ProDave

Have a look for this type https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154475706253?hash=item23f778378d%3Ag%3A9e4AAOSwG1BgtfLN&LH_ItemCondition=1000 We have a few of them that we used to keep the static caravan warm during the build. Cheap as chips, 3 power levels and a thermostat. They can also be wall mounted though they will not look very pretty. These seem to be exempt from the silly LOT20 rules that now demand fixed heaters have over complicated controls that nobody can understand, in the name of saving energy. You should be able to find that sort on sale in your local hardware shops etc as well though probably not as cheap as you can buy on line. P.S that link was just to illustrate the type of heater. Search a bit harder and you will find them even cheaper.

I don't use a hive, just an ordinary central heating programmer, but the same principle should apply. The ASHP senses water temperature with a temperature probe which is supplied with the unit, this is just a thermistor. So I uses a single pole changeover relay. The normally closed contact puts a fixed value resistor in place of the thermistor. the normally open contact puts the thermistor into circuit. the relay has a 240V coil and is switched from the programmer. So when the programmer says "hot water off" the fixed resistor is in circuit in place og the thermistor which makes the ASHP think the water is at 85 degrees and hence hot water is satisfied and never turns on. When the programmer turns on the thermistor is switched into circuit and it reads the true water temperature and turns on when hot water is needed.

This won't help you but mine came from stone Source in Inverness when they made the kitchen worktops, upstand, gable end and hearth for the stove.

I think the wording is they should all be the same with no stated allowable tolerance. Hope your BC inspector does not notice?

I suspect this house is a money pit in so many ways. It reminds me of a large country house I used to do work for which was operating as a care home at the time. That was heated by a big LPG fired boiler and speaking to them the annual heating bill was in the order of £10K I doubt you will lower the heating bill much just by fitting a better boiler. The pipes are large for a reason, if you think you can heat a house of that demand with all 15mm pipe work you may find the results disappointing. LPG with an in ground tank has tied you to one supplier so no chance to compare prices and shop around each time like oil, and no chance to buy all your years heating oil in the middle of the summer when prices are usually lower like you can with oil.

Report the no hot water to the landlord, his job to fix it. And ask for a current EICR for the electrical installation as rental properties should have now. While you are at it check the provision of smoke alarms. When was the flat actually built? If only a couple of years ago it should have rcd protection on everything.

Yes. A previous house I had, had square pipes. The brackets did not grip the pipes and the pipes had a habit of slipping down out of the joints and fittings. I only "solved" it by drilling a small hole in each bracket and inserting a small self tapping screw to grip the pipe. A round downpipe, most brackets will close around the pipe and grip it properly. This might have been just an issue with the particular brand of pipe fitted rather than a fundamental problem with square.

Option 2 is all I have ever seen and no problems with a nail gun.

If the pump runs continuously it is never going to freeze. How will a relief valve work to protect anything if the water is not flowing? It will freeze even if vented to atmosphere. There is either something extremely clever here, or I just can;t see how you can avoid antifreeze in the pipework to an outside unit.

I got all my services in with one road opening, Scottish water did the road opening (actually their appointed contractor) and were happy for me to lay in ducts for electricity and telephone before they filled it and closed it.

My own decking I dug the narrowest hole I could (ladies spade) about 500mm deep and used about half a bag of postcrete per post. I don't know where you get 7 bags per post from.

Care to explain how it works?

Use your rough boards as the bottom layer, you won't see the edges when finished. Use your good square boards for the top planks. I used 150mm planks for the bottom layer and 100mm planks for the top layer. Very little gap between bottom planks except where spacing between items makes it work by spacing a few planks to fit a particular gap. I painted all my planks first coat before fitting then second coat once on, so if a top plank shrinks it will not expose bare wood. Because they were being painted I used cheap 4mm by 50mm gold screws. You only see the screws on the top planks so space them nice and evenly and paint over them. Only first wall done so far.

This thread is like watching paint dry.........

Progress moves on slowly. The first wall of the sun room has been clad in timber. The easiest wall, with just the big sliding door. This might not be everyone's idea of timber cladding. But we were both agreed we don't like untreated timber left to go silver / grey, mainly because it usually does not do so evenly. And we were agreed we don't want it stained / treated in some shade of orange. So it is painted. It took a while to choose the colour and then a while to find a source. The trouble was we wanted the walls of the sun room (and other garden stuff) painted the same colour as the decking and steps. If you start looking at the very few options of both paints in stock colours, you have a choice of brown or grey. We wanted neither. In the end this paint came from the big orange DIY shed where you can get a variety of different paints for different uses, in a wide range of colours mixed in the shop. so we chose "Willow Green" Because it was being painted, the choice of what timber was not a big issue, no point paying for some fancy expensive timber and then painting it. So this is cheap softwood treated "sarking" board sold in 100 and 150mm widths and in this case 22mm thick. Each plank painted with it's first coat of paint before being fitted and then a second coat after it was on. The area under the door to the left of the steps will be clad later. My philosophy is never cut a load of short lengths from a full length of timber. Cut all the rest of the long lengths first, and then cut the short lengths from the leftovers. So as and when suitable leftovers become available, the short bits will get done. And the very left hand plank is missing as that forms the corner so won't get fitted until the back wall is clad and that corner ready to be detailed.

Yes a condensation analysis was done on my wall and roof build up.

So what do I have, warm roof, cold roof or something else? Mine has insulation above the rafters AND insulation between them. It just makes sense to me, part of my philosophy that the entire wall and roof structure should be adding insulation, no "wasted" gaps with no insulation in them.

Surely the most efficient (in terms is insulation for the thickness) will be something like I have, 200mm rafters, insulation between them, and 100mm solid insulation (in my case wood fibre) above the rafters, then membrane, battens, counter battens then roof covering. You certainly don't want any roof structure with uninsulated gaps and certainly not a cold roof demanding a ventilation space. And for the roof covering, box profile steel will give a lower profile and work at a lower angle than tiles. This type of roof would normally be supported on a ridge beam, but your challenge will be engineering support for the ridge beam without a great thick pillar for it to sit on. I just accepted a great big pillar between the windows

Find as bit of small bore pipe that is just a little larger than the probe and use that to create a pocket for the probe. With the open end somewhere accessible e.g under a cupboard, so if the probe ever fails you can pull it out and thread a new one in.

No problem with having a loop of pipe going down. It is when you have a loop of pipe going UP that you open up the possibility of air collecting in that loop and an air lock.

You were outside when this happened. If you are like me and you see dust / smoke etc, you hold your breath and walk away. I even do this when walking down the street and a smoker is walking the other way.

How different it is in different places. Pre this current boom, our finished build cost including land would be about £230K and it would be lucky to sell the new house for £250K. I had already concluded had I not done so much labour myself, the new house would have cost more than it's market value. Some places need a bit of house price inflation.

Have you tried opening the flow meter to increase the flow? Have you unscrewed that actuator (which will have the effect of turning that circuit on) to be sure it is releasing properly. The exposed pin on the manifold should spring up, sometimes they can stick. Are you sure the manifold pump is running?

What floor joist? If ordinary timber joists, you will need to notch each joist to allow the UFH pipe to cross to the next gap at the ends. You can't notch the joists if using posi joists or I beam joists. I did 2 small bathrooms with spreader plates and posi joists and it was a devil of a job threading long lengths or pipe through the web of the posi joists. It was really only possible because they were small rooms and the length of pipe was not that long, but still a fiddly job.

You would normally fit the bracing in the eaves void and in the small loft void at the top. i.e. where you are not cladding over it with plasterboard. What goes ON the roof? English style sagging roofing felt? Or Scottish style OSB sarking board? If the latter, the OSB will do all the bracing you need.