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For what its worth, pert al pert will form and hold it's own bend, and is pretty robust. I did what JohnMo has suggested above, sleeved in flexible conduit, cheap stuff from toolstation or screwfix I think.

Thanks. Would you suggest using both or can the bend supports double up as protection?

The bend supports are just that, depending on what pipe you are using it may be helpful to use them. With something like Pert-al-Pert, which forms its own bend they may not be needed. If you want to add something, some flexible electric conduit could sleeve the pipes, 20mm conduit should be ok.

Looking at where the ufh comes through the screed to the manifold. Any tips on protecting? I’ve seen these used; https://www.vpsunderfloorheating.co.uk/product/ufh-90-degree-pipe-support-bend/ but don’t know if I’m better off with some ducting and if so any suggestions? Thanks

The installation company i chose and subsequently turned out to regret Left me with a few questions once they left site for the final time. On this basis i was very reluctant to pay them the final invoice which basically covered the grant. They very quickly started to hassle me to pay. Stuck to my guns and argued that once they had all their money where was the incentive to #1 sort the issues & #2 actually get the grant money to me. As it turned out i spoke to the MCS people myself. They were very helpful and told me that the company had not responded to them within some time limit which killed the grant claim. The installers own incompetence had cause their issues. If you knew the full sorry story of this shower this would not come as any surprise to you. Anyway, MCS said that it was perfectly possible for the installers to resubmit the claim which they duly did once i informed them that their failings were at the root of the delay. MCS paid out within a week to their credit. Still waiting since 9th December for a resolution to our losing pressure issue from this bunch of chancers.

So where does it say that in black and white?

I wrongly assumed that regs drawings and construction drawings are the same thing. This is because my brother in law used the same chap for his drawings. Just for my own understanding, how do construction details differ from building reg drawings? when I gave our drawings to an SE, he just did calcs for the steels. He didn’t make any mention of what concrete blocks …

Sample of one.....few years back we were doing up a mid victorian print workers cottage as a holiday home, we were aware the young lad helping us was trying to get on the property ladder, and this was in the price range (particularly before work) that he would have been looking at......"wouldn't touch it with a barge pole mate".....he bought a 'cardboard' new build that over the next 10 years (2008 etc) plunged in value and when the time came we were able to sell at cost plus, but he wanted "new"

They think they are getting a trouble-free house with no work to do, the horror stories won't happen to them, and anyway, there is a 10 year guarantee. What they don't know is that the guarantee is mostly worthless, the horror stories happen everywhere, and the house will be poky and the same as the one next door without any character.

Is there a guide or formula for working out the shaker frame width on a wardobe door? Don’t want it looking too thin or too heavy. I read it’s about 1/6 of the door - does that sound about right?

Standard dense blocks 7.5N is the norm in Ireland. Thermalites really add almost no insulation compared to making the cavity just a few mm wider. They're lighter to lift but crack easier and don't take wet plaster as well. Swings and roundabouts. 100mm dense blocks 175mm cavity batt 36 100mm Thermalite (0.18) will get you to 0.18W/m²K. Blocks and insulation~£65.14/m² If you used 100mm dense block 175mm cavity batt 36 100mm dense block ~£48.12 per m² You'd be at 0.174W/m²K

Glad you're in agreement, of its prestigious nature The bastards are climbing in under the cover of darkness, using the webbing under the Severn Bridge as their cradle to the next level. I'm driving over it in the opposite direction hoping to get a better wage. Que sera!

I was wondering why they shouldn't be named and shamed in words. They'd hardly sue would they. with this going all over local media? But I think I've worked out who it is, and which sex of county it is.. Well done. It's shocking lack of judgment / knowledge among buyers. mostly fleeing London. Much better older houses in better locations are dropping in value because of all this junk development flooding the market. Is there a dislike among younger buyers in buying 'used'?

1.8 is horrendous for a wall (you don't mean 0.18 do you?) but improving your existing walls is much harder than retrofitting better windows. None of this is rocket science. It comes down to surface area and u value.

You can get a good idea of the difference by going on ubakus or similar, configuring your wall build up and swapping the block type and seeing how the u value changes. Switching out thermalite for something like fibolite could take you from say 0.18 to 0.19 and if you switched to a dense block even worse. Might sound a small difference for SAP but houses have a lot of wall area so it will suffer. If you're talking about dense blocks, you'll save on materials but lose some of the difference paying more for labour.

I forget the detail, but someone locally installed 6ft electric gates within about 2m of the highway. They were caught out and had to apply for retrospective permission. They successfully argued that the gates could be operated by remote control on the approach so that no road obstruction would occur. Utter bull$hit, but they got it passed...

But a motorhome could well be, and car towing any form of trailer. You don't want to be stuck with the a**e end of your vehicle stuck out on the road while waiting for your gates to open.

Yes sorry I was speaking in a general sence. Talk to the SE on this case. From further research and it might have some favourable qualities for a raft foundation. Flows well around complex reinforcement. Less heavy work with rakes and boots ducting the pour would mean less chance of damaging the UFH pipes.

What have you agreed with the Architect? Some contracts are limited to getting Building Control Approval, others include construction drawings. These are sometimes the same drawings but not always. The minimum required by Building Control is less than required for construction drawings. On our house we had to use denser blocks in a few key areas like pillars supporting steel beams and between two windows where loads were higher than normal.

Let your fingers do the walking?

Depends on who's wearing the Principal Designer hat? How could you think there was £8k of meat to shave of this role???

Not quite true… PD rights exist when house is substantially complete. It doesn’t need to be signed off. I think if your gates are above 1m in height (when next to a road) you need planning otherwise they are PD.

But isn't that what the technical architect is supposed to do? Building control have signed off the drawings, but still so many questions. Now I'm beginning to understand why the original architects wanted 10k and this guy only charged 2k

Perhaps the OP could approach the SE to ask what would mitigate against their objections, and weigh up the effort vs rewards.

Cover the expensive membrane with cheap visqueen and dispose of it later. Zero UV getting through that.