Nickfromwales

One is the norm, prior to insulating usually ( if blown cellulose is the weapon of choice ). I guess the two test argument is if you want to be sure that you haven't reduced the buildings integrity after the initial test proves 'positive'. MBC do their test once as they simply want to know that they have satisfied their part of the contract, as they guarantee the result of <0.6 so just need to be able to demonstrate that at the handover. A second test on that pretence would only be for the homeowner to confirm that follow on trades haven't subsequently turned the house into swiss cheese. For me, I'd HAVE to have the second test done, for my own sanity, but others may value a night out in favour of such worries. If certification is involved then the second test may be ( with good reason ) mandatory. Certainly not a bad thing AFAIC.

Another option

Happy days

Ah, just re-read. The pelmet is applicable if you haven't had to put FR on the walls eg brick / block construction. With 2 layers on the walls AND floors the junction integrity is there. Just giving general info out is sometimes too general. @mvincentd take note please.

Plan well, and consider where recessed items may be fitted later ( such as FR spots / speakers with FR hoods etc ) and pull the ducts once. got caught out a few times and had to pull out and reinstate a couple, but you'll get the hang of it if you're the 'hands on' type. If you're feeling brave, its far less wasteful if you can at least provisionally fit the outlet 'boots' and terminate as you go. A lot easier to see where you're runs will actually end up if you have given yourself visible targets. The 'all round' metal band to mount the duct securely came from Screwfix.

The MVHR has a heat pump, so will provide some comfort cooling to iron out any spikes in room temperature. Although probably unnecessary in the real world it was deemed that preserving the cooled air after paying to produce it seemed reasonable enough to keep a few packs of the duct insulation and fit it to the longest runs. Prevention and cure etc. The 6x ducts for the upstairs 3 bedroom supply runs ( additional insulation was only on 4 of the ground floor supply ducts BTW ) were completely encapsulated in blown cellulose, so just thought why not even things out as the stuff isn't expensive. FYI, the duct insulation that is available via most reputable MVHR suppliers is readily available with a bit of googling for around 1/2 what the suppliers charge for it. Found out that when I saw the stuff in the flesh and thought ? "TLC Direct sell that".....link

Food for thought, and a bloody good point if the garage is the back door to the dwelling. Discuss people !!

Chuck the lot in the garage. Only thing I do as routine is fit an emergency light by the CU so you can see if the lighting circuit has gone off. Fire control can be managed with FR exp foam. If plaster-boarding, then chuck a sheet of FR on before the CU goes on.

Maybe different regs in the land of the haggis Down here its a standard detail to satisfy building regs, and the purpose is to ensure a dead stop at the periphery of the FR ceiling for fire egress. Basically takes the ceiling FR boarding from a layer to a 'tray'. I think the vertical gap against breeze block / brick ( typical ) walls was never good enough to just seal, so the pelmet completes the system a treat IMO.

Mostly copper IIRC.

Ive done a number of SA installs where no such issue has been evident. Curiouser and curiouser………. The only thing I have noticed on other installs, is the NRV's and TMV had introduced the aeration of the water, to a point in one instance that the water looked like milk. As you say, once allowed to stagnate briefly, the bubbles dissipate and the water returned to crystal clear. I think that issue can be separated out of the equation. As for the smell, I'm at a loss there. The heat exchanger is entirely potable ( drinking quality ) and is made from solid copper. The only place to be picking this up is from contaminated pipework or some other phenomena. Either that or is there a drain off near the SA that you can sample directly from the SA 58? ( needs to be done with the hot return pump off ). BTW, @readiescards what speed setting is that set to? Should be on max.

Don't forget if you have to install FR ( fire rated ) plasterboard on the garage ceiling, you also need to put a continuous 100mm single layer running as a pelmet on the surrounding walls, in contact with the ceiling. Just a heads up as normally you'll be bringing cables / pipes / other through into the garage, to bury a bit of plant or the fuseboard, so you either need to keep things up in the joist space or keep then 120-150mm below final ceiling level so you avoid having to detail that pelmet around 'obstacles'. The pelmet needs mechanical fixings ( screws ) and the pelmet > ceiling junction needs to be sealed with intumescent FR acrylic sealant, as do the joins and the open underside of the pelmet.

RG59 is the standard stuff.

Other option is to 18mm shuttering ply ( cheapest of the plywoods ) the whole thing prior to PB and crack on. NB : Don't forget to provision for the power and bell push wires

WRONG! The first thing your garage door fitters will say is "where are the ceiling joists sherlock?" If the brackets land between joists then you'll need to have beefy noggins fitted to take the heavy duty fixings. Either that or the garage fitters may slap you with an extra and supply and fit ugly uni-strut to traverse joists and create fixing points. Let the guys fit the garage doors, infilling with timber where necessary, and then you just drop one bracket at a time as you board sections at a time. When you reinstate the fixings you know you're going back into the underlaying noggins and the ceiling will be free from clutter. The only consideration id look at is skinning the wall with the garage door opening with 18mm ply / other to stop any cold bridging from the steel over the door. The garage door running gear will need a fix to this and creates a metal / steel connection that's not ideal, imo.

Unless its huge or flowing water it'll be sapped in no time

Dead simple. In 80mm of depth it would be nigh on daft to attempt to overlay 30mm of product where 16mm of that was pipe as its integrity would be that of a KitKat. Also, trying to bond those two thermally dissimilar layers ( one would be heated, the other would be being heated by the other ) would be a proper ball-ache. They 100% made the right decision for you there.

What are you doing for heating and hot water? Wont be far off needing to start provisioning for 1st fix services / penetrations etc.

UFH is a can of worms in a retrofit. Be very wary of what youll do to keep the place warm if youre not going to remove the wooden floors ( joists and all, eg nothing between you and the dirt ) and insulate under a new slab. You can insulate under the joists a little and then insulate between the joists, and then you can lay aluminium spreader plates directly underneath the floorboards which will work. If you zoom in you can see the shiny aluminium panels with the two indents for a piece of 16mm pipe to sit in. This really is a question of how far you can improve the building in order for UFH to become suitable. A house like this would normally need high temp emitters such as radiators, which quickly change cold air into warm air and circulate it around the room whilst doing so. LOTS to consider before even thinking about UFH

Put a strip of white laminate up in the soffit, the stuff you can buy on masking tape sized rolls for making good on the ends of kitchen worktops etc. White, bond on, scrubbable / won’t degrade, and will reflect the light off the LED strip. Bingo.

For wood, try and avoid laminate as it needs professional repair. Splash out on engineered with a real wood veneered finish. Some can be ’refinished’ ( sanded back and varnished / other ) as many as 5 times, dependant on how thick the veneer is. Amtico and Karndean are the industry standard for soft footing, and wear very very well. I recently took out a KD floor which had been born for nearly 30 years. Was still in exceptional condition just bleached by the sun in the normal places. Check UV resistance, whatever you choose, if subject to direct sweeping sunlight.

You people buy the stuff, and I fit it to the best standard that “it” can achieve. Look at at that bird getting up close to BoJo. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” Tidy, that’s your gin and @newhome‘s coffee. I’m going for a hat trick. ??

Buy a new, smaller one. Do not feck the grout up. It’s the icing on the cake ?

So secondary metering after the main meter. Still a district system if it’s from one billing meter ?

You set the setback temp ( actually it’s referred to as nighttime / unoccupied “economy” temp ( aka ‘off’ ) and daytime “comfort” temp ( aka ‘on’ ) ) to the lowest temp you can accept the house falling to at night. youd probably be best setting it to 16oC and most of the year it’ll likely not come on much anyway. The generic ‘economical’ advice you got is just knee-jerk I-can’t-be-bothered-to-go-into-detail reply. Pretty much the norm.