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Hhhhh Yup.

It's gutting at times when you do a good job, no thanks, such is life.

It was all accessible. Tight as feck, but I made it work. Sat the unit on 2x neoprene clad 3x2” feet, so it could be lowered down and replaced if necessary, but in reality everything is changeable from the front panel. All good, I made it to be so Got zero thanks, but 🤷‍♂️, we move lol

How do you get into service that? We see it as now but once all the roof insulation goes in what then?

Ping me a PM when you’re ready to buy We’ve been here, Brink is often the winner on price / performance and more; CVC Systems in Oxford have not once let me or my clients down, ever. Passivhaus certification where I’ve needed it, and beyond. Fitted a Zehnder recently, nothing to report wrt boosted quality etc tbh. Black PVC tape to mask the unit during handling, so it didn’t get scratched. I think the tightest plant space I have ever managed to squeeze one into lol. I suggested a Brink here, physically smaller unit which would have done a plenty-good-enough job, but the client went supersized for zero reward, but hey 🤷‍♂️, if you’ve got the money and know better……..

Ah.. I appreciate your dilemma, this stuff is not common bedtime reading! To help best, can you post a drawing of the wall construction details, with notes. Don't give us a "half drawing" I'm not interested in drawing your teeth or being a detective, give us it worts and all. I assume your cladding is vertical? If not it's a different animal, but still can be designed. There is actually a huge amount to consider here, but fundamentally, once you understand how each element of the cladding build up works and interacts it's remarkably simple and you'll end up thinking.. that is so easy! if it's well explained to you.. which some of us will endeavour to do for you. If you post a DETAILED drawing of the whole wall make up then myself and others will be able to explain what is relevant to you, how it works (have a quick check you are not doing something daft in terms of the whole wall) , the timber service classes you require, fixings, suggest best options, things to avoid, where you can maybe source what you need at sensible cost and arm you with the questions that you need to ask a supplier.

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That wasn't @JohnMo's question. Look at the bloody MI's!!!! It will show you the distance from the top of the vaulted area, 600mm down and a horizontal line drawn outward, where the detector must reside within. It is "in the instructions".......

You're supposed to paint over these after they've been "finessed" Raw plaster (of Paris) is not meant to be left on show afaik. However, in real life, air will be continuously flowing here 24/7/365, so is it ever actually going to remain 'wet'? A: "No".

Is what your doctor said. Apparently he didn't need a magnifying glass to see these critters running amuck upon your nethers Nicer looking landscapes now though, keep plugging away.

PVA eh? Any problems with it being above the shower though and reactivating? I guess not once it's been plastered and painted but thought I'd ask.

"You may pass....." lol

100% agree on that. Appliances shouldn't be on the DHW PRV.

Your builder is a useless, slovenly, embarrassment of an excuse of a human being. (expletive deleted)ing talentless, disrespectful prick. What does he offer up under "snagging" and retainers against defects in his contract???? What the actual (expletive deleted)?

That is not my point here. Nobody cares about how long that takes as far as I know. The way I plumb peoples homes is so that the filling washing machine doesn't rob them of a good blasting shower.

A lot of people mis-diagnose water hammer. Picture the wall of the pipe, over say 20m, it gets pulled (quite violently if it's a good mains) in the opposite direction when the water shoots through it, then when the water gets abruptly shut off the reverse happens. A clunk when it gets going, and a much worse one when it is told to stop. Hence the term "hammer". A simple resolve is to fit a water-hammer arrestor at the incoming stopcock as an accumulator (so dissipator) of said energy. Example here: https://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-vessel-shock-arrestor-1-2-bsp/905FA?tc=YT5&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19822796606&gbraid=0AAAAAD8IdPwbFYTzmJVQor27lqW3HlWdF&gclid=Cj0KCQjwg5zTBhCLARIsAP2AFU4mo_FATJ9q8AnAmVKo36-pIGsoGKt9BSlS3DhWw4HT_ahp1HefyRoaAoOGEALw_wcB People don't see such problems, if you're not an experienced plumber then you wouldn't, and then have to resolve them somehow, retrospectively and crudely, which is where folk with experience shine through and save such annoyance / cost with some simple mitigation by design. Prob is, good people seem to be few and far between.

I agree with the article while heartedly. If I could have sourced UC3 timber, is have used it. However, issues: Firstly, suppliers (at least near me) have NO IDEA about different class ratings for timber treatment - they will all say "yes yes it's pressure treated" which means nothing, it's definitely UC2. Secondly, practically speaking as a novice self builder trying to do it properly, I couldn't not find a single supplier for 2x2 UC3 near me. What I cold find was the other side of the country and 4x the cost. I agree, fencing batten not any good for a building. So practically won. I got standard UC2. Barn painted it black and then, when fitted, went round with DPM paint and painted the top surface to guard against standing water as best I could. We are nearly 18 months in and (as you would expect) so far so good. If there are to be any issues, they will be after 10+ years is my guess. Fingers crossed I've done enough for it to last as long as the thermowood.

I guess you mean lost freeholder? I wonder if it's a case of first time there was a lot of risk priced in and since then, they get a referral and kept the price the same? Can you wait and see how your neighbour gets on with the cheaper option?

Pro: It appears to be thermostatic. Con: It's 100% cheap seats. I would recommend buying another unit, or at least a spare thermostatic cartridge (or two) for when this inevitably snuffs it. I bought a cheap unit, very similar "quality" and fitted it in my new bathroom; I had the splendid notion of doing a much better bathroom in maybe 5 years. Same bathroom remains like maybe 7-8 years later............. Issue: the shite cartridges are giving up the ghost, so when the diverter should only be sending water to the rainfall head some is now finding its way to the bath filler and handset (3 way output). Plus, to turn mine off 100% now In have to turn the flow valve off to around 2 o'clock vs 12 o'clock. If you're on a budget, buy a surface mounted setup vs a concealed arrangement. Don't bury a ticking timebomb. Cheap is cheap for a very good reason.

Horrific bugs I'd never had found. Absolute bitches - well above my pay grade. But.....better than my holiday snaps!

Great point Nick. Often we get what we call "water hammer in pipes" this is where there may be a bit of air, or occasionally pipe lengths that deflect. It sets up an oscillation in the "instant" water pressure ( potentially can exceed normal working pressures by a long way) that can destroy sensitive modern systems. over stress pipe connections. I would for all it costs.

Fair, though I didn't initially put my point across as clearly as I should (later edited to mention the pipes but still maybe that's not clear enough). I've both experienced personally and know people who've had leaks caused by the connections between the appliance and the fixed plumbing. That is the element that I'm most suspicious of and it's an age related issue. In my mind the lower the pressure the less likely there is to be a problem and for most appliances pressure is not really required to be high. If the washing machine takes another minute or two to fill who cares? So for me, if building new and lucky enough to have a high pressure feed (around here people are complaining about <1bar, thankfully not affecting me) then I would intend to feed the appliances off a separate PRV from the DHW one.

If you use superglue, do NOT use too much as it won't sand back as quickly as the plaster / paint around it. As it's plaster you could prob happily just use neat PVA, with the benefit of being able to wipe this with a wet cloth to clear away excess when wet. Remember to stop the scrim tape well away from the edge as you defo do not want to catch that when tidying up after the plasterer with some sandpaper; I doubt they'll get them A1 so expect to have some faffing to do before paint. Also, don't forget to take the centres off and remove the foam restrictor before (and put them bloody safe so you don't need to repair those!!).

How many washing machines are sold each year in the UK? And how many of these have someone raise their hand to halt proceedings, stating "I need to check the pressure first!". I'd say that's <20% if that. WRAS stuff is tested to 10bar, and dynamic pressure is very different to static, so some diversity remains here; the reason washing machines / dish-washers et-al don't just blow up all over the place. I used to fit domestic appliances each evening for an appliance showroom, for beer money, and I can't recall any such failures tbh. Almost nobody reads the MI's before installing an appliance, we're a rare few on here, plus most installers are against the clock so simply don't GAF. Agree, softeners throw a curved ball here, good point.

Ok, my suggestion is that you don't rush this. It's a key step as if this does not turn out the way you hope you'll store up loads of problems that you'll have to deal with later. The great thing about BH is that what your are doing is quite common and folk will fesse up the mistakes they have made, so you don't repeat them. We just want to help you out! There are few if any on BH that will relish hearing that it has gone wrong for you when we could have helped. In that context. You say you have a ground bearing slab and that BC have signed off what you are going to lay your slab on. Thus it may be assumed that it is reasonably flat and level. But BC won't have checked this for you! In general terms level means that what you are laying on does not vary too much from one end of the building to the other. Flatness is roughly a measure of call it "undulation" between often 3.0m points. A slab can be level for corner extremities but go up and down like a roller coaster in between. I suspect you don't know what tolerances you should be working to. This is your SE's fault possibly, it may be buried somewhere in you specification? You say you have a 150mm thick slab. Roughly if what you are laying on is 15mm high in places then this can start to compromise the cover to the mesh. If the top side of your slab coincides with a high spot in the sub base it really eats into the performance of the slab as you are reducing what we call the effective structural depth. Ok your sub base is down now. We can have a look at how and where you finish the top of the slab. Now as you are doing this your self I can tell you that slabs often end up high. Contractors, in rush often leave slabs high also more often than not, bugger off and leave someone else to fix it. A over high slab impacts on everything that comes after. But lets turn back to structural strength first and a bit of rough techy stuff. You SE will have specified a basic structural strength of the concrete. If they are doing their job correctly they should specify a level tolerance both on what you are laying on and the top surface. I do this as a matter of course, it can go horribly wrong if you don't as you can end up with a slab that is only say 120mm thick in places.. and it's sods law that the thin bit will be under the point where there is a bit more load. Your basic might be something like a C28/35 concrete, there are lots of way we can specify concrete. It's then up to you / contractor to find a mix that can be work into place / p[properly compacted to meet the level tolerances and concrete strength. Basic concrete is made by mixing cement, concrete sand and water. When the water evaporates we have voids in the concrete, like the cell structure in wood. Thus we want to design a mix that is workable enough, but does not have too much water as this reduces the concrete strength. We call this the water / cement ratio. We measure how workable the concrete is by using often called the "slump" test. Google this and read around. It will help you lots! Now we can also add things to the concrete, other chemicals and powders which also can slow down how fast the concrete cures and remains workable. One easy way is to use what we call an air entraining agent, similar to Fairy liquid (never add Fairy liquid to any concrete of mortar mix, it's dangerous) , the bubbles of air make it more workable. Modern concrete mixes use other chemicals and agents that make the concrete more workable (basically lubricate the mix) but without reducing the matrix strength. You mention SCC (self compacting concrete) this is often also referred to as self levelling concrete. But the big problem with SCC or other self levelling mixes is that they need to be handled by experts that do it day in and day out. They can very quickly "turn on the novice" within a matter of minutes. If they turn on you then they are totally unforgiving! My advice is to look at a basic concrete mix with a bit more water, what we call a higher slump. Phone up a few suppliers, tell them what you are trying to do, your labour limitations, the weather you expect and the size and type of slab you are laying. If you make the right approach nine times out of ten you'll find folk itching to help you out! In my day job as an SE I often design quite "whacky stuff" I have a good basic knowledge but often find myself phoning the experts on a particular product to see where and when we can safely explore boundaries of design. I do check what they tell me, but I'm long past the point where I feel embarrassed to ask for expert advice, or just ask a daft question. If it's ok for me to do it then it's ok for you to call up a few concrete suppliers and ask for help? You have nothing to lose but a bit of time. You need to reflect on what you are doing. It's ok to take one step back to make two forward later.