Leaderboard

You need 3rd party cover as anything happens on your land you coukd liable. There are products for pre build but once you start it would not be sensible to proceed without insurance.

I don't doubt that they will work for a time mounted upside down, the issue is whether the inevitable air space that this causes will lead to longer term problems. I'm not a fan of fitting things contrary to the designer's intentions, and when Willis designed these things they were very definitely intended to be mounted as shown in that diagram, and included warnings to ensure that the case must be completely filled with water (which cannot be the case if they are mounted upside down - sooner or later there is going to be air trapped in that big space above the side pipe).

But German pipe threads are exactly the same as British ones, but with a different name, apparently. https://www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/blog/plumbers-pipes-and-german-vs-english-standards "What most people do not appreciate is that Whitworth invented the standardised thread-form back in 1841 and the British Empire spread this around the world. When they decided on a standard thread for plumbing pipework, the British Standard Pipe Thread, it was the Whitworth thread-form that was adopted. This also spread around the world and virtually every continent uses this system. However, there are two anomalies. The German’s didn’t like the idea of recognising the English BSP so they called their system DIN. It is in fact exactly the same thread-form as Whitworth so to identify the correct thread size under the DIN Standard, you have DIN 15 equalling BSP half inch. DIN 20 equalling BSP three quarter inch and DIN 25 equalling BSP one inch. Our dear friends the Americans went one better and they called their system NPT, National Pipe Thread. Just as they changed the size of the Imperial gallon to the US gallon, they changed the thread-form from Whitworth to something entirely different. So instead of having the Standard 55 degree angle on the threads, they changed it to 60. (Yes you have to ask yourself why?). The net result is that whereas the DIN pipe threads are interchangeable with BSP pipe threads, the American NPT pipe threads are not. You can graunch a half inch NPT into a half inch BSP fitting and the sealant will take up the slack."

Regarding the existing PP for an 88sqm house.. Does it have a condition removing Permitted Development Rights (PDR)? You might not even need PP to add a 25sqm extension to an 88sqm house. Depends on the details. However a house doesn't acquire PDR until it's finished so officially you should build the house, then extend it which had implications for the VAT reclaim. You can't apply to extend what hasn't been built yet either. However you could make a new application for an identical house with the extension. Sometimes the planners like parts of a house to look like an extension even when it isn't. A massive house near us looks like a house that was extended about 4 times but in reality it was built all at once. In short.. it would be possible to start the foundations of the existing PP to extend its life indefinitely, then apply for a new house that uses the existing foundations and an "extension". If that was refused you could finish the approved house and might be able to build an extension under PDR.

it makes no odds - you can break into someone’s house and if you injure yourself due to some reason you can claim ....

Actually yesterday one my builder's chaps here, advising me to do my ceiling insulation.. in just my undercrackers/ jump in t'bath after etc. I could go one further.

Interesting, sounds like you have a site for more than 1 house, (like me) my council charges £85 per sq mtr for CIL times 1.85% for next years inflation. total for 4 houses is £94,000 my personal house is circa £30,000 cil . This I can get exempted. However the council have informed me that a "charge" will be put against the land until the whole of the outstanding CIL has been paid . Also ANY start on ANY part of the site means cil becomes liable, so I cannot start my own house, until I resolve the cil problem, ( I have put the other 3 plots up for sale as self build plots) This is a subject that is NOT to be ignored !! councils are trying every trick to catch builders out and make you PAY so be very careful !! ps if the council put a charge on the land, you cannot raise money, as a lender would have no collateral !! regards, Stephen

Best bet is to drill the old wood out with a long drill bit and shave the new post to fit the existing concrete

Well our Willis has been heating the house for the last two years without any problems and it is mounted with the electrics at the top!

Yes, and the diagram (copied again below) I posted earlier is a direct copy of the original Willis instructions (Willis sold these as "Economisers" originally, as you can get a small volume of hot water quickly, without waiting for the whole tank to heat up).

My guess is that Emerald Geyser are just one of a handful of companies that have copied the original Willis heater. These things were, to the best of my knowledge, only ever fitted in NI and the immediately surrounding area. When I first came across them around 30 years ago, I'd not seen anything like it before, but one of the NI chaps at work assured me they were really common over the water, especially around the Belfast area. Everyone there just know which way up they went, as they were in pretty common use. These things were designed to be fitted alongside an existing hot water cylinder, within the confines of a hot press/airing cupboard. The vertical mounting allowed this, as the thing can sit within the corner space pretty neatly, and just attach to the existing plumbing. It's only in the last few years that people have been looking at using them for other purposes, and I have a faint suspicion that I may be partially to blame for this, as I remember mentioning them on Ebuild as a possible way to build a cheap and cheerful water heating system for UFH. IIRC, this was around the time that @TerryE opted to fit them for just this purpose. Before that, I'd not heard of them being used for running UFH before, although that doesn't mean that someone hadn't done it.

The walls usually have the least with the roof the highest. It's much easier to lay 300-400mm of loft insulation but if you put that much in a cavity then it can cause many more issues like much longer wall ties, closing the cavity etc. As long as it's total is good is the main objective. Don't forget any window or door you put in no matter how high tech it is will still be at least 3/4 times as high a u value as your wall.

hello and welcome, Your U-values are fine, though I would try and reduce the wall value if possible. The reason to keep U-values similar is principally to prevent condensation on the higher value areas but this is on a much higher difference, e.g. the latest Scottish regs ask for walls averaging 0.22 but allow local areas of 0.7.

What a glorious mess. That's what a German Anglophile loves about the UK. It's interesting, full of quirks not boring, or standardised like the Teutons.

I have nothing good to say about council planning. All tossers.

This might help. Pipe Sizes and Dimensions Chart.doc

Council being entirely reasonable. They thought they could ignore the rules do to an alleged technical constraint which they chose not to discuss when it arose. Lesson hopefully learnt.

15mm inlet on the combi = total waste of time putting 22mm on the outlet. The only reason you’d go to 22mm would be to reduce resistance over a VERY long run. To be honest, utilising manifolds with a remote combi is not a very good idea IMO as you’re adding a huge amount of dead leg to each outlet, particularly the basin tap ( high frequency / low volume use ) which will be a PITA. If you want some divisibility then you could do 2x 15mm runs from the combi 1x 1st floor 1xground floor / whatever best divides the system, and just have an isolator ( FULL BORE ) at the combi for each run. The Vaillant 938 is a fantastic boiler with IIRC a 15L pre-heat cylinder ( actually it’s 2x 7.5’s for less physical space requirements ) and is comparable in DHW delivery to a 200L UVC. It’s only Ach’s heel is it’s still only a 15mm inlet & outlet, but with a good cold main you really can’t tell. The time from opening an outlet to actually getting premium temp DHW is massively reduced as it’s always got that buffer ready to go, so definitely a contender for anywhere where longer DHW runs will end up causing inconvenience. Veismann combis seem to have a good following but I can’t really say I’d rate them over the Vaillant if I’m honest. Guess I’m biased because I’ve fitted so many of the Vaillant units without an ounce of grief. Adding a DIY hot return to a heat store boiler will, I’m pretty sure, void the warranty. Ring the various manufacturers to ask, but I think the only heat-store combi I’ve ever seen with a tank and a hot return tapping was the Arirton 27 Plus ( a steaming bag of shit on a good day though, and I’d only fit one for someone I disliked ). The 27 Plus was the old model, they may have renamed it since I saw one of them last. Vaillant 938 all the way if it was me.

I still think it is a safety issue. Sometimes instructions seems counter intuitive, not following them is how nuclear power plants melt down. Anyone willing to put an old paint pot half full of water on a stove, then compare it with a full paint pot on a stove. See which lid flies the furthest.

Well at least he's actually wearing clothes ?

It is tidy !

They will only be half as good.

Just measured a bit of "50mm" Floplast waste pipe. It's actually marked with the dimensions on the side, "55mm x 2mm". A quick check showed that it's really 55mm OD and 51mm ID. Bit like OpenReach Duct 56, which is really 54mm OD and 50mm ID. All these dimensions seem to be randomly chosen, with no rhyme nor reason as to why a particular pipe is given a particular dimension as a name.

Back in another life as a plumber I used Jacob's plumbers on Grays inn Rd proper plumbers with the obligatory cellar from which any plumbing fitting ever produced would be stored . The guy behind the ramp would write your order in b.s numbers . Wasnt long before the humble float and ball valve would be referred to as a 12-12 .

What happens if you need to double flush (or even triple flush!) a stubborn lurker? Surely it will get poached?