G and J

Was it difficult to find soft furnishings to coordinate? 😉 Being serious why 18mm OSB? Is that directly behind your service void just inboard of your frame?

I’m building timber frame and I’ll be putting a vapour control layer inboard of my studs and that will be part of my airtight strategy. I’ll use Tony trays to maintain the layer between floors though I’ve yet to fully get my head round the precise detail, partly as I have an offset upstairs frame. Im not sure I’d get any benefit from vapour block OSB and it sounds more expensive.

Is the idea that the hole enables you to have a first hand look at the depth? 😕

I do like a long bath with, of course, music, and I do like laying there with my head under water. I’ve looked at bath speakers before and instead I have gone for the cheap option of earphones. This time I’ve got some bone conduction ones, so I can wear them when exercising without destroying them - they’re supposed to be ok to swim in. They are great to listen to as I lay there with my head out of the water, more comfortable than in ear types. Today, (yes, bath night already, that month went quick!), I did my normal thing, long soak, take my phones off to immerse, but I hooked them over the side of the bath and accidentally left them running. Only to find that underwater I could hear the music at a good volume and beautiful quality. So I will be installing a steel bath and I won’t be spending out on special speakers. It’s amazing what one doesn’t know that one doesn’t know.

And that’s an organisation who it appears, at least to me, habitually oversized heat pumps….

So roughly ignore the worst two days each year.

But what should we sensibly dimension for? We’ve known -15C in Suffolk once, many years ago methinks. But if I dimensioned for that I’d over engineer it.

I follow a different procedure. 1. Look at the job. 2. Wonder why I’ve not done it already. 3. Think about all my failings, including failing to decide what to have for lunch. 4. Realise I’m hungry. 5. Discard tools (to be cleared up much later if ever) and stick nose in fridge….

We certainly intend to get a cylinder with a coil specifically for a heat pump, but heating slowly might conflict with the idea of heating in bursts using the two or three low rate tariff periods each day. I think that reinforces the case for a solar diverter or a battery (but not both).

I use Makita 18v so when I needed one I bought a basic Makita 18v SDS. I’ve just looked it up, it’s 2joules. It’s a lot heavier than my other drills but it has a lot of up h so for DIY I feel it’s more than powerful enough. It does eat batteries though. I also bought a cheap 13mm chuck which means I can use all my drill bits and tank cutters in it, saved me no end of time over the last 5 years. https://www.makitauk.com/product/dhr202.html

Crumbs. I’m glad I live in Suffolk!

It feels to me like there are more and more instances of regulations being added for the 0.1% of cases, as we don’t, as a society, take a balanced view. Instead each instance is driven by litigation prevention. Sigh. So we pick our way through, complying with everything, but still trying to build as best quality we can despite the regulations.

I’m hoping (having read round the subject lots) for a COP of 4+ on DHW, even better on heating. I think that turns your water heating cost of £255 per year into less than £65, reducing the payback period considerably. How long are you staying in your house and what’s your guess re future lecky prices? I like the plate exchanger idea but I’d shy away from having another pump and more stuff to go wrong. But I’m tight so I’d try v hard to sell the cylinder.

I’m 62. We will be starting the build soon. I too have periodic chronic CBA Syndrome. In 9 years I’ll be 71. Oh god, I see my future…. I wonder where my paint pot will live?

I believe that with that small a coil you’ll need a high flow temp from your heat pump to heat water effectively. That will hit your COP hard and I presume the extra load on the heat pump would increase noise and wear. Maybe some form of heat exchanger may work better but it still might be simpler and easier (and who knows maybe even cheaper) just to accept the tank replacement as part of the cost of boiler replacement.

Our main sewer pipe invert level is only 500 mm at the front of our plot and the required falls mean that gets less near the house. The paver over the drain looks like a bloody good idea regardless - is it just laid there and then covered up or is it cemented in place?

But in all things I lay awake thinking…… So if the no concrete slab/screed idea works with well enough compacted hardcore stuff then that means (I think) that I could do a hand mixed concrete layer on top of the compacted stuff to then put insulation then floated wooden floor on. I’ve been thinking I needed proper poured concrete which will be sill expensive to pump the circa 75m from the road. I guess I’m thinking more like a string oversite than a slab. I wonder…..

My 25m2 garden building doesn’t have to comply with regs and we won’t be throwing money at it as it is just a man cave, but I still want it nice and useable. This idea would solve my ‘getting concrete down the bottom of the garden after we’ve built the house’ problem. I’m keen.

So a total wall build up of maybe just shy of 500mm and a u value I would guess just better than building regs. Not something I’d be pleased with. Block outer skin helps mortgagabilty, but quite a few lenders are taking against external wood cladding even on block. If going block on block then I would think standard block-insulation-block-plaster type would yield a cheaper build with a nicer feel.

I think you’ve just solved a dilemma I have with my pigpen (man cave, thing). Brilliant.

Ah - do you mean ‘cooked’ stripes in the carpets. That does not sound good.

Is that to ensure that there’s enough strength in the floor ‘skin’ to stiffen it nicely? If so a floating layer of flooring won’t help. Presumably that extra strength could come from an extra layer under the routed OSB just as much as it could on top, perhaps improving the thermal performance.

If these are fink trusses then I can only be guided by my recent discussions re truss options for our build. The pertinent point from that is that fink trusses are brilliantly efficient compared to other types, efficient in the sense that there are lots of other options but all of them require a lot more timber in the cords of the trusses. I’m guessing you are talking about removing the bracing which would scare me to death especially given the above. I’m assuming you don’t wish to pay a structural engineer just yet, though you will surely have to. Maybe worth getting a specialist room in the roof company to give you a quick view re feasibility - might be a way of getting an idea without committing funds.

Just for info we are in the same LPA as @Alan Ambrose We have submitted A preapp, with response within timescale (just) A full planning app (demolish bungalow/build house), that following the need to redo the 21 day consultation period, took 1 week from receipt to validation, 14 weeks from validation to decision A NMA application is currently in train, validated day of receipt The full planning app and NMA app was undertaken by local (known) architect, everything was available at outset Broadly same scale as house next door one side, but will be only timber clad property in road and borders conservation area so not an absolute slam dunk. Not sure what all that tells anybody but.......

I would suggest posing the question from a different angle. What exactly are you planning to build and what factors are you focussed on? Overall cost? Wall thickness (or thin-ness)? DIY-ability? etc….