Nickfromwales

If they go bust, can the insurance company in place at the time still be held accountable? Is there any recourse against a company gone bust in these circumstances?

Good to hear a sobering voice of reason. A bit like me getting walked to a smashed greenhouse as a kid, by my dad, and being told I'm going to apologise; also that I'm paying for the damage (after throwing said stone and thinking I got away with it).... Seemingly bigger consequences here, so best to pay attention and give this the attention it deserves, perhaps.

Beware, that the rain runoff when torrential may shoot down the panels and run off over the gutter. My PV guy kerbed my enthusiasm on this and explained why, and I get it. An apron course (2 of) will allow the rain to be managed vs the elevated surface it would otherwise be running off.

You should go for a cash settlement, and do the work yourself, pragmatically. These are all just a bunch of c888s who care zero about you or your property, they just want a resolve and to get it as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible. My recommendation is, that you then change the window from inside and leave the external façade untouched. Done it a good few times on thin-coat rendered properties where the client wanted the new bathroom to have a bigger window etc etc. We can talk you through this here. Just get a settlement and put the money in the 'fund to fix it properly'.

Bonjour. Take the long length off all the way back to the corner, slowly and carefully, and fit a new section with the external 45 cut into it. Same for that bit left from the other 45. Use Tupret filler to match & patch and you're off to the races. Use a padsaw to cut along the middle of the coving, then use a bit of wood and a hammer it strike the bottom edge up, and the top edge in, to remove the U/S bits. This will save you trying to join older profile stuff to newer profile stuff on an external 45 which would be a royal PITA.

Life’s too short for all that. Plus the storage of the butts / IBC isn’t something I’d ever want to see tbh. Tap > open Hose > squirt, squirt Beer > swig (beer purchased with the 4 figures saved)

Yup. A bit of sweat and endeavour will drop the losses a lot vs just dumping the pipe in the ground. Look to dig a bit deeper and to possibly have the trench fall away from the boiler, with a layer of 150mm or more of pea shingle to sit the pipes and insulation on to. If the run is flat, just fill a decent sized sump in the middle of the run as a soak away. The pea gravel will allow water to soak away from the pipe etc, as water will be the enemy here for heat loss. Use sharp sand to bury the pipes and insulation, then backfill with the excavated muck. Allow for the muck away of the unwanted (excess) spoil.

Some get an upgrade to “w4nkers”.

This is what I’ll be doing on the next job with plaster in terminals. One guy in the room and one at the plant room, with phones or radios.

Is this an oil boiler? If so, these can live outdoors without issue. For pipe work, see: https://www.watts.eu/en-gb/products/eu/microflex-pre-insulated-piping/pipes-for-heating/1-microflex-uno-6-bar If you are left with zero other option then I’d use one for flow and another for return, to take full advantage of maximum insulation per application. 25mm will suffice unless it’s a big house with a load of radiators where you may need to jump up to 32mm. As said, the best place is indoors, but it is what it is. If this is a home form,I’ve then I’d dig a big trench, and make an EPS coffin for the pipes, but defo not burying DIY insulated pipes as water ingress will cost you big over time. The Watts kit comes with weathertight cap ends which you can seal up with CT1 to keep the pipes bone dry.

Ask them to produce method statements and then approach the roof company to open a dialogue of how to fix and keep your cover. Offer to pay the new trades for their time, plz, as it will mean they spend proper time on it.

I’ve just looked through this, and this is not a thermostatic mixer, it is a manual mixer. What is the device giving you hot water? If its a combi boiler then there is a significant risk of being scalded, so a big worry if you have small children or elderly / dependant people using it. I would look at the possibility of changing this to a thermostatic unit or otherwise installing a thermostatic mixing valve into the hot pipe work prior to the shower to cap the max temp that can be delivered with the shower set to max hot position. This is a concern.

Some people say to use cement board instead of plasterboard, in wet areas, but I’ve used plasterboard in 99% of my bathroom / wet room installs without ever having an issue. I always tank the boards and seal up well, so there’s no where for water to get in and start any problems, just down to the diligence of the bathroom fitter / tiler etc. When fitting the surround after these works are compete, ask the question of how this will be sealed up, and also ask them to use CT1 instead of silicone, as silicone breaks down over time.

In a well insulated and airtight house, I’d defo want the roof lights to open to help purge excess stagnant heat out. The chain gear opens them quite far, and the rain sensors shut them when the great British weather reverts back to normal. Between the roof manufacturer and Velux, this is a shower of shit tbh, they’re not being very helpful? I would have thought if you could pack the hinges which are sat on single ply roofing to bring them out to the same plain as the ones on multiples of sheeting then Velux should be happy! That’s just nonsense from them afaic. If the roof can be cut around the Velux window openings etc the there’s no reason why they shouldn’t allow you to cut / weld / dress around the hinges, but I would defo use testimony from the other installers (if they’ll put pen to paper) and see if there can be a resolve that leaves the rest of the roof on. Run this by your replacement architect maybe and format a multi-pronged attack.

Isn’t this on the architect, as the paid principal designer? This should have been flagged and drawings presented for construction, with this issue preempted way before the roof was even on. Im not sure how to add positivity here, and I am trying, but this sounds like you’ve been left to fend for yourself while paying someone who was tasked with organising all this, who seems to have not done so. If the metal roof can be cut and welded, as we see in the pics of the finished (warrantied) job, then I see zero reason why the roof manufacturer cannot provide a detail for rectifying this without the need to remove the entire roof. Then you choose a different trade from their approved installer list to come out and to a method statement and estimate for the works. Use that as a too, to open discussion with the original chap and see how they respond. You need to get into gear with this obvs, so get on the phone to the architect first and start there. That is the person who should be guiding you!

If you look how wasteful most UK housing stock is to start with, there’s little reason to yank any hair out over a few pence per hour additional running costs vs comfort and wow factor, those things will be far more important to those who can’t afford to rip the floors up, and those who are happy that ignorance is bliss. If someone says UFH can cost £5k and be done in a week, or £15k and take 3 weeks or more, you know which option most will go for. If the savings were more significant then prob an easier sell for the additional works, but when you factor in that some people may only be in that house for 5 to 10 more years before moving on, the subject gets the usual lip service and not much else. If being run off an ASHP then the issue is further reduced, but not much more than gas I expect when you look at averaging energy costs across the day. I’d fit the system the client asked me to fit, after giving them all the info (including pros cons caveats) and them then having then made their own informed decision.

I agree with 96.7% of that.

UK planners can be such tossers.

Just make a retrospective planning application for the fence, doesn’t sound like anyones going to die from this! And for the trees and protection, that’s the biggest hairsplitting I’ve ever heard of, just ask if that can be dismissed from their concerns and show some pics of the trees still alive and healthy.

I don’t have this evidence around my Icon fan, which is routinely flowing air much faster, but it is proud of the surface. To be honest, I doubt airflow is going fast enough for long enough to make this an issue, and I’d rather paint my ceiling every couple of years vs have the utilitarian looking vents on the ceiling. If you’re balancing at the manifold then just use a linear version which is bigger / longer than you need to distribute the airflow over a much bigger surface area. Do you know what valves you’re using to control the flow of air, as poor ones will gain you the audibility that you are trying to rid the system of.

Just get Aurora compact depth ones, which are fire rated and acoustic rated, ticking both boxes. https://www.electrical2go.co.uk/aurora-en-fd103sn-gu10-ip65-86mm-acoustic-compact-fire-downlight-satin-nickel.html

Trades on mass build site (sausage factories) are beaten up on price and don’t really care about workmanship. Just spend 30 mins on YouTube to confirm how these houses get built nowadays. The trades know they’ll never be held accountable so rarely give 2 hoots.

You still need to pump if underground, and there’s the cost of the kit and installation. RWH is RWH, regardless of what you do with the water? Thats why I said do above ground and a cheap pump.

Get the insulated plasterboards on and you should be in a good place then. Are you using fans to speed up the drying process for the wet brickwork? They’ll help by moving drier air to that area and also by pushing away the moisture coming off it which would otherwise stagnate locally. Fit them with a 25mm gap at the bottom so you can foam all the way along the bottom of the boards, same at each end, which will stop thermal tenting. If insulation is installed poorly you’ll have gained zero and spent £lots.