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We had some friends round the other day - one is a lawyer and one is a planning officer! The lawyer recommended that before I put in a complaint I request some of our planning file under the Environmental Information (S) Regs 2004. This is somewhat like a FOI request and forces them to give me the planning files to see what they have been up to particularly as regards whether or not they ever actually consulted Scottish Water.

That listed building looks fragile and a money pit to try and build literally underneath it. I would be keeping it as a folly, and building the new house close to it but not right under it.

What a fantastic site. Anyway enough of the construction on a build forum - what cars have you got that need such elaborate garaging? ?

Those pin holes are a very strange thing indeed. Re the distributor and RK39, I'd have one question to ask and that is how much experience the distributor has specifically working with wood fibre. RK39 is designed for thicker application on masonry substrates and wood fibre behaves very differently, so it's not just about the waterproofing aspect. Is it designed to bond with the wood and does it have modifiers to make it lighter, for example (RK39 at recommended thickness is nearly double the weight of thin coat)? Baumit StarContact is the adhesive/basecoat used in Baumit's ewi systems. If the distributor the plasterer has spoken to can reference lots of work with wood fibre, I mean years of experience and can show this render works over the long term, then fine. Otherwise treat the opinion with great care. The reason I'm saying this is that I've spent over 3 years talking to people and researching woodfibre ewi and found out that there are a lot of people (including reputable suppliers) in the UK that pretend to know what they're talking about regarding suitable render on wood fibre - there's also a hell of a lot of random detailing approaches which are insufficient. In this time I've been recommended everything from lime putty to hydraulic lime to other weird and wonderful solutions, even using hemp fibre in the basecoat instead of mesh. There is, unfortunately, a lot of bs out there that stems from a lack of experience and knowledge about the product. It even goes down to the basics that suppliers and installers often don't even know they've got to measure the moisture content of the wood prior to render application. In the end, thanks to a Baumit distributor putting me in touch with them, I ended up speaking to someone who has years of experience working with the material on the European continent and they understood the product much better. Lime Green is one company who also have a good understanding and their hydraulic lime render for wood fibre has been modified to work with wood fibre. Sorry to bang on in what might seem a negative way, but I remain dubious about the opinion RK39 should be fine. As a side note, the guy I spoke to with loads of experience in the field suggested I add a cavity and install render board outside the wood fibre explaining that this is a safer approach in this country. If I'd known that when I was building my structure, I would have modified my designs accordingly. Unfortunately, like you I seem to be stuck with the direct render and will have to see if it lasts.

No - your neighbor is a nutter! There are no structural implications of flaked bricks from a screw. Better to drill and plug in future though.

Don’t be bloody ridiculous

Remember to drop the pressure when the screed is in, the heat from the curing process increases the pressure. Mine hit 12 bar before I spotted it. ??‍♂️?

You will need to talk to the supplier. Some recommend using dittra mat. Guide here on what trowel to use to end up with good % coverage and required thickness. Eg 6mm x 6mm square notch or 10mm U notch should end up with a 3mm bed when properly compressed. They say the U notch is easier to compress.. https://www.rubi.com/en/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-tile-trowel-size-step-by-step/ PS I'm not contradicting @nod. Thicker adhesive is normally used on floors.

correct ?

Feels like it sometimes ? Pressure still holding after 1 hour. Cold beer opened. It's been a long week (>80 hours) PS: don't ask why that loop looks so drunk. I had to cram in an extra pass at the edge of the room.

Sorry if I didn't write that well. I meant that I could do fewer loops but keep them about 100m or a bit less. So 6 loops of 80 to 100m could become 5 loops of around 100m. We'd be losing the runs from the living space through to the plant room - so 6x2x say 6m is about 70 odd metres less. Hope I've explained that better this time. Simon

Just reporting back to this. I set it up. Using a rad without a trv and all up and running. Got it increasing heat slowly. Thank you for all your help, hopefully no issues.

Are these good? Looks like I'd need two lots of 2pc to have the four required: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07RVJ1LF3 They don't make videos like this anymore:

This may help explain the problem: https://www.heatgeek.com/low-loss-headers/

Hello All Thank you for taking your time to look at this. I have attached as much as I think I can. I don't have any clue on how PD rights could be used and how. Maybe the info attached today could help advise on this. Before I submitted the 1st plans we had a chat with my neighbor (and emailed the original plans to him before submitting) who said he would like us to be as far as possible from his house and ideally in line with the original house so the extensions goes back but not to the west towards the boundary. As we wanted to extend towards the west we decided that I submit the plans and proceed as needed and he would comment on the application. I think this was a fair way to deal with it and I want to be clear we are not as war or anything. I guess he wants to protect what he can and I want to extend to what I have planned and create my dream home. He has made a comment on the first application to say the extension to the west would be too dominant and overbearing. Then on the second application he commented and referred to the 1st refusal notice where reason 2 of the refusal notice was the building would have a overbearing impact on the neighboring amenities. Current boundary between the 2 houses is a standard fence panels that is around 6ft high. One point to note is the road is on a slope so his property is built over a 30cm higher than ours so he has high ground compared to us. There is on one of the images attached the orientation of the plot so you can see the rear is south facing. Also something to note is my next door neighbor on the other side has just had planning accepted last year to demolish his house and build a brand new building there. I don't know if this has any impact on the other side. We are extending around 7M back at a height of around 5.2M. The extension overall would more than double the size of the existing house. Our house currently is by far the smallest house on the street. Again thanks for all your advice on this.

Neighbour may have been promised some cash back should anyone else ask for connection

As above, fat bloke knows what he’s talking about.

Ok, firstly if it’s a liquid screed, both ends of any sleeve would need to be sealed to stop them simply filling up entirely. Your pics show open ended sleeves, both ends, so these will fill with screed and do the square root of FA. If you have rooms very far from the manifold, it helps to insulate the flow pipe so as to preserve the premium temp water so it arrives at the zone it serves at as close to the TMV ‘injection temperature’ as possible. I see a lot of poor performing installs where the furthest zones really drag behind the others, some don’t get up to temp at all as all the heat has ‘gone’ by the time it arrives at its target area. I always shutter around the UFH pipes where they congregate at the manifold location, which allows for the pipes to be dressed in and bent / straightened to line up with the manifold nicely. Where necessary I also insulate the first 1-2m or more of each flow pipes that is serving a zone that is not local to the manifold. House / installation size / slab vs screed etc are all factors I consider when determining whether this is required tbh. 9mm wall insulation is sufficient, but again needs to be sealed and ‘waterproof’ so the liquid screed doesn’t get inside. As far as just using a sleeve, it is a good idea in terms of protecting the pipe where it may be damaged where it’s above floor level, but your proposals for expansion via use of bits of sleeve ‘here and there’ is of zero practical use afaic. Take the advice of the guys laying the screed, as this advice differs with different types / thickness / etc and each job needs to be advised on its own merits.

I bought a roll of code 4, 2 years ago, told to go and just take it from the pallet, oh how I laughed when I thought they had stuck it down, they hadn’t, it was just a lot heavier than I thought it was going to be, if my memory is correct I think it was 40kg.

Yes, I remember that grand designs build, A right nightmare IMO it would have been better to take the old building down, build under it then carefully re construct it on top, LOADS cheaper. (Yes what cars do you have????) it it grade 1 or 2 listed.

For what it's worth I have had no sound issues so far.

There may be a slight difference, but hardly noticeable, as long as you are not reducing the overall area of the intake and outlet from the radiator. Imagine it is like leaving a door open a bit, or a lot. Don't overthink it.

Depends on what you use, When I briefly thought about a cover fir mine, I planned slightly down sloped louvres (30’ to keep the weather out) but big gaps. Nothing at the back (all noise comes out the front due to the fan pushing the air out the front). If the air is not very restricted I guess the airflow (this efficiency) would be ok.?

@Bobby Dazzler, have you dug that hole yet?, can’t move on till you do! If you’re bothered about grief then pay some thick skinned (large) guys to do it for you (but warn them about stroppy neighbours). Ffs it’s your land ??.

You'd probably want warm roof if going down this route. Which is not something to change on the hip it will have knock on effects with detailing and sizes

Here are a few pics of the listed Doo’cot (pigeon house) and muddy field. Hoping to have some aerial pics, and full survey data in the coming weeks.

No problem, I didn't think that. The discussion has grown into the larger one it now is, and I was reacting to the subject, not you.

When it comes to removing the header entirely. You say: "The Ecodan documentation says that the flow rate for the heating primary for a 14kw Ecodan is between 17.9 and 40.1 L/min" Can you provide the manual? I suspect this means that if you want a space heating system to work with an ecodan without the header then the flowrate needs to be between 18 and 40 litres per minute at ALL times that the heating is on. Your smallest zone needs to be 18 litres/min (1.08 M3/HR) and your system still needs to function (remain adequately balanced at 40 litres/min (2.4 M3/HR) with all zones open. And the pump(s) need to provide enough pressure head to drive this flowrate thorough not just the heat pump but also the pipework and emitters. Your non short cycling problem (with both zones on) is a secondary flowrate exceeding the primary flowrate. Your header is being "circulated" by the radiator circuit. It draws hot water from the heat pump from the top AND because the flowrate for the secondary exceeds the primary it is also drawing return water from the radiator circuit up through the header. No amount of baffling etc will correct this. You need to reduce the flowrate on the secondary circuit to be equal to or less than the flow from the ecodan. That's easier. Limit flowrate through the radiators and you're done. No getting wet. I would set UFH to 18l/min, DHW to 18 l/min, and radiators to 22l/mum (max, with all TRVs full open) Now you can run: - DHW only - UFH only - UFH and DHW - UFH and any amount of radiator up to 100% open Whilst remaining within the (rather limited) operating range of this heat pump. (with poor installation instructions and a worse dealer/installer network) No to a low loss header. Yes to 2-pipe buffer direct on heat pump output to increase system volume. (a 100-200L unvented cylinder with the heat pump feeding the cold water inlet and the hot water outlet feeding the heating will do)

My builder plastered up to the wooden frames, I told him to use a stop bead so I could caulk that (and stay flexible) but he convinced me it was not necessary. Well I was right, wooden windows shrank a little and the air test showed some leaks. My builder was very good but on this subject I was right. The cracking also pulled the edge of the plasterboard apart a little, even Jeremy Harris suffered the same.

Low loss headers shouldn't be used with heat pumps. 4-pipe buffer vessels also shouldn't be used with heat pumps. They destroy efficiency in operation. (and on condensing boilers for that matter) You want: heat pump > 2-pipe buffer > emitter (UFH / radiators) > heat pump. If the emitters have a large enough output or thermal mass you can lose the 2-pipe buffer. A quick and dirty bodge world be to introduce a 2-pipe buffer on they output of the heat pump before it goes to your low loss header/4-pipe buffer. This will give enough (effective) system volume to avoid cycling. The short cycle issue you have is that your (effective) system volume is just the heat pump and pipework up to the low loss header. The thermal mass in the UFH / radiators has been decoupled by the header and your data / observations show this nicely! Awful system design from an OEM that ought to know better...but wanted to avoid getting sucked into explaining flowrates and design on the 'emitter' side by decoupling using the low loss header. Bash in a 2-pipe buffer between ashp and header on the flow to add in some thermal mass quickly. Work out how to design UFH and radiators that can deal with the full flowrate the heat pump requires later. Crummy units throw a hissy fit at anything other than constant flow. That might be why the header is there...

Good morning and welcome, I like your way of thinking. My girlfriend says I keep ignoring possible plots because I want to build a garage with a house attached.

+1 to this. Recognise the risk you are taking on. If you are installing, then you are likely receiving a kerb side delivery, so responsible for handing and any damage from that point on. I had around 96m² of glazing and doors Installed for about £8K iirc, with 16 man days for the install, delivery costs, consumables, hiring lift equipment, contingency to cover corrections and repairs - it's a premium, but removes the majority of risk and arguments about where damage was caused.

You can fit 2x 25L tanks also. Having one rad on bypass ( no TRV and open lock shield ) will give about 5-7L of additional system volume, and you may get away with that. Hopefully that would be the absolute worst case and if you’re using heating, hopefully a couple of other rads would be at least allowing a trickle through partially closed TRV’s elsewhere on the system. Go for it, but try to keep an eye on the boiler cycling to see how it performs.

Even IF they were "practically redundant" they are an essential safety feature to protect the floor from overheating IF the ASHP malfunctioned and was delivering water too hot. Do these installers also tell you the over pressure and over temperature blow off valves on an UVC are "practically redundant" so can be omitted?

My basin and semi sunken bath go into the same 50mm waste. Anti siphon trap on the basin. Connection to the bath via a 40mm flexible.

Give it a year or so and the building will be down on its own accord anyway, ? This looks like a fantastic project.

Yes bloody auto correct

of no direct use to you but we had a similar asshole as a neighbour. We had a small paddock (remote to house) and the neighbour continually caused us hassle, he stored all sorts of machinery on his and was forever smashing fences, tearing up the road etc. In the end i sold it to gypsies who moved in with 3 vans. Sometimes you have to talk to these people in the only manner they understand.

Don't worry, someone will introduce you to a gun that shoots bullets round corners.

Well qualified Fensa registered professional installers are of the opposite opinion, even use of expanding foam was breach of their high standards in my case: IMG_8212.MOV

They're a law unto themselves. My over 70 father approached the planners asking about replacing the bungalow he grew up in now that my grandmother has died. She had expressed her hope that he would. They said they would expect 3 or 4 houses to go in a plot of that size (3/4 acre in middle of village). Consequently it has been more of a fight than he's been subconsciously prepared to take on and now 5 years later he said to me, after reflection during Covid, that he realises he'll never get to live there. Sad, he could have been living there by now, but he doesn't handle stress. He has dutifully mowed the lawn regularly for all this time.