Leaderboard

Sounds like you are being advised by people you shouldn't really listen too. An ASHP on its own would do hot water and all the heating you need for the house. I would based on kids being in the house do a 300L heat pump cylinder. Then install a heat pump that can 6kW at your coldest temperature. Depending on manufacturer that will be a 6 to 8kW unit. That will give you 3 hrs to DHW on the coldest day. Anything else is too big. Design the system to run one flow temperature. Have electric heat mats and electric towel rail in upstairs bathrooms. Your system becomes very simple - ASHP, 3 port diverter valve. One side is connected to UFH manifold (no mixer or pump or actuators), and radiators (with rtv). The other side is connected to cylinder coil. Use the heat pump controller to control temperature. Gas boiler, if you already had one installed you could use it, but to pay an additional £1000 and have the additional complications makes no sense.

+1. They are being idiots. Foundations are commencement. You don't need a LDC. Just carry on.

if you have had a BCO inspection then the permission has commenced end of conversation. If enforcement are soo thick as to challenge you on that, advise you will be appealing their enforcement (its free) and asking for full costs award. Unfortunately the public sector attracts utter failures unemployable in the private sector, knock them down a peg or too when you come across a really special one.

Yep! +1 Also don't overlook the possibility that some of the damp may well be due to poor heating and ventilation. You may need to address those too.

It's fine. It's not as good as direct fitted or 2mm foam, but we've certainly not had any issues heating or cooling any spaces. Yes, cut back the excess insulation.

No Dodgy areas self leveling screed, to make flat. Two different things that may not be compatible. Would glue floor down to get best heat transfer. Access holes make in the floor covering of your choice

Laminate on 5mm wood fibre underlay would be your best best. Toughness of laminate and the wood fibre is very forgiving on an uneven floor and adds a bit of softness. We have it thought out our ground floor and it's great.

Not sure I can tell from as much as I can see, but bear in mind that not all stone-built houses were built for 'show'. Some were made of poor-quality stone and always rendered (though probably originally with lime).I have seen a couple of badly-eroded houses which were 'de-rendered' and beautifully lime-pointed only to start deteriorating after a few frost/thaw/frost cycles. I only wonder just because this looks *very* random (as if 'not for show'?). Could be entirely wrong. What about nearby houses of similar style?

Surely only an issue of you eat some of it? We are allowed to sell houses containing asbestos.

Based on our experience with a 5kVA Victron charger/inverter in a 200 m^2 house you would probably want to build a system around this 8kVA model with at least 14kWh of e.g. these Pylontech batteries (which look a lot neater than their more industrial products). System schematic here. They have a matching EVCS though the myenergi zappi integrates well also. You would then get a very versatile expandable setup and not need to scrap your existing sma inverter. Connected to the output of the Victron it would keep going during grid failure, and indeed the transition to running the entire house in a blackout would be seamless and almost imperceptible. Expanding the battery and solar panels then becomes easy when funds and inclination permit.

The supplier will wipe their hands of any issues if your contractors go back to them with this, they clearly state in their correspondence and its common knowledge always complete an area in the same batch

I'm pretty sure most would be fine tied to rebar in a concrete slab, but if you want an absolute guarantee that that's OK from a manufacturer, here's at least one. WarmUp Forte Grid System - https://www.warmup.co.uk/underfloor-heating/water/forte-grid-system https://www.warmup.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Warmup-TS-Forte-2016-09-29.pdf https://www.warmup.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Warmup-TS-AL-PE-RT-v1.0-2016-09-29.pdf

Welcome to the forum. Cement-based pointing 'cures' - a chemical process that can take place under water - rather than drying out. That will largely have happened in the first month. However it's harder to know whether the mix used was appropriate, or whether it was applied properly. For example the joints should have been cut back to allow a sufficient depth of pointing - if it was smeared over the surface then it wouldn't have much adhesion. But from your description I'm not surprised that the cavity wall insulation was the problem. If water penetrates the out brickwork - which it can, in large quantities in an exposed condition, even with good pointing - then it still shouldn't affect the inner leaf.

Hi, we live in a period property, it is not listed, but is in a conservation area. Am looking to do some small refurbishments and minor remodelling to better fit what we're looking for as our needs have changed. Am also very keen to keep it true to the original in every way, as the house was built before 1900 and feel we need to respect that. As an example when I had some pointing done, I insisted on the original mortar, ie a Lime based mortar and colour matched. So am very particular that way and would rather pay more and get it true to the original than cut corners, as think its important to keep it that way. My biggest bug bear is that someone changed the Rosemary tiles to ugly concrete tiles which i hate. But its a huge job to change them all back to rosemary, and i don't think it will add direct value to the house. I don't think there are any grants to restore places back to the original. Anyhow thats a wish list thing.

Even if they weren't the same batch and he had mixed them I don't think they would be that noticeable but at the moment it sticks out like a sore thumb.

I tend to agree with above about getting it up and builder should have sourced same batch (and mixed up pallets to stop this happening even with same batch).

I don't think it is acceptable. Get the contractor to take it up with their supplier. They should all be from the same batch.

Give the contractor a pair of glasses. He should have stopped after a few blocks were laid.

Not even close! Rip them all up and start again.

This happens with bricks as well which is why same batch is import and even then mixing the pallets up so they are mixed helps. I think they will fade, mine did a lot (red), but might be worth trying to find the right batch.

PV is two arrays, 3.1kW and 3.6kW. battery is a GivEnergy All in one 13.5kW.

I concur with DevilDamo and would add, you should seek an surveyor/ technician/ engineer to produce the detailed drawings for a full plans submission. Ask that the drawings give a sufficient level of information to allow builders to quote. You will also need to consider whether you will want someone to tender the works for you and oversee the construction works as it will be worth getting a fee quote at that stage. It will likely require planning. The Local Authority won't necessarily get back to you to confirm whether it needs planning, they are under no obligation to. Have a read through the Permitted Development Rights guidance on the .gov site and see if any applies.

Ah great, thanks for coming back to me and apologies for the delay in picking up your reply. I'm looking for around 10 (needed in 3-4 weeks time), but I think I'd need to hire a Luton to come and collect them as they won't fit in my van. I took some quotes from Anyvan but they weren't cost effective. Will look into local hire costs tomorrow and come back to you.

Barbados?

Thank you Craig and Steamy tea - Bingo "Securistyle" it is 👍

My top tip. Do NOT fit an accessible fan isolator in a rental. I have known tenants turn them off because they are noisy then complain about the condensation. I do not believe they are legally necessary (I have asked several times for someone to point me to the reg that says you must fit one and nobody has) but if you really feel you need to fit one, put it up in the loft close to that loft hatch. Check how air will get into the room to replace what is extracted, you may need to plane a bit off the bottom of the door for instance.

Housebuilders Bible

BC are there to check/approve the works, not design or specify them.

Once you get to low outputs and flow temps below 30 or so you cannot notice. I didn't go under any kitchen fixed units, showers or baths, kitchen islands or beds. A Lot of the, "you better do this or that", only really applies to UFH installed in very high heat leakage houses and/or with little or no insulation below the pipes. Well insulated with heat output of 15W/m2 and below, you can do just about do any centres, any pattern, flow temp varies only by a couple of degrees.

It's a solid slab, the heat will diffuse? through it, that's the whole point. To my mind your just making it work harder. This.

Never understood not putting pipe under units/ shower trays / baths, Especially if its a 100mm concrete slab. I just put loops over the whole floor, I didn't take into account any room layout. The slab was 120mm thick so I had 80 mm concrete to drill /screw fixings into if needed.

Overkill for heating only, but what is your plan for DHW? Often the ASHP gets oversized just to reduce cylinder reheat times (esp large family, lots of rooms/bathrooms, small tank) If you do oversize it's more vital than ever you don't zone the UFH but run it all at one target temperature, to maximise emitter size / throughput while keeping flow temperature low as you efficiently can. Will all 218m2 floor area have UFH or just some part of it?

We have very similar wall build up & had 150mm EWI We made plywood boxes to line the rough openings & project into EWI layer about 70mm For the larger windows we screwed a block of compacfoam to the external wall to add additional support, but not sure it was neccessary.. plywood boxes themselves were very ridged once screwed & foamed in. Additional benefit of air tightness taping being really straightforward

We have a hiccup with the block paving. For some reasons or other the builder has had issues with getting the same bricks from the initial batch they used (not sure if its builder or supplier issue). As you can see this has resulted in a marked shading difference (the darker is the third lot that the supplier has attempted to match) and the builder laid these on Friday. We just aren't happy with the shading difference. The builder says he thinks these will fade but I'm not convinced and surely any fading will happen to both so they will always be different shades.... (He hasn't put the sand into the darker new bit yet) The options are either for the builder to ring around various suppliers and try and find the batch that was initially used, another suggestion he had was to split it and try and do some sort of pattern or something different to split it up (I'm not sure what as it's such a large area of block paving) or to fit it all and if it doesn't fade or look right he will come back later and sort (my least preferred option as just want it all done and sorted and I do trust the builder would do the right thing). Any suggestions please? If he splits it with some sort of pattern what would you do? Or would you just insist he gets the right batch...

This place is for sale at £120k https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148261388#/? It is cheap, even for down here because it has mundic blocks in it. That got me thinking. Why are we allowed to sell poisonous housing to live in, I am not allowed to sell poisonous food. Even old cars need to reach a minimum safety standard before they are allowed to be used.

Pick out all the dark ones, then use them as letters to spell out what you are thinking. "Shit a brick" comes to mind.

Hoping to train chickens to avoid them sh!tting on block paving....

She has her heart set on an island. Seems to be the way to a woman's heart.