Nickfromwales

Hi and welcome. Have you had a professional survey done yet ? First checks have to be for anything fundamental that needs doing, as you don't want to do any other jobs twice . If it's blowing 'fuses' do you mean the rewire-able ones or trip switches? If you don't know the condition of the electrics then you need to get those safe to use before you plug anything in, like extension leads or power tools. Buy an extension lead with plug type RCD and ONLY use that for anything hand held. Stick to that religiously.

Let me put this another way,..can you plumb ? ( tidily and reliably).

Definitely the sweet spot. No more diggers, just add the pretty bits.

You don't fancy DIY then ?

It's the commission and controls which puts the willies up 'regular' plumbers I think. Any plumber should be able to open a set of instructions and plumb it in without issue, it's just they could be somewhere else in their comfort zone whacking 5 pipes up the bottom end of a combi and then just walk off. I've yet to fit an ASHP TBH, but I wonder what the hype is all about? Do you need to be MCS to commission an non-RHI ASHP or just a competent installer ?

Use Ardex A35 or 38. Takes ceramic tiles in 4 hours . Edit to add : you use the Ardex instead of regular cement.

Is the steelwork to be insulated ? If so, just fire straight through the blocks and use a full vertical strip of mild on the internal face to stop the fixings crushing the durisol. Its only the horizontal short sections of steel your fixing through yes?

Any jobs going ? ?

I'd fit the door frame after tiling the floor. Wall tiles after floor always.

Three months will give you enough knowledge to be dangerous. Read a lot further into stories recalled here of who's done what and the layers soon start to peel away as to how they actually came to be skilled enough to do what they've done. Plumbed previous jobs or always had a go at plumbing over the years...... Done tiling inbpreviius properties...... Truth is, if your on site managing and 'observing' other trades and trying to get something done you'll end up distracted and just muddling through. Ok if it's fitting a bathroom after the rooms been vacated but if your holding anyone ( paid trade ) up then not ok. Fitting mvhr? Crack on, it's just pulling ducts through gaps for the first fix. Plumbing? Anyone can push two bits of speedfit into a fitting after an hour on YouTube, but what about the sizing and basic principles ? ( where do you need double check valves, what size pipe goes to what etc ). A lot can be gleaned from here but that would take most of your 3 months to read and absorb TBH, so my 2 cents... Be the oil for the cogs. Clean up so your trades are doing meaningful work for the day rate your paying. No way I'd want a sweeper upper on part of £180 a day Run for stuff when it's missing or soon to run out. Make tea. Make sure the portaloo is clean and stocked. We may be tradesmen but I don't want to use a filthy stinky toilet and will just pee behind it. Bring beer by all means, but ONLY on a Friday and ONLY late in the afternoon. NEVER in the week as it sets a bad example. This may sound negative, but it's actually very good advice from someone who's been in this environment for a LONG time. Practising / learning in your own house isn't anything I'd recommend. It took me a decade of watching plasterers before I bought my plastering tools.

That's me after your plumbing budget

Record it for us please.

One that catches a good few of us out. Nowt worse than guys arriving and no gear. Some extra tiles for the ones that are damaged in transit are a must .

PMSL. Some wee just came out

Bollocks. I just drank two bottles of it.

The reason it's there is because the copper tank that original,y would have provided dhw would have typically been gravity fed, and the cold taps would have all been cold mains for drinking water, and then gravity cold for everything else. I think the system has simply been scaled back to the point where just the WC's are fed now, so that's just one stop short of doing away with it altogether. Probably retained just for convenience and nowt else IMO. Another reason for having the WC's fed from the tank was that the water then has a chance to acclimatise to ambeint, so it was no longer icy cold, the main cause of the WC cisterns accumulating very high levels of condensation, particularly in the colder parts of the year when the incoming cold mains gets so much colder. More 'modern' systems featured all cold mains feed to everything, and then a cold feed to a combination copper tank up top. That had an integral CWS at its head, then the stored hot water underneath it, heated by a simple immersion in most cases, which came out at gravity force. Simple and straightforward. Id dread to think what the levels of crud are like in that tank, so you are certainly better off without that one. Choices. Go all mains and suffer the condensation issue. Fit a new, sealed ( smaller ) coffin tank and keep the WC's on gravity, and then position the tank where it's convenient. I'd say above the rooms you develop. Pro's and con's either way.

Think again We'll all be learning until there's nothing left to learn.........and then the bastards will change the rules and off we will go again. Good news though, you've chosen the right fairground in which to enjoy the rides, aka BuildHub. Welcome aboard. ?

Deffo to air con if you can get it, as heat rises and if you felt compelled to fit it in the bedrooms on the 1st then....... I'd fit radiators and use those as the primary heat source. A thermostatic radiator valve will deal with shutting the rad off to avoid overheating and it doesn't get much simpler than that. I don't think I'd want to rely on the A/C for heat for the winter as in this country it's on for a long time . No noise off a radiator either ?

Bird is the word.

@Onoff can make the box section and away to go. ?

These wipes contain voodoo ingredients which get it off too if your quick. I don't know what's in them but their fantastic.

Yup. As long as the foam can't get to atmosphere it'll stay good for ages. Clean the tip with gun cleaner and happy days.

I'd also look at the cost for excavation and seriously consider an ASHP. Youll need to run the numbers on this before jumping in. If either ( low grade heat ) source struggles to heat the house you'll ultimately be reinforcing with grid electric, so measure thrice, fit once ?

Nope. Entire elevation.

As an aside....the flexible tap hoses shouldn't go directly onto the ballofix valves either. They should screw onto These flat faced copper to irons first, and then have a short section of copper going between the ballofix and the aforementioned fitting. The ballofix has a sharp edge to the conical part that the olive seats against, and that can chew into the rubber seal in the tap flexi and cause the fitting to leak over time. I know that from my early days after working for a penis that did this to save £3 on every job.