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A brush maybe?

Doors are one thing I let other people do. Learnt from bitter experience!

I have one HMO that I have had for a number of years. Never had any issues or ever had to consider any legal action but am in a situation where it would be good to know where I stand legally. Bit complicated so I will try and explain as simply as I can. Tenant in question (Tenant X from now on) living in house on a tenancy that ended 1st September 2020. Arranged a new tenancy with different people (signed only a couple weeks before 1st September) that runs from 1st September for a year. Due to the late signing of the contract they aren't moving in till 20th September (and are only paying for half September's rent). Tenant X helped show the new tenants around the house when I was away and is in contact with them. He came to an arrangement with the new tenants about staying on at the house to help with his work situation before he heads back to his home country (in exchange for paying bills/ leaving furniture). I objected to this partly because tenant X arranged this with no communication with myself and as I want some time to work on the house a bit and hate having messy tenancy endings that overlap in any way. Ultimately I agreed as the new tenants appeared ok with it but I asked tenant X that he move out by 16th Sept. Despite two reminders he never confirmed that he would do this. Forward to the present and after I say I will be coming to check the house is left in a similar state to which I gave it to Tenant X and he informs me that due to exceptional circumstances he isn't leaving yet and has agreement with the new tenants that he can stay a bit longer (potentially a week into October but I really don't know). I spoke with the new tenants and they said they were ok with it partly on the understanding that I was happy with it (which is what Tenant X told them was the case). Clearly I am not happy with it and indeed I had made it clear to tenant X that I was not ok with the any overlap from the start. Where do I stand legally? If I want to force him to leave what should I do? I've never had to resort to an eviction notice and don't know much about it but how does the fact that effectively he is out of contract but still there (on the agreement of the new tenants) affect this? Clearly I shouldn't have let it get to this situation but I am a reasonable person and assume others are until I find out otherwise and have never felt the need to use anything other than dialogue with tenants to sort things out. I imagine this will get resolved diplomatically somehow but would greatly appreciate any advice. Ultimately I want to keep my relationship with my new tenants as good as possible and it seems that they are being pushed into a position that they shouldn't have to be in.

Why not concentrate on making the internal leaf airtight since it is easier and more effective? There isn't any real advantage to having two airtight layers.

Thanks for all your advice. Still undecided of course!

Definitely make it absolutely certain that the council know work has started.

Hydraulic lime is what you want not hydrated. Hydrated is used more like a plasticiser. You can do all rendering/plastering with hydraulic lime and sand, no putty needed - a lot cheaper I would think. I would use sharper sand for scratch coats and a finer plastering sand for finish. Is this external as weather protection and internal? Is it a conversion or just staying as a church? If a conversion how are you insulating?

So I have two solid oak doors (external) that are going in. Would it be crazy not to put any oil or varnish on them? I am happy for the colour to age naturally. I have 2 carpenters on site and one says go with Osmo/Danish oil and the other says don't bother. Doors are on sheltered side of building not in a wet area. The only argument I can see for going with some sort of finish is that it can cut down on any expansion/contraction but I'm not sure how much that is true.

How many metres of setting out has he had to do? I can't see how cutting down a bunch of blocks is more than a days extra work, admittedly not much fun. But maybe it is a whopper of a house!

I'd get as much topsoil over the gravel as you can to avoid summer drying out as punter says. I wouldn't use a membrane in clay soil - the membrane itself can clog up over time. Not sure if I'd want to start putting clay back into the trench unless you have a year or two to wait for it to sink back down to its final level.

Do you mean something like this? https://www.buildingmaterials.co.uk/plasterboard-edge-beads What happens to any packers used to set the door linings - won't they be visible?

WHy 60mm void if the joists are 200mm? Diagram useful here. If you only have space for 60mm insulation it is going to be well below building regs.

Great thanks Dave

Can i put all my plug sockets at 600mm off floor level if I want? This assumes I have understood Part M right to mean that sockets can be anywhere between 450mm and 1200mm. But an electrician I have spoken to says they have to be at 450mm.

Personally I can't see a problem.

Where is the insulation in relation to the easijoists? If the duct is inwards or towards the inside of the thermal envelope it should be fine. Why are there small pipe ridges? Should be twinwall with smooth inside.

I managed to speak to the relevant local council planning person and he said that the key issue from a planning perspective was whether or not the works could be considered as involving 'engineering'. Quite what that means I don't know and he sounded a bit vague about it. Nor do I know where that bit of planning law comes from. I guess the amount of drainage considerations might come into it. With the correct camber water can be directed to the ditch on one side of the road but there are a couple of places where some drainage channels might be needed to get water away from house driveways.

Situation is this - 300m track off the main road leads to a few houses. It is not under local authority control as an adopted highway. As far as I know it is an Inclosure Award Road which I think in effect makes it a private road owned jointly by those who own adjacent land. It is also a bridleway. In winter the road gets horrendous for driving down no matter how much filling of holes goes on. Some on the road have started prepping for tarmacing the road by scraping with a digger and putting edging all the way along. There is some local opposition to tarmacing the road mostly driven by opposition to recent development of a couple of traveller sites on the road. So there have been various visits from local planners and county council. County council roads/rural person has said that he won't object to laying tarmac but wants it to be done properly so there would only be a danger of ripping it all up if it isn't done well/drains well/etc. Local planner has warned those thinking of doing the work that it can't be done without planning permission. So work has stopped as those who want it tarmacced don't want to pay for it only for it to be ripped up. There has been talk of laying granite chips down instead but I can't see that doing any better than what is there now. My question is - is the local planner right that planning permission is needed? Scraping the existing stuff on the road also clearly shows evidence of previous tarmaccing of the road . The first short section is all tarmac and there are little islands of tarmac all the way down.

I'd just fix the beading with plasterboard screws.

Thanks all. It has decided to work again now so hopefully that continues. If not I think a call will be made!

I get the message, thank you! It is definitely on the older side not sure exactly how old though, not much work on it recently except new expansion vessel. It has lit once since I switched over bottles, I assumed all sorted but then went back to F29 error message.

Problem has returned - damn! What is involved in purging ? It says in the manual "the gas supply to the boiler can be purged by slackening the gas service valve beneath the boiler". Looking at the manual and then the boiler I see an isolator with a flat head screwdriver to open/close where the LPG gas pipe comes into the boiler so I assume that is the gas service valve. .

Looked up the manual on purging and it says to slacken the gas service valve beneath the boiler. All I could find is what seems to me to be an isolator for the gas in so I turned it off and then back on. It did the trick! Not sure if what I did was purging it or not but something worked. Thanks all.

All cylinders on. Pressure is fine. Purged? I don't know - I'll have to look that up in the morning.

I'm having a problem with my boiler that maybe someone can point me in the right direction. Vailant Ecomax 828 on LPG bottles. If both bottles run out the error message F29 appears to say no flame. Normally I change over the bottles and then press the flame button or turn it off and on and it will reignite but this time no such luck. No flame and F29 error remains. What would be the next thing to try? Ringing up Vailant is an obvious option but I'm wondering if anyone has any useful suggestions. I'm guessing either it thinks that gas isn't getting into the boiler sufficiently (most likely) or something wrong with the flame switch (less likely).