Nickfromwales

They're beats, must have been fun! Looking good

At least put a cheap Climaflex 13mm wall pipe insulation on first, and then fill the void with mineral wool to compliment. That stuff is cheaper than shoplifting and will be far better that just attempting to manage the losses by stuffing loose wool around.... Seal up where the pipes start / finish ( each end of the boxing-in ) to stave off any convection ( heated air ) flow. Do you have PV, so as to reduce the amount of summer boiler heating of the cylinder?

Aluminium spreader plates for me, just so quick and simple. Great results every time.

Less gin, more tonic The 2x2 is ample, relax. This is exactly how most do it. Words from the wise

Yes, and the cocks fitted that on the internal wall........presumably after coring out and realising there was a Catnic in the way! The round hole in the outside skin of brickwork is where the 100mm through-wall vent duct and plastic grille were then fitted ( doing the square root of SFA ) to hide the fcuk up. They clearly knew they'd dropped a bollock as there are some small holes drilled so they could get a whiff of air through, plus what looks like a failed ( or more likely abandoned ) attempt to drill a 50mm hole with a bi-metal holesaw. Probably limited to the number of tools they could fit in the saddle-bag

Complete amateurs, or just careless tossers. Either way, a terrible job. The walls should have been dubbed out and dragged straight before even considering applying the render, or it could have been an excellent candidate for external wall insulation which could have been applied and shaved nice and flat. On a scale of 1-10, that jobs a 2 or 3 at a push. If they said to you, before starting, "the walls are wonky so the finish will be poor" then that's a different story?

I’ve done a few like this in garage conversions, no complaints to date. I cut that section of insulation in last, the area under the tray plus a few inches more, and set that back down onto wet expanding foam. Whilst the foam cures you will need to put a piece of timber deck down and lay some very heavy weight on it, evenly distributed, until cured ( 2 hours should be plenty ). Bond the membrane to the insulation with CT1 or Sikaflex and roller it out with wallpaper joint roller, and leave to dry for 24 hrs. Fit the timber deck down, bonding it to the area of membrane that you previously bonded, and leave again to cure. Set the tray down into a bed of Sikaflex ( NOT a sand and cement mix ) and be generous enough with it to use that to level the tray. Bond the tray to MR plasterboard the 2 or 3 sides around, and remember to screw into the plasterboard when fixing it to the studs, at the same level where the tray will be bonded to the plasterboard, so it’s nice and solid. FYI, I always do these types of conversions using 2x layers of deck board ( 18mm or 22mm P5 Egger etc ) with the joints overlapped for 2 belts and 3 braces, gluing snd screwing the hell out of them so they become one bit of deck. I have put washing machines on these types of floors ( garage to utility etc ) and even spin cycles etc never see a mm of movement. This is quite a solid way to lay a floor as long as the subfloor is near perfect in level and uniformity. If not, self levelling compound should go down first to get it flat and smooth, as there is no other practical way of levelling once the insulation has gone down. Done properly, this will be fine.

Horses for courses, but I’d prefer the ceiling left non ‘littered’ and accept a boxed-in unit lost down low somewhere, so sucking cooler air in from lower and blowing it upwards / outwards. Possibly hidden in the bottom of a part faux bookcase or similar. To effectively ‘blow’ the cold air out, the ducts / terminals need to be reasonably sized and ‘open’ eg you can look up into them. Have you provisioned for these to be at the ends of the room? You can mount these a little more remote to the room ( adjacent cupboard etc ) and insulate the ducts, depends on the house / layout / space etc of course.

+1

Not from what I'm reading there. 2x batts = 3kW max discharge. 2x batts + extra pod still = 3kW max discharge rate. The extra pods only permit system size / capacity expansion when more batteries are introduced. The energy comes from the batteries, so they dictate everything.

Just grab the bull by the horns, and tell your installer the "problem" is yours, not theirs. Conversation over, nobody gets hurt

MVHR has a fan. It goes around for a VERY long time before starting to wear out. That is usually notable, and an annual service will identify this early on, ergo it is a known and predictable failure which you can actively mitigate against.

Internal backup immersion kicks in. Same as the neighbours, put a jumper on, buy some candles.

Isn't it the number of cells, not inverters ( BMS ), that dictates that max discharge rate, no?

I was a little frightened that you would hold back. You go, sir! He's as 'good' as the many sacks-o-shart that have gone before him.......

@Adsibob A bit embarrassing for you, but I think you may have inadvertently created an avatar with BoJo and some clown makeup? He's clearly a Muppet

OK, so those are the outlets? Where are the inlets? Needs equal volume in both directions.

Why not box these in lower down, and make them look like a low surface temp radiator for eg? Where does it suck air in / blow it out again?

Thanks. That price is just taking the piss tbh.

It puts you in in far more control of the spending, plus it will make costs more transparent. The professionals around you probably dislike that as it means their costs can be better scrutinised when the project becomes fragmented. Get to weathertight, shell, roof, door and windows, and get a blower test done to prove integrity. Dust yourself down, inject some steroids directly into each testicle, and ( with all the spare time you have ) drive the project independently from there. You may have a native for support to get you through the tough times…..but tbh, after you’re weathertight, it’s pretty much plain sailing. Time to use the ones you need for the jobs you need them for ONLY, then it’s time to cut out the dead wood. “Make it so, No.2” 😎

Glad you’re moving forwards. Is there a PoE Ring Video-doorbell?

Just raise the slabs on the pedestals and leave alone. Unless you can get the best roofer in the country to pul that outlet apart and redo it, I’d not open that can of worms tbh.

No need for apologies lol. SLC isn’t typically ‘flexible’, so not normally put over decoupling membranes. If the membrane is down, you could use a “renovation screed’” which is flexible as it’s fibre-impregnated. You’d lay a thicker mix of this vs allow it to self-level if graduating the floor, or leave it ‘runny’ if filling in dips / raising a larger area. You’ll see the recommended water : product ratio on the packaging, so just dial that back 5% if you don’t want it to run away too far from the target area. If only needing to make up 3-5mm I’d just get them to do that with tile adhesive as they’re laying tbh, 5mm+ then got to renovation screed over membrane. How much area needs ‘correcting’?

@ProDave Is a conduit in insulation subject to de-rating?

So? £16k + £30k + £7.5k and then possibly + £5k = £58.5k total you’re paying for the entire plumbing install as described?