jack

I looked at this before we started looking at raft foundations. I recall it being interesting stuff, but very expensive. I think it's produced somewhere in Scandinavia.

I don't know all the ins and outs of combustion, but if something's burning to produce gas, surely it's consuming gas (ie, oxygen) to do so? Is there a net increase in the volume of gas, other than via expansion due to heat?

I don't think you'll get very much airflow at all if you close the inlet and boost the outlet, as you're largely extracting against a sealed box. All you'll do is lower the interior air pressure slightly and draw in small amounts of air from around windows and doors (the main relatively leaky points in most airtight houses). That's why standard advice is to shut off the MVHR rather than boosting etc. I've seen inlets with intumescent collars, the idea being that the duct will close when the heat gets high enough. But frankly by that stage your smoke detectors should have been going off for several minutes and you and your family should have left the house. Have a look at the different types of detector. Some are better at detecting different types of fires (eg, smouldering). Given your apprehension (natural given your experiences), consider going belt and braces with both types in or just outside each bedroom, plus kitchen, utility room and anywhere else you need. Consider whether you want a sensitive smoke detector in the kitchen though - too many false alarms.

No steel? Is it fibre reinforced? I'd have thought you'd need one or the other as an anti-crack measure.

Right, gone back to source (invoice). I knew it wasn't 22mm - it's 28mm, like you were using. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to work with the JG Speedfit stuff if it's noticeably stiffer than the Hep2O!

Actually, now I think about it, it's 32mm. Forgot this was for the ASHP runs

22mm Hep2O barrier.

Is it the same thickness/stiffness? I used barrier pipe for a long run from our ASHP and it's surprisingly inflexible. It also tenaciously wants to hold onto the curve it acquired while coiled up. Perhaps non-barrier would be the same, but I didn't use any of that myself, so can't say.

Perhaps oddly, the cheapest source for our Fakro roof windows was our local Travis Perkins (who we had a pretty good relationship with at the time). Also, Fakro's sales department were very helpful - might be worth a call to them to ask about distributors and who's likely to do them for the best price in your area.

Don't do it - that way lies madness!

"Finished" is a fascinating word, don't you think? We moved in just before Christmas. Our "let's take a few weeks off to refresh" turned into several months with very little getting done. We've recently turned up the wick again and have started working through our to do list.

Yep!

I remember this bit. Everyone wanted around £1000 every time we needed anything doing (and sometimes several rounds of £1000). Wait until the next bit when everyone starts wanting £5k every time you need something doing - and then the £20k round that follows!

Welcome to the swear-filter-less future! Glad you found us.

The Brink 400+ seems like overkill for a 96m2 house. We have that model for a 289m2 house! You could go for the 300 or even the 180 model: http://cvcdirect.co.uk/Whole House Ventilation/renoventexcellen.html One good thing about the Brink units is that the filters can be vacuumed and reused. When that's no longer effective, you can just replace the filter medium yourself, as it's simply installed onto a rectangular wire frame that can presumably be reused.

I think I did about every 300-400mm on ours. Seems fine. Hmm, they didn't glue ours. Wish I'd asked them to now! It's possible that the couple of squeaks I've detected aren't actually floorboards. I've assumed so just because of how localised they are.

We screwed most, but not all, of our power-nailed 22mm OSB upstairs floors. The areas where we didn't add screws have already developed a couple of minor squeaks after a year. Thankfully it's mainly the guest bedroom, which I'll only rarely have to go into again once we move back into our bedroom when the ceiling's been replaced. We used these: http://www.screwfix.com/p/spax-flooring-screws-4-5-x-60mm-300-pack/88716 They use a special bit (supplied) that doesn't slip. They drive in very nicely with an impact driver.

Nick's sense of humour?

We have a few 50mm flex conduits running between places that might want more wiring in the future, they're just not where I need/want them (or course)!

+1 to more cables. I tried to do this and yet there are already a couple of runs I wish we'd made that we didn't. There's virtually no point trying to do this now, as the missing runs are long and would require too much disruption. Someone (Prodave perhaps?) suggested putting a "liftable" section of flooring along the edges of halls and any part of a room to where you might want to run things. It's much easier to lift that and run things through the floor, than trying to get into the walls or ceiling (especially if, like us, you don't have a loft above the insulation).

We used that stuff too - amazing it can stick to plastic like that. Tiler would have been happy with PVA P.S. - What is it with the building trade and putting bloody PVA in/on everything? Concrete, paint, plaster, as a base coat for every single thing in the build? It's like they all get given shares in a PVA factory when they join the trade!

You're probably better filling it to the brim and covering the cap with a wet towel. More fuel = less temperature rise for a given amount of heat, plus no oxygen in the tank to allow combustion. I'd do this in conjunction with the screen ideas above.

Welcome back!

Agree completely with Terry. I'm someone who tends to get extremely annoyed by unfairness or injustice. I once took a day and half off work to attend a hearing regarding the return of £30 of my rental deposit because the estate agent involved was wrong and was being a dick (the actual hearing was 1 minute, because the other side didn't actually bother attending on the second day when they actually got around to hearing my case!) However, at the time, I wasn't trying to build a house. There are so many more constructive things you could do with your time and energy that won't make you even angrier or risk relationships with neighbours and the council going forwards. What happens when you inevitably need to do something slightly against the rules during the build? For example, we had to have a couple of hiabs unload through the lower branches of a tree with a TPO. And we took down a section of tree protection fencing early. If you've annoyed your neighbours and the council, you've potentially generated a set of spies with a grudge, and an enforcer with a grudge. What happens if after all the pain and energy you lose? What if you think it's unfair that you've lost? I think there are battles to have and those to avoid. You'll have plenty of battles during the build, many of which you can't avoid. Consider saving your energy for those. That said, if you do decide to go for it, I wish you all the very best.

Same here. We have a Panasonic monobloc. The unit itself is very high performance and good value. But as soon as you get into accessories it gets eye-watering! Pre-plumbed cylinders were more than twice the cost of a much better insulated equivalent from a third party (and there was no way of getting better insulation on the Panasonic one).