Tuesday started with an early visit from an eight-wheeler, with vital rear-wheel steering, delivering the screed to cover the underfloor pipes which we now expect never to see again.

First there’s a “slump test” to check the mixture is the right consistency:

Then the curiously satisfying filling of the floor with screed pumped through a fat hose:

So now we finally have the floor at the originally designed level. The pipes will carry about 100l of hot water, about a tenth of the total 1000l capacity of the solar-heated thermal store. From here the floor will take a day to dry enough to walk on. It should be ready to take heat once it’s thoroughly dried in about four weeks. Bear with us while there’s that interruption in service.

Once it’s all dry and working we can see how much the solar thermal system warms the floor extending the season into spring and autumn.