Nickfromwales

We’d have a very comprehensive and long thread….if it was tilted “future planning of heating now for, but must also encompass foresight for future moving or removing of walls, and its downstream impact…..”. yes, I’m a pedantic tosser. I’ve already been and grabbed my coat.

Could do suspended timber?

Good. You’ll have scrim tape from that wall > ceiling junction, so they’ll fill that up no probs and the tape will stop it breaking / cracking. 👍

As above, your builder is a tosser. Thats unforgivably shite workmanship. The cold air will be coming up that like the channel tunnel ffs!!🤦‍♂️ You’ll need to fill the gaps with some rockwool, and then pour some self leveller into that to block it up. That’s just shocking.

Yup. Just had one job where an ‘accidental’ electrician was on site and ran 1.5’s to every light fitting in the vaulted ceiling, with between zero and 25mm max service void to work to. In pairs too…. Cock. Exactly this. I’d started in earnest fitting the T&E into a JB at each light location and then taking 0.75mm flex (x1) to where each light would be, but this wasn’t copied by said cock. Some just make life so bloody difficult for either themselves or the next poor bastard, it’s just crazy. @Jothetaxi, if there’s a void just make these off together with Wago’s, put a whip of tape around them, and push that back into the void with a short piece of flex used to connect into the light fitting; unless the fittings you choose having flying leads, and then they just go into the Wagos directly.

5” rafters are quite small? At what frequency and what length?

A decent plasterer will be able to scrim tape that joint and push a decent bit of wet plaster in there on the first of two sets. Are you skimming the whole room afresh? Including the ceiling?

Happy days.

Box attenuator or fluffy sock type?

I’d want some expanded metal across that crack before skimming it. Needs hacking off about 10” either side of the crack and making good first. Screws and washers to hold the mesh, then dot and dab compound laid over that as a binder. Up top just needs to be dubbed out a bit with dot & dab before skimming over. Use 75/25% PVA/water mix as a primer on dry masonry to get a good bond. Brush off loose stuff first obvs.

I’ve only heard of 1 failed UFH loop in a new build, in over a decade. That didn’t fail, it was damaged during install / pour (insulated raft) and it just got isolated as there were plenty of loops and it was a “passive” house. One project, where there were 3 pipes damaged by using an excavator to finish a concrete pour as the pump had failed, we just quickly made a box shutter and isolated those from the pour. These were fixed after the concrete could be walked on, and not had an issue since. These pipes just don’t seem to fail in reality. Manufactures have to say 50 years lifespan as they can’t say these “might last 75 years or more”.

Most would just refresh doors / worktops etc anyways. Another BH Sunday afternoon lol. 😝 I expect @Great_scot_selfbuild will only want to fit his kitchen once lol.

If you have a kitchen space that can be remodelled with a full 180° flip, then you have the first one I’ve ever seen. Kitchens are quite specific and usually the space will be used and optimised from day 1, so a refurb would be bound by those terms. Hypothesising about a room that would likely never exist isn’t a great way to use the limited days off we get. I pipe under most islands, and peninsulas, if going low temp / raft down etc, unless it’s completely obvious that the space will only ever be dressed the same way, even if it’s fully remodelled; a peninsula may become detached and become an island and vice versa, so the only other consideration for future proofing is to cable and pipe for an island, maybe adding hot and cold + waste connections there (to use from day 1 or to install in abeyance) to allow that to become an island. After that…..we’d all need Mystic Meg to sign up and show us the future…. 🧙‍♀️

It’ll usually be the same volume / area of units if a kitchen gets flipped around, so given doorways and windows etc, you can’t really change certain rooms that much. Planning a solution for 50 years or even 30 years from now is bonkers imho, as at that point lifting the floor and re-piping the UFH wouldn’t be considered a real drag. Would also be the end of the serviceable lifetime of the system anyways. Always best to remain completely sane when deciding how to do these things, as way too many people stare into a crystal ball and try to navigate ‘right now’ into ‘the future’. 10 to 20 year plans are reasonable, but after that it’s just money and time down the drain.

The larger ones should be 3/4” x 15mm so you have copper compression not BSP ‘irons’ to connect to. The difference is one has a chamfered internal edge to accept the olive (you find the same opposing chamfer inside the compression nut). The BSP irons have a flat face, which is what you’d connect a tap connector to. Tap connectors have either a rubber or a nylon washer to squash up against the flat face. ......However! The good people at Hepworth do a tap connector which is supplied with 2 different profiles for the rubber seal, and one is chamfered; the flat ‘square’ one goes in the bin or the spare’s tray, and the chamfered rubber will work for you here. If the 3/4” fittings can be wound out, you can put a 3/4” bush in and then PTFE these and wind them into the bushes

Shouldn’t. Not couldn’t. Anything can be done etc etc, just why would you is my point. You don’t need a solution if you don’t create a problem, basically, so you would put the pipe in the open area and go for tighter cc to get more w/m2 in the room vs emit the heat in an closed space such as the kick space and then have to push it into the room mechanically.

IMO if you’ve got a lot of pipe down, not only can you ‘turn it down’, but it also increases system volume. Win-win afaic, plus most MCS installs won’t bend to a clients whims of what they are convinced will work sufficiently. Filling the entire area with pipe, at 200mm cc or less is normal, not abnormal, so it depends on how sure you are of the system’s ability to perform (but that decision being made before you can practically test this out and prove the theory). Aka “rolling the dice”.

What about opening the window?

No dice. That’s a plinth heater. It sucks air in via the left and right grilles, and blows out via the centre grille. Fitted loads, but you wouldn’t have a plinth heater and UFH .

@Susie @DevonMade Brink are easily as reliable and perform almost identically, better in fact with certain models / sizes, to the Zehnder units, but Brink is cheaper. Beware ordering online as you may not get uk service repair under warranty, as with Brink you need to go through an authorised seller to get after-sales.

Airtight, so I’m assuming MVHR, so constantly doing this.

You just throw 8:1 sand/cement down in a heap, make a void in the centre after mixing it up, and fill that with water. You then just mix it in on itself until it’s a consistency like thick soup. Bring a hose in and wet all the floors next. Not quite so it’s puddling but very wet. You’ll see it drying as you go, so just wet the areas you’re actually doing. Then just push it around with a stiff brush, going back and forth in opposites and diagonals. Watch you don’t flick it up the walls though! Do a small room / area first to gauge quantity and get the hang of it, then do a bigger mix / area next and so on. Dead easy to do.

Well spotted. Nowhere near enough fixings have been used. @dan_cup, one top an one bottom, repeated as much as you can afford.

The heart wants, what the heart wants.

You are like a wrinkly ninja............and we never know when you will next strike, silently, but always deadly.