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What I bought were Spacetherm A1 pads (I'd call them sheets, but they are pads on the invoice). I had a lot of trouble getting consistent advice on what is what. Proctor are fairly helpful, but they still take for granted that products they work with everyday will make sense to DIY'ers like us! It came in an "8x4" sheet, rolled up. It's reasonably flexible, but they encourage the use of separate pieces on my steel column rather than wrapping it round the corner and I think that was good advice. It would follow a curve for sure, but you wouldn't want to wrap it around 2 sides of an object. FYI, I paid £515 plus VAT for 2 full sheets. The carriage was £40+VAT (included in that £515). I'd post you a small offcut if you want to see it before you fork out?

I think this sounds sensible & practical. I did my UFH (16mm PERT-AL-PERT) install. It was easy enough, but the companies that produce the drawings don’t consider bend radius at all. I knocked up a simple bending tool, though I quickly got the hand of doing it and didn’t use the tool - though my test helped give me confidence in handling and bending it. Not sure if this video will upload - here’s my DIY tool and demo of bending the pipe (showing how much / little the cross section is affected). IMG_2232.mov

I've been wondering the same. I added some zigbee temperature sensors to the ducts at the top of our Sentinel Kinetic Plus B, in the hopes of being able to see that the summer bypass does do something. The bypass was turned off for one of the days in the chart below - I can't remember exactly which! We have a gound/air heat exchanger on the inlet side (Rehau Awadukt), and even though the incoming air stays a lot cooler than ambient, the supply side into the house follows the extract side temperature quite closely, no matter what state the summer bypass is in. (The sensors are strapped to the outside of the ducts right where they go in to the MVHR unit, so it's not that the air is being warmed once in the ductwork...) We have the internal temperature target set to 22C, and the limit on the incoming air temperature set to 16C (which, if I've understood correctly, is the point at which it turns the summer bypass off). So even when the internal temp is above the target and the incoming air is cooler (thus the summer bypass should be open - I've also observed it working with the cover off), it makes little difference to the house supply air temperature. It does, however, do a reasonable job of cooling the extracted air before sending it outside... 🙄 It's a shame we miss out on the colder air overnight, but I'll take 21-22C incoming over the 30C+ daytime air temp [literally] all day long...

I can vouch, that even living on site. Trying to project manage a build whilst holding down a full time job is very difficult. We are struggling to find trades and I suspect this is down to trades getting nervous when they see the project is being managed by me. As a result I have spoke with my employer and am fortunate that once the masonry work is completed up to plate, I am going to a 3 day week. I hate using trades as it is, as my experience is that a great many are xxxx and as it's not their property, they are not fussed about doing a great job, lke you would. If you really want a good start, I would advise that you get your plans quantity surveyed. I used estimators as they also provided a schedule of works. Although you will struggle to probably achieve the build in the same timescales as they indicate, it certainly helps you to understand estimated timescales for each stage and which trades will overlap. For example, the brickie will not be pleased if he gets to first floor and you haven't got anyone to get the floor joists in and the Cabodek flooring down. Same goes for having the materials for each stage ready too. Good luck and nobody said building a house was easy (unless you have deep pockets and just write the cheques and occasionally pop a hard hat on)

BTW - we did use Heat Space and Light as well, for the whole package and quite pleased overall (apart from the cost!)

My worry would be what caused the failure and is it likely, or already present, on others.

Kitchen extracts too close together. Why are there supply ducts to Kitchen? and they are too close to the extracts. Are the external vents 2 metres apart? What physical size MVHR unit do you want, will it fit through the loft hatch? A brink 400 will not fit through a standard hatch. Ask me how i know. On the face of it this installation looks like it will be easy from the loft , just string the ducting along the joists and drop 90 degrees into your ceiling outlets. No need for anyone else to do it if you are handy with a screwdriver. What ceiling vents have you chosen and how will you handle the 90 degree turn? I ask because the Ubbink ones need to be mounted on some kind of standoff in the loft to get the correct location at the plasterboard interface. Did that make sense?

Think building has been there since the 70s, so for original structural engineer, not sure they would be liable, especially as they have added more buildings on top of the original. Looks like a bodge splice, then covered in fire proof paint to hide it.

Same stuff as in the photo by @Mulberry View. 5 years since I bought it.

It's not but you can plaster straight onto it. If you are planning to clad this in plasterboard you could use 20mm XPS and have a thinner overall build up.

Option 3 move doorway

I've taken to using a spare empty/clean 10l paint tub and a drill attached paint mixing tool to mix up small batches. Just made peace with the fact that there will be a bit of wastage. Bag of adhesive @ £18 vs CT1 @ £13, my wallet says stay with the bag of adhesive.

After putting the 300mm thick concrete slab down we started building up the ICF walls - only for me to note that a SVP was in the wrong place. It comes up about 500mm out of position and half way across an internal doorway... Neither the surveyor or builder have any idea how it happened but it did. Builder and SE are now scratching their heads to see how best to resolve the issue but I thought it might be worth getting some opinions from the experts here. It clearly needs to be moved but I'm wondering what will the best way to do it while still maintaining structural integrity of the slab and insulation? To me, there look to be 2 options: Option 1. There will be 150mm of insulation on top of the slab so the pipe might be able to be hidden within that. But, to contain the pipe within it, it would need a right angle bend and would result in loss of insulation around the pipe run. Option 2. Cutting back into the slab would mean cutting out quite a large area of concrete/rebar and through the DPM to add an additional piece of pipework to come up in the correct position, then resealing the DPM, and adding rebar and fresh concrete back into the hole. Would the loss of insulation around the pipe in option 1 be an issue once screed has gone down and UFH installed? This particular SVP serves the utility room so will only have basin/washing machine waste running through it so should be able to deal with the 90 degree elbow? Would option 2 penetrating the DMP be a point of future weakness, or would a good amount of mastic taping and sealing be sufficient to ward off problems? My feeling is we should fix this properly (option 2) but I can't help thinking that might be creating more problems for the future. Really not bothered about how much work it will be for the builder - it will give him time to reflect on the error of his ways while he sorts it out and (hopefully) won't do it again the future.

We used heat, space & light. Very pleased with outcome. They designed, supplied, we fitted, and they commissioned (also did our air test). Other tip we got very early on was to allow for holes for ducting in our steels/size of webbed joists from outset, but this may not apply to your installation being a bungalow.

Thanks @Jolo. When I emailed Sentinel they did mention the possibility that the air would be warming in the ducts as you say. I find it surprising that there is no apparent bypass effect at the vent though. I guess I can test this further by increasing the air flow. Once you open yours, what sort of temperature drop do you see at the inlet vents? I'm currently taking it on faith that the bypass is open when it says it is (it's an auto setting similar to the one you describe - I don't think the unit has an "open" setting). I might test this further by taking the temps at the manifold.

16mm is supposed to have a min bend radius of 80mm. But getting that without kinks not easy. I would bank on 150mm being nearer min radius.

I'll sketch it or take some photos. But the upstands can be battened and boarded to allow some pipe slack within.

the permanent tile fix. Like, forever and ever.

BPC Ventilation will do a design for you and also supply - they're generally one of the cheaper suppliers if you're planning a self install and commissioning.

That’s a @Nickfromwales question I personally probably wouldn’t do that. what happens to any movement at that junction. Are there going to be steps built out that the bends can be hidden in, what’s going on the upstands. needs a side view drawing and a scrap bit of pipe to check the bend radius.

Thanks guys. So you're both using it for real things not playtime like me! What isn't clear at all (probably deliberately) is things like is best sonnet better/worse than say opus on lowest setting?. Difference in settings is vague anyway - "reasons more" meaning what? it puts 10% more effort in. How would I know it really did "reason more". I think this cloud AI needs new rules on what you actually get for your money - feels a bit make it up as they go along. Still love it - NEW TOY INDEED!

Inlet/outlet seem a long way from MVHR unit. You only really need 1 extract from kitchen. I would locate the extract between the island and the dining area towards the wall units and have no supply in there at all. Air will travel from lounge and sweep area any way. No need for supply or extract in cupboard areas. Pantry supply or extract? Look at airflow paths from a supply terminal and see the shortest travel path to an extract and make sure you sweep all floor areas that are normally used (not cupboard etc)

I've always used the tubs as I am often dipping in and out of tiling due to time constraints. I don't have a preference for a particular brand - I just buy a good one from the merchants, not the basics range or anything. It's always been fine.

We are hoping to push the button on the timber frame order shortly and I'm keen to avoid MVHR ducting issues. Please chip in with any suggestions and also recommended companies for design/supply/commissioning (unless I can satisfy BC by self-commissioning) - I'll very likely do install. This is a self-build bungalow - 170m2 floor area excluding the garage, MVHR unit and manifolds to go up in the attic and use radial ducts to 7 inlets/ 7 outlets. Warm roof, posijoists/attic trusses/2.4m ceiling throughout except the vaulted dining room. Outside air inlet/exhaust on North facing wall with an extra pre-filter box on inlet connected via Aerfoam ducting. Ducting to/from rooms using Ubbink semi-rigid ducting. Thanks for suggestions