ProDave

the 4 speeds are selected by 4 volt free contacts. You could buy a switch that could be mounted anywhere in the house that was simply a rotary switch labelled 1,2,3,4 but I chose to do my own thing. I used this sort of time switch But because that has a switched 240V output I use that to switch on a small relay, that then provides the volt free contact to connect to the ASHP

Is this to divide it into a pair of semi's?

In Scotland, you have to submit full plans, there is no simple building notice option. Building control approve the plans before you can start and then their inspections are to determine it has been built according to the plans. If something changes, and they deem it important (I would expect such a massive change in the insulation spec to be so) they will insist on a new set of drawings to show the changes. As this is an extension, it might be being built under a building notice where it is everything agreed as you go. but as the client I would want to be involved in any discussions changing anything.

Thanks, glad you got it fixed.

I am so sad for you, this is a shocking example of shocking builders both for not following the plans and not even discussing with you when they want to change something. Ditto building control. WHO appointed building control, you or your architect? Is your architect involves still and supposed to be supervising this? Who appointed the brickie and joiner? you or the architect and under what terms where they appointed? You need to understand the chain of command here before you can decide who is at fault and what action to take. I would certainly STOP any further work until a resolution plan is agreed. Is the outer covering of the flat roof on already? This is why I project managed my own build and watched like a hawk everything that was done, but thankfully I had appointed builders I knew and trusted and they discussed any changes before implementing them, and they were mostly changes for the good.

I suspect the stay will have to stay. If I am understanding your pictures, the stay is perpendicular to the road, so putting your entrance to one side of the pole, it will not be blocking the entrance. To prevent people walking into it, I would plant a row of shrubs / bushes directly underneath it and let them grow high enough and the stay will be hidden, embeded in the greenery.

Is it a single 3 way valve or multiple 2 way valves. Either way it sounds like the valve to the hot water tank not opening so there is not enough flow. that could be a faulty actuator head or it could be a mechanical fault (seized) If you don't know, post a picture of the HW tank and all valves or controls on or near it.

Have you paid him? If not don't. I would be having serious words along the lines "you did not build what you were contracted to build and what was shown on the approved drawings. Correct it to make it match the approved design AT YOUR EXPENSE" If I need to change something when I am doing a job, I discuss it first with the customer.

They certainly don't seem to understand safe zones.........

About 4 years with no issues. The problem was my MVHR unit only has 4 speeds (it actually has a fine +/- adjustment on each speed) and I needed speed 2 to get the BR rates in all rooms. At that speed it was just audible in some rooms. So now it runs at speed 1 with the + adjustment on. It's not much below regs levels but dead silent.

WHY? Seriously I would sack the joiner, he knows nothing about buildings. If you had followed the plans you would have a warm roof that does not need ventilating and you would not have these issues. Just why did he want to go back to "the old ways"? No wonder the building trade is so poor in general. Sorry a bit of a rant, but there are plenty of people having issues with their homes in this cold weather, and your joiner talking you out of doing it properly is an example of why.

If you want to do it better, you have 175mm joists, fit 100mm insulation boards with a 25mm gap between the top of the insulation and the cold deck, that will leave the bottom of the boards 50mm above the bottom of the joists. Seal (tape) all the joints no gaps no holes. Put all the wiring on the underside of the insulation. If your downlights are more than 60mm deep, batten the underside of the joists with 25mm battens to drop the ceiling to then give you 75mm from the plasterboard to the insulation to fit the downlights.

With no plasterboard and that great big gap, the warm moist air from the room can get to the cold deck board and it is no wonder you are getting condensation and mould. The insulation might as well not be there at all for all the good it is doing. Really bad design, I would not use flush downlights without a re design of the roof personally. The best you can do is fill in as much of the gap as you can leaving just a very small round hole for each light, and then fit a sealed downlight, NOT the open framed ones to try and minimise how much of your precious warm air can escape to the cold side.

Can you post a picture further out to give more context of what we are looking at there. Where are the lights? indeed where is even the ceiling plasterboard? How are you seeing this or is it not yet finished and the plasterboard is not yet on?

That is not where the pipe fits, that is where the trap screws on, it is not intended to take a pipe int there. the outlet of a trap is a compression fitting with a rubber seal with enough flex to accommodate the different sizes of "40mm" pipes

I always encourage my customers of a new build to buy the materials themself and I just give them a shopping list.

Just buy it, it will fit, in the UK there are really only 2 sizes, bath and basin. You would be very unlucky of you had a non UK bath waste and trap fitted. UK waste pipe sizes annoy me, just look at how many different sized "40mm" pipes there are available. but at least the screw thread fittings for wastes and traps is pretty standard.

Not meant to be serious: Turn gas off. Drill hole. Turn gas on. Can you smell gas from the hole? If you can you know where the pipe is and where to repair it. If not, you missed the pipe. Hang the cupboard. For a final sanity check, get a gas safe engineer to do a drop test, just in case you grazed it and made a minute hole.

Are you SURE that is a term going to be used? Or just some journalistic slang? There are some things you might do for not a lot of ££ that might be worth a punt but I won't say as I am considering a punt.

I will be interested to see the final outcome, in particular exactly what standards are set (continual use of passivhouse or whatever standards we propose) and how they verify it. While I want to see houses built better, I would not want to burden every builder with being forced to pay for true passivehouse verification. I speak as someone recently completed what I regard as a very successful low energy new build, but one I know would have failed true passivehouse verification. Is it really asking for ALL new houses to be better than mine? Much of the present problems are simply down to poor implementation. In recent years I have wired two new builds where parts of the insulation were installed appallingly badly almost to the point it might as well not have been there. Present building regs inspections missed that in both cases. Roll on 5 years and I predict we will be seeing threads "Why is my Scottish Passivehoose costing so much to heat"

Sometimes the whole outer chrome bit of the overflow unscrews like a big nut threaded onto the plastic bit.

It looks like one of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine-bath-waste-overflow-16/1236p As @PeterW says in the centre of the chrome bit the plug fits into should be a screw, which you undo the separate the two parts. A common mistake is over tightening. The "nut" in the bottom part is on a plastic web and over tightening can crack and weaken that.

You have a pretty good EPC rating there. Fit some solar PV and you would easily be up to an EPC A which is nice to have.

So I assume the flashing green light means it is burst firing the heater. I would set the thermostat in the loft to maximum so the heater runs at full power, and leave the nest room thermostat to turn it on and off as needed. I think the heater is in the right place. Putting it on the exhaust before the heat exchanger would probably just result in a percentage of the new heat being expelled as the heat exchanger is not 100% efficient.

A low energy house (assuming that is what this is) will not need much heat input to maintain the temperature. But it will need a lot more heat to raise the temperature to a comfortable level if it has been allowed to get cold. I think you are confusing what the sensor and thermostat does. It does not set the temperature of the air blowing out of the vents, it is a room temperature sensor. The air will blow out of the vents at whatever temperature the heater can manage, until the room reaches the required temperature, then the heater will switch off. Thereafter it will cycle on and off from time to time to maintain the room temperature. So set it to 20 degrees and leave it alone for a while. EDIT: post a picture of the thermostat you are talking about in case it is me that has misunderstood it?