even when I am paying people stopping them from doing their backs ... despite repeated explicit instructions to not move 40kg or 60kg pavers or sheets of PB or OSB on their own etc. then they have a day off and it costs them money and delays my project. F

I guess that the bathroom humidity might be an aggravating factor?

The VOA can reband your property If they assess i5 as having changed; but you can Appeal or apply for a reduction. it would surprise me if they are not automatically informed of PPs and sign-offs. On the govt website you can check the values of properties, and the best way to estimate what might happen is to look at the numbers for properties near you similar in size to your finished project. Be warned slightly: if someone complains of being too high they have been known to increase the rest rather than cut that one. F

Ok. A few weeks in. The only thing that a really being missed is an EPG; even within the version of iPlayer or the Really / Dave etc app it is very difficult to find things. i may need to think about the TV Player to make Freeview type channels easier to find. We have reverted to a newspaper for TV times for now. F

I am thinking of a bath vaguely like this one, which a stand-alone but with an enclosed body rather than legs. https://victoriaplum.com/product/orchard-wharfe-freestanding-bath This is acrylic. Is there a better material? My gap it has to fit into is 800 wide. Thanks Ferdinand

So why do they not wash their hands in Amsterdam? *innocent face* Amsterdam is unpopular with me today. Watched a Sky interview this AM with one of the people planning to disrupt London tomorrow. Turns out she commutes from her ‘house In the Netherlands’ and saving the planet consists of Eurostar not flying. One return ticket a week uses up half of the average per capita Uk use of CO2, which is 5.7 tonnes. If homework had been done, the deluded infividual would know that the Netherlands emits pretty much double the CO2 per head than we do, and it is up by 10% since 1990, whilst ours is down by nearly 40%. Bah. Rioja Revolutionaries. Ferdinand

Where are you trying to put it in that space, or outside the door? And what is your minimum dimension front to back? You can get them down to about 225mm, but even that would be tight.eghttps://soak.com/en-gb/furniture/vanity-units/cloakroom-vanity-units/essential-range---white-slimline-freestanding-basin-unit/2000677.html#start=1 Given that it is newly tiled, how will you run the pipes without smashing your hard work? I think that it could be more sensible outside the door ... can we have a piccie of the view from about 2m back? Cheers F

For the record, that is not F

Cause: Probably either using a non-flexible tile adhesive in a room with ufh (bath 1 and 2), and/or using 8x4 sheets of chipboard for the subfloor rather than tongue-and-groove (bath 2). Relatively minor mistakes 10-12 years ago by the self-builder who added a top storey to this bungalow. Consequence 10 years later - significant contributer to need for 2 new bathrooms. Bathroom 1 - movement and grout deterioration. Bathroom 2: Tiles cracking on an 8x4 grid, exasperated (maybe) by ufh only being over part of the floor increasing differential movement Thought: Skimp on the stuff you can see, not the stuff you can't see. And save on the deal, not the quality.

This is an attempt to compile a list of small errors that are large problems to sort out later. Though perhaps we need to be thinking about "deep" errors as well as small ones. It has been inspired by my current need to replace both bathroom floors from what seem to be minor mistakes 10-12 years ago by the self-builder who added a top storey to thsi bungalow. Ferdinand

Aside. From the link: Why does one need beach stones for the veg patch? I used driveway stones in my tenant's grave last week to specify the precise colour of masonry paint she *desires* (and does not exactly get), but why these beach stones? F

I am not entirely sure that an angled roof window is more noisy than a vertical window. Has anyone specific experience? F

Fairly immobile elderly, who is entitled eg to a Blue Badge. Currently able to get upstairs slowly, but that may only last a couple of years. Career as special school Physio. 80+. F

There are some around eg chrome https://www.screwfix.com/c/bathrooms-kitchens/grab-rails/cat820218

Here are a few pictures of the downstairs bathroom as is, and the current Shower Chair.

Overkill? This is Zootville 2019. Zoot and the postman. Not Edward I and Owen Glyndwr! The Men of Harlech would have some trouble getting though that little lot. (**) Ferdinand (* I admit that my analogy does a certain amount of violence to history) (** Admittedly in Kent you need it for the Men of Essex)

Do you have a drain umbilical camera that might help? I picked one up from Aldi a bit ago that plugs into my phone. Just thinking.

Cheers - do you happen to have a piccie and size, and a link for the chair.

Having observed yesterday only my 2nd occurrence of a T switching off a single room HR Lo Carbon Tempra fan in a number of years (a little thrummy in the setting), I have tipped my policy towards fitting one of these where noise is sensitive eg where it is in the kitchen rather than utility. It is a similar fan, with a background low setting, and a timed boost wired to the light. It is a drop in relapcement for a trad "on with the lights") bathroom fan. Cost is reasonable. Ferdinand

Adding a little more to this thread. I usually go for the basic Nuaire, or the "Hall Control" one, which allows it to be changed from behind the outlet standing on a stool. If it is not an active cold draught that can be felt Ts leave them alone IME. The very basic one only has "loft control". The way I set it up is to work out when the draught can be felt and go one setting lower. I have not gone for the one with the air heater, as I do not think it adds much (compared with say adding a tower rad in the bathroom, which won't be much more ££), and iirc they have a "stop blowing when the incoming air is below 3-5C" setting. It may also necessitate extra wiring (say 500W rather than 5W), which would prevent using the lighting circuit. I have one with an alternative feature which is a WiFi monitoring from outside which is for the future if I should need it. I think your fitting into the hall may work OK. I have one with an outlet in the landing wall (in my own house) coming from a mini-end-roofspace due to an extension in the roof by the previous owner. F

I have been talking about refurbishing my upstairs bathroom. I also need to do the downstairs for when my elderly mum needs it. I have a couple of some specific questions, and I do not think we have a thread. She also likes sitting in the shower for a rest or a sit-down shower. Currently we have a plastic garden chair for that in a wetroom alcove upstairs. The biggest shower tray I can get in will be 1400 x 800mm (the 800mm is a bit tight, but more would be a pain), as it is under the stairs where there is currently a bath. There will be a fixed screen as many others do , plus a hinged end panel. I'll post a design etc on a blog-post. I need a walk-in shower which is as-good-as-possible rather than "acceptable", without sinking the bank. Questions: 1 - Does a non-slip shower tray offer major benefits? Is there a downside in attraction of muck or cleaning etc? 2 - In looking for a shower screen, are they available with pre-attached grab rails? In practice a pre-attached towel rail may do it, which is what we currently have. But does gonig for one with a rail on make it niche and pricey? How pricey? 3 - Are there glue-on varieties of grab rail, and other help-equipment? Are there versions available which do not look like a clinic? (Shower screens are inexpensive, so it may be the best option to replace the whole thing when the grab rail is no longer needed). 4 - Can anyone point me to a type of fold down shower chair which is more comfortable that the normal institutional-looking ones? 5 - Potentially I *may* be able to fit in a 900mm shower tray, though it would involve moving a towel rad by about 80mm. Since we are now retiling the whole thing, that be worth it. Question for any wise-owl members: is there a major benefit for less mobile people in a 900mm wide shower over an 800mm wide? I have a gut feel it could give a lot more benefit that the small change implies. Cheers Ferdinand

(From the other thread, with a bonus bit.) What are your constraints and budget? Looking at your setting, I would probably suggest a pair of farm pedestrian gates from an agricultural stockist would fit in well. Just been looking into it for a neighbour who is on a budget, and a pair of hunky-chunky (ie the bloke reversing into it will lose the damage war) metal hanging posts, plus a pair of 5ft metal farm gates, comes in at under £200 including VAT for 5 bar gates, or about £250 including VAT for wooden ones from my usual stockist. Agree with Peter on posts - my supplier does metal or wooden, and the metal ones come in 3.5" or 4", and are about 8-9ft when they arrive, and I normally set them 24-28" into the ground. They survive anything smaller than a hit from a 4 or 6-wheeler. Your link has a good range of sizes so you can probably do your 60:40, or whatever you want. The thing that would need to be sorted here is mountings for wooden gates on the posts, and some form of fastening in the middle. In my experience, metal ones come with mounting kits. For wooden they tend to be extra as you need a thing like a hairpin which attaches to the horizontals in the gate and to the posts. I have used normal galvanised farm gates, sometimes Hammerite-d for years, and they work perfectly for appearance even within a mixed residential street. In a village setting with those informal hedge you can do whatever you want. They should last 25-30 years without a tremor. Two things to watch are that agricultural places are unlikely to deliver (bung somebody £20 if you need), and you need to make sure they cannot swing out into the road. My best choice would be go galvanised, and possibly paint them. I tend to avoid painting them for the same reason I avoid painting walls ... the one thing you can guarantee is that they will need painting again at some future time; Ockham says no. F

Is there security around the whole site, or can one just roll on in and drive around for a nosey from the road? I did notice that the drone shots studiously avoided displaying views of the sewerage works in their aerial panoramic sweeps. Ferdinand