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All I’m saying is my heating bills are much less than you would expect given my house is now a 2300 square feet part 1930s semi, part new build, and I’m sure a big part of that is from mainly restricting our heating to the ground floor and half the first floor, and having a very efficient MVhR system.

I’m not so sure about this. We modernised and extended a 1930s semi, spending a lot of money on making it airtight, insulating it* and installing a very good MVHR system (Brink Flair 400 which has an efficiency of 95%) and we manage to get away with only heating the ground floor and only heating the kids bedrooms on the first floor for a couple of hours before bedtime. This keeps the first and second floors warm enough for our purposes. My wife occasionally complains that our master bedroom is too cold, but this is nonsense; it hasn’t dropped below 18.5C this last week, and is only heated (at the moment) from indirect heat from the ground floor below and MVHR. Whilst we still have some variance between rooms and zones, I think the mvhr is helping reduce our bills a lot. i would however be concerned by a 80% efficient machine. Why not get something better? *our insulation is not top spec. We only have 2G windows, except for one 3G velux, and our EWI is not particularly thick, about 45mm.

Crosswater make some good ones that aren’ttoo pricy. I like their MPro range.

I think you should call the various suppliers: BPC CVC Systems ventilation land and ask them to recommend and supply a basic machine. Being a garage, you probably don’t care too much about how noisy it is, and just something that is durable and problem free. For just a one room garage, I don’t think the difference between 80% efficiency and 90% efficiency will make any noticeable difference to your heating bills. I guess it depends how you are heating it and what the heat loss is, but unless it’s really bad, a 10% differential shouldn’t make much difference.

Welcome Antonio. I would stay clear of unknown eBay retailers, and instead go with a company such as Bpc or CVC who can give you a free design service. Something like one of the cheaper units from here might work well: https://www.bpcventilation.com/heat-recovery/heat-recovery-units/vent-axia-unit How high is your ceiling, or how do you feel about boxing in some ducts on two sides of the room? I ask because given you plan on creating fumes, I would be tempted in having three fresh air supplies scattered around on one side of the room, and at least two extracts on the other side. This will require a ceiling void or some boxing in to conceal the ducting. Having said that, you can get low profile rectangular ducting that only needs about 7cm of height.

Looks amazing! Well done!

Obviously. Otherwise the Sahara would be experiencing heatwaves every day of the year. I think of a heatwave as unusually hot weather that lasts long enough it begins to get bothersome.

Yes, I agree. I could have saved £200 on a smaller boiler, and also saved a bit of space in my utility room as I think the smaller one is 5cm less in one of the dimensions, can’t remember which now, but all things considered, it’s not the end of the world.

I think even there you are not immune from a hot summer’s day. Only last month you had a few: https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/official-heatwave-to-be-declared-in-ni-as-experts-predict-when-soaring-temperatures-will-peak/a1117229642.html Given climate change, summers will only get warmer.

Ask that question again during the height of summer.

Sorry, i never updated this. They did the work in the summer and then I had to duel with Cadent telephone operatives for them to come back and clean up the mess they left. It is working just as well as it did before the "upgrade". I haven't spotted any difference. I guess now is winter time, there is greater gas use in our street, but I don't recall having any issues last year. Ultimately, I think our boiler is massively oversized. With the hot water tank being heated at the same time as half the heating is on, the boiler rarely modulates to more than 45%. I think the most i've seen is 50%, when we also had a couple of towel heaters running.

@Del-inquent find out your mains pressure and flow rates as @SimonD mentions. We have one more bathroom than you, and still manage well with just a 300L UvC and system boiler. Unless you have lots of baths, you could go smaller than that, maybe 240L. In horizontal configuration they can be hidden in lofts quite easily.

Thanks @LnP this is really reassuring. I think part of my sleeplessness was caused by the same worry you had, so reassuring to know that it’s not a massive task to fix - my builder likes to do things quite slowly, so what took your guy a couple of days will take my guy a week. I think the other thing that causes me sleeplessness is he is just generally quite a difficult man to deal with. He hates any sort of constructive feedback, let alone me pointing out a mistake as bad as this. He gets incredibly defensive and starts blaming someone else. That’s basically his personality. Luckily, I’ve always been able to see the good in him, and so despite various issues over the past couple of years, we’ve never fallen out. It took me a while, but I eventually learnt how to deal with him. That doesn’t stop it being a difficult experience most times. So I guess I’m dreading the meeting as I’m worried this bit of feedback will be the final nail in the coffin for our relationship. I say that, because in the past he’s always had the retention payment to incentivise him to continue, but I made that payment some months ago, so there isn’t much in it for him now other than decency and pride. So I will just have to deal with him extra diplomatically and probably end up paying for some of it.

I’m not sure that’s accurate. Although it is best practice to comply with the PWA, it is not compulsory. It’s power lies in the fact that if you ignore the PWA requirements, then in any subsequent dispute, if it was caught by the PWA then the Courts can make negative inferences (ie without evidence) against the person who ignored it.

Any thoughts on approximate cost to rectify this by: inserting three weep holes, spaced 45cm apart above the window and inserting 8 weep holes, similarly spaced, above the sliding door (the cavity wall above the sliding has no damp at the moment, but I want to future proof); and cutting out bricks to also insert cavity trays in a worst case scenario that this wasn't done either! In each case I suspect there will need to be some repointing done. If bricks break, I luckily still have spares. Though they've been stored uncovered on a pallett, and will be quite damp by now. Maybe I should bring a dozen into the house to dry them out for a couple of weeks? I'm hoping only (1) will be required, but want to understand how bad (2) will be.

Yes, give up now, sell, and buy a house that needs no work at all.

I guess. Unless there is also moisture coming in through the parapet wall at the top, though there we have some plastic/composite coping stones and an overlapping membrane that came with a long guarantee, so seems unlikely. i hate this sh!t.

Yes, I agree with this. What is best practice here? What should the window installer have done instead?

I wonder if that is what the "Alternative Approach" in section 5.6 of BR Approved Document C refers to, which states: "The requirement can also be met by following the relevant recomendations of Clauses 4 and 5 of BS 8215:1991". I tried finding that British Standards document "Code of Practice for design and installation of damp-proof courses in masonry construction", but I can't seem to access it without buying it. If so, the builder definitely sealed the brickwork and mortar with a sealant, but I'm not sure what type was used.

So is my architect just giving me false assurance that the bigger the cavity wall the less likely it is to need any weep holes? If so, I can’t explain why the small cavity wall above our window is visibly damp, whereas the bigger one, which is the same orientation, and just as exposed, looks fine.

So basically this is a mistake by everyone involved: the architect, the builder, the brickie and BCO. I really don’t understand what purpose BCO serve? They seem more nuisance than actual assistance.

I started a post a few days ago about what I thought was a faulty window leading to water ingress through the top frame of the window, but after discussion with my architect I’m now realising this is more likely an issue arising from no weep holes being provided in the external skin of bricks linking to the DPC tray which I’m hoping was installed within the cavity wall above the window. The on site findings are that the screws screwing the window top frame into the lintel above have rusted, and water is entering the window frame via those screws. There is no issue with the window seals, in that spraying water directly onto the window does not cause water ingress. Some 45cm or so above the window, the external brick wall is showing brown discolouration in the mortar around a few bricks. The discolouration is quite localised and does not occur anywhere else in the brickwork of the extension (which is quite big), but this is the only place where we have a small cavity wall above an opening. The cavity wall above the large sliding door doesn’t have weep holes either, and the architect tells me that the reason there is no damp issue there is because there is much more space within the cavity for moisture to mix with air and evaporate. No idea whether that is right, but it at least sounds plausible, his theory being that no cavity will be perfectly moisture free, but weep holes are only required where this is a problem. The construction drawings show DPC trays laid through the cavity wall at the top and coming through the outer skin of bricks, but that’s it. There is no further detail about including weep holes. There is also not a cross section of every new wall, so on our rear extension the cross sectional diagram shows the two side walls, but not the rear wall (which is the wall where we have the water ingress through the window problem). Is that normal? Or has my architect taken short cuts which have led to this omission? On the one hand, the builder I went with is very experienced and on the whole has done, or at least I thought he had done, a very good job, and I can see him saying that this is a design flaw, because the drawings aren’t detailed enough. But on the other hand isn’t this a standard construction detail, that any competent builder would know about? Surely cavity walls are bread and butter building work? What about the bricklayer and foreman (both employed by the builder) shouldn’t they have noticed the omission? Seems like a colossal f@ck-up!

Thanks @SteamyTea. i did actually look at ironmongery direct, but wasn't sure anything they had would work. On the first one, this won't work as my carcass frame is not a flush fit with the door. The second just doesn't make sense to me. Both fixings appear to be fixed on the same plane? If that's right, how is it meant to fix onto something that is in one plane and something which is in a perpendicular plane? Even if it did theoretically work, the reviews for the product are bad. The third item looks like the best option out of the three (apart from the finish which just won't go with anything in the room). Assuming i could find something similar with a nickel or brushed steel finish, or even chrome (though my optic nerves are allergic to chrome), how wide do you think I could open the cupboard door with such an item. This photo (taken from a review of the item) shows a very narrow angle of less than 50 degrees: Presumably if I fit it closer to the edge of the door I can get closer to 90? EDIT: I've just seen they come in multiple finishes: Window Operators | Joinery Hardware | IronmongeryDirect

Thanks Joe, but couldn’t something like this damage the door (just because It’sa cheap door)?

I'm after a cupboard door restrictor for a bathroom cabinet that is only 126mm deep. Accordingly, the restrictor needs to be small enough to fit within that. i was hoping something simple to install that does not require routing of the actual door (since this is made of cheap MDF and is unlikely to router very well - and in any case I don't have a router!) I found this, but the supplier tells me it is too big to fit: Cupboard Door Restrictor PDF (gjohns.co.uk) (same product also sold by SDS). The door has a mirror on it, but is otherwise pretty lightweight (measures about 45cm wide, by 65cm high and 12mm or so deep). Can anyone recommend something? I need to restrict the door opening to anything between 85 and 91 degrees. Before somebody recommends a hinge restrictor, this will be complicated to fit as the hinges that came with the cupboard are not blum or some other standard hinge, and have no brand name on them so I can't find the little stopper that the usual manufacturers make that would have worked. I considered swapping the hinges for blum or hafele ones, but because these aren't standard hinges, I'm not sure the holes in the door will match exactly, so would be much easier to just find a separate cupboard stay. Perhaps @SteamyTea, @ProDave, @joe90 or somebody else with equally impressive skills can help me out. Many thanks.