Nickfromwales

Always a good time to see if the downstairs ceilings stand any chance lol

The seat / face of where the rubber seal presses against, so on the trap, then put the rubber on, the seal again atop. You can’t go twisting these around or the rubber gets ejected. Take a bit of practice but always gets the results I need; 100’s of showers / wet rooms done over the last couple of decades (+) and not a single complaint or leak.

You don’t have a choice! Either you go up or a plumber does, but if you don’t do as above then your system will stay airlocked and you’ll have just wasted time and money / chemicals for zilch. Some installers used to invert a pipe to a manual vent in the head of the attic space, so this can be vented (bled of air) without going on the roof. If you have bottle gents then you’re prob still going up as these cook and fail and are usually isolated by the installer with a valve so they don’t get called back when they leak (which they will do, so you’ll need to change those too most prob). This isn’t an afternoon job for DIY.

+1. This needs to have an airtightness test done, and a score recorded, before moving an inch further with this

Keeping a preheated tank warm 24/7/365 for no real benefit, my 2 cents. Burner lighting, pumps cycling, diverter valves moving about etc unnecessarily. PS I am a huge fan of heat-store combis, and have fitted loads of Vaillant 937(now 938)'s in the past. Fabulous things. Just this family doesn't need one IMHO.

If you've got one bath / shower then a massive output combi is a complete waste of money / effort afaic? Plus the storage boilers are physically bigger, and stick out a lot more than a regular combi. A 37/40kW combi will scream DHW out, but all of these things are cold mains dependant so that is the real question here. If cold water cannot get in, DHW will not get out, simples.

Why bother? A combi on it's own is fine, and effective?

A lot of modern boilers have an inbuilt filling loop at the connection manifold. What boiler are you looking to install?

You can pressure test to sleep better, but I've not bothered more times than I've bothered, it's just that amount of confidence that I have in it. 25 years of installing UFH and no issues to date btw. This is a rock solid pipe, so does not 'inflate' like a balloon.....so pressurising with a bit of air or water will do zero to protect it from getting crushed. My screed guy has up-ended a barrow full of screed on a pipe and it only scuffed it. I wasn't happy his labourer did it, but I was impressed how much of a hiding this pipe actually takes. I'm not advocating a blasé approach or attitude, and prevention is better than cure, but by simply coordinating trades so you're getting the pipe down, and getting the concrete down asap afterwards, this will massively minimise risks / damage. Not employing morons will pay dividends here, obviously.....

Apologies. Things like kitchen islands or peninsulas are typically 600mm / 900mm / 1200mm deep or wide, so not installing UFH under these is pointless as the heat will get into the 'unheated' area anyway. Where there is a kitchen, and it can only have units on one or more wall, then I do not populate all the dead under cabinet space there as it will never be an emitter, per-se, but also there is always an unheated perimeter around a room with any good UFH design so I simply exaggerate that where kitchen units are always going to be located for the life of the dwelling. Islands and peninsulas come and go with design changes during re-modelling, so I just keep all such areas populated with pipe there.

Yup. I’d rather the extra pipe / volume / storage tbh, particularly if it’s not a huge house. Not running pipes under things like kitchen islands etc is just a complete waste of time and effort in a passive type setting, as a) the temp is too low to cook your cornflakes lol, as you’re only ever getting the floor to a few degrees about room target temp so just entirely moot tbh, and b) as the heating is on ‘long and low’ the omitted areas will warm up anyways! It’s in an insulted basket, so the heat will eventually get there folks, and there’s nowt you can do to stop it. I will leave a pipe at the start of the run of fixed kitchen / other units, stopping about 150mm into the dead under-plinth space, leaving an unheated perimeter of around 450mm in the slab, and then it’s ‘fill yer boots, matey’. I’ve been installing / or been in and around / specifying M&E for these types of (PH style) systems for over a decade now, first ‘taste’ was an MBC PH TF, and not looked backed since. These Pert pipes are 1000% kosher to attach near to / directly to steel reinforcement mesh and the results are always excellent. Damage to the pipe must literally be malicious to get it to the point where it’s a total loss. “People of Buildhub, go forth and zip-tie”. 🫡. El Presidenté.

Pert (alu) for me, and just looked at the last invoice from UFHTD Ltd and that's what's on there. Not sure where I've mentioned PEX, but I have used both over the years. FYI, Pert Alu on every job nowadays. Just bombproof stuff tbf.

For the 16mm stuff, contact Paul and the team @underfloorheating trade direct. That's who I've used for ages, great service and stuff is always delivered as / when promised. 01925 571999 No clue where to get the bigger stuff, but you could ask Paul maybe?

All RCBO boards only lose 1 at a time as the main switch has no RCD

Use the PU glue, “or perish in eternal hell and damnation”……probably. Just never used anything else and don’t fancy the thought of a mastic or silicone etc as they’re completely different products to do different things.

I will start a new thread for this, and then you can settle up mate

Only when he's bladdered and falls asleep in the bath with the tap on For the record, you are both nuts . Bath mat is all you need...... Biggest ballache will be constantly going around topping the water up in the trap (every time it evaporates and the stink of last nights biryani is 'present').

I can say this to you with honesty, openness, conviction, and confidence...... "It doesn't look too shit, to be fair mate"

Or you just buy it for them, if you like the guys, and they agree to put their big-boy pants on and suck up the babysitting approach? You deal with VAT, life goes on...

Yup. Give them the heave-ho now and get cracking. If you wake at 3am and see Bill Odie at the foot of your bed, you’re in trouble, if not, evict and block everything up to the hilt. Chicken wire, and not loose stuff that can be pecked out overnight.

The problem with learning to skim, was I couldn’t practice in customers homes. “Hi, the plastering will look like shit, but bear with please, it’s my 1st day” wouldn’t really go down too well. lol. Great if you can take it one wall at a time in your own home, and quite therapeutic when you get to polish up and take the credit. Also, if it’s a compete train wreck like my first few attempts were, you just PVA it and go again. One trade where practice certainly does make perfect. 👌

It's the natural light as well, which shows up everything on such a wall. Taper boards have non-tapered edges which have to join here and there, just too simple to say they won't exist or won’t be quite frequent (unless you are happy with huge amounts of waste).

They're actually very good value for money. @Andrew Jones (The VAT Man) will be buttoning some stuff up for me shortly, and he will very likely cover his fees in spotting what bits I have missed / misunderstood, alone. I always like hearing peoples thoughts on "VAT efficiency" too......

Why would it, it would state where zero VAT rate is applicable, and when reverse VAT practice is kosher. I do both, no issue. Never have I asked a client (new self / custom builds) to pay any VAT. If the VAT cannot be zero'd at the merchant, I just pay the VAT, I don't charge it to the client, I wait 3 months and get it back....simples. The wait to claim it back is probably an excuse and not a reason for these individuals to deviate from the norm, which stinks that they simply cannot manage their cashflow. For what they're charging they should be all over this like a rash ffs. 🙄