ProDave

It's all here:

Then I would have rejected the invoice and asked for one done properly.

Okay another possibility You have a dead mouse in the wall. Don't under estimate how much stench a rotting mouse corpse can make as it decomposes until you have smelled it. It might be nothing to do with the pipes at all?

Looking at your revised list of C3's, I see the old chestnut of "plastic consumer unit" has cropped up. At least this guy has given it a C3, some try it on as a C2 to try and get a consumer upgrade done. The Wiring regs are not retrospective so there are few circumstances where you MUST upgrade it. As already noted if you were wanting lots of alterations on one of the circuits not rcd protected, then a CU upgrade might be worthwhile, but even then it could probably just be dealt with by fitting an rcbo Personally I would not do anything to address those C3's other than bear them in mind when planning future work.

I had my design SAP done in about 2013. Does this mean when I get the as built SAP done for sign off, then with nothing else changin, the SAP number will get better now?

Another one happy with an ASHP. Self installed and not expensive, actually under £1K Annual heating bill for last year £234 I am hoping that will come down a little as there were a few aspects of the house not complete last winter. Cost wise they work out similar for mains gas heating prices So if you previously had a gas bill of £500 per year expect similar for an ASHP don't expect it to be cheaper. Solar PV my DIY installed 4KWp system cost £1500 and by self using £250 of "free" electricity each year it will pay back in 6 years. I am firmly convinced that is the only way PV is viable now. If you are paying a company to install it at say £4K then the payback would be 16 years and that is very questionable indeed whether it is worth it.

Okay. I am an electrician in the Highlands. I do new builds and other notifiable work. All that Building control require is an Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) and you don't need to be a member of a competent persons scheme to produce and sign one of those. I do work in Highland, Invernessshire and Moray council areas and all have accepted my certificates. iirc Invernesshire phoned me when I submitted the first one to them to check my qualifications and were happy. If you are just doing alterations to an existing building then not very much is notifiable, the two that are most likely is a rewire of a flat or 3 storey building requires a building warrant. This £100 rebate thing, is the "Certificate Of Conformance" scheme. This was introduced in Scotland about 10 years ago. IF you CHOOSE to use an electrician who is a member of such a scheme then you will indeed get a small discount on the building warrant fee. When the scheme first came in, I attended a Highland council seminar about it and it was made clear the scheme was optional, so I have chosen not to sign up to it with the additional burdens it would place on me. I advise my customers not to tick that box.

The correct diagnosis would be to to do the normal air pressure test on the pipes to see if anything is leaking.

Ours is the Conder. The plant is sized for 6 people (BR says 5 for the number of bedrooms so 6 was the closest) but only used by 3. It has been in use for 2 1/6 years and not emptied yet. It was on my "to do" list but I missed my window * so I plan now to get it done in the spring. *Our plot has a seasonally high water table. I prefer to get the tank emptied in a period or low water so as not to tempt fate and "test" how well it is concreted in, and it turned wet before I got around to it this year.

I would just make your architect aware of what he has done and he will no doubt "have words"

I don't recall the details other than it was totally flat with an upstand around it, and was designed to permanently hold water. It just struck me as bonkers.

One of our BTL's had a flat roof like that over the "out house" It was on it's last legs and had seen a repair or 2, but thankfully it lasted until we sold the place. It is still there so presumably holding up still and still not leaking, but most have been replaced with a mono pitched tiled roof now.

If I tried that on my tribe, I would be told in no uncertain times that "the shower is faulty" and it must be replaced.

Hi and welcome to the forum. That sounds enough to keep you out of mischief for some time. I am sure you will find the forum useful.

Why I would not use a flat roof. Of course there are variations on "flat" I would accept a low pitched sloping "flat" roof. One of the most stupid ideas I saw was a Grand Designs that had a totally flat roof that was designed to permanently hold a few inches of water (aparently that was the UV protection) and yet you have guessed it, it leaked. There is a good reason most roofs slope, so the water runs off quickly. Of course a sloping roof can leak, but not as often as a "flat" one does.

^^ I could not live or work anywhere with such draconian regulations as that.

The local modal house company to here had a try at something similar using CLT panels. I think the sheer weight of completed modules proved challenging.

Try shutting off all the radiators and opening up one at a time to see if you can get water to flow to each in turn. It might just be an air lock. How is the multi fuel boiler joined to the oil boiler, usually there is a neutraliser or low loss header. Can you turn something on to get that pump running?

And is more EXPENSIVE parts to go wrong.

Thanks @Onoff I knew it would be easy

You BCO seems to be saying he would be happy if they are NOT there. But he does not seem to be saying he would be unhappy if they ARE there. So on that basis I would do as the SE says and you BCO won't complain. Or did he actually say he won't allow them?

So I got this working by rebuilding the disk from scratch. That involves loading the supplied distribution disk image, letting it boot and configure itself which takes a while and several re boots. Then finally configuring all my user settings and copying my music. On the assumption this is likely to happen again, I would like to make the rebuild process easier. So what suggestions do the forum have for taking a disk image of exactly what I have, so it can be restored to an "installed and working" state. I want to do this using standard linux (ubuntu) tools Suggestions please?

That should be a compression joint with a (usually tapered) rubber sealing ring, and it should only be hand tight. The fact you can't undo it, suggests the proper sealing ring is missing or damaged and it has been bodged. A replacement is not expensive https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WASHING-MACHINE-DISHWASHER-STAND-PIPE-TRAP-40mm-WITH-CLIPS-brand-new/273825602547?hash=item3fc1471bf3:g:RQcAAOSwKOZb-xGu

Do you have a picture of the roof?

Only ever visited "down under" as a tourist, we have familly there. They live further up Queensland, nearest town of any size being Maryburgh. The first time we visited they were even further north in Townsville. Personally I would find it too hot there in the summer, if I had to live there it would need to be further south, probably south of Brisbane.