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Be careful here. Most thermostats are really rubbish with with UFH as the hysteresis is huge and you end up with big under and overshoot of room temp. When we first build I had loads of issues and found it unmanageable, and uncomfortable. Running weather compensation without thermostats works best for us. That sound huge with MVHR and your U values are you sure, have you calculated the heat loss. I am not impressed with UFH in bedrooms, would do fan coils, way better cooling also, plus response time is good. Hate hot bedrooms, once the bedroom is warm its staying that way with UFH. Sounds a waste of good money No restriction come with grant that says you cannot cool. It is related to permitted development, but you will have express planning permission with a new build so, make sense to go with option for heat and cool. Another waste of cash, it doesn't do much in the UK, check the datasheets for you flow rates you will get about 0.5kW max at super low flow temps. Install in bedroom instead of UFH. Fun UFH and fan coils on same WC flow rates for heating and cooling. No additional piping needed. So standard MVHR (its ventilation only) ASHP with cooling ability Heat pump cylinder Fan coils in bedrooms, they will manage room temps in auto mode or you can run in manual fan mode on WC UFH on ground floor and upstairs wet room. Electric towel rads in wet rooms also. If you can add more insulation to floor. Keep ventilation separate from heating - different suppliers, installers, they are vey different things Think simple not complex, simple is easier to run, cheaper to buy and run

As some of you may have seen from my introduction post (shameless plug here), we bought a house in the summer of 2023 knowing it had subsidence. We decided it wasn't that bad. It was down as cash buyers only. Surely we know better than the lenders. Read on to find out if we were right... A summary We weren't looking to move house. We did the usual search on rightmove when bored. This house came up; the interior was old, it had subsidence but it came with a great plot of land and we could see it being our forever home. It has remedial work for subsidence done back in 2012, the walls had helifix bars installed and the offending trees were removed. We even had a full structural report written up from a proper MIStructE geezer, and he said the house was alright if a little wonky and the garage was more likely to fall over. What did the report say? Floors are a bit wonky, few cracks here and there. Walls are a bit off but yer roof timbers are alright. Nothing we didn't already know really, but nice to get it from a professional. No bowing in the walls at all so whatever happened was a nice even movement. The professional said some movement could be attributed to the trees at the rear of the property or maybe some damaged drains. (The worst affected area was literally right next to the guttering downpipe😱) What did you do next? I made a post on Buildhub, and contacted a resin injection company to see if we could do some localised repairs. The resin company wanted to inject an expanding resin around the front of the property and also down the sides. This came out at more than we had budgeted for remedial foundation work, and since we were planning to do some structural work (i.e. extension) they said the second we dug near the injected areas it would invalidate any warranty which would have turned it into one big gamble. As part of the resin injection investigation we commissioned some soil samples and drain surveys to understand the state of the ground and also see if we were right in our assumption the drains had failed. Below is a summary from the drain survey. A green X on a run indicates no defects. A yellow X on a run means a minor defect, and a red X means urgent defect. As you can see, there are no green or yellow, only red. 😂 Clearly the old terracotta pipes were knackered. Around the same time as this and thanks to some of the helpful advice on this forum I started a period of monitoring the house. Structural engineers say once a quarter is pretty good for measuring any movement on a house to capture the seasons; I did it every day. Us buildhubbers do like to go overboard... Bought the proper stainless steel measuring discs and a good set of digital calipers. I input all the data every evening into an excel sheet to make it easier to spot trends. I also made sure to do this at a similar time each day to try keep temperatures as consistent as possible. Variations between days were fine; I was looking more to see if we had a trend of cracks widening. I did this for about 5 months - not long enough to get a load of data, but I stopped in winter when the SE told me we'll have to pile the extension which meant my whole theory of monitoring to avoid underpinning was shot. As we have quite a high water table and a lot of clay they reckoned piling out be the most suitable rather than needing excessively deep trench or strip foundations. And because we'd be piling the extension it meant we'd have a rock-solid new part of the house and the old part move at a different pace; leaving us with a real risk of differential movement. Whilst doing the above we also replaced the drains around the house; installing two new soakaways to the front and rear of the property (appropriately sized for our new roof area too. When digging out the old drains this is what we found (no wonder we had some soil washout around the foundations) We decided at this point that we may as well go ahead with the SE's suggestion and pile the underpinning too. Yes, this cost a lot more than we had planned but if I'm honest I'm pretty happy now knowing that the house is fully supported. What was piling like? SE's came back and said pile everything in sight. You can see below the piles for the new extension plus the cantilever underpinning to the front and side of the property. So that's what we did. However trying to find a piling company who would work from someone else's plans AND do their own excavating was a nightmare. We had one company say they wouldn't excavate the ringbeams and would only pile, but also wouldn't tell us what level they wanted the ground at. They then agreed to excavate, and about a month later when someone else visited the site they changed their mind again and said they'd only do the piling. They were swiftly told where to go and we had to go back to RFQ stage to try find another contractor. As it turns out this was good fortune as the company we ended up using was brilliant. They did all the works end to end and also supplied an engineer to mark out the beams and the block profiles so it was ready to go for our builders. They even cleared the oversite down to the required level for the air gap under the block & beam flooring. Piling starts: Very grateful at this point for the large carriageway drive - made it much easier for getting the kit off the lorries. Was rather strange to see so much gear for one house; I definitely wish they'd let me have a go with it. We actually went through two rigs; one had the winch fail but we had a new rig onsite the following day to continue. The weight on them is about 750KG and is dropped from a pre-determined height. For us it was about 1.5 metres. On each drop of the weight they measure how many millimetres the pile slips and using calculations from the SE they can work out when the ground has enough bite to hold the pile. We thought we'd really feel this and we were also concerned for our neighbours, but it turns out aside from a little bit of vibration there wasn't actually that much disruption and we got used to it after a few days. They were on site for about 2-3 weeks (2-3 piles a day depending on the soil conditions) and we had no complaints. Once the weight went below a certain depth the shockwaves from the impact just sailed right under the neighbour's houses. Our nearest neighbours who were about 30 metres away felt very little, but we did have some neighbours about 200 metres away who said they could feel it; but thankfully no damage to their property. The contractors estimated about 6 metres for the pile depth for when we'd get the right bite, based on nearby BGS surveys and boreholes. Things were looking pretty good when we found a solid crust at about 3 metres and we thought it looked like we were in for a saving on the job! In typical fashion though what would have been the last drop forced the pile through the crust and it dropped about 13 millimetres. Once that happened they had to keep going and we ended up at 8 metres for the first pile. Because we found this solid layer at 3 metres but knew underneath was weak we HAD to go through it on every other pile. It got real solid in places but because they knew it wasn't solid underneath it couldn't be used for a fix. The other 35 ended up at between 8-10 metres and we found some very different ground depending on which side of the house they were on. When you got some good depth on the piles you could get a good echo out of them when shouting down though. Was really weird to just see it going down and down into the earth though. Once all the piles were in the excavation team were back to do the ringbeams. Some lovely Lincolnshire clay was waiting for them along with plenty of water. We had pumps running overnight to keep it clear as one trench just kept filling up. As a bonus in the above picture you can see the absolutely top-notch definitely not too thin or too sandy foundation that the original house was sat on. To add to that, the foundation in the house also wasn't level. This one really confused us and the excavation squad. At one point it was 5 bricks between DPC and foundation; at the other it was 8 bricks. You can see in the above where we had to step the beams down to get it to fit; which required some custom Z bars to bind the ringbeam together. You'll also spot the gap this left in the high points where we then had to get a more specialist non-shrinking concrete to meet the foundation. Another nice surprise and request to open the wallet. We still have no idea why they did this; either they decided after digging a certain depth for original foundations that they didn't want to did so deep (or didn't have to), but when you're doing a full set of foundations at once why wouldn't it be level?! Anyway, we persevered (or they did) and at the end we had a nice base to start our extension on: In the end we were in for 35 piles at about 8-10 metres, with 600mm ringbeam all round complete with hefty 16mm rebar sat in it but BCO have signed it off as good and we were on our way. The drone also makes for some interesting photos... footprint of the house is just a bit larger than it was before! Probably missed a few things here and there but hopefully provides a bit of insight into the joys of piling, subsidence, underpinning and just general mess. Absolutely loved spending £££££ for it to be covered in mud and never seen again; should have just filled it with £20 notes, definitely not being sarcastic. 🙄 tl;dr Whatever you are quoted by your contractors, double it. 😂

My own personal view is this is something I would do in my own home, but NOT something I would be doing in someone else's home particularly one that is open to the public as a pub. If the smelly stuff hits the air moving device I would not want to be explaining to a judge why I was doing stove flue work without any qualifications.

Seems like there's a number of ways of doing this then. Cement board Fire board Steel sheet Vermiculite board

Its a bit long but I hope it might help.

More or less done these two rooms now, which after finishing the bathroom were basically just flooring and decorating, making a bit of furniture and then moving some other furniture I already had which was always destined for the dining room. I’ve got planned some bench seating for the wall side of the dining table to make it more space efficient, but not any time soon. I think this will be the first time, certainly in the last 10 years, where I have no outstanding ‘filler that just needs sanding down and painting’ kind of jobs, everywhere has skirting board which is painted… the little things in life. Everytime I walk in the bungalow and see the French dresser, it just melts my heart, knowing that my late wife would have loved to see it where it is now, we did buy it while she was still alive as they were stopping making it and was perfect for the look we were going for, managed to bag the dining table off eBay from the same range for around £200 I think brand new, and the chairs were ones we had from ikea which I upholstered and painted white to match. I know the plug sockets need covering, managed to locate them just slightly too high! The bookcase is to be backlit with an LED strip light (awaiting Black Friday being the right bugger I am!) and then will be filled with all my books, photo to follow at some point. The hallway has also been redecorated and the floor sanded and reoiled - out of anywhere this small passageway has suffered the most during the works bringing everything in and out, so was nice to get it back to 100% again

Following on from this original topic, I have today just completed the annual main clean and service of my MVHR unit, now 8 years old. With our unit now located within the heated envelope of the house (rather than our cold loft as it was originally), the blocked condensate drain issue has not arisen again. There is always some evidence of mould growth on the extractor fan blades and extract fan chamber, but given this is a cold and damp / wet part of the unit, that is hardly surprising. I did however uncover 2 new issues: 1. The summer bypass, which consists of a plastic louvered fin assembly in a rectangular frame, opened and closed by a solenoid, was stuck in the closed position, i.e. on summer bypass. Closer inspection revealed the end of the solenoid which allows the unit to switch from heat recovery to summer bypass had broken off. On attempting to operate the louvres by hand, they were stuck solid. The screws securing the louvre assembly to the frame had corroded to such an extent that they prevented movement, which in turn caused the solenoid to break. The screws were so far gone that they dissolved on contact with a screwdriver. With the gentle persuasion of a mallet, I was able to tap open the louvre assembly to the heat recovery position. This means that I now have no summer bypass as there is no means to close the louvres. Not an urgent problem given the time of year, but something I will have to think about getting a replacement part for. Top tip therefore, lubricate the screws to try and slow / prevent corrosion. 2. Eight years of removing and re-inserting the core has torn / destroyed one of the seals (pictured hanging). Fortunately, I had some neoprene adhesive backed tape which I used to replace. Other than that, (and a previous fan bearing replacement) the unit is still going strong.

Difficult to really compare as they face different directions, we get some shading also on the roof, the roof panels have optimisers due to the shading, but quite happy with the vertical.

How do they compare when there’s no snow? I think vertical bifacial is the future if you have the unshaded space.

I can't comment if the quote is fair. BUT I see no mention of insulation. So I would stop and think what you want. Dormers, particularly old ones are poorly built and poorly insulated. If you are going to the trouble of replacing rotten cladding, I would first stop and think is that all you want to do, or would you rather use the opportunity to upgrade it more and make it a much better insulated space, quite possibly for little extra cost compared to just re cladding it?

Yes. Do the pour yourself, that is with good local groundworkers/builder. Don't rely on subcontractors to do it. Take great care with the door thresholds. Ours is a block cavity build. It may be different for timber frame, but our thresholds are recessed with, in theory, structural insulation under the door/window spanning the cavity, like this: This detail is great in theory but almost unworkable in practice. The issue is with the recess in the internal slab. Our contractor dismissed my suggestion to install timber during the pour at the recessed thresholds. He insisted the correct approach is to scrape away the concrete after the pour to create the recess. The result is a complete nightmare. We also have a 15mm height difference from one side of the kitchen to the other. 😕 The expert installers also joined the EPS blocks with clips on the top, under the DPC. This means that it is impossible to get the threshold level without cuttig the DPC and pulling out the clip. 🤷‍♂️ If I was doing it again I would avoid recessed thresholds altogether (they are probably inescapable if you have a slider) to be like this: Window fitters will completely ignore everything you say about this threshold detail. Full height windows are not worth the hassle. Ignore your architect.

I think that is not something that can be changed, it's a readout of a machine parameter calculated from other parameters eg outside temperature. The parameters nearby are things like outside air temp, compressor rpm etc. Check 01-02 discharge temp 01-08 suction temp My gut feel is the suction temp will be near or even below zero for your heating runs but not quite as low for your DHW (defrost temp might also be lower).

Same here, on the extract side, condensate drain blocked with biosnot, water built up until the fan started churning it. I

I do all round.

Do you know what sort of things he wants to print? The easiest filament to print is PLA. Works for most things but it has a low(ish) melting point so its not suitable for things that will be left in cars on very hot days or in the engine compartment! They are unlikely to melt but can warp if they get hot while under load. That said I used it to print my metal detector above so its a very usable filament. ABS and other higher temperature filaments are harder to print well and you typically need a more expensive enclosed printer to minimise draughts. In between is a whole range of filaments like PETG which can be printed on most basic printers. In short, if he has a hobby that needs high temperature parts then perhaps look for an enclosed model that can do ABS but otherwise a printer that can do PLA and PETG will be fine. There is a bit of a learning curve to 3D printing. The big one is getting your prints to stick to the bed of the printer and not come off during printing. Most printers used a heated bed to help with this. I use a toughened glass plate on top of the heated plate and 3DLac spray. Some filaments stick too well. Plenty of other approaches out there. Most important thing is adjusting/levelling the print bed so the initial gap between the nozzle and the bed is right. The optimum gap varies with filament material. Some printers have auto bed levelling which can be an advantage.

actually does a 0-10V output to would provide modulation of output Is this really the case? I suspect not, maybe if you added every user together, and switched them all on at the same time - but doesn't happen in real life.

Hi all, I'm a new homeowner, originally from the UK, now living in Amsterdam. One of the challenges of living in another city abroad is that finding a trusted handyman is very tricky, so I'm doing my best to learn how to fix things myself! I've been involved in forums and nice communities around them for about 25 years, so looking forward to getting to know everyone here too.

Increase to 3

You can also get a shelly 0-10v output relay. That would integrate directly in to HA. I just run it fixed speed 24/7/365, so it gets heating and cooling. The cooling in house (via UFH) is a very flat WC curve and I leave that on all the time during summer and the heat pumps just seems to run when the sun's out.

Yes you can appeal the placing of a tpo.

For now and I say that as someone who's invested in the Bambu X1C. They can't afford to rest on their laurels. Other core XYs are catching up with bigger volume, heated chambers etc.

Hi there, I'm not saying a traditional build can't be efficient, but more to do with the speed of a prefab build that's attractive to us.

Depends where you are draining to, if you are draining to foul drain, then a waterless valve [commonly known by the trade name of the leading brand HepvO, or more colloquially known as a <Censored> Trap] is to be used. This is because a U Trap can dry out and let smells up into your MVHR, and by nature of design distribute those smells throughout the house.

Hi everyone! Thought time to make myself known as I will inevitably be asking some questions shortly. At the start of the year my wife and I found a project house that had the potential to be the 'forever home'. We got the keys last week so we're finally getting started, and whilst she has it all on Instagram I doubt I'm going to get any decent discussions going in the comments on there compared to here. Now, onto the house... it's a 3-bed detached house on half an acre of land, estimated to have been built around 1950s. It's had a couple of extensions during it's life although we are likely to take them off and start again. Heating is an oil boiler, drainage/waste is via a septic tank, windows are old aluminium DG units and the garage is waiting for a decent wind to fall over. The house does have BT FTTP though so it balances out pretty well all things considered... Did you say subsidence?! Yep. Built on clay soil in Lincolnshire when the house was first built they planted trees. A LOT of trees. I don't think it surprised anyone when they all matured and absorbed all the moisture in the ground. In 2012 the house suffered subsidence with cracking in the walls. This was repaired with helifix tie bars and the nearest trees being removed, but no underpinning. A CSA was issued confirming all was well. Fast forward to now, and there are some decent-sized cracks in internal walls which suggest new movement. Structural engineers have been and gone, and they've said the outside of the house looks good with few cracks and no split bricks, the roof trusses are in good condition (free from stress) but they'd have to assume there has been further movement due to the internal cracking. We purchased the house from the previous owner's daughter so we have little historical information to go on aside from what we can find out. What next? We're in this for the long haul, and we're living in the place while we do it up. I know, I know; we're mad but we have no other commitments or responsibilities so now is the time to do it. It's old, it's leaky and it's in need of some TLC. Architect plans are being drawn up, subsidence underpinning companies have been drafted in and hopefully, in a few weeks, we'll have a date for getting that resolved. The plan is to seal up the house as best we can, then go for ASHP/Solar/UFH/MVHR to get as eco-friendly as possible. Current EPC is an F, as in "F**k, that's a bad score" I'll leave that for another post however in case your attention span is as good as mine...

She got given those free from someone I think. Another local supplied the split, locally felled ones on the left.

Expect some more expensive foundations on the tree side. if you take an imaginary point 10 metres from the trunk and say to yourself that inside that area is a complete no go zone then you will know what your dealing with. no excavation for pipes or cables no driving of plant or equipment no storage of materials no fuel storage just treat it as the wild natural bit of garden then base your plans around that, then you shouldn’t get any nasty surprises. if when you do your application you note that the tree has a TPO and you have designed your build to be sympathetic to this it could win you some brownie points.

Vaguely reminiscent of my vent axis sentinel kinetic BH plus - it was installed 12 years ago ish, and some 6 or so years ago it started leaking. When I took off the front panel, the plastic base had a cm of water in it (it’s right under where the mains elec pcb is!). It has a drain, that had been working absolutely fine for years, with lots of condensate coming out of it. In confusion I ended up tee-ing in the other condensate drain which fixed it. On my model the drains both come from the same void at the base of the unit, so it can’t be an issue using both. Maybe I should have some sort of routine dettol type drains maintainance ? I didn’t actually discover what was wrong, just bodged another pipe on🥴

If you want it Hettas signed They won’t accept plasterboard as fireproof Cement board and high temp skim

Register plate. Steel, disconnect flue and insert through hole. Though you can cut hole in plate and saw down the middle and slip either side of the pipe and then fashion something to cover the cut if flue pipe removal is a faff.

I have no design details or anything, they had all the details of my build insulation etc etc and they specced a 12kw ASHP. The UFH was designed by the company who just supplied it looking back this was very naive but I was non the wiser at the time and was just going with the flow🙈

It all looks lovely and cozy. well done! And thanks for all the details - very useful for our own renovation. 🙂

The people who commission the system and sign off everything for the Government grant are coming next week. We have instructions for everything except the Digistat! And the rest of the stuff, we are advised to leave well alone. Apart from adjusting the radiators. I agree with the wireless stuff - far better to have a wired system that we can control - with instructions! I hate Apps and it didnt work from my house so that was a waste of time. I guess there is some way of connecting it to Mums internet so I can control it remotely and I shall have to find out. Today Mum rang and told me that while the house was lovely when they got up, it had turned itself down to 16oC - ie, back to the origonal schedule at 8.30am. Luckily I was able to tell them how to boost the temperature, till I can get there and amend the schedule again. What a nightmare for them 🙁they can do without these programming issues. It is difficult to assess the energy use as it has been on and off since it was installed. We took the old heating system out on the 7th, leaving them with plug in radiators over the weekend. The system was finished on Friday 15th but we need a few weeks to really see if its helping. 16th may have been the day it heated the whole water tank as that is the biggest use.

I bet you spoke to the same guy I did, I had a strange gurgling noise, tech guy said I have to have a Hepvo valve but I said the instructions say a U Trap is ok. Any ways I used gaffa tape where the condensate pipe enters the stand pipe trap and that stopped the gurgling. I am getting condensation on the left filter, haven't removed the heat exchanger yet, and don’t have any water dripping out. My unit set for Left Handed and it’s tilted backwards so I assume the drain is working correctly.

Agree it's a simple tool. It defaults to -5 as an exterior temperature which is unrealistic in the british isles for long periods. A winter average temperature of maybe +5 is more realistic and gives a better appreciation of the lightly long term state of drying in the wall.

Ubakus doesn't help much with any construction. It only shows a moment in time. It's what happens over a period of weeks or months that important (i.e. how long will it stay wet, how quickly will it dry out).

That is the problem. Statutory bodies only spot check work, developers and contractors and architects all profit (survival) driven. Time is money so lets cut that down to the bone. the only way to get some quality is to self build, arm yourself with knowledge (google) and supervise everything personally. Not a task to be taken on lightly and with a monumental learning curve with no dry runs. Obviously all this quality will come at a proportionate cost or time penalty.

Yes, stopping the movement of air stops moisture (and air) passing through the structure. More-or-less, but there's a graduation of behaviours. In simplified form: Closed cell foams don't absorb moisture so condensation will tend to run down the wall (and the wall-facing side of the insulation if its in contact with the wall). Foil-faced PIR can absorb some moisture from the wall (but not through the room-side foil facing), so some condensation may get absorbed while the rest runs down. Mineral wool is hydrophobic so although some condensation may run into the fibres it won't get absorbed, though some may be held between the fibres (or start to run through them if it gets really wet). Many natural insulations behave differently. Instead of absorbing moisture (taking in liquid water) like synthetic insulations, they adsorb it (take moisture vapour out of the air and bind it within the fibres) before it condenses to to liquid, reducing the risk of condensation. Which is why a real wool jumper still feels warm even when 'wet'. It also dries well by reversing the adsorption process. Consequently natural insulations are the preferred option, provided they're not going to be subject to high relative humidities for extended periods (typically not more than 80% RH for more than 3 months of the year in winter) - which is partly why I'm using hemp insulation on my current renovation in France. However natural insulations do cost more. Also worth knowing that sheep's wool has been be problematic due to the risk of moth attack, though the 'Ionic Protect' process claims to have overcome that. Mineral wool would be second choice.

The tree and all it entails, especially the roots. If what you can see of the tree overhangs where you propose to build, it is highly likely the root system will be there too, so you would be affected. Deal with any other trees that may affect you before your planning application is submitted.

Here's our big window with the joined frames as your image. Sorry abot the scaffold in the way, this is the best picture I have, but you can see the join and the fuill height opener, just about. The window is so big that you don't notice the join. One final comment on the windows, and not specific to internorm. Our fitters measured our windows with 10 mm clearance either side of the opening. They proceeded to fit the windows tight to the right hand reveal. Zero gap on the right and 20mm gap between window and left reveal. I think all the windows are the same. None are centered. I did not, in my wildest dreams, expect the windows to all be fitted off centre. It is extremely annoying because we now need to build out the LHS reveal for plastering. WTF would the fitters off-centre all the window? In the kitchen we have carefuly positioned the window so that full-height kitchen units will be installed tight to the reveal with worktop underneath. We can't build out that reveal so the off centre window here may need to be refitted in the centre. Do not leave window fitters unsupervised. One final, final point. If I was doing it again I probably wouldn't have full height windows. We have a poorly-poured kore slab and the thresholds are a nightmare. Much easier to install and functionally superior to have a few courses of block to lift the window off the floor.

If you are worried about frame width, then why the horizontal mullion? Get rid of it. Many suppliers don't do a full height opening window, hence the horizontal in your image. Did this come from another supplier? Internorm are one of the few supliers that can do a full height opener, thats what we have and one of the reasons for using internorm. Looks much cleaner. I'll try and post a picture later.

You can take a guess at it, but the only real way is Install a heat meter in the water pipes from or too the heat pump, this will have tappings in to the flow and return to measure water temperature. This then calculates kW and logs the data, to give kWh. You then need an electric meter or two, depending on how power is derived for the package, any external pumps and if you use an immersion. All these numbers are logged instantaneously and calculated to give kW and kWh. They will also give CoP and rolling SCoP in the software. SCoP, is function of running CoP and standby CoP. More time you spend on standby, the worse the SCoP. I can get a CoP of 6 when running at 7 degs outside, but spend quite awhile on standby also, so will end of with a daily CoP nearer 4. That's running full WC, but it's also a function of heat loss rate and heat pump over/under sizing. Lots of things at play. Really look to get the system performing, so it keeps the house warm first, log what's happening so you understand what the heat pump does and doesn't do. If a thermostat is switching on off in the house, your system needs to tweaked.

I'm sorry but you can't do that either. You can install measuring equipment that will determine your COP and thus your SCOP. At the time my Therma V was installed it was a requirement for the heat pump to have a dedicated electricity meter so I can tell exactly how much electricity my heat pump uses - but I don't think that is done anymore. And my EPC has a very inaccurate estimate of the heat and hot water requirements for my house so I can make an equally inaccurate estimate of my SCOP.

At the start it was their payment terms triggering a look. If they ask for >50% upfront, payment in cash or amounts in excess of the materials costs. I now use it for every company we’re giving more than a few thousand £s to. I think it’s a good habit, easy to do and the guide @Susie mentioned is a good ‘how to’. It does indeed show who is going bust, shows if they are in liquidation. Also as mentioned above shows how often companies change their trading name, or base location, or directors. One company moved office and changed name almost annually. A quick internet search for reviews on the previous company names showed a whole load of issues and we didn’t use them.

I use companies house to check out directors how often they start up new businesses and then close them down again within a few years. Companies house will mark up when a strike off on the gazette is updated this is the first stage to a business not filing accounts or a creditor pushing for liquidation etc. I look at the accounts and see how many they employ, gives you an idea of permanent employees or subcontractors used. The capital retained rather than fully drawn out as dividends, but that might depend on size of business, personally I always take dividends after closing accounts. Check the total debtors and creditors balances. Investing in the company in assets. If you’re not sure of how to read accounts get a credit check on them, try https://www.companysearchesmadesimple.com you can pay per company search or a subscription for a month then cancel.

I looked at the first picture you posted and held my head in my hands. In a different world you might be able to just lock the site gate and come back in 6 months,or a year, or two years when conditions were favourable. Alas impractical with all the paperwork following building . Another option would be to park the shovels and design some easier to build foundations like piles with a ringbeam or such. However we are where we are etc..... Before trying to pin your builder to the wall with emails maybe try to climb into his boots for a second. Take him to a nice cafe somewhere, on the clock, buy some buns, and have a grown up discussion. Importantly, listen to him. I know it's frustrating to see the budget and schedule slipping but I think it's the ground eating it. Not your builder. Resist for now the temptation to bolster the moral of men, up to their knees in sh*t, with dictatorial emails.

JCB? 👍

I hope so, as I'm gradually going over to Dewalt 18V XR tools.

I don't own this particular saw but as it's the yellow and black dream machine it's bound to be top notch!

Your money, his convenience is a common occurrence. But it saved the fee of an SE so no worse off.....but a waste of resources/ not sustainable design.

Although folk on BH may disagree, SE's and Architect's often work on quite a tight business model, especially if they employ folk. I offer from time to time offer a service where folk pay me for an intial SE consultation. But as I used to be a building contractor in my last life this turns in to a general over view. This starts off with a phone call and a general chat, I ask a few questions but mostly try to listen, then I identify what initial info we need to make some basic decisions. I try and explain why we need to do things and answer any questions you have.. the objective is to inform you as much as I can and give you the tools to make your own decisions. Part of this process allows me gauge how knowledgeable your are and where you may need help. You can cover a huge scope in a couple of hours on the phone. My approach is to say up front.. here is my hourly rate for; general advice, a supportive chat and advice on the process of selecting other advisors / designers and how you put together a document that specifies what you think you need and importantly where you think you may need help. At the end of the day I always make sure that folk feel they have got value for money, usually this results in over all savings and that justifies my fee. What I do is different but it does work for some Clients and me. Try if you can to find an experierienced SE who will spend a couple of hours chewing the fat with you.