Nickfromwales

This is mostly for commissioning the correct flow rates to the spaces served by the unit. Not seen one like that before, so the unit must have (I assume) 3 fans or more. Can you post a link to the actual user / installation manual if possible, please? A bit tricky to pin down the exact instructions for the unit, seems to be a few different offerings. FYI, I would expect (hope) that if doing active heating or cooling, the fan speeds would increase to convey additional volume of air (and heat energy) as at trickle rate the usefulness of those functions would be borderline pathetic. Do you have a pic of the display saying which mode it is in? Does it mention heating and cooling specifically, and can you leave it in max cooling for an hour then go to max heating for an hour, to test these functions at the air inlets?

Ah, yes, my apologies. @Adsibob I thought you meant another Ubiquiti WAP, where it gets power from the source that feeds it, so @MrSniff is correct; you can send the data signal to another mains powered POE switch and gain another x number of powered ports for the POE cameras. I’ll start getting some earlier nights in.

Clients who used Velox had a builder and they ended up rendering with a particular cementitious product before installing cement boards and then brick slips. Took at least 2 coats of that product to get anywhere near good enough to put the boards on, and they’d tried and failed at going straight onto the product with the slips, hence the introduction of a 9mm board. IIRC the boards were dabbed on with that product, which was much like a tile adhesive, and it took a LOT of time and a LOT of money to do. Ironically they chose a very distressed brick and it ended up looking hugely non uniform anyways 🤷‍♂️. If you think you’ll brick slip onto woodcrete think again, so probably a very good idea to fit an insulated tile backer board and slip to that. Just remember it’ll need to have been installed in a way that doesn’t allow airflow behind the boards, or that will cause huge issues with airflow and moisture ingress into that void. It’ll also completely negate the benefit of the insulation effect from the boards; the air gaps would actually make the wall far worse overall. Also, you’ll need to work out the fixing schedule and kg/m2 mechanical load capacity, so the boards don’t just break off the wall with the weight of the slips, adhesive, and pointing mortar. Likely you’ll need to dot n dab these to get flat and plumb, and then when the dabs are dry you drill through and fix at those points. The way I do that is to pre-drill the boards with a 4mm drill bit on the face, then apply the dabs on the reverse to line up with each drill hole (manufacturers will give guidelines for the frequency / distance apart for placement of fixings) and then you know when you screw back through you’re on a dab. Yes, it’s a total PITA. “Enjoy!”. Q: How much of the external facades will be boarded and brick slipped? It may be better to move the airtight layer to the external skin at this point, worth exploring as you could maybe kill a few birds with one stone. Anyone here know of a reason this wouldn’t be possible, assuming the woodcrete was left raw / exposed on the interior and moisture (any) could travel inwards? Would require some quality detailing at the head / foot / openings, but doable perhaps, and could save time and money. Just a lot of work vs EPS……not for me, not after being on these types of builds. Does the manufacturer state a max permissible (dimensional) tolerance for the finished / delivered block?

Waste of time and money. Focus all efforts on the interior surface plz!!

Remember to fill it with concrete first, and let it cure, or you'll just smash straight through the woodcrete. .....*Shiver goes down spine..... Depends on the EPS block type / manufacturer. Nudura for eg have thick plastic / nylon(?) bands running vertically every 405mm (imperial, damn Canadians!) set a few mm into the face of the block for fixings.

Impey stuff is awesome kit, and they do that big FO tanking sheet, the self adhesive one, which also gives 10mm (?) decoupling. Was great the first time I used it and royally fecked it up Man that thing is sticky. Pulled it up, binned it, went and got another one, and then burned through £500 worth of Rubi blades cutting the grade 5 porcelain. Was like cutting titanium. 😵‍💫. Also that 610 liquid rubber adhesive in a mastic tube (Impey supplied it), you used that? I’m sure I still have some stuck to me somewhere, and I did the job a decade ago 🤣. Makes expanding foam seem tame. Had to bin my Stanley knife, and also made the mistakes of a proper rookie, wiped my nose, got it stuck to that, then scratched my head and had to cut it out of my hair. The joys of being on the tools, eh? lol.

Ok, so 550w divided by 230v is = ~2.3amp draw, so seems a bit odd. I’d suggest going through the programmer again to confirm what ‘state’ it is in, eg it is cooling or heating or neither, currently. Maybe perform a factory reset. Also, does it have a display of the 4 ports, with the 4 temps (supply > fresh in / extract > exhaust) etc?

If it cools then it has an inbuilt heat pump. In the last bit of cold weather I suspect this has been sporadically heating, maybe overnight. Is the 550w consumption constant? Fan should be sub 200w.

Hi. Does it have an electrical pre heater in it? This would be to uplift the temp of incoming air, and that would likely be the culprit.

@nod You know what I’m going to say fella Its all about the tanking afaic, and whatever is behind that is doomed, so too is the fabric of the wall or floors, if water gets to them routinely. Tanking strips, corner formers, and tank. Then tank again. Leave to dry, and then tank again where constant flowing water will sit at wall / floor junctions. Water is the enemy not the choice of substrate. I’ve done projects up to the ~£4m price tag, (and everything in between over a 30+ year career ‘on the tools’), and have seen other bathroom fitters / plumbers / tilers on site and my blood has just run cold watching JUST how shit their workmanship was. I’ve been doing or have been around countless high end bathroom / wet-room / kitchen / reno’s projects, and everything right up to full build packages, either on the tools or managing and consulting, and even as far as Q3 of 2024 I still cannot get over the lack of giveafeck that is still out there, even at the absolute top end of the charging / pricing spectrum. Some people think spending huge gets you great, it doesn’t guarantee anything. On a ~£4m 6-bed ‘bungalow’ I watched the plumbing contractors charge >£100k for 1st and 2nd fix plumbing (not inc UFH or heat source) and it was garbage. @nod just give them an email to caveat that they haven’t gone with your professional opinion and recommendations, and cover your arse. If they reply to say they’re happy to take the risk over a grand or so materials uplift then fine, but get it in writing. You’ll probably find that they’ll then change their mind when they realise what cocks they’re being

Parge for airtightness needs to be done internally as the porous blocks will allow airflow (infiltration) in at heads / footer / openings / top course etc, so you’ll need to detail this to the nth degree if you want the results. Just masses of extra hard work, plus your vapour permeability needs managing also so I’d stick to the standard methodology and stay away from creating more work for yourselves. Chasing into woodcrete is something that the prison service should make inmates do. I promise you that crime rates would soon start dropping. You’ll need to surface mount cables, semi-recess deep electrical boxes, and dot n dab onto the blocks. Ive done enough on all types of ICF projects to know what’s a good idea, an “OK” idea, and what’s a “feck that, never again” idea. On one project the annex was done first, as a trial run for the builder, and that ended up with north of 30mm of bonding and plaster over the blocks. They tried to avoid dot n dab in there, I told them not too. Took months and months to dry out, and then hairline cracked EVERYWHERE. I chased that (for my pipes and cables) with a 22mm SDS wood chisel, and that I had to re sharpen with a grinder every 20 mins. After one or two walls you’ll be dragging your metal coffee cup along the bars of the cell.

Depends if you exceed the max w rating of the last powered port. POE to the last switch will be fed from a single port, so there’s the possible bottleneck. Plural (camera's) so how many need to run off the last switch?

Fell out of a Kellog's box over breakfast with the shite he's spouting.... Yup. Most shower traps can have the throat of the trap removed for rodding / clearing with a snake. Most decent BCO's only care about the drainage from DPC and downwards, to the groundworks and sewer etc, and that you have vented or have AAV's (air admittance valves) etc. He needs a holiday, or a beer, or both. Or retire!

Your inspector is a jobsworth muppet. 50mm pipe can easily be rodded with a ‘drain snake’ if necessary, and they really need to take a chill pill. Instal a Y branch at the kitchen sink so you can have a cleaning eye (access cap) there, and then the one most likely to cause issue is covered. Is the stack internal? The general rule is not to have more than 3m of small bore water pipe, assuming 32mm for basins etc and 40mm for everything rise, or upsize if >3m which you have done with the 50mm pipe. Go and push back

Nit picking: I’m a busy man so sometimes spout crap. Check out the small print lol.

You will likely end up in a scenario where the boiler will be routinely producing more heat than the house can dissipate. This results in boiler “short cycling” and also the return temp may be behind the modulation sweet spot.

What is your strategy for meeting part O and getting some active cooling? If you don’t or won’t need the heat then you’ll be well insulated and airtight, yes? <£3k for a good Panasonic monoblock, 5/7kW capacity, and capable of cooling straight out of the box. You’ll need hot water year round, so the perceived savings on heating may be skewed by producing DHW via direct electricity. Solar PV will sort DHW out for a lot of the summer, or batch heating it at night with a bigger cylinder on ultra cheap rate electricity. Summer overheating is the biggest enemy, don’t underestimate this.

No trays? MCS certified?

Ya. I run them tight to the plinth, and you can get triple trough trays instead of dual, to get 3 pipe runs per void. Threads get detailed, even with the best of intentions lol.

How do you feel about the 🐞 🐜 🦟 ?

Just remember to leave spaces at the ends of the runs to perform a U turn and allow for that in the m2 area you order up. 👍. Here’s the 1st install I used these on, worked really well.

My foundation and ICF ‘guy’ laid 2 lots of 18mm OSB and braced with timbers to make a platform to fix down into without breaching the slab. Was a bit of extra work for sure, but everything is “doable”. You know me, lol, I’m never one to start a fight…. “In the red corner we have EPS, and in the blue corner we have Woodcrete”. Round 1, ding 🛎️ 🥊, 🤣

I thought the mitred shelves / sills looked a bit beefier, but were a time consuming pita to get all the bits matched so it looked like a thick bit of the same material. Worth the effort methinks.

Yup lol. I just think it’s too brittle and a pig to fix, and I’ve seen loads of the backer board installs where the tiler still tanks everything anyways, so why beat yourself up cutting that PITA stuff up. Also seen the screws and washers rusted out so no confidence of the longevity of the fixings that these are so heavily reliant on. Last en-suite I did, 1st floor in a 16th century cottage, I had reinforced the floor heavily, and tanked everywhere. I then made up the 1200x1000mm wet area and fitted the drain. No tiles at this point. Wetroom former tanked too, even though technically the Wedi type stuff doesn’t need it. I set my Rubi 1200mm wet tile saw up in the corner of the room closest to the drain, and then tiled the whole room with travertine. Had the hosepipe in the room with me throughout and literally rinsed the machine bed off after every cut, all going on to cardboard and the waste water going onto the tanking, and then into the drain. Coupe of weeks of that before the room was all tiled, walls and floors, plus I made the sills out of mitred trav too, and not a drip anywhere (clients office was directly underneath). Cleaned the cutter up and evacuated the room, then took my baby cutter back up and mosaic tiled the wet area and then grouted and sealed. Bombproof. Tanking is cheap enough to go mad with it, so no excuses, and best advice is don’t be a tight arse there! *Drain was a straight run of 50mm pipe, which, yes, I did clean out afterwards. 👍

If it’s only the time and cost of the enquiries then seems a wise decision. I’d go for the raft every day of the week, much better to have the UFH in the constructional slab like a big storage heater, but check if you need props etc to hold the walls during construction of the ICF as you then can’t drill and fix into the floor. I’ve said my 2-penneth on here about woodcrete ICF vs EPS, but if you’re not going for airtight and MVHR you’ll be fine. If you are (which would be my first and most important advice / recommendation) then you’ll need to know what hoops to jump through to seal the woodcrete blocks as required. Which block manufacturer have you opted for?