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PS Am having kitchen worktops routed on the underside front edge for LED strips which will light up the finger pull on the handleless drawers/cupboards. Takes some working out. Just managed to sort a way to run 3 wires down alongside the strip where access to the very end of the alu profile isn't possible. Needs to be carefully planned and suitable alu profiles sourced and tested out.

Advice I got from my pal, that saved me a couple £k doing up my old house is to keep an eye on fb marketplace. E.g. Somebody might have put in LVT into a kitchen and is giving away enough spares/offcuts to do your entire bathroom for free. Somebody might stock up on decent laminate just to get it vetoed by the Mrs (the dark oak is not quite dark enough and a little too oak!), so the poor sod ends up selling it on fb half price. Of course, this requires some flexibility from SWMBO re the colour & pattern. Tranche, stage, chapter, step, transition state (if you really want to sound like the cool kids) - all the same concept of breaking down a large project into small manageable chunks. Try to think through all your dependencies so you don't have to re-do any work. For your windows my key Q was why you're hiring somebody instead of fitting them yourself (sounds like you have the skills for it). Especially if you have a lot of windows, even if you have to chuck a couple £k into a scaffold, you should still be able to save thousands and release a quarter of your budget. I've been told you don't need a phd to do this, but ask me again in 4 weeks when I've fitted mine. What you're trying to do now is not planning - it's often called a ROM a (Rough Order of Magnitude cost estimate). Stick a finger in the air and use your previous experience to eyeball the extent of damage to your bank account after all is completed. There's benefit in doing this but don't mix it up with planning software, gantts, etc and I wouldn't overthink it. My advice is to go over the scope with a fine comb. Your current thinking is: I've got 4 bathrooms, bathroom cost me £900 last time and took 1 week -> I'll budget 4x900 with contingency -> call it £4k and a month of work. This is good thinking for a ROM. Now think scope and start planning: - I will not need bathroom #4 at any point in the next 5 years -> I can de-prioritise it and don't have to think about it again. Better to use my time & money on higher priority tasks. - Bathroom #3 seems to have a small leak -> I need to investigate asap, as this could lead to a lot more than £1k + 1 week if there's rot underneath the floorboards. -> Re-assess after further investigation. - Bathroom #2 is a straightforward like-for-like replacement, so fair to assume £1k+week -> Put it on your quick & easy wins list. - Bathroom #1 is large and, with a bit of work, can be re-modelled to fit a bath big enough for both you & mrs to comfortably climb into it at the same time🤩, but this requires more work than a straightforward like-for-like. Likely £2k and 2-3 weeks of work -> keep it as low priority for now, because it's a nice to have but you might run out of time & money to do it in the next 2 years. Maybe better to tackle it in year 3 but do it the way you ultimately want it. You get the idea, hopefully.

Almost all my customers either already have, or choose to move over to induction cookers when the heat pump goes in. Nothing forcing them to get rid of the gas hob when receiving the BUS grant, but it makes very little sense on its own.

🤣 Well if you go through life and the only buyers regret you have is over £2k you will count yourself blessed I guess. I am going for LED strips mounted in alu profiles which are then routed/recessed/plastered into shelves, rooflight upstands, worktop underside. For kitchen undercabinet lighting I am using LED pucklights recessed into the underside of the cupboard panel - I have Sensio Hype R Pro https://www.sensiolighting.com/products/hype-r-pro which are 24V CCT and dimmable and I am controlling using Gledopto PWM CCT Zigbee controllers. The LED strips I am using are mostly addressable strips just for the fun of it controlled using WLED controllers which Gledopto make now. Some will be Addressable dual IC strips with CCT white and RGB on the same strip. There are actually a number of different control options and configurations possible, as I have realised in working out how to wire a 3 switch plate which is going on the end of the kitchen island. For example: 1/ Wire switches to power the 24V drivers on & off - not the best option IMO - if you want remote control like dimming or presets then powering the driver on and off also powers the controller on and off which then loses any wifi/zigbee/remote etc access to the controller. 2/ Most Gledopto controllers now have the ability to connect directly to physical switches by running a low voltage cable to the switch (never mix high and low voltages on any switch plate) .but this allows wiring to small touch/press switches etc 3/ Controllers often support wireless control via wifi, zigbee, zwave etc So controllable from a mobile phone App, or a Smart Home hub system. It is also possible to create associations between smart home devices so they connect without necessarily needing a hub. I am currently testing out connecting my 3 kitchen island switches using a low voltage Shelly Wave i4 DC module. This connects to up to 4 switches, requires a low voltage 5-24V power feed, and then uses Z-wave to connect to a z-wave capable smart home hub/usb stick. For the kitchen I have wiring threaded behind/under units - drivers and controllers in the island sink unit and on top of wall units for access. Elsewhere I ran some rectangular minitrunking behind plasterboard so I can thread cables up the wall to exit into the end of shelves for shelf led strips.

Awaits inappropriate content 🙂

It is covered with paint protection paper. You'll have to wait.

I agree with just leaving them, it'll be years before any of them blocks up and the problem will be just as easy to fix then as it is now

Space heating is the biggest driver for gas usage - in my case 80% of my annual 10,000 kWh of gas, HW generation comes second at 19% and "Cooking" is just 1% When I was researching ASHP v Replacing the existing boiler it was important to me to retain the gas for cooking as "we" like cooking with gas my understanding at the time was that this was acceptable (unlike a gas heater in a room which would have to be removed)

Happy to be corrected - wasn't aware of the intricacies. I assumed that the entire point was to get people off Gas and therefore remove the mainline gas connection coming to the property.

Agree, nothing to stop you keeping gas for cooking.

Patching is just delaying a bigger issue, a pinhole at the top means the metal is already thin from the inside. Bleeding it first to see how much water comes out is a fair test, but at 15 years old I would just change the rad and put new valves on. Cheaper than mopping up when it lets go properly.

Not sure you are correct there. Whilst it would be expensive from a usage and standing charge perspective to retain mains gas connection to a house for just cooking in a house that had converted to ASHP it is permitted under the rules

Let's see it then.

Only chiming in to add what has been stated before but if the hob is on a mains line, then it has to be disconnected as they expect you to give up the gas line for the property is my understanding. The primary source of heating has to change from a boiler to the heat pump, and the gas line goes away. You can choose to retain the propane tanks externally only for the gas hob and controlled through the automatic cutover switch.

Can you buy the rubber bung separately and retrofit them to the gulley you have.

We all like an end of process report so here it is on the oak veneered engineered flooring. It went very well. We applied unibond sealer. Took away the hygrometer so that it wasn't a matter of discussion. The floor fitters turned up and fitted the floor. All looks good to me and the few small +/-5mm spots (under 3m straightedge) are not apparent so I think disappeared with the flexibility of the adhesive. Wastage was pretty bad. Fortunately the supplier still had some left) One en-suite is now timber instead of tiles....that's OK fortunately. The real wastage was partly the expected cuts at walls, but forensics (skip examination) showed a large number of mis-cuts. In diy we would have scraped off the adhesive and made use of it. Instead they stuck 2 fails back to back and buried it. That's despite site orders that wood and cardboard go to bonfire, but that is constantly ignored, and I think they wanted these hidden. I'm happy though. The timber came from Barham and Sons, and I recommend asking what bargains they might have. The regular full price stuff is very lovely but priced accordingly.

Trace heat and lag…

I would rather see the cost of electricity reduced by scrapping green levies, high standing charges and reduce the link to wholesale gas price.

https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/four-reasons-why-scrapping-the-boiler-upgrade-scheme-would-leave-the-uks-energy-policy-in-disarray/

Your drain plan is the important bit. Insulation slows freezing but will not stop a hard frost if water sits in the valve overnight, so being able to isolate indoors and empty everything downhill of those valves is the reliable winter route. For the valve body itself, a removable insulated box works better than wrapping alone. A simple plywood or plastic enclosure lined with foil faced PIR or dense foam, with a hinged or lift off front so you can still use the controls, does the job. Tape or foam the pipe entries. Leave a small drip gap at the bottom so any condensation can escape rather than sitting on the valve. The 10mm through the garage is thin for an unheated space. I would up that to match the outside (25mm or more), and lag any fittings and elbows properly, not just the straight runs. If you want occasional use without draining every time, a frost thermostat trace heater on the valve and the last few metres of pipe, under the lagging, is the usual belt and braces approach. Still keep the drains though.

in my landing and bathroom ive 22mm P5 glued and screwed and then 6mm ply glued and screwed. Makes the suspended floor feel like solid concrete.

Thanks very much . It would be great if more people used video to describe what they are doing.

Zehnder ComfoAir is what we went for in the end - based on the advice from this forum and also after speaking with Heat, Space and Light. They seem to be very well rated for Passive House type installations as well (ours isn't, but I wanted acoustic performance over complete airtightness).

I'm not arguing against what has been quoted above - but they somewhat do prove the point I was trying to make. Having done my own research, I know HPs do work. However, trying to find an installer who won't rip you off, trying to convince the council that we're actually trying to do the right thing based on their guidance and still being asked to jump through extra hoops, trying to convince neighbours that the HP is exactly 1.00m or more (we were 1.01m) from our boundary to comply with regulation (I think this has now been relaxed somewhat), and trying to convince the wife that the huge unit outdoors is a good idea - these were just too many battles I chose not to fight in the end, when I already have to make another thousand decisions on a weekly basis.

Agree just leave them although with hindsight the bottle gullies with the plugs would have been easier to rod.