Spinny

Circuits/loops and Zones are two different things - presumably you are aware of that. Do you have a design that actually provides the pipe layouts ? Our suspended floor system design included the proposed pipe layouts. Are you going to put pipes under the island and banquette seating ? Views seem to differ, architects argue the u/f heating is for life of building so should allow future internal reconfiguration. (I have no expertise here, but is it not a good idea to ensure you have sufficient loops to provide some resilience should the worst ever happen - i.e. a loop fail, get punctured etc.) Do think about ventilation and solar gain. Having had a cold house we thought it would take care of itself and our architect never once mentioned it as something requiring design. Depending which way your glass faces and what it is, solar gain can be significant. Only one appliance in the utility ? Or is that X a washer and dryer stacked on top of each other ?

Not clear where your boundaries are with neighbours etc from those drawings. Personally I find all this 'permitted development' stuff a bit unnecessary. If you are going to build something reasonable with due consideration for your neighbours and the local context and setting, why be trying to use permitted development ? The cost and timeline involved with getting planning permission is not excessive compared with the costs, timelines amd risks involved with a building project. I don't think LA planning are going to have spurious objections. You don't say whether you are engaging with neighbours regarding your plans - which is the recommended approach by all good architects and the planning office. Going through planning permission will at least ensure immediate neighbours are informed even if you want to shaft them. You never know, LA planning might have something helpful to say about your plans, and having planning permission can only be a positive when it comes to the sales value of the property, and dealing with neighbour relations during the build itself.

Which way is that horizontal round pipe across the wall above the window actually falling ? Looks very horizontal or even running the other way ? I'd say think about why someone has done that Heath Robinson type arrangement of pipe work. It looks like some kind of extension and/or remodelling work was done at some point, but wasn't very well planned with drainage routes not planned properly in advance - or else kind of botched to avoid spending money doing a proper job. If it had planning permission there may be some drawings on the local authority planning applications website. Kinda looks like the ground floor window may have been added blocking the vertical path down to the drain - and/or the drain moved along the wall to make room for a new wall. (Does surface rain water at ground level drain away from that external corner between the windows as it should - or towards it ulp ? I wonder if those leaves near the corner have been washed there because the surface falls into the corner ?} People do very weird and wacky stuff when they lack the brain or money to do things properly. It may be best to give the whole arrangement some thought to see if there is just a whole better layout which might involve more work but be a better long term answer if you plan to live in the house for many years ?

Not a confession, but ... Builder sent his chippy to site with some youngster in tow (doubtless very cheap labour for the builder). Chippy sets the youngster up to put some battens on the wall - simple enough. Youngster proceeds to drill all the way through the concrete block wall and out the other side. Which I discover some days later when wondering why bits of new plaster have fallen off the wall on the other side. Multiple holes right through the wall coming within mm of drilling straight into the back of the new £2k boiler wall mounted by the plumber days before and the cylinder expansion tank.

Happy New Year. Here is hoping that as we enter the 5th calendar year of a 6 month extension project we can achieve completion this year. 2025 was another annus horribilis of stress, frustration, disappointments, nasty neighbours, health problems, imaginary plumbers, a backed up drain, and a dead dog. We even had a door come off its hinges only yesterday. May 2026 bring us all the change we hope for.

Thanks , that's fine. Take care in finding your independent inspector and be sure to put all the hypotheses people have suggested to him to have him check and comment on each. Hopefully you can find someone that will come with measurement devices for temps, plumbness, fit accuracy, air gaps etc. It will be interesting to hear what he finds. I think this is a common concern and has got me thinking again about what to put between the packers under my bifolds. I had to have celcon insulating blocks replaced with concrete blocks because my builder was seemingly unable to actually securely mortar in the celcon blocks, and the window company doubtful about screw fixing into them.

OK, but I don't see that there is any other method to identify what is actually happening other than identifying a list of possible hypotheses that might explain it, and then seeking to test and check these hypotheses one by one. It is what we call the scientific method. Once there is an objective identification of the actual problem(s) it is possible to ascribe responsibility and whether reasonable care and skill has been used or not. Unfortunately it is still often human nature for people to start by avoiding blame and attributing faults to other factors as your fitters are doing. They might be right or wrong, and what is needed is a logical scientific identification of the problem(s). Even bringing in other 'experts' can sometimes only generate more opinion unless there is some focus on establishing facts and evidence supporting or refuting hypothetical causes. I will say that in my experience it is too common for some trades people to essentially ignore what the customer says on the basis that the customer is assumed to be ignorant, inexperienced, unqualified to comment etc. To try to be fair there are doubtless customers where this is true but in reality it should matter not who makes claims or statements, only whether they can be established as factually true or false. But I have also had 5 different plumbers give me 5 different opinions on a plumbing problem - some of them fairly obvious crap. However sometimes you do need to bring in somebody with letters after their name and direct experience (e.g. surveyor, engineer, architect, QS etc) to tell some tradespeople exactly the same as the customer is saying and to state the bleeding obvious, before they will remotely accept it. I would encourage you to focus on rigourously identifying the problem(s), because even if you gain a section 75 financial settlement you will still need to get the doors replaced - and if you don't understand the current problem(s) you are likely to see them repeated on a new product/install. It has been my experience in life that things are mostly like the saying about making a cooked breakfast - the hen is involved in the endeavour but only the pig is actually committed. Whether it is a health problem, a car problem, or a building problem you can seek help and opinion but in the end it is only you the pig that actually bears the problem and is truly driven and committed to getting a resolution. Ignore the bullshit, the name callers, appeals to claimed 'authority', those that play politics, the insurers, lawyers, dissemblers, chancers and deniers etc. Find the truth, hold people to account - whether a window fitter, the horizon scandal, the blood transfusion scandal, grenfell, or hillsborough. Find the truth, speak the truth, live the truth. As the man said 'For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled' Happy New Year

Go to ChatGPT and type in... "Is it possible for cold air to pass through a double glazed door or window by passing around the sealed double glazed unit i.e. between this unit and the frame it is fitted into ?" When Chat GPT answers and then asks you the frame type etc type in,,, "a upvc frame which has been fitted a few weeks ago and comprises of a french door fitted between 2 outer fixed glazed windows" (And the first 2/3 minutes of this video may be of interest... https://youtu.be/rc5DutkQ0WM

Also that heat camera is showing the coldest strips at the bottom edge of the double glazed units i.e. just above the bottom frame where the glazing starts. Could it be that the double glazed units were not a good tight fit into the frame itself, so that you actually have cold air finding it's way through the windows/doors themselves - underneath the base of the double glazed unit - i/e/ between upvc frame and DG unit. Window companies may be ordering in ready made dg units to fit into their frames. They will NOT want the glass to end up too big, so it would seem quite possible for the dg unit to end up on the small size sometimes and perhaps not to fit tightly ? Also there are usually seals between the glass and the frame - are these tightly fitting ? I think it is usual to have a little lee way for heel/toe adjustments, but ultimately the entire door assembly should be perfectly air tight on both sides. If you fart outside you should not notice it inside :0). Maybe you could try some sort of smoke test ? (In my youth I once had to travel around with a fire service chap for a few days as part of a business analysis - the height of his entertainment was taking out a phallic shaped smoke machine which hummed and emitted smoke from the tip to test the smokes. For some reason he thought it amusing to test the smokes in the headmistress office when visiting the girls schools ?!@)

Can I add in another consideration. From what you have described the complete window/door consists of multiple individual parts: The two fixed side windows with their own frame (presumably pre glazed with double glazing units), the central doors with their frame, and the cill piece itself which the other parts sit onto as a base. Have you carefully checked the vertical and horizontal alignment of these different parts ? If for example the two side windows were fitted to the outer edges of the opening first, but the inner vertical frame edge ended up not being perfectly vertical, then fitting the door frame vertically against it would become a problem. Quite possibly a fitter might then choose to then fit the door frame perfectly vertical regardless. So there would then be a variable gap between the side frame and the door frame - quite possibly tight at the top, but with an increasing gap near the base. This could then be filled with mastic/sealant and appear normal. However there could be an uninsulated gap or path left between the fixed windows and the door frame at the lower part - thereby causing cold bridging problems. In a similar way there could be misalignment and gaps occurring between the cill and the window and door parts fitted onto the cill - again possibly leading to cold gaps between the cill and frame possibly hidden by sealant. I have to say it is a skilled and potentially time consuming task to assemble frames into an opening with precision such that all the verticals are spot on plumb and all the horizontals are spot on plumb level. Doors especially need to be true so they don't swing open/closed of their own accord etc and meet correctly when closed. Anything other than expensive spirit levels are unreliable and can easily be out. Small alignment errors which many tradies might think 'good enough lets go down the pub' might mean installation gaps at the lower part of the frame and between cill and frames. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but get yourself a long expensive known accurate spirit level (or plumb line) and carefully examine whether all the parts of the installation are properly plumb and tightly joined to one another. (It took a second fitting visit to get our alu bifolds right and they sent their crack fitters that were at it until 7pm getting it all just so. And I imagine UPVC frames may show more bendability than aluminium.)

I have aluminium doors and three have cills. The manufacturers technical drawing shows that the cill (as with the frames) incorporates a thermal break betwen the external facing aluminium and the internal facing aluminium. If you google 'do PVC cills have a thermal break' their AI engine says PVC cills do not incorporate a thermal break etc because the UPVC is itself more insulating, and that air pockets are usually also incorporated into the design to reduce thermal bridging. I think you might start by obtaining and examining the technical drawings of the UPVC cill and frame designs, and also to identify what the manufacturers data sheets and specs and installation instructions have to say about the thermal properties the door and cill etc is designed to achieve - and with what installation detail. This then might allow you to identify specific product thermal specifications you would rightly be expecting to achieve, and to compare this with what has actually been achieved by the install. Any discrepancy will then either be due to a defective product, and/or a defective installation and therefore responsibility rest with the manufacturer and/or the installer. You say a conservatory was taken down and this window fitted into the opening in the wall ? Did you give any consideration to ensuring the opening was properly prepared for the door fitting - e.g. by a builder such as the one doing the demolition ? If you ordered the door without having the opening surveyed or prepared to the installer/manufacturer's instructions then I would imagine this might make a claim more questionable ? From the photographs it looks as though there is two layers of sealant and a DPM between the cill and the brickwork. One might expect this to at least provide a little insulation, but if you can feel draughts it seems the underside of the cill is not properly sealed up. So you might try actually getting the gap between the cill and the brickwork properly sealed up externally to stop all entry of cold air from the outside. I can understand you being very disappointed with the thermal performance - did you research and check this out when choosing your doors ? Personally I would expect the window company to be trying to do something more than complete denial.

In our build the architect included a continuous row of celcon blocks around the inner leaf at insulation and concrete slab level (your screed level) to provide some insulation in the inner leaf between foundation/footing level and wall above. I think some people also build the inner leaf entirely from celcon blocks. I think our builder put the 25mm PIR around the perimeter and then used the underfloor insulation butted up to the edge of it to hold it in place - simply a matter of practicality to hold the edge insulation in place for our concrete pour. Think it may help if you can say whether you are doing new build or retrofit, and to describe the makeup of your wall structure - concrete block, celcon block, stone, sipps etc.

Our smoke in the hall used to go off whenever someone did a fry up and with a high ceiling you couldn’t reach we could be found opening the front door and madly flapping a tea towel at it. ok new kitchen should be different I suppose with a powerful extractor etc. But there are times people might end up with some smoke in the house - even if just the 437 candles on my birthday cake :0) so my experience all alarms have proven to be false and a real PITA when someone’s house or car alarm kicks off at 4am. Ok unlikely to be burning the divorce papers in the waste bin at 4am. lots of stuff in today’s world is unnecessary, we used to live just fine without mobile phones or Amazon deliveries or cars that tell us where they are parked. But people can’t help fiddling with stuff ‘just because you can’. Work in an engineering company and you’ll find they are all messing with their cars and stuff at home. Some nutter called Musk seems to think cars need to drive themselves and we should put life on Mars. Each to their own madness.

However what you also want is the ability to silence the alarm remotely.

Don't forget that when the doors are stacked you have the full weight of all doors in one place. We gave the door weights to our SE to confirm all would be ok.