jack

He may have a point, this is hard/expensive to do properly. We're stuck with a cold bridge for our balconies that I missed on the construction drawings. You can provide a thermal break, but the products needed to achieve this aren't cheap, and you may need specialists to install them. Again, he may have a point. Do some research about the capital and running cost differences between GSHPs and ASHPs. In most cases, ground source is much more expensive to install and maintain (make sure you include the cost of replacing and disposing of the fluid in the ground circuits for ground source every few years), especially for a well-insulated house.

I agree with most of what you say, but at least for some people, doing it this way won't give them the results they want, because they simply aren't capable of thinking like someone who does this for a living. I wasn't able to design something that was what we wanted while meeting the limitations of our awkwardly shaped block. I spent many hours trying, but it was so remote from my skills and experience that I just didn't have the mental tools to do it. The architect's first draft was quite different to any of the many high-level plans I'd tried, and it clicked with us first time. YMMV, of course.

Welcome to Buildhub! You'll find that some on here are anti-architect to one extent or another. I personally think a good one is more than worth engaging. We cut our losses with our first architect after three significant sets of revisions left us feeling no closer to an end result than the first draft. While there were some more objective factors, in the end we just weren't confident that what they were designing for us was what we wanted to live in. After months of working with the first architect, we politely (no bridges burned) disengaged, swallowed the not-inconsiderable costs to that stage, and then started again with someone who "got" us a lot better. The house we built, while not perfect (as you learn when you live in something), is very close to the original draft the new architect presented. I think you already know the answer to the questions in your final paragraph. Be brave - you should be excited at this point. Building a house is hugely expensive and stressful, and you want to get it absolutely right. £2-3k and an uncomfortable conversation are a small price to pay for getting the house you want in the end.

One way or the other, you'll still lose. 'Tis the way of things.

Sorry, I meant warranty in the loose sense of being responsible for the quality of the goods, not in the sense of a manufacturer's warranty. It isn't particularly clear from the sales listing quoted above whether the "7 year warranty" is from the seller or manufacturer.

Despite saying that it's now in the UK, the website is saying it doesn't operate here yet

No-win no-fee only works where there are significant damages to be claimed. In your case, you're just looking for replacement/repair/refund, so if you're successful there're no funds from which a no-win no-fee lawyer could take their cut. Not for warranty support, no. Responsibility for providing a warranty absolutely rests with the seller (even if they have to engage the manufacturer to do the warranty work). The wholesaler/rebadger and original manufacturer have no contract with you and are under no legal obligation to do anything about the situation. What you might do is call the technical department of the original manufacturer or the company that did the rebadging, and see whether they can help diagnose what's wrong. If they give you an answer along the lines of what you've had above, you have a much stronger case to go back to the seller with. I don't know how typical it is, but we have a Panasonic ASHP, and I've found their technical department absolutely superb at every turn (their replacement parts costs are less superb, for sure ) Because the seller will have to pay for it. Bear in mind that if they're offering a 7 year warranty, they aren't expecting problems to arise very often, so this will be an unusual situation and they'll be skeptical. At the moment, they probably feel it's more likely you've installed it wrongly or damaged it in storage than it being a defective unit, so why should they pay for a warranty call? I have to admit that my first step here would have been to pick to phone up and have chat with the seller about what's happened. It may be that they can take you through some diagnostics that will help get to the bottom of the issue. Since you've started with demands for a warranty claim, their initial response may be one of defensiveness. One other thing: take some photos of the logs showing that this isn't actually a new unit, and that the error codes existed on arrival. If those are accidentally wiped or overwritten, you'll want a record. Good luck. You'll get there in the end, but I'm sure you don't need this right now!

It's a 12W fitting - 28W is the CFL equivalent.

Right, got the suggested stuff. I now need to buy some tools. I understand that I need some flexible plastering knives. I have some TE to tape and fill as well as joints between fermacell. What combination of sizes do you think would do the trick? Anyone have thoughts on a particular brand or set worth buying or avoiding? I don't mind paying (a little bit more) for something decent, but only if it'll make life easier and/or give a better result. For the TA, I'm assuming scrim tape is easier to use for a first timer than paper, yes?

Me too, but I'm trying to make the guy feel good about being a quitter.

Smart missus. I've had this conversation with various trades. Most would have a go at most jobs, but all of them baulked at plastering (one admitted having had a go on his own house, and he got as far as one wall before conceding defeat). Just get it done right first time. It won't be expensive, and no-one will think less of you for handing over this one tricky job to a pro.

At least they fixed it I guess!

O2 is covalent bonding (as opposed ionic bonding such as for a salt), I seem to recall from the foggy depths of A-level chemistry.

I'd learnt to like the tap at those prices - great buying!

Our scaffolders were utter rubbish too. I had to get them back twice to get the first installation right, and they argued repeatedly that I was at fault. Due to overhangs, at a couple of points the scaffold had to be stepped out from the footprint. I gave them a clear diagram of what was needed when they quoted me, then again on their first day, and again on each day they returned to try and fix what they'd done (unfortunately, I was only able to be onsite right at the start of each day, or I'd have been able to supervise them). The diagram included big letters saying "don't follow the foundation line, follow where the scaffold is shown in this drawing". I also explained to them what I needed and why, but they still repeatedly stuffed it up. I ended up concluding that the owner wasn't necessarily nasty, but was almost certainly illiterate and extremely thick. Most of the other trades seemed to dislike scaffolders on principle.

There's always a first time!

Gyproc QuickSand Joint Cement: "A new easy to sand air-drying powdered jointing material. For the finishing stage over Gyproc Joint Filler."

Perfect, thanks all.

Just returning to this (September last year? Jaysus!) and now about to order the materials for this job. In addition to the fermacell walls, I also have to tape and join some TE boards on the ceiling. Given the amount I have to do, for price reasons I'm going to use some sort of Gyproc filler. Their joint filler is cheap, but it says in this guide that you can't use joint filler as a final coat. Is that an installation issue (eg, too hard to sand) or just an aesthetic one? For TE boards, any preference to using Easi-fill for both, or Joint Filler first with, eg, Joint Cement over the top? @nod - any thoughts? Thanks

Agreed. Here's a couple of extracts from our slab, showing the ringbeam and "spines" down the centre of the house, which take the linear loads of external and internal loadbearing walls respectively. The ringbeam section is as shown in the link posted by @PeterW above. The purple "thickenings" through the centre of the house look like this: The section for the red thickenings are the same, but with EPS 100 where EPS 300 is shown in the drawing immediately above.

Ours is 200mm. You don't need ultra-close spacings if you're going low temp and have good insulation.

Always made me think "consigliere"

Both of those changes happened before either company got really big though (if you haven't read it, A Perfect Store: Inside eBay is an interesting read). I suspect you're right about selling off the tool division. It would certainly make for a cleaner break to not have the power tool division brand diluting the rest of the company after the sale. It may take years to get traction on the brand change, but maybe that's their schedule.