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Well we finally started on 23rd of June and the groundworks are done ✔waste and water drains are in and quite a bit of (un budgeted) stone everywhere, brickies start tomorrow morning . I know many who have had ,and those who are having issues with builders ( and you have my sympathy) are quite right to call them out on this forum but i would like to say so far the trades have been spot on so credit where credit is due .

Ok. Time for a reality check……. Has the builder said that a glue of whatever type had been used? If he says yes, then get a 100mm hole saw and sample 4 areas ACROSS joists. Remove the pilot after the hole has been started and then you won’t penetrate the top chord of the joist. If the discs of board come loose and lift out then his bluff is called. Start there. Don’t bend and tell them you want to know without any shadow of a bout that “a glue” has indeed been used. The part that stinks the most here is the fact that the builder has said that the floor will lift!! That tells me no glue whatsoever has been used because if it had you would NOT lift that floor 1mm. Stinks of no glue to me. Call it, and get the deck samples across the pozi’s and don’t accept any more BS.

After three visits to our plot (two ten day trips and one long weekend) we have made quite a lot of progress with building the workshop - in no small part thanks to this site and the generosity of members in sharing wisdom and advice. I've learned a huge amount, and am delighted with what we have achieved so far. Below are some photos of the work in progress which largely speak for themselves. We had help in the first tranche from my son and his friend who had finished Uni for the summer, as well as from my parents who live nearby. The second and third visits were just us with my parents, when they were not playing bowls. We have a new-found admiration for builders and others who have manual jobs - the stamina needed to perform physical work continuously over an 8 hour day was a shock for us desk-jockeys. And the weather gods were not always kind - the first visit saw torrential rain and high winds for the first five days, and our most recent trip was during the heatwave where we were working in 34C heat for much of the day. Noah's Ark to Raging Inferno. Spending time on the plot has been useful from the point of view of considering the design of the house, and how life might be for us living there. We realised that the south-facing aspect means fierce and unmitigated sunshine, so we will need to ensure we have sun-shading in some form over the balcony to stop us from frying in the middle of the day, and to reduce solar gain through the bifold doors. Having seen the distant views towards Dartmoor from the roof of the workshop (the equivalent of our first floor of the house), we have amended the window in the second floor from a velux to a dormer in order to create a corner where we can sit and take in the views. This will be part of the minor amendment application that goes in shortly. Here are the photos of the work in progress... (many of the photos I have are in HIEC format, so I wasn't able to upload) 3582792D-760C-40AF-8AFE-0403A9C4A3D8.mp4 BC9D98F1-B908-4BDC-BE64-36BE05B11D14.mov WhatsApp_Video_2021-06-10_at_21_54_37.mp4

Complete and total nonsense, sorry. Please don’t give such non-comprehensive replies as it’s extremely unhelpful. Allowing for an install with both a high, and a low level cyl stat, the ASHP can be made to kick in during shower number 2. The return water temp would be higher so the HP recovery would be higher / faster. Something to consider. With PV or an E7/10 boost the tank could be heated to a premium temperature above the normal capacity @55oC. Something else to consider. Direct electric heating via the immersion ‘could’ be strategically directed purely for times where DHW was most needed. It ( the immersion(s) ) can also be used for delivering extra DHW at times of duress, which I call “guest mode” on my installs. Occupants go up to the cylinder and hit a 30 / 60 / 120 min immersion boost switch accordingly. If done an hour before duress the tank temp ( and therefore it’s sustain ) can be elevated significantly thus increasing your lower temp x 300L @ 55oC capacity to a much higher capacity in the same size cylinder. Something else to consider. People do a funny thing after showering, it’s called drying off, squirting on sweet smelling products, etc etc. They also shower typically at 38oC. Therefore that needs to be considered in the calculations for the time needed for the cylinder to recover between showers / bathing. People do a funny thing after getting in the bath too. They get into it. And then they stay there for a while. A “couple” could easily manage with a 210L UVC with some very basic disciplines. A lot of things can be taken into consideration when sizing a cylinder, and stating all those things makes for a comprehensive reply.

All this talk of hydrogen - especially pure hydrogen - being fed to boilers is utter nonsense. There's no way you can pipe into people's homes a scentless explosive gas that leaks better than just about any other gas in existence. From Wikipedia: At best, there's research into diluting natural gas with a small percentage of hydrogen - 20%, say. And how do you manage a transition from gas to hydrogen? You can't exactly do it gradually, but to do it all at once would require everyone to convert their boilers to be hydrogen-capable all at once. And finally, the idea of on-site production of hydrogen in the near term is ridiculous. Why would you generate hydrogen inefficiently, only to immediately burn it? Clearly there's no point using it to generate electricity in a fuel cell - you might as well just use the electricity directly.

The council told me that a S73 on a pre CIL consent, still triggers a CIL liability so I would be careful with this one

Photo as promised. The container is 300mm high, the trees directly behind the container are a normal willow planted 3 and a half years ago, there is a row of them along the front, they are about 6-7 foot high the ones behind it are the very quick growing willows and are one and a half years old.

Yeah, you are right. They will have to sort it out. When he jumps on it and says "see, rock solid” how do I explain the importance of the glue in the long term life of the boards?

There is glue between the tongue and groove (they tell me - I can't see it), but I don't think there is any between the posi joist and the board. He was adamant about it being there between the T and G, and very clueless when I said it didn't look like they're was any between the board and the joist. So in pretty sure they have just glued the T+G. It's really pretty pathetic that they are so overconfident they do stuff without checking the instructions that I specifically bring to their attention. But I feel I'm in a no-win situation. I can get difficult and refuse to pay the next bill until this is redone or fixed, but that isn't really going to help the relationship, and there is a risk the builder then cuts corners elsewhere which I can't spot. I'm just a layman who reads a lot. So I'm trying to find the easiest way to fix this, because that is the only way in reality in likely to be able to improve the situation. Or I could sack the builder, but I don't think that is really such a great idea... better the devil you know and all that.

With a 500l tank that would be a flow rate well above mine to deplete all the hot water in 20 mins. However, that's neither here nor there. Leaving the hot tap on full for 20 minutes is not a use case I've ever done, so even though my system could do it, it's not something its designed to do. Needing multiple 15 minute showers at 38°C is a use case used regularly, so the system is designed to cover that. And for times we have guests and there's a higher DHW demand the Hot Water is switched over to "Lux", so the tank is lifted to 55°C. I'm glad we've moved the needle, even if it is only a little. You were previously stating ASHP are for "niche" builds, and a dead technology.

You will need to think hard about separation distances and work the combinations especially the 3ph which will need a notification tape above it as should the gas.

Not correct .. 300 litres at 56°C gives you around 430 litres at 40°C so you’ve got 43 minutes of flow without any top up. If you’re in the situation you know you want more then simply you increase the heat capacity. Taking the temperature to 70°C and you have 560 litres at 40°C or 56 minutes of flow at 10lpm… All of this is predicated that you have purely stored water and not decided to recharge it - as soon as you hit the button to reheat then you extend this. The key fundamental difference is that the UVC can comfortably cover a pair of showers at that flow rate, a combi will struggle. So you have 5 people sequentially so can’t really have anything more than one concurrent shower whereas the designed solution here can do concurrent showers.

So with UFH, and the losses that you find in a decent tank, then there is the key option of using E7 and load shifting. For example I programme E7 DHW from 01:30 to 03:00 at 54°C from the ASHP then programme UFH from 03:00 to 07:30 as it is UFH running at 35°C into a 10 tonne concrete slab. That means all core heating is during off peak hours. Floors and towel rails in bathrooms and en-suites then come on at 07:00 to 08:30 which give low level boost heat in those areas. If required then the tank can be boosted to 70°C by the immersion from 05:30 to 07:00 which adds a fair additional volume of usable water to the tank.

I appreciate that @joe90, I really do, but I've not got the time or inclination (and probably not the skill set) to design it myself. I've done a lot of the heavy lifting on this SB, and will be doing plenty more, but getting a system designed is on the 'farm off to others' list and isn't coming off! What I'd really appreciate is any advice from anyone who has tried to contain, reduce, or direct the noise from an ASHP. I'm quite tightly packed in on my site, and the SB itself will be an L shaped one around a courtyard, so my instinct is that the citing of the ASHP is a crucial consideration, as s any noise limiting set up I can arrange.

If I could be a diva and make this all about me for a moment please... ? I started this thread as I was concerned about noise. Replies (for which thanks) have covered : 1. Whether an ASHP is right for my SB or not (at least one learned poster has suggested it won't work). 2, Whether they are any good at all. 3. How noisy they are. 1. I think an ASHP will work for me. I have full plans approval which includes a SAP calc based on 90mm PIR insulation between my RC slab and my 65mm UFH/screed, but I can alter that to 100mm insulation and 50mm liquid screed, plus I have ceramic tiles (a very good conductor), I will have significant south facing glazing, allowing heat to soak in the slab and walls in summer and release in winter (overheating to be avoided with a canopy), and I have good overall insulation standards, which matters as much as under floor insulation as far as I can tell. I will place my insulation inside the building, not under the slab. I appreciate the cold bridging effect this can create, but most UFH suppliers advise that my arrangement leads to more efficient performance. 2. The ranting video from SkillBuilder actually captures some good points (the 'rant' element is for humorous purposes largely) and is quite clear that whilst ASHP tech isn't always a great fit, it very often is perfectly good in well-insulated new builds with UFH, and especially where the overall system is designed holistically by an engineer. I do not have, nor do I intend to develop, the interest in and knowledge of the subject that some on here clearly have, and so for me the question is who do I engage to produce a holistically designed scheme, and can I implement bits of it myself to save a few quid. I'd guess the UFH is one, and then ask the installer to give it the once-over. What I've learned from some of the replies on here is that there are a number of small elements that can matter greatly, and which I will pay an installer to do. 3. The only thing I remain concerned about is noise. As some have said, the quietest ones still run at 45-50db, and the fact that the permitted development regs themselves include maximum noise levels speaks volumes. I have gone to new builds to listen to ASHPs and consider the noise noticeable. I will need to better understand this aspect. Does intermittent use vs steady constant use help? Is it as simple as to say that they are more active (and noisy) in winter when windows are closed, and generally sit silent in the heat of summer when windows are open? Can I fit any kind of noise-reducing housing around the pump?

I think that you are missing something quite fundamental, while those people are having showers the ASHP is working to top up the hot water in the cylinder, also the water in the tank is at 55 degrees, showers are at about 40 degrees, so its too simplistic to say it takes the full 100l from the cylinder. I have been asking the same type of questions of the supplier of the ASHP system i am looking to get, based on a 9Kw ASHP and 250l tank, it can heat the water in the tank from cold to 55 degrees in 30-40 minutes (depending on outside temp). However that scenario won't happen as in normal operation the water would not drop down below 20 degrees due to the insulated tank, and it would get up to 55 degrees in 10-15 minutes. This is how i understand it to work, in a morning scenario. ASHP switches on to heat the house as a priority. When the house is up to temperature and hot water in the buffer tank, the ASHP heats the main tank (already warm from day before, say 20 degrees). When the house and tanks are up to temperature, the ASHP only operates to top up the tanks when needed. Demand comes from showers and household activities Shower 1 - takes 70l of 55 degree hot water from the tank to be mixed with 30l of cold to take your big 100l shower over 10mins. The ASHP tops up the tank to replenish the heat lost, it may not make up all the heat but there will be some gaps in showers being on repeat

Err. You need to allow for the mixed in cold water to bring the temp down by 25% so probably closer to 6lpm of hot tank water. Also unlike a combi that needs to be kept running for the full shower to avoid cycles of scalding and freezing, a mixer shower can be stopped and restarted.

I spent a week with a relative recently who had a combi boiler for hot water. Hideous things. The hot water took ages to warm up for the first time, the temperature delivered to the tap varied with the flow rate. Turn the tap off for a few seconds and turn it back on, then the tap would run cold for a bit as the boiler took time to get going again. The only good point is it will never run out, but in all other respects I found it a really irritating hot water source. Previous experience with an oil fired combi was better but those work differently maintaining a small internal store (tank) of hot water to give a quick response to demand and even out the peaks and troughs of burner usage so delivered a much better user experience.

I thought natural gas had an extra scent added?

If it’s not made its way out there, they’ve been more than conservative with the glue for sure. It’s nigh on impossible NOT to get that displacement. If not evident, time to get proof.

Caravan fridges run off 240v, 12v or gas.

Yes. But if the changes are beyond the scope of an NMC/NMA, you'll need a full application. That's exactly what happened to us when we changed a couple windows.

Dave, you need to look in to how Hydrogen is going to be produced in sufficient volume to heat homes. That's after it has satisfied the need for long distance HGVs, Ships and planes for which there is not an electric alternative. In short, it's not going to happen. Hydrogen will be the niche when it comes to heating homes, where using electricity is just not possible. And for those houses that have to rely on Hydrogen the costs will unfortunately be higher than electricity. No need to come around, just work it out for yourself. In my case there's 500l of water at 50°C. Nobody needs endless/limitless hot water, they just require enough to suit their needs.

Have you read the previous threads here on this subject with actual cases of ASHP installations that work very well?.(mine being one of them). No doubt that Dave’s not one of those but I am sure cowboys will get any kind of installation wrong.

Not really, just makes a lot of ignorant statements about a subject he appears to know nothing about.

order now. roof tiles. bricks. order 3 months before you need it blocks insulation roof trusses windows eveything else leave to last minute sand

That is a bit pricy. Worth more than the house.

I hope it’s correct!! although having it in writing means I could rely on it if they were wrong. i read the judgement carefully just in case, and we are definitely not going to do anything towards building the house until the s73 application has gone through, and we’re in a position to apply for CIL exemption, even if the CIL is £0. Better safe than sorry!

What other 'services' are going into the trench? Will they be ducted? You may need to layer the other services to achieve any separations that may be needed. Heaping the top soil is a good idea you can use pea shingle in place of sand then I would put a layer of type 1 and compact it then the rubble rock then compacted type 1 again followed by top soil and final compact.

Do you hear the thermostat click as you rotate it from min to max?

Vapour membrane is vital for airtightness and to prevent condensation on your rafters causing the rafters to rot. PIR in the roof is a bad plan for loads of reasons. Torturous to install. Expensive. Bad decrement delay leading to overheating. Shrinkage of timbers and PIR causes drafts around the insulation making it underperform severely. I have attached probably one of the cheapest options. No PIR. Better still if you can replace the glasswool between reg joists with blown densepack cellulose. Supplier installed. Excellent for decrement delay, airtightness, toxicity, environmental credentials the list goes on.

Hi Tom A few thoughts.. If you can taste and see the physical rusting you need to get to the root cause of it..on the upside you can be "Columbo" or Miss Marple.. Your starting point is often to look at the obvious and rule things out. Here are few: 1/ Have you done anything in the house that may have impacted on the internal plumbing..is your boiler leaking system water into the potable water?.. do you have modern or old pipework? 2/ Is pipe from the head of the bore to the house ok, is it leaking and syphoning back say and drawing surface ground water in? 3/ Is the cover to the borehole sealed ok. 4/ Is the bore cased at the top and is the casing falling apart. 5/ Is the bore hole pump falling to bits. 6/ How deep is the bore hole. Very deep and it could be in the lower aquifer, shallow maybe in a perched water table..the two behave differently as they can draw the water from far away or close by respectively. Worth a bit of time researching this. 7/ Have a walk about.. in your garden first.. have you been using any fertilisers or chemicals? next.. what have your neighbours been up to? Have any local farmers etc been "improving the soil" or using the likes of iron suplhates? 8/ Has there been development going on round about you that could have altered the ground water regime. 9/ Any factories shutting down (mines used to be an issue but not many of them left) that have been pumping the ground water. When they stop the ground water rises and can flush stuff out to your bore hole. 10/ Has anything been poured down drains you own and other folks too. Drains / soakaways leak so consider this. I'll stop at ten things but if you can rule these out and think of a few more yourself then you could save yourself a bit of cash on professional fees. Just put together a small package of info you have and this will often serve you well. All the best and stick to the bottled water until you get to the bottom of it.

This was the advice I had in writing from my local planning authority - as long as our s73 application doesn't enlarge the building, then £0 CIL will apply (the planning permission we are seeking to amend was granted prior to CIL).

Sorry, I didn’t realise I hadn’t replied to you in my last post. Nothing is silly, I’m open to all solutions and I appreciate all the help. I haven’t had chance to do any cost comparisons between the methods mentioned above, will get it done one evening this week though and I will reply with my answers. I need to ring my roofing materials supplier tomorrow to find out exactly what membrane I have. I’ve also got to add a vapor barrier to the vaulted part of the ceiling, surely this a bit of overkill with the amount of insulation I’ll be using in the roof?

Welcome, there a right few NI self builders on here and one or two up your direction if I remember correctly

Hi there, whereabouts are you?

Good afternoon and welcome

Unless your tight for headroom, you can put celotex between joists and then 25 or 40mm celotex inside, over the joists, fixed with battens, then plasterboard is fixed to the batons. I had 150mm between joists, 40mm over the joists, 25mm batons and 15mm plasterboard to get to about 0.13 W/m2k I think.

He had actually already bought them when I raised it again this morning. Two flashing kits and two insulation collars for two of Velux’s largest windows. £240. I apologised and said I would pay him for it.

Interesting study, and I'll have a read through (only skimmed it for now), especially how the measurements correlate to the siting of the unit. One point to note is 4 out of the nine were as per the manufacturers published data. A flaw in the assessment of tonality is they have measured how tonal it is at one metre from the unit and assumed it will have the same tonality at a receptor some distance away. This does not happen in real life as the tonal elements reduce in level at a distance, and are more easily masked by the ambient noise level at the receptor. A key key point of how you assess acoustic characteristics of sound is what those charateriestics are at the receptor not the source (see BS4142:2014-A.1:2019). So that 45m distance stated is flawed.

In planning terms, Amenity land is an area of land that has a residential use, ie. can be used for the enjoyment of the attached dwelling, but can't be considered Residential Curtilage, so you can't have permanent domestic structures on it such as sheds, bike store, bin store, washing line etc. and doesn't count towards PD for outbuildings where you can cover 50% of the original curtilage. To the best of my knowledge it requires no boundary separating it from the residential curtilage , so does not require fencing off. I certainly know of a few that are just extensions to the garden. I see it often used in rural areas where the planners have allowed a change of use, but wish to keep the residential paraphernalia close to the building and not spread out into what was previously agricultural land. Start off small, and see if anyone complains.

+1 although I wouldn't spend a fortune. Basically its agricultural rather than residential land. So you can normally use it for growing things or keeping animals (unless other restrictions apply). You cant officially treat it as garden so you're not allowed to set up permanent swings and slides. Even jumps for a pony have caused problems elsewhere because jumping a pony is different to grazing one. What you can do is use it for almost anything you like for up to 28 days a year. So things like letting the scouts use it for a 1 week scout camp or even a motor bike scrambling session is normally ok (as long as you don't create a statutory noise nuisance). If you want to turn it into part of your garden officially you could apply for planning permission for "change of use". If you just "do it anyway" you might get away with it unless its very obvious from the road or someone complains. If you get away with it for 10 years the planners loose their ability to take enforcement action. So make dated records of when you started using it as a garden. Even if the planners get unhappy they almost never just hit you with formal enforcement action. There are no instant fines. They would first send you a letter warning you that unless you return it to its original state they "intend to take enforcement action". Don't panic. At that point you could either comply or apply for planning permission. The latter would delay any enforcement until the application is considered (perhaps a few months). If planning permission was refused you could appeal potentially delaying things for a year. In theory if you still refuse to remove the playground then the council could take it down and bill you for the work so don't let it get that far but you can still give them a good run. Deliberately hiding the equipment with say straw bales allows the planners more time to initiate enforcement action (law changed after someone hid an illegal castle that way!)

Looks never used

Chimneys were often parged with lime mortar to protect the brick work, improve draw and prevent leaks. Yours does look in good condition and remarkably clean.

Off the record and without liability I have been sealing up chimneys for years, never a problem on internal walls, no air vent, sometimes filled, often take a brick out in the loft. Insulate well, and up the chimney breast in the loft i think the need to ventilate them dates back to before central heating was the norm - how can a chimney structure inside a heated envelope be cold enough for condensation to form in it? caping the top needs to still allow air to circulate, they can stream with condensation if not and that can run down inside the flues

I building a temperature monitor and logger at the moment. From a hardware point of view I'm using DS18B20 (12 bit gives 0.0625°C), Raspberry Pi Zero with a 1-wire HAT.

Professional British Pride. Better than the US forces maps, they can take out the wrong embassy without any problems.

The Biodisc is upsold due to the extra revenue Kinspan/Klargester get from the repair of them - avoid like the plague *told this by an ex-Klargester rep

I don't have one but have seen a couple installed here. First off, I would not choose the boidisk system. That has mechanical moving parts down in the smelly stuff. Trust me, you don't want to be having to repair a mechanical breakdown on that. The Graff tanks, along with others such as BioPure, Conder and Vortex, all use an air blower to blow bubbles in the effluent to stir it around and treat it. The only mechanical part is the air blower, in the case of the Graff mounted remote from the tank. So i would say it is a good choice.

If you have a high water table you definitely want to concrete all or part as the manufacurer recommends. Otherwise you risk it floating out of the ground when you empty it.