Adam2

Thanks for info will try and get a grano price. Also will remember not to try and drive through the back wall 🤣

My garage floor approx 6m x 6m is from the original site and is a bit of a mess and always new had to do something major. The intention is for a tiled finish and it will be used as a garage/workshop not planned for conversion or other use. I also want there to be a slope down towards the entrance. Mostly the floor needs to come up about 45mm but in some areas will be closer to 75mm and in some large areas only about 15mm. My flooring contractor did a great job with the liquid screed for the internal floor areas so I went to them for advice on the garage - hoping they'd do a decent price for levelling probably with sand/cement. Their options are: 1) latex in 2 hits as max build up is 50mm - this they warn will be expensive ~3K or 2) take down the concrete so all areas are a min of 25mm and apply a sand/cement based screed (possibly with some additive to allow thinner layer (if I remove high bits cost is £1300) By chance my groundworker called and he suggested flooring grade ashpalt as being possibly a good option. I'd never considered tiling into this but googled a bit and a typical guide is this. Before I get a price for doing this in flooring grade ashpalt are there and other options I should consider that will work OK with thicknesses of 15mm up to 75mm? or any previous experience with tiling on ashpalt? I'm a bit anti taking the concrete down as the time to do it may mean the savings of sand/cement are not so great.

Thanks for the replies, I'm aware of the need for protection. My question was is there any reference source for the claims that have been made on other threads relating to standard plasterboard providing 30 mins protection?

I've seen the earlier threads on this topic and note that there seems to be a few places where it is stated that 12.5mm standard plasterboard alone (well obviously not alone but fitted to something like an MF ceiling) is sufficient for 30 mins fire protection. I've had a look to find a reference for this but am unable to. Would be greatly appreciated if anyone could provide one that I could use to support some discussions with BC.

We've a Bora - yes not "cheap" but it is great, extract works well. Fitted very nicely so is flush with the worktop. Overall very happy with that

great thanks, so much useful info Yes I do have the regular manual - only query was the existence of something else that would, for example, have explained that putting the fan mode into Low Speed would have an impact on the temp setpoints as this is not logical (to me at least) Have changed fan mode to Day and brought down the heating set point and increased the overshoot as suggested. Essentially the blending valves won't be doing much unless there's an issue with the ashp overheating the buffer With the buffer tank and my smallest zone being 35m then I don't think we have a high probability for any short-cycle issue but not sure how to easily monitor that aside from watching what happens on the app for a while

Ahhh thanks @dpmiller I was going to investigate why that was the case 🙂 Is there some additional manual that has this kind of info as I can see a lot of settings on the app under UserMask that are hard to interpret the meaning of? Also, is there any need to get the password for other settings to be adjusted?

@dpmiller yes the ashp only "sees" the buffer and the temp from that goes to the control module. No time/temp based scheduling - my thinking in a well insulated fairly air-tight house was to pretty much always be at 22 degrees but it could be interesting to reconsider this by having the unit off overnight when it is coldest and on say 5am so when we get up there will be warm floors. Could be quicker to do this on the ashp vs changing all the thermostats Fan mode is low speed OK thanks have made some tweaks to the temp settings

HI thanks for comments @joth @dpmiller I should have maybe said the ASHP feeds a buffer. We have 4 manifolds, 1 per floor (we're on a hill), flooring is all porcelain laid on 55mm liquid screed with insulation beneath (pretty standard) ASHP set temp is 40 and it starts to heat (from memory) when buffer temp drops to 36 and stops at something like 43 - it was a bit arbitrary choosing the range The manifold for the largest floor was at 35 but I put down to the lowest on the blender which looks like 30 but is not marked - I guess as they lose accuracy maybe that low Increasing the temp slightly on the thermostat doesn't really help I think as the issue with the thermostat is that it triggers a call for heat when 0.5 below target temp and only stops when 0.5 above target temp which doesn't sound like it should be an issue but to fine tune things I'd rather have it stop sooner. By lowering the temp at the manifold May experiment next week with the ASHP temp being set to 30 (with something like a range of 26 to 34) - I suppose an issue then may be that by the time a thermostat calls for heat it will then take somewhat longer for the eventual temp change but maybe that won't be noticable.

Yes exactly for the protection

I'm really happy with my system - Cool Energy ASHP, UFH in a liquid screed, 300L hot water tank, Salus auto-balancing actuators and Wunda controls. All works as it should, running at about 35 degrees on the UFH. My only issue is the Wunda controls. I have the control units (x10 - it's a big house) in my plant room and temp sensors in the walls with a mesh type wall mounted panel. I've calibrated the Wunda controllers so they are pretty accurate to room temp. BUT, the control units have a min temp trigger 0.5 degrees above / below target temp. So this means if target is 22 degrees, the actuator(s) will be opened/pumps triggered at 21.5 degrees and stay this way until 22.5 - this doesn't sound bad but the reality is that the temp will then carry on increasing for at least another 0.5-1 degree due to the continuing heat coming from the screed. What are the best options? Things I can think of: 1) Replace all (or some) controllers with more sensitive ones. Ideally just cutting out at the target temp would be a big improvement 2) Use a lower UFH temp, the Wunda provided manifold I don't think goes much below 35 degrees 3) Anyway to get my Wunda controllers to stop heating at the target temp and not go on for another 0.5 degrees Nothing sounds cheap or easy apart from 3 but that may not be possible

I'm almost finished and had quite basic quotes and documented (via email) agreements/modifications so it was reasonably clear what should be done and for what price. Some large firms (glazing, concrete planks etc) had their own which probably were a bit one sided but no dramas luckily. I did have 2 companies go bad on me but nothing too major as only paid for work done to date. One thing I would stress is that when you have a fixed price job say for electricians 1st fix then get at the same time an agreed day rate for additions. I failed to do this and feel I was beholden to them for 2nd fix (they had records of where everything was behind plasterboard etc) and the day rate was I feel elevated and I had limited options. Similar principle would apply for others where initial work is fixed price but where there may be extras. Key thing is agreeing to a decent degree the scope and where possible the timing and paying when work is done and limiting any advance payments - use cards if at all possible for advance payments (we did this for glazing which was ordered a year ahead of schedule!). Maybe worst experience was scaffolding company - agreed fixed cost for the duration (in an email so would stand up as a genuine agreement) but he decided 40 weeks was too long so said I had to pay more else he'd take it down the next week. This was difficult as I'd paid a fair amount after install and to get a replacement would have been difficult at short notice and 100% he would have taken boards and left scaffolding to piss me off which would have stopped any progress. Sometimes you have to suck it up and that hurts but you have to consider the bigger picture. Best of luck, it will be a rollercoaster, contracts or not 🙂

Thanks hadn't found them before. I see they do coir mats in a range if colours which is great news!

Yes I do which I know is of course far from ideal. The floor area is 40% for my study section and 60% for the gym area so partly uncovered - there are 2 UFH circuits in this room so maybe will turn off the circuit under the mats. Don't need a lot of heating in that room really.

Yes that weas my other possibility if all else failed but I have the seal of approval on these in grey so job done - apart from moving them down 3 floors and fitting of course 🙂

Thanks @SteamyTea - Yes I've done plenty of searches. While you may get a lot of results you don't get many of what I am looking for unfortunately. Lots of black with blue flecks and lots of EVA foam and lots of smaller sizes. BUT tadaaa I did find Cannons seem to have something suitable in light grey which might be OK 🙂 shame the sloped edges & corners are only available in black but this is the closest I can find in 20mm

So we now have porcelain tiles laid in the gym/study and need some decent floor protection under the equipment. Concern is mainly the weight rack and free weights that could accidentally be dropped. Am thinking 12-18mm dense rubber mats - of which there are many, if you like black or black with a colour speckle! That's not acceptable to the boss lady so looing at something in a colour - maybe blue. Not having much luck with this - came across some foam options but these won't do much I think to help impact resistance. Something like this could be OK - but would prefer less joins as these are 50cmx50cm An option I guess could be getting the cheapest dense black rubber matting and covering with a coloured layer and using an edge like this Any ideas appreciated 🙂

Mine looked good when plastered then looked crap when painted and had light shining down it - of course well after I'd paid them for the plastering. Next time...

I had the same concerns with ours - similar spec. In the hot sunny days I thought the glazing did a good job vs opening a door and letting the sun hit me. I wonder if you could use a temp sensor of some kind placed behind the glass and then open the door/window and see what the difference is? Am sure there is a better way so look forward to hearing about that 🙂

Great news to report - the BG shaver sockets from Screwfix are silent and seem not to generate any heat - at least when not in use. They also have some nice colour options available. Possibly they also include some form of internal switch to only activate when used. When in use I didn't notice any noise just a small amount of heat

House looks amazing really fantastic 😀. Will post pics of ours as soon as scaffolding down. In this pic is that the mvhr or an AC unit? Looks quite close to stairs so just curious if with some models that is ok.

Apparently the latest personal entertainment products use USB 🙂 More seriously, my electric toothbrush travel case has a USB connection for charging which is pretty handy. But really in the bathroom the product I choose looked nice and had the USB so I thought why not. I'd be very happy with a socket with a switch activated by plugging in a 2 pin plug to enable it. Hard to tell from product info online if they have this feature - also needs to look fairly contemporary. Supplier is great - will take back and return to the manufacturer as another customer also commented on the heat generated.

I had never seen a poor plastering job until my house was done! Previously I had only good experiences so expected the same again sadly v disappointed as only really evident after painting and especially bad with the perimeter LED strips shining down the wall. At this stage I don't want them back and it's too late to go backwards to easyfill is my new best friend! Next time I'd go over a plastered wall with a long straight edge to check it over at the earliest opportunity.

I have one of these looks fine (is in a bathroom cabinet we made) but it makes too loud a humming noise and feels a little warm. Have emailed supplier re changing. Appreciate recommendations for a similar looking socket - ideally with USB connections but not critical but needs to be silent that you have used

HI @KillyfadNewBuild, a bit late but I bought QUBEV - EV Charging Unit | Type 2 Socket | 32 Amp/7.2 kW | IP65 | × 1 all working just fine and great value of you want a simple charger. Company seemed OK and answered my questions quickly.