Nickfromwales

Always ask mate Type one down and whacked is the norm. Most then put a sand blind down and chuck the DPM straight onto that. I prefer to put 25mm of eps down to better protect the DPM. That method also means you don't have to go nuts on the type one and sand layer getting it perfect.

Hi and welcome to the forum .

Dig a bit deeper and put 150mm of insulation in. 100mm is just scraping past current regs, and current regs are shite on a good day . I put 200mm down under the last job ( summer room / conservatory ) and the customers were chuffed. The difference between the floor in the new space vs the concrete 60's slab in the bungalow was huge, and that was with the Ufh OFF. If you can go to 200mm insulation then that would be much better, and then you can go 100mm eps and 100mm PIR ( kingspan / celotex / similar ) as you'll want something tidy to push the Ufh pipe clips into. The best job of all would be do away with the sub slab, and go... Sand blinding. 25mm eps, to protect the DPM. DPM. 150mm PIR insulation. 100mm concrete slab with reinforcing mesh, Ufh pipes zip tied to the mesh. Remeber that liquid screed is a real pita to get anything ( like tiles ) to stick to. I'd go for concrete or screed if tiling. ?

With prevention being better than cure..... Once the deck protection is laid, approach each trade and explain that it will not withstand cutting / impact damage so please take extra care. Explain that you expect to see each trade / individual practising good measures against causing such damage eg putting down a dust sheet over the deck protection where any heavy tools ( router / planer / chopsaw legs ) are to be frequently used so as to be double sure that no major damage can occur. Futher expalin that you'd like the housekeeping 'upped' accordingly, eg filthy / gritty / clay covered boots left outside and clean boots / steel capped trainers used inside. Last new build I was on I bought wellies for going outside and kept my steel boots for inside only. Another major thing people overlook is the new door / French door thresholds. Get some old carpet offcuts and put them down over the thresholds so the seals don't get damaged or full of crap. Lift and shake these every day to keep them as crap-free as possible. Where heavy / repetitive carrying is to be through one particular door, apply some protection to the verticals of the door frames and that'll cover you for the fact that labourers and apprentices forget that the ladder has TWO 'kin ends . If you don't tell them, don't expect them to do any of the above . It's down to you to keep pushing for good practice, and if you relax, so will they.

Have you been watching 'When Harry met Sally' ? If it's already an exernal boiler then relocating it is simple enough. It's best to either dig a trench for the pipes and insulate them as much as possible, or, if that's not practical, run the pipes along a wall. With the latter I'd box them in to stave off wind chill etc as, even with insulation, they'd still have quite bad losses. Use Armorflex as its better than say Climaflex and you'll be fine. Dependant on how exposed / harsh the local climate can get, you may want to consider a heat trace tape, but only if they're not going in the ground. If trenching then you want the pipes rising vertically out of the floor, in the corner of the new slab ( you'll need a slab for the boiler to sit on ) so the pipes rise inside the case of the boiler. If it's a condensing boiler don't forget you'll also need to extend the drain relocate that too . Regards to the oil alteration, this needs to be done by an OFTEC registered engineer so you stay certified and properly insured. It's not rocket science and many probably just do it themselves, but an oil leak under your house would be devastating so think twice before saving a buck there. You'll also need to check all the valves and safety controls are both working AND compliant with current regs. If you fiddle with it today it'll need to comply to today's oil regs, eg tankmaster / main oil isolation at the tank outlet is operational, the isolation valve, the fire check valve and the filter are all present and installed as per current regs, and that the flue can terminate accordingly in the new location too. Does the current boiler already have a frost stat?

Pics to follow. . Tiled and holes cut for accent lighting. ?

Ok, to clarify, this is already an 'external' boiler yes? Is it currently exposed to the elements and simply piped back to back straight through the wall into the house?

Looking good. Now don't stop !!!

Hi and welcome . Have a good read through as we've already a wealth of info here. We used to hang around on EBuild so some stuff has migrated from chat there to our new, and more robust, forum here Enjoy!

Can't you line a rectangular pit with 300mm EPS and have the liner onto that? Insulated, and a lot of cube of spoil to come out for reclamation.

Yup. You know you have to adjust it with at least a little water flowing through it, yea?

Exp Foam does nothing for sound deadening. The black sound deadening mat that you get from car ICE merchants may be better on the soil, but I don't think it'll be an issue tbh, plus it's a bit late in the day for the soil pipe? Maybe a sheet of this behind the WC to absorb the brief flush noise? The filling isn't noisy at all if you've some flow suppression inline ( only required if you've got a really nasty cold mains ) but as you have a PRedV it should be OK as is. They're really quite quiet when filling up .

This is quite simple. Let him / them sort out the issue the way they see fit . Before any work commences, explain to them that if the issue returns, so will they, at their cost, to repair it again. The PVA is used to get adhesion, and not to create a barrier. If the new plaster isn't allowed to completely dry out prior to painting this will go full circle. Plastering over PVA also requires two coats of skim in the same set ( minimum ) as the PVA tends to cause the first coat to bubble up, and is then nigh on impossible to trowel to any reasonable finish, hence the requirement to go over the top of the first coat with a second 'top' coat as a finisher. PVA gets reconstituted with water / moisture so ensure this new plaster has time to fully dry with the room getting as little steam / use as possible during that period. If you have to shower, window open, and then door open straight after to ventilate the room. The fan alone won't be sufficient. It would be a very good idea to hire a dehumidifier, but don't be tempted to use that until the plaster has gone light pink. Some nuggets will say that's dry, but it's not fully dry, as in dry enough to paint with a non-breathable paint. Lastly, I'd look long and hard at the paint you choose to apply. Go for a top quality paint which is vapour permeable if possible. I for one, would never use a silk paint in a bathroom, but that's your choice, and would instead use a scrubbable matt paint like the Dulux Diamond range. That again is dependant on what is over the other walls already and how far your going to go with this. . Tell them the buck stops with them, and the problem won't go away, and you will pursue them if it's not resolved in the next visit.

FFS Hes easily led ok, so pack it in you lot ✊ You wouldn't say that if you were tiling it Did that in a bathroom showroom once, only to find out that white LEDs through glass actually comes through green To pull that off you need to use Perspex.

What radius? You are mad arching them....you are aware of that, yes? ??

Arched tops? You'll have to mosaic those. The 2026 deadline is already slipping

Arise.......you are worthy...... Just slow

Frame the tiled wall first with your trim of choice. Then tile the back of the pocket, and don't let that set hard before you tile the bottom of it. You have to be able to slide the rear tiles left / right a little to match the grout line running through, so these need to be done in the same set and then left to go off. Cut outs for accent lighting already done and cable in ? Left and right hand cuts go in next. These pics show the trim detail a bit better. I glue these on with mitre bond and activator spray. Don't use to much glue, and keep it away from the face edge or it oozes out of the gap. Less is more. %

Pointless doing the whole wall tbh, and more to cut out for the pockets. Lay that panel horizontally and do two full passes if it's long enough, and you'll have enough gap under the cistern to put some off cuts in as catchers to stitch the two boards together where they but together. Freeby ply looking good, and within budget . Ill post some pics later of pocket shelves WiP .

Thanks. So further reinforces the fact that each installation should be unique to the occupants, ( with the ability to provide at least what they anticipate using at the leanest of times ). Quite different advising on plumbing for self builders TBH, compared to Mr. Joe Public who relies on you to take the reigns and design a system that will cope with their needs and pretty much look after itself.

The guys at Telford knew that it was low temp preheat and I told them a hysteresis of 30-35oC was to be assumed. In the words of Forest Gump, "im not a smart man", but my gut instinct told me they were over cautious in their response. Most big jobs I've done ( 14 bed student digs, with 9 rooms ensuite and 3 shared full bathrooms ) I've designed myself from my 'sixth sense'. They've all worked either well, very well or too bloody well, but never been a fail, so when I designed a pre-heated system for use in a whopper of a house I decided on a 500L TS for pre heat via a coil, and another 500ltr UVC for DHW. When questioning myself about the size of the preheat tank, as in can it be any smaller, I contacted Telford. @JSHarris. How do you think your setup would cope with a family of 5 instead of you and SWMBO, if you don't mind me getting some feedback on the hypothetical ? Ta.

Yes that's the snippet I'm referring to. Just the tech guys were convinced, and could back up the fact that your earlier proposed setup would be the better option purely based on the remit of extracting heat energy in reasonable quantities, e.g. when DHW is being drawn at high volume. Telford weren't convinced about the yield from the smaller TS / DHW coil, as I asked them about an install for a household with reasonable / high rates of DHW consumption. It fear your DHW consumption is far less than the figures I was proposing and wonder how your existing setup, facts now in order thank you , would cope with a couple of teenage girls in the mix. The angle I approached Telford with was "TS plus coil or TS plus PHE" with which they replied with the arguments aforementioned, eg a coil would need to be much bigger, and in a bigger ( min 300L ) TS to be of practical / economical benefit. Just to clarify the coil side of things, do you preheat via a PHE now?

22mm TMV Sorry to be a bit late to this one, but if using UFH then you need s TMV as a failsafe in case your thermostat goes wonky and you get full range heat going to the UFH. That can be dangerous, and cause a lot of damage to flooring. If using the buffer for DHW preheat, I would not recommend going for a TS with an internal DHW coil. I know @JSHarris says he would go that route if doing this over again, but I had a very long chat with the tech guys at Telford who said that with a low temp ( for good CoP ) the yield from an integral DHW coil drops off quite significantly. They went on to say that the coils are rated to provide good rates of heat exchange when the temp is above ~55oC and at its best at >65-70oC. When I asked what size TS and coil would give eveninical yield at low temp they suggested no less than a 300L TS with the biggest ( 46kw iirc ) coil that will fit into it. Only then is it really worth doing preheat that way. They went on to say using PHE's as @JSHarris has now would mean a much smaller TS / buffer could be used as they are far better at extracting heat from a low temp source than a coil would ever be. The killer is the drop in set / target temp, but another thing to remember is you can have pv divert to this TS as well as your UVC so maybe better to go bigger with less losses, and you'll need the TMVs to cap the output / flow temp according to how hot the immersion gets it. .

I'll keep my eyes peeled for one ?

Do you know his whereabouts at 1:50 am this morning ? ?