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You don't need trickle vents, that's just the default assumption. I don't have trickle vents as there's no way I'm putting them in expensive 3g windows especially when some vents would sit 3.6 meters above floor level. You can simply install natural background wall vents and/or alternatively passive stack. It's all in the building regs. I got my acoustic cntrollable ones directly from Rytons - https://www.vents.co.uk/pdf/BROCH_Rytons_Background_Ventilators.pdf And yes, I'm not into MVHR as after my research I decided against it.

Ok so it looks like the electrician is right on this and I will need to eat some humble pie ?? however I much prefer the idea that anybody who stretches the hairdryer into the shower should die anyway.

Zones here https://www.drench.co.uk/blog/how-to-guides/what-are-bathroom-electrical-zones

I did ours in K four years ago and we are surrounded by tree Still looks like the day I did it No need to get wash alga Simply spray Algacide 12-1 with a hand sprayer Let the rain do the rest K tends to be a better colour match than Webber

Some time ago there was someone on ebay making replacement decks (just the deck). They were a bit agricultural looking but probably used thicker metal. They were way cheaper than buying a whole deck assembly like some makes insist you do.

Is that Venetian plaster?

Is it a case you have to drain down to swap one of these Willis immersions out? Would it be worth putting in isolation valves at install to assist in this task?

As others have said keeping them clean is key. I push ours on it's side and hose it off periodically. You can buy or make a stand that you drive onto then jack it up. This is typical: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lifter-Lifting-Device-Garden-Tractor/dp/B00OV5JKLK I think I used Pro-Cote Cold Galv Spray from T'station (quite a fan of it). Also Simoniz Tough Black spray paint. I got a couple of cans of "orange" top coat from Halfords, it was a country mile off of the original Westwood colour! ? There's a lawnmower forum when you're ready...

As the pic @Onoff has posted, lid off and push the reset first and see if it comes back to life.

They are pretty cheap, good to have as a spare anyway, saves draining down etc, just make sure the electrics are isolated if you remove it. To check it in situ, (with the electrics on) use a multimeter or tester screwdriver (neon in the handle) and see if you have voltage both sides of the two terminals on it, it’s basically a switch that’s controlled by heat, if it’s cold it’s switched on, if it’s hot, it’s will switch off.

It’s inside the head. Left looks to be off anyway ..? Small but on the bottom of the unit, steel lid comes off. The thermostat will be wired into the live and then there will be a wire off it to the element. Unscrew the contacts and it will drop out. Will be a 7” thermostat.

Should say Tool Monkey First fix fires nails for framing etc and second fix fires pins Arcs and skirting boards

I really rate hammerite fir this kind of work, I actually found the right colour fir my deck when I refurbed it like you are. Direct to rust, no undercoat ?

Epoxy Mastic. www.rust.co.uk

Change the thermostat first. They are prone for issues as they are quite short and it could be a duff one that has tripped out and not reset.

If you can get enough ventilation use a 12" petrol disc cutter with hose attached to do the vertical cuts, then SDS to create the pocket. If the foundation is a decent width you could just build some 4" blockwork which would be much simpler.

The @Nickfromwales trick of 20 odd turns of tape hasn't failed me yet! Outside bib tap, the shower etc.

Flame size looks good. as to the clag in the chamber, excess air can do that, as can poor fuel quality. the only way to set them up right is to do it the right way- pressure gauge and combustion analyser. That's probably worth the £75 a year as you can blow 10% efficiency up the flue as excess air... But as to this one and it's lockouts? Being a Riello makes it really difficult as the pcb uses a tapping on the motor for it's power supply, but I'm looking at the lockout chart and there are no specifics for lockout w/ NO light so I'd be suspecting the box if there's a clean 50v from the motor. Open the box and look for dry joints.

Or you can create a recess for the curtain track in the ceiling.

Hitachi are good Same nails and gas as Pasloda Half the price Bombproof

Hi, thanks @Jason Lfor posting this, very useful and really got me thinking. We are building an extension with a very similar foundation/pad build-up. The Marmox Thermoblock was new to me, but given my limited experience that's not a total surprise. I've read the sales blurb and a bit on this forum about its use, but I was interested why you went for that product and how is it necessary for you project?

Maybe I am just too sanguine after having lived through my own self-build, and it's not something that I would ever want to repeat despite it really being a 100% -- well certainly 99+% -- success. When we started on this journey we naively thought that it might take a year from pre-planning to completion. In the end it took us 3½ years, and that is a lot faster than many self-builders here have achieved. Coming from a high-maintenance and pretty cold 1700s farmhouse, one of our goals was to have a truly low energy house that we going to be as near zero-maintenance as possible. IMO, achieving decent low-energy performance with a tradition UK block / brick build is really hard. @tonyshouse is one of the few members here that I know have achieved this and IIRC his wall profile is 10 block + 30 insulation + 10 brick, and he was intimately involved in the build process. IMO in practice you won't achieve any decent level of energy efficiency except by design both in concept and in detail. The culture in the UK building industry is still anchored into processes that are decades out-of-date. OK, there is a trade-off here in that you can use traditional approaches and accept the significantly higher running costs. But to your specific points @dpmiller, we surveyed maybe 6 or 7 TF suppliers and shortlisted 3. We were quite open with them about who we were shortlisting and why. IMO, the planners interfere with your design to a degree that you'd be unwise to invest too much into TF design until after consent has been achieved, so we weren't able to down select until after we had obtained consent and have an overall approved concept to share with the two companies we eventually asked to quote. Any form of price quote is meaningless without a clear definition of scope and responsibility. A friend self-building in a nearby village discounted our supplier as too expensive and went for a cheaper quote, but in the end paid a more (and a lot more than he budgeted) because our scope was essentially a complete service: slab, frame, erection, insulation and air-tightness to contracted performance level, and he had to source many of the aspects as unbudgeted extras. Our TF / warm-slab supplier's structural engineer and architect technician were crucial to our finalising our detailed design. With a high energy performance house, the devil is in the detail.

Lockable fan isolator ..? https://www.edwardes.co.uk/products/schneider-gu1013-3-pole-10a-ultimate-fan-isolator-switch-white

pumps use 40-70w so a cheap inverter and a leisure battery with a solar panel will charge it in the summer but may need a boost in the winter if you wanted to stick to AC, but Secoh make a lot of their diaphragm pumps in both 12v and 24v so you can even remove the inverter and just go batteries and charge controllers.

No that’s the Clearfox Nature USP is that it doesn’t have any ongoing costs however ... it’s not got anywhere close to the lifecycle testing of other systems. @nod the company I know who do specification on off grid drainage now spec the Vortex Eco as you can turn up and down the flow rates. Ideal for variable occupancy houses and they have standardized the sizes too.

Different section in the regs for swimming pools. You can have socket outlets if certain requirements are met.

Maybe the one that’s says you have to comply with the manufacturers instructions. agree they look horrible so hide them away in a cupboard.

MVHR and no trickle vents.

Yes in Australia it is normal to have sockets in bathrooms and you often find the washing machine there, and a hairdryer plugged in with a long curly flex. When I mentioned to my BIL that we are not allowed that because someone would be stupid enough to take the hairdryer into the shower while the water was running. His reply "if they are that bloody stupid they deserve to die" Since you are allowed to have a shaver socked which is fed from an isolation transformer, I wonder if you bought a 1kVA 240V isolation transformer and used that to feed a socket if you could claim it was an isolated "shaver socket"? This proved an issue for me once when I rewired an old cottage where they had fitted an en-suite shower cubicle right in the corner of a bedroom, not in a separate room. This meant the only place I could fit sockets in that room was the opposite corner which just met the 3M rule. Needless to say there is an extension lead plugged in to feed a television sitting on a cupboard right next to the shower cubicle. So the only legal sollution is make your bathroom big enough to get a socket 3M from the bath and shower and fit a long flex onto the hairdryer. The electrician is right to refuse as his name will be on the EIC and he will be the one in the dock when someone dies if there was a wrongly placed socket, even if the death was the users stupidity. We are not allowed to make our own life choices. Another gem, I refused to fit a socket in a bathroom once. A short while later I went back, and the washing machine was in the bathroom, with a small hole drilled in the wall, flex fed through, and plugged in in an adjacent room. At least I won't be in the dock for that.

The electrician was doing his job! ?

I agree, I got mine for £250 new on the pallet... took a punt and I am happy with it... although it’s only 5kw and I probably need about 8kw. Not sure I would ever pay thousands for one though. They are not responsive enough for ‘normal’ family life, and you need to plan ahead with your heating DHW demand.

Should be all round - every 4 bricks and at least1 per side (even the short sides) unless they have given the tray a proper slope.

Socket must be minimum 3m from a bath or shower to meet regs (not sure if 18th edition changed this) and shaver sockets can be anywhere sensible but are limited on power output so won’t do a hair dryer.

Can’t remember what the regs are , 3m from the edge of a bath/shower?

A very true statement. I hope you manage to get it sorted to your satisfaction. We had a tall narrow window opening in our hall, which was supposed to be central, put offset and we made them alter the timber frame so it was in it's correct position. You have to be watching them like a hawk all the time, very stressful.

@nod do you have a link to purchase K-tend crack repair - I noticed a small hairline crack last night which I would like to repair as it's next to my front door.

I would guess that they should be spaced at either 450mm or 900mm intervals all the way round,depending on the regs. Sorry,I know that’s not exactly what you asked. Is that scaffold up there right now for the rebuild?

50mm every time. It’s big enough to create an air break over the discharging water / suds, whereas 40mm often won’t discharge anywhere near as free-flowing as with 50mm as the entire bore fills with water / suds and stalls. Makes a huge difference if there is even as little as 1000mm or so of horizontal run.

Appreciate everyone’s reply have I got the watts completely wrong? sorry I’m totally new to building a new build therefore as much advice provided would certainly help.

Thanks all, I really appreciate it. It's been such a rollercoaster, one minute you are very happy and super excited the next minute there are major issues. I think I'll be ok once it's done but boy is it hard work!

Most have white frames internally. Grey too strong inside

White. Yes.

I am another unashamed MBC evangelist. 6 days from hole in the ground to finished warm slab; 3 weeks for the slab to cure enough to erect the frame. 10 days from level slab to house with all the doors and windows fitted, and that we could lock. OK, it was another year to get the slate roof on, the external stone skin erected, and the 1st + 2nd fit completed, so we could move in, but the house internally was weather-tight to do all this. We did all the overall project management and detailed design so no architect or PM fees and after being in the house for 3½ years, I am still amazed how few niggles that we have. Having only two major subs: MBC for the slab, TF, insulation and air-tightness; a local builder for the ground-works, stone skin plaster boarding out, and roof was a critical success factor IMO. We did a lot of the internal 1st and 2nd fit ourselves. If you are going for a low U-value, high decrement delay spec wall profile then you will find it hard to do this with a wall profile shallower than 30 cm. One thing that we did was to put 30° reveals on all our windows. Everyone comments on how striking it is and how well it works. Details in my blog.

Have a good nosey at mass housing developments near you. The build method they are using is likely to be the cheapest and well known to local trades. Copy everything from the foundation to the windows to the roof covering and you won't go far wrong. Avoid buying strange and exotic materials that can't be picked up from your builders merchants. The ability to pick up a few more joists from if you break one or drop back a few unused roof tiles for a refund will save money and heaps of time.

I have used neither. But I have learned that whatever the fabric - it's the quality of the work that is the key issue. I suspect you can get U values pretty much the same overall for each build method. Its the focus on detail and pride in accuracy that repays. Just one slapdash worker is enough to cause lots more downstream work, and therefore cost.

I have seen lots corbelled , no steel, no gallows bracket and no wood, no falling down. the prof of structural engineering at Cambridge University told me once that if a masonry structure can stand for 5 mins ti will stand forever BUilding Inspectors like belt and braces as no liability on them and they don’t have to pay for it.

Yup, we have a stone-clad 3 storey MBC TF house with UFH in the groundfloor slab. This UFH is heated by a single Willis heater. Though typically Dec -> Feb or thereabouts I also have a small electric oil-filled heater in an office that also dumps some kWh into the first floor during E7. The single Willis could do everything, but using the heater means that we do most of the heating on E7. The house stays at ~22.3 °C with maybe a ½-1°C ripple over the day. We've also got the ducting in place for an external ASHP, but after over 2 years living in the house, I haven't bothered to buy and to install one. It might save maybe £4-500 p.a. on electricity charges, but then I've got the purchase and installation costs to amortise and this only makes economic sense if I do the work. If I get an installer to do it, then I won't even recover the costs over the expected lifetime of the ASHP, and I would also need to consider an annual maintenance contract. Nope, I think that "keep it simple, stupid" is the best option for us. BTW, no buffer tank. No extra pump. The slab is the buffer, all 27 tonnes of it. The UFH manifold does include a TMV but this is because it was std in the Wunda kit. It is always set to open so the single pump will always cycle the water through the UFH loops (which are configured as a single zone) and the Willis. Each night at midnight my NodeRED control system calculates the heating estimate based on the forecast temp for the next 24 hours and the delta between the actual average house temp for the previous day and the set point (22.3). This number is then used to plan the heating profile for the Willis the next day. I don't really get involved in the day-to-day control; the system just does its thing.

Quite interesting that the vendor has bought the plot and decided not to build They will have to take a hit on it Things where booming eighteen months ago

I know about that building regulation, although it was completely ignored by our BCO, incidentally. My (obliquely made) point was that if the BCO believes a regulation is not being met, he/she should point at the regulation rather than making inane comments like "there might well be a problem if he intended to store suitcases next to a hot water pipe".