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Here's the branch point: I thought it looked a bit tight space wise, or is this all par for the course for gas engineers?

Oh absolutely. I've found the branch point and will get it capped back there as I don't want any dead legs hiding in the wall waiting to be drilled into!

Okay, nice and clear - thanks!

We want to retire a gas hob (now have induction in a new kitchen in a different room) and so want to get the branch pipe that supplies it capped off. However, we're not quite ready to get that done and so ideally would like to remove the hob and - if safe to do so - have it temporarily isolated...

Don't forget to isolate it first!

The fan will need dropping from below. Remember you've got a ceiling, gap then board - the ducting will be attached directly to the spigot on the fan.

If you disconnect the duct at the fan end you can double-check the size - it looks like it's 100mm to me (note they are just notional sizes so you may find a few mm discrepancy in practice).

Yes, it can be cut - the foil and insulation will cut with scissors but there's a wire spiralling around to keep its shape and that might need a snip with wire cutters (bending it back and forth with pliers would also work in a pinch!). Jubilee clips are fairly straightforward - you just use a...

Thinking about this further, event he acoustic stuff must have a vapour barrier so I think it'd be okay (and more to the point I can't find any that don't claim to be acoustic!).

Just hold fire on ordering anything - I see the one I linked to is 'acoustic' which means it has small holes on the inner skin which you probably don't want if there's any risk of even a small amount of condensation forming. I'll keep searching but it looks like there's quite a shortage at the...

Yes, but I wouldn't buy it from Screwfix at that price. How much do you need? If only 5m then you can get it here for £17.99 including delivery. You'd normally fix it in place with jubilee clips or similar (what's holding the current ducting in place?). Note that the length is fully-stretched...

If I were you I'd just start by replacing the current ducting with some insulated ducting - it's cheap, still flexible so easy drop-in replacement (it's a bit more self-supporting so actually a bit easier!) and tends to have a smoother bore because it can maintain its stretched out shape better...

Bear in mind, however, that the pipe's usage would be in a fault condition which could be 110°C (I think that's the upper limit for overheat detection/restriction) at 3 bar i.e. superheated steam. You need to be confident the pipe can maintain its form and purpose for that worst-case scenario.

Follow the principle of Occam's Razor: the hypothesis that makes the least number of assumptions is most likely to be correct.

You might find that in the summer, with its different ambient air and water temperatures, you don't get (or it being at least noticeably different) in which case it'd add confidence to it being an expansion/contraction (non-)issue.

It'll likely to be the movement of plastic pipe against joists as it expands with the heat (by the order of at least 1mm/m for every 10C rise), although that alone might not fully explain why it's only just started happening. If there's any way you can get some access to it then some felt pipe...

This is the sort of situation where if you 'fix' it you'll end up causing a problem that likely otherwise wouldn't have occurred. Or is that just *my* luck? ;-)

To close this one off: I got in touch with Honeywell to enquire about about obtaining replacement terminal blocks and, to be honest, wasn't expecting a reply about what is essentially a 'low level' repair issue. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when one of their technical support guys said...

Might your boiler have an anti-cycling timer feature that prevents too many fire-ups in a given period (by ignoring repetitive calls for heat)?

Thank you both. I'll see how things pan out with Honeywell - he sounded optimistic about having some.