All Activity

Depends where you are on it. Economically, yes, it can be expensive, but if you want a home in a more rural location, conventional planning is rather stacked against you, well, in the more busy parts of the country. There is a degree of logic to the rules. Interesting though that Wales does not have class Q, and so, as a consequence there are many thousands of small farms and smal holdings still in existence. I think thats a good thing, but im sure many dont, or dont even care. Prior to abandoning the dream of a self build, barn conversion projects is what i was mostly looking at (in england)

I use Paul at underfloor heating trade direct. Used them for over a decade without issue. Give them a call and ask for a price 01925 571999 As above, it’s all pretty much the same stuff with different folks writing / branding on it. @Great_scot_selfbuild I’d lose the fixation of getting so many things from one source, most offerings come in quite underwhelming imho, as the more you add the more diluted the focus and attention to each element there seems to be. The UFH can be laid simply, by yourself if you choose, over a long weekend. Or, get the plumber who’s going to do the rest of the plumbing and engage earlier with them and they can support. On a recent ‘turnkey’ install by certain well known heat pump fitting entity there were a lot of faux pas, client totally unaware, smiling and happy, and a few schoolboy errors when they laid the UFH was the trigger for me to ‘observe a little more closely’ when the HP and UVC was going in. Started laying all the small loops first, so when they got to the large kitchen diner loops they ran short to get one leg back to the manifold, which needed lifting and discarding and replacing with another visit. Caused a delay, with screeders booked in at that point. I was supporting with all ‘other plumbing’ and the electrical arrangement, inc ASHP wiring, so provided a 50mm waste pipe where D2 would connect. The chap just poked a piece of 22mm copper into the 50mm pipe and carried on with the rest of the install. I pointed out that it was connected to the foul sewers so needed to have a waterless trap installed to prevent the stink coming back into the room. He asked if poking rockwool down it would do the same job……? Split this up, and manage each element more effectively is my 2 cents. Panasonic ASHP £3k with controls, cools out of the box and quieter than a mouse sneezing, and a Telford UVC, folk here get good prices from Trevor @ Cylinders2go. Ivar pump / low temp mixer and manifold, if UFH GF + FF, or just a manifold if GF UFH only. Look at the umbrella scheme for the grant, or just keep the costs low so you don’t need to bother jumping through those hoops, with the usually then attracted uplifted costs. Pipe is pretty much pipe. Dont overthink it!

@JohnMo we had an engineer from the rigs in our place last week and he said pretty much the same regarding the politics and lack of refining

@saveasteading >>> Yes. Why do you ask? Ah I was not clear, I asked because I would like to know the secret of buying dry C24…

Utter nonsense, currently working part time on a new field 20+ years design life, financially its a go, politically it may be stopped. Plenty of other proven reserves, but stopped mostly for political reasons. Same in the north sea. This will the third project I have worked on in the last couple of years, good production rates, all the others stopped due to politics. Existing field development has stalled also due to politics. Anyway most of the oil produced in the UK is mostly sold abroad. UK Production 31 million tonnes Imports 42 million tonnes Exports 25.4 million tonnes - we can't refine it Consumption ~60-70 million tonnes

I've been treating everything for woodworm and rot as I've been going round. One of the joists in the far corner is not in great shape and I don't think I'd want to jump up and down on it. Replacing the joists is a non starter though I think. If I try to touch them I will need to get BC involved and pretty sure I won't be able to replace like for like which means I'm either raising the floor or lowering the ceiling. Neither of which I want to go near. Worse case I can just go round and refasten the existing boards. I just wanted to see if replacing with ply would make a better job in terms of the flex / movement. How about some extra dense heavy duty underlay as a half way. There must be something out there with a lot of mass designed to help absorb and spread the impact. -- Mass loaded vinly was what I am thinking of.

Analysis without numbers is merely opinion. The West of Shetland oil and gas won't keep the lights on for very long. Less than a decade if we extract everything. And some of this is likely to be uneconomic due to conditions.

It can be but if you have a competent floor slab and founds to the steel frame it can be a money spinner!

An interesting project and I'm sure I'm not alone on wanting to see more of it at some stage. Agri barns are good for their job. Providing economical shelter for agricultural goods, livestock fodder machinery. However making one into a house is monetary madness. It's often cheaper to knock and rebuild a new barn for farming rather than repair an old one not to mind making it habitable. The rules on this are idiotic.

Mike that is a well though out answer. Service voids, great. Your command of the theory is great as is many other posters. But what is @Julestools going to do and the options? For me the thing is to see if there are timbers that may suffer say, if not then step forward, what is buildable with least risk of condensation? You'll always find some calculation that shows moisture! My starting point when working on older structures is to say.. let's look at what each room is used for. Is it a bedroom, a kitchen or a utility room where you might be drying washing. Here we look for the simple solution and that makes it easier to have confidence that the insulation will work. Now at some point Building Control may come back with a query, but that is a good thing! As a designer we think the problem though and come up with a reasoned case. This is the art of design. it does not need to cost the earth to build! I have done lots of testing also! I have also done my fair share of finite element analysis.. As an SE I can tell you that the premise that SE's take is that all models are wrong, it's just a giude to the behavoir!.. your's will be too @ADLIan! Models are an aide, don't hang your reputation and hat on these! You claim you have tested.. you should know better and you need to understand the limitations of an FE model and if you have tested stuff then lets see your evidence! They have some good stuff if you have time to read. But in summary. If you stop the moisture levels building up in the rooms in the first place then you head off most of the potential problems! It's that simple! Simple is a good starting point for old houses, then you tweak stuuf as you go. It's actually fun once you have grasped the basics. I'll say again much of this stuff is basic common sence once you have got your head around the rough idea. The big challenge is actually building it and putting it all together. Here we want something simple and that will not cuase a builder to rip you off!

Looks like a finished refurb in an Albanian prison, fair play to ya.

Ok the cat is out the bag! For all. @saveasteading is converting a very big argicutural barn into home. I was invited to get involved as I had chipped into a previous project of his. For all. This project has pretty much everything that you need to know if you want to convert a barn to a home and not chuck money down the drain. My SE input has been to confirm what @saveasteading already knows, back that up with SE calculations, chip in with a bit of tough love from time to time, a few ideas and propose some SE design nuances. We all work together, and still are, to get something that is buidable and every pound is a prisoner! Maybe at some point @saveasteading will post on the key points of their journey, from the planning to completion stage. For me all I can say, while maintaining a bit of confidence is, the design journey has been great fun at my end, have had to work hard at times, questioned closely by a very experienced Chartered Enginner with vast experience. (saveasteading) worth the effort. Funny thing is that from time to time I work as a checking Engineer so it's good when you get put through you paces! I've learnt a lot, everyones skills and depth of knowledge has been tested. All the folk involved has decades of experience. Now for all. Yes we have experience but being old is not always the key.. the key is that we communicate, when we don't know something we just fesse up and say.. I don't know and we go and we find out and discuss how we solve desing issues. If you are self building then if you get the right team then you are really up and running. For all young designers out there.. us old crusties don't expect you to know it all.. we just want you to talk while bringing new ideas to the table in return! @ETC does this make sense?

As you may have gathered, what seems like a simple question is actually quite complex. Dew point is important, but dew point calculations don't take into account several key factors, such as the abilities of the particular building materials to move moisture through the structure by capillary action, nor the absorption properties of some materials (the ability to remove vapour molecules from the air and bind them within the natural fibres such as hemp and wood - not the same as absorption - before it condenses to liquid), then desorb it again. External factors are important too - hence my point about the condition and exposure of the external wall and the state of the DPC - because, as mentioned by @Gus Potter, insulating the wall changes how and when it retains and releases moisture. Then you have factors such as the presence or absence of vapour control layers, vapour permeable paints and MVHR... Anyway, to answer your question, I can only think of 4 ways of deciding on an insulation thickness: 1. Major manufacturers of vapour control layers will run it through their model and come up with a recommendation based, of course, on using their VCL, which must be installed to very exacting standards. You'd be wise to include a service void with a VCL to cut the risk of damaging it (now or in the future). 2. Find a consultant to carry out a WUFI analysis. However WUFI is highly dependent on the data used for the building's internal environment (variations in temperature and humidity throughout the year); the default data options provided are very finger-in-the-air and don't take into account factors such as the presence of MVHR, which can significantly cut moisture levels. That situation can be improved by using their companion software to model the environment of the specific building as a whole, but that's going to rack up the cost significantly. I'm not entirely confident in the standard external environment files used either, in view of the expected climatic changes, though at least those are more easily assessed and changed and have less impact on the output. 3. Take a cue from research such as that carried out by Historic Scotland. If only there were more of it available to cover a greater range of buildings and locations. 4. Go no lower than the more-or-less accepted 'safe' U-value limit of 0.5W/m².K

Good. Ah, us Engineers take this as do the rest of the construction industry take this as being the inner surface of the outer leaf.. I suspect you are making a straw man arguement. Seriously how do you get from the "cavity face" to the inside of the walls. I don't know what convention you are using? Maybe you can point to BRE 443 if I'm maybe barking up the wrong tree? You are confused and mixing external penetration of moisture with the internal transfer of water gas outwards and where it condenses. Who deems that inconsequantial? Have a think about the basic thoery and work your argument through. Think about buildabilty, the elements of structure that connect into that. Agree, at times this can happen, depends if you have a porous facing brick or the wall is rendered for example. It does and that is what I've been saying, I agree with you! I have a copy of this. This reverse condensation issue was recognised. It probalby in my view is still valid. I mentioned this in my last post just to highlight how much this is very much an inexact science! BBA certificates! Well they said that about the Grenfell Cladding! Funnily, years ago, I was involved in getting CE certification for a cold formed steel company.. so kind of know how that world works. My advice is.. if you are a self builder then learn a bit and trust your common sense. @ADLIan I half agree with you.. we can debate the language, and different apporaches. One key test is would you personally sign off a design when I'm saying watch out? Remember I'm an SE.. if you do stuff that is going to compromise my structure when I have fore warned you then if it fails you are in big trouble! It's big boy pants time! I'm not sure but the best thing to do would be to crystalize our thoughts and come up with something that would be helpfull to folk on BH?

premature posting - hang on...

Sounds like this switch is for the immersion. It wont heat up the house but will give you hot water. If the immersion was drawing 3kw when your wife flicked the switch off a small spark inside the switch is not terribly unusual.

Behind timber you need an uninterrupted airgap, so the fire stop has to be a flat, intumescent strip. It cant be a cheaper rockwool sock in this instance.

18L is a big expansion vessel, so that's just absorbing the expansion and not letting it reflect much in the reading on the pressure gauge. It's all gold mate, as you've done the right thing by over-sizing vs under-sizing, and this will mean you need to top up the pressure as often. My 2 cents is that you can never have too much expansion. Do you know you have to treat the system with inhibitor after these works, to prevent corrosion? Also, do you know you will have to check the system pressure every 3-6 months, or possibly more frequently, as part of switching out from auto-fill from the tanks to regular maintenance of a sealed and pressurised system?

Which is why we are buying 2 weeks work of wood at a time, at most. Costing a bit more but saving this costly chore. @Gus Potterhas been our SE on this as he bought into the fairly radical concept with enthusiasm rather than horror. I'll post a pic of how the timber will prop the steel, when we get that high. Another of the pragmatic decisions was that the purlins were also undersize. We planned to add steel to strengthen them, ( id done this before) but the steel erector wasn't buying into it so we bought new Z rails. To his credit the guy stripped and fitted new (just shy of 50) in 2 days. @Gus Potterthat is a requirement. The shed must be proven to be redundant yet also still viable for its original use. This prevents farmers building new barns to use just to sell old ones at a premium. Seems fair to me. In our case it clearly hadn't been used for grain for years. But that use meant it had more strength than most, and no slurry. It's much easier, probably much the same cost and much quicker to build new, but not permitted. I suspect that most buyers are not aware it needs strengthening, perhaps even of foundations, and get a nasty shock.

No idea on this one, sorry. I didn’t get involved in that and left it to the professionals

It shouldn't rise too much, if it does that's an issue. Your system will have an expansion vessel this has a rubber bladder in it to absorb the extra water volume. Extra pressure doesn't aid anything, 1 bar is fine. You pressurise to help remove air from the system, any air vents or bottle traps should be opened to release any air a week or so after the start of the system, then closed again.

Hello all. I have a technical background as the day job. As quick rundown. I worked at Torness Nuclear Power Station in my late teens early twenties, then became a local builder for 20 years, that was when Chernobyle accident happened and the Ayrshire farmland got potentially contaminated, that was a worry, went to uni to become an Engineer. That was 20 years ago. My Master's degree group project was on energy, at that time Fuchishima happened. I got into cold formed steel and ended up designing a structure that sat over the cooling ponds on the Bradwell Nuclear power station at the decomissing stage. My litle bit was to do the structure that house the ventiulation units.. but it had to be lightweight.. but blast protected.. so a bit of a challenge, h3ence the cold formed steel. But for fun to design this building we have to look back an understand how it was built in the first place, how far we could drill into the lid to stop radiation getting out. Below is a photo of the cooling ponds during construction. Check out the bowler hats! When I was at uni I got a summer job for McAlpine as a project Engineer. I'm not going to go into my own political views but as an Engineer I think the UK is a bit (expletive deleted)ed as we are living from day to day essentially. We use to be an Empire, strong, we made war and more often than not we won, you don't go to war to lose! . But remember the British ended slavery for example, we paid for that as it was the right thing to do. For me national security has to come first. There are many countries in the world that do not share out values. Appeasment will not work, yes we would like it to, but lots of young folk just don't understand that there are a lot of bad folk in the world. So in the round. Yes we need to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our usage but there those that say that our oil and gas industry is kaput are talking out of political nonsence. The West of Shetland fields contain lots of oil. There are plenty on BH that advocate this. I disagree with you on a strategic basis. You see lots of folk on BH that are really invested and have made a good go of making their houses "say a bit passive" but they have enough money to do this. They can afford to be that way! Your average punter is just trying to make ends meet! You have some on BH making eco arguments.. but do not look at how things work in the wide world and their actual carbon footprint. Many on BH are just enthusiasts, just like car enthusiasts when it comes to energy usage, there is no harm in that. But that comes at a price. I actually grew up in Africa..been in the middle east.. so I am not some daft "gammon" as many may assume I am. In the round I feel that UK energy policy should be driven by say a 50 year plan ( I wish) that means exploiting our own oil and gas, digging some coal! , using that money to innovate. The Chinese think we are all soft, trying not to offend religions, woke.. well we are let's face it, about half our politicial representatives don't know what a woman is! I despair as an Engineer and am very worried about the future of our kids. Anyway I hope the photo of Bradwell lets everyone see how a plant like this was constructed at the time. Even if you disagree with me then that's ok, just enjoy how these guys constructed a plant that operated safely and is still, to this day, getting decomissioned.. at losts of cost mind. But hey ho just admire what these guys did.

Turn off the isolation switch outside by heat pump. Leave it off for a couple of seconds and switch back on. Or if the controller is on its own power supply, switch that off and on again. Doing both will not hurt anything. Makes sense, immersion are generally 3kW so that plus any other loads in the house.

Both valves? okey dokey, will try tomorrow! Damn, I love this forum. People are so kind and helpful, unfortunately I'm not skilled enough in any of these topics as I would love to help people like this

Thank you for the quick reply, currently working a night shift. Will try tomorrow. Before I left home, i've turned the switch which i think it's the immersion for hot water but radiators were still very cold althought the live usage on octopus app was showing more than 4000w, so I told wife to turn it off since it's not warming up the house. When she turn the switch off, she said something sparked around the switch, so not sure. I am not sure which one I need to turn to top-up water, tomorrow will take a couple pictures. When saying "switch off power to heat pump" do I actually turn it off in the meter box or just turn it off in the thermostat?