Home DIY

This is @Dammit - he needs to measure, classify, catalogue and sort them into the optimal order for his preferred pattern.

It will take time.

I can't live like this.

I'm after some plumbing and heating advice please guys.
We're renovating an old house and need all new heating, plumbing and electrics.

We'd like to be as eco/energy efficient as possible and are looking at options for renewable energy sources.
Unfortunately the scale of the renovations and our budget means that stuff like pellet boilers and ground source heat is out of the question.
Any ideas on adding woodturners with back boilers and water solar panels to a normal gas central heating system (possibly with underfloor heating on the ground floor).

Any ideas?

Quick answer:
Join the Navitron forum,
extreme plumbing at its friendliest.

Thanks I'll do that now. I'm weirdly quite excited about this.

something like an advanced appliances eco heat store > http://www.advanceappliances.co.uk/product/70-multi-fuel-universal-thermal-store-sfuts

other makes are available

Damn

Guess you're safe from all the hugs though...

In before ever else

Thanks. I had seen this sort of thing during my online research but it's all quite baffling.

Guys next to us are lowering the ceiling in their house for a new loft extension. I can hear them hammering away at the walls etc but also lots of debris falling into our side. Anything I can do, or just put up with it?

How are they supporting the new ceiling? Surely this should come under a party wall agreement? If so they should put right any damage to your property.

^This. If they are keying new ceiling joists into your party wall then they absolutely need to have a party wall agreement and surveyors (to inspect yours and theirs) prior to work starting. I think you need to speak to them ASAP if this is the case.

I've dropped the solicitor a line. They haven't served me notice but the work started this week. Didn't realise they were doing any work in the loft until today.

Could always pop over just to ask to see what they are doing (maybe take a photo) as you've seen some disturbance in your property.

We're renovating our house and are looking for lighting ideas. The ceilings aren't the highest and think the 'main' light dangling centrally in the room is a bit dated and intrusive but we're not massive down light fans either. Any alternative solutions ie tasteful wall mounted uplighting?

Put in dimmable 5amp light sockets and have table/floor lamps, downlights just for the times when you need to find the remote/hoovering etc.

LED spotlights and floor lamps? We need to rewire soon I am thinking on the same lines ..

Go for flush fitting crystal lights.

I've always thought that spot lights are shit. I much prefer diffused light.

Looks to me its going to be a pretty substantial L shaped dormer too.

Tbh nothing should really be falling away on your side of the house. My neighbours had their loft done recently and most of the time I had no idea they had work going on inside or out

Speedheater Cobra arrived, gave my staircase a quick blast. Got through three layers of thick gloss paint in seconds. @Airhead you were spot on!

We're going to put about 8' of this (dimmable) under our cupboards; between that, the overhead and range hood light we will have a much brighter kitchen.
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=70322&cat=1,43349&ap=1

Another lighting question:
At the moment, my kitchen is lit by a flourescent tube in the ceiling and some smaller flourescent tubes underneath some cupboards. I'm building a small table to serve as a place to eat, when it's only me and/or my son eating.
I've got some Louis Poulsen worklamps that I thought I'd use as general lighting - maybe two hanging 1,5 metres apart in the middle of the ceiling:

Then I'd hang a couple of Abo lamps in front of the window. The floor has been painted Ral 5009, so I'd paint them in a matching blue or grey shade:

Maybe I should just get another one of those and hang above the small table?
Any input?

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Thats a nice kitchen

So having control unit replaced has kinda opened a can of worms .. the NICEIC qualified electrician who did the job refused to give us the safety certificate after he tested the circuit and found it to be unsafe. He reckons the wiring is quite old (maybe from 80s) and somewhere on the circuit there is a fault. He had to then go on record to send me following email:

I have installed a new 17th Edition Consumer unit with 2 x RCDs and CBs. We carried out test and the age of the wiring is very old especially the lighting circuits and all sockets / appliances are on one circuit. As we discuss a rewire will be carried out soon . I have check disconnection time on RCDs and all are within the regulations. I will issue a Domestic Installation Certificate of when the full rewire is completed.

If he doesent have a record of this apparently NICEIC can strip him off his license. He has told us that a full re-wire is required within 6 months otherwise the property gets red flagged in the database for being unsafe. If we do it after 6 months there is a penalty. Its about a £3-4K w week-ish job given all wires are concealed.

And

Does any of that makes sense?

I fail at being an adult so so many times!

Anyone used Wren Kitchens? We have so far looked at:

Wren: Nice cabinets, not flat packed, able to do nice curved cupboards
B & Q: Cheap but quality looks rubbish
Wickes: Better than B & Q, but still flat packed and not a huge range of sizes.
DIY Kitchens: Cheap & Good quality, but have to spec everything ourselves, and not currently confident doing so, as we want fancy rounded edges.
Howdens: Will get a quote shortly.

kitchen is L-shaped, with one wall 4.5m and the other 2.5m, and we also want an island of 900mm x 2.5m

Anywhere else people would recommend looking at? These are the photos of the Wren one we like most as an idea what we are looking for.

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