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We want to hardwire our televisions to the internet to stream Netflix and whatnot, and our electrician has recommended Fibre Optic cabling which carries a lot more data than Cat 5 or Cat 6 http://www.datalight-system.com/en/home/. Has anyone used this and is it worth the money? The cables are fancy conduits so we can use them to run other wires through also whilst plugging straight into them. This will feed internet to TVs, wifi boosters, and data to CCTV, speakers and the printer in our home office.

It's been a really tough few months. Problems at work (I got the timetable finished ready for September and now they want another one ready for straight after October half term), my best friend diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer and then the delay in planning approval leading to us appealing to the planning inspectorate to try for a non-determination decision. We have both been down in the dumps and on the verge of giving up. Two weeks off work (sick leave for stress, it was so close to a resignation letter you wouldn't believe) and the dark clouds have lifted, helped by an apology from work and a pay rise. Remembering what we did first time round, reminded me that there is a lot we can do now, while we are waiting to start on the main part of the project, that won't go to waste. Last time round, we got the end of the garden completely landscaped - it meant when we moved into the house - the garden still looked lovely. We also used the large wooden gazebo (built in sink and BBQ) to eat every night as there was more room in there for us and the kids than in the caravan. The question was, what can we do this time round that isn't wasting money, can't be included in the vat reclaim (no landscaping on the planning permission), and will not be ruined during the build. Front drive and Fencing!! So... The fence at the front of our plot needs replacing - the wooden posts are rotten and are only upright because they are leaning against the conifer trees that are there. These conifers are of course going which will make the oak tree stand out a bit more, rightly showing how magnificent it is. We were planning the fencing and how many concrete posts and gravel boards we were going to need when I had a brainwave ?. How about building the wall out of the Isotex we want to build in (the one without insulation of course)? It means we get practise on using the stuff and actually pouring concrete without trialling it on our house! No idea how expensive it is going to be so I've asked the question to see if it is feasible or not. Other things that I am now googling and sorting out are: Lighting for the driveway Parcel delivery box Doorbell camera CCTV Illuminated house numbers Capping blocks for the wall Fencing for the rest of the garden area. Moving the electric meter to the front of the plot Planning the route of the new fibre optic connection under the front paddock (yes, we will shortly have fibre optic to the house after 4 years of suffering from the slowest broadband you can imagine). The parcel box that we like the look of is the Brizebox. https://www.brizebox.com/product/built-in-extra-large-rear-door-pay-in-full-449-00-excl-frame/ I want to build it into the wall but I also want to render over the bottom half of it - you can have the collection door on the front or the rear of the bottom half, however, I don't think the top half of the box protrudes far enough out to allow this to happen. I've emailed the question today to see what they say. Gallery picture 31 of 69 is the closest to what I want to achieve (without having plants in front of where the poor parcel man has to stand to put the parcel in the drawer!!). I want to move the electric meter box to the front wall so that it can be read without coming onto the property. Peter wants to leave it where it is. We are in discussions at the moment about the best way forward. It is currently housed in a brick pillar with a little bit of slate on top - I think that when the house is built, it is going to get hit by cars driving down past the house to the end of the plot as it will narrow the driveway unnecesarily. The pink circle is where this pillar is and where I thought the electric supply to the house ran - it actaully goes to the existing car port which is next to the purple square where the Garage (AKA sewing room) will eventually go and should miss all the excavations during the build. Now off to google covert cameras to go on the front drive somewhere!!

Hi Are there any regs about running Cctv POE cables outside? I was just going to use plastic trunking? Thanks in advance Mike

Thought it might be useful to detail an accident that happened on our site during the main construction if only to prevent others from having a similar issue. I'm sure that we must have done some things wrong here, but there were others to blame in this tale too, and the events that unfolded seemed very bizarre to me. We used a registered scaffolding company to hire the scaffolding from and this was erected in August 2009. It was used for several months to do all of the main construction work and then towards the end of its time here someone fell off it. We used a particular builder to do all of the timber frame work, he supplied his own workers, and we paid him (and only him), in cash as he requested. We never paid any money directly to his team members. Towards the end of 2009 he sent a new guy here to do some work on the soffits and he arrived along with one of the regular team (the boss wasn't on site that day which wasn't that unusual as it was often just members of his team). The OH was living in a caravan on site at that time so greeted the 2 guys, one of whom he knew quite well as he had been working here for several months. He offered them tea and bacon rolls as he tended to do most mornings and went into the caravan to sort that out. About 10 minutes after they arrived there was a shout and the new guy had apparently fallen from the first level of the scaffolding landing on his arse (see photo to see the height of the first platform for reference). His co worker hadn't seen him fall and nor had my hubby who was in the caravan at the time. He was lying on the ground so my hubby called an ambulance. He said that the guy then got up, staggered to his car, put on his hi vis jacket and hard hat and sat in his car. When the ambulance arrived they suggested that he shouldn't have got into his car, and that they might get the fire brigade out to remove the roof in case he had damaged his neck. The guy refused their help at that point, said he wasn't having his car wrecked, and drove home. My husband reported the accident to the scaffolding company whereupon the owner drove to the site and attached an insurance certificate to the scaffolding dated that day. He said that the scaffolding wasn't signed off to use prior to that date even though it was hired back in August, several months before and had been used pretty much daily. Clearly he hadn't insured the site as he should have done. Health and Safety came to the site too and declared that some 'clips' were missing from the scaffolding, and put a notice on it declaring it not to be used. The scaffolding company came and put the clips on and it was then signed off as able to be used again. Apparently later that day the guy who fell off went to A&E and declared that he had hurt himself badly. He then engaged a no win no fee solicitor and took himself off to Australia to 'convalesce' or so he claimed. We reported the accident to our insurance company, and stated that the worker had been supplied by the contractor who was erecting the timber frame, and the scaffolding was supplied by the registered scaffolding company. The first issue we had was that the builder denied having supplied the worker. This left us with an issue as our insurance company said that we couldn't prove that the worker came via the main builder, and nor could we prove that we hadn't employed him direct. The scaffolding company collected the scaffolding and put themselves into liquidation meaning that the no win no fee lawyer came after us. My husband had to make statements and years later it was still going on with any settlement the insurance company was prepared to make reducing as time went on. It all seemed quite bizarre to us however that it was our insurance cover that was being claimed against when there were 2 other parties involved. In hindsight we should probably have taken a register of every person on site and who they were supplied from, and required every worker to sign in when they attended. We possibly should have known that scaffolding had to have an insurance certificate attached to it, but we believed that hiring from a registered company would have meant that we were completely covered as they would do the right things. Ironically my husband had refused to hire the scaffolding from anywhere other than a registered scaffold company in order to comply with H&S, but ultimately it did us no good!

Hey all My tenants are pigs . Anyway ! I pay for broadband in the property and would like to mount an external camera at the entrance doorway and a camera in the communal lounge . i want to access remotely . Ideally I’d like cloud recording , say 1 weeks worth . Then when an incident occurs I can check the footage and evict the sh*t ( yeah I’m having a bad day )? any suggestions that achieve what I want ?? cheers

Well..its a bit like columbo folks ..but this time we don't know the answer in advance ...but there is plenty of "just one more things" We got in touch with Anglian waste water to connect our aging in-laws up to the main sewer .. (house on map below with red dot) ..and they sent us this very plan. Connect to 5901 they said ...which is a fair way away ....they dont do the work themselves they have a list of contractors ...and so i got one out for a quote you don't want to know ...honestly! that manhole is 3 metres deep and has a ladder down it ...Apparently we would need to come in at invert level and so the digging and the fitting of a manhole on my in-laws land is like 6 figures Bang! So while he was there he noticed their neighbours (green dot) have a manhole in their drive, so he had a peep and it IS a sewage mahole !!! ....but rather than going to 5901 ...it appears to be heading to 6901 Now the current owner knows nothing of how the house got on mains sewage, but there is a legend, rumour, call it what you will that all these houses have a "spur" in the drive way ...which in his case would make sense as the road doesnt look dug up. So i got advice to get a CCTV camera shoved down it ...but after several phone calls I was told that the rod cameras will only go one way ? and that if the neighbour is on some type of lateral? ..with spurs? then they probably wouldnt get to see it ..so it would be a waste of £200 apparently there are "crawler" camera and ones with prehensile sections ...but these are "mad money" and only large contractors or the water board themselves have access to this technology ....(i bet even Area 51 dont have it) So there you have it ...do you guys think my only alternative is to get on the old "banjo and barrow" or do i sell my car to we buyanycar, the wife to Harvey weinstein and pay potentially 15k

I’ve adopted a rather blasé attitude to security over the past 3 years. A statistical approach based upon not having cars that make us a target and hiding in plain sight with a house that looked like the one on street with an old sofa and fridge in the garden. I’ve come home today after the house has only been empty a couple of hours to find some things moved in the garden. My kids deny doing it and my 6 year old (not exactly a reliable witness) tells me that one of the things was not in its current position this morning. So better late than never, eh? When we moved in, the house had an alarm but whenever it got powered up it just triggered so we’ve had it switched off for 3 years. There are 4 PIRs downstairs in parts of the original house, the big box under the stairs and the control in the hallway but that was ‘destroyed’ during building works. So anyway, as it stands I have space for an alarm panel under the stairs and existing cabling (which I think is 6 core?) to 4 PIR sensors downstairs and an alarm box on the front of the house. I would need more sensors (wireless?) for other parts of the house (downstairs extension) and any door sensors. Cctv is a whole other kettle of fish I have yet to get into. So, WTF is the gen on the stuff I need to know before I speak to an alarm clown, sorry, installer?

A bout of local petty-crime nonsense has prompted me to install CCTV. God, what a can of worms! Within the limitation of daytime CCTV, has anyone any experience of solar-powered CCTV? The idea appeals to me, but I thought I'd test that appeal here first before launching the idea on the ultimate authority. SWMBO. Bless her.