The history of our house construction, which is not exactly lacking in dramas and annoyances, has another chapter: the heating. I found the installation of the heating pipes somewhat sparse at the beginning of December and then asked for the design to be submitted. (Yes yes, I know. Hindsight is always 20/20.) After reading it, I stopped work and called the expert. "A heating load calculation is not available, so empirical values had to be assumed. All information must be checked on site." And then: fantasy floor coverings and fantasy target temperatures, plus supply/return assumed at 38/32. I was truly shocked. Plus, no one thought to present the whole thing to the main contractor as the client or to us as the owners for on-site verification. I relied (first build after all...) on the main contractor to ensure correct execution, but he completely left it to his subcontractor, who in turn tried to save time and money. What made me furious: the calculation was from April. There had been plenty of time to calmly verify everything. The resulting loop cost us a whole month due to the Christmas holidays and went as follows: Expert informs that the main contractor owes a room-by-room heating load calculation according to DIN – which is utterly ridiculous. Owner reprimands main contractor, followed by complete escalation including intense shouting. Demand for heating load calculation, based on which the heating system(s) are to be resized (everything times two because of the DH), possibly corrections. In house 1 it was completely installed and in house 2 at least the ground floor! The main contractor hesitated for a few days; I believe there was also a mild escalation with the plumber. He was the first to complain to me on site, asking who was going to pay for all the extra effort?! (I just said, well, I know who is NOT paying. That’s us. How he settles with the main contractor is none of my business.) Somehow they realized that a big mistake had been made. (The expert supported me very well in his arguments here. At some point I just forwarded his emails. I found an external technical building services planner with whom I went through everything again.) So now the plumber hates me, but the end of the story is that everything is being redone. Of course, nothing was done before Christmas and therefore no screed either. Yesterday the correction of the heating loops began. The main contractor is extremely meek and is now adding PCT Retanol in the screed at his expense so that it should be ready for covering after 14 days. I only survived December with pantoprazole, valerian tea, and a lot of noise. Building like this is really no fun!! When the screed is finally in (hopefully next week), a few corks will be popped here.
