mickeych

Well done and best of luck. To mis-quote Donald Rumsfelt, it's the unknown unknowns that seriously affect turning an agricultural building into a house!

No they don't when the outside temperature is 28 😉

Not really. We leave them on auto so if the temperatures drop in the upstairs bedrooms they cut in which is very rare. We had some teething issues in the summer getting them to work effectively, but once they were properly sealed into the ductwork they worked a treat reducing the temperature in the bedrooms to 18 from 28 very easily. They are currently set to run at a fairly low speed to not be intrusive and have not needed to boost them so they are doing what we designed them to do.

That makes 2 of us and we have built it and have been living in a very airtight build with MVHR now for 5 months now. The costs to run the ASHP have been similar to the 2 bedroom cottage we were living in on site whilst building and what is immeasurable is the lack of a need to open a window. We always said that we probably would open windows, as I did not truly believe that MVHR could take the fresh external air and make it 'fresh' but we just haven't needed or wanted to. Living in a well sealed box with air fed from a system might sound crazy, but it is a complete gamec hanger. We have a large footprint with only 2 upstairs bedrooms we have UFH on the ground floor with FCU's in the bedrooms and we have not felt too cold or too hot. It all just works and we barely think about it.

Back in June I had AB in before 1st fix of and we started with a 9+ which they said was fairly 'standard' for a good barn conversion. They got down to a 3.6 after a couple of hours and a lot of fiddling with some of the more tricky areas like original ventilation slits which we had glazed but inside a tanking membrane. They made a few recomendations and we had our final Air Test today having paid a good deal of attention to penetrations etc and very happy to see that we are down at 1.77. Definitely worth the money and effort in my opinion although as @Nickfromwales says, the gunk makes a hell of a mess and I did have to spend a good deal of time clearing it off the screed before the tilers were happy to tile which was a pain.

Thanks all. That is superb, we have been fairly organised so far, and to the fair the BC guys have been very good to date, I'm just itching to get sign-off!

We waved goodbye to our Principle Designer at an earlier stage of the build and we are now approaching completion and lining things up for BC completion sign-off. Is there are a definitive list of reports and tests that we will need for this? We have kept BC aware of design changes and agreed the various SAP and build estimated reports that we would build to as we have gone along, but now wondering for example if we are going to need an airtightness test and final SAP report for completion? (We used Aerobarrier, so have a final result from them regarding air tightness, but not sure whether this would be valid for BC???) Any ideas and input very welcome.

Agreed with @ETC we tranformed a damp badly insulated old stable conversion with a decent PIV (with heater for the colder weather). In the loft no external vents just 1 internal vent on the landing. MVHR (which we have in our main conversion) is what the poorly informed window sales person was talking about.

We have installed 2 NuAire MR ECOBOX systems in the house and trying to work out what controls we need as they are at opposite ends of the building. Anyone have any experience of these units and how we can make them communicate work together?

We had chosen to use 2 Nuaire MrBox ECO units with the built in actuators in to keep the amount of ducting to a minimum. Due to a mix up with the installer when we were installing the second unit we realised that we needed an Opposite Hand version of the unit. We contacted the distributor (Fastlec) who told us that there would be a 30% handling fee to swap the unit we had for a correct one. After some to and fro with them negotiating with Nuaire this was reduced down to 20% (£600) as a handling fee (even though we also have to ship it back to them at a cost of £200. Am I being naive to think that, at best, this is rubbish customer service and at worst sharp practise? 2 quick lessons from this: 1. Double and triple check which way you need your ducting. 2. Don't use Nuaire unless you really have too!

I'm also getting close to the reclaim process. A couple of questions. Our build is a barn conversion that has to be invoiced at 5% and then the 5% is reclaimed. We have been working on a cost plus basis with a main contractor who has invoiced VAT at 5% every month. He has provided every invoice that he has paid over the course of the build to substantiate the costs. Does anyone know if I can just submit the main contractors monthly bill or will I need to enter in the invoices that the main contractor has paid (which were invoiced to him not me).

I bought an ex-hire mobile welfare unit from auction and it has been a lifesaver. No need to hire a toilet, (for 15 months) a place for the guys to have some lunch other than their vans, and the gene coped perfectly for the 4 or 5 1/2 days of power outages that we have had since we started where the crew have have run lights and a number of power tools off (not sure how if it really is only charging the battery?) Admittedly after 15 months of 6-8 people on site each day, the toilet door is falllng off and the seating area is now being used to store the guys tools, but even that has been a blessing. Once we have finished in about 3 months, I'll have it serviced (and the door mended!) and resell it for what I paid for it (i hope!)

We've got a total of around 250sqm of internal and external tiling to do and my contractor is wanting to sub it out to his chosen team. They will no doubt be top notch and efficient, but they come at a high price plus we pay our contractor a management fee on top so this really starts to rack up. Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions as to an appropriate cost for a team of tilers to come in and blitz this place in March? We have tiles but will need de-coupling mat, adhesive and grout to be supplied (or we can order)

Agreed - most of the suppliers give it fancy names like Aragon, or Castille. £60/M for 'real' Portland stone sounds like a steel though

I'll agree with that.