Owning your own home

Get yourself a Rita Hayworth poster and stick it over the panel while you discreetly work on it.

They won't let you dick with it. There's no upside for them, only hassle.

This is likely to be the case, but I thought I'd give them a chance to co-operate.

I would think that the cables you run would also need to be fire-rated and certified as well?

Yes, that's a given - I'm not doing this myself, it'd be done by a qualified electrician.

He's already had a look at the armoured cable and said that would be fine.

I don't think you get how involved this is. It's not simple garage door type stuff...

/trololo

It's to power the garage door!

Anything in flats that has "fire" associated with it is nuts nowadays and many insurance policies specifically preclude contractors or consultants from doing works which would have an effect. I can't see see the landlord agreeing for anything less than silly money- it's not worth the risk.

The other options are:

1. Dig a hole in the flowerbed by the wall, intercept the armoured cable, run a cable down the wall from my flat to meet it, profit
   
2. Stick a couple of solar panels on the roof of the garage and run an inverter/couple of lorry batteries in the garage
   
   

I admit I'm leaning toward 2 currently, but thought I'd try to get mains power first.

At this point a suitcase nuclear fusion reactor would be easier. At least you wouldn't worry about having to install a meter on the tap from the communal supply/

I'd be surprised if batteries would last long enough to run power tools/light/vac etc but other may know more.
My knowledge is based on when I had a narrowboat with 6 leisure batteries/ inverter and it was advisable to run any 240v equipment when the engine was running or connected to shore power

At this point a suitcase nuclear fusion reactor would be easier. At least you wouldn't worry about having to install a meter on the tap from the communal supply/

Mains I can run from the CU in my flat.

For power tools and so on I can run an extension cable over from my flat, for the garage door I'd want to be able to just open or close it using the bipper.

It's draw is ~200 watts for approx 3 mins to either open or close, which the chap at Photonic Universe seemed to think was well within the range of a fairly modest panel/inverter/battery array.

Makes more sense, I'm sure solar/batteries will be fine for that. Depending upon how serious the woodworking becomes its worth noting some machines (my planer/thicknesser for example) requires a 16amp supply

I couldn't cope with having to live in a freehold property with such limitations on what I could do to it- however I live in the grim north where it always rains....

What if you told them it’s for an EV?

Before that, we rented here for five years. That was pre-kids, so I don't know how we would have been judged by snidey London parents.

Ha I lived there for a few years when I made friends with posh girls. I really liked the space. The guys we rented off didn't bother putting central heating in so the electric bills were a nightmare but it was an amazing place to bring girls back to.

Depending upon how serious the woodworking becomes its worth noting some machines (my planer/thicknesser for example) requires a 16amp supply

I'm hoping to join the Herne Hill makers-space for those tools, and for the stuff I have now I know that (mildly inconvenient as it is) I can run an extension cable across from the flat.

About to hit this.
removing a warm air boiler and replacing with a wet one in different location but the building has a central flue serving all flats which has to be firesafe. i’ll get the remover/installer to rivet a piece of metal (or whatever is recommended for fire safety) and use intumescent mastic and take pictures of the product used if it ever gets inspected.

You want to be dead certain that nothing is going to come out of that flue and go in to your gaff, that's for sure.

indeed, might even put a co2 alarm in the cupboard.
all flues and intumescent strips on front doors were inspected in January, not seen the report yet but i bet some were not properly done when the warm air boilers were removed over the years. one flat we looked at had hot water pipes going through the flue?!

Make sure you keep all the paperwork. Landlords/agents might not inspect but a buyer's surveyor might when it comes to sell

You know that the agents won't permit this either, right?

The solar panel? I won’t ask permission for that, just as I didn’t ask permission for the panel on the roof of my current garage that’s been there for 5 years.

We have some massive panes of glass in our kitchen, which are really rattly. What service am I looking for for someone to come sort them out?
Big, double-glazing, relatively new and timber and pane in perfect condition, but the noise makes me think that by the end of Storm Dudley they won't exist.
Mastic?

I went with the Matt green, bit of a fingerprint magnet!!

yes, and i’m going to insist the heating engineer shows me spec of the material/mastic they are using.

and who’s fitting your kitchen? have other trades but will need a kitchen fitter round our endz innit.

Depending upon how serious the woodworking becomes its worth noting some machines (my planer/thicknesser for example) requires a 16amp supply

The good shit tends to require a 3 phase supply so slightly more of a problem.......