Lofty718

The only way to find out is to get multiple quotes yourself in your area and that will give an idea of what you're expecting to pay. On this site there is a lot of reigonal variance and people with varying levels of skills and connections in the construction industry. For example @nod being in the trade is likely to bring in a project significantly cheaper than the average joe, I also beleive he is in a different part of the country, I doubt he would bring in for that price in the SE where even materials are more expensive. Why not post up your plans and structural drawings for us to have a look?

I went for stelrad lined flat panel rads, they look really good and don't break the bank https://www.stelrad.com/radiators/designer-radiators/white-radiators/vertical-line/ also got a great bargain from stelrad direct on towel radiators, 1700 x 600 huge towel rads at 75 quid each.

Interesting, this is my first proper winter upcoming with UFH so I will test it out myself but I thought it was not ideal.

It's not how wet UFH on a slab is designed to run. Blasting the floor with heat at night because that's when leccy is cheap is plain daft The same with gas boilers, running on/off controls makes them inefficient.

2.5 CoP is terrible. 4 can be acheived nowadays UFH should be running constantly at a low temperature, just set back slightly at night. Heating the floor like that with a heat pump is an absolute no-no My gas boiler runs a weather compensation curve of 0.7 for radiators and 0.55 for UFH, yours seems too high at 1

It's fire compliant in every other way with fire doors and smoke alarms. It was a first build for me and I had never known about the seperation needed between open plan area and staircase. To be honest it's not really about money more about principal, paying a professional to do a job you expect them to not make these kind of errors. I guess it shows the high level of incompetencies that are rife throughout the British building industry.

I provided them with structural and planning drawings that clearly showed the open plan layout and this was the basis of the building regulations drawings. I did not specifically tell them to make the layout open plan directly, just provided the drawings. I did review the drawings thoroughly with all notes. I just was not aware of this regulation until the inspector had mentioned it at the end when I requested final inspection. This was all what was wrote regarding fire regulations.

The house had an old (bc approved) loft conversion that was rebuilt to better standards. Sprinklers are a consideration but also expensive and distruptive I paid for a full plans application, Building Control made a mistake when approving it. I was not aware of those fire regs myself unfortunately and we proceeded to build to the approved drawings There was no conditional approval it was full approval and BC admitted they made a mistake. But they generally don't have much liability for their oversights. A door can be fitted but it would be a bit of a hodge podge and be too close to our kitchen island, the house was renovated for someone with special needs so open plan was needed. So my evaluation of the situation is that plan drawer made a mistake with drawings that didn't meet regulations, then BC made a mistake by approving this drawing. Can't blame anyone on the construction end of things because we just built to the approved drawings.

It was already open plan, not introducted by the designer but he had planning drawings and structural drawings that clearly showed it was open plan for the very beginning.

Designer drew up a full plans BC application for a large renovation/extension , drawings inspected and passed by BC, come the day of the final sign off they said we needed to have a door or mist system between main staircase and kitchen (open plan house with loft conversion) Adding a door or imist system is expensive and distruptive after all the work has been finished. If I had known initially it would of been easy. Any thoughts appreciated

I instructed a architectural designer to do building regulation drawings only, The drawings he drew don't meet the regs but were mistakenly passed by BC and built Do you think I have a claim against the architect for negligence?

Adsibob sorry to hear this, hopefully it is a small issue that can be rectified. I do recall from your previous thread you were shelling out a fortune for project managment/architect, did they not supervise and check how the roof was built?

Germany and Holland have it right, they design gas boilers with efficiency in mind, UFH controlled by Variable Temperature mixers rather than the crappy ones on the manifold and I believe outdoor weather sensors are mandatory in Holland or Germany (or both) Here installers will install Vaillants without Vaillant controls but Nest's and run the whole system at 70c. I've even seen Viessmann installers install the 200W's that have built in weather compensation but installer it without weather comp. There are some very knowledgable guys on the heating system design facebook group that try and spread the word about low temperature gas systems. I learnt a lot from there and based my system design on their practises.

Gas boilers can be made to be efficient but the problem is they are not, they are fitted as high temperature systems when they should be weather or load compensated. A system boiler with unvented cylinder on a hot water priority can run multiple different flow temps one for DHW one for UFH and a seperate one for rads, like I have on my system. I am able to run my unvented cylinder at 42c with a once in a while 60c legionella cycle.

Agree with @JohnMo 2 boilers is daft, Run one boiler or heat pump and keep everything as open loop as possible. If you genuinely want something 'smart' that will boost efficiency run your boiler on weather compensation. A single Vaillant ecotec plus 637 shold be sufficient for your property. Vaillant boiler correctly sized Sensocomfort vrc720f VR71 wiring centre ESBE mixing valves to control UFH instead of manifold mixer Is what I would get.

I would say the numbers do not add up on this project to make it feasible if those are the costs. However the costs do seem a bit too high based on how little extra extension you are adding to the property and the fact you are in Wales where build costs should be lower

My centres are 200mm and they were telling me they were too big. But I can run the floor at 30c flow temp on a 10c day and it's comfy (gas boiler) with weather comp Is there anything different needed to install UFH suitable for cooling? Could i just install an ashp and reverse it as easy as that?

How do you find the cooling with the UFH pipes? is it effective? It's something I'm considering in the future All the engineers I know would say 300mm pipe centres and an ASHP are a no no, 150mm max

The roof has a good fall to it, it's GRP and that bubbling is happening at the bottom of the rooflight where the roof sloops away from the house

Nearly new flat roof and rooflight, this morning noticed some bubbling on the paint near the skylight Looks like possible water ingress, any opinons appreciated

I'd also be interested in a link. If it's not too expensive I could bodge a bbq together to use for a coupe of years 😄

As above^ Try and ask them for a breakfast bar backing panel

Is that tree from a neighbours property? I wanted a brick built bbq for this summer too but will have to wait till the next. If you don't mind me asking how much is your builder charging to build it?

Mine would of been very expensive. Design, piles, ring beam, block and beam floor. Then there's the unknown of how deep the piles need to go and the extra costs that this can incur

Oaks can definitely be destructive, but a lot of it is guesswork from SE's covering their own backs (understandably) The roots can apparently travel up to 3x in distance of the the height of the tree. Removing can also cause heave where the ground is used to the water demand from the tree. There is usually always a less costly solution than piling though, which in these current times can make your build prohibitively expensive.