Digmixfill

I'd be very interested to hear how you got on with this, and what the cost was?

Obviously i've been looking at this with my irregular cavity in mind, but it should fill all of the void and would give a large difference in u value over blown bead for the same cavity size. I thought it would be particularly useful for people with an old slim 50mm cavity to fill. @Onoff i did look at icynene but i didn't spot any DIY option with them. Edit: It's about 4 times the cost of dritherm 32.

I've come across two spray PUR offerings a couple of times while searching for things insulation. DOW froth-pak Foamseal On the surface they seem like they'd be useful. Good insulation values, closed cell, DIYable. What's not to like? Is there a reason (other than cost) that they're not a popular choice for DIY?

With the 110mm in place there is plenty of room for me to slide a length of 22mm foam pipe insulation over the water pipe once it is in place.

Put the 110mm pipe and bend in over the weekend. A test piece of water pipe goes through without too much force.

I'm looking at the trenching needed for the water supply into the building. My supply is from a well so i don't need to comply with utility requirements, but i'd like to have something in place that could be used for mains if needs be. Most of the details i'm turning up suggest a minimum of 750mm for the trench holding the pipe. Some form of ducting through the foundations and insulation in the ducting if the pipe penetrates the floor at less than 750mm from the edge of the building. What i haven't managed to determine yet: Does the supply pipe have to penetrate the foundations at 750mm? How much insulation is needed in the ducting?

They've not had at a car here yet, but they once made quite a mess of a corner of a tin shed that they seemed interested in. @JSHarris I've got temperate and humidity records. Just had a quick scan through the database and the min and avg recorded temperatures between August and March for the past 5 years are: 2014-2015 min -2.9 avg 14.36 2015-2017 min -3.0 avg 13.23 2016-2017 min -3.8 avg 9.46 2017-2018 min -7.4 avg 11.74 2018-2019 min -5.3 avg 15.16

My better half needs no real reason to add £K to anything. Her point is reasonable though. When a badger wants into something they can make quite a mess of things. The ground here is pretty moist marl. If i were to install a ground loop it would be straight pipe about 5ft deep. I've got a few years worth of recoded temperature and humidity, it might be useful for some ASHP number crunching. Are the above ASHP COP figures of 4@7°C and 2.8@-3°C sensible to work with and achievable with an average install? (By average i mean one that isn't specifically tuned to achieve maximum figures)

Now that our floor has 200mm of insulation i'll need to rework the calculations, but originally it was proposed that we needed a 10kW GSHP. Installation costs won't be a factor because i'll self install for either. I'm right in the middle of the fence regards one over the other. SWMBO is on the side of the GSHP at the moment. She thinks the ASHPs look a bit flimsy and wouldn't fare well against a badger etc.

I'm going to have underfloor heating and am still undecided on ASHP or GSHP to feed. Periodically i hunt around for new learning and make some notes here and there. Hunting around this morning i came across this pdf from Kensa. GSHP vs ASHP V4 "Conclusion ASHPs appear to be a straightforward and easy technology for salesmen to “box shift”. There is a lack of expertise of those selling and installing ASHPs – and this extends to those that are buying them because the technology has been “over-sold”. In practice, GSHPs are likely to be the better choice, for the longer time, in most applications." ASHP must be competing favourably.

The 10mm movement joint for the base slab is in the floor detail on my plans.

Yes. Just an expansion piece for the base slab. 200mm of insulation to go on top of the base slab. Above that will have whatever the maximum width of insulation i can use around the perimeter of the heated top slab.

Done some today. I think i've found something that foam doesn't completely stick to! It's grabbing well enough to keep it in place though, so good enough for me. Cleaned and wetted the wall, foam to back of PE and then propped a plank up with blocks and wedges.

Excellent news. ? I've already got the soudal low expanding foam and gun. It's ability to stick to everything whether needed or not gave me the thought that it might work for the PE foam. Wetting will be covered, I was planning on spraying the substrate with water to remove the dust and whatnot beforehand. Did you leave the foam to go off for a few minutes before sticking your boards? Which spray contact adhesive did you utilise for the DPM in the reveal? I can see that being useful later on. Those coat hangers are, umm, novel.

I'm at the point where i need to stick PE expansion foam around the perimeter ready for the DPM and base slab. I've got a few places where it will cover rough edged bricks and some broken concrete edges, so probably going to be a pain to adhere to. Will low expanding foam be suitable for sticking the PE foam in place or am i going to need to buy something specific for the job?

I'm just as bad. For some reason i don't get alerts for posts, so i don't check the site as often as i should... I've got something similar along one wall where the underpinning is a bit high. I'm of the same mind, but when i enquired with building control about increasing insulation by dropping the thickness of hardcore & lower slab they didn't offer changing the blinding layer, or even comment on it. I've done nearly 40sqm so far. That's roughly half way. If it is to change it's now or never.

I'm sure it varies by sand type, but in my case it's compressing by about 1/5th in height.

@Onoff Is that a concrete edge to the top and right of that room? If it is, did you EPS that also? I don't think i can subtract any EPS blinding from my total. There's another slab before my floor insulation. I have a picture here showing construction. floor construction The hardcore and lower slab are now 100mm and the insulation is 200mm.

Fortunately i've not got anything to worry about movement wise. All the internal perimeter base blocks are solid concrete and they're filled between them and the 9 inch external walls. Three internal walls are 9 inch load bearing too. I don't think i've been too enthusiastic. Six passes with the plate have so far compacted the mot1 sufficiently. My plans have 50mm, but I'm more than happy to barrow less :) 25mm EPS is i nice idea, but the prices i have for 8ft boards make it much more expensive than sand. a LOT less barrowing though!

I've started to barrow in the hardcore for my floors, and very pleasing it is too to finally see something other than dirt 130mm is whacking down nicely to 100mm. I don't seem to be able to turn up any info on sand compaction. How much sand do i need to put down to have a 50mm layer after compacting?

The only thing i've come up with so far that might help is to cut out slots in the brickwork to reduce the size of the bridge. Just had a quick look through the details in the pdfs and didn't spot anything. The pdfs themselves are useful though

The existing 9 inch solid brickwork on our building has two walls that form what will be our hallway. If i build to the drawings i'll build the cavity wall up to these and leave the cold bridges in place. Anyone have suggestions for these that i can think about?

Having the opening wider and trued up with plasterboard make sense. ? As i've got 9inch external leaf i'm hoping to attach to the external. I can decide which way to fix when offering the frames up.

I'm starting to look at putting blocks up above dpc and some of the openings i'm lining up with are anything but true vertically. Concave, convex and slanted are all in the mix. How best to align the sides of new opening with the old? I've considered the widest point, the narrowest point and the distance between the average of each side so far.

Had a conversation with a BCO today. Insistent that the lower slab stays but i can reduce it and the hardcore to get double the insulation in. :)