ProDave

At the moment there is just 11mm OSB over the JJI's If we go for the wood floor, 25mm by 50mm battens will be laid following the top of each joist (400mm centres) to support a structural wooden floor, and the OSB will be there just to support the UFH pipes and biscuit mix as a heat spreader This thread is about the alternatives if we choose a tiled floor.

I have ordered this one in the end. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Underfloor-heating-pipe-PEX-AL-PEX-pipe-16mm-x-2mm-240m-rolls-WRAS-approved/222978205413?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 From a UK supplier claiming UK approvals. I will probably find it was still made in China

The old tiles were ceramic. But as I see it's not the substrate that was the issue, the glaze was too thin or too delicate, it has scratched and the tiles just now look dull and worn. It has not worn through to the substrate. As I see it that could happen regardless of the substrate so is down to the quality of the finish, something you can't easilly tell in a showroom. I think we need another trip into town to make the decision tile or wood. Only then can we move forward with the floor make up option.

"not fit for purpose" is the phrase I would be using.

Thanks So for my room I would need 48 of those sheets at a shade over £400 and I would still need the 18mm ply first to give s structural flat floor for them to sit on.

What do you call volume? This room is 34 square metres. I am guessing that won't get much discount?

That has turned all the options on their head. I have looked at the link and watched the video. NOT enough detail (like even basic stiff like the sheet size so I know how many I need and can cost it) So all I gleaned is they are a structural 20mm thick panel with grooves for the UFH pipe and I can tile straight on top. That gives me another problem, not ENOUGH floor build up. the FFL would be too low. I would probably still need an chipboard or ply base layer to get the FFL correct. I assume you have used them so what can you tell me about them? What are they made of? are they completely rigid or slightly flexible? Can they really span 400mm joust centres and be tiles on top successfully with no other support? or as the video implies, they need to be laid on an already flat structural floor? Do you have any pictures better than on that link?

We are looking at this as an option. We have been looking at CTD and they have several wood effect tiles ranging from £29 per metre (ceramic) to £60 per metre (porcelain) I haven't enquired where they are made but how can you tell looking at them which will last a long time and which won't?

Explain the plates you are thinking of. The plates pictured are some I already have. I will need more if I do the tiles floor, so will probably buy some of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-UFH-Spreader-Plates-for-Water-Underfloor-Heating-Systems-Qty-40/261653810327?hash=item3cebc84c97:g:1kUAAOSwY3RXJmVp So the idea is support those on 18mm chipbopard just with gaps for the pipe then ply over the top to take the tiles. The only other option I can see is the sheets of PIR type insulation with channels cut in them for the UFH pipes, but that would make the whole lot a floating floor not fixed down? In the case of fitting the spreader plates, ply then tiles, then the OSB layer that is there is doing nothing at all. But if I remove it I would have to built up more with something else otherwise my FFL will be too low, so it might as well remain. The OSB layer was fitted originally to support the biscuit mix if we go for the wooden floor. The best option we have been offered for wooden flooring is a 190mm wide engineered wood with oak as the top layer, I forget the thickness of the actual wooden top layer. We are looking at one with a laquered finish, on the basis if it gets too tatty it can be sanded and laquered again. If we choose tiles, then SWMBO wants tiles that look like wood. I can't see that working as the kitchen end tiles and the living room end wood, it would be too much the same, yet different. So if we choose tiles, it will be for that whole room.

I need to move this on and make a decision. So if I go for the tiled floor with an 18mm ply base layer, just what sort of plywood do I need? We have agreed Marine ply is way over the top and too expensive. The merchants are offering me a bewildering array of different types from shuttering ply at £21 per sheet, "grade 1" for £29.50 per sheet and "gold" at £37 per sheet. I have no idea really what any of those are and which one is right. Only TP and Jewson locally but many more in Inverness, I haven't tried them all yet. But the more fundamental question is do we go for the tiled floor or the oak floor? My concern is the logevity of tiles. If we do choose tiles, SWMBO wants tiles that look like wood. I am mindful of the tiles we had in our last kitchen which at 15 years old are looking tired and scratched, they are not proving to be the indestructable everlasting floor we had expected. If there is any chance of the same happening to these wood effect tiles, I would rather go back to plan A and fit real wood.

Quite apart from the failure issue, a product designed with an 18 month £300 service schedule would be ruled out by me as too expensive. It is either a bad design requiring a lot of man hours to change the part, or a simple case of rip off labour rates if it is an easy item to change. Assuming the anode is £50 (a guess) then they are charging a good man day of labour to replace it, and I just cannot believe it would take a whole day.

Since we are doing "show me yours" here is the Conder ASP6 The big green lid in the middle with the air vent is the chamber that holds the air blower. The small green lid off to the right is a cap that you unscrew and that's where the hose goes down to pump it out. I have already had a "complaint" Could I make that right hand cap flush with the ground please as it gets in the way when mowing the grass.......

We have a Hotpoint dishwasher. It moved with us when we came to Scotland and must be 20 years old now. I think I have repaired it 3 times now. It's presently sitting in our old garage and banned from ever entering the new house.....

They usually have no proper terminal boxes, leaving you to do really rubbish things like carve a hole in the plaster of the wall to allow you to drop some terminals in, and add to that most of them only have a very small area in contact with the wall leaving you not much room to devise and fit in said bodge. A triumph of appearance (if you like that sort of thing) over engineering. IF you know in advance this is the type of light to be used, then running the cable from the switch to the light in flex rather than twin and earth can avoid the need for terminals but still leaves you terminating the flex straight to the lamp holder with nowhere to lose the slack you need to do so.

Electricians nightmare I cringe when given plaster lights to wire.

Don't assume an overhead supply won't come with an earth, our previous house down south had PME via an overhead line.

I suspect if they are fussy on materials to the point of wanting to see a 1M square sample, then any change from that will require further approval.

Thanks, I like the look if that, and unlike the Horstman does not mention immersion heater. In fact just being described as "boost" could not be better.

I am planning to use Horstman Immersion heater timer switches. You press a button up to 3 times and it gives you a different timed ON period from half an hour up to 2 hours. There will be one on the landing in effect between the two bathrooms, and one in the kitchen. These will both turn on a relay to give the volt free contact that the mvhr unit needs. Inside the Kingspan / Mitsubishi :Lossnay mvhr unit there is a 5 way terminal block for the fan speed selection. That requires you to connect 1 fan speed input to "common" So the boost relay will be a changeover relay. De energised it will connect common to fan speed 1. When energised it will connect to a higher fan speed, I have yet to make any measurements to determine which speed will be needed for boost mode. Re the summer bypass. Next to the fan speed terminal block is another 3 terminal block, One labelled Heat, one labelled Cool and the third one not labelled or mentioned in the manual. As I have already said the function of the heat and cool inputs is poorly described. However if you connect the unlabelled input to the common terminal on the fan speed terminal block, it instantly actuates the bypass flap. There seems to be a common theme here that a lot of these units do not fully describe how they function and it appears common to find undocumented features if you experiment.

I am taking a different view that I want all ours under simple manual control. Firstly the boost. There will be a simple button next to the bathrooms and one in the kitchen that you press before showering or cooking to trigger boost mode for a set time period. This has the advantage of the boost starting immediately, not a bit later in the showering process when the humidity has risen. The summer bypass I found was an odd one. We have one of the Kingspan Lossnay units. Lets just say the instructions are just about useless. It has 2 inputs labeled "heat" and "cool" which make no sense at all as it has no inbuilt heating or cooling function. Reading the pidgeon English description seemed to talk about summer bypass being activated by temperature sensors, but without knowing what and how it was trying to control it, I did not like the idea of some unknown algorithm controlling it. I then found by experiment that an unlabelled and undocumented input directly and immediately actuates the summer bypass flap valve. So I have a simple switch to operate that when I feel it might be needed. This is not to say don't try your automated control, just to say that I will at least to start with stick with something very simple.

^^ TP sell that adaptor and it fits any 15mm compression fitting, straight, elbow or tee.

I suspect you can beat that price. In my case (not a Vortex) the local Travis Perkins beat all the on line suppliers There are a lot to choose from, any of the air blower ones will do the job, I have a Conder ASP and several on here have the Biopure and Graff is mentioned a lot. I would avoid any with moving mechanical parts e.g biodisc https://www.septictank-supplies.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=66

A battery that won't wear out, won't get bothered if over charged or over discharged. What is not to like.

No not yet, still deciding.

We have suspended floors downstairs made of JJI joists at 400mm centres. Insulated between and overlaid with 11mm OSB Original plan was lay 25 by 50 battens on top of OSB following the joists. Lay UFH pipes in the void created by the battens, fill with biscuit mix and overlay with structural flooring, most likely an engineered board with a lacquered Oak finish. The total make up thickness of that option is 47mm and that is the height at which the door thresholds should have already been set, so cannot now be changed though as it happens the thresholds are a little higher than I had expected so we could probably stretch that to a total makeup thickness of 52mm First question: Is a lacquered finished oak board going to be a success in a room that is partly the kitchen? Now regardless of the answer to that, the hallway will be some form of tile, probably slate. So we need a robust floor make up that will give a solid surface for tiling, will incorporate the under floor heating pipes, and will provide a level transition from the wood to the tiled floor. My thoughts: Span across the joists with strips of 18mm chipboard. The gaps in the strips will be where the UFH pipes run, using aluminium spreader plates that lay on top of the chipboard. Span over the whole lot with 15mm plywood glued and screwed to hell. Tile over the plywood. Assuming 12mm tiles that will be about the right make up thickness. depending on the thickness of adhesive. Here is a rough mock up of that idea: I have used another layer of chipboard for that mockup but the top layer would be plywood. The spreader plates (assuming I do use those) are 170mm wide and the UFH will be at 200mm centres so there won't be much gap between adjacent spreader plates. Problems with this: I have not yet found 15mm ply locally. Jewson can do 12mm (too thin I am sure) or 18mm. The 18mm would be pushing the total make up thickness to over 50mm needing a very thin bed of adhesive to meet the door thresholds (could thicken up in other areas) I have been quoted £62 per sheet for 18mm marine ply. More phoning to improve on that. Does it NEED to be marine ply? Any other thoughts on alternative floor make up for this tiled section?