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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/09/17 in all areas

  1. Worth bearing in mind that the UFH won't get the concrete hot - it will get far hotter just sat in the sun I expect. Before we fitted the external reflective film to our front glazing the floor would easily get to around 35 deg C on a sunny day, whereas the hottest it ever gets with the UFH running is maybe 23 deg C. I think there is probably a fair bit of unwarranted concern when it comes to the thermal effects that UFH may have, probably based on decades old problems from back when UFH systems needed to run at 30 deg C plus in order to keep a house warm.
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  2. I would think @ProDave this is a different system to yours, correct me if I'm wrong but your wood fibre board it waterproof, whereas the osb is like a big sponge. Im going to put my hard hat on now?But this video shows why I dislike sips, relying on two sheets of osb as your main structure doesn't add up to me. Sorry.
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  3. Just a quick update on my mate Allan's xperience with his builder. Having insisted on a payment schedule before work started the builder has submitted four invoices for work done. Of these only one was correct, the rest included work started but not completed, the schedule was based on work completed. As a result Allan and the builder now meet on site every Friday to agree what's been completed, what's part completed and what needs to be done to get paid. After a shaky start things appear to be settling down, this has been help somewhat by the builder subcontracting some of the work to someone with more experience.
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  4. Fill UFH pipes with inhibitor / antfreeze Assuming it's insulated under the slab and the walls and roof are insulated I can't see it getting cold enough to freeze anyway. Plenty up here leave the slab over winter with UFH pipes then build the house on the slab in the spring, and it never seems to come to harm.
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  5. Result! So it's deffo NTC and behaving as per the book: https://learn.adafruit.com/thermistor/testing-a-thermistor Don't forget you need to mount that Cebec module in something. 1G surface mount box? Grommets or small glands for in / out?
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  6. The stucco thing is a very silly idea if you think about it. Render onto a timber frame, any cracking or poor areas around windows and other projections is asking for trouble. This his has made me think about different types of house wrap. The standard tyvec type flapping in the wind stuff that you see on most timber frames always looks badly installed to me. I am going to be leaning towards a system that is fully taped and sealed. Opinions.
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  7. I wondered about Stucco in the American context and did a bit of research before replying above. You are right @Ferdinand I should not have suggested avoiding stucco: instead I should have focussed on the contractor. Here's flavour of the research I did; An American law firm educating prospective clients One can find many discussions like this (too many others to reference) Here's a video itemising common problems with stucco Maybe the Italian houses in which I stayed were all poorly maintained. And finally I read the Guardian too much. @Russell griffiths, thanks for starting this thread. @Ferdinand, Ms Orr is off my Christmas card list
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  8. You're not the only one ..! We decided to see how many of those Scalextrix transformers you could piggyback together ... mates dad had an old dial multimeter that said 3Kv or something daft on it and we tried to measure the output of three that we had wired together ... none of us were good at maths at the time but it's since been calculated that we had about 85Kv (thankfully at milliamp levels ..!) and we wondered why the meter never seemed to work properly again. And we wired the lot together with speaker wire ..!
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  9. This is one of the reasons why we don't render directly onto timber frame in this country. Render should be onto a carrier board with ventilated cavity behind to protect the structural frame (and any insulation external to the frame). ian
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  10. Do you remain convinced that you really wanted @Nickfromwales close by
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  11. I sealed our ducts up this way: First poke a ball of expanded metal down as a rodent barrier. Next shove a plastic bag round the cables/pipes, deep into the duct, with the open end upwards. Finally, squirt expanding foam deep inside the plastic bag, trim the top flat and add a bit of airtightness tape for good measure. This sealed things up very well, and also had the advantage that it could be undone. I needed to pull the length of 25mm² SWA further into the building, when I decided to relocate the CU upstairs, and found that it was easy enough to pull the foam-filled plastic bag out of the duct, because the foam hadn't been able to adhere to the cable or duct.
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  12. I'm pretty sure that assessors rarely, if ever, look at a build. The prices they charge just don't allow enough for a site visit. They rely wholly on the information that's given to them by the builder/architect/air test company, which does rather beg the question as to whether they are worth the paper they are written on.................. In essence it's a box-ticking exercise for all those builders who are only interested in getting an acceptable chit so they can sell their houses. I think the only people that probably care about being accurate and making sure the SAP results reflect reality are self-builders. The sad fact is that house buyers don't seem to give a damn about EPC certificate ratings, they are more interested in the price, the area and the kitchen and bathroom bling.
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