ProDave

Do you have a grey metal box like the one partly shown in the bottom right of this picture? Sorry that's the only photo I have, Ignore everything except the metal box with Therma V on it, do you have anything like that? It might be near your water tank, it might be near the control panel, or in reality it could be just about anywhere else? If you have one of those then that is the box that allows the ASHP to control the immersion heater in the hot water tank when it needs to heat to a hotter temperature. If you have one, then listen to it carefully when it tries to demand very hot water, you should hear it go clonk quite loud as it energises the contactor, and then while on, it will hum probably quite quetly, you might need to put your ear to it to see if it is humming.

I am looking forward to the next instalment to see how the "bottom digger" crawls himself out of the hole.

It would not surprise me if the council are hostile to any plans to extend it, as they did not want it to become a separate dwelling in the first place. Can you find out if it has permitted development rights or do you not get those with a Lawful Development certificate? Work on the basis you are buying it as it stands, and it may not be possible to extend it. Another factor that may put a spanner in the works if you need a mortgage, if it was done as an "under the radar" conversion then it is highly likely it might not have building regulations approval and a completion certificate. It is beyond the time limit for enforcement of that, but it may prevent lenders giving a mortgage on the property.

There are a lot of settings you can adjust, but my memory of them is a bit rusty. I think they refer to it as stage 1 and stage 2 heating. The default is to heat it to a certain temperature with the heat pump then use the immersion heater to get it hotter. You can disable this 2 stage operation (I did) but then I only ask my tank to heat to 48 degrees. It is further compunded that you can use the electric heating element built into the heat pump, or you can use an immersion heater in the tank if you have the optional control box for that ( a grey metal box containing a contactor to turn on the immersion heater when it wants to) Your best bet is to fault find the electric heating, and for that first tell us if you have established which heating element it it trying to use?

It would be interesting to seek the planning history of this property. I would guess with some certainty this used to be a double garage, quite probably associated with Rooks Wake and got planning permission as a conversion from that garage. The planning permission if you can find it would give a clue what the feeling of the planners was and if there are any restrictions imposed by that planning permission.

They are called strainer posts or straining posts.

Certainly in England you can use a waterless trap to connect into a drain stack, but I have not seen that done in Scotland, you would need to check with BCO. My discharge pipes terminate above a French drain along the front of the house with a cage over it as per regs. My BCO expected to see it signed off by a plumber they had previously verified the competence of.

Impact driver.

+1 to that. I have often wondered why nobody else fills ICF like this, at least on a single storey building. And this shows it can and does work. If only the digger had not had a grump it would have gone sweetly to completion. There have been plenty of Grand Design type programs where the concrete pump is not working and they are frantically trying to fix it before the load of concrete in the waiting wagon goes off.

You can't change the temperature with the "view temperature" button, that is viewing actual temperature, not the set point. Instead you use the "Set temperature" button where you can cycle between water leaving temperature and DHW tank temperature and adjust them. You have no doubt tried that and found it does not do anything. You clearly have not discovered the bug feature in the software. You can only adjust these temperatures when the heating mode is on. So even though it is the middle of the summer and you don't need any heating, go and turn the heating on. Then you will find you can adjust the hot water tank temperature. Then go and turn the heating off again. I can't remember if I discovered that by accident, or someone else told me.

If it's an old school diesel as I strongly suspect it is, the only electrics are the fuel shut off valve and the starter motor so hopefully it will be a simple fix.

Well done. I see that method of pour only works on a single storey building. What gave up on the digger? Is it yours or hired?

The ability of a well insulated air tight building to distribute it's heat quite evenly throughout the building is quite remarkable. The one that astounds me it my workshop (aka plant room) which is the room above the attached garage. There is no heating in there, the floor is the garage ceiling, it has the end gable wall, and it's "ceiling" is the garage roof. There is no obvious way heat can get in from the rest of the house, the door between this workshop and our bedroom is usually shut. I did have a spare mvhr extract port so have an mvhr extract in the workshop so it will slowly draw in air from the bedroom, that is about the only plausible source of heat input I can imagine to that room. Yet still it is never particularly cold in there, and never needs any heating. Just delete the upstairs heating and carry on building.

Seems you can't read it if you don't have a twitter account? how stupid is that?

Could it be infilled ground? A load of rocks or concrete blocks thrown in and the spaces in between never properly filled?

I am one of several here that "took the leap of faith" and did not install upstairs heating. * Like those before me that said you would not need upstairs heating, I can confirm they were right, and we do not need heating upstairs Yes in the winter it can be a couple of egrees cooler than downstairs but that is how we like it. * i did install electric points should we need to add an electric panel heater in each bedroom that have remained unused. And there is IFH in the en-suite and bathroom running at a low temperature more to ensure the tiles don't feel cold.

I think the issue in not the use of a particular underlay, but the use of a particularly thing particularly weak laminate flooring. I am not a fan of laminate flooring, preferring proper engineered wood flooring, but I have used a good laminate in our sun room without such issues. the tongue and groove joint in yours appears too weak to be fit for purpose.

SOD the CGT I am trying to get out. While it might still be possible to do so.

Yes, in winter we keep all the windows shut and there are never problems with stale air or condensation. In the summer we often keep windows open so we can hear the wildlife and the trickle of the water in the burn.

I would wager a DIY installed and used lift is just as dangerous as a pit.

Sitting is a pit is so much easier and less messy even for a simple thing like an oil change.

Who says they are not? Nobody stopped me having one in my last 2 garages.

It's this bottom bead I was thinking of that looks to be detached.

I can't find the figures form mine, but the actual continuous normal rate I have set a little lower that what BR may say to ensure it is totally silent, and practice suggests it is giving perfectly good ventilation. I have the boost set as fast as it will go and it is noisy. The boost is many times the trickle rate but I can't find my figures to say exactly what it is. Why would you not want the boost as fast as it possibly can go? * * Well that is true to clear moist air during and after a shower where we run it at full speed boost. But we also have a mid speed option used when cooking to give an in between rate to improve kitchen ventilation while not sounding like a jet engine. That is often running for longer than "bathroom boost" and we don't want it that noisy.

Most important question nobody has asked yet: What size PIT are you installing. My last 2 garages have had a pit, great addition.