Jenki

Possibly Yorkshire board cladding

I found a "Eco" treatment, that is water based, basically a sachet of crystal substance that you mix with 5 gallons of water. It must chemically react with the Larch, as you can see it change colour when the sun hits it as your treating it. It was a little more Brown than silver initially but 12month in the cladding even on the North is uniform and silver, and does look like its been here years (A look we were after, didn't want the Orange fading to silver in patches look ). I think it only cost £60 for the whole house.

I love the silvered effect of Larch, and you can even buy very expensive treatments to speed up the process. MY tatty old house will never need a coat of anything in my lifetime and no offence taken. Sarking 6" and Wall plate 4" boards in 4.8 m lengths treated are the most cost effective solution I think the 6" boards are £6 a length. I've clad an external shower / WC block and painted with shed paint to good effect.

UFH is different from radiators, it doesn't need to be a fast reactive heat. Well insulated air tight houses don't need rapid heat transfer. The heat from the slab (assuming very good insulation levels underneath) WILL heat the house, if it take 4 hours longer the first time the heating comes on so what? save your money and worry about something else

having a pressure gauge to check is a nice reassurance, I filled mine with air to 1 bar, be prepared for this to rise when the concrete heats the air :). looks like yours is pressurised already? The pipe is tough and as long as you keep excited labourers with sharp shovels away you should be fine. Secure the XPS or it will want to float away. any tape that will stick to the XPS will be ok to seal the pipe. Personally not keen on zip ties to secure the pipe (as these can snap with a bit too much eager poker vibration) especially the small black ties. The two black ducts try to get vertical possibly tie to the manifold board, it would do my head in once finished and the pipe come out of the floor at an angle. Cover the manifold otherwise it will get splashed with concrete from vibration. I used offcuts of insulation, its was easier to get out afterwards. IMHO wouldn't hurt either way.

As you say you can layout very accurately with the 3-4-5 rule and a knowledge or triangles. The problem with tech only approach is when the operator doesn't have the skill to gross check for errors.

For me it would be cost. £30 for the tapes and away you go, my time was free. That said I love technology being used in this way.

With 12 acres to play with this was never an issue for us, but I can guarantee no mater where you stockpile it for "later", it will need moving to do something else ,before you want to use it. 🤪

@nod very impressive 👏. What area or Preston? We lived in Longridge for 18 months before our move North.

Ours just under 90sqm was £11k for reference

D4 PVA will work, but I'd go for 30 min polyurethane. If it foams out of the joint let it cure and trim with a chisel, don't be tempted to smear it when wet.

Is the whole 6m length exposed? With glulam and the visible horizontal joints any decent joiner /competent diyer will sort that no problem even with shorter lengths of timber the joints should become invisible.

Don't let them publish the figures until you are happy with the results. Maybe get a preliminary test done to assist your build..if it hits the required numbers ask them to formalise it.. otherwise do some rework. The worst case for you would be less than 3, ( this should be easy to resolve, by opening a window handle after the tester has checked it's closed😉)

With it being cladded and thus unseen, I'd want to know it will outlive me. I'm 52 and most of my cost based decisions were based on " do I want to be repairing that at 75?" Or "I'll be long gone, or won't care in 30 years, so that will be fine"

Screen shot image not showing for me. But there are a lot of companies that offer bespoke cutting of doors / panels. They cut and then edge the door/ panel. I made a large fish tank enclosure this way just gave them a cut list, picked the board I wanted and the edge trim required. It wasn't much more expensive than buying the board. And the finish and edging is excellent. Example company

I'd get it galvanized. Possibly powder coated as well.

as @JohnMo says, with this volume you could probably bypass the buffer altogether. my UFH volume was under required minimum so as volumizer was required. I got a great deal on the World heat cylinder so went the buffer route with some re-piping.

i added a second pump on the return as I was worried about the flow, but I've never wired it in. IMHO the extra pump on the manifold and buffer used as a buffer could create short cycling, and its an unnecessary complication. i wanted my set up as simple as possible. no zones etc. just heat the slab .

I wasn't sure, it was my first and only install, so fumbled my way around. The Samsung stat didn't have a wireless option and I wanted to be able to move it around to get the best balance, its only a small house. I used the attached manual to get me through. the Samsung ones are so big I lost my way. The controller I used is a PNI CT60 Samsung-Gen-6-Heat-Pump-Installation-Manual.pdf

just updated my post see above

I've got this setup worldheat cylinder and buffer with gen6. my manifold for UFH does not have a pump, its just controlled with a 2 port valve with a separate 2 port for the DHW. I re plumbed the buffer to act as a volumiser - i,e. From Heat pump > flow UFH > RETURN UFH > TOP Buffer > Bottom Buffer > Heat pump return. I got rid of the 3 port, as you still need a 2 port to satisfy G3 EDIT: I use a separate room stat (Cheap wireless remote with timer) to call for heat no zones - heat over night my programmer is set for 18.5deg through the day and 19.5 at night this basically means it only call for heat at night - and then only in the winter months (the benefits of good insulation and Air tightness)

I'd suggest the extreme dry spell has shrunk the less well compacted backfill. Nothing to worry about. Unless brickwork etc starts to crack that is.

It's straightforward to move, if I knew, I would have created a pad at the same time I back filled with concrete, it would have been an hour or so works at the time. Plan for it and I would 100% recommend. No issue in 3 years so far.

I'm happy with my Tricel, no other comparisons though. However the only thing I would (will) when I get around to it, change is the compressor on the lid. We're rural and at night it can be audibly intrusive. 😔. It will be moved to a concrete pad with zero resonance.

💯