Ferdinand

I used Coverworld for my conservatory replacement roof. This is Chesterfield. http://www.coverworld.co.uk/ The roof has been robust for several years, but I felt gouged on £50 delivery for around 6 miles on a £400 order. Otherwise they were great to deal with. Very happy to take smallish orders. My comment would be choose widths narrow enough to go on your trailer and collect it yourself. Say 2.4m wide x2 would also be easier to handle on site.I have had no problems with wicking through joints between sheets. A family member did their terraced read add-on with the insulation-attached stuff and found it an expensive pain to work with eg cutting. Ferdinand

Wickes seem to have 4 for 3 on most rock wool insulation - 100mm, 170mm, 200mm, and 200mm wrapped - until nearly Christmas. Also recently on 50mm celotex. A Trade Account and a relevant cash back Amex or Credit card might bring that up to nearly 40% off. There is also about 3% via QuidCo etc, but I can't work out how to combine that with the Trade Discount. Any ideas?

Locally for me Travis are better for small delivered orders as they charge a fiver, whereas Wickes charge 25 unless it is over 300 ukp. I have accounts with Wickes (10% off at the till and regular emails) Travis and B&Q and some trade only. I like dealing with Wickes or sometimes Screwfix as they often have all sorts of other offers and nice familiar staff. Incidentally Wickes seem to have 4 for 3 on most rock wool insulation - 100mm, 170mm, 200mm, and 200mm wrapped - until Christmas. Also recently on 50mm celotex, but they managed to lose my discount on 4 sheets of that. Wickes aren't quite at the stage where I can expect 30% off my bill if I just wait a few weeks like Halfords, but they may get there.

@Bitpipe Thanks. I think that illustrates that we all will be driven primarily by the concrete and financial consequences of any rules. I predict that the values of trad small terraced houses will take a major hit some time before 2030 (say 10k or 10-15%) relative to a fully done-up one, as these can get to a D reasonably easily (I normally do that and it does not need exceptional changes), but will require something like EWI to reach a C. Unless the exceptions to the requirement are generous. Cheers. F

Is there any good guide to "evidencing" and "assuming" around? I can see this being a problem in the future. eg I have just had an end wall in a rental boarded out inside while a T was redecorating with 50mm Kingspan (small room :-o ) in addition to the 25mm PUR that was already there. But of course I cannot prove it, and in a few years time rentals will have to be E (2018) then D (2025) then C (2030) on pain of prosecution iirc. I wonder if they will be equipped with thermal cameras and checking 20 year old invoices and contemporaneous photographs which will have to be notarised ? ! What will happen is that the process will be driven only by things that can be proven on the spot, which will read through to what people actually do. My own scores 77 but there is no reason to repeat the cert to demonstrate improvements, though the 77 assumes on some walls and excludes the underfloor insulation - while accepting that there is UFH, unless the contribution of solar will be devalued and I want the max EPC boost from my PV array. Ferdinand

I don't see why not if you are the owner. Yes I mean the Land Registry. There any be a sticky post over on Gardenlaw in one of the forums covering Land Registry maps and meanings etc by a poster called Conveyancer that may be a useful read. Ferdinand

@jack I think that any words present are definitive in the interpretation of the plan. The registry will check it carefully and may either com back to the submitter or put the application in a pending tray. I have experienced both while negotiating the sale of our site. Even within the last 6 weeks the purchaser came back to me to sign another copy of a map on a sale where we received the permethrin months ago ... presumably someone is being persnickety. You need to reach a decision, but it is equally important to follow up at appropriate points with the horse's mouth for the current stage to make sure that it is progressing and any issues get spotted then sorted. Ferdinand

Here our huge B&Q has been half converted into a large Aldi as part of the general retrenchment, and they have closed 3 or 4 smaller ones within a few miles. Wonder how well B&Q will be doing with their tool sales :-). Ferdinand

I would say find your stockist to collect then put an ad on eg anyvan. F

I question whether sensible downsizers would go for a terraced house, unless younger elderly or financially constrained. I think it needs a shower or bath upstairs and a shower downstairs if you are after downsizers. Ferdinand

Welcome. Nice to have a BCO around.

Now there is something to work put how to do :-) I would bet that you need more packaging than you expect for one cubic metre. Perhaps it would need something more like a flail mechanism / paper shredder or an industrial level wood chipper. What would the particle size have to be for effective insulation? I can see that taking it down to a couple of mm would be difficult, but would 10mm particles be materially worse? Is there a fire risk due to an absence of retardants in packaging? I remember that the mechanism on the GD programme was well concealed, though. Person who made their own insulating sheets (not unfortunately from loose beads) https://greenpassivesolar.com/2012/11/how-styrofoam-can-be-recycled/ Ferdinand

These need to be available as modules of say .8 sqm. Are they? Ferdinand

I knew it was going through obviously, since I received communication. However, I have experience of trying to get through to these large blobs (NPower!) and it didn't seem worth the candle when there is a life to get by on with in this case. Ferdinand

THis morning I received confirmation that my FiT application has been processed and accepted by SSE. That has taken since January 2016.

I think the BRs relate fall to pipe size which you do not specify. I have a bungalow with a slack drain and it is a PITA if anyone puts flushable medical wipes down it. If it is just your family you may be OK with pushing the limits but I would avoid walking the line if I could. It is just unpleasant when it goes wrong. Ferdinand

LEt's get some costs on this thread for comparison. According to Mark Brinkley, a sprinkler system for a 4 bed house covering all rooms in a new build was about £2k to £3k overall or £200 per outlet or £15-20 per sqm in 2011, and cost of damage in a fire was 75-80% less than a smoke alarm and fire brigade system. PLus a maintenance contract. Good review article from Mark: https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/do-homes-need-sprinklers/ For guestimating purposes I would call that £20 now per outlet. Does anyone have any real numbers for a good quality wired smoke alarm system in a similar house, then readers can get a better picture? Ferdinand

I am sure that is part of it. However there are genuine benefits, and a significant minority of smoke alarms are not functional. More information from the Association here: http://www.bafsa.org.uk/sprinkler-information/domestic-residential-sprinklers.php But I would agree it is a balance. F

I would probably fit a sprinkler system anyway, unless it was a *really* tight budget. As I see it the key benefits are: 1 - If a fire does start the detectors in every room will likely catch it earlier than waiting for smoke to seep under doors etc, and damage will be limited to one room, not half the house plus umpteen thousand gallons of water. 2 - Therefore far less water damage too. 3 - And less need to move house for months and months. 4 - Plus more design flexibility around compartmentalisation etc. There was a ridiculous statistic around that no one in the UK had ever been killed in a house with a maintained sprinkler system, but I think that may have gone to 1 a few years ago. Treat that as apocryphal until someone cites a source. Agreed. Melting link heat alarms at iirc approx 60C are normal for sprinkler systems. I believe they were planning to make sprinkler systems mandatory in Wales on newbuilds - has that happened yet? It seemed to be partially virtue signalling since the cost-benefit analysis of the policy was well on the wrong side of the line. Ferdinand

I think you could perhaps get the company to write a cover letter to explain that limitation of the denial of liability, which would then be an effective part of the contract. I think that technically your question, their email and your acknowledgement of that email would be good enough for a court. But a pair of specific letters being their covering letter including a signature from presumably a director and your acknowledgement of that letter ideally with signed for delivery would be a good thing to have. ANd easier to get than a change in the contract. Ferdinand

Welcome.

Haven't we discussed this before? The paper itself can move significantly (by at least 1%? - my guestimate) which I am sure Ian is familiar with though perhaps it bears repeating for newbies who land on this thread and sometimes more. So it needs to have a scale on the paper then be checked against the written numbers on site. I guess that it will move more between office and site than office and office. It is a good job concrete beams are quite dimensionally stable . "It doesn't reach the wall any more, Guv'nor". My somewhat posh secondhand colour laser printer (OKI C9655 for the avoidance of doubt) has a stage in its printing process where it displays "adjusting temperature", which will standardise at least one variable. Ferdinand

Cheers.

This seems like a silly question. House with a traditional cold roof, and the boiler in the roof. Is a CO detector needed, and if so where? I think the answers are probably no and nowhere. But it is a rented house and fitting one is "best practice" (not "required"), so obv I normally fit one near the boiler. In this case I think I will not fit one as CO rises. Can anyone see any problems?

It sounds as if a one day Boot Camp type course (or a few hours paid mentoring) might be a wise investment. Ferdinand