Nickfromwales

Room by room is a bit pointless, imo, as the house will just do all it can to equalise the temps throughout. Add MVHR in to the mix and it becomes even less important.

Wishful thinking I’m afraid. Water based ‘gloss’ is very good, apply one coat AM, and another PM, and you’re pretty much done. Are you painting before fitting, or are they all fitted already?

Yes. The levelling is shit, and their management of your expectations equally shit. If I am going to fail to get a floor perfect, for whatever reason(s), I tell the client before hand so they know what to expect; that allows opportunity to explore options, and for a compromise to be agreed. You can't just have depressions that bad on a new floor, and rectifying it is relatively easy; just add spot-filling with compound over primer and then block the floor to remove the steps where the 'waves' of leveller are apparent. Using a dimpled roller is great for general levelling, but if you're rectifying areas then you don't roller it as you don't want the leveller to migrate from the area you want to improve. Talk to them in the morning and completely lay your cards on the table, and ask these questions and get the answers directly, as all you're doing here is venting and not resolving, as we're not laying your floor.

I paid a guy to come and lag it all for me, and he worked mostly in light commercial etc so it’s default there. Not really necessary but the phenolic stuff comes foiled as standard. Not much need in a domestic (but satisfies OCD), and the grey EPS stuff is no better or worse than the neoprene, same values etc, so if you’re inside the heated and airtight envelope then the insulation is mostly relevant if cooling.

Listen to the advice of the new contractors as they will then be liable for longevity etc. If you ignore them then you’d be blamed for any failures. Short cuts take 3 times longer and are always 3 times the cost. Remove the U/S sub base and get it all replaced with type 1, and install ACO drains to manage storm water.

I should have clarified, but I was 3 pints in at that stage. Nobody who gives a feck basically. I think you’re probably right. lol.

Point to point, multiples of continuous pipe from A - B, with a pipe for bath hot, a pipe for bath cold, a pipe for shower hot, another for shower cold, another for WC cold, another for sink hot, and cold, and so on until the whole house is plumbed. Each fed from a hot manifold and a cold manifold, so every individual pipe can be isolated independently for service. I put them in the same place to simplify plumbing.

You have way too much spare time mate. 😅

Nobody series plumbs anymore, that I know, as it’s just inefficient and introduces bucketloads of hidden joints. 👎. “Radial ‘til I die”.

That’ll be plenty. Just wipe everything with a cloth to get dust cleaned off, so the tapes stick well. 👍

Apologies, on a job that’s keeping me busy atm. I would have said this. Glad they carried on, and you’re making progress.

You just need a good plumber who sees things holistically. My jobs are all planned in advance of the construction phase, with a line out done comprehensively; line outs are used for identifying all trades requirements, for pipe and cable pathways / service risers etc, so as to delete any downstream conflicts or ‘feck ups’. A good trade will support you here, but all too many of them expect to have this handed to them on a plate so they can just paint by numbers. Time and money goes down the tubes PDQ when your double handling or moving sideways (or backwards) plus trying to find trades whilst the plates are all spinning is time consuming and stressful, hence I always say to sort this in advance. Designs are wonderful if they’re done by the person responsible for bringing them to life, otherwise they’re largely ignored, or aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. In over 30 years of doing this I’ve never produced a single design as it’s a waste of time and money. I did this plant room out of my brain space, from scratch. Just sat there for 4 hours in silence planning it out, then told my electrician where his cable trays needed to be so I could plumb around them, so he could get started on 1st fix before my kit even arrived. The plans I was given from the supposed M&E designer went straight into the bin, utter garbage, which happens 99% of the time in the domestic sector. Commercial designs are always spot on, but the cost for that kind of setup runs into 5 figures. Architects never detail this, most don’t give a plant space bigger than a phone box, and desktop designs rarely layer the accumulative multiples of disciplines; choke points and interference are often unidentified until they’re staring you in the face and ‘the ship has sailed’. Just get a good (better) plumber, someone used to working more comprehensively, and ask them to help you plan this is my 2 cents.

22mm backbone is fine if there’s a hot return. Otherwise, just painfully slow to get hot water from basin taps. Avoid.

Totally. For woodcrete I’d get them in before you have boarded, as that will allow you maximum exposure for the magic goop to do its thing. Follow on trades will all need inductions and in agreement to maintain the integrity of that airtight layer. On an Isotex job the client tried a liquid membrane, spray and brush applied, but the woodcrete simply has too open a pore for this to work well on bare woodcrete. Another parged first and got 0.66ACH, but neither were ‘cost effective’ (they were expensive as feck). AB is your friend here, but obvs a certain amount of prep needs doing ahead of their arrival.

But……would the pipes not move also?