Mr Blobby

Ok, so I could have been more specific, but really, specifying a manifold without valves is like specifying a car without wheels. I didn't think I needed to be that specific 😒 The problem is my trades always want to do everything at least cost because that's what they always do. It's just frustrating. Assume nothing 😬 Can valves be inserted here at the junction, or is it entirely new manifolds?

I had assumed my plumbing manifolds would be fitted with individual isolation valves. Assuming my plumber has no intention of fitting valves to these manifolds, then please tell me that (a) it doesn't matter, or (b) an alternative product with valves. Three of our HW (showers and bath) pipes are wider diameter than the rest.

I see you have shiny ridge clamps. We had this also, the roofer had ordered cheaper ridge kit than vmzinc that came in ral 7016 but the coating came off. The roofer agreed to go up on the ridge and shape a peice of roof material to cover the brackets and looks well.

I actually powder coated my clamps to be the same colour as the roof 🤪 but not sure it achieved much 🫤 My standing seam is at 400 instead of 600 centres, to reduce canning, something else for you to think about 🤔

Here's ours being installed. @Russdl's look way smarter and low profile, perhaps because of the distance from the ground. You can see the clamps being installed, they have a disk that sits 15mm above the seam. We've had no issue with birds trying to go underneath. I wish I could have fitted three rows of panels on that South facing elevation 😕

Our manifolds have no gauges. Which is a bit disappointing as I would be rather interested to see flow and return temps at the manifold. I can't see any reason not to have temperature guages at the manifolds, am I missing something here? In short, is it a good thing to install some guages at the manifold? I would have thought it would be useful for commissioning, if nothing else.

We looked at stick on panels and then decided against. After the standing seam roof went up we couldn't bring ourselves to cover it with panels on the SW front of the house so installed panels only at the rear, where nobody will ever notice. And some on the flat roof garage to catch some rays in the winter months. For the standing seam roof we used the s-5 railess pvkit. Neat enough for the back but, IMHO, too ugly for the front.

No, dense block. Approx 10 mm mortar under the skim coat. Plastered over the winter, internal temps never went below 10 degrees. Dried out very slowly, no excess heat or dehumidifiers. Took a few months for the cracks to develop, but are not along mortar lines, and given the house is on a Kore slab on hard rock underneath then I don't think this is any subsidence issue.

Sorry, forgot to say it's wet plaster, on mortar scratch coat. No plasterboard.

All my window openings are like this. Would mesh have reduced the risk of this happening, or is it just inevitable?

Openreach told me the same, that they expected the verge (the verge is part of the visibility splay from the junction) to belong to the council. They assured me they would check ownership but were quite sure it didn't belong to my neighbour and I got the impression they wouldn't even notify him of the trench they are about to dig. There is a good chance he'll be very unhappy about it. 😏 My original point to the OP's question is of course that although it is usually possible to get a free connection without registering as a new site with openreach, registering as a new site can be worth the extra dosh if, like me, you wanted options to connect to a new duct instead of the free overhead option. Not for everyone, but it's worked out as the best option for us.

Its in the visibility splay in front of their house so not their property. This is the only image I have, showing the pole next to the for sale sign, from which open reach will dig a trench across the driveway in the visibility splay, probably a few feet away from the front wall.

We are in the same position, with the fibre available from a pole across the road for free. To a site that we demolished and rebuilt. But I didn't want the fibre coming from a pole the other side of the road. There is a pole on our side of the road (connected to the pole on the opposite side of the road) about 50 yards away that feeds our neighbours houses. I registered on the open reach site and paid the (approx) 300 quid fee as a new site. Engineer came out and offered to lay a trench from the pole on our side of the road along the grass in the visibility splay and across the neighbours drive and up to our boundary for (approx) 400 quid. For me this was a really good and not outrageously expensive solution to get the cable in through a conduit instead of overhead. Open-reach will often fit a pole on your side of the road for free but I preferred the trench dug across the neighbours drive option. We don't speak to that neighbour who is insanely precious about his house and boundary. Open reach haven't dug the trench across his drive yet so this is an added bonus to look forward to.

When installing hot and cold manifolds, is it good practice to install a board on the blockwork first, and if so what? Pipes are mlcp into plant room.

Thanks. It's all oil heating here in Northern Ireland so heat pumps are a bit of a challenge. Once we get inside the house then the plumbing should be the same as any other system so I'm trusting my plumber to do all that wet stuff with his eyes closed. One last question, do you have a link to an extended ball valve 22mm, I think they are all 28. Or maybe I run 28 mm to the end of the ball valves and then reduce down to 22 🤔