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I've posted a couple of extracts below. Thanks for all the responses so far. It seems the general consensus is to now find some good builders myself, pass them the plans and structural calculations produced so far, and get them to come back with quotes...? Then when I find one, the builder will get me to sign a contract (which I may not fully understand, so will have to get advice on, I suspect), and everything will proceed from there? So if I do that, how much further involvement need the current architect have? They have this "CDM Principal Designer" role, is that still relevant once the design is finalised? When construction has commenced, I guess building control need to be involved to inspect things - does any other inspection process independent of the builder need to be carried out? The structural engineer originally planned to set back the supporting posts so that they were not over the sewer. However I wasn't that happy with that idea - it would look strange, and I was planning the main route to the new 'porch' formed by the extension to be from the side. Engineer queried depth of sewer, which I estimated as "From the 'lip' where the manhole cover sits (ie the level of the underside of the thick concrete cover) to the top of the pipe is 66cm, to the base of the pipe is 80cm". He then worked his figures based on having the posts at the corners. But I suppose if this is refused, then the earlier idea can be returned to...

The rock is pushed up, the rock rolls down. Some LVT went down, some LVT was taken up again - manufacturing fault affecting 20% of the planks. Apply shoulder to rock - attempt to push. We have chosen LVT planks with a featured wood design. Some planks are fairly plain, some are heavily featured/knotted. So how do we decide how to lay them out. I had a concern that the contractor was not laying them randomly and seemed to have laid more heavily featured ones than plain ones. They said we open 2 or 3 packs then lay them as they come. Amtico said loose lay them and then swap planks around until you are happy, then stick down. Contractor not happy with that approach. I appreciate the PITA of loose laying them first, especially with a total area of 50sqm (could only really loose lay a section at a time) but it is going to be down for 20 years. Experiences, thoughts and comments...?

Yes, it may not be ready yet, but I think things are very much moving towards making it possible at some point in the future. I always find it interesting to wonder why we do things in a particular way and how they could change. I guess it is analagous to always on lighting circuits. I can turn the circuit on/off remotely at the Sonoff module now, not just at the consumer unit. And, well, the physical light switch may have little to do with the circuit power status. Mr ChatGPT says...

I've stopped mine short before and used kerb units on edge for the final bit. I don't think it matters massively

We are having a Radon membrane (but I suspect the same applies for a simple DPM) and am just about to put my order in for pre formed Visqueen units. As the floor slab protrudes across the 350mm wide inner leaf/cavity and outer leaf, I am confused as how you stop the slab getting damp from rain water falling on the outer part of the slab which sits outside the garage door, which then creeps internally inside the garage. Below is an image of the pre formed corners, but even if you did not have pre formed corners and cut and taped the DPM around the opening, you still have the issue of the slab running continuously through the opening and outside. Do you simple cast the slab in two sections and have a dpm upstand on the inside and have rebar mesh poking through to the 350mm wide opening section?

What i saw at the show when i looked inside their unit. Cheap looking bent tin and electronics that looked like a 4th form GCSE project using an Arduino. Untidy & cheap looking. Their summer by-pass was an extra cost add on, dont like that. Rega vents design was a branched idea as well which i expressly did not want.

Found the episode. Shame they didn't show the gallery opposite us along the towpath. Only caught a very small snippet of our house.

Ooh I didn't see this! I'll have to find it... thanks. Looks like it was at least 12 months ago (I can tell from how the garden looks and things we have changed in the past few months. rose garden and greenhouse added etc.

lol That's my gut feel too, and usually I'm all-in on smart (home) tech. However smart breakers are coming and could indeed eventually make a lot of the need for local isolators obsolete, if one actually has a vague idea how to remotely connect to and trip-off the appropriate circuit. https://kb.shelly.cloud/knowledge-base/shelly-pro-cbs https://www.infineon.com/application/solid-state-circuit-breaker Despite my scepticism I do see the attraction of having per-circuit current/power monitoring built into each breaker. And digitally tripping off circuits could be a tidy way of implementing centrally coordinated load-shedding e.g. if failing over to battery during a grid outage. But as a mechanism for home owner or handyman to randomly frobnicate circuits on/off when doing misc maintenance... I don't buy it. Just too much cognitive overhead vs having a good old switch at the location. ... btw I'm skipping over the elephant in the room for the devices listed above - at least the shelly - are MCBs not RCBO, and is taking up a double-module width at that. And I imagine lack 18ed approvals. Makes it a complete non-starter right now, but it's just immature product and totally solvable in due course. It's the fundamental usability for a safety critical application I'm doubting.

I was interested also, so I had an internet search. Compared to one of my units (Titon HRV), see images below. Heat exchanger size on the Rega is very small. Insulation between air streams almost none. Casing insulation almost none. Just about as basic as you can get - maybe and most likely poor performance as a result. Fan motors on Rega mounted in the steelwork, Titon mounted within the insulation, giving better noise attenuation and vibration dampening. Electronins away from where any water could collect etc etc Rega unit Titon HRV unit

Very attractive house and plot. We saw your property on 'Canal Boat Diaries' on channel U the other day. We recognised it from the pictures you've previously posted and said you were on the Llangollen Canal.

In most MVHR units I've seen, the incoming air always flows through the exchanger, it's the exhaust air that flows directly out in bypass mode. So it can take a short while for the heat exchanger to cool down. I assume you've given it time to cool, but I just thought I'd mention this! Another factor to consider is that if the fabric of the house is warm, then the ducting will also be warm, which I find can heat the air up a little as it travels to the vents. I don't know that this would make such an increase as you describe, but it's worth bearing in mind. It might be worth checking that the bypass actually is open too. For example there's an software bug on my Duco MVHR which closes the bypass when the outside temp is below 15°C in "auto" mode, even if the target temperature is set to 10°C! (According to the manual, this forced closing of the bypass is only supposed to happen below 10°C outside temp.) I'm waiting to hear back from them about a software update, but in the meantime I set the bypass mode to "open" instead of "auto" to prevent it from warming up the incoming air.

Care to expand why? I was also quoted a similar amount for a REGA unit - £5k for supply only, £7k for supply and install. Chose to go with Zehnder based on recommendations (which has turned out to be much more expensive sadly!) but I'd like to understand why REGA are considered so bad.

Re my earlier post (yesterday) and Principal Designer role I have found the thread with @flanagaj's query:

I paid £400 for a new old stock Mitsubishi unit (they were exiting that market) and self installed it. The ducting, vent terminals, plenum boxes etc was about £1000 bought from BPC. It was an easy job at first fix, made easier by having posi joists everywhere. I borrowed the forum anemometer to balance it and fill in the spread sheet, and BC showed no interest in that whatsoever. They just noted we had "mechanical ventilation" so they didn't go looking for trickle ventilators.

Early June for me and haven't even got the claim ref yet. Guess they've slowed right down at the moment as other people have previously said on here that they've had their claim reviewed, asked for invoices, and paid out in a similar time frame.

One toothbrush is randomly turning on and off and the razor which was by the mirror was turning on randomly. The toothbrush despite now being in a different room is still turning off and on (charge should die shortly hopefully). Once we moved the razor into the bedroom and disconnected the shaver head it stopped making a noise. The mirror is now doing nothing as the fuse is off at the main box! It could be purely coincidence the razor is a bit iffy and the toothbrush is doing odd things and bugger all to do with the mirror which has no charging facility just Bluetooth capability.

Would suspect the product is the difficult basket from the reviewers perspective, i.e. no idea what they are looking at. I suspect this is the key problem as the way they're dealing with it is a real 'computer says no' type response - they can't answer intelligently because they don't know what they're talking about themselves. They have emails from the SE saying that their design has taken into account the full geotech survey and been developed in accordance with NHBC guidelines for the soil types. They have the geotech report itself, They have the architect's drawings. What they don't have is an ounce of common sense.

As John said, send the SE design calls for the ICF walls

In all my jobs, hundreds, and bigger than this, I never chose to tell electricians or plumbers how to do their jobs. Because i couldn't. They did their own design. We might say where we wanted anything specific. But anyone can draw crosses on a drawing. Bothers me too. Ask them whose list and what they will be sent. Builders of the size you need will not welcome fancy contacts or bills of quantities. They just need the accurate drawings. "Building over". That should have been considered already. What if the authorities refuse? But why would they?

Yes, that's what we're going on, along with the inputs from SE for drainage runs etc. We've got all the ICF manufacturer info (and have sent it to them) but that's just guidance for how to assemble/use the ICF and isn't a manufacturer's plan. Bloody frustrating.

What you want to avoid is long HOT runs from your tank to the taps (unless you are having hot water recirculation which is another discussion) So I chose my layout based on that. HW tank central to points of use. That made it nice and simple. One direct WH run from the tank to the kitchen. No manifold, just an isolator at the HW tank. The rest of the HW taps were the opposite direction, so I ran one pipe to a manifold under the first floor below the main bathroom, accessed by a small trap door in the utility room ceiling below it. There is a a manifold to feed basin, showerand bath for main bathroom, basin and shower for en-suite and basin for utility room. Cold you can do what you like, length of runs does not really matter. All soldered copper, I trust my soldering.

Would suspect the product is the difficult basket from the reviewers perspective, i.e. no idea what they are looking at. Suspect a note stating the full structural engineering completed by Structural Engineer and reference his/her drawings. Plus send the instructions from ICF provider. I had to do with our building warrant.

What did the builder work from when installing the ICF? The architects plans? I presume the ICF manufacturer only provides a series of installation guides (PDF or Video). The things I've mentioned are all that I had when we did our ICF walls, and some help on a couple of days when starting and during concrete pours

What about below slab and insulation in flexible duct/conduit. Id imagine the ground under a floorslab doesn't get as cold as the ground outside your house ie below patio