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If you have the budget, choose one from the list at https://database.passivehouse.com/en/components/list/ventilation_small. These units are independently tested to more accurate standards than normal (a higher efficiency ratio = better economy). Also size the unit so that it never needs to run at more than 2/3 capacity.

Oh I should probably add, the turquoise is the insulation, blue the trusses, red not needed items and the yellow a vcl

Evening Folks, Still trying to get my head round an easy (as easy as possible) detail that connects icf external 150mm insulation to the 150mm PIR that i want to lay over the osb+vcl deck. Feel free to, (as brutally as you wish) dissect my scribbles. I'm assuming I'll leave an outer skin of ICF coming sightly higher and cut down trusses so I'm not having to go through rafter ends and insulate/ air tight. The idea of a block of wood on end of insulation to hold it on looks quite troublesome as does the vcl lapping @JpManning. Is there an easier/slicker way of doing this, I have contemplated using SIPS, as this would simplify this significantly but quotes have been horrendous. Cheers Will

Hi we have just finished Groundworks with a seperate rainwater Soakaway (5 of them!) They all have p trap gulleys below ground level and although building inspector has said he would pass them he commented that they aren’t roddable so would rather have a bend or solution which would be roddable. it will be a considerable expense to have them all changed as there is 14 of them. What would be the advice? We take the hit and change? Any alternatives or are we being overly pedantic with the risk of blockages. benefit of the p trap is Ultimately prevent odours but is this is a non issue with rainwater as the fouls are seperate thanks

I'm not counting the screws............................... (It's a lot!!!)

I took the advice of big Nicky and put 6mm ply over the chipboard, notched PVA comb and then an unholy amount of screws.

I remember when my Viessmann Gas Boiler was being installed and the "heating engineer" explained the weather compensation curve - he didn't understand it at all and got very flustered when I explained it to him as clearly a customer shouldn't have more understanding than a heating engineer..... But I should have realised when I got an S Plan set up and not DHWP (X-Plan) which I'd asked for (He did rectify that once I pointed out what he'd agreed to) It's quite sad...........

Thanks. I'll look those up. I take it you DIY'd it all yourself?

I have a £100 k budget but I only need 1 acre to set up a micro plant based food garden , more acres means more maintenance unless it is woodland that mostly takes care of itself. I'm just looking for that ideal plot, must not be overlooked by neighbours, must have a source of water and must not have any main road or other noise pollution but has minor road or track access for deliveries, tucked away in the countryside where it can be forgotten .

Possibly - not sure on what advantage that would give me?

If you are putting a new floor deck down, would ply be a better option than chip?

What is that or should I google?

Thanks for the ideas. Not easy to get a suitable sprayer it turns out. Fortunately the part has gone on much better, for some reason yesterday's old roller (stored airtight) which doesn't roll so well anymore seemed to do the trick!

Consider a decoupling mat, even if to rule out.

interesting point thanks for that - current tiles have been down since 1994 - never re-grouted in that time and none was missing till I started lifting sections - floor joists are less than 400 mm centres with 18mm T&G chipboard. I'm a bit hesitant to increase over-boarding thickness because it will create a step at the threshold between rooms and adjoining hallway

This is very clever and elegant by @JpManning. To do this you need to maintain absolute strict control over the workmanship. A highly competent Contractor who understands the principles is the basic minimum. It's generally not suited to self build. You have to work closely with the fixing supplier.

Good point and good idea. Yes for the likes of a garage by all means set the joists on a slight slope to avoid firring pieces. Mind the underside of the joists also slope! They often need a birds mouth at top and bottom so they rest properly on the supports. Agree for long timber joists. Short spanning heavily loaded timbers used as lintels for example tend to be driven by strength design, both bending, shear and end bearing checks are essential. Just as an aside. One way we control deflection is to really prevent and twisting of the timbers. We want to tightly fit dwangs (noggings) and make sure our sarking / ply on top is well fixed down at close centres to the tops of the joists. Now you could keep the same timber depth, but go for 300mm centres. But here we need more dwangs (noggings), more joist hangers etc, all adds up to extra material and labour cost, all looks a bit congested not least. Occasionally when I can't increase the joist depth (say due to a height / detailing constraint) I'll have a look at the economics of using a thicker joist. Traditionally using imperial sizes these would be 63 mm thick, but here is one at 220 x 70mm in C24 at 6.0m long. https://greenbarntimbers.co.uk/shop/timber/carcassing-c24-c16/c24-joists-9x3-70mm-x-220mm-6m/ Now these are harder to source, no doubt, in fact these are show out of stock, they cost more but then when you offset the labour / joist hanger cost / extra dwangs, it's worth considering, even if just to rule out for your project. The upside is with a thicker joist you get more bearing and edge distance for your boarding nails, that is good! Agree. The Engineer can be expected to provide this information without quibble.

Tiling on a chipboard floor i think needs more then that 3.5mm for over boarding, closely to 10mm screwed every 150 I think is best practise. Most modern homes with tiles installed, it's not long before you spot the cracks along the joint lines where they haven't removed the flex in the subfloor.

Hi all, just thought I would share a video I made earlier in our build which details the window cill build up I used. May be of some help to future builders. Cill build up

Background Back in 1991 when we moved in the utility room, kitchen and conservatory had hard vinyl tiles on the floors - they were stuck down with some bitumen type adhesive - took me a good week to get them all up (they chipped and cracked and only came up in little bits) and then getting what was left of the floor involved some fairly aggressive solvents. Mrs Alien wanted ceramic tiles for all of them (so I bought enough grey square ceramic floor tiles to do all of them) so after making good the floor I over boarded with 3.5 mm ply nailed to the chipboard and then tile adhesive and tiles. My reason for the over-boarding was if she ever wanted to change the tiles I could lift both tile and ply up in sections and not have to scrape/chip/grind tile adhesive off the chipboard. Now my one big error was not doing wall to wall tiling in both rooms - I did in the conservatory but I did that one first (Hindsight is wonderful) and I only did the floor area in the kitchen up to the kick board and the same in the utility. The downside is it creates a weir if you have any water leaks under the cupboards and you don't notice the leak until it's been happening for a while. (water softener I'm looking at you now) So right now I'm embarking on re-doing the utility (kitchen is next as I'm transferring some of the wall and floor units to the utility before the new kitchen arrives in Nov/Dec) it's a 2m x 2m room that is now empty and I'm replacing most of the floor because it wasn't great last time I tiled it (think floor areas under units that looked like dried out wheatabix) I spent Saturday lifting the tiles and over-boarding - once I'd got a start point a decent pry bar, claw hammer and bolster meant it lifted fairly easily in small sections. I could then take outside and with tile face down fold the ply to break it on the grout lines and I ended up with a half full wheelie bin So the current plan is new chipboard floor - 3.5mm ply over-boarding (stapled) and then wall to wall tiled and grouted before units are moved in. Am I missing an alternative method - neither kitchen or Utility are a wet room but both have wet services!!

I have a German basement company on site right now and I know they spray on a similar substance.

Thanks both

My understanding is the BUS Grant doesn't mean you have to give up gas cooking - when I looked into ASHP rather than replace the gas boiler (Mains Gas) we would be able to keep the gas hob (albeit with the standing charge cost issue for a very small amount of annual gas usage) So unless things have changed you should be able to keep your LPG gas cylinders but I think 4 would probably be over kill for the usage so drop down to two as @ProDave suggests

Yeh I have before as well. Just wondered if its the done thing. Last time was a 3m ish garage roof just set one side 75mm higher than the other. I've done a double garage for a guy who wanted them level with firing strips as was looking to extend in future. Also anything occupied with ceiling below probably wants to be level.

I bought 2x Titon HRV. Both came from eBay super cheap, very well made. I had a issue with one motor on start up (maybe why it ended up on eBay), issue diagnosed on the phone, parts dispatched same day. Ran flawlessly for 5 years so far