thefoxesmaltings

Done that. Should the actuator pin move loosely and freely if there is no heating demand at the moment? It does move, up and down if I press it, but takes a fair bit of pressing, and almost if like there is pressure behind it.

So I've narrowed the noise coming specifically from one of the actuators. But the actuator seems to still be opening and closing correctly, so doesn't suggest a stuck pin? It's a bit bothersome to be honest - quite loud!

Got this clicking sound from one of the underfloor heating manifolds. It doesn't sound like it's coming from the pump, but the manifold itself. To be honest it's quite hard to pinpoint where it's coming from exactly. It starts when the manifold first fires up each time, with the clicking happening very frequently, but over the course of a couple of minutes gradually slows down, and finally stops. Any ideas? WhatsApp Video 2024-10-22 at 09.49.57_2909c610.mp4

You are right. It doesn't need to be the same temperature as the house, and is a unheated space. It's still got the same 220mm insulation in the walls though (minus the garage door itself), so even if cold outside, it does tend to stay fairly warm. It hasn't dropped below 17c this year since the start of Autumn, but I expect will, once we get into the deep of winter. Potentially - it's a fire door which the garage/gym can directly be accessed from the house. Maybe it's as simple as a rubber gasket being places all around? Something to explore... Sadly we weren't told by anyone, or those above trades. C'est la vie. Arguably, it's my fault as project manager for not knowing better or doing my research on that. I suppose we lucked out in that sense of achieving a 2.2 rating, having not done a prior test.

No negativity taken at all. To be honest what mostly let's us down is the gym/garage door - It is insulated, and has a "seal" at the bottom, but is by no means a 'passivhaus' rated or designed door. Partly due to the fact that we couldn't find any roller doors which met this standard. And we couldn't have a sectional door overhead, as the MVHR ductwork was in the way. There was also no loft hatch in place at the time of the air test. Albeit the internal loft is sealed, the air tester said it would make a difference, but I don't know if that is true. Being first-timers, we didn't know that typically you can do an air test before everything is boarded/sealed up, to find and remediate leaks, and then do the final one at the end to get the as-is value. Lessons learned for next time, I suppose.

Thanks. Appreciate it. Pergola is Glulam - we have to treat it every year, which is slightly annoying. The cost for this in oak was astronomical, and just completely not viable. Corten fabrication was done by Cambridge Corten.

Yes, Turners also provided us with an insulated roof - 150mm, in both the pitched and flat roof sections. They also provided us with the loft roll insulation (which we installed ourselves) in the raised tie truss areas. Double glazing U values vary, as the thickness of the frame contributes slightly - around 1.1 W/m²k.

No probs. - 400sqm house and a 14kW Daikin Altherma 3ph ASHP.

The TF company (Turner Timber) had an additional insulation package, which they affixed onsite. probably not shown on the program - 100mm to the internal face of the walls. 120mm which was already in the frame. Yeah triple glazing was out of the question for us, mostly due to budget and the sheer size of some of our panes. The largest being 4.5m x 3.1m high. These weighed 750kg alone, so to have gone down the triple glazing route, would have meant additional structural engineering costs and probably beefing up the steel.

Thanks - glad you enjoyed it. Yes wet underfloor heating throughout. The first-floor build up is Open posi joists, 22mm egger protect chipboard, 15mm insulated UFH board to which the underfloor heating pipes were laid in. These insulated UFH boards were contact adhesive, and mechanically fixed down to the primed chipboard. Then we installed 14mm engineered wood onto this, which had to be glued down.

One thing that might help, and I forgot to add into the original post is a breakdown of the house technicals. Off the top of my head... Block & Beam subfloor. Timber frame to 0.09 wall U-value. (220mm insulation to walls. 150mm to roof). Double glazing, with solar glass spec to large south facing units. Brick clad and slate roof. MVHR + Comfoclime Cooling and heating. Air Source Heat Pump 10kW PV System, 10kW Battery Store & EV Charger. UFH Upstairs & downstairs. Energy rating of A. Air Tightness of 2.22.

As promised, a Q&A, to ask us anything about our Grand Designs project, which aired on TV two weeks ago. Forums like Buildhub, have been an great resource for us to learn from others, and so if this is one way we can give back, then happy to. Much of the 'technical' gets glossed over during the TV show, purely due to time constraints. So if there are specific questions about our building fabric, fire away. Rather than dumping loads of photos here, there's plenty of the process on our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefoxesmaltings/ Disclaimer: We are first time self-builders, and I am by no means an expert, nor do I pretend to be one. There is still plenty of stuff I have no idea about, and plenty of you on here with way more knowledge than me! Based on any answers, I would love to know what you would have done differently, or things we could have done better. Who knows, there might be a next project... And of course, if you missed the episode, you can watch it on demand, on Channel4.com.

Ha - thanks very much. Yes, we were very lucky to have a community that was so supportive. Exciting times ahead for you if you're going through planning!

Thanks so much. It was a lot of pressure for sure. Who knows what the future holds, maybe.

I know you are, don't worry. Social media is great, but it sometimes doesn't show the reality. We've tried to do the opposite and show all the gritty parts on ours. We did install home automation. You didn't miss it, just wasn't shown on the episode. It's a system by Baulogic. It has things like scenes for rooms, phone controlled and motion sensors. Nothing over the top. I work in tech, and know how complicated and unnecessary things can be, so it was all about keeping it simple. Things like the lights in the bathroom automatically coming on when they detect motion during the late hours of the night, but only very dimly. So if you need the toilet during the night, you can see where you're going, but aren't blinded. It has the ability to do stuff like that.

Well we did spend 623k on trades, so it's not like we were building the whole thing ourselves. We did a lot, and got really hands on, but we didn't build the whole thing. Please don't get that assumption. Many evenings after work and some early mornings too can be included into that. And any holidays we had with work, we spent that on-site working.

Thanks very much for your kind words. Glad you enjoyed the episode. In terms of the planning, there was a historical consultant that carried out some research on the land. Some historical maps were pulled, looking what was on the land before, years ago. In this case - a historical malthouse. These were easily obtained for free, from the National Library Of Scotland. It's quite fascinating to have a nose around to see what was where you live hundreds of years ago anyway! The planners were really onboard with the idea of restoring a heritage building, albeit, all we found on site were some old footings, a few bricks (nothing that would pass regs nowadays obviously). A design was put together to pay homage to the old malthouse (the front had to look quite traditional), but at the same time, as it's a new building, bring a modern take to it. Which is the Corten glass portal, and the more contemporary rear. Hope that adds a bit of insight, but let me know if there's any others questions, happy to answer.

Thank you. Not a single weekend free for the past 16 months, that's most of it to be honest!

Thanks - glad you enjoyed it. Yes, we would highly recommend Turners and Helen. Would use them again in a heartbeat. Yes, we went for their super advanced package - 120mm in the frame itself, and then another 100mm internally. Will find the time to do a Q&A on here soon!

Yeah it was a strange one. It existed on the historical maps, but you are right. Was completely left to ruin by 1900. There was only a few old footings which we managed to dig up. It satisfied the planners, so we didn't complain! Ha! - I do apologise. But appreciate your kind words and sentiment.

Thanks Mike, glad you enjoyed, and appreciate your kind words - yes, it was a bit of a desperate time having only the weekend to do it before Monday! We soon realised that there is this conveyor belt system which can do this as well, but c'est la vie. Jim was great. We do now have some doors - arrived and were installed a couple of weeks after the final filming

Thanks so much Paul. If you've been following from the early days on our Instagram you'll no doubt have a sense of the things we had to throw ourselves into in order to bring it under! Thanks again.

Thanks very much. It's a limewash paint - shame they didn't cover it more in the episode really. From - you apply it by painting in 'clouds' and it forms a textured look. Tutorial here: - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8jGL1mKxlI/

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed.

Thank you so much!