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Unless it’s visible, don’t use copper..!!! go to Hep2O from the start and just do it once and forget it. Underfloor copper sweated joints are not for a beginner and you will create yourself problems. By the time you’ve bought a Rothenberger trigger torch, decent pair of pipe slices and a few bits and bobs you will be in for £100 and that’s a LOT of Hep2O and fittings. Leave copper to those who really need to do it - Hep2O is near foolproof and that’s what you need in a rental.

I tried the No Nonsense stuff. A biatch to get out of the bottle after the first few uses. Sets too hard for my liking as well as in a git to undo joints afterwards though I was quite liberal with it. The fact that Jet Blue Plus sorted my 25mm MDPE to brass stopcock weep at 9 / 10 bar convinced me on it. Makes doing up a compression fitting a pleasure. It lubes, quietens and allows it all to nip up tighter.

This thread has prompted an idea. Some of us are competent to teach others to do some basic stuff, I'm sure. There's nothing like an hour or two chatting and working through some typical jobs, like making soldered or compression pipe joints, making plastic pipe connections, and other jobs, like fitting MVHR stuff, and all the myriad jobs in a build. How about setting up a "I'll volunteer to help you learn about that" group? I'd happily take the odd day out to drive up with some tools and stuff to spend a few hours helping someone else pick up some of the skills I've acquired, for example. Anyone else think this is worth exploring further as an idea?

Many posts on this forum detail planning difficulties and hurdles that I have read and was really expecting to navigate. On Friday we were very fortunate to be granted full planning permission for the demolition and rebuild of our stone semi detached cottage. I was expecting issues with the parking, allocating only two spaces for a 4 bed home falls short of local guidelines but this was somehow waved through "Although on-site parking provision will fall below the standards set out in the North Somerset Parking Standards SPD, the highway conditions in the area are such that there will be no adverse impact on highway safety as a result of approving this proposal." Pre-planning advise recommended amendments to improve character and appearance. Apart from getting to a professional to redraw the plans (my sketchup models didn't look the part) we didn't change anything significant. Somehow the roof terrace has been granted. Finally the house has been designed to have a one bed self contained annexe attached which, again, I thought would meet opposition. So, surprisingly we are now good to proceed on to the next stage with no prohibitive conditions. Perhaps those planners wanted their desks cleared for Christmas! All in all the planning process has been straight forward, I feel like one of the 'lucky ones' right now. I would recommend submitting plans that fit what you want from your property, rather than what you think the planners/neighbours want.

I have just finished my pipework and gone hep, no joints except manifolds and end fittings so no potential to leak in hidden spaces or restricted flow round tight 90’ bends. ( yes there are a few non hep,s but these are going to be replaced as soon as I get replacements).

Come on then, you supply the beer I’ll bring me hammer, once we rip it all out there’s no turning back im really good at making a mess and then running away???‍♂️

The other important thing with soldering copper is let the solder cool naturally and DON'T MOVE the joint while the solder is still setting. I love it personally, that and pipe bending to minimise the number of joints needed in the first place.

this might be a prime opportunity for @Nickfromwales to get a days wage acting as a tutor .......

JG speedfit is inherently flawed IMO as you can rotate the pipe anti-clockwise and that merrily undoes the twist 'lock (?)' fitting with ease. You can stop that from happening by fitting the little horseshoe circlips under the collar, but it's all just hassle. Hepworth is night and day better, and yes a bit more to buy, but it's certainly fit and forget. @recoveringacademic, the pipe outside diameter is crucial to the forming of a watertight seal, so look after the pipe. Keep it baggaged and DONT drag it through holes or masonry thus creating linear scratches aka tramlines down the length of the pipe as you then bugger the whole length up. Water loves tracking along those tramlines so look after the pipe, my number one rule.

+1 to use plastic everywhere unseen - it is easy and although soldering copper is fun it is not as safe - you will need a heat resistant matt to protect any woodwork near where you are soldering, unless you would like the insurance company to replace the house along with the plumbing should it catch fire, as well as some flux along with the Torch and cutters @PeterW mentions. I, personally, don't necessarily feel that the Hep20 is the ONLY choice but if you go that way don't forget to get the unlocking tools - The John Guest (Speedfit) does not need a tool but does have locking collars which clip in if you want to be sure the fitting is locked.

Yes, most of them are fine. I have a similar one, bought from ebay a few years ago, and it works pretty accurately, at least as accurate in terms of measuring heat from surfaces as the thermal imaging camera I have. Like all these types of device, it will be calibrated for a surface with an emissivity of around 0.9, so if you point it at a surface with a substantially different emissivity it will give an incorrect reading. There is a handy list of surface emissivities here that may help give an idea as to what surfaces may give errors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emissivity#Emissivities_of_common_surfaces

@Nickfromwales, Nick, I think that your approach / design template will fit many architectural layouts where there are clusters of HW services physically remote from the boiler / DHW tank. it will provide responsive HW without significant delay, and without any material running cost. So long as it is implemented as you describe. My concern is that few plumbers are at your level of sophistication. Proper insulation is essential. The asymmetric 22 / 10 loop plus trickle flow HRC pump will help. Activity based priming will help, but you could consider on of the new Doppler radar sensors in lieu of PIR. That being said, our setup where there is about 1m of pipe between the SunAmp and a heavily lagged HW manifold is a lot simpler. The first person in the morning has an extra 30 sec of so delay as the manifold warms and that's it.

I bought 3 convector heaters from CPC for not a lot http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/pel00022/convector-heater/dp/HG0091607?ost=hg0091607&iscrfnonsku=false&ddkey=http%3Aen-CPC%2FCPC_United_Kingdom%2Fsearch I don't like fan heaters for unattended use. It's not pretty if the fan fails.

Screwfix thermostatic fan heater £12.00. 40% off. Screwfix have a couple of OK inpexensive compact fan heaters, with thermostats, if you are after one This fixed one for £11.99, reduced from £20. I paid £20 as a drying heater and it was fine. This one is "Trade Rated". I will pick up a couple of these for future needs I think at that price: https://www.screwfix.com/p/portable-fan-heater-2000w/2963P And this oscillating one at £20. https://www.screwfix.com/p/portable-oscillating-fan-heater-2000w/2147P