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Yep. We had rain for nearly month, mostly at or near 100% humidity, (in fact the year we have high humidity outside) house stays at 40% humidity, not by magic, because its heated.

This is bollocks. Here are some cold hard numbers. Maximum possible humidity is 100%. Assume your outside air is saturated (100% humidity). Assume its 10C outside. If you heat your indoor space to 20C the air, holding exactly the same amount of moisture will be at 50% humidity, which is perfectly fine for an indoor climate. No dehumidifiers needed, just heating the house to 20C vs the outside air of 10C. If the outside air is 0C then you only need to heat to 10C to get the humidity down to 50%. This all assumes you aren't introducing more humidity into the air (which of course we all do as living beings) but the point stands. To solve humidity issues in a house, warm it up.

I've lifted quite a few failed floors, and the most I've seen is some darkening of the foil, nothing more severe, as the side effect of the screed going down onto bare foil covered PIR. I assume any off-gassing would be happening only during the curing process, with maybe a tiny amount thereafter (if any). The biggest benefit of using the membrane with dry screed is to have markers to use to lay the pipe to. Makes life a lot easier, but I use the PIR that comes with the 100mm lines on it mostly, and favour dry screed, so not really needed afaic; (if liquid, then it's needed, yes).

I put receipts into plastic sleeves in ring binders as they arrive. Each sleeve was numbered. Entered the data in a spreadsheet with an extra column for the sleeve numbers. Most stressful part was worrying it might get lost in the post. Make sure you understand the rules..eg ... Labor must be zero rated to you not paid and reclaimed. Supply and fit ditto including the materials supplied. Vat paperwork needs to have your name and address or you have to explain why not. It's always best to get a new quote before work starts if vat is mentioned in error.

Dont give up on the the Zehnder Q350 because of its weight. I bought a brink flair 400 and that is about the same weight. I bought a cheap pulley set for about £20 and very easily lifted the unit into our loft.

Dillsue. I mentioned the local atmosphere. I specifically didn't mention the air within my dwelling. I made absolutely sure to distinguish between.. ..but STILL an assumption is made. That I am talking about the air within the house. No. I am talking about an aspect many know around here. I used the word locale. The words local atmosphere. All lost, to assumptions. What is effectively being said by yourself here, is that once I warm my house up, the US mail aluminium postbox ((those tight fitting door ones, without any water ingress, or I would get a consistent patch on m6 envelopes- no- no rainwater, whatsoever, is getting into it, or I'd know having had it 9 years where it is)).. what your saying, is once I heat my house, the letters in this postbox -located on a timber post, outside, my front door- will then be normal-dry. Will be crisp & normal. Won't have the saggy limp 'damp' feeling to them, as they do. As you can appreciate this is absurd. I was talking about a local aspect, one to which a very competent house-renovator said (who looked intelligent dare I say the retired lecturer type), who said, of this strange damp atmosphere.. & his word.. "microclimate". Why I include this phenomenon, aspect, whatever the hell it is, is because I know there is a causal LINK between IT & the near impossibility of heating stone cottages, in this locale. When Bear Grylls hauls his needy ex-celeb out of yet another watercourse, the 1st thing he says/ dies, is "take off your wet clothes". Because there is a causal link between wet, & cold. What I am suggesting here, is the same. That the air, is unusually damp. It is not in debate. It just is. Here. In this locale (IE in the local area). Unless I have 5x dehumidifiers on full pelt all through the cottage 8 months of the year, and THEN THEN THEN put the HP on as is suggested... it will .. not.. work.. here. I promise you this to be true. I cannot nor is it practical to run 5x dehumidifiers on here near permanently, to dry the air, to THEN make the environment right for -any- CH system become useable. This is what I'm saying, constantly, but here in more detail. This is what I'm up against. The pain/ awful debilitating ache I had to get used to over 2 months, physiologically, had zero to do, specifically, with my cottage as a source of it, that you assume. No. It had everything to do with the local area air. You can say bllx all you want. But that is the truth. A more detailed reasoning, for my firm knowledge, of why it is so unusually hard, to heat cottages of this nature, around my vicinity. I told about a friend over the hill, same grumble. Others we all grumble about it, just a caveat of 'living in paradise' as it often looks to be around here etc. I told of a lecturer looking chap (he was obviously intelligent from the chats we have) using the word that -I- also have used before, "microclimate". It is not bllx. I am therefore suggesting, that it massively affects how any CH system, can perform, in my cottage. Of a permanent reason why it's so impossible here. Zoot

https://www.protilertools.co.uk/product/ultra-tile-fix-proprimer-advanced-polymer-primer?msclkid=9ae67650c99f1ca414e81ff48b4305ea&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping%3A Pro Tiler Tools&utm_term=4585925567009231&utm_content=1.1 All Products - Pro Tiler Tools Most tile places will sell this or similar. Use it neat on the underside of the try, it may take a lot, and then on the floor dilute by 25% with water and get the deck sopping wet. Leave for 15 mins for the surface to saturate, then buff back off any excess with a sponge or tea-towel etc. Don't let it dry completely before sticking the tray down, tacky at most. Butter the floor, butter the underside of the tray, and then apply a notched bed to the buttered floor, and away to go. Aim for a consistency like clotted cream. What's the make up of the rest of the bathroom floor around the tray? Plywood and tiles? UFH mat to go in? Best result would be if you glue and screw 6mm plywood down onto the entire floor area, and then stick the tray down on that. Is it exposed particle board (caber) or Egger? If Egger (laminated) then you'll defo need to ply first.

I have some 2.5 micron on the way. Will see how that goes.

Thanks but it's been cleaned within an of an inch of its life. Definitely etched.

Thank for the comprehensive reply. Building control know we are having mini piles. I still need to get the method statement and risk assessments off the piling contractor. The piling contractor has informed me that the grundomat method they are using and the distance between the 2 properties - he says there is no risk of any damage.

Now don’t all rush in at once lol

One of the reasons I have noted for insulating pipes is that the insulation can act as a buffer/decoupler from thermal movement and noise (assuming you strap the insulation not the pipes).

I've begun insulating everything, just for belt and braces, but just 9mm thick wall on colds. For any long-ish runs, it'll always be tepid as the amount of water to run to fill a glass will be the same as the dead leg of cold from the stopcock to the outlet. The only way to get cold drinks is to run the tap until your tepid is all down the plughole, insulation won't do anything for this.

Why did you say "almost certainly"...... Living this way will shorten a persons life.

Interesting reading this thread. I always favour a hot water loop (called HRC I've learnt here!) which of course needs good insulation but eliminates that awful wait for the hot water to arrive. Where I differ is that I always insulate cold runs too and not just because of potential condensation. It depends what you want of course, but I like my cold to be cold not room temp. I also typically run the cold close to the hot and I want the minimum heat exchange possible between the two - nothing worse than tepid drinking water IMO.

All those damp issues will almost certainly be due to you not heating the place adequately. When you breath, wash or the plants in your avatar respire, moisture goes into the air. If the surfaces in your house are cold the moisture will condense as water and you'll get all the issues you mention. Again that's physics. All of those issues will cost you so that cost needs to be set against the cost of paying extra to heat the house.

Shhhhhh. You'll spoil the surprise.

That's way lower than I though but still meaningless to @zoothornas a numeric value.

But won't cut it, on pissed angle then

I have no confidence we can get your place warm during the day if you let it cool down like this overnight. Frankly I think it's a waste of time to try and help if you are not willing to consider higher. It might be possible that this will work during the shoulder months (ie, now) but it won't work during the winter. If you want to have 10C overnight then you would need to accept that the temp during the day won't be much higher. If your concern is noise, then that can be dealt with separately. With my bedroom door closed I can't hear my boiler running 2 meters away, I'm sure it's possible to arrange that for you as well. Even maintaining 10C overnight when its 0C outside will involve the heatpump working overnight. So setting 10C isn't a way of limiting noise. It's just a way of never being warm.

Again you point blank refuse to listen to a word I am saying. You just described my house. Single brick uninsulated 2 storey extension that equalises with outdoor temp withing a few hours, on a hill with a stream running through the centre of the property, where after a week of zero rain it's still a full flowing thoroughfare. Single glazed windows in wooden frames for the two windows, but I have put new uPVC 2G everywhere else. 4 fire places with chimney stacks ventilated to the skys, etc. Absorb this information. Accept it. These are facts, not the fiction you keep throwing in my face. So. AGAIN, you are trying to tell me what my house is made of. Stop doing so, it's quite insulting. I have CLEARLY stated uninsulated, floors, walls, roof etc. So you are wrong. As far as my background, it's enough to allow me to execute a 100% refurb and extend, one day, when I'm not busy working my ass off 24/7/365 to provide for 6 people on one income. This is a turd that remains unpolished as tiny improvements are a waste of time (which I don't have) and money (which will be preserved for later when doing this properly). So my choice is to pay a bit more over winter, to heat this turd, but heat it I do. As soon as a bit of sun comes out the bill starts dropping, because the stone walls are actually on a par with a PH fabric as they are nearly half a metre thick. The only "period" I am going to be on, is a sabbatical from this thread, as your level of disrespect is quickly becoming immeasurable. Stop telling me something that you are guessing, and getting wrong, repeatedly.

That would be an excellent result. When I've done rough calcs to see if his heatpump could cope I've used a U value of 2 (1.71 was the worst case wall looked at in the Scottish study I used and I rounded up to be conservative). Even with a U value of 2 the heatpump should be capable (barely) of maintaining the space at a steady temp.

I'm not sure your experience can apply to Zoot too well. He has a 9kw heatpump that will work most efficiently with relatively cool radiators. A 30kw AGA pumping out heat to the radiators at 70C will have a much easier time heating the air quickly for short bursts than Zoots heatpump. On the coldest days zoots heatpump might have to be working near flat out just to offset losses meaning no spare capacity to alter room temp. I very much hope that zoots property has better heat loss numbers than these worst case calcs suggest but without a more detailled information from zoot it's the best we've got.

0.6 for a traditional 3 core wall with lime. In normal conditions: and perhaps the internal skins still need to dry out a bit.

Oh boy. Lots going on while I was away, not sure where to start. @zoothorn I'm glad you will considering moving the controller even temporarily. I know it sounds crazy to you but I think it's quite important for the thermostat to be in that cold room. It's possible this may lead to other rooms being hotter than you want but we can deal with this in other ways. We've gone round in circles about how you think your place is uniquely cold including statements like the above. It just doesn't stand up. I've checked, Slate has a higher ability to store heat than sandstone (they are pretty close). Earth is even better. You have a misunderstanding of how this works. It's a common misunderstanding but I feel that you've struggled with your house so long it's become almost a religious belief and you just can't believe it when people say you've misunderstood. I will try again below but even if you don't believe it then please don't let that belief stop you trying something different. People coming to your house express how cold it is because you've let the building go cold. Your very thick walls are very big energy stores and the temperature of them will change slowly not fast. When you put heat into the room, you heat the air first, but the walls stay cold. It takes the room being warm continiously for a long period of time for the heat in the air to slowly transfer into to the stone. If you turn the heat off then the cold in the stone quickly cools the air making you feel as if the place is just always cold. My whole goal of this conversation is to get you to try to warm the stone walls up. This will take a lot of time and energy, but once the stone is warm then the amount of energy use to maintain that state should be similar to the other uninsulated homes we've already discussed (more than you are paying now for sure). Once the stone is warm you will find that turning the heating off for a short period doesn't lead to the room quickly getting cold (if it does you have bad drafts that need fixing).