Nickfromwales

I have spoken with AB at length, so I could better understand their processes and procedures, and the lions share of their installed cost is for time spent with site prep and hunting down any obvious faux pas; costs include masking off of all doors/windows and anything precious etc, with then a couple of hours spent for actually 'treating' the dwelling. @Post and beam, does that ring true? The more I look into this the more it makes sense to do it on every project, to make a good home "great" as they say. 63% is a hell of an improvement, and as an advocate of "airtightness, airtightness, and more airtightness", to squeeze every drop of HR out of the MVHR, this seems like a great product/service to me.

It's borderline dangerous for me to not do it, eg when I am the contractor and the one underwriting the promises I make, but self-builders who are building a home on their own information/merits can roll whatever dice they like; caveat is, then, that it'll be too late to do anything 'elegant' about it. UFH is an 'elegant' solution that leaves furniture layouts mostly unaffected, but obvs there's the ones who will install a panel heater/other auxiliary heater to mitigate in case of the need for any additional (sporadic) heat input. For me, UFH is cheap enough to install in the grand scheme, heats without intervention, and is absolutely the most 'elegant' solution for sure. There's also the resale element where it would be difficult, perhaps, to convince a buyer that it isn't needed/that no heating upstairs is a universally acceptable situation, whereas they may be 'freezers' and want the rooms at 21 overnight. Bedroom doors do not get left open, typically, so the heat doesn't/won't migrate from the GF to the rooms above. For completeness I shall be recommending the installation of UFH in all habitable 1st floor spaces from here on in, for all my new clients builds, but with a compromise as you say. I shall not be fully populating the room with UFH, instead only installing it in the central 2/3's of the room; truth is, if it IS needed then it'll only be for a few 100's of watts, defo <1000w, so a 5mx5m room would give out just shy of 1kw of heat at 60w/m2 at ~66% coverage, which would be plenty (or even overkill as I am sure I am about to be told....). North facing rooms defo don't get to the same ambient as the other 3 sides, from what I have experienced directly on many differing sites/projects, first hand, so that'll be my benchmark moving forward. If there's a PH certified designer in the wings then they can underwrite NOT installing FF UFH, but then I can use that as a parachute if the shit ever hits the fan and the homeowner complains that one or more rooms doesn't climb above 18oC in the arse of winter.

I'm sure it would be easier to say you're on gas, and omit the HP from the form. Let them install, and then fit it later with a retro-application. The issue here is that they just don't realise that a high performance dwelling that is ultra low energy use has a load for the HP lesser than clicking the kettle and the toaster on at the same time. Modern inverter HP's ramp up softly, so there's very little to worry about there, just the DNO assume huge motor loads and start up currents (from shunt resistance) and it's just not the case nowadays. They should just ask if it is definitely an inverter HP (soft start) and assume the load is negligible. As said, it's one supply or the other, but if you see what a 60a supply can actually run without popping the HRC fuse you wouldn't believe your eyes. Just think of how many folk get a HP installed to existing stock and the supply isn't upgraded. They'd be better off asking about the induction hob as that's way higher consumption, some are crazy big.

To stop fire / flames rising up the cavity, should a fire break out in the garage.

We knew this day would come......

Some of the cylinder manufacturers may be able to point you somewhere to do it.

Gutted. I’d have bought one without hesitation but all of the manufacturers literature put me right off. Some saying 4 hour cycles.

Also factor in the cost of pump(s) accumulators / break tanks, filtration and sterilisation, plant and more. Needs to be a ‘system’ cost vs a hole in the ground eg before you compare to a quote to bring in mains water.

I guess they dry at lower temps, so take longer to do the same job as a toasty hot electrical heating element?

I avoided a HP TD as all the manufacturers stated very very long drying times…..

Doorway to house will need the opening to be FR. Assuming FR door and lining will be installed here, with the lining bridging the cavity?

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I’d prob just level and lay with the adhesive, if the bumps aren’t >5mm. Other than that you’re on the right track. If the tiles are dark and get a lot of sunlight you may need to put one expansion gap in across, to divide the longest length.

I think this is the best collaboration tbh, as I would have a very ‘bloke’ looking house otherwise.

That’ll have to be made fire rated with FR PB if the joint is internal to the garage, as there’s a habitable space above it? Layer of FR PB over the DPC or intumescent mastic there? @ruggers, if there’s a specific side/rear doorway out of the garage it’ll need the same FR attention to that opening too.

...........absolutely the correct amount of......... 👌

I tried jacking a floor up like this before, and it was like fighting against dark matter. After decades and decades of progressive deflection, you just cannot fight natural timbers et-al back into shape over a long weekend. Give it up IMHO. Furr the tops of the joists and pack & level the ceiling and re-board. Sistering the joists is my favoured method of levelling up a 1st floor bathroom floor before installing a new wet-room / level floor for tiling etc, and that is usually the best option. If the floor is say 50mm out end to end, I will sister the high end with the new timber 25mm down, and glue and screw the joists together to act as one, and then electric plane the original timber down to meet the new. Moving one end to take up the 50mm.......not whilst I have a hole in my box of holes.

A pic would really help. We'd need to see where water was supposed to head so it can discharge into the downpipes. If it all goes wrong I'm only 20 mins from you so can drop some wellies off

Do you have to cut solid timber joists or are there posi-joists?

A non-issue. To be 1000% clear, I have only had to introduce a joint and bury it when the shit has hit the fan and there is zero other option. One example, on a PH raft concrete pour down in Doooorrrrrset the concrete pump truck failed, then did it's replacement. The willing machine driver then took the concrete from the trucks into the biggest bucket he had, and proceeded to lob it in vs admit defeat; legendary bit of GAF there for sure. Said tracked machine swung out, lost balance, and then punched the bucket down hard damaging 4 UFH pipes. Solution was to make a timber box to shutter 1m2 area around the damaged pipes and continue with the 'pour'. I then repaired the 4 pipes (so 8 straight coupling joints in total) and it's been there ever since (pressure tested on the day of the repair with cold mains pressure at4bar). There will be no "gunk", there would be no issue, just a pipe with a joint in it carrying fluid from one end to 'tother. These joints will cope with 10 bar and are WRAS approved; the only issue would be if a dick fitted them badly, the same with everything, everywhere.......

What he said....

No worries. Just scrape the joint and hoover out any loose debris / dust before filling it back in. This is just cosmetic tbh, and the crack from the doorway corner across is pretty much predictable. Zero drama here

The mesh doesn’t even need that tbh, and foam will do zilch here for strength afaic. Just use the joint/frame mastic and get it into the gap as best you practically can. DPC return faces should only leave a gap small enough to point these with mortar, clean back, and then top with mastic. The mastic will carry the damp proofing of that joint, from leaf to leaf, allowing the K rend system to fly over without any bridging.

Hi. That’s just a shrinkage crack in the screed, not structural as the structural subfloor will be below the insulation under the screed. Just buy a small 10kg bag of flexible tile adhesive and make it into a mix like soup. Pour that in, leave for an hour, then scrape flat with a metal decorators scraper. End of problem. Wet the joint before putting the adhesive in, so the porous suction of the screed doesn’t dry it out too quickly.