Nickfromwales

I dig out a keyhole shaped trough in the concrete and terminate with a flexible hose if it's a real difficult install. If it's more straightforward I will set the tray into its final position with packers and work out the height from the base to the top of the trap. I'll then make all the pipework up ( in the same keyhole ) dry, eg not glued, and put everything into its final position, resting the tray back over to check all is 'good'. I then lift the tray off and mark 3 or 4 lines across each junction of pipe and fitting, numbering and marking which way it top / arrow to show direction etc and disassemble. I start gluing it all together using the marks for confirmation that it's all going back in exactly as it was mocked up at the dry fit. Then I will chase a small channel out from the head of the keyhole to just outside the outer edge of the tray as a kind of funnel. If the pipework goes to an outside wall or disappears down through the slab, make sure you use a few hand fulls of dry tile adhesive powder to fill up all those gaps so the pipe is completely sealed. You'll realise why shortly..... Then mix up a wedge of rapid set flexible tile adhesive, mixed so it doesn't slump. Use that to prep / clean the underside of the tray by putting some adhesive on a cotton dishcloth so you can scour it and remove any contaminants from manufacture. Then you can set the tray down on big piers of adhesive, aiming for around 70-80% coverage is ample, staying away from the area immediately where the trap / waste will sit. Put some CT1 around the underside of the hole in the tray where the seal of the trap will make contact, not going mad with it. Once the tray has been set in place, and whilst the tile adhesive is still wet, screw the waste into the trap sealing up as the underside of the waste so you have wet CT1 from under to over. The fittings will displace what it doesn't need, but you need to be sure the rubber seal under the tray doesn't skate off centre whilst lining the waste up with the trap and screwing it in. Once tight, clean all excess CT1 away with baby wipes ( lots of them ). Check the levels one last time, and leave the tray to set for a couple of hours. Then comes the magic bit Make a continuous line of sand about 6" deep 10mm higher than finished floor level like a dam in front of / around the tray, with the end of the funnel inside the dam eg so the sand will 'belly out' at that point. You then mix some self-levelling compound and pour it SLOWLY into the 'funnel' where it then flows towards the keyhole, thus filling it with SLC like filling a mould. Eventually the SLC will fill the trough / keyhole, will rise up to finished floor level, where you can then stop mixing and pouring. Job done. That process fully encapsulates the trap and pipework so you can stand on the trap whilst showering without any risk of it pushing down / through the thin part of the tray,plus this also fills in between all of the piers of tile adhesive that you used to set the tray on. You pour the SLC until it comes up and out of the funnel, and rises about 3-4mm above FFL. That way you know the underside of the tray is full of the SLC and zero voids. Tres bien.

If you’re adding a battery inverter, A/C coupled, eg a second micro generator connected to an new circuit of the CU, then it’s notifiable. D/C systems attract one less A/C >< D/C conversion so are also around 13-15% more efficient overall. Why not just bite the bullet and go D/C ( modular / scalable ) now? Saves a mish-mash of equipment, and no permission necessary either now or later when you may sporadically add to the capacity.

D/C coupled batteries = no DNO application. A/C coupled batteries = DNO application.

All depends if that then gets you a refusal ! They may insist on export limitation on the PV inverter as a result of an over estimation on the battery capacity, so beware as that sword has two edges

🤔. Your A/C coupled total ( kWp of PV + kWh of battery capacity ) needs DNO approval. If you add more down the line, you should be asking for a new approval.

Swansea, when I'm actually in Wales lol.

Fast delivery from these guys normally... https://pipetek.co.uk/products/32mm-microflex-duo-heating-pipe-kit?variant=46263397322

Now I come to think of it.... @PeterW asked me for a few of my 1st year apprentice pics when we set the forum up. Bugger!!

Yup, many thanks for this. Like the Beamshield but they ( BS ) beef up by going underslung as well which I really like the idea of, vs the 150 that these guys go for on top. Could go to a 100mm PIR atop if DPC / FFL heights becomes an issue I suppose. More options are always welcome, cheers

OK, just it may be impractical and not cost-effective to keep importing knackered sheds each time you need to burn yourself a bath? Probably been tried around here tbh.

Would just about fill the bath with hot water lol. Or do what the twats around here do and burn carpet / laminate floor or just about anything that their neighbours have to choke on. Fire brigade have been called a "few" times, lets just say that........

Yup. I suppose it will be on the cards at some point. In the meantime......"man make fire" 🔥

Ah. So deffo "combustible" sub-floor then. Did you take the blockwork 'square' all the way up to the stove?

Block & beam atop those piers?

That is very important, and I think has "sealed the deal" for me. Continuous ( robust ) pipe / duct to outside is deffo the way forward. Thanks @all !

Nice, with some peppercorn sauce? Noted. Checking / clearing of that grille needs to be added to bi-annual maintenance schedule for client then I suppose!!

Blowing the dust off this one. Would anyone NOT go for Beamshield instead of a traditional block and beam solution? The Beamshield just seems an utter no-brainer from where I'm sitting. The thought of a constant cold ventilated setup just doesn't bode well with me, particularly when the time you're heating it is when the cold air will be in abundance AND Baltic cold to boot. Any Nay-sayers out there? And if so, why?

Probably would have helped if I mentioned that sooner My thoughts too. Outside it is then.

Looking at specifying BeamShield EPS ( which replaces the breeze blocks ) so a discernible risk of rapid fire spread if anything got 'under'. As it's a clients build, I have to be belt n braces on diligence. I wonder if terminating into an up-turned fire box would be an OK solution, eg so the air is sucked up like a hoover and anything ejected would sit under it. Maybe over-thinking this, so perhaps just a piece of duct 1200mm long would be more than suffice as anything problematic would just sit in the 'rest' bend.

Seriously unimpressed with their detailing for the seals on the double ( aka french ) doors. Sliders appear OK, windows too.

Back to under-slung it is then Lets discuss!!

Can you not do dog-legs with this system. The one I'm reviewing for a client needs 2x change of direction to get away from the PV array on the ( nigh-on whole of the ) rear roof elevation.

EH? You wouldn't want the battery to export, and nor will it as the software prevents it iirc? Moot discussion. Er, that's how they come delivered..... You have what you've asked for, I just don't think you realise it Some of this often gets lost in translation. Eg, your PV inverter can still export.

Thanks. Is that a coaxial / split chimney pipe? Does in increase diameter much? What kW appliance and what size flue pipe did you end up with?

OK. Another for the ducted air under the suspended floor. I take it the regs require a continuous pipe / air duct from outside the foundation / house perimeter? So, are you not allowed to just drop a dip pipe under a cold-ventilated block and beam foundation? @saveasteading ? @ProDave ?