Russdl

I have numerous friends in Portugal, a few of whom are planning a new build, I shall pass this on to them 👍🏻

Our utility that has a fair bit of plant in it which adds a bit of heat. To dry washing, with the door closed, the MVHR does the trick overnight with ease. The good lady and I have been working outside a lot these last few months, frequently come in with drenched outer layers, on those days we hang the wet stuff in the utility room and run a small dehumidifier for a few hours to aid the drying. Works like a charm.

What hob is it? Our down draft induction hob has a grease filter followed by a carbon filter and then discharges to the room at floor level. I would certainly be concerned about ducting air that hadn’t been filtered for grease into the units or at floor level. At least on the floor you could clean it with ease, into the units it’ll just go rancid over time and, well…

Our wasn’t necessarily cheap (but thanks to info from @JohnMo massively cheaper than the first quote we got). The tariff dictates our usage, currently 15p export and 7p/29.14p import. We’d be mad to use our solar when the batteries take us through the day with ease and the off peak tariff heats the house/water does the dishes/washing charges the car etc etc. Sure the tariff will change, and is about to, and working out ROI would be tricky, too many variables etc but our annual usage at peak rate would be around £2500/year. Last year we paid minus £400. Which is nice.

@scottishjohn can you not get a cheaper off peak tariff? We’re all electric. Fill up at 7p export at 15p (soon to be 12p) if there is anything to export. We’ve used very little peak rate electrickery over winter

Alternatively. Buy some cheap/dummy thermostats, stick them all over the place and bin them when your house is signed off 😃 ~~~ Our place is a bit smaller than yours and we only have one thermostat downstairs. Nothing was mentioned.

Just butted up to the architraves. Yep, good point. Our tiles are cut in half length ways and the factory edge faces up for exactly that reason. We have MDF in all the carpeted rooms, no problems whatsoever, no damage on external corners. No knots to prime. If done properly I see absolutely no issue with MDF (apart from the dust 😷)

Where we have tiled floors we used the same tile as the skirting. Looks good and hard as nails (obviously depends on the size of your tiles for this option to be considered).

I couldn’t agree more. But, if you do Heatpumps except you can’t do Heatpumps in new builds, that is pretty damn suspect.

Good grief! Well, at least you found out in good time how professional those professionals are.

@Conor good point, I wrap the magnet in a dried out wet wipe to prevent marking the wall.

Use a strong magnet (search Amazon) it will find all the screws attaching the plasterboard to the studwork and, if strong enough, the metal stud work itself.

I suspect this will be merged with another thread. I had the same email yesterday.

I rate the Naim Muso and Muso Qb. They sound exceptional and they play together very nicely. They also cost a bucket load. The Muso Qb is the entry level and quite brilliant to my ears.

Hmmmm. Why ceiling? Not the best way to hear stereo, plus, when the ceiling speaker is kapput the replacement probably won’t fit the hole. Personal choice obviously but there are some amazing shelf mounted wireless speakers that will link room to room and blow your socks off with the sonic quality. And when they die, just plug a replacement in.

There is a fair bit on the forum going back a good while regarding instant water heaters, I don’t know if you’ve searched yet but something there may answer your question. I have an instant water heater in the garage, puny little thing but produces nice tepid water at the end of a 20m cold run. As for the Willis heater option, that won’t automatically switch on when you run the tap so I’d suggest it would not be a straight forward solution for your problem (great for UFH though!)

Don’t really know. If it’s definitely a wood fibre board it’s unlikely to contain asbestos but if there is any doubt you should get it tested. Asbestos was used in so many building products mid 20th century.

That’s my point. That’s what we did.

I was dead set against not making good use of the loft from a ‘wasting so much space’ point of view. Why go to so much effort to build a quality, individual house and then have a loft space that’s kind of part of the house and kind of not, and largely useless… …until the next owner spends multi thousands doing a loft conversion and finally bringing the loft into the fold. Christmas decorations (you may have a point). Some gym equipment and a couple of SUP’s (you may have a point again). Suitcases. MVHR. House battery. Kids LEGO and train sets in storage for grandkids (I’m back in the lead).

Is it too late to incorporate it in to the thermal envelope and make it a proper useable loft? Ours is (MBC). Proper staircase going up to it, carpets etc. It is the loft, no windows but most definitely the loft but also a very useable part of the house and that’s where the Christmas decorations are. Along with lots of other stuff. It meant we had to have FD30 internal doors but it was worth that.

Cor that’s weird! Have you got a thermal camera you can point at the door to see if it’s a uniform temperature (thus uniformly filled)?

I suspect they are all much of a muchness, I think I got all mine from Wickes who don’t seem to stock them anymore. Perfect for that level access with no drainage problems. Perfect for when you change your mind about the patio shape. Perfect for when you drop something really heavy on to a tile and damage it, 2 seconds to lift the tile and replace it.

If my experience is anything to go by then mistakes will be made - nothing major, though every small mistake seems enormous in the moment. Stress will be high. But, without a doubt (for me, with zero prior knowledge) it was definitely the best decision.

No recommendations apart from have you considered managing the project yourself? It’ll save you a bundle and you will more than likely pay much more attention to what is going on, and what soon needs to be going on, than any professional project manager.

Do you need those? It’ll be plenty light enough in there with the windows you have planned, those roof lights will just add complexity and cost (and maybe leaks) and be noisy when it rains. Wracking my brain for a ‘positive’ but can’t come up with anything.