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Great post and lots of info, well done you! Spend time finding the right SE, that has deep knowledge, is pragmatic and understands holistic design. That means they could swap hats and be an Architect not least. An SE like this is going to cost a bit, but it will be the best money you spend! SE's like this also act as an advocate for you, will hold your hand and guide you through all the other regs and sorting out a builder etc! Try and find a local SE, not me! as I'm too far away from you to be able to come to site on short notice, not least!

Thanks mods for removing my drawings with the Client info, you have saved the day at my end! Reposted below, redacted:

Every batch we had from both Cemex and Heidelberg differed significantly. We had 3 loads of Cemex Evolution Flooring from Cemex. The first 2 loads in the same day were identical. The third load of exactly the same mix, but with fibres today, seemed way too fluid and there was excessive bleed water (completely wrong for scc) all placed by chute and no water added on site. Heidelberg Easyflow offering was far too stiff, but this has subsequently been confirmed that they didn't add enough water.

Only if open pipe 'gravity hot' and then cold mains the other side Must be the French rules clouding my memory :)

I wash my face in cold water anyways Nick! Great, saved me a few quid and more importantly saved the space for my manifold. I did put checks on my kitchen sink mixer, I guess that wasn't worth it but the job is done and I ain't going back to it. Was easy to attach the tap flexis too I guess.

Only if open pipe 'gravity hot' and then cold mains the other side

If it's a combi you do get pressure drops across hot > cold, but it's still classed as balanced, so all good. "Bog" has an A-B gap so water from the cistern cannot enter backwards into the system. Number of single checks required = 0. On my combi I put a TMV which does 2 x wash hand basins @46oC, as the slower run outlets get stupid hot and I can't be arsed flicking the handle of the tap left/right to get the temp spot on. Just flick to the hot, open her up, and the same temp every damn time. Happy days.

My understanding is the same as @JohnMo's - when mixing hot & cold you need single check valve. Regular cisterns have an air gap between the water inlet valve & the water level, which is fine. Double check valves for outside taps. Washing machines & dishwashers are required to have built-in valves, but nothing to stop you adding another.

It's a combi John. That's what I'll be using Nick, yep. 👍🏻 So no checks at all, not even on the bog?

If it's a balanced system (eg UVC with control group @3bar) then no need; that is unless it is written in the manufacturers installation instructions that they do not come with any but you have to install (if necessary). https://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-copper-solder-ring-equal-full-crossover-15mm/96070?tc=ET2&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19822796606&gbraid=0AAAAAD8IdPxHKHuWc7wissg6h-4JWisF7&gclid=CjwKCAjw7p_UBhBlEiwAhpIs7xQeIdwwnDVV-N7hY0fZuKkbvp1uWTlwrjf5adZGFYo8aOuCvNHX6RoCk5oQAvD_BwE

None of our outlets have check valves. If your hot water source is an unvented cylinder (or combi boiler) all your water (hot and cold) is wholesome. So my assumption is an UVC or combi - vented you may need checks valves everywhere you can get mixed hot and cold water

Can anyone tell me which unit this is, please, as I need to replace it (not shutting off reliably). I'm thinking Gerberit but it appears to be a 3/6 litre and I'm struggling to identify.

It's time to spruce up our stairwell, which I don't think the previous owners touched after they put it in 14 years ago. I don't know how the wood was treated originally. I think it's had a lot of traffic since then. It's been looking awfully bare and dry since we moved in. Please see the photo below. So today I've given the wood a good clean with "Osmo Wash and Care". I've been planning to follow "Osmo Wash and Care" with one or two thin coats of Osmo Polyx Hard Wax (clear, satin). BUT I have some "Osmo Liquid Wax Cleaner" and I'm wondering if I will achieve a better finish if I use some of that as well. So please could you take a look at the photo showing what the "Osmo Wash and Care" has achieved already, and then tell me if I should rub over the treads with "Osmo Liquid Wax Cleaner" before applying the "Osmo Polyx Hard Wax"?

Thanks there is a downspout to the water but but couldn’t see overflow. Weather has been dry for a while yesterday rained. But yes the bricks do look damp to me too and yes the concrete may be splash back possibly

Happy Friday peeps, just after a sanity "check" here. Just mocking up the bathroom plumbing, do I need single check valves on the cistern and the hot and cold to the in-wall sink mixer? I have confined with the company that the mixer doesn't have them built in. The shower is a DuoTurn iBox2 which I believe has checks built in already. Image attached, hot and cold supplies coming in from the left, I'll have to jump over the hot, just mocked up for now.

Cant really see it having any detrimental effect on a decent sized body of water in the ground. I might get to find out at some point. Building a small retaining wall but just dropping some ducting in so i have the option to do it in future without digging stuff up again. I guess the primary advantage is a more consistent COP and the temp of the water wont really ever change, whereas ASHP has to cope when it gets to minus 10. (or minus 15 as per last winter.) But the economics may not stack up as you say even with excellent COP.

Tbf its always had fibres in for me. Little like fibreglass ones. I dont know if there are certain ones which are worse. Agilia horizontal is what I used to use but gone with another firm since and use their version of it

That is for very special circumstances... a bridge, a block of flats. I've not done or seen one for decades.... commercial or home. (on big jobs we had a lab that did slump tests and took cubes for testing, and so did the supplier. The problem will have been the fibres. Adding them to an 'easy flowing' mix will seriously stiffen the whole thing. A vibrating poker would have made it run but obv that wasn't to hand. I've gone off fibres recently because they seem to stick together in great clumps more than they used to, and the handling issue. But it also looks very dry indeed. How did it even reach there? You have nicely laid mesh so cracking shouldn't be a problem... if they get the mix right. In fact your photo is an example of doing things right, apart from the pile of mess in the middle. Cemex you say! Worth noting.

Out of interest, in addition to the architectural electrical drawings mentioned above, in France you also need schematic electrical drawings. They're normally drawn by the electrical contractor as part of their contract. Without it the Electrical Inspectorate won't test the installation and, without their certificate, you don't get a mains connection. It's also used for subsequent maintenance. Example below for 1 row of my consumer unit (still in draft, which is why there's a duplicate D2.1):

Welcome, I'm new too, and your experience with HA is very interesting to me as that's a new thing I've been getting into along with the whole HomeLab thing (as I'm already a techy who hasn't enough time to program since I bought this shell of a house :-D). Mine is very old, bloody old, and old depending on where you are standing. It has no heating and needs complete renovation. So I also have an opportunity to go full home automation. So far I have a couple of mini PCs (Proxmox nodes: VE + PBS) with remote access to HA via Pangolin on a cheap VPS (over mobile broadband which costs £8/m for 50GB if you know how to get the offer and is plenty as we're not living there yet). I'll be adding another node or two at some point and services in Docker, VMs or containers as and when. Although I'm new to this I know tech so happy to explain that gobbledegook and answer questions on this side where I can if anyone is interested. The HA forum is gold btw, as is Mastodon (social media without the torture and manipulation). So far I've just got HAOS with Smart Meter integrated and power monitoring plugs, a few add-ons, plus a dozen ZigBee Temp and Humidity monitors calibrated and ready to go into every room because damp is rife in this property and it will help to monitor this before and during each improvement. Renovation: we'll well be replastering/insulating throughout, considering Heat Pump / AC options, solar with batteries (if you only do one I hear batteries is best but just do both and get as many panels as you can fit on the roof. I have panels and lithium batteries on my boat and they run everything for more than half the year. You'll get all year round benefits from batteries in a house using off-peak tariffs. Forget FIT I'm told. Back to HA. I'd love to hear what you have done so far and what you plan. I'm wondering what wiring to do when we get to that point. I will want full fall back to manual in anything we have, but keen to have monitoring and remote control, some automation etc around all things. We're off the gas grid BTW, and having lived in a boat (12 years and counting) I do like being as off grid as possible.

I’ve learnt a great deal. 1) forget ground bearing slabs and go block and beam 2) if going with ground bearing slabs. Get the manpower in and use a conventional concrete mix. Using SCC is like having a partner with a split personality. You never know how it’s going to go. Well. That’s my experience of it.

Just to confuse things. I recently let someone have a stack of preloved purlins. I did a swapsy so don't know the value I might have got... or had to just give it away. So have a look on Marketplace etc and you might be lucky. With Z rails it would be good practice to alternate the way they were pointing, then it is a bit stiffer. Without knowing your construction, if you could fix a heavyish timber wall plate you could coach bolt down, and add some straps fixed down the walls.

Our house is around 50 years old and we added a garage 25 years ago, to the side, which unfortunately meant it is extremely difficult to get to the roof for any maintenance. But it has come to the point when we knew we had to bite the bullet and get it done. After a quote for around 10k, and a scaffolding quote for £2.5k, we eventually found a company who has put up scaffolding for less than £1k. We have it for 6 weeks to do the job ourselves. The job is to paint the woodwork with 2 or 3 coats of dark brown, after making sure it is all secure and not rotting. (we don't think it is) Job should take an hour at most for 2 coats. Then, the main job, is to sort out the pointing under the roof tiles, which have broken up and in places dropped out. The plan is to clean out any loose material, paint with PVA and water mix, to stabilise the cement. Then point with 4 parts builders sand and 1 part cement mix. Does this sound like a good plan or are there any better suggestions. I've have done a fair bit of plastering and pointing while doing up houses, so think I can do a reasonable job. But I am always keen to hear if the plan is sound. 😁

That's my point really. I've spent 40 years asking 'why? and am still doing it. It is not cutting corners, it is understanding whether it is a real need or a costly habit. At a cost of £1,800 it is right for the contractor but not necessarily for me. That's a lot out of my pension. I have found a flooring company's website with useful advice. They mention doing everything you can think of, but do so reasonably and with sensible numbers about humidity, levels etc. Among them is the 3mm in 3m standard, so if they say its ok, and so do all the industry standards, then I'm happy too. (3m is a very long straight-edge I've suddenly remembered, esp when carrying it through rooms without hitting doors or new kitchens.) They say that the adhesive spreading tool has 3 to 4mm teeth so the glue goes down as 3mm and squishes to 1mm except where it isn't squished and remains as 3mm. and that if one lifts a laid plank for interest, the glue should be apparent on 90% of the surface. I am working to 2mm tolerance under the straight-edge, and rubbing off any ridges or mounds that are causing 3mm. I have had a go with an engineering brick and that is successful though unglamorous. I've only to take 1mm off. For a surface that is supposedly friable and a big risk ('pay us more to make it safe') , it is proving to be very robust. I will use a primer. its very difficult to compare brands due to pack size, dilution, coverage. Ardex is the big name but silly money... or is it?. I'm sure Unibond would be great, but it isn't coloured so won't be so easy to do or to impress the floorers. Bostik Cempolay looks an option. Branded, £8/litre and then dilute x 2 or 3 for porous surfaces according to different bits of their blurb. Blue. Then somewhere else it says use 2 coats.... we will see how the first coat looks and feels. So over 200m2 that will be about £80 to £160 plus my own time. Plus single use of brush and roller.

Must be either a large puddle or your heat pump is massive. Ideally the water will not be dead water so will.have an inlet and outlet moving energy about.