lizzie

Ugly place whatever the height

looking back ours was £93psqm. Eye wateringly expensive! We had the Alumasc vented facade system and part of the reason for that choice was the 10 year guarantee however more than six months after the installation was completed (and full payment made) we have not yet received the guarantee.

@NSS thank you. Yes whole point of this build was air quality. Feeling a benefit even in short time we have been in.....until the weather went crazy LOL @newhome house is now stable at 22. Suppliers came out calibrate mvhr today so its all now properly up and running and I can control from phone/ipad. Waiting for installer to come and do the dhw and hot water set up then I can control via app. It would appear that the low settings he left it running on (pending internet connection and finishing work by electrician) have been messed up somehow (electrician perhaps) which is why everything was boiling up in the plant room. Have it under control until he comes now. Very grateful to @Nickfromwales for his help.

@SteamyTea it runs from hub and an via an ap. I have no idea why they have to come and check the mvhr install and the calibrations etc, part of the install service and the warranties I guess. When he came to set up mvhr ufh and dhw we found the electrician had not completed his end...no internet connections, no timeclock and no overrun on boiler these needed to be in before handover could be done hence me being left with a temp set up as installer was going away for 2 weeks. Having spoken to installer it appears that the temp settings he left us on have been fiddled with...by whom I do not know, not me for sure......maybe electrician he is the only one who has been in plant room working since. The upshot is @Nickfromwales excellent advice has got the house habitable again and installer and supplier/designer will be here next week to finalise the commisioning and set up........as long as the electrician sorts the problems in the data cab by then so I can actually get some phone and internet!

We explored all those options and for various reasons they wouldnt work for us. The batten and plank is a nice look but we could not do it as we didnt have enough space between wall and drip on coping stone.........if no coping a different story. I agonised for months about how to deal with our walls, choosing a kitchen was much easier!

We have a very poorly done block retaining wall.....looks like they were drunk when they did it, the bricklaying was even worse but we were too late to stop it. I have painted the biggest section of wall ( circa 20m long and 4m high) which runs behind the house and so is not quite in your face as mainly hidden by house. Used dulux weathershield masonry paint in ral 7016 to go with the windows so now the rubbish drunk block wall looks like a design statement LOL. I have another equally badly done section around 12m long x 3m high very visible as on drive and runs down to garage. I am currently getting quotes to render it...eye watering costs. If you can get away with it I recommend the paint route but be bold with colour so it looks like it was meant to be not just a bit of white paint sloshed over some ugly blocks. Loads of ideas on pinterest.

A bit of timber cut to the requiired size is what I think keeps the concrete out. Have you got level threshold sliders going in?

They hand dug the trenches to get it all in so I imagine the same would happen if it ever needed to be accessed in the future. I wouldn’t ever be personally doing any digging of course?

Originally our house was supposed to be banked into the earth wall. I didn't want that and so condition of the purchase was that we got an extra 50cm from vendor and we moved the house over a tiny bit (tight plot in that direction) we have ended up with 1200 between house and retaining wall because we took our 50cm and then built wall in the other side of that giving us the full 50 (and maybe a tiny bit more - whats a cm or twoLOL). 1200 is OK for scaff, pipes etc. I wouldn't want any narrower. I have a back door there which is handy for nipping out to the bin etc This is mine at night (low level lighting) - we gravelled floor rather than paved because there are lot of manholes and all the services running down there so easier if ever we need to get at anything.

Its Frankische Profi air 250 touch. Its not been fully commissioned yet its just been set up and tested as when installer came to set up the internet was down so he couldnt complete set up and I understand designer from Robbens will come to do final commissioning......think Ive got that right!

Mine appears to be the same scenario although costs are less - it was running 24/7 My bill was over £300 for an un occupied house airtight fully sealed house - that was for a couple of months with thermostats on but no timers so running full time at 20 odd degrees just on and off on thermostats - no mvhr running and front door open most of the time too.

Thanks Nick I have found a setting called 'party' ...if only.....that seems to have boosted the fan speed a lot.

My dog is is almost 16 and blind. He is a cocker Spaniel but hates water, I trained him to hate it because we had open water in our last garden and I didn't want a dog in the river every day, now he wont even step in a puddle. He is old and frail and every day with him now is a bonus, he is not quite ready to leave us but I fear it wont be too long and something like the heat he has had to endure may just tip the balance. He is asleep in the cooling fan air and mvhr adjustment has reduced house temp hugely, still too warm at 26 but much better than the weekend.

I cant find a boost setting on manual open and closed and auto. I have it on manual open at the mo

@jamiehamy that is really useful info. I hope I might get some sort of similar data when they come back to set everything up at the moment I only have the room thermostats for ufh giving air temp plus my own stand alone weatherstations from previous house. Both have been giving the same temps so look accurate. Thank you for the advice.

Yes windows on east and north side open. It was reading 30+ on terrace outside south and west where all the big sliders are even so i kept some open in shaded area to encourage through draught. I’m afraid nothing worked. However @Nickfromwales advice to adjust mvhr has had an impact this morning with living area readings at 24 and bedroom at 26 which is positively arctic compared to last few days.

Got the dyson fans on for last 2 days....not done the ice though. Have found bypass and switched on.....fingers crossed. My poor dog is nearly 16 and is really struggling, fans are on him.

Thanks Nick I will have a go at mvhr in the morning. Its all news to me...no clue as to how the house performs the mvhr was not switched on until the day I moved in. When he came to set it up a few weeks before I moved in there was no internet so he just tested it and left it off to return when electrician had sorted it. ditto with how rest of plant room works. When I told him a few weeks later I was moving in and had to have some ventilation he told me just to switch on at the spur and let it run on auto until he came back. must chase him up again I had hoped he would have come back by now. Once again your help much appreciated.

So we are in but not 'finished'. The last few days the house has been almost uninhabitable in the heat. The first few days we were freezing then weather changed now I am getting readings of 33 in my bedroom at 7pm at night. Living areas 30 degrees positively cool by comparison. It is far hotter inside than out. I have temp blinds at the windows and they must be helping. The glass is red hot. They MVHR has not been commissioned yet it is just running on a temp auto setting so I dont know if that makes a difference. It does have summer bypass facility but I dont know if that is operational on this temp auto setting. The boiler seemed to be permanently on (may account for the £300+ gas bill I have just received for the 3 months Jan-Mar when uf heat was put on low to cure the slab - nothing else but ufh and hot water runs on gas). I found the manual and have turned the boiler to summer setting, hot water only on a timer and so boiler is off now, the boiler was telling me water temp was 78F I turned it down to 65 maybe very high temp is why it hasn't fired up and heated any water since I turned it down, it was scalding coming out of taps before. Probably just diluting down to 65 now. The plant room/utility temp has dropped from 35 to 27 since I got the boiler off. I have problems with data cab so no phone and I have had to remove router and plug into bt master socket to get internet, it is very precariously balanced on top of the hot water tank. All this in a super insulated airtight MBC house, how I wish for the leaky 30 year old rental house where at least we could control things and actually live in it....oh and just to add joy to the day I find my very expensive white silicone render on the back of the house spattered with dark grey masonry paint where it must have splashed when they painted the back wall......and my 20 year old olive tree looks like its dying....... Please tell me things can only get better....2 years of absolute hell to get here and the two weeks we have been in have been very difficult in an awful lot of ways. Yes never again is on my lips!

I have cat cables everywhere........unfortunately the whole system is down and since moving in I have had variable access to internet and phone. There is a gremlin in the data cab and we have not found it yet!

Nick thank you so much. I have an isolation tap inside already. I will see if I can get a different plumber to come and do it. Thank you.?

It is actually a marine grade stainless steel garden tap and matches my other outside fittings. It is a special tap with two outlets and chosen for its design and finish. Stainless steel outdoor taps are not uncommon. Personally I hate the cheap brass screwfix look and do not want that bang outside my front door.

yep I am v upset about it

Thanks all. Its the garage wall he just drilled a hole right through there is no problem with access and wall. No watering system on that tap it will go off another in the garden (that tap is a mess too but less noticable). There is a drainage channel filled with gravel below so no problem there. Will another plumber know what to do if I get one out?

I have bought some very smart stainless steel garden taps. The plumber has fitted them whilst I was away, he has said this is the best he can do. I am horrified! Can anyone suggest where I can get some better fixings. There is a ss cover that goes over the tap end back to the wall to cover the join but he has not put that on, it would be in mid air in his set up. Looking for a new plumber too!