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It's not telling you to conduct a soil investigation, it says in the event of "suspected" contamination, you need to adhere to the noted guidence. Of course, how you come to the decision that there is "suspected" contamination is not clearly defined, so unless you find lumps of asbestos, or the reek of pretroluem, I don't see why this would be an issue. Crack open a beer.

You have more issues there. Is there a door in that stud wall separating the shower? If so it is a separate room and needs a separate fan. If there is not a door, then you could just put a glass screen like any other shower in the corner of the room, BUT your issue there is a room containing a shower, all sockets, e.g. for the WM and boiler etc need to be 3 metres from the shower and I don't think the room is big enough.

when I joined a company they had boxes of obsolete marketing material that they said to just chuck. this included 5 boxes of 12 tape measures, so they all found there way to our bin (shed). by the time we gave them to family, friends, visitors, postman and anyone that would take one I can't find one anywhere 😞

Summer time is the best time for a quote

He did not get the tile spacing right, known as the gauging. He should have measured the length of the roof and worked out how many rows of tiles were needed and what gauging (spacing) was needed, and set the battens to that. Instead the second tile down is way too close to the top resulting on only a little bit of tile showing and the knock on effect is the bottom tile does not reach the gutter. Basic error but to correct it the whole lot has to come off, the battens positioned correctly and then the tiles put back. I am not seeing any lead around your half of the chimney like there was before and still is around next doors half of the chimney. That will surely leak. I hope you have not paid his full bill yet?

If your on a single zone at 200mm centres and 265m2, don't see why you need a buffer. Unless your running a massively oversized heat pump. Mine (6kW) will be installed with a single zone, but with 300mm centres on 192m2, with a second area of 16m2 on 115mm centres (summer house) - no need for a buffer. All will be run on WC.

The chimney if you look is two pieces one slides inside the other like a telescope. If they won't slide easily is there more paint / ither sealant got in the gap between the two parts? The bottom part needs to slide up, get a screwdriver, chissle etc under it to try and get it to slide. Only when you have lifted it a bit to clear the lip of the lower fixed part of the hood, can you spring the sides of the chimney apart and pull it forward to get it off. Watch out for sharp edges.

It’s saying crack on. If you find contamination then stop all work and points 1 and 2 apply. Beers all round. Congratulations!

4. 1 says it all, talk to your architect

Everything about that looks crap. Even the soffits look pissed.

ditto. They are under-resourced and overworked and much blamed, but real people trying to help. The ones that deal with drainage are not tree huggers but qualified and sensible.....that I have encountered anyway. I like that they always accept my proposals (not always the obvious) , so they are by definition very astute and sensible.

I found the EA very helpful when applying fir my discharge from our STP.

Difficult to lay a slab with sloping sides 🤷‍♂️ Correct, plastic 25mm between slab and “logs” Just replacing the treated timber sole plate (25mm x 50mm) with plastic, mastic underneath to stop water ingress (DPC), mastic on top to stop water ingress in join from plastic to timber.

You could have a single inline fan with 2 ducts into it. I can't see it is worth the hassle though when a fan is £30. What you show here looks sensible and will vent the shower which is important. Does a utility room need its own extract? I have not checked the rules. There is no source of steam unless a tumble drier doesn't vent outside. A big enough fan in the shower area might suffice.

Ask him WHY you need 2? Is it because the extract rates for a utility room is higher than a bathroom, and he thinks your fan is not powerful enough? So he has suggested 2 fans rather than change the one fan for a bigger one, often a 6" fan rather than 4" for a utility room. If you do go for 2, fit them in parallel after the (waste of space) isolator switch.

I'll DM you...

This is a really good point. It seems to me that timber treatment is much more superficial than it used to be, with very little reacing the insides. Even fully treated timber does rot though. I have experidnce of 4 timber buildimgs with 4 solutions. 1. My garden shed sits on timber bearers on concrete and is ok after 15 years. Crucial is that the shed overhangs so most water tuns away. 2. Current conversion. The timber bearers are on dpc on blockwork, and the cladding sheds rain to ground. 3. A 3 storey building. The timber frame company did not accept brick but required a concrete upstand. We used concrete lintels, which apparently was a first, but they were happy. But then had brick skin. 4. Ditto but a concrete slab up to dpc level. Sole plates straight onto it, brick outside again. Only no 1. Really applies to this garage which is really a shed. The wall slats appear to sit on the base, and be susceptible to wetting. Therefore i think a raised edge in masonry or concrete is called for. That will leave a gap under the doors, but a concrete hump would be a good thing anyway to keep water out. My other concern is that t snd g doesn't stack well. The slightest twist in one plank leaves gaps everywhere else.

I'm going to be that person that skim-reads a thread and then makes an tangential suggestion: have you considered an ultra-short-throw projector? I used one at work, and borrowed it to try out for our home cinema setup. It wasn't massively loud, and as it was near the front speakers it was easier to ignore than the traditional projector that we currently have mounted on a shelf above and just behind the sofa.

I'm going to be looking at going onto this. Smart meters being replaced Thursday as they stopped working last July, should be ordering the parts for my second 14.5kWh battery tonight, so will have plenty of capacity to dump in the peak periods.

I used plastic wood between the bottom of the shed and the concrete slab. It's a metal shed though and I thought it might be easier to seal to the concrete than the metal. https://www.kedel.co.uk/recycled-plastic-wood/recycled-plastic-wood-synthetic-wood-100-x-20mm.html

When I retired I had 10 tape measures, I hated not finding one and still have about 6 😎

And pencils.

I've occasionally come across similar shortened baths with built-in seats in France. They're never deep enough to use the seat, and the seat gets in the way to use it as a bath - so they only work as weird looking shower trays. OK for kids, I guess, but otherwise I'd avoid except for the deep luxury versions.

I do that, also with stanly knives

Two ways to control 1 attach a thermostat to buffer, run it hotter than you run ch use the thermostat to call for heat from ASHP. Disadvantages, lower CoP from heat pump, cannot run WC. 2 allow buffer to float on ASHP flow temp. Can use WC keep flow temp low. Use room thermostat to call for heat. If you haven't plumbed it in yet, consider piping into the return line only, not across the flow and return this ensures no mixing of supply and return flows to minimise flow temp. It's also heated to the lowest temperature so least standing losses.

Great point, our stables that we inherited are built soleplate onto concrete base, albeit, they are probably subjected to a bit more moisture. The soleplates do rot out in time. You can remove cladding etc and knock them out and replace, but it's time and hassle, when really a slight design tweak at the beginning that doesn't cost an awful lot extra can easily mitigate against.

I also wouldn't worry about it. In fact I'm against it. Putting in impermeable membranes "just because" is a bad plan. When building my garage, TF on blockwork, I put one DPC under one sole plate. It was saturated as the moisture was trapped in the gap between the timber and the DPC. Mostly from rain during construction mind you .On the rest I didn't bother and they got wet but dried super fast in comparison. You're not trapping water in there permanently. I didn't bother either for the few stud walls in the house we have and absolutely nothing went wrong. Timber never got wet.

ICF for the basement wall would work nicely. If you add extra insulation to the outside of the sips a standard masonry foundation would work too.

We have MBC on site at the moment and they have put DPC under all stud walls even though there is a DPM under the concrete in the insulated raft 🙂

They are certainly well made and I absolutely love the way they operate. Great product overall and I'd not seek to discourage anyone from using them. My question was simply curiosity on how others have found them on the condensation issue, which generally looks to be positive.

Some GRP ones here: https://www.essentialbathing.co.uk/deep-soaking-baths/ I'm sure there are more affordable ones around. Also: https://www.omnitub.co.uk

I have four sets of the Raynaers CP130, the largest being 10m (4 x 2.5) and have to say I've been pleased with them (been in 6 years now). I actually liked the look of the chunkier frames and (touches wood), have had no issues with condensation. Personally I think Raynaers have a good price performance ratio so will be one on my list for the next build.

@Shaun McD, As @jack says at 20,000 ft, our warm slabs used a broadly similar approach albeit with some difference because specs and BRed variations, e.g. MBC wacks down the subbase in 5cm layers to guarantee compaction; EPS thickness is typically 30cm; the upstand section are factory pre-cut; the rebar is typically a lot heavier for 2 and 3-storey houses; and most UK BCOs would be unhappy about burying 25mm MDPE in the slab, even if rebated into the EPC. Here is our slab being poured, but we have a 2½ storey Larsen-strut TF proving the structure (hence the heavy load-bearing ring foundation) with a stone cladding for weather-proofing and looks. and as finished: One of the other posters was questioning about pipe pressures, etc., so a couple of useful references from one of blog posts on plumbing design: ... such reference works as this excellent intro into pipework calculations: John Heartfield, Water Flowing in Pipes I – The Theory and useful sites like the Pipe Pressure Drop Online Calculator. The first is worth a scan if you want to get a handle on some of the sizing issues.

Ecowin suppy zylefenster doors with u values < 1.0. Nordan probably do them as well.

Plumber has wired the UFH boiler signal into the boiler direct, not to the wiring centre as a good guess. That means the boiler fires but the pump is pushing against the 3 way and it’s not fully open - when the central heating controller kicks in then it opens the 3 way valve and then the boiler fires from the mid position signal, and everything gets toasty. Without seeing it I’m guessing but it supports why the system doesn’t get warm

Mine (MHI) units turn the internal fan off and close the flap almost fully during a defrost cycle. +1 for weird noises during the defrost, not overly noisy, sounds a bit like a kettle boiling sometimes!

Plenty of lubricant to keep the drill tip cool

Look at annular cutters - the go to brand is Rotabroach. I would rent a mag drill if you’ve got more than a couple to do. You need a slow speed, cutting fluid, to clear the chips out regularly (e.g. with compressed air) and to control the drill pressure. The forces are high so be careful as others have said.

I use HMT drill bits on steel. Cheaper than a mag drill but more than regular hss bits. I paid about £40 for a bit years ago and it still ploughs through steel beams without much effort. Use a good drill or they even do impact bits. Watch any of their videos to see them in action. I would definitely recommend these. https://holemaker-technology.com/collections/metal-drill-bits

if they are structural you will probably have to "sister" new studs alongside them and bolt through but would need the input from a structural engineer, if not structural then just cut the bottom off and scarf new bits on if you cut the angle shallow enough and use plenty of glue and screws they will be plenty solid enough for a partition wall

I think the drainage is the least of your worries. Those slabs run right up to the house and almost at or maybe above DPC. I cannot see any tell-tale signs to suggest it is above these slabs. Anyway, looks like he is using excuses for lazyness/poor work. If I had been doing that I would have been lower for starters and I would have sloped the whole lot away from the house and hard up against the drain channel. He has screwed up the levels and now uses lame excuses to try and conceal his failings.

There are a few issues here, some of which you identify, and one possible issue that @markc noticed I think (collectively) we're saying .Don't worry about the drain: it will work even if its perfectly level You'd have liked a 5mm gap (not 30mm) between the paving and the drain: sorting that issue out would be costly The paving stones appear to butt up against the house: that could lead to damp inside the house because of rain splashing on the paving. Its widely regarded as good practice to have a 'splash strip between house and paving. The last issue above is the most important by far. Looking (squinting) at your photo, it seems the floor level (Final Floor Level , FFL) isn't that much higher than the patio. I may be wrong. Ask the builder where the Damp Proof Membrane is (DPM) It should be 100 mm or so above the pebble splash strip. My instinct would be to ignore the 30mm gap between flags and drain (because it will cost a good deal to rectify) get a 120mm wide splash strip inserted between patio and house. Cost of that : 1 days labour, and some bags of 10mm shingle - say £200. Better that than the the alternative.

All the ducts need to be subterranean, and brought up through the slab. I hope you've allowed for at least 150mm of insulation? 200mm is optimum. Do not run these through such a thin screed, as you'll end up with hot spots and very little residual cover over them ( by the time you fit at least 9mm of Armaflex over them. They'll get significantly warmer when servicing DHW don't forget! Install some pre-insulated pipe for the ASHP, such as... https://pipetek.co.uk/products/32mm-microflex-duo-heating-pipe-kit?variant=29979663466614 ...which is what I use on almost every ASHP installation we do. You can install this yourself prior to contractors coming in, so you can save some labour here, plus it will be a better job. Bury this at least 400mm deep in the ground if possible. Run 2x 50mm ducts alongside it for 230v power and low voltage signal cables.

if the stud is already in I wouldn't worry about it.

My experience of various people that have ever done any of this kind of work for me tells me this guy has no idea what he's doing. If you've paid him nowt to date, then you are set to bin him and find an alternative. I would categorically not listen to anything he has to offer by way of excuses. Those who know how it's done know how to avoid these problems. Be firm, and good luck in sorting it.

That long? In mathematics there is a whole field called Set Theory. You seem to be after the set that includes buildings, wood, foundations, unpleasant weather, value for money, warm. I am sure a Venn Diagram can be drawn up.

So there will be massive overpayment then. Please keep this news from @nod, he'll blow a gasket.

Surely the plans don't state you need to keep "that" wall, just a wall in that position? Don't see why they would be precious about a block wall! I could understand if it was a 300 year old stone wall. Take the concrete out and give the wall a nudge, put it down to a site incident, excavator bucket crash or something, dig out and rebuild.