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Couple of disparate points. Our last house was Block/stone insulated cavity walls with a lot of glass. We had a GSHP with UFH downstairs and Rads upstairs. It worked well so the architect point on that sounds wrong. However, if I did the same house again I'd not do the same. I would do UFH upstairs on individual room zones rather than rads. UFH gives a much nicer and more effective heat. Rads work but inherently give colder and hotter spots. UFH is much more comfortable. Room zones give much better control that even a well balanced rad system and most are not well balanced meaning some rooms have to be too hot or too cold to get the "key" room at the desired temp.

I can see why they don't put mortar underneath. You have a continuous sheet of DPC which is 500mm wide on the horizontal and then it rises 225mm on the vertical before spanning the outer leaf. Plus it's all taped to the corners, so how you would physically lift it up to put mortar underneath it is beyond me.

You might not be interested in cooling yet but you’ll need to meet Part O building regs and it’s better to think about that from scratch. It can significantly affect design (window size, placement, type of glass, shading, etc) all of which change the way your house will look. For example you can mitigate larger south facing windows with shading, cooling, cross ventilation but if you don’t think about it now you might end up with blinds down all summer. we went for UFH both floors using aluminium spreader plates between the joists for 1st floor. If you design in at this stage it’ll be a simpler job to fit it. We put UFH both floors as not all rooms upstairs are bedrooms (eg office) so we wanted the flexibility of heating it and also (like @Indy’s builder) thought it would be a hard sell if we had none.

Whether right or wrong, I’ve had 4 extensions done on my bungalow and none of them have mortar below the DPC, only above, and haven’t had any problems in the last near on 20 years. I have read people mortaring under the DPC but not sure what it brings really, plastic is never going to adhere to mortar, not strongly anyway, and the weight of what’s above will keep it where it should be

Not sure if it's acceptable to do this, but our new builders have laid the blocks onto the Radon DPC with no mortar below the DPC and only mortar above the DPC. I did question this and they said it's fine. I even raised it with BCO and he said it was ok. Doesn't sound right to me, but I wonder if anyone has any experience of this approach. This xxxxxxx Radon membrane is the bane of my life and our neighbours said there isn't Radon here (BGS maps show 3%) The thought of having to demolish another bricklayers work is going to send me over the edge.

Cooling - we are in NE Scotland and wouldn't be without it. House before it was way too hot, and don't get air temperature anywhere near England experiences.

We have a plant room, but you really don't need one. An MVHR unit can be located in a cupboard same as the UFH manifold or in the utility, the hot water cylinder just needs to find a space But that will obviously for heating (but can do cooling) so you don't need planning permission. UFH and radiators, after living with all UFH not sure I would want radiators anymore, especially under windows, as you are then restricted to short naff looking very short curtains. But also the rads will be pretty big for low flow temperatures

+1

Pump anti seize is enabled. I can't remember exactly how often it operates but the couple of minutes a week rings a bell.

Quite right. But, I'd like to have a go at making one. There's a couple of jobs that need to be done first (finishing off) but I have had a hankering to build one for a good while. It's an itch. And it's mine to scratch.

Ok thanks. I guess I am not so much worried about damage as attracting the little buggers. It's been years since I was stung and I seem to react badly now.

You absolutely should be.

We used the Cladco composite deck boards. They do 2.4 or 4m lengths, four colours, one side wood effect, one side grooved. We laid it groove up, easy to DIY fit. We had it in the last house and were impressed how easy it is. Just need to brush and wash it down now and again. We’re really pleased with it.

We've struggled to find fan coils that deliver the performance for the size/ location we wanted to put them (and piped for) and when we did there seems an issue in getting specs (european made) and then being able to buy them...given that and that it has just been so hot (and possibly/likely hotter future is on the way) the availability of small a2a units that are both neat and powerful and we can position discreetly makes them a very attractive option

I wrote this many hours ago and forgot to send. I'd say it needs to be at least as big as the sink being emptied. It will force the equivalent water through to the other side and into the outlet very quickly. The inlet should be at mid height and horizontal* so as not to disturb the silt and floating stuff. The commercial traps tend to be much smaller and depend on their being a low flow, not a sink emptying quickly. * that may require bends from the high inlet down and back again. Remember that the outlet controls the level and the trap volume is all below that.

In my opinion it would be wrong for you take the role. They are professionals and experienced so should do it, and they probably prefer that to the alternative.

What drove this approach?

@Indy we followed almost exactly the same line of thought, would add that the UFH should give some moderate cooling benefit too, not as much as fan coils but without the visual intrusion.

Did you consider helping them do the RAMS?

We had cedar cladding on our last place and the wasps chewed it, but didn't do any damage. Where we are now they chew any unpainted wood in the garden, but as there's so much around it will take forever to do any damage.

@Nickfromwales In the photo layout I've shown the drinking water and garden tap branching off before the PRV. Is that a good idea or not. It has occurred to me that some some kitchen sink taps may have a maximum working pressure that could mean it wants to be downstream of the PRV. A high pressure for the garden tap feels a good idea as it will help with the garden hose etc, but I guess there could be a similar issue there. What would you recommend?

Also not sure why... But if it's anything like a lot of other things when you are selling a property, your solicitor should be able to get indemnity insurance to cover this - which is pretty cheap.

Can I ask why?

We have untreated Siberian larch. Wasps definitely use it to build their nests - up close, you can fine marks where they've scraped the top surface. They haven't managed to damage it much after ~11 years, so I'm not that worried about it. I assume a well-maintained coating would deter or stop them.

They are not eating the wood, just using the fibres to make nests. If it is coated you should not have any issues as the wasps like the weathered stuff.