Nickfromwales

I always chuck a spare 4 or 5 core in as a redundant cable when getting there later on will be tricky. Eg. I don't want to dig that back up Whats the length of the run between the TS and the manifolds? I assume your running 22mm circs?

Yes, your spot on. The TS and the boiler 'talk' to each other via the cylinder stat and that heats the tank according to time / demand. The room thermostats talk to the actuators on the Ufh manifolds, and the call for heat from any room / zone ONLY needs to turn the pump on the respective manifold via the dedicated terminal in the Ufh control / wiring center ( UH2 ). There is no need for an external pump to circulate between the TS and the manifolds as long as the run isn't ridiculously adverse, eg 2 floors away at the other end of the building with 20 high points etc. These do pull through incredibly well all by themselves. Quote "The Heatmiser guy was insistent that I should use the hot water valve signal because I will need to trigger the external pump at my TS." Did they mean trigger the manifold pump? Or do you already have that connected? Is this in and working, then failed, or are you installing all new from scratch?

There should have been a double socket straight connector on the top of each upstand . In that, blank caps fitted to stop the concrete failing in, but most importantly to protect the fitting and its internal rubber seal. I'd not even consider using that fitting as I only ever use those for picking up from a clay soil pipe. The internal bore is too far reduced to be putting that at the START of the stack, sorry. Hire a 6" core drill, make a 6" hole in some 18mm ply as a guide, lay the ply on the floor and centralise it over the stack. Core drill down around 75mm and remove the spoil, then cut the soil just shy of the FFL and then attach said coupler. It's a bit of a pita but if I was there, that's what would be happening. Don't kango out around the pipe or you'll scratch / damage it and be unable to get a seal when you offer the fitting on.

In part, yes. I do prefer the 'runny-ness' of the unleaded solder but it took a while to become a fan, due to me using leaded for so long prior to 'the change'. I do like the way that UL'd solder stays bright on the coil, where as L'd solder tends to go black and dirty, and then that gets deposited on the joint as it's going. I've always observed a 'no bump / knock' policy whilst my soldered joints cool down. I use a cold wet rag to instantly cool my joints which pretty much guarantees that I don't get brittle joints, and what you say about UL'd there is 100% spot on. Not many people know about it or actively prevent disturbance during cooling, particularly DIY'ers.

Yup, I still carry 'true leaded' solder on the van for sweating copper to lead etc, or for flooding old joints in situ ( where cutting out and replacing a leaking joint is not possible / cost / damage effective ). With that stuff I can literally form a 'belt' around a fitting, therefore bridging the leaking part of a poorly soldered / dry, and subsequently leaking, joint. A skill not many new plastic-heroes posses

That was my next question . Thanks.

I managed to set fire to my one ton bag of fresh firewood the other day. One beer too many and the bag must have been pulled too close to my chimnea. Result is that out of the 24 odd plastic corrugated roofing sheets, round 23 of them 'may' need to be replaced. Gutted. Thank F the bag was only about a 1/4 full. Dark day, that one. ??

10/4. Just haven't yet met anyone who'd not remove paint etc from a surface, mechanically, before fine cleaning and prepping with flux so didn't even enter my head tbh. The Laco certainly has its place in my van, as on old 3/4 stuff or 1" stuff it's usually quite deeply pitted too so you need s chemical clean to get into the grain of the surface. Laco cleans so well you can actually see it happening, but I always use that as a preparation and clean it all off before final assembly. If I'm really paranoid, I'll coat the first inch or so of the solder in Laco and solder the 'old' end first, and resolder it again last with mild and fresh 'mild coated' solder. I suppose it's easy enough to braze smaller bore stuff with greater suction than it is with big stuff ( 54mm and up ) as its harder to apply heat evenly.

I'd have to disagree about modern mild fluxes not cleaning. It's immediately apparent when the flux is introduced that there is a cleaning quality to it ( telux in my instance ). I clean the copper / brass with emery or wire wool, depending upon grottiness, and apply a thin layer of flux to both mating surfaces. I also lightly coat the first 2-3 " of the lead free solder so as to keep fluxing the joint as I go, rather than stopping to dip the solder in the flux ( which it then doesn't want to take to as the solder is hot and the flux just drips / fall straight off ). After initially soldering a joint and the flux has 'evaporated', I run the flux brush over the joint to brighten it back up and to flick the snot of solder off the lowest part of the joint ( where it collects as a drip ) to neaten things up. The mild flux definitely cleans, of this I'm 100% sure. Fluxless soldering of refrigerant pipe work or very large bore water pipe work is brazing, not soldering, so a totally different discipline imho. I very much doubt the filler material ( brazing 'solder' ) carries through the entire joint depth, like solder does with capillary action ). That's more a weld which is visible vs a soldered joint which can be near 100% saturated but with almost no visible solder on show ( if your neat, and don't overheat the joint during soldering ). BGas guys don't do the best of jobs tbh, and I've been behind a good few cleaning up after them as they refuse to do so as long as it's 'working'. I had one such call out where I contacted BG and told them if they weren't back there within the hour to correct a new £5k heat-only boiler install ( £5k for a £700 glow worm boiler, soooooo cheap ) that I was going to report them to the GSR and Riddor their asses. They said no, so I emailed them photos of the job and said I was going to email them accordingly next if there's no response. They were there 45 mins later rectifying the faults as it was lethal. That was an elderly couple 82 and 83 years old. ?

Same with my chimnea. I can't help thinking that each burn would have heated a giant TS to over 40 degrees ( and given me hot water pre heat for my Combi ). Job number 3765.

Just why is setting fire to stuff soooooo damn satisfying? "Man make fire".

NOT setting fire to it

I don't use strong acidic ( self cleaning ) flux, such as Laco, as I see it as the choice of the lazy man. It's only really with fluxes like that that you get the problematic residues. I use Telux ( mild ) flux as a rule, which requires you to mechanically clean the metals first ( using wire wool / abrasive pad / emery cloth etc ), and gives far better results in my experience, ( and I've soldered many thousands of joints ). For gas pipework I'd really not be worried about residual flux making it through to the hob, and with Telux, I'd certainly not ever be worried about the flux corroding the pipe. When I'm soldering with mild flux the flux almost evaporates off the fitting, with very little residue left behind, but when I have to use Laco / Powerflux I notice a lot of the flux doesn't flow away or evaporate like it does with mild. On that basis is say your mates 'burn, clean, tin and bond method would have merit, just a lot of work when it's easier to clean once, solder with mild flux and get as good, if not better, results. Purging the pipework with water at cold mains pressure may dislodge any residual residue, but as the gas will only ever be walking down the pipe, it's a pointless endeavour IMHO, plus I'd never recommend purposely introducing water to a gas line, and trying to dry out a 10 or 15m long run, in situ, would be less than easy

Dig it out and get rid first as last

No compression on gas. Your ok with control valves etc, and a temp cap end for testing, but soldered joints everywhere else. @TerryE , what do you mean by no flux?

Cheers

Yes, but the DAB radio I have now has the option of AM/FM AND DAB . I can choose whichever works best where ever I am but the new radios have dropped the DAB element which is barking mad. DAB down here is awesome, and I'd never go back. Hence, I won't be buying makitas latest shitty offering. I've a mind to fly to Japan, learn karate, and kick their arses for being so bloody stupid. Makita..........GET WITH THE PROGRAM

Oh, fwiw, you may want to read @JSHarris blog regarding using the Ufh pipes in the slab to dump hear from areas with solar gain, and also about cooling the slab via the ASHP.

@jack has mentioned that he had issues with unheated areas. Can't recall if it was the entire first floor or just the bathrooms. He'll see I've mentioned him and perhaps he can recall the thread

Most of it is common sense, but I can't actually recall anyone ever measuring them ( BCO )

What's the full title of the vp400 dave? When the shedshop is finally built, I'll be wanting to concentrate on the interior and had planned to leave the outside just membraned, prob for one full season. If yours is holding up in the Highlands then I'm all ears. Do you know roughly how much per roll / per m2 it costs please? Edit. Does yours have nail penetrations thorough it for fixing? How have you held it down and remained watertight etc.

When you upsize to 40mm at the tee, it in effect creates an air break as soon as the 40mm is running horizontal so prob no need for air admittance. When the two basins are running at max normal flow rate the water still won't fill either pipe, the 32 or the 40, so as water is going down, air travels up and over it if needed. The only time you'll need AAV on the basins is if there is a significant vertical drop before an air break. If your going down to floor level, then upsizing to 40, you'll have ZERO issues. It wouldn't hurt to use anti-vac basin traps, but you'll deffo not need an additional, stand alone AAV for either basins with my proposed method. If you do decide to go the longer route with the second basin, I'd still upsize to 40mm tbh as they're quite prone to gunking up over time.

Make sure you buy one that you can choose when the heater comes on. Most come on with the light which is daft. Chewing electric for no reason.

+1

Welcome aboard