Nickfromwales

Sorry. Missed this. My thoughts exactly which means the world’s gone mad! And your BCO lady is out of a job. Protect a steel that’s already protected, but leave the wood exposed that’s holding the fecking steel up. 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

In that case, not to stir the pot any more than I usually like to do, those timbers should be boarded and skimmed too then? Has that been specified?

You're welcome, lol. I'd just start parking outside his front door, and requote him.

I think this is about spot on tbh...... I'm guessing this was a cash job and no building regs involved? If not, then you need to get your money back, or ask them to do the work to the correct standard.

FWIW your new neighbour is an inconsiderate dickhead. Just thought I'd clear that up.

Some of them are just completely obtuse penis's. >£4k of costs saved on the one where the fu@@wit wanted all the steels boxed in (bearing in mind that this "beaut" decided to drop this request after I'd 1st fixed for electrics, plumbing, MVHR and drainage!).

Methinks not! Garages usually have a sloped floor or a step down of 100mm, for the few that do or did leak, to create that rule. "Has your architect dealt with the sloping floor of the garage, to cope with fuel spills, or another method such as a bund (reduced floor level) to meet compliance at the wall party to the residence?" Haha, I doubt that very much!! I wasn't aware that there did need to be a sloping floor away from the house. I was planning on doing the footings myself. It's not rocket science and I have a good laser level and would simplify matters by hiring a pump truck when they are poured. But do i actually need to have a step in them? Can they not be all one level, and it just means that there are more blocks used to come out of the ground for the garage section? Just click on and highlight text in a post and then you'll see the option to "quote selection" Well, you'd defo need that if there's a doorway, but maybe not if there's just a wall and no shared roof space for fire to breach through to the house within. BCO and your architect should be approached now to address / identify this requirement. Door way to garage or not, assuming not due to levels, but there's nowt as queer as folk! Are you referring to strip foundations and then dwarf walls for back-filling, then the garage structure atop? Tanking would be 'complex' to say the least. Walls would be block on flat then, or otherwise suitably beefed up, to deal with the outward forces from the back-fill. A lot more excavation, muck-away, and back-fill, so wouldn't be my first choice solution. What are you building with? Standard masonry walls with a cavity?

Nothing needs doing to them. Are those timbers decorative, or load bearing to the steel?

I used this company LINK for the last job where the same decision was agreed on between myself and the client; futureproof for anticipated downstream sale plus the slight possibility that it would be needed. That was enough to justify the small uplift in my fee to do 50-60% of the area of each of the 3 upstairs spaces, as there was no need to 'go mad' up there (MBC PH TF). The biggest thing is to use a load of fixings to ensure as much of the alu is in firm contact with the timber deck as is possible. Go bloody nuts with that; we used an air stapler and just went berserk with a couple of boxes of 1000 going in a wink (job below).

Can't you get the installer back? They can't have priced you for an "only slightly leaky" roof conversion?? Make this their problem and get them to do it properly.

Thanks for posting the conclusion /solution Happy days.

If you want to go right through the building, say from plant / comms room to each TV / WAP point, then consider using 20 or 25mm lay flay or MLC pipe instead of conduit. This will give you one long sweeping run which you can easily pull a cable through retrospectively. This wont crush or kink like flexible conduit will, but won't be a royal PITA to pull in like rigid conduit would. You'd need 1x run for each location, but with a bit of planning and thoughtful layout you can make longer sweeping bends vs sharp turns by making the run follow the 'not as the crow flies / point to point' route. Simply use string and a hoover to install fish / draw lines and leave in situ for whatever may come in the future (like fibre to all areas in the home). Not sure how much more internet a home would / could need tbf though, so a reality check is often wise; lots get caught up micro-managing the shit out of non real-life stuff and forget there's a house to build . Plan for embedded CAT6 now, and install the conduit (pipe) in addition for Justin Case, if you think such redundancy will be required. Likelihood is everything will go over Wi-Fi eventually, and you'll just upgrade the WAP's to suit, and gigabit tech is pretty damn solid tbh. I just installed Wi-Fi7 WAP's for a client we moved in end of last year and I was super-impressed with how well they performed (only 2x units in a 300m2 TF dwelling).

@ollie Erm, 'bouncy guy' must think that screed is flexible then?!? Don't be ringing him back..... Bond the flooring down, and confirm with the supplier / manufacturer of the max floor surface temps that the product and the adhesive can cope with (most say <270C). Ask the installer to allow for enough adhesive to fully bed / bond the floor down, and offer to pay for the extra adhesive if so necessary (as some will skimp and use as little as possible, which you don't want for UFH to work best).

TF suppliers are not going to identify this btw. Architect is PD and BCO sense checks them, and usually then garnishes with their 2 cents.

Nope. Standard PB + skim is fine. 15mm FR plasterboard if it wasn't skimmed (tape & joint). BCO lady needs to brush up!!!!! Ask specifically if this is requisite or a recommendation, as last few (almost all BCO's) have rescinded when challenged tbh on many things. One was exactly this subject, with 2 separate BCO's on 2 of my clients builds, where they were adamant that FR plasterboard was needed; 1 where they were saying "but only at / under the steels", and another where the fu@@wit of a BCO was telling the builder (who was also a fu@@wit) that all steels needed to be boxed in with FR PB (before both jobs being boarded over and skimmed!!). Just nonsense. Go back and challenge, but prepare yourself to be polite and pragmatic in your approach so no knickers get twisted

I would have assumed that 'good' groundworkers would be able to pour that split-level slab with a 4-500mm step in it, in one hit, by managing slump and shuttering it to suit. Have you spoken to any preferred contractors about this yet? Has your architect dealt with the sloping floor of the garage, to cope with fuel spills, or another method such as a bund (reduced floor level) to meet compliance at the wall party to the residence? Any part that is subterranean will need to be waterproof concrete and tanked externally, but 4-500mm is not a huge issue. Are you using ICF? That would make this a lot easier to do tbh.

The pump should be PWM and be controlled by the heat pump to match duty. It should come on at higher output when the return temp is low, and start to dial down as demand gets lower / return temp increases. I know that with Stiebel Eltron (external pump and controls) you need to set this during commissioning. One we installed hadn’t been commissioned properly (agent missed a setting by mistake) and this meant the main circulation pump was just going flat out; this didn’t allow an opportunity for any heat to amass and then the HP locked out after 10 mins or so (assuming compressor failure). I’m not familiar with all HP’s (so just FYI) so you can ask the question.

If they’re exposed then yes, but if they’re enclosed by a layer of standard plasterboard (which has been plastered) then they need zero extra protection. If you can ‘see’ a steel so can an open flame, that is what you protect a 1 or 2-storey dwelling against, 3-storey will come with its own prescribed methodology by your various professionals. A “single compartment dwelling” has even fewer requirements, no need for FR spots or other usual stuff; SCD’s have open-plan hall / stairs / landing, and usually the architect will have specified escape windows to all FF habitable rooms. Pointless for a steel beam to be in tip top condition when everyone in the building has already either died from smoke inhalation or been roasted, FR are there primarily for preservation of life not property. 3-storey dwellings do require the property to remain structurally intact for rescue to be made, hence the extended timescales for fire resistance / protection of the build fabric, plus fire doors etc. This also assumes jumping from a 3rd storey window wouldn’t be practical.

Yup. lol. One of those “measure twice” moments. 😜. Could be worse, so not the end of the world 😊

Let them fit the 28mm throughout, as even a 300L cylinder has 1” BSP to 28mm connections so why not use them and have full use of the coil? It’ll perform better so where’s the harm. If it’s a smaller cylinder with factory 3/4” / 22mm connections then I’d challenge.

Yup. Switch off the OCD if you want this type of floor, and it’ll all pan out just fine. Did about 45m2 for my next door neighbour (reclaimed) and once sanded, then filled with PVA and the sawdust as a filler, and then treated, it looked really good (and as it should). Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable. If you’re an OCD freak, use something else. Did my brain in tbh, so I just switched off and cracked on.

lol. Let’s all stay up and fight 😁.

Long story short; PV is a no brainier, matched to export as little as possible (get near to 100% self consumption), and batteries need thought and effort for them to be decided upon as ‘beneficial’. Each case is unique, so no copy / cut / paste.

My ICF chap travels wherever, the caveat is you have to pay the expenses / accommodation costs but they’re a good bunch and are very proficient with raft / ICF / modern build methods so most agree it’s a “hidden value” which they accept. They do the groundwork’s for me too if I ask nicely lol. 🍻

Yup, sounds like the pump is on full wallop and hasn’t been commissioned to dial it back to a lower speed setting.