reddal

There are different type of fibre connectors - so be careful that the premade cables have the right hardware for what you want to plug them into. Copper will take you a long way - I would only resort to fibre if you really need to.

If you really wanted to push performance to the limit - then use a seperate network for the CCTV (different cable runs and switches etc - a sub net is more a virtual thing that wont help). If you wanted a lot of cameras - and wanted to run them at max resolutions / framerate then this might make sense. However if only a handful of cameras and nothing extreme about them - then a normal Gb network can handle it plus just about anything else you throw at it fine.

Yes, but imagine the frustration of having an internet connection that can support 8 x screens worth of simultaneous ultra-HD porn - but the cabling in your house not allowing it :). Practically the only thing today that is likely to make use of Gb ethernet in a home is big file transfers between devices - ie backups, copying movie collections etc. If you are moving terabytes around your house you need Gb networks. Another would be if you have lots of IP cameras connecting to an NVR - you can overload a 100mb connection with plenty of cameras at peak times. - reddal

True - but my bet is that in 5+ years time whatever technology is around will use CATx structured cabling for high bandwidth applications. A properly installed run of CAT6A or CAT7 will easily support 10Gb if the runs aren't huge - and that kind of bandwidth is vastly more than consumer level tech uses today.

Hi, Having multiple switches connected together will work - and unless you are doing something fairly extreme its unlikely you will have any performance issues with it. However switches with lots of ports are not so expensive - eg something like this for £100 with 24 ports would be fine. Having all the cable runs going to a single central point has a simplicity to it - remember if you have multiple switch locations each needs to be accessible and ventilated to stop it overheating. I would put in more cable runs than you think you need - terminate them to a patch panel and you don't even need to connect them to a switch - you can patch them in when you need them. I wouldn't bother with connecting switches via fibre unless you have really long distances between them (over 100m). Fibre is complicated and the parts tend to be much more expensive than CATx (you need special connectors etc). If you want to ensure good performance from CATx runs - make sure the termination is done really carefully. When I did my house I got the electricians to wire everything up - and noticed that some of the runs seemed to have really bad performance. I got a specialist company to come in and test them with fancy equipment - and the conclusion was the termination hadn't been done very well. It took several tries to get them working properly. Note - the cheap test equipment for CATx cables isn't good enough - that just tests there is basic electrical connectivity. The fancy equipment tests that a cable run is capable of meeting the requirement of CAT6A (or whatever) - ie is capable of supporting lots of bandwidth. - reddal

If the lorry driver had deliberately killed because he believed it was his sacred duty as a lorry driver - and there was a vocal subset of lorry drivers reinforcing this view - then yes - in that bizare world I would be surprised if everyone else involved in the lorry driving world didn't state very loudly that they condemned the killing.

The people that carry out these kinds of attacks believe that the saudi government is corrupted by western influence - but they think their religious leaders support their cause. My point is not to be anti-muslim - the opposite in fact. I think most muslims agree with most humans that this kind of attack is madness. If the leaders of islam would say the same in no uncertain terms it would clarify for the whole world that this is not an islamic issue at all - and it might make it much more difficult to motivate future attackers. It is difficult for some islamic clerics to make such a statement precisely because there are factions of their communities that would strongly disagree - but I think they have to pick sides at this point.

How about the Islamic leadership in Saudi as an example? They condemned a recent attack on churches in egypt - but I can't see anything from them yet on this attack. Strong statements from them and all their equivalents around the muslim world would make it more difficult for attackers to believe they are doing what their religion demands.

I fear this is correct. A lot of them genuinely feel they are doing gods work - what their religion demands - and fighting to right injustices etc. They feel just as morally justified as someone fighting in WW2 in the french resistance. I would want it to be made more difficult for them to believe that. I would like to see a clear statement from every leader of a muslim country and every islamic religious leader - stating without any caveats that they completely condemn these attacks - that they represent the opposite of islam - and nobody who commits such attacks can consider themselves a muslim. That would make it more difficult for people to believe these attacks are demanded by their religion. It would also clarify that the majority of the islamic world do not support the attacks - just a fringe of idiots. Some islamic leaders would refuse to make such a statement - and then we would know they are part of the problem.

Hi, My drying room / wine cellar is now complete - using 22mm stainless steel pipe with a center support : The pipes feel very sturdy and can take plenty of weight. Many thanks for everyones help. - reddal

Something like this might work ok - http://www.tarpaulinsdirect.co.uk/tarpaulins/tarpaulins/supergrade-tarpaulin/supergrade-tarpaulin-270gsm That works out at £37 for the size you need - or £20 for the cheaper grade.

One of my log stores has nothing but an old tarpaulin stapled to the roof to keep it waterproof. It was a fairly heavy duty tarp - but didn't cost much. Its been there for 4 years and doesn't seem like its going to stop working anytime soon.

Its in the Isle of Man - but I was going to add at least 25% to any numbers people gave to account for that :). One half will be for general storage including vehicles - so will need to be able to take some weight. The other half wont need to be as industrial (animal stalls, etc) so wont need as much.

Hi, A friend of mine is looking to put up a barn in their farm - it will be a simple steel frame building - about 28m x 14m, and they will probably buy a kit for the building itself. However they will need to lay down a concrete slab for the barn to sit on - and asked me how much the groundworks plus slab would likely cost ballpark. It doesn't need to be anything fancy - just a solid floor the steel building can be attached to. What do you reckon they should budget for that? thanks - reddal

Welcome! You will find lots of help and advice here. I had finished my house before I discovered this place (its predecesor actually). It would have saved me a lot of money and grief if I had used it from the start. Even so it has been really helpful with all kinds of questions and issues I've had. Where are you thinking of building? What kind of house? - reddal

At one end is a wall made of double width concrete blocks - so I was thinking I'd just drill a deep hole in that and shove the pipe in - should be very secure. At the other end is a stud wall. I was planning screwing a length of timer into the stud wall and drilling holes to feed the pipe into. So at this end it will take the weight - but it wont be as strong in terms of flexing. Thinking about it - I'll get something like this to make the ends look nice and help keep it all secure. It doesn't need to be built like a battleship - I just want to be reasonably confident its not going to fall apart. - reddal

Perfect - thanks a lot.

You can often get second hand IBC tanks much cheaper than new. Around here they go for about £60. Often the second hand ones have had some kind of toxic chemical in them - but for what you are planning that wouldn't matter too much after a rinse out. I know its supposed to be easy to connect a bunch of IBC tanks together so they act like a single store (though I'm clueless about the details on that!). You have to be careful about relative levels between them though. Are the IBC tanks going to be burried / underground? You have to give them some help if so as they aren't designed to take much inwards pressure and can collapse.

We looked at rainwater harvesting - but in the end we built our own spring water supply with a borehole and rainwater harvesting on top of that seemed overkill. I fear neither solution is easy to justify on pure economic grounds if you have mains water available - so it depends how much you are willing to pay for more eco cred. - reddal

Many thanks for your advice - that sounds ideal. Would this do the job? Thats a 21.34mm Outside Diametre x 2.11mm wall grade 304 Welded Stainless Steel Pipe - for £38 ex vat. Not cheap - but not as much as some of the options were looking like. True - but buying nice chorizo can be expensive - look at this I saw in my local M&S recently : Thats £20 for 120g - or £167/kg! If all goes to plan I will be selling some of mine - but not for that much! The biggest issue might be it getting too hot. The ground temps might be close to what you need (12c - or thereabouts) but if the ufh + heat given off by humidity equipment heats it a way beyond that it could be too hot. Putting cooling into that underground space might be hard... To control humidity, first you need a controller - something like this, which measures humidity and gives power to devices you attach to lower or raise the humidity. Adding humidity is easy - a small ultrasonic humidifier is fine - however you probably only need that to get initial levels up - after that the meat gives off a lot of humidity and your problem is to keep it down. Two ways to lower humidity - a small dehumidifier, or exchange some air with the outside (lower humidity space). The tricky part is anything you do to control one variable tends to muck up the other so it takes a bit of fettling to get it balanced. Happy to start a new thread on this stuff if there is interest in discussing it? I'm not an expert by any means - but I spent a year or so experimenting - so its just about possible (for once) I might not be the most clueless person here on this subject :). - reddal

Hi, Many thanks as ever for all the advice. Seems like you probably saved me some time and money as what I was plannnig had no chance of working. Seems like I probably have to support the length in the center - which should make the problem much less of a challenge. There is a beam in the ceiling in the middle of the room so I could attach hooks to that and drop some rope from those to take the weight at the center of the span. Following the Unistrut idea from @Oneoff - maybe this would work (assuming I support it in the middle)? However it doesn't look like that is stainless or galvanised - and there is going to be a fair amount of humidity in the room (about 75% rh) so I guess it might corrode over time? The stainless / galvanised Unistrut looks a bit expensive at first glance. Until now I've only been using the cellar for wine - and as its in the basement the conditions are not bad and I didn't bother doing anything special to control the environment. However curing is a whole different story and I need to control the temperature and humidity carefully. I'm installing a cellar conditioner to keep the temperature at 12c - and will have a humidifier / dehumidifier controlled by a humidistat to keep the humidity at 75% rh. The hardest part is probably going to be stopping the humidity getting too high - a load of wet meat product gives off a lot of moisture. I'm also going to install a couple of extractor fans - one pulling air into the room - one pushing it out - which will both get turned on if the humidity gets too high. The nice part is the environment for drying cured meat is also just about perfect for wine - so I don't have to get rid of that :). - reddal p.s. if anyone is thinking about trying to make slow cured meat products - note - these conditions are only for the final part of the process - the final drying. Before that theres a whole different process of fermentation and initial drying which requires very different conditions. I wouldn't want someone to read the above and just hang some raw pork+spices in their wine cellar for a couple months then eat it - as that could easily kill you :).

Hi, I have a wine cellar about 2.9m wide - which I want to also use as a drying room for cured meats. I want to install several rods spanning the width of the room - which I'd hang all kinds of chorizo etc whilst its curing. The question is what to use for these rods - given they will only be supported at the ends - and there might be quite a bit of weight distributed along them (each needs to support at least 20kg - of distributed weight - maybe 50kg if I go mental). Something like this looks like it might do the job - but is 10mm diameter steel bar strong enough to hold the weight without deforming? If not what diameter would do the job, or is there a better solution altogether? Summary of problem : If I have to I'll work out a way to also support the bar in the middle - but it would be nicer if it didn't need that. thanks - reddal

An android box would have a lot more flexibility in terms of browser than a smart tv - but you would still have to look into exactly how the IP cameras web page works to see if this would be ok. However there are specialist android apps for viewing IP cameras which should work really well. Again - this kind of solution would take a bit of setting up - an NVR would be easier and have more functionality (recording etc) if you want a ready made solution.

Agreed. The browsers built into smart tvs are a bit rubbish I fear. Using one of these to view an IP cameras native web page might be a stretch - e.g. those cameras often want you to install some extra software (ActiveX control etc) so be able to view video in the browser and I doubt that would work on a smart tv. As others said, the best solution would be to connect the camera to an NVR which would give you video output - or use a laptop/pc instead to do the same thing. I've heard of some people using an Amazon FireTV stick to view IP cameras on a TV by running an android app. This could work well I guess - but will take a bit of setting up. - reddal

We moved in nearly 5 years ago - and I still regularly ask myself that question. The trouble with a self build project is you throw so much energy and emotion into it that at the end its hard to get any perspective. I still get wound up about aspects of the build that didn't work out as well as they might have - even though objectively they are not really very important. A friend of mine who did a big renovation project had lots of grief with the supplyer of his granite worksurface - and even years later he gets wound up about the shape of the flecks in his granite not being quite right. It looks fine - but to him its taken on a disproportionate importance. To give some reassurance to those still in the eye of the storm and worrying about overthinking things - the things I really thought about and researched and stressed over are the things that worked best about my build. The things that wind me up tend to be aspects that I spent a fortune outsourcing to 'experts'. lol - this is like a support group - 'self build anonymous'! My name is Reddal and its been 5 years since I built a house.... Do I get a badge or something? - reddal