ProDave

So it's had this leak for some time, but it has continued to work and has not set off the CO alarm. If it were me, I would probably buy a new CO alarm, just in case the old one was faulty, and carry on using it. Of course this is not advice.

BC might insist you paint it with a fire retardant paint.

Yes as above tell EPC guy he is wrong.

We got some very nice XL Joinery half glazed oak doors but they are over your budget. Howdens do a range of Oak doors with the vertical pattern you mention for under £100

When our build first started, the drainage system was not installed so the toilet in the static 'van could not be used. Instead I offered the builders the use of the toilet at our house 2 doors down the road. I think that offer was only taken once. They just went behind one of the trees when they needed a pee. Perhaps it is a Scottish thing, I have worked on several new builds where one has to "make their own arrangements" I have been know to take a travel John with me.

Suggest the person that cut them off too short comes back to correct his mistake?

Which is referred to as a system boiler, but you made a diferentiation between a system boiler and regular boiler, which is what we don't understand.

Are you serious about valves to dump the water out of your system of it freezes? I just mixed an inhibitor / antifreeze with the water in mine at a level that should prevent it from freezing to -10. Job done.

Yes a cheap old touring caravan will give you a chemical loo, a sink, a heater if you are lucky and somewhere to sit.

When I bought my flue pipes the manufacturer sold an insulating sleeve for this purpose. That's a test run with the angle cut to match the roof. The sleeve is obviously non combustible or it would not be sold for that purpose and the outside is >50mm from the flue so your insulation or combustible materials can touch the outside of the sleeve.

To stand your great big heavy 26" CRT television on. Yes seriously. Posh people had a matching one the other side for the gramophone to sit on.

So you DID change / fix something, the lack of hot water. Just what did you change / fix / modify there? THAT will be where your problem is. Typically the heating controls would instruct a motorised valve (2 separate ones or a 3 position valve) to open as appropriate and a feedback switch on the motorised valve would fire the boiler when opened. If you have messed with the motorised valves either physically or electrically they could now be stuck calling for heat.

This sounds like a case of "it wasn't broke why did you mess with it" What part of the casing? Is it really a serious fault (gas or combustion products leaking) or just an outer case? I would seriously look at getting it welded to patch it up if it does not have to last long.

The path along the side looks to be less than the recommended 150mm lower than the DPC so you will be getting some rain splashing on the wall above DPC level.

Post some pictures of the affected area both inside and what is immediately outside at that point.

You have a ventilation system without mvhr. The only difference between what you have and just trickle ventilators, is you know the ventilation rate, trickle vents it is a guess and depends how windy it is. Are you units right there? Do you mean 5.2kW Vs 6.2kW i.e. you need 1kW less heating if you fitted MVHR?

No, I am know as a "grazer" I take a packed lunch and a flask, and I will take a bite of my sandwiches every now and then as I keep on working. I would rather get the job finished sooner and finish earlier. I can't see the point in going out and sitting in your van for even half an hour let alone a whole hour as some do.

Post the model number of the MVHR unit and a picture of any controls you have associated with it. The place you usually get condensation is the external cold air pipe going from outside to the MVHR unit.

This will be condensation in or on that duct. I am a little surprised to see it on an inlet pipe, that pipe at that point should contain "warm" air that has been heated by the heat recovered from the exhausted air. I do notice that vent terminal is shut down probably too much, so the airflow will be low. First you need to establish if the condensation is on the inside or outside of the pipe.

Would that be Ardross Castle? I wondered what they were filming there this summer. The program you mentioned is not my cup of tea when it comes to tv viewing but I might take a look now just to see some interior shots of the castle. The local B&B's (including our old house) did very well out of that this summer. We can just see one of the turrets of the castle sticking up above the trees, from our kitchen window, and there is a nice walk along the river in front of the Castle we have done several times.

That will be why my joiners took so long, they did it the old way with a chisel.

You DON'T want a storage heater in a bedroom. The heating patterns of a bedroom are different to a living room. More typical is to just have an electric panel heater in a bedroom, usually with a built in timer and thermostat. You will probably need some heat in the evening before you go to bed, that will be at the peak rate. But then it can stay on overnight with it's thermostat controlling the heat output and most of that will be at the off peak rate. If you like a cool bedroom for sleeping, leave it off and use it's timer to come on just before you get up to warm the room.

Thanks @saveasteading do you happen to know who is the best (cheapest) supplier in the Inverness area? I will only need four 2.4 by 1.2M sheets (though I see a lot comes in imperial sizes)

As to why 5AM seems to be the hottest time. They start charging with heat about midnight, give or take a bit depending on where you are. They charge until the core has reached the required temperature as set by the input control. It is unlikely they will take the full 7 hours to fully charge, so about 5PM would be a likely time to reach peak temperature and then just maintain that until the E7 time finishes about 7AM. Of course a better control system would be to calculate the expected heat loss in the house in the next 24 hours, and from that calculate how much charge the heater needs, and adjust the start time so it finishes charging just as the off peak time finishes. That is boffin territory but at least one well known member here has a control system that does that calculation each night and does just that, adjusts the start time according to how much charge is needed. A simpler version would be just make the "input" knob adjust the start charge time, so at maximum it would start at midnight, at minimum it might not start until 5AM and then it would charge until the off peak time ends. I doubt even the new posh electronic ones even do anything as useful as that.

The steel wire balustrade kit I ordered from Amazon never arrived. Amazon refunded the money. There was a clue this might have been vapour ware, as nobody had reviewed the product, suggesting nobody else received it either. So I am about to order this one instead https://www.amazon.co.uk/TooTaci-Stainless-Railing-Decking-Hardware/dp/B089R8CJJN/ref=pd_rhf_d_dp_s_pd_crcd_sccl_2_1/258-9523872-5047151?pd_rd_w=jBmWw&content-id=amzn1.sym.48cd8206-854f-4d53-baa5-acd3460f23ee&pf_rd_p=48cd8206-854f-4d53-baa5-acd3460f23ee&pf_rd_r=024CGYTAKF0D6XXCT7PP&pd_rd_wg=jocms&pd_rd_r=4d65b2ec-8e7f-4864-9e4a-404a735f864c&pd_rd_i=B089R8CJJN&th=1 At least that appears to have some generally good reviews so someone must have actually received it and used it. I also like the tensioning method, opposing left and right handed screw threads just screwing into the wooden posts. Thinking more about flooring. I am looking at solid floor options. the 2 candidates seem to be aluminium chequer plate, or Phenolic board. The Phenolic boars seems to get variable reviews some saying it is fine for outside use (e.g. trailer flooring) others saying not. I suspect the issue will be it will need to be cut to size so the exposed cut edge will be the weakness. Does anyone have any experience of using this?