Nickfromwales

We do solutions here squire, not problems You can ask your BCO if you can come off the back of that with a piece of rigid soil pipe, and immediately behind the plasterboard you can fit an intumescent pipe collar to comply. https://www.fireprotectiononline.co.uk/intumescent-pipe-closer?attribute_values[1043]=2910&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw--K_BhB5EiwAuwYoygI-Y_N7auDjqilxYfotngcAcJ6qpMh0KBFUntWDjy-oGM6V5LZ0thoCTocQAvD_BwE 👊

As for the carpentry ( ), did the guy have a chop saw, or was there just a very angry goblin, head held firmly in a vice, that he tormented and then offered the wood up to so it could be angrily gnawed into odd angles and shapes? Or did he work at night without a torch? The cuts and quality of the work is embarrassingly poor tbh, but not irrecoverable if you employ someone decent to come behind and put a few (lots) of the bad bits right. I particularly love the way that the short noggin was not replaced with a correctly sized bit of wood, but instead the gas nails were used to bridge the gap; at least he had the good conscience to use twice the number of nails to make up for the lack of feckin wood...... Have you paid this goon fully, or do you have money withheld to give to another company to sort this all out? Best to continue forward with a new contractor, but if you want to DIY the carpentry then I guess that's not impossible, just a lot to do and you have to ask yourself if you are a) capable, and b) know what you are doing. Not a dig at you, just a sensible, sober reply.

This is very dangerous work, and needs to be executed properly and robustly. You should consider getting another builder in to help you or to just do the work for you, it's really not something you should do under duress, or consider doing in ignorance of just how badly this could go eg if a prop shifts. Death is permanent, and you don't sound to me like you are capable of doing this if I can be honest with you, plus that's a beast of a bit of steel with a huge amount of downward force now resting on it. I'd be leaving the blocks, and installing a 6x4" concrete lintel on flat instead of the bricks. Ask your BCO if that is acceptable as I'd rather that option vs starting to disturb the wall and the surrounding courses of the fragile friable thermal blocks and the dry mortar. You can then pack the lintel up to the steel and do away with the steel plate (all needs confirming before you do a single thing of course!!).

Yes, CSA is matched or exceed, plus I like these as they deflect a bit of the wind. I much prefer going up through a roof from an upper floor plant room, but you can't always get that in.

I'm now a huge fan (lol) of the Icon range with the openable shutters for zero draughts during the winter. It is obvs noisier than the inline, but I looked at dampers and gave up, plus I don't want the chatter of a back-draft shutter (these get clogged up soon enough and stop working fully anyhoo....).

Make sure it's a decent sized duct to avoid the noise of the fan buffeting against a poor routed / too small one. Fans run much quieter with a bit of forethought

"Your gardens are beautiful"

We’re using these mostly, (random internet grab)

Most do quite good WC out of the box nowadays, so I doubt you’ll need to micromanage the bottom end off this.

“Continue”. 😜

No MVHR? With MVHR you’d recirculate into the room not dump it outside.

Silicone had a limited life, and should only be used for cosmetic stuff tbh. There are modified version used, for eg, in the glazing industry, but you ‘seal’ with a sealant afaic much as you’d never use / see silicone around door and window frames (externally). Silicones can’t be painted either.

The USP of these things was compact / modular size (the ‘9’ would fit under a kitchen worktop) and the fact these were zero service and maintenance and didn’t require G3. Now you have PRV’s and PRedV’s and EV’s on them, all which require annual inspection to ensure that they are still functional. I guess another nail in the coffin for that USP, given the prices people are being quoted these days for supply and fit vs fitting an UVC; the requirement for G3 may not be there with the latest get-out-of-jail solutions but they certainly now do need this inspection to be carried out. If anyone’s got a new set of MI’s to hand please let us know!

Have you not considered getting a local carpenter / joiner to price you to do a ‘cut’ (attic) trussed roof to gain a decent useable attic space, eg one without all the W timbers tripping you up when you go to get the Xmas tree out? Shocking state of the structure etc, just crazy to see what people are happy to just blindly carry on pumping gas and electricity into. 😣

The basic grilles are flat with louvred slots, but we fit a lot of the ones that project a little, with a boxed section, and the outlet faces down and out at an angle. These seem to suffer less from windy days etc, but it may not be an issue if the elevation here isn’t hammered by weather. Is that duct running downhill to meet the outside wall? If not then I’d suggest not going for the 1st option I mention as wind-driven rain can get in there. Also, get some CT1 / other non-silicone sealant and seal around the duct before fitting the grilles

That’s one of many I’m afraid. Its food grade salt so just a crusty mess to clean up, but it’ll just give less and less hot water each time you recharge it. Sunamp have been pretty quick to change a lot of the burst / failed units that I put in for former clients, so hopefully they’ll be reactive. 🤞. Who installed it? Back then they had no installer network.

Hi, and welcome! As above, Firstly, what are you intentions with insulation and airtightness? MVHR will be an expensive ornament if you’re not making the house airtight (and I don’t mean draught-proofing) Please give us more detail for the ‘bigger picture’ so the replies can be given to suit. Doors and windows swapped out and trickle vents being omitted? Cavities being filled? EWI / IWI?

With an EPS system I suspect you'd need a form of mechanical fixing at (or above) a certain kg/m2 loading, so perhaps you'll end up fixing a 6 or 9mm cement board to the structure and then using tile adhesive to attach the flint to the CB. If this is a woodcrete then maybe you can parge with cement slurry, tank, and go for the above fixing method.

Does that require holes to inject being made at very high frequency? It's a spray rather than an 'injectable' product? I'm not sure if the 'right' product is a slower curing foam, eg so it travels much further before the curing process begins, as otherwise you'll have a lot of circles vs a continuous sheet of new material. This would be an excellent option. Any update @EinTopaz?

Yup. Needs a simple, robust resolve, so would go for a design and rebuild in masonry. Drainage has probably been overlooked at the foot of the wall, further amplifying the issue.

If you know where the sand and cement were bought / type / manufacturer etc then raking out and removing a whole brick(s) is not terribly difficult or compromising. The only issue with a 12-15mm dowel is that it may just stab the PIR if it requires a little ‘grunt’. You could rake out T section, eg where courses of mortar meet the perps, and then mitre-bond 2 bits of door stop together to mate a T piece to slide in, to get a bit more footprint to apply the pressure (only required anywhere where the dowel doesn’t work of course). The only bump in the road here will be, if there’s big snots of mortar preventing the full sections of PIR being pushed back uniformly. Good luck.

Please do try to keep relevant content on here wherever possible, or summarise if you have an “Eureka!” moment, as solutions gained off air do not benefit the masses 🙏. Gratsi!

Ok, thanks for that input. I guess I’ll stop mixing up this vat of wood chip, sawdust and PVA then?

Ok, so which ones work? Can you take your better half with you so one person can hold the hot pipe at the cylinder whilst the other person goes to open one of the non-functioning taps in the fully hot position. The new hot cylinder will have a ‘control group’ which looks like this, and you need to make sure that none of it gets even warm when running those outlets. The pipe at the top of the hot water cylinder will naturally be hot to the touch as it rises from the cylinder, so follow that pipe until it is cool / cold and that where you want to hold it to see if hot water travels out of the cylinder at all. Do NOT open the taps that work before this test or you’ll then heat up the pipe you’re testing with! Report back if opening any non-functioning taps pulls any hot water out of the cylinder or if that control group gets warm. This one may be tricky to solve so best to start getting through a process of elimination that doesn’t require paying for a plumber to come out.