All Activity

I think I will go for the DucoBox Energy Comfort 325 as it's available now, and is light and compact -- and as its capacity is so much bigger than our maximum, surely running it so slowly will get amazing heat recovery? Also what I wrote last night about the Duco wall-mounted controllers is incorrect, the three ventilation positions can be adjusted (I found it in a separate manual, which goes through all the options in detail). So that's good. Out of interest, I wonder what people's thoughts are on the Itho Daalderop HRU 200 ECO. It's an absolute bargan basement option, available for well under a grand in either Euros or Pounds. I'm amazed at the price! The volume setting is done via two potentiometers, one for low and one for high, the middle speed is just the average of the low and high. https://www.ventilationland.co.uk/en_GB/p/itho-daalderop-hru-200-eco-unit-e-rft-high-rise-200m3-h/9947/

The Big6 profile metal sheets “should” lay over the top, but won’t! The original sheets are unlikely to be dead straight and the fixings stick up etc. as above, remove the existing and replace. Over batten and sheet is pretty straight forward but the old sheets are likely to crack in multiple locations and you will regret not doing it right once.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. As the home owners we don't have the technical expertise to fully comprehend the technicalities of what is going on in the drawings, but it seems like the architect also has some questions to answer here? Having had rendering undertaken on our previous properties, as well as seeing local properties in our area with similar canopy finishes, we noted the use of a bell cast bead over the flashing and then noted it wasn't used on our canopy. We noted the addition of a bell cast bead, at the end of a render finish, creates a clean and even finish when it meets flashing and a tiled roof line. To be honest, the initial impression was about the aesthetics of the roof finish and render (plus chipped tiles). In simple terms, we think it looks a mess.

Yikes...... Sounds like a recipe for a forever roof.Not in a good way unfortunately. What you have at the moment can be tackled systematically and safely. If you layer up new roof on old asbestos noone will want to come within a mile of it . If you take appropriate precautions you can remove the Asbestos yourself and get it disposed correctly. If you're able to take the time and care it'll save a lot vs a contractor.

That drawing seems to carry some magical thinking in a few areas . I'm really not certain what went on in this area. It doesn't fill me with confidence that your designers details were up to scratch. Do you have any specification as to what the builders were working to? Any pictures during construction? What is your specific objection to the work? Aesthetics or is it unsafe or leaking? What may help is if you have any wider drawings of the same area. Particularly sections.

I don't think you have misread. It looks like a thin coat render onto mesh on carrier board, so probably 6mm thick. God knows what has gone on and what to do. I would go back to the architect and ask for their suggestions.

One big reason for choosing enthalpy was the lack of a convenient condensate drain point, but I feel up to tackling that now I discovered the drain pipe saddle clamp things...

Thanks everyone for your input, much appreciated! I'm baffled too, as is the distributor. And I chose Brink as they're well-known in this sector, been around a long time, manufacture in NL and sell globally, and they're part of Ariston. But their customer service has been very poor -- they don't respond until they're nagged, go silent for weeks, they've even ignored repeated emails from the distributor, and apparently told him it was sorted when it wasn't. It took them two months to get around to testing our first (returned) unit, and even then it was only because I'd emailed one of the executives at Ariston out of desperation. They said it met all required norms, yet every house guest who's been willing to try it has scored full points at a game of "guess the odour". Even their installer who came could smell the problem. I've offered to help test it, told them they can send someone whenever and I can demonstrate the issue in 30 seconds. Part of the problem is that we self-installed, so from their side it's the distributor's problem, but he just runs a small ventilation business and whatever commission he made from the sale will have already been eaten up in the time he's spent dealing with this! If he was based nearby he'd probably have come round to smell it for himself, but that hasn't happened as he's almost an hour's drive away. Now I'm thinking about it, I'd have been happy to pay for a visit to test it. Even after all this, if there was a solution offered then I'd rather keep the Flair (or switch to an Ease) than go through the hassle of swapping it out, but Brink seem to have little to no interest in engaging, so sadly I'm out of options. 🤷‍♂️

Hello, I have some reasonably large sheds whose fibre cement roof has definitely reached end of life. I am a big corrugated iron fan, so that's be my default replacement option. Someone has suggested to me why not oversheet rather than go through the pain of (likely Type C asbestos) sheet removal and disposal. Leaving it in place would also help with the condensation challenge. my budget is also insufficient for eg insulated metal panels Research on oversheeting brings up a specialist GRP product with the same Big 6 profile so it sits snugly over. Or with say box profile sheets there are multiple recommendations to first batten out the roof and then lay the metal sheets on the battens. I guess it makes sense - provide a flat plane for the sheets to be screwed into. But it does leave eaves gaps to be dealt with My dumb questions are - what does the battening achieve that simply laying the box profile sheets onto the fibre cement sheets and drill and screw through both to the wooden purlins below? I have to do that for the battens anyway - I don't have the budget for any insulation, that can come later, but any benefit from a vapour barrier sandwich between the existing roof and the new sheeting? Regards Glenn

Thanks for reply. This is probably why the architect is saying the finish is to a satisfactory standard. Any ideas on how it can be rectified to look reasonable? or are we talking a full re-design of this area? To us it just looks a mess.

I may have misread the dwg. It seems like, as drawn, there's a ventilated void, meaning that the render must be on a renderboard on battens. If a typical renderboard is no more than 15mm thick (and often less) then there's precious little to grind into. Or was the detail changed and the EWI was rendered directly onto the insulant, in which case it is not built as drawn and cannot function (in a 'vented fashion') as intended. Or have I read it all wrong? Is the answer to the mystery in 'E.W.3'?

Really would not bother, run hot and cold to manifolds central in the house and out to each wet room from there. If you are concerned about distance and time to get warm water, add a secondary loop and pump or simpler run 10mm pipe sink. Hot water will be there pretty quickly 40m of 10mm Hep2O only holds a couple of litres. If you need notes than 40m you must have a HUGE house

As previously mentioned, the existing bungalow is tired, but habitable. It's been extended before, but not well - essentially a couple of random lumps added on that, if anything, just confuse the layout and usability. I've not viewed it myself as yet, but I'd guess the original construction dates from the 1950's. The current occupants have lived there for much of the time since, so a degree of sentimentality is understandable, but it's worth what it's worth, and the fact is it hasn't yet sold. No doubt, with some relatively minor structural repair and modification, and a lot of cosmetic work, it would make a nice 2-bed bungalow for someone, but again, if the price were right someone would already have snapped it up to do exactly that (it's been on the market since middle of last year). The garden is, like the bungalow, a little tired, but you can see it has been loved and is south-west facing and not overlooked from behind. There's plenty of parking at the front, and neighbouring properties have had fairly major remodelling into 1.5 or 1.75 storeys, so planning shouldn't be horrendously difficult. It just needs to be £100k cheaper!

On the drawing the flashing is not long enough to cover the top row of tiles. Having a roofed canopy addition on a timber frame with a rendered finish is always going to be very tricky to sequence and detail. It looks like the architect put this in the Too Difficult pile and left it for "others" to mess up.

There's a mistake here. I think I should have said 200mm cavity in the second example.

Thank you for the reply and thank you for the observation - we hadn't noted there is no flashing on the side wall. The contractor's excuse was ' he did it in the more traditional way'. Obviously this is an unacceptable response. We are following up with the contractor as we know it is a deviation. We know they rushed to complete the job; the canopy was the last area to be completed. Nobody oversaw the sequence of work, meaning this area was left as an afterthought.

Most of these boilers are thrown on the wall with configurations never touched by the installer and in default I believe the 8000 DP proportional pressure 250mb. In most scenarios, it provides sufficient head to supply most houses where they're installed. I'd be very surprised, given the pipe oversizing indicated earlier, that the index circuit is anywhere even close to needing 4m residual head. This approach to me is tantamount to the plumbers who set the pump on 3 and run out the door. But I agree that the system behaviour isn't right - you've got constant flow rate of 21.5lpm. and modulating burner output and reducing DT until it seems to find equilibrium at burner output of 49% during the test. If the pump is on Delta P proportional, the flow rate shouldn't be the same at 49% burner output because it doesn't need it and it's therefore creating unnecessary pressure drop through the system - e.g. the system fighting itself. The tech info is a bit ambiguous here because it says the pump can be set to proportional Delta P and if this were indeed correct, there needs to be a change in flow rates somewhere sometime - on any decent modulating system there should be variations in both DP and DT as heat load and output change. Why not test in fully proportional linked to burner, which is what most sensible boiler manufacturers do out of the box? You can probably see now why I don't have anything to do with these things from this brand.

One of the drawbacks I can see with iPSV is hot days and sustained heatwaves with little wind to drive ventilation. Currently we 'sail' or house through heatwaves by closing off all ventilation and shading the south facing windows (curtains, but we are planning external shades when we replace the front windows). Our roof and walls contain lots of woodfibre so we have good decrement delay, and occupation is low during the day so CO2 and moisture levels are not an issue. In the evening after the sun has set and the air temperature has dropped, we open the north facing windows and the skylight and purge ventilate the house - you can feel the cooler airflow and it is very refreshing. However, after a couple of days of heat, the night time temperature difference is reduced (due to radient heat from the earth and buildings) so this option tails off and CO2 levels inevitably rise. We then use portable fans to make life bearable. I know they considered this issue with the Bedzed buildings and tried using ventilation cowls / wind catchers but I don't think it was very successful. It is pretty much a given that climate change will lead to more frequent and longer heatwaves so I'm considering building a solar chimney with soil pipe ventilation - I have to build a patio out the back anyway so it is just a little extra excavation. The chimney might be an issue with building control, but sod 'em! We'll stick it up and see if anone notices! I have a couple of ideas on the design, and I'm considering buying the Handbook of Domestic Ventilation but I don't know if this is a good sourceof information or if there is better text elsewhere. It is an expensive book to take a punt on...

My first observation is that they haven't used the ventilation system as specified, and secondly, there doesn't appear to be any flashings on the side walls which seems odd. Have you had the conversation with the contractor to ask why they deviated from the drawings?

We are unhappy with the finish to our roof canopy. The building contractor added the flashing after rendering, then sliced and sealed the flashing into the render as a finish. Our understanding from our drawings was that a bellcast bead would be used at the bottom of the render, overlapping the flashing (as shown in the canopy profile drawing). The render is silicone render. The left wall of the canopy is also insulated. We believe the contractor used SPS Envirowall. We are looking for options tidy this up, as it the main focus point to the entrance of the house. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Detail 6 - Front Porch Canopy.pdf

Hot water from an ASHP is cheap enough, and if you've invested in all that infrastructure, have already plumbed the house for hot water to all bathrooms etc, then it would be madness to not use it??

I use a laser and all-round patent band, at around 1000mm cc. I try to avoid connecting it to the lower chord, so sound doesn't transmit to the GF ceiling. Geberit stuff is euro 90mm, whereas UK (3") is 82mm vs (4") 110mm. Regs say you can have 1x WC on a singe run of 82mm going to meet a 110mm SVP. Youd need to get a specific adaptor, if one exists, to go 90mm > 82mm, or go 90mm > 110mm > 82mm 82mm > 110mm adaptor I only ever use 3" if its a rising (dry) vent pipe, and it needs to go up inside a stud wall, or alongside a rainwater downpipe to 'match', vs doing it in the cumbersome 4"/110mm stuff. @Oz07, how long a run do you need through the posi's?

That's sentimentality to some extent, if the building is well past it. Unless someone thinks that , yes the location is wonderful and i can live in the house. Extenicd adaptation or incorporating into new is very much more expensive than new build. But perhaps you can retain and reuse sone foundations, services, drains..... is the garden established and attractive. There's a thing... if the drainage was approved at the time you can likely retain it. But often a plot is simply overpriced.... it has been their life.. and there isn't much you can do about it.

Using your phone that detail doesn't pop up, you have to look at the profile, and many don’t bother adding that detail. In that case just go Duco, they seem well thought out bits of kit

Im still at odds, as I’ve literally never had a single issue with Brink. If changing this out then just look for something reputable, with the ports as close to the current configuration as possible.