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I've mentioned before that we've done something a little different. We've gone without underlay altogether and got the carpet fitters to stick a carpet direct to the floor. They use hessian backing for this kind of application. The carpet itself has a TOG rating of 2 so that's it. The effect is that you get a nice warm floor, softer than laminate or tile (and sound deadening) but without a spongey feeling. Suits us fine.

I use an Asus router and a BT infiniband modem (bought 2nd on eBay). We used to get crap WiFi on the upper floors because our ecoJoists seem to degrade the signal through floors, ditto outside. I have since bought 3 more Asus routers cheap on eBay to cover these areas: Asus routers will mesh (that is the main router acts as a master and the others slave off it, and all use the same SSID, etc.) so our mobile devices automatically pick the strongest signal. BT and other providers now offer similar.

This early on in the game you can discuss here and find where this frame is going to leak, and make a plan to mitigate against it at relatively low cost impact. Getting the ACH down to 1.0 or less, will be a very fruitful endeavour, as the closer to 3.0 you get, the worse the effectiveness of the HR element of the MVHR. Get involved, find the weak points of your chosen frame, and get your hands ( and elbows ) dirty!!

Bloody barn conversions….. as a welder, who’s spent a few too many weekends doing column repairs for people doing class Q conversions, my suggestion would be to always assume that you’ll need to dig out and replace the bottom 1000mm of each column. I hate these darn barn conversions, always a compromise.

Don’t stress or worry about it, learn and move on. We all f@#k up at times.

but it's not a passageway if it's part of the conservatory?

Here is our design. in terms of additional countermeasures, shall I go for electrocution or just barbed wire? What about those fake guard dog sound emitters?

Hi @Shaun McD Welcome! Don't forget about airtightness....

Hi @STEVEBAN Welcome. Yes, lots of skilled and experienced people here, oh, and me.

Mesh is the way to go, with LAN backhaul. I've a TP link Deco 5 setup and it's excellent.

You're in Donegal, you'll not need to worry about active cooling. We used ours for a few days in the July heatwave and that was it. You'll not need much in the way of external shading either. Spend your money on better glazing instead, and dont put too much on your southern elevation. PHPP told us we needed all sorts of shading, was coming out at £6k. We winged it and didn't bother, depeened window reveals a bit, extended a couple roof over hangs and seems to have coped well. Fact is, even if you do get really high daytime temps, that close to the Atlantic you'll easily be able to cool the house down in the evening by opening a couple big windows. And on the odd occasion that's not enough, your UF cooling will do the job, and just set it manually to during the day and your PV will run it for free! Makes no sense at all to spend thousands on shading and shutters. In our coolenergy system it's all setup and programmed to go, just a matter of selecting the cooling mode on the control and setting the timer. Don't worry about controlling it with room stats or anything, just have it on from 11am to 6pm and let it do its thing, it won't get too cool as your flow temp will be 12c or so.

Trouble with EPC on older buildings can be rubbish in rubbish out. The assessment is basically what is or isn't seen or assumed. Unless they are corrected by the home owner, the rubbish output remains. But I have to say 95m2 mid floor flat using that much energy needs some work to reduce the heat losses.

Yes, so I'm thinking quite diffuse / wide angle is best. Those ones claim 110 degrees

TSD designed our insulated slab. they designed with Kore products but had no issues with us using a.n.other type of EPS as it's all the same as long it's the same compressive rating EPS! TSD were amazing to work with and are still answering questions i have over 2 years later.

+1 to the above. Some carpet salesmen haven't a clue. I once asked for the TOG value of a carpet sample and the man went away to check and came back with some ridiculous number like 10 or 11 written on a post it note. Think that's more like a duvet. Others told me all their carpet was suitable for UFH - meaning it wouldn't be damaged by it, not that it would let the heat through. Ideally keep the total TOG to below 2,5 and ideally 2.0. Ask to see the makers specification which sometimes states the TOG. Beware: Some carpets are made in two versions. Foam or Hessian backed. Some shops have terms in their small print on the order form that allows them to choose which version they supply. You don't want to order hessian backed based on its low TOG and find that foam backed is delivered. I recommend trying out samples of the underlay and carpet together in bare feet as some very low TOG combinations can feel a bit hard.

sounds like you've got your head screwed on properly then. maybe you can bring it in at £1590/m2 i wish you the best of luck.

Thank you! I learnt this tip from my architect when discussing window options - I've budgeted 70,000 for them but if I went through a UK company to place the order then I'd be paying double that easily.

I install HRC's on 95% of my turnkey M&E installs, so yup. You just need to insulate the hot and the hot return VERY well. Lots on here about how to control them, with my favourite being via PIR / occupancy sensors in each bathroom etc.

I have done some research. Basically underlay has tog of about 3.0, but the special stuff is 0.7, so much more heat comes through. Avoid foam-backed carpet, or wool. Carpetrght have their own name for this special underlay and sell it at £13/m2. it is called Duralay elsewhere and the cheapest I have found is £9/m2. Delivery to the Highlands is stupid extra money as often. (£70 for the last 50 miles from the notional barrier to transport). I think free with Amazon, much as I'd rather not use them.

Because a 4 port buffer (connected to flow and return) acts as a hydraulic break in the system. Without the additional pump the water would just flow from the HP to buffer and back to HP. A volumiser come insulated and without. Grant do some nice insulated volumisers.

Our carpet underlay in the bedrooms is what looks like a perforated standard underlay (although we specified UFH underlay), we also used expensive wool carpet. Both do a really good job of isolating to floor heat from the room, so UFH is pretty rubbish in the bedrooms, good job we like them cool.

Heat-Pump-Guide.pdf Page 35 tells you how to work out system capacity required. Take away engaged volume of water i.e. smallest zone, you are left with required buffer. Best efficiency comes from a volumiser, so add capacity to return side, then there is no mixing of supply and return flow.

I am one of them. I endorse pretty much everything that @jack and @Nickfromwales have said. IMO, having this type of warm slab was up there amongst the best design choices that I made. The only embedded service in-slab is the PexAlPex UFH loops that are designed to be embedded in concrete. Everything else is run through the service and floor voids. We did add four piping / cabling ducts under slab and rising in our equipment area. We used 110mm drainage pipe for this because we needed so much anyway. One hint though if you do use this trick: use a slow bend or 2×45° to turn through the slab as this makes pulling through a lot easier. Another advantage of a single raft pour is that the FFL is flat across the entire ground floor to within a few mm. You don't the between room bumps that can occur if the UFH teams pour a self leveling screed per room.

It's because it would be a suicide mission, as guaranteed the follow on trades will decimate all of their efforts made, to the point up to where they disengaged.

There is your issue - a 7kW unit is going to be flat out I expect to get to 45°C and maintain it for any period of time without significant defrosts. Try turning it down and running for longer - even at 40°C you will still get heat from the rads but will need to operate longer periods of time. are the rads and UFH on separate zone valves ..??

What you propose is done all the time in commercial and high-end resi installs. Typically what is done is rather than having your lighting circuits fed directly from a DB/CU, you will feed the Loxone board from a say 63A supply from your panelboard/DB/CU and that becomes the lighting supply, for example, then you have 6/10A breakers/RCBO's to protect the various circuits within the controls board. If your controls also has other mains circuits, say, boiler or pumps/fans, you just size the supply to the Loxone board suitability, usually a MCB supplying a SWA cable, then de-rate and protect all the outgoing circuits with suitable protection devices. I have just finished a Hilton hotel reception area design where I have just created a 63A SP supply from the main switch board, which feeds Mode lighting racks, within the Mode racks we use RCBO's. Don't worry about the BS7671 CU heights, if you have a board that is 1200mm tall then it stands to reason you cannot have all switchgear at the p[prescribed height. If this was an issue then every single large board would be non-compliant. I know BS7671 says the breakers should be within 1350-1450 but that just isn't happening 85% of the time. If you have a board, at a realistic height, fully accessible, 1000mm step back, then your laughing.

Thanks for these figures, looks like I was quoted a pretty extortionate rate. Looking at the work which goes into laying the pipe, it seems like something I could potentially do myself if I can't get a sharp quote. It's a three storey house, the bottom floor being a semi submerged basement. I'm currently staying in a well insulated (but nothing special) apartment and I haven't had the heating on once in the past month and it still stays around 20c, so I'm thinking that in a well insulated property you only need occasional boosts to keep it heated. That's the thing, I've seen quite a few places using them in other countries but they're a rarity here. So it does seem viable in other places. The company I'm looking at produce IR panels that are mirrored for use in a bathroom as well as towel racks. May get one of them even if I opt for the full UFH system.

Just to reinforce what others are saying, I have 421m² of UFH for which I paid £5,500 for in 2017 including help for 1st fix install. I paid a premium at the time as it was added on to my insulated raft package and came from ThermoTech in Sweden who aren't the cheapest. It included system design, a group manifold and mixer + 2 further distribution manifolds, 1800m of Ø17 pipe and x20 electronic proportional actuators That makes just over £13/m², although didn't include commissioning or controls. As for Infrared v. ASHP. ASHP, no question. 300% more efficiency, DHW included and cooling if you want it.

If I was given them for free, let alone cost, I'd still put them on eBay and use the money to off-set the cost of installing full wet UFH. The running costs, proportional to the dwelling type accepted, will still be THE most expensive option out there. It'll be on a par with LPG!! Yes, they're 100% efficient or thereabouts, but they still need to be fed direct mains electricity on demand and have zero ability to store / offer sustain. Furniture plan will be constrained by the location of these, so "moving rooms about" goes out the window ( as these will need dedicated circuits / outlets ) and they will be adversely unsympathetic in terms of comfort as they heat what they 'hit'. Charging a constructional slab ( insulated "passive" raft ) via an ASHP from cheap rate electricity in a low energy dwelling can see your cost per kWh of heat being down as low as 5p, but the least you;ll see with direct will be the cheapest rate(s) I know of atm, which range from 22p to 35p. It's proportional as I say, but running costs / future buyers fears are the big concerns. 👎

The installation of a cesspit will require Planning Permission, and therefore Building Control regulation. @crooksey is being diplomatic : any cesspit is highly unlikely to get PP.

The local council and the EA actively try and discourage cespool installs, they are terrible for the environment with all the emptying they need. They will be much more receptive than you think, I don't mean to be rude but you are going about this all wrong. Usually before/when you apply for planning, you include detailed proposed foul drainage plans. I don't see how you plan to get planning without having this done first and frankly your planning agent needs talking to as they will know this. Get proper percolation testing done Get a drainage engineer to design your system Submit a detailed drainage proposal with your planning application. As part of the application process, the local council will review your drainage proposal and basically say yes or no. If they say yes and it has been designed by a reputable drainage engineer, then building control will have no issue with it. Then you can take the building control and planning approval to the EA for the final confirmation. This is how it usually works with new build/one off homes, all be it the EA is rarely involved but they will want the planning approved with a drainage design approved by the council drainage officer.

Or... Small area like that, just bond another staggered layer of PB on top. Increase the fire rating, decrease the sound etc.

Something like this will do tbh; https://www.google.com/search?q=gypsum+adhesive&sa=X&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB860GB860&biw=1536&bih=754&tbm=shop&ei=r933Y46xFI7VgQa0tYmoBQ&ved=0ahUKEwjOxJKTzqz9AhWOasAKHbRaAlUQ4dUDCAg&uact=5&oq=gypsum+adhesive&gs_lcp=Cgtwcm9kdWN0cy1jYxADMgcIABCABBAYMgkIABAeEPEEEBgyCAgAEAUQHhAYMgsIABAIEB4Q8QQQGDILCAAQCBAeEPEEEBgyCwgAEAgQHhDxBBAYMgsIABAIEB4Q8QQQGDILCAAQCBAeEPEEEBgyCwgAEAgQHhDxBBAYMggIABAIEB4QGDoKCAAQgAQQsAMQGDoJCAAQCBAeELADOgkIABAeELADEBg6DggAEAgQHhDxBBCwAxAYOgsIABAIEB4QsAMQGDoJCAAQDRCABBAYOgYIABAHEB46DQgAEAgQHhANEPEEEBg6CggAEAgQHhANEBg6CggAELEDEIMBEEM6CwgAEIAEELEDEIMBOgUIABCABDoLCAAQHhANEPEEEBg6CggAEAUQHhANEBhKBAhBGAFQiRtY7DVgtUFoAXAAeACAAY8BiAHTCZIBBDAuMTGYAQCgAQHIAQrAAQE&sclient=products-cc#spd=9699038899737614391

Ah, schoolboy error. You have 600mm centres so should have one stud in the centre and one each end of each board ( hence 1200mm boards ). You can get some Knauf board adhesive in tube form, loosen the board off, and bond them onto the PIR and to each other. Use a scraper and a sponge to clean up excess, and don't go mad with the adhesive.

Is this a new build? You can go wider. It's very cheap to do now. Also bin the cavity insulation boards and use full fill mineral wool batts or EPS beads. None ideally. Separate concrete lintels for each leaf. Excellent case study here from green building store. https://youtu.be/gqxEUpBRNic

We appear to have slightly hijacked Sarah's post

Except that this is not my experience with them. As i said earlier. They have offered a phase 2 subsequent to the frame erection ( phase 1). Within this phase 2 quote they have specified Redland rosemary clay tiles and were not keen on me looking for an alternative. Now, it is true that i can find my own contractor to take the project to weathertight. This would give me all the freedom i want to choose. But, i like the idea of Potton doing both phase 1 and 2. Just wish they were a little more flexible. Its a call i need to make soon as to which way i go

@Temp that's been a really interesting lead to follow. I've gotten on to National Highways, who don't own it. They put me through to Kent County Council Highways, who have those gullies on their asset register - which explains why Southern Water didn't have them on record. They're going to get back to me to clarify whether it's basically a ditch, or part of some more complex system with proper pipes and stuff. If it's a ditch, that could be a massive win.

Yup this was my thought too - position them at equal spacings washing the walls, or put very narrow beam angle directly over the door entrances themselves. We have a similar landing bulkhead over part of the hallway, it's what you see as you enter the hall from main entrance door, and it works well. Uunderstand with wood panelling it might not wash quite so well as a white wall, perhaps increasing the LUX or number a bit will offset that. Either way IMO it's the view from the main entrance you want to optimize for, and you'll never read the difference between your blue and orange lines from that prime viewing angle - it'll only be evident when walking along the length of the corridor. And putting them clearly off centre avoids either possibility of being 'wrong' 🙂 Some scrappy photos from mid-build to illustrate 🙂 View from main entrance door: View walking along corridor

Morning. I'm very far from expert. Hard bitten maybe, but not expert. @markc's point above is the key issue. A splash strip can be made to look really nice, is open to the air and extremely cheap. A tile strip risks trapping water behind it, and if it does so, guaranteeing damp problems in years to come. And I bet you one month's salary that the bits of mortar that fell off the external wall (during construction) bridge the gap between the outer and inner walls . Your builder appears to me to be less than careful about attention to detail. All the published official guidance says that a splash strip must be provided. I'm using my mobile phone to write this. If I was on my PC, I would link to that advice for you and I may be able to do that later on today when I fixed my PC. Have a good look at the range of aggregates that are available for use in a splash strip. I bet you can find some that you would like the look of. They are all much cheaper than tiles.

Noooooo! Tile skirting would bridge the DPC And hold any water running down the brickwork.

I've seen lighting designs where a row of spots is positioned closer to the side wall and washes light down the wall. Can be quite effective.

That's a good compliant to have.

Not modular ones like these, otherwise the 'outlet' of one section would be below the 'inlet' of the next... (Notwithstanding that though, a fall is not all that important as others have already mentioned)

Solar farm?

The thing to consider also, a well insulated house on weather comp, a 7 to 10 degree day your flow temp are likely to be circa 25 degrees. Your floor temp is likely to be only one or so degrees higher than target room temp. Once rooms are above floor temp the UFH heating is no longer giving heat to the room. The closer the room temp gets to floor temp the lower the floor output. Floor heating is nothing like radiators and takes a bit of a mind set change. So although it sounds odd the floor looks after its self and will start to a small degree moving heat to areas on the north side of the building if you leave the water circulation on.

That's for a basement though I don't like installing a skinny heated layer over a decent constructional slab as it simply turns on and off ( as a heat emitter ). Not desirable AFAIC vs the huge thermal time constant(?) you achieve from heating an entire slab. That allows you to strategically 'inject' pockets of low cost energy into the floor as a battery / heat bank and for that to slowly release heat into the home with near zero difference in temp shift ( hysteresis ). Simply night and day better IMHO. Heating a constructional slab / passive aka insulated raft is absolutely the better option, and installing a 300mm wall a-la MBC and fully pumping with cellulose is just an absolute and inarguable no-brainer ( budget allowing ). If you are time-constrained ( or impatient ) then removing all the extra labour / cost / detailing / airtight measures of a multi-discipline wall system will pay massive dividends in 'getting a wiggle on', as one MBC PH TF I was on took 31 days from a hole in the ground > passive raft > frame up and complete ( YES, 31 DAYS ) including a couple of weeks on stop for the slab to cure before the frame went on. When the stars align, I will build my own out of MBC PH TF, and develop with that or Nudura. Just waiting for a ship to come in, and then it's off developing I go . Anyone who wants quick, stress free and to have a huge amount of liability / responsibility removed should look long and hard at MBC's offering with a minimum guaranteed airtightness score of 0.6ACH to boot! Folk, some are / were on here, have had issues with MBC and them farming stuff out to sub-contractors, I'm on one that suffered this atm, but thankfully Joe took direct action and this has now been resolved. No company can say they've been 100% issue-free 100% of the time, I don't care who they are, ( or if they do then they've just been very good / clever in covering it up the trail of breadcrumbs ). DIY'ers won't want to pay the premium for a turnkey package, some will actively desire acquiring their self-build wings, so, as with anything, it's horses for courses. The choice of company and service will be down to the clients own remit.

Welcome Shaun. I don't think that's right. Lots of people on BuildHub (myself included) have an insulated raft, and I believe that the only thing that's run through it (horizontally) is UFH loops. You definitely don't run plumbing or electrics through it. The other approach you've been told about is effectively the old-fashioned screed on a slab approach, but with only minimal insulation between screed and slab. I can't see any advantage to this. You don't put UFH loops near walls, so with even a moderate amount of care, you shouldn't hit them with anything. In a well-insulated house, you don't need a fast reaction time from underfloor heating. When it's cold, you want to use the slab as a heat reservoir. If you use a low-and-slow source like and ASHP, then you don't want/need fast reaction. If you use a higher temperature source like a gas boiler, a slower response will help smooth out peaks and troughs. Personally, I think you're adding considerably cost and complexity by having a further layer of insulation and a separate screed, without really gaining much benefit.

What's the minimum bend radius?

Thought you lot would love this as a bit of historic trivia Popped home over the weekend to help my dad with a bit of building work. Found out he's been having a few issues with getting an EPC certificate My grandfather John Lowe was a chemical engineer at Lankro Chem Ltd who had a number of patents including foamed phenolic resin (expanding foam) (https://patents.google.com/patent/GB1604657A/en) . Back in 1978, with the help of the his company he created a number of insulated foam sheets, every sheet was handmade in his lab. My father who when converting the old stables he lives in now to a house installed under them under a screed floor in what was apparently the first recorded instance of insulating under concrete slab in the UK. The EPC surveryor is currently having histerics and doesn't know what to do as it predates all records of this technology being used. Dug up some old photos of it being installed and can't use it as they aren't time stamped and then go lost again after explaining that cameras back then didn't do time stamps.