Ferdinand

I think your only answer here is going to come from your gasman. I think that garage installations should be reliable if it is a reliable boiler. I would certainly prefer it to a loft installation (bl**dy things). Will 26kw be enough output for your DHW? I am about to have a Vogue 32 fitted. Ferdinand

I am wondering about putting the silhouette of a large sitting dog in my wall in a contrasting brick colour just to give an interesting twist to the road, but I do not know if I have the nerve . F

Decision made. I am going all blue engineering brick, with a double row of red tiles to be a dripguard at the top. I will probably have a couple of details - say diamonds - using a small number of the bricks I have in honey-cream matching the house. Materials ordered to arrive tomorrow just in case my builder decides to work Saturday or Monday. Ferdinand

In a level patio clearly you need some sort of well to allow access to your airbrick, which could be filled with stones a la @ProDave and have a patio slab on top, or a slab supported on whatever the edgings of the well are. Or you could use something like Adjustable Support Pads - perhaps four in your well: Cost about £4-5 each. My entire patio is on them, but I have a slab underneath. I think in your case I might lay a chunky paver below the airbrick level, then put pads on that to support the top slab. Access to the void is simply by raising the one loose slab. You need to keep your under-patio material out of the well, and that could be bricks or breezeblocks around the edge, but I might be tempted to use strips of paver dug in as retainers, as you could for a raised bed. The problems then are what to go under the patio to keep it rat free, and how to keep the air-brick-wells drained. Both seem soluble, but need careful thought. Alternatively could a periscope vent be built into a hard garden feature? Ferdinand

What is your patio surface material?

(This thread is about brick walls - please do not invade it with fences, and hedges - except as garnish for the brick). In a few days I will be having a small front garden wall built ... about 5m x 1m high so 500 or so bricks, in a street of small 1960s bungalows. I did a little wander up my street to crib a few ideas, and these were a few of the walls I have locally. It is a former lane lane which has been absorbed into the near town centre and has buildings from approx 1830 to present. There will hopefully be a longer blog post, but these are a few examples off the type I may be having built. I am looking for comments. The surprise for me is how quickly these deteriorate, especially with the wrong choice of materials - some are looking shoddy after only 25-30 years. IMO brick walls should easily last a century unless there is a requirement not to do so. Here we go. A Nice looking wall, made with facing bricks (like my house) and copers, and basic engineering bricks as DPC. B But it has spalled badly. Do not use facing bricks for a garden wall. C I like this combination of red and blue. 40-50 years old and suffering a little? On the main road with the traffic. D Posh gatepost. Inadequate materials as used in the flats behind. Now badly deteriorated. E Yep.Like it. Recent, and they have trees in the right place, too. But are those facers and will it spall later? F As above, but two or three decades older and now careworn: G Similar with added decoration from blue engineering bricks. English Garden Wall Bond, I think. H Again, with blue decoration included in the paving: I Another variation. Someone did not like the postbox in the gatepost. J A very carefully done piece of architecture imo. That stone wall style used to be the dominant note on the road, and is still the background. What have you done or seen? What will wear best? Feel free to post lots of pictures of garden walls from your area. If there is one fault with the above imo, it is that there is no discernible vernacular in this selection. Ferdinand

They are not secure enough, they are not universally compatible between different companies, and they potentially give outside bodies the power to control my electricity without me being able to do very much about it easily or necessarily knowing what is happening, or consenting, That is why I refused one.

Answers in the thread title posted on Ebuild here: (Some of these views may have changed, but it is still all useful grist for your mill. @Declan52 @ProDave @JSHarris @JSHarris @Stones @jack @jack There is another thread buried deeper in Ebuild, which I aim to have a look at later.

Yes, that was Mr Blair in 2003. This being the UK, I seem to recall the media taking the P and his being accused of grandstanding, however there seems to have been a serious report behind it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1422243/Blair-sent-in-tanks-after-chilling-threat.html TBH I always viewed it as posturing, but it seems I was wrong. Ferdinand

Some waste you can burn, I expect, as a normal bonfire. And you may be able to burn a few extra bits depending on neighbours (if any), location and visibility from the street. I think that would relate to eg untreated wood. Really it is horses for courses. If you choose to push it it is for you to decide, but if you receive a visit (fire brigade, council) then imo it is game over for slightly bending any rules. If you are genuinely domestic then I expect that the initial intervention could be less severe. One thought is that a marginally larger skip may not be that much more expensive. There is also that Waste Transfer Regulations are a bit of a dog's breakfast as to what is "waste" and what is not, and the License you may or may not need, and what is accepted at the domestic tip from whom. I would welcome advice on this, as I do not really understand the system. I do not particularly wish to shell out for a Waste Transfer License if in fact I am moving topsoil from one site to another where it will be reused. I have never explored this one but I think it probably revolves around the correct documentation. Ferdinand

+1. Love the defenestration window for Czech visitors. A pond and a plank must be tempting.

Reading those threads, we have permission from about 80% of the people to copy posts across, so I will have a look at doing that later. F

Don't underestimate salami-slicing-pricing either. Eg with a Trade Account and Gift Cards bought via many people's work Employee Benefit Programmes it is possible to get a routine 20% off at Wickes, plus whatever discounts and sales they are doing at the time. We have a couple of threads in the General Discussion area. A couple of weeks ago a new member appeared quoting a price for insulation for a new self-build that could be halved without difficulty. Ferdinand

That all sounds encouraging (for a successful build process) - you have some scars of experience . When you have been round the block enough that you have worn a groove in the ground to create your own block, then you become an official HOG (= Hoary Old Git).

8>< Snip.

A father-in-law who visits for the winter? *Gets coat* What is one of those, then? Is that when Clarkson talks about feeling things through the seat of your pants?

I think you *may* be underestimating the numbers of rocks and ruts normally encountered on the smooth road of self-build, and the time required to circumvent them or prove they are mirages. Trying to do things too quickly *can be* (sometimes) a very good way of spending more money than you may actually need to do. Ferdinand

(Revised) I think it is a good thing to start throwing ideas around, as long as you do not get *too* attached to specifics. At this early stage I suggest exposing yourself to as many ideas as you can, and try to focus on the generalities as well as the details. It is the broad knowledge and background you are missing my not using an architect - and you need to compensate by creating your own broader perspective. That is important, because the joy of self-build is that you design something that works for you and suits the site, rather than taking a preconceived idea of your house and plonking it down wherever. That is in some ways no different from taking a developer's pre-conceived idea of what you house should be. What are your key requirements? (ie your postcard-length summary of what you want from your house) Do you know which area (approx) are you in, and what the vernacular style is for that area? I recommend: 1 - Reading this design e-book written by one of our former architect members: http://www.ebuild.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=4333 2 - Visiting as many different interesting houses as you can on Open Days, via Estate Agents, for weekends away on AirBNB and so on, with a notebook and an eye on what you like. And I mean 20 or 30 not 2 or 3, 3 - Starting to look for details of the things that make houses work. Where is the light coming from at different times of day, as well as what sort of finishes has it got. I find it helps to start from all three of "what is the site like", "what do we need" and "what will our house look like", and meet somewhere in the middle. Ferdinand

Welcome.

An attack on the most vulnerable by party or parties currently unknown. Not good, and I am thinking about people who have still not found their families, friends and relatives. And for those whose role it is to help. My hope is that - since to me this seems to be an attempt to cause disruption to our life during an Election - our response will be what it usually is. That is, a pause for respect and acknowledgement of the victims, and then a continuing of normal, daily life. And of course a hunt for the perpetrators, whoever they are. Ferdinand

Perhaps use the woodfibre boards to line raised beds? And yes, they should chip, subject to any poisonous addiditives they contain. It may be a surprise just how quickly they will be chipped by a large chipper. They should compost too, but may be better chipped where they will eventually be needed. Cedar

Checking on Wickes and Todd Doors product, I am not sure they are the same. Looking at 1981x762mm Cottage Oak / Geneva doors (ie oak veneer with detailing like vertical planks): Wickes - weight 27.5 kg, bottom trimming margin 20mm. http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Geneva-Internal-Cottage-Oak-Veneer-Door-5-Panel-1981-x-762mm/p/214699 Todd Doors - weight 31.7kg (via Web Chat), bottom trimming margin 50mm https://www.todd-doors.co.uk/cottage-oak-door That suggests a different internal construction. In this case I need the extra margin, and want heavy doors, so I will fork out the extra £15 or so per door. Ferdinand.

Missed this. The problem is that my feet are very ticklish, so I would not last long.

One problem then is that the humidity changes as a new house takes 12-36 months to dry out, Argues for engineered or mdf.

Welcome. It is good to see part-rebuilders and renovators as well as greenfield or total replacement projects :-o) . Ferdinand