Nickfromwales

I've tiled floors where the average undulation was ~10mm, and that is doable tbh, but that was with 600x600mm tiles. 1200x1200 will be a pita to lay, lift, re-lay etc so I can see the tilers concern. Unless one of us is going to come and tile it, this is moot tbh. As your tiler is stating what standards they are willing to work to, and how it should be done, if you deviate from that they'll probably tell you to do it yourself ( which is what I would do for sure )..... Levelling out few patches here and there, if it's as minimal as you describe (?), should be a half days work for the tiler. Just pay the tiler to do the spot-prep and get out of their way?? I use Ultra 2-part SLC and that's never once let me down. Will feather out from 5mm-2 to 3mm so don't go to the absolute edges of the ares you wish to level. Tile adhesive is more than capable of absorbing 3-5mm tbh, ( so this is a little bit like splitting hairs in absolute honesty ). Pay the tiler to prep the areas of doubt ONLY, and crack on with the tiling. If you or other get involved and the floor gives up, then expect the tiler to tell you it's your problem not theirs.

An AP is dedicated WiFi, a repeater aka extender piggy-backs the signal FROM an AP. Yup.

When you say alley, is this just a maintenance space or a thoroughfare?

Weather comp will complicate things if you wish to have different controls performing differently per floor. Simplify this with an unified flow temp at source, and have room stats per room on ff and SF, and one global stat on the GF. Yes, you'll need actuators on the upper 2 floors, they will need wiring centres, but you should be able to leave the GF manifold as 'dumb'. The different levels can have their flow temps manipulated via the mixing valves on each manifold to give you control over how aggressively the upper floors get heated ( so you are able to avoid overshoot ). SF UFH will be a costly ornament.

Hi. Do you not have scope to apply EWI outside the frame? 70mm only in the walls, and in Scotland = cold house and HUGE heating bills. Are you on gas / oil? Also, get the ceilings down and cut ( tight fitting ) sections of PIR between the rafters. then go over the top with 200mm of wool. Detail the underside of the ceilings with foil tape, and focuss all your efforts on getting convection heat loss ( drafts ) eradicated.

Hi. Are you now at EnerPHit standards then? ( I just quickly scan-read through your posts from '21 onwards ). Bloody good results if you're defo at this level of space heating requirement! I know it's a bit of a digression, but are you referring to IR panels or convectors? I would not be going to IR panels for space heating throughout the GF, as they are very crude giving masses of heat out locally, and only "heat what they see". Surfaces get stupidly hot too, to the point of becoming a hazard. Dish washer and wash machine should be modern energy efficient appliances and fed with cold water. Kitchen sink; I'd go for 15mm to get the flow as 10mm will hold that back a little, and it's only 3m. I only recommend 10mm for a kitchen if the run is over 9m or so, and there isn't a desire / budget for a hot return system. Run a separate 10mm pipe to each of the upper floor basins. 15mm to everything else. Not going to happen without a hot return system. How often will the 2nd floor bathroom be used? If frequented, consider treating yourself to a hot return? OK, fine. As the UVC is in the basement, you could also consider a cold mains accumulator ( as you have multiple showers ) which would allow you to use both showers at once plus draw off water elsewhere ( appliances filling etc ). Being creatures of habit could negate this eg if you know the limitations, and you can stagger showering.

Screed or concrete? Where are the UFH pipes going and how they getting attached?

Only with a foil faced insulation, not needed with EPS

You should t find the two ever correlating, as you’d have to; a) model with burner cold 24/7 or b) model with burner lot 24/7. Design for the house to be u heated, accepting the heat sources as a bonus. You can’t media out interstitial condensation with internal heating as a variable 👎

Yup, much better. I'd replace the EPS 400 for something a little more rigid, or laminate EPS 400 by bonding on a layer of 20mm of Compacfoam eg so the CF is the material immediately below the threshold. You're not showing the DPC under the threshold and forming an upstand so needs detailing. Tres bien.

I'm planning this with an 11kW Iconica Hybrid inverter, just looking at the number of strings ill end up with before purchasing. Change of £2k and does UPS / EPS etc with full throughput from batteries to house CU, with micro-second changeover so pretty much seamless transition. G100 approved so no issues getting signed off. AFAIK MCS only applies to the panels, and not the inverter / batteries as the panels are the generators ( Microgeneration Certification Scheme ). The Tesla kit is very complex / expensive, and the changeover times IIRC are around 5 seconds; from power cut to EPS on. You need to buy a Gateway / Bridge or something to get their changeover facility bolted on. With a hybrid, everything on the D/C side is invisible to the grid ( so you can have as much capacity behind the inverter as you like ) whereas regular A/C coupled equipment needs a DNO approval for the sum of the panels + battery, which sometimes gets refused or a 'set amount' is granted.

Agree in part, but I've run plasterers and decorators on my private ( high-end ) jobs and accept that a plastered finish will be 99% 'there' and will need some help to get it 100%. This is even more acceptable on sites where the lighting is not already in place, and the plaster is relying on mobile lights. When I say sand / fill I'm not on about mixing 6 kilo's of the stuff, and most times just a quick pole sand and some minimal spot-filling is all it takes to get it over the finish line.

Defo steer away from that idea if at all possible. 365 regen cycles or more each year = pump soon conked out.

You really don’t want to have the daily re-gen going through a(nother) pump do you?!? Can’t you put the softener elsewhere?

Even worse, as the inserts are 3x thicker than Hep2o…. Coming off the 22’s will be fine for 10mm feeds, just use a 22x22x15 tee for EACH one ( if copper ) or 22x22x10 tee if you go to Hep2o / same fitting available for JG speed-fit btw, and don’t mix manufacturers!! Link

If those 10mm split off which go to 2 more pairs are for heating, then that is total and utter shite. Get it changed. All the T’s should each go back to the primary’s. The fact they’re push fit and have inserts to further restrict the flow makes this even worse!!

Can you get a 28mm copper or 32mm PVC waste pipe out to the courtyard? This pipe will never discharge unless the 💩 has hit the fan, so can just be discharged on to the paving there and then make it’s way to the wishing well 👌

What bits of kit need a discharge? Best to start there?

Push offcuts of 15mm pushfit pipe or 16mm UFH pipe onto the end of the foam gun, ( taped on extremely well!! ), at around 1000mm long using them as a disposable long-reach nozzle. Inject with Illbruck 330 foam ( airtight, closed cell, excellent stuff ) and job done. Remove as much of that rockwool as you can, and try to wet the entire cavity immediately before foaming if possible, makes a HUGE difference to how well the foam fills and cures. Do not try to fill all of this in one sitting, so do 1/3, then another 1/3 and then complete as necessary. Aerated blocks aren't airtight btw? Are you parging / painting membrane over them / other?

100% correct. Bingo! For the insulation, you install Compacfoam / similar and that is rigid 400kpa ( load bearing over the whole footprint of the frame threshold ) and that kills all of the cold bridge from outside to the heated slab. Matters not one jot, as the frame fixings ( the proper ones, not cheap shitty bits of universal plate btw ) will be long enough to grab a purchase wherever that shall be. Glad you posted this so you can detail this better. Think about raising that membrane, don't forget!!

Yup. I've started to specify these, but the plugs are shit.

https://www.tradepumps.com/grundfos-alpha3?tagrid=55270474 Change of £197 here

Arch #1 sounds the obvious choice to me? She designs the look of it, you support her with PH tailoring with a bit of help from the 'hub

Ok. This seems to be as good a place as any; Sparked by a recent discussion here; @JohnMo's comments set the old grey matter a-working. If a PH dwelling has an ASHP, and EV / other favourable ToU electricity tariff earmarked, then does it not make sense to massively oversize the buffer tank? Thoughts are; allow dirt cheap heat energy to be harvested and then drip-fed into the house during peak rate / winter absence of PV etc? So, set the ASHP to run for ( lets say for example ) the 5 hours of Octopus go faster ( lets run with that for this example and NOT Cosy tariff ) and heat up a bulk of stored hot water in a buffer ( lets say a 500L buffer double-sprayed with insulation ( circa 110mm thick ) storing at 50oC for this exercise ), and then laminate this with also heating, in parallel, the ( assumed ) passive raft heated slab, thus 'charging' the house thermally for the day ahead. Setting aside the space required for such a vessel, but looking at this on the basis that a ( say 150L ) buffer is going to be bought and installed anyway; so this just needs a few more quid and some more height to facilitate, then what's not to like, please? Low-ish storage temp vs high volume + high level of insulation = low standing losses, so also assuming here that any 'waste' heat would be adventitious. Fire away.

Raise the radon barrier to underneath the 2nd layer of EPS and it will form both radon and DPM if you select the correct membrane. DPM down that low, and omitted higher up is also something I've never seen, other than with Kore, but even then they turn it up the outside of the EPS basket and back over at ToC as DPC. Apart from all these things wrong with it, your on to a winner