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Yup. Or, there’s another (the primary) stopcock in the house that you aren’t aware of.

How has your system performed over the hot periods?

No but… shall I make it bigger?😂

Stopcock off Kitchen taps, no water. Bathroom no hot. Cold at bath and basin and cistern all running. Hot at bath and basin no water. BTW cistern and basin all have individual valve. Just realised shower above bath too is still running. Im going to have to get an extra long key made

Divorced ! not SWMBO ! Me and chat ! spent some cash now dating Claude x I told chat to get (expletive deleted)ed , it can have the house , the kids , the dog . I’ve hooked up to a newer model so just (expletive deleted)ing deal with it .

Yup. Stopcock is the boss of all hot and cold now most prob, meaning you don’t (shouldn’t) need to go outside to turn off the rising main. Turn the stopcock off, and open the kitchen hot and cold taps until they run dry. Then, go around opening and closing every other hot and cold outlet in the house, plus flush all toilets and check they’re not refilling, to prove the stopcock is your master water shut off. Give that a whizz and reply back here with the results.

? Erm, no. A £10-£15 switch which you press your finger against, very occasionally, to select ON or OFF, is the most simple, easy, cost effective solution. Smart switching very high current loads would require contactors and more kit / palaver.

Some of the trees will grow quite high but they are quite well spaced out so I am sure we'll be seeing the sunsets for as long as we're around. None of them are fruit trees - apples in particular cause havoc for mowing, especially with a robot mower which is what we have. So they are what I would call ornamental park trees: maple, willow, oak, chestnut, birches, elder, hornbeam, ginkgo, etc. - quite a mixture. Mrs P. tells me we do plan to have some fan-trained fruit trees along a south-west facing fence were about to put up on one part of our boundary. Who knew, eh?

Not sure but Glasgow tenements were fully refurbished in the 80s. This one was replumbed then. The was they did it was to fit all the pipe work on top of existing floorboards, then lay a new floor 6 inch above and fill the space with black gravel type stuff. It's maybe volcanic as its vert light. Also very common they removed the chimneys and water tanks from the lofts. So I'm pretty sure its mains fed. There is a combie boiler but I suspect the bath cold tap is mains fed. The hot tap goes via the combie but if I turn off stopcock under kitchen sink the hot tap stops running...make sense?

And building regs edition, applicable to your build

Is this a gravity hot water system? Or have you had a combi boiler conversion?

That’s Donald Ducked….

Thank you. We’ve gone for a boiling water tap thingy, partly to keep the small kitchen worktop as clear as possible. But I’ll do that for me veg. I’m well up to date, me (for the mid ‘90s that is!)

I have used Antinox sheeting carefully folded and trimmed over the treads and risers and either antinox again or automotive bodyshop masking plastic sheet, the type that has a static side to it so it holds its self in place, all taped with Blue dolphin exterior Masking tape, https://www.pmhardware.co.uk/product/2-blue-uv-resistant-masking-tape/ The tape is brilliant, my plasterer recommended it, it's a smooth plastic type finish so everything wipes off of it rather than soaking in, it sticks well and leaves no residue when removed.

Yes. Its potable water, typically coming from a stainless steel (ergo food grade) vessel. I often fill the kettle with hot water from my combi boiler, if I know it’s getting filled right up. Doubt it saves money but defo boils in less than half the time which is handy.

I am not worrying about this now. I did further reading and it appears that your architect can only sign as Principal Designer if they oversaw the works. As a self builder who is managing all trades, then it becomes your responsibility. I see now, why taking lots of photos and always referencing the LABC manual is crucial. As you become the Principal Designer.

Half a job by the sounds of it. An email to clarify why this detail is missing is WAY overdue.

I find talking to 'people' and doing things 'myself' a lot less stressful. The limit of my use of 'intelligent machines' is a robotic vacuum cleaner and a robotic lawn mower, neither of which is perfect. Maybe the software was written by ChatGPT.

I was looking at the SE calcs for the lintels and they have only done loading calcs for the 4.4m patio doors and that for the double garage. There are obviously loads of other lintels for cavity wall and internal. Is this common practice or have they done half a job?

Crumbs, the things one doesn’t know! Having installed a vented system in our first build in 1991, and having boned up on the rules and best practices then, I’ve got it deep programmed in me that hot water is never potable. Ever. Never ever. So here I sit with a UVC, and I think I’m reading that I can fill a pan with hot water from the kitchen tap to boil me broccoli in. Have I understood correctly?

I went through the same worry OP, where I wanted full flush and it's about 5mm low floor to sliding doors inside, and 15mm outside. The outside as we added a third slider which added a lip as the door sits over it's track... And I forgot to check. Haven't thought about it in ages....

Why start now!

It's all about the prevention of backflow from the untamed cold mains > UVC via the hot pipework. If you'd have seen all the installs I have that went horribly wrong, done by clueless / careless / ignorant installers over the years, folk would have a much greater respect for these things. Adding a non return to the hot outlet of an UVC (single check, not a double!) and / or a secondary pressure reducing valve at the stopcock are all retro fit disciplines vs a complete new install, done from scratch; the latter meaning all mixer outlets are fed from balanced feeds. The G3 installation particulars shown in the Benchmark / MI's allows protection for things like mixer taps being changed downstream for 'non-compliant' hardware, which then introduce an issue later on, and more, so you may start with a 2 tap hole sink with separate taps = zero mixing, and then go and buy a monoblock mixer without non return valves supplied in the box, so you don't then fit one on the hot feed to prevent backflow, and then you have caused a serious issue (that you thought was a harmless upgrade). Nobody gives 2 shits about this, not even British Gas. Don't hold your breath looking for anyone to care about you getting roasted, as there are too many plumbers out there (on their mothers side).

Yes, batten the walls leaving gaps for cables, sockets and pipes. You could provide some insulation using plasterboard with eps backing and perhaps more where there are no services, but the void itself has some benefit. Yes the window sills and surround would be deeper but perhaps they could be stepped to avoid a tunnel effect.

To be frank I've done the course and G3 doesn't mention it directly - But with mixer taps you need a balance pressure between hot and cold otherwise the higher pressure wins and you don't get any mixing. G3 limits the pressure to the cylinder to 3 bar(g) via a mandatory PRV. This usually comes in the form of a combination valve which includes a cold take off port for cold water which is also regulated down to 3 bar(g). However if the incoming main has a PRV installed and set to 3 bar(g) or below, the whole house including cold water and hot water cylinder will be at around the same pressure. However if you go this route there is there is a chance of reverse flow so you should install a check valve on the hot water outlet of the cylinder. If you don't have balanced mixer taps, mixer showers, and mixer bath fillers, then no balance feed needed. BUT you do have to include scold prevention measures as no auto regulation of supply temp occurs. The water in an unvented cylinder is classified as wholesome.