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Either agrees or took the lesser of two evils, I'll go with he just didn't want to fight it further. Either with legal advise or not. I'd suggest he has been informed that he'd lose and incur the legal costs as well to defend it further and would end up costing him a lot more, an excellent result for you. Unfortunate it has had to go the way it has.

BCO and warranty provider (private, combined) walked past a load of faux pas, totally focussed on a few things. Council guys seem more focussed on the project, but also seem overworked. Double edged sword for council vs private imo.

Just to update you installer offered a full refund after the issue got escalated via the bank through Section 75 so looks like he now fully agrees to his installation failures after months of denials.

This is prevalent…..”all the gear, no idea” The number of jobs where I’ve corrected the architects, even PH certified ones, is just astonishing. Flashy websites and zero clue…..last one I beat by 1% in PHPP and I’m not qualified lol. I find the higher ranking / higher qualified ones often deliver the most underwhelming results; I find the pretty picture and concept for the dwelling is the sole focus, and the clients are a second thought. Not just a blasé statement btw, factual feedback from my many, many interactions, and real world experience. Hi Gema (and other half). A really comfortable home will be difficult to achieve if you comply with the many constraints of a certified PH. I have helped folk create homes which exceed PH levels, without certification, complimented with total focus on the folks who will then reside within. Beware the info that is often left to be discovered, when the decisions have been made and the house then built and occupied. Many instances of happy home builders on here, most without PH certification (so the maths have already been dine for you ).

I wonder if both have had a go then, that grey papery stuff was a complete, like giant acorn shaped thing, but it fell apart when i moved it. All from the same area. Thanks for the reply. I'll let it all dry out and ensure no more leaks before i put everything back in place insulation wise.

I have used black gas hockey stick. Tricky to get hold of.

I've been using 3C for my build. First timer. Seen fine to me, but I know no different. Easy to book online and generally can come within a couple of days. Not had any snags from our BC, but have had 1 from the warranty provider (incorrect tape used), so between them they'll keep you straight.

Endless amounts of dust 😞 Now you've done the hard part, I wouldn't leave it too long before foam, tape and boarding over - you'll be surprised how quickly the insulation will bow now the foil has been removed from one side. (Too late for you, sorry, but I'd probably have packed out the timbers with say 12mm ply strips and used longer plasterboard screws to avoid having to cut back the board depth)

As @SteamyTea said, we self designed to PH standards, but we didn't have PH certification. I modelled the design using the PHPP and ran many iterations to come up with a design that didn't need a conventional heating system. I found the PHPP relatively straightforward to use, but that was helped by my background in mathematical modelling. This was all many years ago using the 2007 version then updated to 2010 version. I was then a member of the AECB and during get togethers, found some of the Architects knew less than they should, although purporting to be PH experts.

Ok, is this a system or combi boiler? You say cylinder so assume there’s an unvented hot water cylinder? If its in the garage, make an insulated boiler cupboard and reduce your latent losses by a fair bit (sounds expensive if you’re heating a cold ventilated garage!). Need as much info as possible, and a picture of all plumbing and the cylinder plz.

No idea about your make of boiler, but a friend of mine had a high gas bill, @Nickfromwales knew the type of boiler and said that as it has a small internal cylinder, this was being kept up to temperature. He told me what to change to turn the feature off. It did reduce the gas bill. Maybe yours is the same.

Gold star. Together we can reduce flooding and fill the aquifer, with a bit of help to nature along the way.

It actually goes to a reed bed with the rest of our surface water.

Not exactly sure, asked AI and looked at my performance and said it was running at minimum stable refrigeration limits. Possibly as a result of thick screed, widely spaced pipes UFH. Plus the floor acting as huge buffer quite happy to take all the heat it can get. I had an over sized heat pump which didn't modulate well, once setup it didn't short cycle, it did cycle but in a controlled manner. But I found any cycling hits efficiency, so typically when running ASHP would get a CoP of say 5, but standby losses dropped that down to 4 over the 24 hrs. My boiler I found a sweet spot the boiler liked and floor didn't over heat the house via overshoot and used a 0.1 Deg hysterisis thermostat and fixed flow temp of around 36 degs. Would get 4 to 12hrs run time depending on outside temperature then off for 12 to 18 hrs. Gas isn't really 6p, it's 6p plus a proportion of standing charge. Your standing charge is around £100 per year, so if you use £100 of gas (£200 per year £100+100), your unit price of gas is really 12p. If you use £200 of gas your unit price for gas reduces and so on. ASHP is one standing charge for electric (which have to pay if you have any electric in the house, gas boiler is two standing charges. I was using less than a £100 on gas but getting nearly £200 bill running hybrid mode (12p per kWh). I pay 10p for off peak electricity, so just use an immersion. It's easy and it's cheaper than gas in real terms. Plus I generate more PV than I can export 9 months of the year, so do most my heating around 1pm when electric is cheap and/or I have excess PV that would be clipped instead of exported. Our house is similar but single storey fully vaulted ceiling everywhere so our heat losses will be worse than yours (plus we have private water and sewage treatment all taking electric) we have a 13kW and it does fine even when we get -9, maybe take in a little electric at 25p. I would look at typical winter days, which are around 7 degs, even running last night (5 degs) the heat pump was getting a CoP of 6.3. 3 hrs of that in a cheap periods so nothing coming out of the battery. Your installer went for an easy install and zero discussion with DNO. Our battery has a 6kW inverter we may draw a little expensive electric in at Christmas but nothing most the year. If it does it's for seconds not hours. Hobs aren't a constant power draw they switch on off constantly.

Now to stir things up. Say you have a private regulated pension. The provider goes bust.. the UK gov often pick up the tab. But Private BC's need to hold cover for apparently 15 -30 years.. but if the company goes bust then what? To put this into context. As an SE I hold £2.0 million cover as a sole trader and it's expensive, but rightly so. If, god forgive I do make a mistake and someone gets hurt then the very least I can do is to have adequate insurance that could go to help someone that I have hurt. It's common knowledge that nearly all SE's stop practicing if you have designed something that has killed someone. Personally I would also hang up my boots.. the guilt could be very hard mentally to deal with. But private BC in England.. it's every man for them self! The piper calls the tune.. It's chancers charter! Private BC's are writing very much more liability that is supposed to be on 15 - 30 years for cover time! If bet if you look at their T & C's they have not factored in run off insurance cover. I think that this length of cover (if including run off) is not really going to make private BC's competetive? But what happens when private BC goes bust. I'm battling with a warranty provider at the moment.. deny, delay, defend,they do everything to avoid engaging in a Claim, same will happen with private BC. The thing lots of folk on BH don't get is that if your house is non compliant and someone like me turns up to value it.. it's blighted if not compliant. In summary private BC may be fine to get you over the line.. but in ten years time you may struggle to seek recourse. It's frankly an English gimmic. In Scotland we have a much more robust system that protects the public, not the best but much more in the round. OH I feel outrage from some of the English members of BH..! But deep down I know lots of you know you are chancing your arm!

@Bornagain Sounds like a well built house. Do you know what your total heat loss was? What size hot water cylinder did you choose? Mines going to be exactly 200m2 too, floors, cold loft, 2.4m ceilings. UFH and radiators, MVHR. 4.8kw of almost south facing solar and anti sun glazing in the South windows. I'm applying a lot of detail to air tightness but I just wouldn't expect it to retain heat all day like yours. I'm designing the the heating system to have a max flow temperature of 35C at dt5. How big is your PV system? I've nothing against heat pumps and home battery, its just that the more electric I convert to, the bigger the battery needs to be plus the inverter to handle it all. To get a decent ROI, youneed to be on a time of use tariff and if the battery is undersized, you end up paying for peak or day rate, and with everything electric, I'd need a bigger inverter. I had a company highly rated add some in roof PV to my build as a late decision, and just for once I wanted to not have to research it all and put the trust in a company, they were saying 90% of customers have a 3.6kw inverter, then I realised I'd need bigger with an ASHP and possible induction hob and electric oven, so they said 5kw hybrid inverter and they'll do the G99 to DNO. But looking at it again, 2 or 3 hobs in use with the oven on puts me above the 5Kw, so in 4-7pm peak rate which is 45p, I'd be in it every day even with the heat pump in set back.

This is common, I despair at times that professionals are so bad at listening. It's good for business to do so, to listen and understand Client requirements, it's a common law of business.. just listen and deliver what the Client is asking for, but always question if you think they are doing the wrong thing, something that is unsafe or will destroy their financial investment. Sometimes you do the best you can, but some Clients self destruct.. is this you? I try and cover their arse professionally so they don't do something stupid. Now why do you want to do this? Is it some kind of liberal thing that you can boast about to your pals or would you consider getting something close or just the same at a good value? You could lose your shirt here! Ah, Absolute pish as you are resticting your choice of contractors. If you know how to design this kind of stuff.. like I do in the day job why are you here on BH asking about it? So no PH is going top cost you a fair bit more. Ok you have binned your Architect, you are on a mission.. but you have a massive learning curve to go through if you want to make your project a goer. That said if you put in the work then you will reap a massive cost and self satisfaction benefit. Do you have the time to do this? It can be done but you have to be on site a lot.. so you don't end up paying for something that does not get delivered by the contractor. The building business is not for the faint hearted, there are few rules when you get into a dispute with a builder. This is where you make the savings compared with buying a new house off the shelf. Can you cope with a stand up arguement with a builder on site? To get to passive house standards you have to pay a builder more for the quality of delivery. That is your starting point. Post some sketches and you'll get load of helps on BH from folk that have done it and worn the tee shirt, that might stop you losing your shirt! If you have a design you want to go for then that is a great start. If it's you first self build then my advice is that unless you have loads of money ( by emulating PH build and don't mind losing a bit of it|) then just try and go for a practical, maintainable and a well insulated build that will hold it's value. The above is a bit of tough love.. but best to hear it now than later? But to finish. You have a desing you like..you have suffered a bit of torture.. well done you both. Think.. if self building was easy then every one would do it. Self building is hard and you should be proud of your achievemnets to date, even if you have made some mistakes, everyone does including me. . I've been there, worn the tee shirt, made mistakes that cost me money. But Build Hub was not around at the time. All the best on the adventure and your best friend will be the folk on BH!

Why does it not go below 2kW? Viessmann and Vaillant and many other well know state 2.1Kw minimum compressor output which I find strange. Forgetting costs of running, does the heat pump provide any difference in comfort or less short cycling than when you had the boiler, and if it does, is it purely because it can modulate lower than the boiler you had? How does a cop of 2.5 break even on a gas boiler. gas 5.4p at 100% efficient, 6.1p at 90%, electric 25p, scop 4.1 required and even in summer you wont get a cop of over 4 on dhw which ruins the scop. An 11Kw boiler will provide 18Kw for DHW vs 6Kw heat pump, but it isn't going to change between summer and winter temperatures. My figures indicate gas cheaper and quicker on dhw and ashp slightly cheaper on space heating. Why do you choose immersion which is only 100% efficient vs the heat pump which is much quicker to heat and 250-360% ? Are you just running on off controls for a fixed flow temperature like you mentioned?

I went with a pair of locating nails driven perpendicular to the jack rafter face and three 4.5mm Ø nails at ~23° to the jack rafter face at the thickest part of the connection. All piloted in the jack.

A hell of a lot more than you (x3 eg 30+ years of it). I appreciate the title though, quite catchy If a wall isn’t skimmed, then its bare plasterboard, so either way you’d need to call Tanky McTankface. Absolutely zero issue to have skim on the boards. “15 all, new balls please!”.

Nonsense, Mr Tank it, Tank it. How many shower cubicles / wet rooms have you tiled onto skimmed plasterboard in the last 10 years?

This is completely inaccurate. A single failure, once, is no measure for the rest of the trades and how they deliver work. If the tiles leak then having hardie board wont save you, it'll just delay the inevitable. @Lincolnshire Ian, why are the walls white?

Hard to tell from the pics, but I would say bumblebees - certainly doesn't look like honey bees Bumbles will only use a nest for one season, so this was probably last year and they shouldn't return Pic 2 of the second post, looks a bit like the base for a destroyed wasps nest

For me there are two major strands here. First is that to really properly develop tools using AI you need domain specific knowledge - not only in terms of both functional and technical specification (because in my experience AI misses this and can very easily run away with itself in some rather bizarre ways and totally forget the original specification, even when taking into account context window and memory degradation), but also in terms of the domain of development - you have to be able to properly and fully sense check outputs and assumptions made by the model. If you don't have the experience, you're going to miss not just major stuff, but the important nuances required in good development. There are definitely problems with how knowledge gaps will develop from short-term profiteering. Second is that I see it as something similar to the 1990s off-shoring of customer service call centres to cheaper locations to eventual great cost and a requirement for brands to re-onshore those services to keep customers happy, or at least provide decent escalation routes. Although it still does happen it was largely a failed endeavor. A lot of what is happening in AI is the same and I think it will bite back - I've already developed an allergy to those cheap horrible customer service bots/agents that never actually answer my question. But on a much larger and equal scale, I think the realisation might be something along the lines of the long term costs of off-shoring all our industrial and manufacturing facilities, knowledge and capabilities. In the UK we've done this in favour of financialisation and services and it's coming back to bite us now. I see this as being the fault of hailed people like Dyson who had a very patronising and blinkered view of offshoring back in the noughties. I remember listening to one of his speeches where he was ever so confident that off-shoring manufacturing to China was nice a clean in that it wouldn't involve any transfer of IP or high value knowledge, as it was only the low value stuff they'd get - oh how wrong he was. So the more we indiscriminately off-shore to AI the more we're going to create a rod for our own back. None of this is to say the AI is universally bad. I use it all the time and it helps me a great deal to get things done in a myriad of ways. Just need to know where your off-ramp is for when it merely gives you the impression of benefit.

No idea how far you are off retirement, we decided to do single storey, with an eye of getting older and limited mobility, making the house fully future proof. All bedrooms have access to decking as does the dining room and all are level thresholds at the doors. Single storey makes passivhaus more difficult due to form factor. We went architect, but on the basis I reviewed and approved all drawings. Treated on a proper engineering basis. He came up with a design I never would have, but to the spec I wanted. I decided build method, insulation, airtightness, designed heating and how to achieve everything. He did the leg work of building regs etc. Worked for us. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, it isn't a part time task. If you are working full time and doing a build management, be prepared for delays and maybe not getting what you want. But good luck and enjoy the journey. I did.