G and J

Also just to mention, our timber frame supplier (no insulation provided) is a member of the STA and our warranty provider (and B regs) just asked for their calculations etc.

If you ventilate it well to keep it nice and dry then unless you heat it at times it will be flippin freezing. If your solar batteries are the main issue then is it worth just insulating them? I presume they need a bit of ventilation to keep them from overheating in summer? So maybe throw a blanket over them in winter?

I imagine it would be quite difficult to get a reliable cost comparison between factory fit and on site fit. I get the convenience, erection speed and possible quality improvement over on site PIR fit. But until such things become the norm and competitive pressures push down prices I’d worry about the extra cost. But then, I’m a tight wotsit.

I do like a puzzle. And the scaffolding is wide enough to lay down for a snooze in the afternoon sun…

That’s probably a better idea than going to see Alan’s piles. 😉

It’s on the todo list. I’ll soon be whacking on the vertical battens. Horizontal soon after that. The cladding takes a remarkably large amount of time.

We’re using very short studs on our build lol Our upstairs panels were delivered without breather membrane as the flanks had to be clad first in cement board. So when we put the membrane on I just marked enough to level from.

Ummm, I haven’t taped all the other acreage of breather membrane. Bit late now as most of it is safely covered. It’s all carefully lapped as per, but not taped. Should I add it to the list of tumble dryer thoughts I enjoy at night?

I didn’t realise that was an option. Rolly and I manually erected our frame so that would have stressed the PIR fill so wouldn’t have worked for us anyway but for normal builds where a crane is used I can see that addressing all the in-frame PIR fitting issues.

Grey silicone on white sanitary ware would irritate me more than white silicone on grey tiles. Done well the white silicone could look like part of the shower tray and almost disappear from one’s notice. But don’t do aesthetics, J does. One has to recognise one’s pay grade lol

Is that because they are specifying it but not installing it? In a calculation, PIR makes a wall build up seem great from a thickness/u value perspective. So at the point of buying a timber frame it helps the sale. We took the view that a few inches off room sizes was an ok price to pay for a nicer ‘sounding’ house with still reasonable wall insulation. Your architect may be different, but most (it appears to me) never build stuff. Shredded paper looks good on websites, but one lesson from our build is that doing non standard stuff is like pushing a pebble uphill with your nose. Fighting that one through for airtightness was worth it. Given the properties of mineral wool which is widely available and understood I would struggle to build a case for cellulose. But it’s a good talking point over canapés I guess. I really must find out what a canapé is lol

Sorry, forgot to post this. Exhibit A : one wrinkly membrane…

Fairs fair though, you are building a 3 underground storey defcon 1 bunker system. At least I assume you are at those lengths. And wow, our whole house isn’t as tall as your smallest pile.

I (G) did hours and hours of working through options for wall build ups. Drove J, the architect and a lot of buildhub dudes mad with my endless ‘what ifs’. In the end the conclusion surprised me. Getting the most wall insulation is not paramount. Adding insulation underfloor and in the loft is easy. Improving airtightness (don’t get me started) is massively more important than absolute wall u value. Glazing further undermines the benefit of excessive wall insulation. So then decrement delay (ask a nearby grown up to explain that one) and sound attenuation become the driving factor. Had I known what a bugger PIR is to work with I’d have factored that in too, but I didn’t back then. Frame batts (not roll as it falls out) is nicer to work with too. Just don’t push too much in. And don’t ask me why unless you’re wearing ear defenders lol

Absolutely this drove us, (we had a previous room in roof (done by others) and the result was not great) and then we found it really easy to work with. Used the frame therm batts as others have described.