DavidFrancis

I'm thinking of spending a few days trying to work out to what extent our heating demand is affected by temperature, wind and possibly the sun. (Not really a great period as the temperature looks set to be fairly constant over the next week.) We only have a very simple weather station and it doesn't log anything so I was going to use the Weather Underground local stations, which provide some great data including average temperatures and average wind speeds. One station nearby also logs solar radiation but doesn't provide a daily average, just a table with about 150 readings per day. I'm not interested enough in our heating demand to manually work out a daily radiation figure. Does any one know of a web site that gives day-by-day radiation figures on a pretty local basis? Or does anyone know of a slick way to manipulate the Weather Undergound figures? For an example, see here: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IENGLAND1342#history Thanks Edit: just tried following my own link and it takes you to the "Graphs" view. You need to click on the "Table" tab below the Summary box to see the data in figures.

Ignoring the fact that we now have a loose canon as leader of the "free world", I had a look at this last night. I'm a keen watcher of Grand Designs and other similar programmes, and this had the potential to be very interesting. Last night they were going to build a large post and beam house with much of it seemingly built of logs with just the bark removed, so pretty much unregularised. It must have been an interesting mathematical challenge to get it all to fit together. Yet it was all so contrived that I found it unwatchable and turned over after 20 minutes. Has any one else watched it and found more in it? I suppose it could be amusing if watched with the right attitude?

@dogman. As @joe90, I'd be interested to know where Jeremy Harris is now posting. Are you sure it is current?

Looks cr@p to me. I think I'd cut my losses. Can you find another fabricator? Sounds like the current one is just not interested.

Thanks for the offer, Roger, but it was only a casual enquiry. The chances of me/us needing to build a new house are fairly low, which is probably good as I imagine the process would give me a nervous breakdown. Nevertheless, I sometimes spend idle time thinking about how I'd build one. One of the options would be to have a steel or engineered-timber frame clad in sandwich panels. It should go up quickly, have no problems with interstital condensation and eliminate the need for a VCL & breather membrane (I think). The downside being a poor decrement delay, which could be improved a bit with an extra layer of mineral wool. So that was my reason for enquiring. Just wondering how easy it would be to find someone to make a small, simple lightweight steel frame (suitable for a bungalow). And your (ex?) garage was pretty much similar to a very small bungalow!

Thanks for that. Was your "steel" man hard to find or difficult to persuade into building something the size of a garage?

Roger - did you say before that your (insulated) cladding supplier built the frame, or supplied it, or something like that?

sussexlogs - I find some of your your posts rather terse, to say the least! Have you been taking lessons from Tony? How big's that cavity? Are you having any insulation? If so, will it be blown in? And why are the lintels on the on the inner skin so much higher than those on the outer, or is that "lintel" over the further opening part of a beam and block floor?

I wonder if there's some confusion here between the regs themselves and the guidance on the regs as provided in the approved documents. This is from the approved documents: "Approved Documents are intended to provide guidance for some of the more common building situations. However, there may well be alternative ways of achieving compliance with the requirements. Thus there is no obligation to adopt any particular solution contained in an Approved Document if you prefer to meet the relevant requirement in some other way."

This is a quote from Axa's buildings cover (which came up first in a Google search): "Accidental Damage does not cover loss or damage caused ... by or arising from faulty workmanship, defective design or use of defective materials" Many years ago I used to be an insurance broker & I'd expect most, if not, all policies to have the same type of exclusion. Under the same policy there might be cover under the Family Legal Protection section, if purchased, but the incident giving rise to a claim has to occur during the term of the policy.

It was apparently subject to building regs. See paras 3.91-3.94 of http://lammas.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/one-planet-development-guidance.pdf (Tried to cut-and-paste, but things went awry.)

Didn't realise/remember you wanted certification.

I've seen one manufacturer (can't remember which one) that gave a much longer guarantee on treated softwood windows than they did on hardwood. I think the longevity of windows is as much (and maybe more) down to the detailing, installation & finish as the type of wood. I quite like the idea of dry-glazed windows with a ventilated bottom bead over a bottom rail cut at an angle (to drain water away).

Do you really need the Kingspan at all? Have you worked out the payback period?

In the BM I use, you can get any wood pressure treated for a nominal sum. Perhaps a timber/builders merchant near you does the same? A couple of years ago I had to go to one of those open gardens days in the next door village and in one newish house I was idly examing the garage/workshop whilst waiting to leave & could not work out what the soffits were made of. Had to ask the owner. They were wood-effect plastic, but it was very hard to tell.

If you want things simple and reliable why not just have a well insulated tank with an immersion running off E7? If you're going to be in a near-passive house you'll only need heating for a few days a year, so just run one or more fan heaters on E7 - the house shouldn't cool down much, if at all, during the day. Very low capital cost. Next-to-no maintenance/servicing.

Oz - I'm no physicist, but isn't it all to do with the temperature of the floor, the temperature of your feet, and the (thermal) conductivity of the floor surface and its specific heat capacity. As long as your feet are warmer than the floor it's going to feel cool, but a surface with high conductivity is going to feel cooler than one with low conductivity as it wicks away the heat from your feet that much faster (and possibly the effect is even more pronounced in a material with high specific heat capacity as can absorb more heat without its temperature increasing so fast). If it's of any interest I've just IRed my feet and the temperature varies from about 19C at my toes to 26 in the arch, but I have cold feet! The (barely insulated) floor where I'm sitting is about 16.5 (room temp about 18) Will be interested to see the response of some one more knowledgeable.

Onoff - just did a small experiment. Tried putting the following into a bit of oak (with no pilot holes): S'fix Ultra 4 x 45 S'fix Turbo Ultra 4 x 50 (stainless) Aldi stainless 4 x 45 Timco stainless 3.5 x 35 All lost their heads, but at least the plain Ultra went all the way in before shearing. Also tried a S'fix Turbo Gold XT (decking-type screw) 4 x 50 which sheared. BUT a Reisser Cutter 4 x 50 ("tropicalised") went all the way in and came back out again. Rusts in weeks in exposed treated timber! One of my just-bought 5 x 90 Ultras went all the way into a bit of very slow growth softwood (an old bit of what is probably pine) without problems with no pilot hole and came back out again.

Yes, you probably need a pilot hole if you're screwing into dense wood or putting in a long screw. But in my experience normal plated screws will rust quite quickly if they're put into treated timber that's exposed to the elements. I've used some of Screwfix's decking-type screws outside (Turbo Gold XT with 1,000 hours salt-spray-tested claims at the time I bought them!) and even some of them are rusting after two or three years. I guess because the coating got scratched when I screwed them in

Crofter - you're probably well aware of this, but just in case ... SS screws can be softer than the non-stainless type, so you need to be careful in how hard you drive them in. I've lost the heads off one or two, but I think they were some Aldi ones rather than any of the Screwfix ones I've used.

When I first looked at this I thought you'd inverted the usual arrangement and put the slab UNDER the EPS! (It's the grey sand that did it.)

For any one doing some outdoor woodwork, Screwfix are selling-off some of their Ultra screws at 70% off or more. Bought a couple of boxes but I'll probably be dead before I finish off the 90mm ones.

Sensus - having read your comments above, I wonder what you think is a "realistic" way to build, say, an average size three-bed house? In particular, what is required for ventilation and moisture control? And what do you think about insulation levels and the use of triple-glazed windows?

Nick - I was using the outlaws' Aldi one, which I borrowed and returned on Saturday. But the section of lance that started to leak is similar to the section attached to the patio cleaner here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009QX8AO0?psc=1 (you can roll the mouse over the image for a better view)

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately the lance has reinforcing fins/flanges (or whatever they're called) like some Karchers parts do, which makes clips or tape difficult to use. I suppose I could cut out a wedge of something, try sealing that in and then put a clip around that. Any other ideas?