ProDave

Whilst I have a heat pump and think they are good, in the right circumstances, I find it hard to believe for most people, that swapping a gas boiler for a heat pump will reduce bills by much, if anything. I have always believed a heat pump with a SCOP of 3 will deliver similar running costs to a mains gas boiler. You would have to achieve a much better SCOP to achieve a saving and I just don't believe the average retrofit ASHP can achieve that.

The point is there are several competent person schemes for electricians in England as well as Scotland. It makes my blood boil when a blinkered institution like this will only allow you to use one of them. It has to be either ignorance, which needs challenging, or the NICEIC are somehow "encouraging" them to only accept NICEIC contractoes.

Through ignorance, or they are taking a backhander to do so.

Suitably qualified is NOT limited to NICEIC, there are other competent person schemes including SELECT in Scotland.

£29 per month over 10 years is £3480 over 10 years. About the cost of a new ASHP. What do they actually do for that cost? £245 for an UVC service sounds too much. I just do my own, or I will call my local friendly non VAT registered plumber to do it for a lot less. The one bill I complain about is council tax. It is our largest bill after food, and is the one you cannot do anything about e.g by looking for a better deal or a different provider. CT is roughly twice our energy bill.

In case I did not mention all our window boards were leftovers from the engineered Oak flooring with a hardwood bead to finish the front. All still completely flat.

I didn't even screw mine down, just glued it. It depends if you think the wood will warp or not? See what I mean about the sill going into a slot each side cut into the plasterboard.

Am I seeing a gap down into a cavity between the window and the silver foil? If so that wants addressing first. I just cut a strip from the plasterboard each side so the sill slides in and fill around it afterwards and mine were just stuck down.

If that is where your soil pope for the WC is going to emerge through the floor then you are going to struggle to get the WC close enough to the wall. Our downstairs WC is a close coupled type and the edge of the soil pipe connector is touching the wall, and it fits well with a standard rigid pan connector. I cannot see how it would work without forcing the whole pan and cistern away from the wall in your situation. What is below that? What can you change? Though I generally hate them, I think the best bet to get the WC as close to the wall as possible is one of those long flexible pan connectors terminated at or below floor level. Alternatively if all posi joists, then you could route the soil pipe to the other side of the room, if that is joisted differently that would allow you to get the pipe closer to the wall?

Is this subject to building control? If so that may dictate the spaces you need? How far in are you? too late to change to a wet room for the shower area?

You roof has been extended when the garage and extension was added. The "joist" you talk about is the original end purlin from the original roof structure. It is not functioning as a purlin any more, there is nothing attached to it. As to whether it could be removed? That is a question for a Structural Engineer. Yours appears to say no. I would be interested to know why. Perhaps it is performing the task of a tie bar to prevent the purlins front and back that are still under load from spreading apart? If so providing alternative means to prevent spreading is what should be considered?

I did mine a few days ago, my usual 1/3 bleach 2/3 water in a hand sprayer. Used about half a bottle of bleach in the process. I chose a dry day with rain forecast next day to wash it all off and it is all clean again. but it was nowhere near as green as in the pictures above. I do this about once a year now.

That has changed then. It used to be 600 centres for 12.5mm (which is what we have) and 400mm centres for 9mm PB (which we did in a previous house) not that anyone uses 9mm PB now.

If I was the neighbour I would have kept an eye on things and raised the non centre issue as soon as it became apparent. Also I would have been asking the roofer for s stack of spare tiles to match the old ones. The problem now if they were to try and move that joint more central, all the old tiles have probably gone in a skip, or been sold?

The hard wired interlink will be the same so old and new generation alarms work together. But it is increasingly common for them to be wireless linked.

The later Aico ones that we have are mains powered and interlinked. It is not clear if the internal batter is rechargeable or a 10 years lithium. Regardless they all have a "replace by" date 10 years from manufacture.

The Aico interconnect works at 9V dc. Is still works and the interconnected alarms still sound if the 230V is off and they are working on their backup batteries.

Is the chimney offset? Or is the roof joint not on the party line?

"Helps maintain room temperature unlike cheaper alternatives such as rockwool" tells me all I need to know about the designers.

Where I lived as a boy we had a similar shared ownership drive, with us at the end having a garage. The other houses either did not have a car or parked the car in their own back garden so they did not block the drive. Anyone could come and go without being in the way of others.

I recall the blissful ignorance of my first build 20 years ago. The lorry with the septic tank arrived, a simple quite light fibreglass "onion" the driver rolled it off the flatbed, it landed on the grass and stopped rolling before it got to the burn. Remarkably it did not break. Nobody discussed and I never thought to ask about delivery and unloading. This tine it was a heavier treatment plant and I did not want to take the risk of damaging it, and my little digger would not go high enough to lift it off a lorry. But the digger did indeed lower it into the hole.

That's the one. That's what I would choose if building now.

Have a look at the company (someone will be along to fill in the gap in my memory) that will supply an ASHP and all kit for "free" using the grant money, leaving you just to pay for the install.

Delivery on large items can make or break a deal. When ordering a treatment plant, most said I would be responsible for unloading, so would need a telehandler or forklift. But ordering it through a bilders merchant not only got a cheaper price, but delivery on their own wagon and offloaded by it's hiab.

All such documentation needs to be sent by a tracked postage service that gives you a proof of delivery.