Ferdinand

Looks good. Well done. The effort is always worth it, as the next one will take half the time. And you now know where some elephant traps are located.

This is a toughie. How about a Post It note, sticking out at the side? Or anything pushed up against the end and overlapping. F

I have no idea ...

14 x 280 = 3.92.

Um. Colour me sceptical. So far. I would say this is a ‘look at me’ proposal. I cannot find the gascookers thing mentioned in either of those links, nor can I find find out who made the recommendation, and whether they are actually a real government adviser. Presumably they have have a more greenhouse gas friendly alternative which is practical and cost-effective for all circumstances in which gas cookers are currently used. And they can show that this is better than simply improving Building Standards or renovating some old housing stock properly. And given that that the Minister Claire Perry MP is (in imo) an attention-seeker cum bansturbator given to fairly random public kneejerks / self-indulgent comments / bandwagon jumping and displays a lack of gravity anyway, I would need to see some more information before climbing on board this charabanc. Which hopefully someone has to hand ?. Ferdinand

I think one thing at issue is whether your ‘slight’ is enough to justify individual panel optimisation ie solaredge or micro inverters, or not. This kit does not seem to include such. And I think that needs more information to assess. It will be 10-20 per panel or so ... or that is what it was for me. Ferdinand

Do you have any spare cupboard doors? They are always good for a test.Alternatively, the back. Currently experimenting with a cheap-as-chips idea for painting cupboards grey. Wilko Spray paints from their Craft Range. £3.00-4.00 a spray can, which do several sqm of coverage each depending on the surface. When dad was doing it, he used to use car paints. Use the grey primer underneath, and a lacquer straight on top. B-i-L says it is good, and I have a T who wishes to overhaul a black wood-faced kitchen which has been in situ since 1993, and is still in good condition. It owes me nothing, so I will allow it. Being Ferdinand and therefore deranged, I have nearly a complete kitchen of spare doors even 25 years later, so I have something to play with. Dad had picked up a warehouse of kitchens from a company called Kalmar who pulled out of UK in about 1980, and I had all the remained Black Exclusive ones. Will report back. Ferdinand

I followed this advice and bought a collated driver / drill pair off Ebay for a £120 in 2017. They have done several thousand screws since, quite happily, over a series of floors and walls, across several projects. Piccies here: (I also bought one of those double-sided magnetic plasterboard cutting doodahs, which is brilliant if you keep your fingers in check).

Unknown unknowns ?. The OP can't post all the stuff that they do not know yet ?. Therefore it is incumbent upon us to go off topic to explore such ?. F

As light relief, my favourite asbestos moron story was the St Pauls’ Occupidiots from a few years ago (remember them?). After they were ejected from the grounds of St Paul’s Cathedral they occupied various other places, with consequences such as delaying social housing schemes by their presence, and then broke into and occupied an office building that was halfway through having its asbestos removed. Give them an advanced Darwin Award. They pulled the usual squatter ‘we did not break in’ arguments (no, we had a non-present friend who did it for us), but being sawdust-brained they had published a set of accounts “for transparency” which included one item itemised as “bolt cutters”. I love these people. Ferdinand

The numbers on here seem about right. If he wants the house, and not to get into the fandango of changing offers and going round the block again, he could just choose to race the garage as is for a few years and deal with it later when funds are available. it’s been there for decades, and sounds like one of the more benign types. If worried, which is probably not necessary, he could just fence it off. F

Yep it is a good example of what Planning Consultants do on a wider canvas ... know about ambiguities and what liberties can be taken, when these are in a continual state of flux. F

Shoulda’ moved to Mansfield! Now comes with complimentary Tory MP. It’s going up in the world. They had the Top Gear reserve team filming an item about the “Le Mans(field)” Race last week. Not the kudos of Clown Shoes, Delilah, and the Chipmunk, but it is a start. Ferdinand

To buy all at once, would look at the multipacks of 4 or6 tools. Very consideaprable savings indeed. Previously I have been a Metabo shop, as about 8 or 9 tools were inherited. Now I am moving to cordless, new ones are Makita. I am avoiding de Walt as they seem to have split into separate consumer and pro lines, which is a little confusing. I also have a full set of one of the Aldi Workzone offers, which gave me iirc 4 tools and 3 batteries and 3 chargers for about £200. Detail sander, grinder, jigsaw and multi tool iirc. These are the ones I lend, if any. For me they are also the ones I use less regularly, so may pass muster. For workshop style heavy tools, I might mix my brands. F

IIRC E7 was designed as a way to demand-shift the peak demand, so that power stations could be utilised more efficiently during the overnight dip. From that viewpoint, they would need flexibility for Rates etc to tune to the different demand and generation mix in each area. For example, for darker mornings in the Far North, or Air Conditioning (?) in the Far South, or commuting hours in the Smoke. F

I think @PeterW has it .. it is all grey. Another example is on habitable vs non-habitable rooms and overlooking. A bathroom or a utility is not habitable, and may therefore be OK closer to next door than the distance required by facing habitable rooms. SO if you install a large utility facing next door's kitchen and turn it into a habitable room later then that may be a technical breach of planning. A similar thing may be if you install obscured glazing to an overlooking roof window, which happens to be a stick-on film that you can peel off later then you peel it off. Technical breach. Both difficult to enforce on as relatively minor, and it can be changed back in a morning. WHich is why someone may insist on real obscured glass. iirc that is why in Scotland they insist on permanent and solidly built wheelchair ramps, as an attempt to prevent them being taken away later. Ferdinand

Can you sue a Private BCO? *innocent face*

Not sure if relevant, however if you did your drains first you could plumb your welfare hut in temporarily and save on weekly suck-out for the loo. Would also reduce traffic.

@Tony K There is value in using standard grids, but being a slave to them can make some things difficult. For example, sinks and range cookers, and chest freezers do not conform to that. And I love my 1m wide cutlery and pan drawer .. see below. And you need sufficient flexibility in for when something else does not quite come out as expected.eg if a door suddenly needs to be 150mm wider, or a wall needs an extra thickness of PB you forgot about. If you do everything to +-1mm with no adjustable-But-looks-planned elements, then there is a chance that you will be hoist by your own petard. So plan for a sufficient adaptability. You can use things like bin gaps, places stools go, tray slides, wine coolers, and a row of units that finished on an open wall not a corner where the end can be +- 6 inches. Personally I have found Howdens good, but it is branch based, and they keep offering me 1000 or 2000 screws free if I have a kitchen quote from them. Grid, Yes, Slave to a grid .. a rigidity too far. Ferdinand

In these circs you need to find something inconspicuous that needs 20 welds which you can do as practice first. Do you need a gate or a window grill somewhere? Can you repurpose eg some robust skylights as glass balustrades?

The other option I can see is an access platform of the boom lift type. That would reach, but would be perhaps £120+ a week to hire, and I am not sure it would be suitable for using heavy tools. F

One application I may see would be to protect original material walls that might get splashed by a shower, or above a splash back where a sink is against a stone wall. (Talking about the aerogel). Maybe. Ferdinand

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I am not entirely convinced of this claim.