James Newport

As large as you can for a workshop! But there is a vast youtube subculture filled with people setting up workshops in tiny spaces. Mounting stuff on wheels is always good because you can push it to one side and still bring a car in.

Like with Hive or Nest? There is a standard called Opentherm that allows for far greater control of the boiler from a smart thermostat. Typically all thermostats do is turn the radiator output from the boiler on or off, which is exactly how a wall thermostat works. Opentherm allows for them to do things like turn the temperature of the central heating water up or down, or pick up info from things like a temperature sensor in the flue. I assumed my top of the range boiler would come with this, but it turns out what I needed was the top top top of the range version.

All the plumbers round my way who quoted recommended Baxi boilers, although they were happy to fit Worcester and Vaillant as well. The only reason they came up with for one make over the other was that Baxi were better for getting hold of parts, or that Worcester had started charging for stuff that used to be included. Can't quite remember the specifics, only that the reason for one make over another were pretty tenuous. My Baxi has been fine for 18 months, but my sister's ended up needing a circuit board replacing after six months. In a previous house I had a Vaillant combi that had a teeny tiny thermal store inside the combi, which meant that hot water would start in a few seconds, rather than the 30 seconds that is now life with this Baxi.

Been there. A quarter mil on a house that cost £350,000 and will only be worth £550,000 ish once done? Hmmm, that sounds appealing. I went the separate trades route, and we'll come in around £100,000 The caveats being managed builder reckoned 6 months, but we're at 16. Huge amounts of my time managing the whole process If someone cocks something up and it's down to me and them to resolve, rather than just telling the managed builder to sort it I know where all the mistakes are that we have to live with, and they bug me But I also know where all the mistakes aren't that I noticed and got them to fix The craziest price differences we had were scaffolding (they reckoned £30k, when it cost £7k) and roof retiling (£30-40k, whereas it cost around £15k).

I found that cheapy wood jigsaw blades works well for STS construction boards, which are also fibre cement. They only manage a few cuts before they blunt and become useless, but at a pound or so per blade it worked out better value than buying the magic circular saw blade the manufacturer recommends. Lots of dust though!

If it’s a shared pipe it might be the responsibility of the water company these days - that’s what a letter I had from welsh water a couple of years ago said.

Shelly have a couple of humidity options. They're nice because they need very little tinkering to get them up and running. You can get started with their own built in web interface, but they can also push their data to whatever device is being used for logging via HTTP or MQTT. There is a battery driven wireless sensor - https://shellystore.co.uk/product/shelly-ht-white/, but they sell an adapter to run it off a usb cable. Not the best option to sit permanently under a floor though. You can also combine their basic wifi switch with a humidity sensor (https://shellystore.co.uk/product/shelly-1/, https://shellystore.co.uk/product/shelly-temp-addon/ and https://thepihut.com/products/am2302-wired-dht22-temperature-humidity-sensor)

Try https://www.epoxy-info.co.uk/resins_shop.htm The mouldable epoxy putty can be pushed into the gaps. The thixatropic resin can be injected and has the consistency of vaseline so it doesn't run everywhere. If you try it, get the slow set stuff, otherwise you risk it setting in the tube. Both of these have excellent compressive strengths. The trouble is the 1-2mm gaps - neither is really suitable because the gap is so small. Any chance of bolting timbers to the RSJ and then packing up off that?

Cat6 supports 10Gb, but only up to 55m.

Some of the USG's VPN features are only available via command line, not the web interface - check out

Rockwool comes in different densities. The more dense it is the better at absorbing lower frequencies, according to the helpful lady at Rockwool technical. The stuff you can get in Wickes/B&Q/etc is 35kg/m3, and then if you go to more specialised suppliers you can get it at 45kg/m3, 60kg/m3, and so on. The denser stuff holds its shape better.

12 months ago a 2m wide PVC window with that same configuration cost me £225 for supply only, including VAT. Took a guy a couple of hours to fit it.

In my case I already had the 100mm outlets through the soffits. I am using a 90 degree T piece to split a 150mm duct into two and send it out of the outlets.

My genius idea is to split the 125mm pipe into two smaller pipes and vent them through the soffit. (This is totally my genius idea and totally not the genius idea I got from @Nickfromwales)

There is no glue. The foreman has proclaimed that the manufacturer knows nothing.

PIR is 5 out of 10 on the crappy jobs scale - it's just tedious. But rockwool, and rockwool above you in between rafters? Ugh, 8 out of 10, maybe 9. It's itchy, it irritates the eyes, makes you cough. Or you can cover up, wear a mask and eye protection and then drown in sweat.

Or, if you really want to make him sweat, insist on them gluing strips of wood between the underside of the floor and the joists - effectively the floor is then glued to the this extra wood, which in turn is glued to the joist. This is how I was able to eliminate some squeaks in tongue and grooved chipboard that had only been nailed from above and then already carpeted (meaning that the sensible option of screwing the boards down wasn't an option)

You can probably find longer setting glue in cartridge form, or if not, decant some longer setting stuff into some empty cartridges. But I think you should call the foreman's bluff - lift the whole floor up in one go??? That's a lot of weight for a bunch of guys balanced on ladders, and then hold it up while one of them squirts in glue? He's pulling your leg. So yes, definitely pretend you want to do it as punishment for him evidently not bothering to read product data sheets, or the installation instructions...

The second one is PVA based glue and only D3 grade - according to the datasheet you linked to. D4 refers to the strength grading of the glue (http://www.constructionchemicals.co.uk/blog/2015/07/13/what-are-d1-d2-d3-d4-adhesives/) If you go with the approach of lifting the boards and squeezing in glue, you can get it in cartridge gun format e.g. https://www.toolstation.com/5-minute-polyurethane-wood-glue-gel/p78519 I've only used a D4 polyurethene based glue, and this does foam up and go everywhere. But there are other types of D4 glue (e.g. https://www.everbuild.co.uk/product/d4-wood-adhesive/) which may well not foam up like the polyurethene D4 stuff.

Oh well, at least there's an earlier warning system than horrible water coming through the ceiling.

Hmmm, great! What make(s) have you tried? I have a flexi macalpine in at 90 degrees - don't fancy changing it every 1.3 years.

What's the attitude of the guy who did the botched job? Surely he can't believe that's an acceptable finish...

Once the insulation people start sticking PIR to plasterboard, the price goes crazy. You can underboard the rafters with sheets of PIR and then screw up the plasterboard. All the building control people want is a document from one of the insulation manufacturers that states the U value of your roof - just use the online calculator for the insulation you're going to get, enter all your roof details and away you go. My BCO wasn't interested in coming to see the insulation anyway, he was happy with pictures and the u-value document.

Maybe whoever has bought it has been inspired by this house a bit further down... https://goo.gl/maps/5ZEkfRWNNnEfTce8A

Should also add, I reckon that my 4 dormers would have been roughly 3 times as much roof carpentry as your extension.