G and J

Natural fibres like wool are very good for temperature regulation. At least that’s what the smiling salesperson asserted when we signed up for a rather costly herdwick mattress. At that price I’m assuming it was made from real shepherds. So can we forget warm batteries now?

This sounds like a way forward. No, we did not lay ourselves, nor did we specifically ask the fitter to dry lay, mix boxes or look for repeats, but we didn't need to as they said they would when discussing beforehand and that's what they did. Only a couple of part tiles were moved, and this was only because they were very, very promenantly marked. For others reading, we chose to go to a large furniture store who actually had laid room size displays (on which they stood the furniture they were selling). Our installers had done similar in the showroom. This reinforced the need to choose a pattern/plank size we could live with. We then only used the small samples(1m x1m) to choose colours.

Our Amtico supplier/fitter provided the information when asked Our choice is both heavily patterned and embossed with a wood grain pattern. The format is 5 tiles (individual)in a 450mm square, so although there are repeats they are way less visible than they could be. Even then a couple of tiles were removed and repositioned during the process. At the end if the day they are not wood, and were bought with long term practicality considerations as well as aesthetics. Photo shows the initial laying out process (after the floor had ply and leveller) If you are really unhappy is it too late to change design now? Better that than live regretting it for the next ? years

Oh alrighty then, I won’t.

That all sounds reasonable. So only throw a blanket over more modern battery packs from reputable companies. Or better still, leave ‘em to do their own thing. I think the better ones come with little heaters to prevent battery temp going too low.

As already mentioned above. We had 60 odd square metres laid throughout upstairs. There is, unfortunately, a bit of a buyer beware thing going on here. The no. of designs vs planks info. is available, and then the style (planks vs small tile patterns) impacts how often you're going to 'see' the repeat. (We had to do similar research to make sure our 88sqm of porcelain tiles didn't suffer the sames issues). The design we chose is a small plank, this then changes direction regularly (broadweave), but even then, with 30 odd different face patterns, if you look closely enough over the whole area you can find a repeat, likewise the large format tile. Neither of them are, after all natural materials. So where you are now...... can you offer to pay a bit higher fitting cost to allow the planks to be dry laid and any "offending" repeats, in high visibility areas, be moved.

Was it machine gunned in a drive by shooting by an irate neighbour? lol

So, in my garage I have a dangerous incendiary device that requires an exclusion zone. Hmmmm. Should it say so on the outside? Some electrical devices do but not my Sunsynk battery. Should electric cars never be put under a cover?

So one should not insulate a solar battery?

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.

That’s true. When I laid the 120mm layer of polystyrene for our floor it snuck together beautifully tight and flat. The polystyrene has some spring in it so it could be cut to an interference fit and shoe horned in, lovely. The PIR in the other hand, was a bitch. Really nasty dust in the cutting, and however hard I tried still tiny gaps between the boards and to add insult to injury it sat there showing off how different thickness each board was. PIR. Just say NO! lol