G and J

Have you decided what build method/system to use?

I think peeps like architects mean well by suggesting companies that they’ve witnessed successfully building for others before, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best fit for your project/attitudes/budget/desires. It seems that finding a good solution involves a lot of dead ends, and that’s lead me to believe that good decisions are fuelled by pursuing each dead end as if it’s the best thing since sliced bread, until it’s proven to be bogus. I can’t comment on that company, and those that can can only do so from the prism of their own experience, but I would urge pursuing multiple solutions simultaneously. If nothing else I believe it accelerates the learning process.

Sorry, does not pass muster. Way too much maintenance polishing that bell. I presume that’s one of these modern ‘Ring’ doorbells everyone is talking about. 😉

Sorry to lower the tone but down at our end of town we won’t have a plant room, we will have a rather forward thinking plant encapsulation system (a.k.a. a little cupboard at the end of the garage). We’ve streamlined our data centre, patch panel and comms distribution system, it’s now called a Wi-Fi router. We’ve also recalibrated our multi functional audio-visual experience system and using the latest 2018 technologies we’ve managed to cover all the current state of the art functions with a smart tv and sound bar. Oh and we’ll have one of those new fangled DAB radios too. We’ve pushed the home automation system boat out massively in that we will have a couple of hive bulbs so some lights come on when we are away in our campervan. Through dedicated use of exactly what we do already we won’t have any cat anything cables or PoE either so we will save a few bob too. We will however, most importantly, have a whizzy coffee maker. But not in the plant suite.

Why need it be any different than a join in plasterboard? Especially if both sides are firmly supported and the same technique is applied to the edge of the vent as the normal pb joins? I imagine getting a nice sharp edge on the circle might be more challenging.

So the developer simply didn’t think of peeps building sideways I guess. Either way such covenants can be released so if I were a planner I’d not rely on them. I can see your desire, and in your shoes I’d probably think of that too. But the trouble with this stuff is that peeps are inspired by others getting permission so from a planning perspective I guess they have to think that granting one thing will lead to others doing stuff that then can’t be refused but which may not be so good. We bought some field behind us for extra garden, then abetted neighbours doing the same. For decades after we all lived happily with big gardens. Then houses changed hands to peeps who think gardens should be wall to wall with extensions, sheds, gazebos, hot tubs, and everything else one associates with such an outlook, clearly “the only way is….” Oh, what did we inadvertently start?

Sorry to be a party pooper but if I understand correctly your extension will stick out way beyond the current front building line of the row of houses behind yours. So if you walk towards your house up the road behind you you will see a neat set of aligned frontages and then your extension sticking way out. I would have expected a flat ‘no’ on such an application, partly as it would establish a precedent to all the houses behind you to extend toward the road (feel free to guess why this comes to my mind as we contemplate moving from our hitherto rural idyll!). If that extension was single story it would reduce the impact on the road compared to a two storey extension, but if I lived behind you I’d be planning what I’ll then build on my frontage.

Au contraire. You lack the vision and creativity of an architect. Imagine how impressed your friends will be to ascend half a staircase then clamber over a banister to finish the climb. No one else will have a feature like it. 😉

I’m either zoning in on the final details of our wall build up…… or…… I’m spiralling inwards until I disappear up my own rear end…. only time will tell (often at the moment it feels like the latter!). I do know that we will be having a layer of PIR on the inside of our frame, covered by a VCL, then a service void then plasterboard or habito or fermacell. But I don’t need a service void everywhere, in fact I’ve whole walls without a socket or switch, which leads to my question: Can I, and if I can, is it a good idea, to put up the plasterboard without battens? i.e. straight onto the top of the PIR? I presume not, but my assumptions may seem logical to me but keep being proven to be completely bogus. If so I can use more PIR, which is the motivation.

Sounds familiar !

So maybe, being hard nosed about it, I use the PH stuff to improve our design as much as practical within budget and simply enjoy the comfortable result.

I wonder how an estate agent would view a PH certified house versus an identical uncertified house.

I guess this is like the difference between having aircon in a car and climate control. I’m thinking climate control for the house which would require control of both the MVHR and the ASHP from a single unit. But that sounds like (yet another) budget buster.

I’m seriously looking at a Zhender unit. I’m now thinking the ASHP and the MVHR need to be linked.

Ah, so the summer bypass kicks in automatically? Presumably you can set threshold settings? Summer bypass on = external temp is greater than y degrees AND internal temp is greater than external temp

Yep, agreed. So my earthwool type insulation will work just as well if it’s got a good airflow over it? The other attraction of a sealed roof was the exclusion of insects, messy things.

Getting a bit confuddled here. If your ASHP is in cooling mode do you somehow disable the summer bypass so that the air you’ve spent electricary cooling isn’t promptly ejected? I think the MVHR will cool the incoming air if the heat exchanger is engaged and the extract air is cooler than the intake air.

We are having a cold roof, and we are going for as airtight as I can manage. I’ve been boiling my brain about the roof space. I’m familiar with a fully ventilated roof, I’m sitting under one as I type, and I’m reading on here about ventilation ‘airwashing’ insulation and reducing its efficiency. As a result I started to wonder if a breathable ‘felt’ would remove the need for full loft ventilation. So I was dead chuffed when I found this post…. in this thread…. Before I get too carried away, is this allowed in Blighty nowadays?

So, to do the job properly would require industrial vent plant. Not going to happen. If it’s not worth the piddling extract airflow I’d achieve with an externally venting cooker hood then I might as well just muddle through with a recirculating cooker hood and save myself a cold utility room., relying in the MVHR air change to remove stinky smells. Simples.

Can tell difference.......was the larch sioox treated? If not would be interested to see how weathering differs from @Kelvin in a few months...........ideally we would not sioox but the nature of the plot (ie not open) means the north (1.5 m from neighbour/ south (1m gap) sides will not get the exposure of the west/east......minimal windows on north/south and cladding only on first floor/render beneath but.....

And can you hear them when they are running?

As someone who also bears the scars from looking in pans and forgetting cooker hoods….. Odd methinks that pretty much every kitchen design I’ve ever seen has open areas either side of the hob. Thinking of the shape of a basic fume cupboard wouldn’t we be better served with the hob boxed in? Got to be wide enough for handles but surely that would help.

Will be interested in what you find..........Russwood is about 11 hour drive so will go at some point but.......didn't realise we almost drove past the door on the way home from a scottish campervan trip in May Stunning......if we could have that profile would be a done deal!

Thanks for the pictures......looks great! For where we are now would be perfect, but new place is more urban........ Would be interested in seeing the thermopine........in the pictures Russwood have it looks good, but the worrier in me is concerned that the images show boards with fewer knots........

Oh. You mean I won’t be able to continue enjoying the aroma of curry night for several days after. I’m going off this MVHR malarkey….. 😉