saveasteading

That needs to be named after a scientist. True though. The point of I beams is a reduction in timber used, so the stiffness is lost as a result. Noggins sort it. It's from a factory so the timber will not have been exposed to the weather. Should be fine.

It was messy. Laid the first layer which was eps. pipes laid in exact positions,incl up to their end locations, which is important as they don't bend easily. Mark with black pen Cut with jigsaw or multitool. Insert pipes. Adjust as necessary Bag up lots of messy eps. Lay pir over the top. Around and over sounds OK to me. Cut boards close the the pipes and fill the gap with cutings or loose stuff. Cutting PIR is horrible. I borrowed a very good multitool with a blade that just stopped short of going through. Handsaw and jigsaw weren't good. I was doing this myself as I didn't expect the professionals to care about precision at cut outs. I was right... it was a huge rush and very approximate. It all gets covered in dpm so they get away with it.... usually.

Was £25/m2 with adhesive included. Very high quality ply construction with about 2mm oak veneer. Occasionally there can be fortunate opportunities.

No. They are very different. e.g. A skim of silicone can make a gap airtight but won't stop much sound transfer. Airtightness is flow of air, whereas noise is sound waves....vibration of air rather than flow.

Heat loss would be greater unless using the horrendously expensive pipes made for the purpose. Even then, indoors would be less wasteful of the heat. We used 2 layers of insulation and cut them into the lower one.

I find I have this, which someone else recorded. VID-20260921-WA0000.mp4

If your water supply pipes are highly insulated, including the benefit of being underground, then they are unlikely to freeze. My outdoor pipes (4) all survived the winter. One froze at the tap but that was due to 1m of exposed pipe and a brass tap. Depends on how cold and for how long of course. BUT I'm not guaranteeing it for you!

It's not as difficult as you seem to think, and AI seems to be telling rubbish. No 90°corners: it easily curves 90 or 180. Fitting with insulation above it is just wrong. You can set it on top then screed it, or put it in special floorboards. Or painstakingly depress it into the pir. Or use eps as a top layer as I think you could tread it in. What floor finish will you have? Ducts are not only unnecessary but counterproductive. The 'highways' as they seem to be called are both flow and return, so it is not all at peak temperature. Norwich is too far, but anyone in SSE is welcome to some of the huge amount of oversupply of pipes we were specified, I think 40 to 60m long. Not insulated, as they should not be except your short run from heat pump to manifolds.

It is covered with paint protection paper. You'll have to wait.

We all like an end of process report so here it is on the oak veneered engineered flooring. It went very well. We applied unibond sealer. Took away the hygrometer so that it wasn't a matter of discussion. The floor fitters turned up and fitted the floor. All looks good to me and the few small +/-5mm spots (under 3m straightedge) are not apparent so I think disappeared with the flexibility of the adhesive. Wastage was pretty bad. Fortunately the supplier still had some left) One en-suite is now timber instead of tiles....that's OK fortunately. The real wastage was partly the expected cuts at walls, but forensics (skip examination) showed a large number of mis-cuts. In diy we would have scraped off the adhesive and made use of it. Instead they stuck 2 fails back to back and buried it. That's despite site orders that wood and cardboard go to bonfire, but that is constantly ignored, and I think they wanted these hidden. I'm happy though. The timber came from Barham and Sons, and I recommend asking what bargains they might have. The regular full price stuff is very lovely but priced accordingly.

Permission to be outspoken? That's because they don't know much*. Plumbers dont generally know much about it. The ones who do claim to be expert mostly get the designs done via their merchant who in turn go to their supplier. The ones who rightly don't say they are skilled in it.... are too busy plumbing to go on courses. That leaves the ones who fancy the work and the grants, and can still charge a lot in an overheated market. * I have discussed with plenty. Some bluff and perhaps exaggerate the little they do know, but some honestly say what they know and what they don't. But others talk the buzz words without actually understanding. In such discussions they generally assume I am an ignorant punter, and so I let them do their thing for a while. What I want is them to be able to join the pipes up and commission it. A large part of the builder population also think that Engineers, Architects, Building Inspectors ....and so on.... don't know what they are doing and over/ wrongly design. (ditto me being the ignorant client)

Yes. No reason why not when the slope is shallow.

You were lucky , or your merchant is unusual in keeping treated timber covered. It's a good point. Due to receiving 60 large and wet joists which bent so much in drying that 60% were rejected, I looked into the storage. All the merchants keep their treated timber outside and uncovered "because it is treated for outdoor use". This is contrary to their industry guidance but saves warehousing. So do tell your supplier that it is important that it is dry and straight. Maybe get them to set it aside under cover, to bend there rather than on your site. At this time of year they should all be dry. On a positive note, I haven't checked numbers, but most timbers are critical for acceptable deflection before strength. It would be worth reminding the designer of this. Nobody is going to be nervous because your timber is moving up and down a few mm in wind or under snow.

Not "chartered"? I'm one of them. MICE or FICE. And CEng comes with it. 4 years uni and 4 years min real world training. I'd never use the word 'registered'. A huge element of gaining that professional status is communication and collaboration. That's why it seems strange to me that you say that is lacking. It's possible they are a technician rather than Chartered. Nothing wrong with that, but their experience may be limited, as may be their insurance. Unfortunately the term civil engineer is not protected, as witness the white vans. But would you? Probably 3 or 4 x the cost at minimum brief. It's all learning. Glad to hear it's moving along.

If it is listed then that is the case. Even if not lusted, it is heritage, and you are the current custodian. I have seen this disputed vehemently "my house, my decision", but it is the case. Or an axe.