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I hope this is ok to promote here if not please delete. I have set up a Facebook Group "ISOTEX users UK" for those who plan on taking up the offer from Italy and continue with their Isotex builds. The idea is to share knowledge and experience and buy / Sell spare blocks, I can hopefully get some members who have finished their builds or have more experience. We could just try and coordinate on this forum but I felt i'd get more reach on Facebook. I would also promote this forum on the FB group as the members here have been so helpful.

My learnings so far - perhaps obvious/perhaps not? Sizing If you know a room's BTU requirement you can convert that to kW and get an idea of the A2A heat input required. Google will convert - or there will be a constant, google again, to get an idea. For mine there were limited options anyway, 1.8, 2.5, 3.5 - small, decent, huge room basically. Note - as above the kW on the units are specified as cooling - but google for <unit name>.pdf install or combination and you can find the combination tables which give info on heat vs. cool inputs etc. (I did for Mitsubishi Electric anyway) Replacing central heating You don't need an internal unit in every room or where you currently have a radiator - A2A blows warm air through the house, especially useful if you have corridor or open plan layouts. The floor based units seem noisier / blowier (but still quiet TBH) than the wall ones - may be because the wall ones are further away though? You can have more -or- less kW capacity on external vs internal multisplit - but there are limits / rules etc. You can't really put an A2A inside unit in a bathroom - so need IR panels or electric immersion radiators etc with their own control system. Control is by default - not good - expect to pay extra or add on Control on A2A is generally bad - its, by default, based on IR remotes for each inside unit - a far cry from a zoned timer system and you risk a proliferation of clocks through the house or dependency on apps and all the layers of software and network that need to work to keep them happy. 100% Research the wired options for control - especially if you can pickup and self install those parts after the difficult A2A install itself. Location The installers like to put the units on outside walls (generalism) - but can be persuaded otherwise just needs a little planning and legwork to keep their lives inside their comfort zone while also getting what you need. Google searches that I found useful: BTU to kW <model> install pdf <model> user pdf <make or make multisplit> combination pdf Sometimes it picks up australian documentation or European - if so can be a guide if not completely accurate - depends who left documents publically available

Marazzi do a 6mm thick large format porcelain tile in this style. It’s called Grande marble look, I think, and the particular black marble with the amber/rusty veining is called Saint Laurent: https://www.marazzitile.co.uk/collections/grande_marble_look/ I bought these tiles in the giant size. They were 1600 by 3200 in size. People on here said we couldn’t achieve what we wanted to with these tiles. But we did! I need to update that thread.

I am in the state at the moment of wondering why...... I never realised it was going to be so complicated to get all the paperwork sorted just to lay some blocks with holes in for windows and doors and a roof on top and preferably some heat, cooking and washing facilities, but I would even have considered giving up on those at some point. Due to the complete lack of time we decided that the builder (HID) would take voluntary redundancy and early retirement and then build the house himself. Trying to do this evenings and weekends was just impossible with us both working full-time with an hours commute each way, no home working for us. So, in a few short weeks I'll be the bread-winner thanks to a new job (home working) with more money and HID cashing in a pension policy and HID can build full-time. Or, so we thought. We have planning We have SE drawings We have BC drawings - or so I thought. I contacted our appointed BC (private) and he said great, but can I have .......... This is before we can dig any trenches even. I know that we need to make the decisions on windows, doors, roof, floors, insulation, fire control and engine turning circles and access, water, power as well as many other things. But, I didn't realise that some of this is needed before doing anything. We do have the foundations specified and have sourced blocks, concrete etc for that. So, it's back to the architect to find out about the rest of the BC drawings, apparently what he sent was the overall plan, not the details and to get those we need to go back to the SE with some questions. It seems that there are lots of books out there for self building, but none of them cover all the preliminaries that are required and we just didn't know. The site is prepped, we have got quotes from builders merchants about blocks, concrete suppliers about concrete and pumps, looked at U values. Also, ASHP, MVHR, UFH, and countless other acronyms, but not signed anything. As a barn conversion we have to use as many existing walls as possible, but we do have 1 1/2 sides that never had a wall. I stupidly thought, well we can build those up and then continue on the existing ones that need underpinning, seems that's not how it's done, why not. So, it's back to the drawing board, literally, so work out what I don't know that I need and get it somehow. It's also frustrating that all these professionals have the luxury of working Monday to Friday so when I'm free they are not and when they are free I'm working. Good luck to all you self-builders how there and hope you have more luck than us.

I fitted a 3.5kW unit, it will modulate down to 400W power draw before cycling (not specified on data sheet) and would be cycling an awful lot in a 12m room as that's still about 1600W heat output. One thing to remember is that the CoP will drop at the lowest temps so it will be sized for that. Often this is not specified in any detail on the datasheet either. Even still, that sounds overspecced. Ask to see their calculations and compare them to your own assumptions.

The Hive will go straight onto the black wall plate you've shown in one of your photos. You then need to either bridge the existing thermostat behind the stat - use a simple wago connector - or rewire elsewhere if preferred. However, if you're experiencing strange behaviour it's worth getting someone in to test the system as there can sometimes be other issues causing the boiler to turn on or off when it shouldn't - for example, a faulty motorised valve can sometimes cause a permanent live to the boiler. Process is install the hub > Install the receiver > Add the Thermostat > Complete online setup through the app. Hive customer support is very good and responsive to setup queries - they have a phone number and answer it too! HTH.

Thanks all for your input, I think we’re going to go for full planning application that includes the stables sooner rather than later. Then make some decisions based on the appetite of the LPA so we don’t run short on time for the class q if it’s rejected 👍

A2A is often sized, in a commercial context, for cooling which is more challenging than heating. That may be part of the explanation. Having said that it does sound a bit excessive. If they modulate down efficiently then efficiency might not suffer, no idea how A2A performs in this respect.

I’m 💪💪💪💪💪💪 - so no (expletive deleted)ing bother

I think there is zero possibility of that. Whatever comes next will be worse from a use perspective. Sadly, to compound that, governments are, effectively mandating solutions, rather than specifying desired outcomes. So we cut of multiple possible forms of development and progress. Because government have a great track record at identifying winners! Restricted travel for the masses is coming.

If there are contraction joints in the floor then mirror them. Otherwise, why would you expect the floor to move?

We have 1200 x 1200 x 7mm - two people required to lay them. We laid ours on Ditra. Normal suction lifters may not work if tiles have a texture. Expansion joints in every doorway and across a large opening due to the size of the area. Definitely use a levelling system. We also used the tiles as skirting.

To be cautious, I would also go with the piles assuming that the 2.6m wasn't just a single lump of something / wait for Tanners to catch up (bug them a bit) / do my planning re-application in the meantime. The latter should just be a case of filing the same docs with a prominent one page note explaining the history. You should be able to download and check the old docs and file them again yourself in an hour or so. Check with your planning officer that nothing has changed and ask nicely for the LPA to process the re-application quickly? Probably other things for you to be getting on with anyway - services?

I don't know the detail of course, but I think the design is cautious. 100kN/m2 is perfectly normal and takes standard footings. 70kN/m2 is not great but should be ok. Making footings wider spreads the load and is preferable to taking the whole area out. So I would be proposing standard trench footings at 1.3m. 70kN/m2 is also fine for a floor slab...nobody will fall through, otherwise it wouldn't be safe to walk in the garden. Therefore the ground between footings can stay in place. Yes have a chat with the BCO. What would be necessary is close inspection of the excavation as it proceeds, perhaps tending higher or lower as the ground is exposed. Perhaps the SE is avoiding the uncertainty, which some clients would prefer.

never bother grouting. cant see point of it.

Reading about this one thing has struck me. The difference between housing and transport. I am sitting comfortably in my well insulated low energy house, enjoying the same standard of living I had in any other house, arguably a better standard of living, but at very much reduced energy usage so much better for the planet. so in other words moving from an older inefficient house to a new well built one, is good for the environment AND the occupier. but when it comes to transport, I cannot yet see the solution that still gives me all I had before while saving the planet. That is the gap that has to be filled, so transport can go green in the same way housing can, without reducing our expectations of what it delivers.

The thing that stands out to me is the 'refusal at 2.6m' - which suggests something hard and amply load bearing (and therefore helpful). You're using Tanners (as lots of people on BH do and given that they're based in Ireland)?

Some data on the install now that I have 32 days worth, for those interested: Modelled heat demand for that period was 1518kWh. This probably has a 10% error margin as it's just a multivariate regression of heating data before the ASHP went in Actual gas usage in that period minus estimated hot water usage was 475kWh. If anything the hot water estimate is likely to be pessimistic ASHP usage in that period was 200kWh So on average every 1kWh the ASHP used offset between 4.5 and 5.2kWh of gas 65-70% reduction in gas heating usage from the install of a single minisplit unit Assuming 90% boiler efficiency that gives a CoP estimate of 4.1-4.7, which compares well to the data sheet SCoP of 4.2 Minimum daily CoP estimate of 3.1, maximum of 6.1. There's been a good range of temperatures over this period to see behaviour over a real heating season, though obviously performance will be lower in winter months: Daily mean: 7.0°C Max: 10.9°C Min: 1.2°C. Lowest reading -4°C That's probably all the data I'll get for this heating season as we're getting into large solar gains from the conservatory which invalidates the heating model. Since moving to Octopus Flux everything the heat pump has used has effectively come from PV due to the import/export symmetry. So we've had ~1MWh of free heating from the solar panels, which sort of blows my mind. That's effectively paid back ~18% of the installed ASHP cost in one month. I couldn't be happier with the results of this little experiment, they've lined up perfectly with expectations. For balance, a few downsides of going with a cheap unit: The indoor unit housing is cheap and plasticy, but not offensively so Horizontal fan sweeping is manual only and no fancy occupier avoidance features like on the pricer brands Only the low fan speed is very quiet and the auto mode tends to have weird peaks of high fan speed when starting up etc. The outdoor unit has a slight vibration resonance in the housing, I have it well out the way so not an issue but I may add some damping pads at some point to eliminate it The Tuya wifi integration is a great little bonus and I have a control system written with the Python bindings for much finer control on scheduling which makes best use of the Flux tariff.

Been laying 600 x 900 20mm porcelain for the patio and paths , wouldn't want to lay anything larger on my own. Not to bad carrying to where your working but once down flat lifting to manoeuvre very difficult due to the weight.

Has weight per square meter.. https://regaltiling.nz/tile-selection/tile-weights/

We did our precast slab grouting whenever there was a bit of cement or fine concrete going to waste. Took a few goes but by the end it was done and didn't cost me a penny.

Sharp sand makes the job hard work. Building sand:cement 3:1 with plasticiser and sloppy. It wont take that much. It is easier when the blocks are wet.

I don't have one because a) I can't find one that will tow nearly 2 ton of trailer 200 miles on one charge, and b) even if I could find one, I would not be able to afford it. It would be good if they came clean and just told us our motoring expectations have to diminish and our motoring costs are going to drastically increase. i.e many will be priced out of car ownership.

My carefully timed schedule of activities is slowly unraveling! Garage was due to be erected this week. I checked last week and they confirmed it. Unbeknownst to me it’s a separate company that does the install so while the supplier said we were still good to go they hadn’t confirmed it with the installer. No one turned up today so managed to track down the installer as couldn’t get a hold of the supplier. He thinks we are next week. Checks his schedule and realises he’s mixed us up with another install. My immediate issue is the house is being installed next week so I need the garage up before then as it’s kinda in the way and I don’t want it damaged. They are now going to work through the weekend to get it installed.

A tone of sharp sand Though if it’s going up in block Your Brickies will do it for free

Perhaps make up a small batch from bagged materials and see how much area it covers, then you know how much to order for the rest.

At £1.50 for 3m, the rod could be continuous, base to eaves.

Google etc will join the dots regardless. It's a public forum, and we do not control members activity outside of these 4 walls, or where they promote / discuss us / BH. We're north of 14,000 members, usual amount of spammers, and the angry ones get taken out to the paddock and shot at point blank range. We prefer loving to fighting @pocster..."NO!" Don't even THINK about it.

"2020-2029 Fridges, freezers and washing machines become smaller" How is that supposed to help? More trips to the supermarket and more washing loads won't save anything. Utter rubbish. Just like making kettles lower power to save energy.

M6 Cheaper still. It's a wooden shed and M6 with a penny washer would more than hold a few pallets together.

I think you have answered your original question

I asked them for them a while back as soon as the kitchen arrived in their warehouse.

This is the current headline article on the renewableheatinghub. Shocking indeed. https://renewableheatinghub.co.uk/shocking-truth-kw-and-kwh-are-not-the-same-thing

So what you want is a normal lamp that has an LED lamp of some sort, you then doctor it by removing the LED driver from the lamp, putting that in a box near the mains plug and extend the cable from the LED driver to the lamp with flat speaker cable as suggested.

Use the construction one, as it has fibres so you can thin it out over wooden substrates without it giving up the ghost. Primer is a good idea also, to further aid in reducing friability, but don't let it dry before putting the SLC down

M8 very much cheaper if it would suffice.. Direct Channel Support Systems Limited M10 Threaded Rod - High Tensile Steel (8.8 Grade) - 1 Meter Product Code: TR1-10T M10 Threaded Rod - High Tensile Steel (8.8 Grade) - 1 Meter High Tensile Steel 8.8 G.. £1.50 inc VAT (£1.25 exc VAT) M8 THREADED ROD - 3 METER Product Code: TR3-8 £1.62 inc VAT (£1.35 exc VAT)

Yes. No.

My take is he is worried the works next door might be putting his own home in danger if they are being done wrong. If only he would post the pictures for us all to see, we could either re assure him it is all normal and nothing to worry about, or tell him yes you do have a bunch of cowboys working there and give him some advice.

Floor prior to OSB being installed

I also used battens in our garden room floor buildup is as follows Concrete slabs 50mm EPS 70 DPM 100mm EPS 70 70x50mm battens at 400mm centres Centres filled with 50mm EPS UFH moulds with aluminium foil. Pipes on 125mm centres 2 layers of 9mm OSB on staggered joint lines glued to each other and screwed to battens. Floor finish will be 10mm interlocking wooden floor.

Pointless question of the day. A bit like asking: ignoring the temperature issue, can humans walk on the sun?

@WiltshireLink i would take the hit with the deposit and find a better build system. having worked on one of Jamie’s builds you are better off without him. his knowledge was woeful and he had no idea how to build a good house. he was only in it for the pay-out. Find a system where the salesman doesn’t actually try too hard to sell the product. they should show you the product and let you work out it’s good and bad points.

1. Not very likely. Starting now to get it done and snagged before next heating season I would plough straight on, there may yet be a lot of scope for delays of various kinds. Do we infer that if you pay the £500 and then do not go ahead after the survey it will be forfeit? Can you post a few details about your house (date, construction, total sq m)? What information was the £6100 based on, if they are willing to hold the price even before they have done the survey? Smacks a bit of desperate marketing to me.

Based on a recent thread, if you pay the £500 deposit, pay it on a CREDIT CARD.

For comparison. I run a business, and for a couple of clients projects I didn't get paid back what I had shelled out from my account on variation orders ( 5 figures worth on each build ) which they now own and enjoy, daily. This ran me bone dry, and it was quite difficult to stay afloat. Worse still, whilst owing me money, the same clients managed to see gaps in my bookkeeping and play that to their advantage, SUCCESSFULLY suing ME when I refused to continue making their project asset rich ( due to the chuffing non-payment!!! DUH!! ). It makes my blood boil typing this btw, as I ended up robbing Peter to pay Paul and that caused upset to some of my genuine clients when I had to delay ( long delay ) delivering on my promises to them. All since refunded and at zero balance, I hasten to add, with sincere apologies given. The 2 aforementioned assholes are not included, they can come get their money from my cold dead fingers, or die trying. I have kept the 'doors open' despite being over £40k out of pocket, and I had always understood that I will recover, which I have done, ( because I am a tenacious bastard who makes lemonade when given lemons ), and that was the ethos upon which I kept taking deposits for new projects from my downstream clients. As folk above have said "lesson learned", but a bloody painful and expensive one to boot. To hear that members here were asked for money as recently as March is just black and white, it is theft. Theft is generally defined in law as "an intent to deprive". That was demonstrated here, and I am sincerely gutted for those who have been fcuked over by this disingenuous behavior. I frequent a lot of the public self-build exhibition shows, per annum, as an exhibitor. I have worked alongside Jamie and we often spoke at the shows, and I am shocked to hear this has gone on if I'm honest. Just goes to show, yet again, that the people I often aspired to become as successful as, are just putting on a show. He once shouted across the Farnborough exhibition floor "you're a knobhead" at me, as I had ( in his eyes ) berated the Isotex woodcrete block on here. Doubt that I need to finish this anecdote.....

Thanks, it's useful to hear from a variety of different projects. Engineer and Nudura have spoken to each other and both are happy with the no rebar design.

Just to re-update this - a few more years down the line! I went with Pylontech US3000 Lithium units, initially 3 of them and then added 2 more. They are absolutely great - zero maintenance, zero hassle. With a 6kw PV bank I'm sorted for the vast majority of the year with a generator being required for a top-up 6 times this winter. I expect that when I get round to moving the PV array to the roof and doubling it's size I won't need the gen at all. I'd have no need for the generator if I hadn't ditched my wind-turbine but I don't miss that howling beast when it's windy (there was no easy way of making it play with lithium/Victron). My time with flooded lead acid batteries was educational but I do not miss it! Less of my clothing has small acid burns and the monthly maintenance schedule has become an occasional glance at the Victron App.

solicitor time for a letter they are cheap. notice of pre-action. original inspector approved stage X evidenced by report Y Boss inspector says stage X previously approved by report Y is now wrong. Costs to you are a min £25k and they are liable. Should focus the tossers mind.

100% agree, I had an absolute nightmare with my one who was doing BC and warranty inspections. They were horrific. I wrote a detailed complaint with all the issues threatening to take them to court for 10 times the contract value as per the maiximum liability in the contract and they paid up £5k within 3 weeks as the case was so strong!

The screwpiles was one of easiest part of my project so far. My foundation was designed by a specialist company in Ireland that others have also used on this site. There were three parties involved with the screw piles themselves: the screw pile provider, who was in the neighbouring county, his screw pile engineer, who specified the size & required torque needed for each of the individual piles based on my ground survey report, and the screw pile installer recommended by the supplier. The installation was done over two days by the installer using an excavator with a special head (he is the most skilled person I have ever seen using an excavator … he even used the excavator to load his tools in his side-door van at the end of the job!) and he noted the screw pile torque figures for each pile on a sheet of paper as he proceeded. I then received a copy of that report and, in turn, submitted it to building control so that they were satisfied. After the installation of the screw piles, another team then arrived to shutter and cast the raft, which sites atop the top-plates of the screw piles. That raft was indeed insulated with thick PIR insulation. The design of the raft was such that it had extra thickening to form an integrated ring beam and cross members so it was not one consistent thickness across its entire span. All carefully designed with UFH and plumbing embedded within. All in all, the following engineers were involved with the screw piles: 1) ground surveyor (I inherited this survey when I bought the plot) 2) foundations designers, in Ireland 3) specialist screw-pile designer in Suffolk All in all, the process ran smoothly and, I thought, the screw piles were quite inexpensive at about 3.5% of my overall build budget.