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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/21/17 in all areas

  1. A bit slow to update the blog, been busy making frames up to the first floor, Caberdek laid to make it all a bit easier to work off, second hand Kwikstage up and 2 x 6m glulams for the ridge. Rafters and counter battens on top for the 35mm Isoroof. Membrane on top. The weather has been great until today. Some photos enclosed.
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  2. Same here. I did look at other passive slab companies, but overall I felt the risk was too great by using separate companies.
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  3. I worked for a while at an office and lab at the top of Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth. The water pressure up there was too low to use for fire fighting, or the main was too small, I'm not sure which, but the solution was to build large ornamental ponds at the front of the building that doubled up as a source of water for fire fighting. Something similar was done at another place I worked at for a time, Abbey Wood, near Bristol. There the large ponds also acted as storm water run off storage, as well as providing water for fire fighting. I think it's a fairly common commercial solution to this problem, so it should work OK for a domestic situation. 10,000 litres isn't massive for a pond, and could be pretty easily created with a digger and pond liner.
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  4. Swimming pool? Obviously swim in it then use the water in an emergency.
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  5. I will miss this thread when the job is done. On the positive side - its going to be a while yet so plenty of amusement to come........
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  6. Frame the tiled wall first with your trim of choice. Then tile the back of the pocket, and don't let that set hard before you tile the bottom of it. You have to be able to slide the rear tiles left / right a little to match the grout line running through, so these need to be done in the same set and then left to go off. Cut outs for accent lighting already done and cable in ? Left and right hand cuts go in next. These pics show the trim detail a bit better. I glue these on with mitre bond and activator spray. Don't use to much glue, and keep it away from the face edge or it oozes out of the gap. Less is more. %
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  7. Ok, so I went with 16mm pex-al-pex on the assurance of the installer that it could handle the crushing risk of my mesh-pipe-mesh configuration. It was laid yesterday and pressurised with water to 4bar mid morning in the midrange of a hot day that got progressively hotter until approx 3pm. At one point I told the installer the first manifold was reading zero pressure, but when he checked we realised the needle had gone off the scale beyond 6 bar and around to hit the underside of the zero stop-bar on the gauge (It's a serious sun trap of a site) ! The other manifold had also climbed to over 6bar. This morning following a wet and much cooler night both manifolds were reading below 2bar and have (along with the weather) remained there through to this evening. Tomorrow is pour day. I want to add some pressure back but the ufh contractor is reluctant even though tomorrows forecast is cool. So far as the mesh sandwich is concerned i've a feeling it's almost a good thing - the greatest vulnerability so far has been where a foot can land on pipe that spans a 200mm square void in mesh as per photo here. The top mesh significantly reduces these instances and does also seem to distribute the weight of foot traffic fairly effectively. That said we are treading as carefully as viable. At this stage i'd say pex-al-pex is probably ok tied to mesh that sits directly on insulation but (to my surprise) I'm so glad I didn't ditch the anti crack and leave it tied to suspended mesh...if this were anyones scenario i'd say ensure every inch of the pipe follows directly along the line of mesh bar (including the loop turns....so impossible I think). So it's a tense day tomorrow but if we get through it the fun really starts; The pic showing the wall of osb....thats single sided shuttering along there which will require around 24 push-pulls to support it in that walls pour which will exert around 20 tons of pressure. All the push pulls will have a minimum of two thunderbolts 150mm into the slab. So we're drilling circa 50 holes betwixt the pipe maze!!
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