JohnMo

Living life on the edge. But its not as bad as looks really, more a 45 degree slope.

Take a look outside, where is ground level compared to your DPC? If it's not a 150mm below, that could be where the water is entering. Ours was pretty close to dpc for a while and we had similar.

I would look up and have a read on cascade MVHR. But also read up on condition based dMEV, where the inlet and inlet is humidity controlled only ventilating when required.

Ours ended up being done a year after the house was complete. Converted to 28mm copper before coming up the wall. Then core drilled 2x 50mm holes, placed copper tube central in the holes (slight upwards to allow self bleeding) and used expanding airtight foam to keep in place. And then sealed the ends at the wall with sealant. Then used external 19mm insulation.

Maybe not the best fencing option for the job at hand. Or change the shape of the fence line so you close to 90 degree angles. Or use round posts at the corners and just notch a flat at any angle you want.

I would ignore it all. You can't commission your MVHR without windows. Every new build is in the same situation if they install MVHR. No trickle vents and MVHR commissioning completed months or years after the windows go in. Building regs requires vents for a normal ventilation system, but these do not have to be in a window, they can be in the wall if you want. Yours is supplied via the room terminal from the MVHR.

If you want the best cut a roller, but you will need to cut the often, a rotary one is more forgiving. If you get a rotary one get one that mulches the grass, as long as the cut isn't huge all the grass cutting gets pushed back into the grass. I just need to find a decent one with all wheel drive for our slopes. The 2 wheel drive one is hard work.

That may be so, but still looks a bodge.

So to get the terminology correct you don't have vapour control layer in a floor, its a damp proof membrane. The UFH pipes are (or should be) well above the DPM, as you would not want to puncture it. You possibly need to get a design bottomed out for the floor before worrying about details of holding the UFH in place. That will fit together more naturally once the floor is designed.

I can see a few issues that look like they need addressing first. The screws going through the insulation will not support much for long, they all need washers to give some surface area. They also need to be taped over. The gap between the wall and insulation needs to be filled that would be with foam or glass wool. Wires supported on screws just looks wrong. The white cover over what I assume are cables is held in place with cable clips, that's a bodge.

With the duct and insulation you also get an air gap, which adds to the insulation as the outer duct/pipe is sealed at both ends, so you also get an unventilated cavity. When you look at the details of pre-made underground insulated pipe the insulation is not really that good and want loads of £ for it. Looking at Rauthermex 32+32/111mm DUO Pipe, you have 2 x 32mm pipe in a 111mm pipe, the insulation may be slightly better but it's not very thick. I have one 28mm pipe in a 110mm pipe the rest is insulation. So overall I think it's cheaper and better quality than the ore made stuff. The shed is also well insulated, basically pallets full filled with rockwool. Vapour control layer internal and breather membrane external.

The only concern with these units is do any of them move enough air around so you get a proper through flow of air, is it just moving a 6m volume of air in to and out of the house. Working on a dilution principle instead of an air exchange principle. Read up on cascade MVHR, this use a central supply or two, then extract in suitable location to get proper cross flow of air. Also when you do all the calcs, condition based MEV isn't much worse than MVHR. You need to factor in install cost, buying the hardware, running cost, filter cost etc. It only allows air exchange if it's needed based on humidity, not all the time. Plenty of nay sayers on here, but I did all the calcs for our house and it was pretty good, but our airtightness and building control, means we have to have a balanced ventilation system, so it had to be MVHR.

Both in a bedroom, no issues anywhere else, you just turn up the tv or radio as required.

We had a Flymo for about 6 years, first few years great, then the battery charger failed, replaced, then battery went and a few other niggles needed fixing, basically became uneconomical to fix. Went back to a normal mower after that.

Been there, then when it rained wished I hadn't, made a racket. Since then velux and roof lights in general have been of the agenda in bedrooms

That is a small area, if the concrete is on insulation, it should have a plastic sheet between the insulation and concrete. So would imagine a day's work to remove, another day to backfill. Builders job to rectify at his cost, he messed up. To correct or make a rubbish floor flat, is a self leveling screed, just build up low spots to match high spots.

Conversely my 192m2 floor only has about 600m. Build of ICF depends on system used. I did our walls in Durisol, 70m perimeter and up to 3.5m high, two of us neither done building work, took us 4 weeks doing 8 hour days x 5 days a week. That was completed the 4 weeks before Christmas.

The other thing to note. Changes on paper cost cost very little, a change while building generally cost for the delete and the new, plus 10 other things you haven't thought about. Once you start building change nothing, when on a tight budget. Insulation - EPS is way cheaper than PIR, but you need 50% more EPS for the same insulation values. But it's still cheaper. DIY UFH is simple enough and cheap, you just need to be methodical, it's also makes best use of a heat pump efficiency. Bathrooms are generally expensive, plan to one for building control and possibly another later when funds allow. Shop around for everything big savings can be made

I think you need to nail down some details, 1 or 2 storey. 1 storey has a foot print twice the size as a two storey, but no need for and upstairs floor or stairs. A square building with rooms in roof has a good form factor, so requires less insulation for the same heat loss compared to a long single storey with vaulted ceilings. It also requires less foundation, wall etc. From your list not seeing framing out internal walls, internal doors, second fix joinery, plasterboard, plastering or taping, you need to allow cost for ventilation, window budget looks low for triple glazed windows, you may be better with good double thanks cheap triple glazed.

Do you need to screed at all? Where is the insulation going, what sort of insulation and how much in the floor? Are you using radiators?

Possibly need a little more information. So what is your exact floor buildup?

Couple of different things being confused here. Your DPM will or should be below the insulation, so if you have a suitable depth of insulation 150mm of PIR or more it will not be pierced. The plastic membrane between the insulation and the screed, where you are attaching the UFH pipes, is there for sepereration of the insulation and screed. It stops a chemical reaction between the aluminium and cement in the screed.

If you are NOT doing it yourself and paying for someone to do it, you really need to choose a contractor that is comfortable doing the build method you want, or choose a build method your local workforce are comfortable doing. Mix and match is usually disaster. I did lots of our build either myself or was there every day and all day if I had contractors on site. Insulated raft or do you mean passive slab? We have a combination of traditional footings, but bigger and the front wide ones are all reinforced (see attached) with an upstand of concrete blocks, insulation and aircrete blocks , this then infilled with a steel reinforced slab, insulation, UFH, then more concrete to form the floor. Horses for courses. Just have a good plan of what you want to achieve, then move forward based on the first paragraph.

For a filler I used the brass assembly at the bottom of the silver vertical pipes. Fill and Flush Valve - 28mm from BES about £55. Worked well. For expansion you need to check if one is already installed in the ASHP, but possibly not. So you will to size based on system capacity. I used an arm coming out of the wall, which had all the control stuff and bleed already included. Flamco - Contra-Flex Heating Expansion Vessel 12 Litre FCST 012 Tesla T-BAR Expansion Vessel Fixing Bar Kit (T-BARKIT) from unvented components £60 delivered for both. For the 3 way diverter I used eBay, plenty of good deals on there.

Not sure building control care as long as you have a sign off cert from the electrician. Just seems more stuff to go wrong and scratch your head over in 10 years time when it's all old hat, the company no longer supplies the replacement parts.