HerbJ

This may help you recover VAT from contractors. There is a more useful information in the original thread

We live in Sunningdale on a main road and none of the houses on my postcode and adjacent area have house numbers, only house names. We're not in a rural area. We've never had any issues getting insuraance, buildings or motor......

We used Sweet Chestnut for our build in 2015/16. There was post on the subject on April 2022 - see attached. I can take some current photos, if useful?

I helped my son and daughter in law with to source DGU's. They live in the New Forest so I can't recommend a supplier. However, I found that most traditional, and usually well established, glaziers/glazing companies in that area were very capable of supplying and installing replacement DGU's in existing window frames. They were also competitive and made a site visit and measure before finalising quotations. They also installed, after removing the old blown DGU's and removed all the old materials. the companies who supply and install replacement windows were only interested selling complete new windows/frames or supplying DGU'S that were not specified for the existing windows, because they only supplied DGU's which were suitable for modern plastic frames formats (too thick for the existing frames).

I have PAUL Novus 450 MVHR for a 5 bed house. I don't live a a city environment but in a semi-rural environment but near to a busy road. PAUL recommend changing the filters every 3 - 6 months. They are synthetic material/paper filters that cannot be cleaned, so have to be replaced. I change the inlet F7 filter every 4 months approximately as they get very dirty - see photo I change the G4 exhaust filter every 2 years or so

+1 to this but and you seem to have covered most of the key points. The big question/issue for me is the detailed routing of the ducts, particularly downstairs, in locations where you haven't negotiated "permission" to reduce ceiling height. There is still a lot of investigation and detailed work to be done to ensure that you are able to make penetrations in floor joists without compromising structural integrity BEFORE you start installation.

Well done! It's a critical and often overlooked detail.

Looking good I can see that you have made significant penetrations in your I-joists. Holes may be cut in I -beams but only in accordance with manufacturer's guidelines/rules - see typical guidelines at https://elliotts.uk/ideas-and-advice/i-joist-faqs Have these penetrations been checked by your SE for each specific location to see if acceptable ?

Most gas boilers specifically prohibit the use of "artificially softened" to fill central heating systems, which why the heating system fill-point should be from the mains supply I seem to remember it caused problems with the heat exchangers? I attach the relevant page from WB Greenstar system boiler, which is now 8 years old. Maybe not problem with ASHP and modern UFH systems and it should be checked

We only have hard water to the kitchen tap and outside tap. Use softened water in bathrooms for brushing teeth.

We had a similar design challenge for our garden design and we used a landscape designer to help solve it. I provided a lot of detail in this post, which may be helpful

Have you tried https://www.vieffetrade.eu/ ? They are Italian suppliers, offering a wide range of electrical goods, furniture etc, and they do deliver to UK.

H Ian Something you may want to consider. Though they may not suit your situation on a country road..... Outside our community in Spain we have a very busy main road and our main entrance is on a the brow of the curve. We introduced "traffic calming" by installing bollards in the midle of the road, in an attempt to stop drivers overtaking on the blind bend it's a 40kMph speed limt raod, but not unusual for cars to ovrtakinga 80/90 and , occasionally they still go on the other side of road(and the bollards) to overtake! Anyway, we originally installed expensive bollards and they kept being wiped out and cost us a fortune in replacing. In Late 2021, we came across a slimmer and cheap bollard and replaced the lot. The replacement are still standing, though when I looked again at the photos attached this morning a few were leaning and will need some attention this year. . I have no idea if they are available in the UK but I attach a couple of links to Spanish websites (hito is the spanish for bollard) https://syssa.com/es/senalizacion-vial/hito-vial/hito-h-75-desmontable-con-base-de-cauchohttps://gdstore.eu/145-hitos https://gdstore.eu/145-hitos https://www.signet.cl/hitos-viales/3458-hito-vial-amarillo.html

Merry Xmas to all Buildhubbers. Best wishes for a peaceful, successful and very Happy New Year

Really pleased you are recovering and will get back to full health. Thanks for letting us know and best wishes for quick and full recovery.