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We got some stuff sawn (rather than planes) to 50x38 I think it was from a local independent - who I think got it as special order from his supplier. Took 2-3 weeks. Arrived on site and checked out at 49mm which was close enough. Also surprisingly cheap. So maybe contact some local guys, not chains. Failing that, depending on the quantity you need, get your carpenters to run some larger stock through their little planer/thicknesser machine. We did that another time.

I just Dulux trade white. 5 years on all good, did all painting with it, one coat 50:50 with water, then two coats full strength.

Only where the ducts go to atmosphere.

Exactly that, just doesn’t matter for one, but in domestic you get a poor selection of fittings whereas the UG stuff opens up a much greater selection. 🤝👍

I used the zinzer perma white, no complaints so far. make sure you properly dust down that contract shite.

I ordered a couple of high end easily damaged things for the house and found out that the company had gone back to employing its own delivery driver in there own van, they said it was far cheaper than all the damaged stuff from couriers. I think more companies should be looking at this.

Thanks everyone. Yes, I should've read the manual! It says that, to avoid damage in freezing weather in the event of a power cut, either glycol or freeze protection valves must be used. I don't want to use glycol, so I'll get some anti-freeze valves, even if it's just for peace of mind. Screed is 55mm cemfloor from memory, over 170mm of insulation. Pipes are mostly at 200mm centres, a bit tighter in the bathrooms where there isn't space for a lot of pipe. Floors will be tiled over a decoupling membrane. ASHP will be doing hot water as well as UFH. I'll have some basic flow/return temp monitoring in place, but nothing sophisticated, at least not at first. The plan is to run with simple WC and keep the flow temp as low as practical, with the option to throttle the shorter loops at the manifold if those rooms are getting too hot. I'm expecting the first winter to be a learning experience, as ASHP, UFH and MVHR are all new to me, so no doubt some tweaking and tuning will be needed. As long as we don't need to sit indoors in thick coats, we should be fine! I'm sure there will be more questions to follow once I get into the install...

Great, thanks. That makes sense.

Similar size and similar price for us from HSL. I can’t remember the exact amount but it was around £7.5k for the design, materials and commissioning. We did get the larger 90mm ducts as part of the package.

I know I'm a perfectionist and like many self builders have an OCD gene, but for the love of all that you hold dear, why do suppliers insist on sending easily damaged goods (aluminium balustrade channel in this case) the length if the country, to be handled multiple times from one truck to another to the final long wheel based van, wrapped in no more than a single ply corrugated box? Now my second set has arrived, damaged again, after I sent photos of the damage and politely suggested they wrap the ends with a bit more protection. This time the face of one piece has also been badly scratched. I wouldn't mind if it was going to be hidden behind something else, but the whole channel will be visible. Then I find out they stop work at 2pm (WTF?!!!!!) on a Friday. Let's see what Monday brings when I talk to them less calmly than last time.

That's a shame about the wiring centre, mine was in the box. Not sure how thick you screed is but I ran into issues with the heat pump hunting. We have 100mm screed and wide pipe spacing (300mm) and found the heat pump wasn't getting the response it expected from the return temperature and it would hunt (power and temperature would yoyo) killing CoP. I have full monitoring and you would have noticed the hunting otherwise as it's not that easy to notice. But it knocks 1.5 off the CoP. I have since hydraulically separated. So have a primary loop around 6 to 8m long, with close coupled tees. The secondary side has its own pump. I then run it at fixed speed on the primary and secondary side, with secondary side slightly lower flow rate. This gives the heat pump some feed back - so far in cooling it's been great. Also the pumping power dropped with the second pump as both were doing less work individually and maybe at a better efficiency point. I also don't bother doing cylinder heating with heat pump. Logic for me, I have plenty of solar, but also I can leave the heat pump to run long and slow heating the floor. Time of use tariff make it cheap enough even without solar. If you any questions just ask. Believe your warranty requires either anti freeze valves or glycol. Glycol is the work of the devil, so go that route. The antifreeze valve is only to protect the heat pump. I have isolation valve on the screwed connectors on the heat pump and then the antifreeze valves. What you pipe does after that doesn't matter the heat pump is protected.

I'll be painting my bathroom ceiling this weekend and I'm after a few opinions. After plastering everywhere in my place I usually mist coat with contract matt and then a heavy coat of contract to act as a type of filler-paint, filling in small imperfections that I get in my admittedly just above average skim. I then sand this back before my final 2 coats of vinyl, a technique I got from @Nickfromwales and it's worked great for me. My question is, what's everyone's favourite bathroom ceiling paint, I've been looking at Zinsser Permawhite. And will I be ok to do my usual contract matt-pole sander-topcoat technique in the bathroom?

Unless you are massively confident you will never get a prolonged power cut while you are on a winter holiday in the Canaries you should either use an antifreeze additive (glycol of some kind, they are not all the same) or fit AF valves. Inta are reputed to be good, others variable. Pipes inside the building/slab are less likely to freeze than the HX in the HP.

Anti freeze valves are as you've assumed, to drain the heat pump and avoid damage there. You might want to double check the installation manual as some manufacturers are starting to allow installations without them. You don't need to worry about draining the rest of the system sitting inside the heated envelope.

Can anyone recommend a sawmill in central England/midlands area with a good cutting service? We need timber to be cut/planed accurately to achieve 63x47mm, preferably in C24. These are needed for additional rafters 63x47mm fixed onto the top chords of a trussed roof. Many thanks

Just took delivery of the ASHP for our new build. It's the 4kW Haier R290 (the same unit as @JohnMo has) and initial impressions are good - it seems well made and it's certainly a hefty item... Sadly, Wolseley no longer include the wiring centre, so that's another £500 to spend, which makes it less of a bargain. I don't understand why the wiring centre isn't included, 'cos the ASHP is useless without it. I'm collecting the plumbing bits to get it installed and was planning to get two anti-freeze valves, but then I read that they may not work unless they're fitted at the lowest point in the pipework. In my install, the pipes go down into a duct under the floor slab and resurface in the plant room, creating a trap that can't be drained. Is there any point in fitting anti-freeze valves in this case? They would still drain the ASHP itself, which is probably the important thing. My install looks something like this:

Meanwhile elsewhere... https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/09/10/there-have-been-no-hurricanes-in-the-atlantic-yet-making-2026-the-quietest-since-satellite-tracking-began-in-1966/

If you have influence in such matters, could our small patch have a gap in the clouds please? Actually last week there was a rainstorm which covered 1mile2 at most, so I just want the opposite of that please.

Truss clips to prevent uplift, noggins to prevent twisting.

Thanks all, much appreciated. Now to go and drill two holes through a dense concrete block wall!

Hello I want to fix my rafters to a ledger board. I’ve made a small bird mouth cut to seat the rafter onto ledger. This has the full 47mm bearing. Trouble is I’m looking at code complaint way to fix these without nailing or screwing too close to the limits. This is the diameter of the fixings within the distances of the end grain, edges, birds mouth angle etc. due to the rafter sitting high on the ledger I haven’t got an option to skew nail through the plumb (heel) cut. If I go in through the sides and down into the ledger I’ll be too close to the birdmouth angle. I was thinking either pre-drill and go in with a long screw from the top. 5mm directly down so it lands 25mm in the centre of the seat and into the ledger. Or use some kind of twisted restraint bar along the side of the rafter and twist to then hit the ledger. The downward thrust is taken care of by the wood to wood seat. It’s just uplift and connection. I’m assuming horizontal twist - although I can noggin in between to stop this twist and slide. Anyone with any firm knowledge on this situation please help. (Also - please don’t reply if you’re just going to say plumb cut with a hanger, etc) it needs the bird mouth for BCO.) Many thanks. Picture below.

It ends with third SE stating that wind posts are required.

I feel bad for desparately hoping for some proper rain in the South East. It's been painfully dry for months, and the couple of small recent downpours have not been sufficient to convince the mushrooms to pop up yet. I did find my first mushrooms of the year today though - oysters on fallen scots pine.

No, the laptop fan is ten times boiser.

Hi. Im a student in Ireland and am I completely a project on MVHR systems in homes and if they are of benefit . I would greatly appreciate any help that I could get . If I was able to find out : 1. What type of MVHR system you have ? 2. Is your house 1 or 2 storey ? 3. Cost of installation + how long ago 4. If you have seen any benefits so far ? If there is any more facts , figures or detail pictures that anyone could send me either that would be greatly appreciated . Thanks a lot for any help !