PeterW

Similar here … sold my Mission 753’s when I needed the money … 😭 Now run Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 and 9.5 from a NAD amp and it can still shake the fillings from granny’s teeth…

+1 to hire. I pay £230/week delivered for a 1.5t, £300/week for a 2.5t which can pull a 4ft bucket so is perfect for landscaping. By the time you factor in service, insurance and depreciation you could get 4-6 weeks hire when you need it and not have a machine sat idle for days at a time.

They are 2” but you can fit a 60mm replacement with care - tbh it’s usually cheaper and quicker to replace the pan and cistern as it’s probably 50 years old now ! I’m assuming you only did the seal and not clean and nearly polish the seat on the valve ..? They need a lot of work to maintain them. Lunns are good for obscure stuff - they do a replacement and the button fits through the flush hole which is pretty standard with the replacements https://shop.lunns.net/shanks-beta-260mm-replacement-si50-cw-button--350mm-d-prx3-253119-p.asp

Not quite sure how they have cocked all that up but it looks messy !!! Right hand side membrane is under the tray at the bottom but should be over the edge of it. Tray should have its own underlay too - can’t see if that’s been done. Hard to see too if battens run to the edge of the tray correctly. another 5 mins spent on that and they would have done a decent job.

@Andehh your airtightness is your friend here - and you need to do the test just after the windows go in and before they start on boarding out and covering all the holes up. You may even want to do 2 tests - you can rig your own blower door too using an old car fan or even hire a test rig and then go looking for all the gaps - easily spotted and you will pay dividends when the actual test is done with this approach. If you have a block skin inner you may also benefit from a parge coat of sand & cement or bonding applied with a broom to seal up all the gaps in blockwork. It’s a few hours job but not expensive and well worth the effort as finding the gaps will be nigh on impossible when you’ve got the boards up and skimmed

Vaillant immersion is a standard immersion so not sure why you would want to change it ..? Never seen the AC-Thor in the flesh but it’s nearly double the price of the market leaders and all for a nice colour screen … what is taking you down that route ..?

are you getting a VAT invoice ..? As without one they may not be that cheap

Ok so I would just carry on and not worry as no-one will check … you’ll put insulation and then concrete over the top - a single block will not be taking any load that would cause failure

If there is then it’s not a UFH issue and there is a problem elsewhere - a buffer will act as an open circuit

So there is a single pump pushing into both manifolds from one location..? That will cause poor flow and should follow route of least resistance but in your case I do wonder how it has been piped up. A warm valve could mean it is stuck - try the metal lever on the side and see if it opens and closes smoothly

E911/912 are flow related - I expect either a zone valve is not opening correctly or the manifold valves are getting old and slow if they are the wax cap type. Need a photo of the manifold in its entirety to start with though

Usually chew or break the tops off about 8-900mm below ground and leave them - and hope they aren’t in the way of something ..!

Rolling pastry of all things !!

Yes but a 1.2kW ASHP is the equivalent of just over 1 bar on an old electric fire ..!! Plus it then uses a direct immersion of the same power so it’s COP is around 1.8 which isn’t that great.

Apologies I forgot the BUS was being applied to new build - only issue is you need to use an MCS accredited company to install which adds £3k minimum to the price !!

I broke a glass hob doing this ….. plan for more work surface - it’s cheaper in the long run !!

… into what surface type ..? It would need to be accurately stencilled and possibly CNC cut, and would still leave a gap for expansion anyway. You would also have the issue that any replacement would need to be identical and you cannot guarantee this so tbh it’s impractical. You can undermounted induction coils but they are an expensive gimmick

So this … .. and this … are mildly incorrect. A new condensing boiler will give you 88-90%, which then means you need to recalculate the cost of electric. so based on 88% efficiency, you need 13,160kWh of heat for DHW and heating. Given a 40/60 split for DHW and heating, you need 5,264kWh for DHW and 7,896kWh for heating. Now.. with the standardised SCOP for your Daikin ASHP unit at 3.26 mean on 55°C output, which is pretty good, you will consume 2,442kWh (£823) for the heating, and 1,614kWh (£549) for the DHW excluding taking the tank temperature any higher than 55°C (which in reality is around 18% less DHW capacity than the boiler heating to 68°C) which would be at CoP 1.0 as would be direct electric via the immersion. On those numbers, your total cost of electricity is £1,372 so on a weighted 13 years a total of £17,836 or £2,320 more than a gas boiler over the same period. If you then remove any grants - which you can’t get on a new build anyway - the cost of an installed heat pump over 13 years is around £7,230 higher than the equivalent gas boiler with standard UVC. That allows for replacing a boiler at 13 years and nearly £5k change left over. I have also not included any additional cost for increased radiator sizes to work with the d35°C (additional 20% size) from the ASHP vs boiler flow temperatures. You could load shift the DHW to off peak electricity but that’s a marginal saving of £3,220 or the difference of around £70/yr against a gas boiler. The only way to drive the efficiency is drop the output temperature to 35-38°C and drive the Cop up to 4.45, which takes around £200/yr off the cost of the heating - essentially break even on gas. In a new build environment with an good air tightness, high insulation levels and using UFH, you can make an ASHP pay, but in a building to standard building regs, and with radiators and UVC you will run at a higher TCO than a gas boiler for all of the above reasons.

Pellet stove needs a standard chimney or liner suitable for a wood burning stove so if the chimney is in good condition then you will be fine.

None of the A2W combined ones do or really should be doing as they take warm air from inside the house and expel cold air outside and then heat the water. If they were doing space heating too then they would be creating some sort of closed loop perpetual heat engine … These are ok for certain instances and have their place, but not heating UFH

Do you mean the Kappa cistern..? Check your choice of flush plates fit the cisterns as they have different ones for Delta, Sigma and Kappa

Don’t forget to cut where possibly between the inner and outer leaves so you don’t create a cold bridge. Below ground you can use bluebird ties screwed in to the existing brickwork.

Those 2 statements are conflicting - piles will be deep to get to a reasonable strata (assuming they are full piles..?) but could just be short piles and a reinforced ring beam to stop it moving on the clay. Have you done any ground investigation ..? And have you exposed any of the pile itself ..?

Salix Alba within 15m of foundations on high plasticity soils (ie clay) would need 1.8m foundation with clay heave protection. Removing it would require the same foundations and treatment so why not leave it and go piled foundations …?

Wickes is 10% - so £61.50 exc for 100m of 2.5 T&E but no idea on quality although reviews are good