reddal

I recently got a 500mbit fibre connection. Even with devices directly connected with 1Gbit ethernet its hard to max it out on a single device. Switches and other bottlenecks tend to get in the way. And if one device could max it out - it probably wouldn't be a good thing - i.e. someone sets off a big download and it would kill the internet for all other users. CAT 6 or higher is a good idea for future proofing - so in 20 years time you should still be fine - but I don't think its really needed today.

When building a house - you can never put too many runs of CAT 5/6 in. When we did our house (over 10 years ago now!) I insisted on what was considered an absurd amount of cable runs - people were laughing at me over it. Years later I wish I'd done more. The cable costs very little - but dealing with the lack of a cable in a finished house is expensive and miserable. Whatever you think is plenty of cable runs - double it then add some - and you will still wish you did more...

Hikvision cameras are good quality and good value in my experience. I use BlueIris to manage / access them - but agree with other comments that this needs a pretty serious PC to make work. I did also buy a Hikvision NVR - but never really got this to work well - and stuck with BlueIris. The key to this kind of IP camera setup is having good CAT5/6 cabling between the cameras and somewhere you can install a PoE switch. Good luck.

No guarantees, but in my experience it will probably be fine. If you were trying to do some super high bandwidth application on the cat5 cable it might be an issue - but for a signal to open a gate I'd guess it would work even swarmed by power cables.

I'd recommend these guys for adding glazing to an oak frame - http://www.blackpig.me/glazing-systems/ . Their website has some info on different techniques. - reddal

Hi, We have a GSHP connected to a couple of boreholes. It was installed a few years ago. It was expensive - the whole setup was a lot more than the £17k you estimated. However we also got an extra borehole for water at the same time which has worked well. We have had various issues with the system over the years. The biggest problem is that there are very few tradespeople around us who know anything about GSHPs and getting problems fixed has been difficult and expensive. I get the impression that ASHPs are more widely used and there should be more people with experience of them. Anyway an ASHP is a simpler system. The one thing I do like about our GSHP is its ability to provide passive cooling in the summer, where the heat in the house is effectively pumped deep underground for very little cost. An ASHP can provide a similar functionality using active cooling but costs a bit more to run. If I was doing it all again today I would probably go with an ASHP - or even just an old-school oil boiler plus AC for cooling. - reddal

About £4/m2 for the acid stain (you could probably find it cheaper), maybe £2/m2 for the concrete sealer, and then some labor. Probably under £10/m2 - less if you do all the work yourself. If anyone wants to know more about the process, just let me know and I'll detail what was involved. - reddal

I'm pretty happy with the result. I'd recommend this technique to anyone that wants a cheapish way to get an interesting finish to a concrete floor. It was fairly easy - the most time consuming part was getting the floor really clean to start with. A pressure washer with surface cleaning attachment and a wet vac was very useful for this. - reddal

Understood. I think I'm ok with the existing surface - its not perfect but not bad and I'm going for a rustic finish so hopefully it will be ok. I'll let you know how it goes :).

Ouch!

I don't think so - you have to get the concrete really clean first, but people on youtube seem to have done this successfully without polishing. I guess the nicest finish would be polished - but I think I'm ok with a rougher, more rustic finish.

Yes - it looks expensive - and I bet it is if you get in a specialist company to do it. However it doesn't look that hard and the materials aren't very expensive - so I'm going to have a go on a diy basis. Actually when I say 'diy' I don't really mean doing it myself - I mean getting builders who have never done anything like this to have a go based on watching youtube videos :). From what I can tell, the acid stain itself costs something like £3/m2 , then you need some bicarbonate of soda to neutralize the acid and a concrete sealer product. There is some labor involved but nothing excessive - so it seems like it works out at quite a cheap option - for a finish that could end up looking great. I must be missing something? Why isn't this approach much more popular?

Hi, There are lots of people on the internet that seem to have achieved impressive looking results from acid staining then sealing concrete floors. e.g. : The process seems pretty simple (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSlzelQYEOU ) and gives a much more interesting finish than plain concrete paint. Does anyone have any experience of this technique? For every case that looks great on the internet is there 99 that were a disaster that we never see? Any recommendations on where to buy the supplies? (acid stain, neutralizer, sealer etc) . thanks - reddal

I've bought various tarps from these people - https://www.tarpaulinsdirect.co.uk/tarpaulins/tarpaulins/supergrade-tarpaulin Their 'supergrade' tarps are quite serious - I've got a couple that are holding up well after a few years of heavy use. The budget ones are a bit flimsy but cheap. There are various options in between.

Hi, I think 3D render photos definitely help if the scheme needs a bit of imagination to visualize. Years ago when we built our house we had 3D models of the house made up - more for our own benefit to tweak the plans. This worked well, but it was expensive (our architect contracted a UK company to do it and it ended up costing thousands of £). I could have learned to do it myself with Sketchup, but that would have been a huge time sink and wasn't an option at the time. Since then, I've discovered that there are much more cost effective ways to get 3D models built. You can employ a freelance professional from somewhere in the world who works on an hourly rate through various websites (I've used upwork.com). For a project recently I paid $15/hr to get a 3D model built, with rendered photos and a fully rendered video. It took about 10 hours of chargeable time so cost $150. pm me if you want a the contact details of the girl that did the work for me. I found the process of using professionals through upwork.com surprisingly easy and effective. I sent the plans, and within a few hours had an initial draft model to play with. Then I could suggest tweaks and try different ideas and get a new model almost in real time. - reddal p.s. I have no links or interest in this service - just recommending an option I found surprisingly effective.

Thanks - that looks good - eg https://www.watco.co.uk/safety-coat-hygienic.html . Its quite expensive though - something like this seems a lot cheaper - https://www.regalfloorpaint.co.uk/epoxy-floor-paint.html . I guess you get what you pay for? Yes - part of the cafe will be a kitchen - which will have whiterock type walls and ceilings. Hoping to avoid cost of vinyl though by using a fancy coating on the concrete floor. Our local environmental health are relaxed about the floor, as long its cleanable and anti-slip to some extent. Looks good but can't see prices - where can I buy it? How does it compare to this kind of product https://www.watco.co.uk/safety-coat-hygienic.html recommended by mvincentd ? thanks - reddal

Hi, A friend is converting a barn to a shop and cafe - there is a new concrete slab on the ground floor and we are trying to work out how to finish the floor. The idea would be that something is painted onto the concrete that : - will be tough and long lasting - will stop the concrete getting dusty - is also suitable for the small cafe kitchen - has to be washable - not too slippery a surface when wet - could be clear, or have a color to it Any ideas on what the right kind of product to look for is? thanks for any advice - reddal

Thanks - they look good. With a hand rail and 3m height they quote £2100 ex vat - which is one of the best prices I've seen so far. Hmmm - dilemma - for a fraction of that I could get a timber staircase and paint it in something hard wearing. However in a farm setting its going to take some punishment so steel would be better.

No - it doesn't need building control. Looks good :).

Buying a second hand one would be a good option - but I live on an island in the middle of nowhere so shipping something huge like that would cost a fortune. I think I need a kit that comes on a pallet - or get it fabricated locally. My welding skills are non-existent :(. Your numbers agree with what I was seeing - something like 2-3k seems to be what it will cost. I guess I have to compromise and look at wooden stairs instead.

Hi, I need to buy a staircase for a barn (there is a mezzanine floor). It needs to be fairly sturdy so I'm thinking steel would be right. The rise is 3m and I'm imagining just a single flight, no turns or anything. Probably fairly wide at about 1m. Does anyone know a cost effective way to buy something like that? I could get someone local to fabricate it from scratch - but I would have thought there would be a way to buy a kit cheaper. Most of the companies I see online are about fancy expensive staircases for domestic or commercial settings. Also what kind of price should I expect to pay? thanks - reddal

Hi, This barn is now up and the slab is about to go down. What do I need to buy to reinforce the section that takes vehicle traffic? That bit is 9m x 14m and we are planning 150mm of slab for it - but how much reinforcement is needed? Should I plan to put a single layer of this stuff down? - https://www.metals4u.co.uk/mild-steel-reinforcing-mesh/a252-8mm/p10832 Maybe lifted off the ground with these? - https://www.metals4u.co.uk/mild-steel/c6/concrete-reinforcement/c2042/supports-and-spacers/c2045/plastic-floor-spacers/c2064/90mm-100mm/p12359 Or do I need 2 layers of mesh or something different? As you can tell I don't really know what I'm doing - but somehow I'm doing it anyway so any advice greatly appreciated :). thanks - reddal

I've also struggled with this. In the summer we sometimes have to open windows to help cool the place - but bugs get it - particularly at night if we have lights on in the house. A while ago I bought a load of thin mesh material and intended to build some screens that could be removed - i.e. attached with magnets or velcro or something. However that project never got done - and now I don't even know where all the stuff I bought got put. Sigh... Americans seem to have solutions to this problem which are cheap and easy. I don't know why they aren't available here. By the way - what I would really like is a window / vent system that could automatically open based on internal/external temperatures - and had built in screening against bugs. I think if a system like that was carefully designed into a house it would have more impact on controlling cooling than all kinds of expensive AC or other cooling tech.

Looks very nice. Not cheap - but if it effectively controls the solar gain that is a major issue to solve.

There are some pipes, pumps, manifolds etc. Nothing unusual I don't think. Tell me about it... I was sold on GSHP because it was supposedly very cheap to run/maintain. This will be the 3rd time in 5 years I've had a £1000+ bill to try to make it work properly, with plenty of smaller costs along the way. If it was a boring oil or gas boiler I could choose from a dozen engineers to work on the system. With a GSHP in the system I'm a bit stuck. I fear it would be beyond me - plumbing isn't something I have any skills in - and if I muck it up I would end up having to go back to the same people to put it right - and the bill for that would be much worse! Thanks for all your help. I think I will wait and see if the problem re-occurs (I half suspect they fixed the problem by cleaning the filter on the brine loop). - reddal