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Very sad to hear this. Hayley was an important part of this community. RIP.

I'm looking to have some windows made. Recommendations?

Fixed single panes, tilt/turn single panes, fixed roof lights for flat roof (5 degree), openable roof lights for pitched roof, sliding patio doors (3 panes).

Bonus if flat roof light could also be openable and have internal blinds (both motorised).

Also looking for recommendations for a smart-controllable vent for the flat roof.

Someone previously mentioned Klar as a supplier but they don't do all of the above. It would be good to check prices as I can adjust sizes and specifications to control budget

Do you mean a Morso 1412, requiring 100mm to the combustible materials behind?

https://morsoe.com/en/product/indoor/multifuel/p1412_squirrel

Moved house in march this year. There's always been a smell from inside the wall cavities in the bathroom. No extractor fan, so it's been necessary to keep the window open so that the room doesn't get too stuffy. The smell is unpleasant, but not horrific.

Medium to long term we'll gut the room and have the whole bathroom re-fitted. Short term, we can't immediately fit a fan because we are in a conservation area, so would need planning permission or dispensation (it's in the works).

Recent cold weather meant we had to shut the window; the smell got annoying again so I investigated.

First problem: the basin waste outlet is push fitted into a 90° elbow that disappears in the wall cavity. The elbow is legit push fit, but the trap outlet isn't. The fitters have apparently compressed the joint to get it to hold. In so doing they've made it egg shaped, and pulled the o-ring into the gap. So the basin has been leaking into the cavity.

Second, the toilet waste is plastic and connects to the old cast iron stub pop-up. Access is really difficult, but today I managed to get a photo which seems to show the plastic pipe is just slipped into the cast iron, rather than use a proper fitting.

Any thoughts on how to solve these in the short term? I'm thinking caulk the joints with plumbers mait - not ideal, but if it stops the smell then I could look at a more substantial solution. The pipes are all buried in the walls, along with a shower bilge pump (so I really don't want to be cutting holes for access, since it will expose an electric element to the splash zone).

Properly annoys me to see shoddy work like this. The bathroom fit was done for the previous occupant who had mobility issues, and it cost £12k. The room is 2.25 square metres.

I wouldn't be keen on an inspection chamber within my home. Even if double sealing the cover is acceptable technically I still wouldn't want it.

How sure are you that there isn't a way to redirect the sewer? Presumably there is actually a way to redirect but it requires an intolerable amount of digging and laying new pipework.

When I looked at this recently I thought that the units with a higher "litres" rating still had the same tank volume. So, I figured the rating was about the rate of moisture extraction.

I also concluded meaco, specifically arete two. Haven't bought yet though.

You need more coffee.

Done

the flange is brazed to the dropout

Got it, I hadn't understood that from the previous discussion.

I'd want the pink bit to be much more stiff than the hanger, otherwise the removable nature of the hanger is a bit redundant. Hanger is shown as thicker than pink bit, so presumably hanger to be machined aluminium alloy?

If the hanger did have a flange on the inside face of the dropout, you'd be able to avoid brazing the pink bit, be able to replace it if it did become damaged, and would have a consistent relationship between the derailleur and the outer face of the hub axle - which should improve shifting consistency.

Just my thoughts of course.

You need something on the inner face of the dropout, connected to the hanger, to stop it moving to the right. Or I need to have more coffee :)

Looks great either way. I'm also a fan of the bricoleur approach.

Grease those threads!

Otherwise the 3mm allen key will round out on the pan head screws. (Ignore if you went for hero-spec Torx )

You could cut into the pipe to form a rodding point and rod it from there.

You could also jet the drain; I know you've tried a hose but proper drain jetting is higher pressure.

Why can't the guy rod it, or jet it, to clear the blockage?

Looks reasonable to me but I'm not an expert on this. From experience, I've thought I got the cable into the pinch bolt correctly but had in fact got it wrong. Worth checking the manual on si.shimano.com

I guess a test for the cable friction would be to re-cable using full-length outer, outside the frame, and see if that solves it. If you can be bothered, and if you have loads of spare gear outer cable... probably cheaper and easier to drop it in to your local shop as you suggest!

derailleur shifting up one gear in two clicks

Worth checking the cable routing to the derailleur pinch bolt, it can change the leverage and lead to odd shifting if you get it wrong. Apologies if you've already done this.

The waste pipe from my kitchen sink discharges into the top of a gully outside. I've noticed the sink draining slowly and backing up occasionally.

Turns out the inlet pipe to the gully clashes with the side of the cast iron grating cover, which reduces the effective pipe diameter considerably. Even a small fragment of something (unsure what, let's say potato peelings?!) can block the whole pipe.

Before I cut a notch in the plastic pipe to solve this issue, am I missing something about why this was installed in this way?

My assumption is that it was installed by someone who wasn't competent and/or wasn't paying attention. My alternative hypothesis is that it was done deliberately. Any ideas if that might be the case?

Cross-section sketches (not to scale!):

that Hive bit came across a bit like this

yeah exactly. So my gut feel is you should swerve it and install something less restrictive...

Are you planning on using the subscription part of Hive? I have it without subscription and it's really feature-limited. All I really want at the moment is to extract the daily data, but can't even do that.

What does section A-A show?

I'm going down the ASHP route next year, and the reason for the delay is that I have to install internal insulation on sloped ceilings as it was flagged in the EPC

Thanks for confirming this. Sounds frustrating but understandable and probably sensible overall as you suggest. Hope it goes smoothly when it comes to the install.

This prompted me to look back at my own EPC. Frustrating. The recommendations are:

Internal or external wall insulation.
Insulation under suspended floor.

The annoying bits are that external wall insulation is obviously a nonstarter because the building is in a conservation area. Internal wall insulation might make sense, but the report assumed everything was plastered on the hard, whereas all the walls are actually dry lined (usually lath and plaster, but modern stud/plasterboard/rockwool to one of the kitchen walls).

Insulation of the suspended floor is reasonable and I want to do it, but the report missed that the kitchen floor, bathroom floor and part of the hallway are engineered timber directly onto some kind of slab.

I'm assuming that a new EPC (by someone who is paying attention and understands how the building is actually put together) would help. For example I wouldn't mind insulating some of the walls internally, but the benefit is not so clear on every case - e.g. some walls are in permanent shadow, some get sun externally, some are sheltered and some have the prevailing wind (of which there is a lot!). A considered approach feels reasonable, but if I was forced to insulate every wall then I'll lose that thermal mass, the redecoration costs would be prohibitive, and I'd still have heat loss from the lack of air tightness on the west-facing wall.

The home energy Scotland website implies that they'll do custom reports for some situations - did you look into this at all?

our ASHP system was a couple of grand cheaper than the lowest quote we had for a gas boiler system. Post-grant, of course

I'd be really interested to see the cost breakdown for the two options. Including the new radiators, fabric upgrades etc (and which of them would have been "needed" for which scheme).

Anonymoised/ballpark fine of course, and obviously if it's too much of a pain to collate then no worries.

When I eventually do some work to my own flat, I want to avoid abortive work. Of course I want/need to control costs but I don't want to have to redo work in the future just because I locked down the budget too much.

The gov then removed the loft insulation requirement a while ago

Interesting, thanks. It seems to be different in Scotland where @konastab01 and I are.

From https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/home-energy-scotland-grant-loan-terms-conditions

Loft and cavity wall insulation
If your property’s current energy report recommends loft and/or cavity wall insulation, you will need to install this before you can claim funding for other improvements.

We will only release funding when you send us a post-installation EPC which does not include a recommendation for either loft or cavity wall insulation. If loft and/or cavity wall insulation are not suitable for your property, then your application must include information from a qualified professional explaining this.

How have things changed where you down need to super insulate your house now before putting in one?

I might have misunderstood but I think the implication is that the government grant for installing an ASHP isn't available unless your home meets air tightness and insulation levels.

I kept coming back to this bike from the earlier work-in-progress photos as you built it up and did the paint and bags. It's just so good. I'm a sucker for a 1x road/gravel crossover and this is spot on.

Reposted for a new page because I like it.

insulate roof

Probably fair enough on the improved storage heaters. But roof improvements on a 60-year-old flat roof could be a big can of worms technically and politically. Or maybe it's fine, but I'd swerve it.

had to flee south from Edinburgh

Yeah, sorry to remind of reality and all that. It was only my adopted home but when I had to head South for work it was sad times. Moving back was a great decision. Albeit I live outside of town now. Anyway, I guess what I was getting at is it seems the Bristol market is not great compared to other 'expensive' places.

I have a retired cabinet maker father who's gunning to do a place up with me

Cool. Similarly I have a father-in-law of the same trade (well, he is adamant that he's more of a furniture maker than a cabinet maker - if you know you know etc) who has helped me do a few bits here and there over the years. It's fun, definitely pursue this if you're keen.

If the heating and insulation situation were better

I'm biased really because I personally like buildings with thermal mass, i.e. usually pre 1930s (ish). I fear that 1960s stuff can be akin to living in a static caravan. It was also a period of rapid post-war construction; some stuff made then is good and some isn't. The aesthetic isn't for me either, but obviously that's personal. More importantly I think there are better vessels into which one's effort can be poured, even if it's slim pickings.

Landlord stuff is a pain, I get that. Sorry to hear it.

But this place probably needs completely gutting. New insulation everywhere, new bathroom, new kitchen. New heating system. And it looks like it's clad in plastic imitation wood.

You could get something bigger and in better condition for that money right in the centre of Edinburgh. I'm shocked that Bristol is so much more expensive. Granted I don't know the market down there.

Any scope to move slightly out of town?

I will add that getting a garage in my recent move was a game changer...