Ferdinand

Staple the stuff itself to studs with a staple gun? Ferdinand

Late to the party. Mine was from Wickes 3 years ago, and is a Belle own-branded iirc. Ferdinand

I'm assuming that Peter's 1:40 number is the one from the Building Regs (2.5cm per metre sounds about right). To my mind it is equally important to make sure that it is downhill everywhere with no "puddle spots". As to how to measure it - hadn't thought about that ! It could be a good excuse to get a laser level, but since soil pipe comes in 5m lengths and is quite rigid it may be easier than you think to measure from 2 or 3 points. I think I would measure every 2-3m using my long spirit level crewed to a straight batten. I might even do it by counting one brick (75mm) of height for each 3m, fixing a couple of nails, and laying the batten across one nail and measuring the vertical to the other, then adjusting, and putting my brackets *there*. Having had some "ishoos" with slack drains, I might make it a bit steeper for luck. Ferdinand

If we took it seriously I suspect a lot could be done ... Compulsory meters everywhere for a start, never mind agricultural use. And then there's the small matter of embedded water .. Eg imported in fresh flowers. Ferdinand

You probably want to leaven my skepticism with experience from some people who have actually done it :-) . F

Thought you might like that, Nick. More work for plumbers ! F

Having taken the time to read the relevant building regs document (G?), I am a little doubtful about its efficacy.. My initial impressions are: 1 - The model and calculations suggested are only tangentially related to actual water usage in the future. 2 - The calculator looks like a over complicated, mainly disfunctional, zombified hangover from the Code for Sustainable Homes, and like the CFSH requires certain decisions to be made at a time which is not sensible - for example it makes the rating of your house dependent on the type of washing machine you choose to install. (rant) That is simply stupid, and is founded in a politico-bureaucratic regulatory desire for micro-control of our lives which has been pushed beyond the realistic. I don't want to make this political, but our Govt in the 2000s did have an addiction to microcontrol, checkboxes and "Tractor Statistics"; that poison has not yet been rooted out sufficiently. (/rant) 3 - The model admits that it cannot be an effective measure of future water usage. 4 - The relationship between consumption and occupancy is not clear. ie If you tell them there will be 3 not 2 people living in the house, does it help? 5 - I can see some sense in eg limitation of flow rate of a tap, use of aerating fixtures etc, basic limitation of washer use per kg of washing, but they have gone too far in their desire for control. However, it is in the regs, and with the regs we are required to comply, so 1 - I think a brief conversation (email: you get a written record) with Building Control is indicated to find out if they have adopted locally the tighter option. 2 - The easy way is to take The Red Pill - which is a "fittings approach", if you can meet the limits. It may be worth fitting cheap, compliant items, and replacing later rather than enter the nether world of the Water Efficiency Calculator. 3 - If you take The Blue Pill, then I think the way will be to have a Water Efficiency Calculator spreadsheet (which must be available somewhere), and keep it as a living document during the relevant stages of your design. 4 - Take care on the amount of detail you give to official people. The process looks flexible enough that you can adjust what you do to meet the requirements in several ways. Not sure how you would get one of those two person "Gent plus Geisha" Japanese wooden baths with seats past the "185 litre to overflow" limit, though - perhaps a complaint against the regs to the Equalities Commission on the basis of Race Discrimination. Or include two overflows, the lower one fitted with a cork. Ferdinand

There is a further option for 1 and 2 which I haven't discussed, and that is to have 2 narrow ensuites back to back - which I assume is what @Nickfromwales is implying by 2 windows. If pushed, an ensuite shower / loo / whb can be fitting into around 0.8x1.8m or 1.0x1.4m, which would let you do 2 back to back in the space you have or a little more generously in the space with a little extra nicked from the bedrooms, and have more left over for something else. An example of a not particularly compact example is here: http://ukbathroomguru.com/adding-a-small-en-suite-shower-room/ These are 2 links you may find useful: Plans: http://www.houseplanshelper.com/small-bathroom-floor-plans.html Rules: http://www.houseplanshelper.com/bathroom-dimensions.html Also lots on Pinterest but they spam you to register. I have an Ikea whb called a Lillangen, which is 400 deep and 600 wide, with a "stand things here" build-in shelf behind the bowl and vanity unit for about £200 iirc. Good but needs effort to keep clean (wipe every day). The extra width prevents it feeling mean and it is the right shape for cleaning boots. http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00135419/#/30135432 But there are plenty of options about. Just take the time to let the concept steep in your head. There is also a thread on ebuild about thin partition wall construction, where amongst others Jeremy talked about his compact walk-in-wardrobe. Photos are inaccessible but that wouid be a good thread for someone to move over (you know you want to). You could get your partition wall down to 60mm thick or so. http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/14367-building-a-thin-partition-wall-how-thin-can-i-go/ If you could take your space depth up to 1900mm or 2000mm between the two rooms, you could even plan a 1.8mx0.8m to 2.0m x 1m shower ensuite each side (760mm x 1m shower inside side with no door and shower head on bedroom wall to avoid splash (*), whb facing, loo against external wall with window - big mirror above the whb facing the sliding (?) door to make it feel larger), and then leave space for a 1.5m x 900 deep L-shaped "stand in" wardrobe for each room, with storage at the back and the side. You then need to work out how to get it past the regulators :-). (Update: you *could* look at ensuite pods, which could simplify your construction, as used in student accommodation etc - from a couple of thousand each. Suspect most here won't go for that option, though - too easy! ) Ferdinand (*) I hate moving doors on showers.

Start a separate thread on that unless there is an existing one as others have experience. Presumably things like aerating taps etc have an effect, and there are quirks in the calculation which iirc is a little eccentric and down to local interpretation. You could also eg arrange your "Jack and Jill" in such a way that it could be split in 2 with the addition of a stud wall and the extra fittings etc, or make half of it into a walk in wardrobe for the first year. Ferdinand

I've adjusted my view on this layout. I think a consideration should be that the loo flush for each bedroom - the noisiest part of the ensuite - should be next to the wall of the bedroom for which that is the ensuite, so that when A flushed the loo at 3am, B does nto get the noise. One way of doing that would be to put the shower at the far side of each ensuite as you enter from the bedroom. Ferdinand

In our previous 2 acre garden we had a supply in an outbuilding with an extra tap, and rather than run a pipe 750mm under the round, ran a high quality hose buried just under the surface 80m to a standpipe in the veg plot. Just switched it off at the outbuilding in the winter. I'd say make sure it is freezeproof - I think the Yanks or the Canoodians have fancy through the wall taps of some sort so there is none standing in a pipe above ground. The other option we discussed on BH (*) is your own well. It was touched on here in asides: If you are on sand or chalk with a reasonable water table, it is as simple as buying the gubbins (pipe with a filter cage) and bashing into the ground with a Post Rammer. Fit a pump and you have 20 cubic metres per day. Clay is a little more difficult, but there are people around who have done it. Sand point well: Ferdinand (*) Love that the acronym for BuildHub is the German for an item of lingerie with a very Germanic innuendo free tone - BustenHalter. I can just imagine another BH - Brunhilde - with a Vorsprung durch Technik engineered solution.

Quick reply as going to the Doctor. Would a shared supply pipe to a terrace not come under the recent adoption of shared supply pipes by water companies? 4-5 years ago? Ferdinand

Glad to be of service, as the Bishop said to the Other Bishop. Very generous showers (as opposed to telephone boxes). preferably with big glass screens and no door, are in my view the thing that makes a *huge* difference in making ensuites feel sumptuous if you can do it without making teh whole thing really cramped. If you make them the same footprint as a bath that works well, and can be swapped around later if need be. If you were able to buy 3 or 4 of everything for ensuites that could make quite a saving. You clearly don't belong to Generation Snowflake who have all had ensuites at University in their student bedrooms :-D in exchange for ridiculous charges. Your current design doesn't have a main family bathroom except on the Second Floor which is perhaps itself a little unusual. However, you could easily mitigate that "missing bathroom" feeling in the future by either: 1 - create a small ensuite in bed 3, and leave your current main bathroom as a study but with pipes etc behind the studwork so you could make it a family bath room as required eg to sell. 2 - alternatively leave provision in one of your big ensuites on Floor 2 to insert a door to the landing, and remove the bedroom at that point, so that it could be a family bathroom when required. I have a thing about double bedrooms of at least 10sqm and ensuites because I sometimes rent out shared houses, and it makes it so much easier / civilised. Ferdinand

It is surprising how few mortgages Ecology do, simply because they are small. In 2014 their total amount of new mortgage lending was £23.1 million, which if we call them £230k each is only one hundred mortgages in the year, or two per week or per geographical county in the whole year. https://www.ecology.co.uk/pdf/about/EcologyBS-31.12.2014.pdf No wonder they are having to clamp down, Interestingly as a contrast, I am finding that BTL mortgage providers are starting to deal with borrowers direct, and cut out mortgage brokers - even with Limited Company borrowers. Ferdinand

It looks to me as though the area you have got for your Jack and Jill - 1.5m x 3.7m , should be perfectly adequate for two ensuite shower rooms, one for each bedroom. If you nicked an extra bit of width and made them 1.8 x 1.8 each, you might even have space for 2 bathrooms. Personally I'd go for 800m x 1.7 shower trays back to back in the middle so that it would feel really spacious though a smallish room - ie make each bed about 2900 not 3000 wide, then you would roughly 1.7m x 900mm for a loo (corner loo?), vanity and whb in each one with a sliding door at the end. That's not particularly tight, you just need to take care where you place the gubbins. Giving a house several ensuites really affects the feel of the place. Why not turn the main bathroom above in to an ensuite for Bed 3, or give Bed 3 a small ensuite shower room and make it a study? Ferdinand

A workshop the same size as the house has precedent. Can I take the opportunity to repost a linbk to one of my favouirite pieces of writing: http://annaraccoon.com/2014/09/14/one-man-and-his-shed/ Ferdinand

Perhaps by tile 34.

For a number to demolish and cart away, I'd guess 15-20k plus asbestos would be a ballpark, but that is just my guess. That looks - depending on area - that a clad + reroof refurb may be better value, possibly. Or perhaps demolish/replace just the extension to leave (guess) 2000sqft, then insulate/render the rest. Coul be cost effectrve. I am sure there is a TV programme about them. Pure white with a flat roof - 1950s international style. Though you might get 3-6 on the garden. I hope you wouldn't be responsible for replacing the fence ! F

Does SPONS have a figure? Ferdinand

Don't know - I have a big box of spares, so I might try it. F

Has anybody here used / does anybody use the Two Hammers technique? Obvs no good if the tile is already on the wall.

What is the cost of hiring a scissor lift? Or buy a secondhand one? eg £400 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pop-Up-Scissor-Lifts-Push-Around/122031549118?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D37803%26meid%3D75b6b86896154c9081a7fc3673f15242%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dlo%26sd%3D262526603025 Ferdinand

I thought you *could* download from Youtube. Ferdinand

Aside - payment method is one to watch. Banks and suppliers very much like BACS and Fastpay these days. Neither has even the protection you get with Debit Card, never mind Credit Card. Had a long conversation with Nationwide about this when I took out my Flexdirect Account. Ferdinand

Does anyone have experience of splitting titles? The situation is that I am looking at a detached house with a separate cottage, currently on a single title. The plan might be to extend the cottage, split the titles, and sell one or the other as a separate property. I am estimating 10-12k plus 5k contingency for service splitting (elec, gas, water, phone) and fees, given that there is nothing difficult (it is all in the nearby road) and no insurmountable planning constraints as far as I know. The only new gas supply I ran in recently to a property was Am I allowed now to leave 2 properties teed off a single shared water supply with separate meters at the property? Obviously it may make sense to move into one or the other first for CGT reasons. I don't need advice on that point. Thanks for any experiences. Ferdinand