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The goal of this thread is to try and share topics for people to consider both in terms of their SIPS company and the SIPS system. I have tried to keep emotions out and try to structure the information so that it reads OK. However I'm sure some parts may appear random. Your mileage may vary and not all SIPS companies, and SIPS systems are the same. Likewise some of these situations could equally apply to non SIPS builds and just be good practice, however I would encourage the following: For many self builders, this will be their first time building a home (myself included) and therefore having the right things to look out for can be pretty useful. For context, my build was less modest than @G and J at over 300m2. 1) Understand how their contract is structured (and why). This is not the SIPS companies' first rodeo. Your SIPS company may want to sign you up for ‘Design’, ’Fabrication’ and ‘Install’. As a self builder, this can sound appealing as it means all this complexity is dealt with by one company and a single point for you the self builder to deal with. They may even offer to use their own appointed Structural Engineers as well. In this model, there are 2 key risks to watch out for. Firstly, their goal is not necessarily to design the physical house as you want, their goal is to design a structure that meets regulations, to the lowest cost/highest margin possible to them. So when discussions arise over compromises in the design, what you may find is that this package deal is compromised so you are the one making compromises. The 2nd and related risk is, they will load the contract with substantial fiscal penalties for withdrawal - such that your leverage to walk away from a design you many not be 100% happy with is left at almost zero. Same goes for using their Structural Engineers, as in this model, they are working for the SIPS company, not you. So their interest is in keeping their client happy - which is the SIPS company. So what can you do to avoid this? Break the contract down into smaller chunks that allow you to exit if your needs are not met. This will be a common theme in this feedback, but you need to be prepared that this will take time to negotiate and you need to be prepared that they may refuse and therefore prolong your search for a SIPS company. Same goes for the SE, find your own structural engineers who work for You - the paying customer. Granted, exiting at this point will still have a cost, but it is far far smaller than the potential penalties over the whole package value. 2) Design compromises, Steel and Timber vs SIPS public image In my experience, the value proposition of SIPS for large open spans and vaulted ceilings - especially on our 2nd floor did not reflect reality. What we ended up with was effectively a steel structure holding up SIPS panels. This was with even modest room widths (4.5m) and a 35degree pitch roof. (I will come back to steel later in the install topics). This room has both a Steel ridge and 2xSteel rafters, and its overall floor area is 20m2, so not particularly big. These steel components - more so the rafters, represent lovely cold bridges down through your SIPS envelope. In addition to this, what you may see in the pictures relating to joining your SIPS panels is the SIPS splines. In reality, what you may see is the splines replaced with timber. Again, some of this will be by engineering need, however in my case I have more timber than splines. Especially on my roof. This giving me in many places an effective width of 4 joists between SIPS panels (timber spline:rafter:rafter:timber spline). So again, rather than a complete SIPS envelop, you are left with more lovely cold bridges which will need more insulation (internal layer of PIR) to compensate, even with the thickest of SIPS panels - thus defeating a huge point of why you may have selected SIPS in the first place. How to avoid this? Again this goes back to contracts and breaking out at least the design phase as a single entity. That way you have a chance to force more of these topics and leverage to walk away. Ask for examples of final fabrication designs that are similar to yours (in terms of scale/size) BEFORE signing up. The final fabrication is important, as this is where the rubber hits the road and you can see how they intent to fabricate the kit. 3) Installation What you may find is your SIPS installers have no affiliation with your SIPS company and there may be several layers of subcontractors used, potentially ones that have never installed SIPS or worked for your SIPS Company before. In my experience, my SIPS company were an abject failure in managing the install team. Those failures were not limited to: No formal project planning of the install, around when installers would (or would not be) on site, what sequence of install events needed to happen in what order, how installers were paid, how long the install would take and large gaps between reviewing install accuracy and completeness. The net effect of this is that it is YOU that is left to manage the install team, and subsequent impacts and fall outs from install issues. 4) Scaffolding (and other ancillary dependencies like plant) Your SIPS Install team will need scaffolding to complete the install. Demand a scaffolding plan from the SIPS company a minimum of 6 weeks before install is due to start. That plan at minimum should cover the number of lifts, any initial gaps for access, at what stage in the build additional lifts may be needed. Going back to point 3) my experience was that the first time the install team looked at my design and any complexity was 1 week prior to arrival, where a long list of pre-requisite expectations were then given - over and above the pre-flight install checks I had already completed with the SIPS company. This is because in my experience, the SIPS company basically scoured the UK to find "anyone" who might be available to install a SIPS kit (more on this coming). The net effect of this is delays to your program - I had to get scaffolding basically at a weeks notice which then puts the pressure back on you and compromises how thorough you can be in securing those services. Furthermore, once install commences, demand ongoing updated scaffolding plans to reflect any changes they might need in advance (with a minimum 1 weeks notice). In my experience, my installers planned only from one day to the next. Meaning they could ask for scaffolding changes almost every other day. This requires you to then get your scaffolding company on a hotline - and costs a ton of money. As I'm sure applies to many of us, our designs are not square boxes, again, part of the value prop for SIPS was for creating interesting shapes, roof overhangs etc, all of which make scaffolding more complex than a square box new build from a major house builder. So there is an understanding that modifications in the scaffolding will be needed. However these cannot be managed on a day to day basis. 5) Timelines - Plant machinery Demand from the SIPS company a contractual timeline for the install. This needs to be done at the beginning of the engagement with your SIPS company. They wont like this, because it forces them to think and try and evaluate risk early on in their work and have methods to hold their subcontracting installers to account, which they are not used to doing. The numbers they generally provide are based on an average build and where everything has run smoothly. DO NOT assume this will be the case. It was not for me, and I know not for others as well. Any notion of a 4 week build for the kit is not realistic. Something large and complex may be something like 16 weeks of install time. This timing and planning directly relates to plant and machine hire (although I acknowledge there are other knock on impacts for when follow on trades can start and your overall build plan). DO NOT assume the responsibility for plant hire (cranes and telehandlers), push this back onto the SIPS company. Why? because when it's on you, you will be amazed how little bother is given to how efficiently this plant is used, whether it's busy or idle. Likewise when someone else is paying, the need to be specific in what is required is replaced by asks for the biggest (and therefore most expensive) equipment that takes any challenge off the install team. And of course, if the install takes longer, its you picking up the tab. Part of this experience is based on hearing about installers who more frequently work on building sites, where multiple houses are being erected, at different stages. Meaning they can hop between installs as they wait for something, or some dependency to be cleared. So on those builds, the equipment always looks busy as it's serving multiple builds and a) they don't give it a second thought to the use of the plant and b) they always expect it to be there waiting on them on tap. This is obviously not the case on a single self build (i.e. most of us). 6) Installer competencies Following on from my earlier comments around the volume of steel in my build. My installers had limited experience of installing steel at this complexity or volume (~70 individual steel pieces). I would have been bettered served with a dedicated steel install team. Why? My install team could not set out where steels would be placed, and therefore worked on a model, where a steel was placed, then SIPS walls added, until they needed the next steel in place. This stepwise fashion of steel, sips, sips, sips ... N+1 then steel meant the hired crane sat idle for most of the day(s) rather than placing as many steels into place as possible. Even simple concepts like pre-erecting joined steels on the ground prior to lifting was unknown to the install team, thus meaning each steel was lifted one at a time. Furthermore, this stepwise method prevented the steels from being bolted and levelled until after all panels were installed. This leads to panels covering over the steel pads and holes for bolting, which then leads to large sections of SIPS panels needing to be removed at a later date to access these bolt holes! What is most galling over this scenario (beyond the wasted crane time), is the tolerances that the SIPS company demand for your slab (+/- 10mm over 10m), yet they could not accurately place steels without this step wise build method. 7) Marking their own homework You may find there is no "formal" or "accredited" sign off for your installation. That process is an internal one where your SIPS company effectively self certifies their install is in line with the approved design (you can already probably guess where this heads). As the client - you need to find other ways (either yourself or through other professionals) to mark their homework. In my scenario (I ultimately feel lucky) I caught structural defects in the installation method BEFORE it was too late. This is especially challenging when some build parts do go quickly and large swathes of a building go up before you might get a chance to check. Those defects resulted (painfully) in a 2 month wait for the SIPS company to acknowledge (and no progress on site), and then further install delays as they removed panels and re-installed correctly. Roofing and Wall membranes can hide a multitude of sins. Don't wrap the building until you are happy. 8 ) Foam or no foam In my re-search prior to finding a SIPS company, I had never come across the idea of a dry fit SIPS kit. This is where NO foam is used during panel install, and only used sparingly at the end of the build. I came across DRY fit once my install started as that's what the SIPS company stated was their approach. This contradicts their public documents, every other kit I looked at, and also, any notion of having a (reasonably) airtight fabric. As i was doing some adjustments at the weekend to move a location for velux, here is a great example of what happens with a timber spline into a SIPS panel without foam. No whilst I know more of my kit is foamed than it may have been (as i caught it early), I know for a fact it is not consistently foamed with any quality. What can you do to avoid this? Get it in writing that the kit will be foamed on every join DURING install, and watch them like a hawk. This is probably a good place to end for the moment, needless to say, I am not a SIPS fan (for all of the above). It has brought needless delay, complexity and above all significant cost - you could realistically buy a decent home for the amount of money it has cost for this kit and its install, without any of the upsides of speed or thermal performance. I'm fully aware my experience is a sample size of 1 (with some other bits of feedback I've gathered directly) - however it is real world experience.

3D printed tools are very real and practical now. Clutch alignment tool: Subframe alignment pins: Helical milling jig: https://flic.kr/p/2onf1Lz

Designing my new build detached garage in SketchUp was easy. Finding someone to convert my fantasy garage into something that Building Control would be happy with was more difficult. I wanted the detached garage to be well insulated, and I may well have got a bit carried away. I wanted to use Geocell Foamglass for the foundation topped off with a concrete slab. I then wanted single skin blockwork clad with external insulation that married up with the Foamglass so that the slab and block work where inside the thermal envelope. I also wanted a warm flat roof. On top of this the garage was to be trapezoidal in plan to make the most of our odd shaped plot and big enough at the front to take a 5m garage door and finally I wanted a thermal break at the door between the slab and the outside world I contacted a local Structural Engineer who came round for a site visit. There more I spoke the more bewildered he looked. He'd never heard of Foamglass, not necessarily an issue but he didn't seem even vaguely interested in finding out more about it and its utilisation. I rapidly came to the conclusion that I couldn't work with him so I pondered my next move and decided to get in touch with a (well known on here) Structural Engineer/Architectural Designer who happens to live at the other end of the country. I wondered if he'd be able to help me out or steer me in the right direction. It turned out that he could. More than that, he took on board all the odd things I wanted to do and worked with me brilliantly. He's an absolute mine of information and had lots of great input with which to finesse my design and he clearly knew what he was talking about which is so reassuring. A site visit wasn't necessary, I provided a site survey and soil survey from the house build and then photos and Google Earth filled in any blanks. I probably drove him nuts, every drawing he sent I added to my SketchUp design because I really wanted (needed) to understand how it was going to go together and didn't want the standard "the builder will know what to do". There was a great deal of detail in the drawings: The upshot of this long story is that working with a Structural Engineer/House Designer who I'd never met and who never visited the site was a great experience and I'm glad I looked further afield than the local offerings and would recommend the same approach to anyone else looking for an SE/Architectural Designer. You’ll find him here:@Gus Potter and if you’re looking for a Structural Engineer/Architectural Designer I would heartily recommend you get in touch 👍🏻

Hi Jilly, I welcome all moral support thank you 🤗 I have help on the PM side- a willing friend who helped us source this plot actually. It is ambitious and it's my desire to go down the pre fab route as much as possible. I am considering using the same architect- this is also cost dependent, however if I go down a pre fab route, I'm finding most contractors build the drawings into their costs. There are detail drawings available but they are based on rc frame concrete pour, icf has a different detail altogether...I think 🙃 We live off site and that won't change for now but I plan to be on site everyday regardless.

Fantastic 😍

In the GDPO regulations the legislation itself says: (2) Unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Order to the height of a building or of plant or machinery is to be construed as a reference to its height when measured from ground level; and for the purposes of this paragraph “ground level” means the level of the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the building or plant or machinery in question or, where the level of the surface of the ground on which it is situated or is to be situated is not uniform, the level of the highest part of the surface of the ground adjacent to it.

Mira Flight aren't 90mm otherwise I would have swapped to McAlpine

I'm glad I've spotted the issue now. I'm getting ready to tank it all (Aquaseal) so whilst the delay isn't welcomed, hopefully I won't have to muddle a fix later

Having a joint in the cable is no weaker than any other connection in your electrics of which there are many. It's not perfect but perfectly acceptable

For my shower handset connection I used the Alfie fixing which I saw on a Skillbuilder promotional video with Robin Clevett. There is an option for Hep20 compatible connection.

This sort or widget Tap Extension - 1/2" M x 1/2" F - 10222 Can be got in various lengths

The thermostat input is I think a 240V switched contact. My older one really is simple, heat demand or not demand that is it. It does in theory have weather compensation. I tried that once with the result it switched to cooling mode. Clearly I had something wrong but couldn't figure out what so I abandoned that idea and have not tried again. What mine does and how seems a long way from what and how the newer ones operate.

Good you've looked.

Is this space heating or hot water?

Let's be honest the bloke was lucky to get out. Probably said he'd forgotten the fan when he was shown into the red room.

Put it in timber floor voids and stud wall voids as sound absorbing mass

I have never heard of a theoretical air test result, how can that be accurate and acceptable?

First time for everything

I’m impressed

And generate hydrogen sulphide - which is toxic, corrosive & flammable.

If you guys need any help or advice then I throughly recommend not asking me .

Ah, this is one of the organisations hoping to make a bunch of money from this reg. I see the numberer £150m mentioned... https://environmentbank.com/ Environment Bank’s Culver says the firm typically has, at any one time, live enquiries, which indicate interest in more than £150 million worth of offset sites. But, she says, there has been a mismatch between this “extremely healthy pipeline and the challenge of actually transacting”, with only “several” sales so far completed. That is, they're off to a slower start than they wanted in extracting money from the system.

I’m still laughing at all this 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 None of you will ever know the real air rating ! But then nor will I ! So ! - I’m going to tell you what it is … 0.7 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 That’s what I’m going to claim ! . Beat you easily @Thorfun !!

Quick update - I emailed my local MP (who was sadly no use) and the local councillor. The councillor was more helpful and volunteered to be CC'd on all further communications, and shortly afterwards we got some 'progress' (telling us about issues that they could have told us about months ago).

I just checked back in my receipts. In 2018 I did a shower with two sheets of Versital, 2250x900 and 2250x1200. It was £1600 incl VAT. That was just supply of the sheets. The plumber had to fit it including drilling the holes for the shower. It's very easy to install though, provided the walls are flat and square. It's the same kind of material as kitchen counter tops, so if I was doing it again, I might see if one of those could supply it. Might be cheaper from them? So it is expensive, but we were happy with our choice. We didn't like the feel or look of the laminate panels.

That is vastly different to a "normal" PV diverter. Your example appears to be turning on the immersion with a relay and leaving it on for a time and re evaluating. A "normal" PV diverter measures PV generation and house consumption (in my case every half second) and adjusts the power being sent to the immersion by burst firing the immersion using a solid state relay. I guess in your case you are using the immersion as a "excess power dump load" so it only needs to be a coarse on or off, with the battery controller soaking up the rest and doing the detailed work.

when you expose the rafters i would look carefully that they are not rotted at the 4 corners of the roof where the barge boards affix i had to cut them out and graft in bits when i was replacing my plywood soffits . iwas lucky in some ways as the actual soffits were T+g boards ,so icould nail everything to the plywood and old soffit boards very common when only single battons are used as they collect crap behind them and make sonewhere for water to sit single battons to me should never be used as there is no direct path vor water to exit ,just makes dams especially as htis is anold roof using roofing felt ,it gets hard and can disintergrate where its not supported

The soil stack can terminate at a ridge vent. Yes it’s a penetration of the airtight layer somewhere but at least it’s not unsightly.

I previously built a big side extension onto a pebbledashed 1930's house. The pebbledashed side wall became an internal wall in the extension and the plasterer just plastered over it first with bonding then a finish coat. It all worked fine.

That is the controller I have. I very early on worked out you had to get into the mindset of whoever programmed it and there are many things I don't understand about it. I regard it as somewhere to set up the parameters and somewhere to check on it's status. I don't use it for control. Instead mine is set up to use a "room thermostat" to control the heating. That is a jumper option on the control board. Then I have a conventional boiler time clock and room thermostats for the UFH that between them generate the "room thermostat" signal for the heat pump. I chose this method because everybody understands a boiler time clock. It gives you the normal timed options, 1 hour or 2 hour boost, program advance etc.

It depends on your budget and how much use they'll get. The main advantage for me was the lack of joints. Reco surfaces have an option to print your photo which gives pretty limitless options and it's not expensive. Here is a thread you may find useful:

Ooh, now them I like... Love the idea that they'll do bespoke sizes too.

As a tiling business I’m asked to use Panels on occasion Usually commercial and student accommodation They are cheaper and quicker to instal than tiles But not as durable and look commercial The ones we instal tend to be replaced after five years But get far more use than a private bathroom

The mortar collar in your second picture was a very common method. Looking closer at your first picture it appears there's some small bits of stone / aggregate left and the rest has broken away? If you don't want to remove / re-do, then if that's just mortar at the bottom I'd vacuum /scrub/clean it as best as and re-mortar any gaps after wetting with SBR. Then I'd paint with this, maybe even form a little brim at the bottom with tightly wrapped dpc and pour in so it self levels which is one of it's properties. More flexible than a mortar collar I'd reckon. https://www.wickes.co.uk/Gorilla-Black-Waterproof-Coat+Seal---473ml/p/263581

I've used stone filled resin panels like this one from Versital. IMHO it has a superior quality feel to it compared to laminate products like Multipanel. Probably more expensive though.

I wouldn't touch them myself, but that's a personal reaction to the grotty 20- or 30-year-old panels we used to rip out back in the 90s. The technology is now much better and they are generally well regarded.

If you mean products like Multipanel, I and many others have used them and entirely happy with them.

Your house spec is near identical to ours. 9kW heatpump and it works perfectly. You want a bit of headroom as the as-built performance will never be the same as the model. In theory our max heat load is just 5.5kW. BUT, we run our heatpump on economy 7 about 90% of the time and the entire house is only two zones, and it works well. It only needs to run 20hr/day when it's really cold, so about 2 weeks a year. Fyi we have 5m x 2.7m 3G bi-folds from feneco. No excuse for DG sliders.

@Amateur bob, could you please post your questions in the relevant sub-forum rather than the Introduce Yourself section? Saves me having to move them, plus you get to choose the sub-forum rather than getting stuck with whatever I think is the most appropriate. I've moved this one - let me know if you want it moved somewhere else. Thanks.

Quite happy to print you one and post it to try. How long would you like it? How do you want to turn it, via a ratchet or bigger spanner / adjustable etc? Any restriction on the overall "socket" diameter? A thicker wall makes it stronger. For example: https://www.printables.com/model/529829-17-mm-steckschlussel-mit-antrieb-fur-eine-14-ratsc https://makerworld.com/en/models/45841#profileId-47643

Does this help?

Good morning any welcome, loads of info, tips and tricks on here in past threads, but if you can’t find the answer - ask away.

Joe has 10p and Fred has 20p. So Fred is twice as rich as Joe. But if you give them both £5, Joe has £5.10 and Fred has £5.20 which is almost the same.

Just use 25mm EPS and be done with it.

One was the dead spit of you funnily enough...

Didn't he realise you do only fans?

What, I hope your not paying for that, you need a number!!!!