MikeSharp01

Found this Bristan unit, comes in on budget as well.

Think I assumed it would be but its only for gravity fed systems anyway so its out as the feed is mains direct. Will keep looking but a quick look and it seems that I cannot get the two systems for the same cost as the Eltron unit although I will have to buy a thermostatic shower mixer tap and the spray head / bar unit.

No house there yet, possible long term but need to get the garden room up and running abut 18 months before house will be ready. It is TMV on the drawing. I suppose I could do this: Small DHW (15L) such as THIS for around £100 and a shower unit such as THIS for around £100 more would work out a bit cheaper than the Stiebel option but need more infrastructure! I will give it some thought.

of Coarse - course is faster, fewer turns to drive them in - 40% quicker and if collated you can bang through a box of collated screws in a few hours!

Ok - does that mean I need an automatic TRV in there - I keep coming up against them needing a minimum of 60deg for them to work and I won't come close to achieving that at a decent flow rate? The Eltron is a high (ish) end unit and has good temperature control so if I set it to an achievable temperature it should deliver it safely I believe and not overshoot. The flow rates for higher temperatures would be quite low - looks like around 4L/min for 4 deg in and 45 deg out and for 4 in and 60 out only 3 L/min. So I could set the temp to say 50 and then let the TRV control it down to 41 (ish) but if you open up the flow it will get significantly cooler! Yes its just the Garden room. It has two rooms and a wet room, sort of annez but more likely a studio. I could put an electric shower in, I don't have gas down to this building, but looking at the diversity, just one occupant perhaps most of the time, having a unit that does the whole job seemed like the sensible way forward.

For a couple of reasons I stayed home today and have, among other things, been working on the HW system for the garden room. I hit a slight problem, well two really and they are explained in the attached image. Essentially we are using an instantaneous hot water heater like the one @JSHarris uses. to provide HW there are three HW outlets one to the kitchen sink and two in the wet room - basin and shower. I am thinking, now that I have drawn it, I won't need a mixer tap and can rely on the heater to control the water temp. In other posts we have worked out that we can get the temperature we need provided the flow is not to high. I also wondered if having a simple control scheme that prevents water being drawn by the basin taps if there is any flow to the shower, might have value. I have found the bits I need for that but not sure if I am just over thinking this. Any thoughts and / or ideas? PS the drawing on the left is the physical layout from the floor ducts - under the kitchenette worktop.

You are right Dave - but at last things are turning down, house prices are down across London and SE this year. This is good because if the spread of the super rich continues London and the SE won't work because nobody, who the super rich need to service their life styles, will be able to live close enough to London to work there! People are already commuting routinely from Norwich and beyond. Unfortunately our political class have no interest in really sorting things so the country(ies) can be a fairer, more balanced, place while the Westminster bubble is maintained by tax payers money! If, while we slowly rebuilt the houses of parliament, we put the political classes - and parliament in a Portakabin city on the old Chemical plant sites in Middlesbrough they might get enough understanding of what it is really like to have the road to Damascus (not suggesting we send them there) conversion they need. (Rant over)

Not sure you can be a chippy and not have done these, even I - an amateur, have done them! Birds beak might work....as @ProDave says.

are they raw timber then? in which case good preservative, Cuprinol or similar, is the best you can probably do yourself. The green timber is treated under pressure!

Loos very tidy. Only do this if you intend NOT to walk on them. My reading tells me at least in theory that battens these days come in several categories and for roofing without sarking (Boarded out), which you can walk on anyway, you need the ones that come graded (Pink / green is it?) without faults and won't break - so you won't fall through. If you are making all of them you can thicken things up to help strength and remember how the grain runs to help strength again. If its a battery saw be prepared to recharge every length of two, specially if the timber is wet but Safety first.

Looks exciting, I guess as long as you can get consistent properties that can be verified cannot see why you could not build with it, you can with almost anything!

Thanks @nod I was going to do a course on this but think I will have a go at one wall and see how I get on as it looks like a job I should be able to do and it is another chance to buy some tools!

By top coat do you mean paint or an overal covering and scraping off of compound with a roller and 14" trowel? Other wise it sounds like a plan.

Yes I have a plan but I don't need a giraffe sander right now as the garden room is quite low but in the main house I will - you can spend of a grand on a good Festool! We may end up needing it at the same time!

You can get both T&G and square edge at 1200 x 2400 (See here for details)

Na..... just use 12mm Hardie Backer board - you could probably get away with 1200mm centres, no wonder you cannot buy it in the 1200 x 2400 sheets only smaller ones (1200 x 800) as the weight would be unmanageable on anything bigger!

Chilly for you and yours

Yes - thanks. I watched this video on the internals as I was not sure how best to do them - he makes it look easy - I will let you know how I get on next week.......

Yes, many thanks, any recommended brand(s) that I should use / steer clear of?

There is an argument for 400 centres based on achieving flatter walls with plasterboard but it must be marginal. I guess you need 400mm to meet the structural requirements around the larson truss system. There is also another argument based around the sizes of boards because OSB normally comes in 8 x 4 (2440 x 1220) while plaster board comes in at 2400 x 1200 which seems mad as to use the larger OSB boards you need, or it is implied that you need to, move out to 610mm centres!

You live local to John Smith's hallowed grave ..... How lucky are you. IIRCC it has a beer pump and free beer can be had on various anniversaries?

Taping and filling. Sorry should have made that clear - brain dead today.....

Just about ready to scrim / skim the drywalls in the garden room. Just need a steer on the best mud (plaster / filler) and perhaps a bit on coverage so I don't over order or miss out on potential price breaks. Do I buy ready mixed or powdered? I will also invest in a ROTAX for sanding / finishing as I don't yet have a large (ish) orbital sander. Any and all contributions accepted.

I have many neighbours and a footpath runs along the site edge, I have stopped telling people when I hope to finish as things are taking longer than I expected - most have now stopped reminding me. One family who were in a holiday rental last year and this did wonder how I was getting on as I had said I had hoped to be finished by next March - no chance. There are four or five regulars who stop for a natter, mainly now about other mad neighbours generally they are supportive and notice when I am not there commenting the next time they see me. It has its moments - last week I was installing the earth rod and I came across a large (10") iron cylinder I was uncovering it a couple (five doors down) wandered by and peered into the hole. I have have found this cylindrical thing down here I am just investigating perhaps, I said jokingly, its a UXB. She said "I lived in this area during WWII and this area was heavily bombed. I went much more gingerly and they marched off up the path at some pace! Needless to say it looks like it was some sort of drain pipe but very large. I try to fit in to the community as well, we will be neighbours when its finished, and do things for people, many of whom are elderly. So far I have delivered rubble, moved a heap of road stone, provided some timber for boarder edging and swept the end of the road where many of the loose stones, that form our road, had migrated out onto the main highway. I have even been invited to the WI coffee morning a few times!

Yes @Dyfed we are a self help community realy. Some of us have finished self builds, others are well down the track, some nearly finished and many, like you, just starting. Many are professionals in the trade or have engineering, academic and scientific backgrounds that means that there is info and, as are the nature of the challenges, on every stage of the project and even how to stay sain, and importantly safe, while doing it. I think we would all agree that self building is not for the faint hearted but it can be massively rewarding although not always financially. The big thing is you can have exactly what you, and your significant others, want within the normal constraints of site, planning rules where you want to build and of course your budget. Have a read of @JSHarris's blog - you can find a link on any of his posts. He did an MBC build 24 months or so back and there are others here a few weeks and a few months ahead of you. If you feel the need to contribute the BIG issue in all the passive house builds here is thermal control of the building and it's associated heating, ventilating, DHW and UFH all with their associated plant EG ASHP / GSHP / solar PV and thermal. One thing I think we all agree on is that there is no such thing as thermal mass but you can play with concepts of thermal inertia, decriment delay, solar gain etc to your hearts content.