G and J

I can remember thinking that about house lighting and the early home automation stuff. Years later here I am benefitting from hive control of a number of bulbs around the house as well as my heating system. But a toilet pan that opens it’s jaws like a waiting dragon as soon as I walk-in the room is just too much.

Whilst I agree with you in principle I am a bit obsessive so I can maybe take this too far… Ta for the steer. Will read up on what a cascade system is, then consult those references. But we are still not having a RobboBog.

It is a Sunday…. But if only I could get on with the build….

A few days ago J and I visited a high end kitchen and bathrooms showroom. The kind of place that should send out a defibrillator with every quote, just in case. Beautiful stuff, and we may well buy some stuff from them, but that won’t include the RobboBog. They proudly showed how, when one enters the bathroom, it automatically detects the presence of a potential user and opens the lid, lifts the seat, turns the mood lighting on and does a micro flush. I think the light is partly to help one find the remote control (you mean your potty doesn’t have one? Scandalous!). This remote sets off the water jets on the power wash for your bum, setting temperature and pressure, (please remain seated for the complete performance or have a floor mop ready) thence setting off the warm air drying cycle. It’s a wonderful demonstration of, in my opinion, how not every new idea is a good one. However, in even the most bonkers scheme a germ of a good idea could be lurking, and in this case it’s the micro flush, which does make the pan rather more teflon. The concealed cisterns I’m looking at have two buttons, a little wee flush and a big jobs flush. Does anyone know of a system with a manual micro flush third button. (Could we fund buildhub for decades by designing and patenting it?).

I’ve not finalised our design but I suspect I’ll end up using both. Our MVHR unit is going in our garage and then feeds the house in rigid through a small loft space and through a steel to a central point for downstairs (so probably manifold and flexi thereafter) and also in rigid to another central point in the loft for upstairs, (again thence probably small manifold). I read (and am still reading) lots and I’ve absorbed lots of info from biased and apparently unbiased sources and I’ve concluded I simply can’t trust one company to design me the best as they only use their own stuff. But each discussion and quote has yielded useful info. It does mean though that I take responsibility for the design and it’s successful operation.

+1. Can I come too. Please. Pretty please.

As for our main loft we’re thinking a cold loft, with lots of insulation laying on the plasterboard of the ceilings. We have limited headroom due to the ridge height being restricted and I hate chamfered rooms (are they known as dropped eves?) and so the loft is only good for solar pv kit and storage, and having cleared our previously overloaded with tutt loft where we now live we’re determined not to store stuff up there. I think a cold loft is the simplest and quickest and cheapest way of doing it, but when I get round to it I’ll weigh up cost and function of a warm loft too. Especially if it has no affect on room heights.

300mm is ideal but we won’t be silly about it. If there’s a really good reason to sacrifice some room space for better walls we will -better in this case meaning greater reliability and longevity, insulation is, as has been mentioned, capable of being ‘traded off’. So if losing 50mm made a big difference we’d do it. But I’d look for alternatives first.

My thinking is that a layer of ply or osb would give a better feeling of solidity, better acoustic performance, can be done by me so it’s only the cost of materials and it has the spin off benefit that one can hang stuff wherever (as I’m used to doing in my blockwork house). I’ve been told by a couple of peeps now that they are glad they did that, but I grant you, it’s not technically necessary. It’s so hard as we all have a natural tendency to view our own past decisions with rose tinted glasses.

The principle that an impermeable barrier is placed on the warm side so it doesn’t get condensation on it makes sense. The principle that there is only one impermeable barrier also makes sense, even if that barrier is double layered (e.g. plastic sheet and PIR). Which says to me the only safe option is to not have PIR outside my sheething layer. Are there practical alternatives?

So that’s a ‘maybe’ then, I think. 🤷‍♂️

So a build up like: 1. Skim 2. PB 3. OSB/ply 4. 140mm frame filled with rockwool 5. OSB3 6. water barrier membrane 7. PIR 8. Batten 9. Counter batten 10. Larch cladding Would potentially create a condensation pocket between layers 3 and 7. Fast forward to a rotten frame. Damn.

Good grief. I thought I had crap to deal with!

Fingers and toes crossed. I see it as a simple equation, listen+think+listen+check*think more=hope. I’m happy for our designs to be criticised, once I’ve stopped sulking I’d have learnt something or embraced new ideas. I though peeps were worried about privacy (so far our plans have only been seen by a very select few of just about everyone who cares to look at our planning application lol)

I think this means not having a plastic sheet directly behind my service void. I thought I had to have one. Do I?

Me too by the looks of things.

I’ll tell Julia you said so. In fairness our architect is brilliant in that they accepted we wanted to design it, they’ve tested the design firmly and respectfully, and they are truly working with us. Which is what the architect said when we interviewed him on site before engaging him. But me being me I want to be an informed decision maker partly to ensure that we aren’t unconsciously falling foul of other people’s prejudices.

Wow, brilliant, thank you Iceverge. I’ll use those as a starting point. I did read somewhere on here concerns about the permeable membrane being inside the PIR but other than that that build up might be perfect (with the addition of a 25mm service void for cables and a skin of ply or osb just under the PB).

I’ve wondered about that. It does appear that a lot of SIP based designs use lots of timber splines rather than SIP ones. However, I did also think that in comparing SIP and stick built each has the same timber framing round windows and stuff s that’s just the next problem to work, and therefore not highly informative in the making of the SIP/stick built decision. Spot on. I also only want it to rain at night. Oh, and be buildable within a sensible budget. 😉

I’ve not investigated concrete pouring options for ICF as yet, but I will if when I look at ICF it looks like we can get a suitably warm and thin build up. OK, guilty as charged, I am set on working out the best possible SIP design for us. I think I’m close enough now to revisit the base case which is stick built. Once I’ve repeated that process for stick built I’m thinking the choice will be obvious. We shall see!

We will give up room space if we really have to, but we’re not at that stage yet, and we think we’ve already optimised our layout for what we think our needs and preferences are. God help us! lol

I’ve noted that many peeps seem reticent about posting their plans so I haven’t posted so far, but I don’t see why not. Whilst I appreciate that we can trade off u values between different elements I'm taking the approach that by working each element we get the best info we can to fuel those trade off decisions, and as a spin off I’m learning tons of stuff too.

I’ve not spoken with an ICF company or a concrete delivery company but the fact that the boom would have to arch over electric cables would be a worry. My target is a total wall thickness of ~300mm (inc. 70mm of battening and cladding on the outside skin) and I’m under the impression that ICF would struggle with that. Stick built is the default option, I’m exploring alternatives in part as a validation exercise but I’m learning tons along the way. My investigations so far indicate that a SIPs on site blank panel build would use 175mm PU SIPs or 200mm EPS SIPs to yield a u value of better than 0.17. Cost wise, and this is very broad brush, (and includes walls, joists, chipboard flooring at first floor only), it appears that: 1. Get a company in to do the lot and it’s just over 100k. Game over. 2. Have a different company make it in factory and deliver it for me to erect and it’s about 52k. 3. Buy blank PU SIP panels and build it myself, buying in joists etc. from other suppliers will cost about 35k. Each of these options require a fire board skin, cladding, internal battening and osb/plasterboard (I want good solid walls). So, next step is to repeat the same process for stick built. At present I’m struggling to work out a stick built wall build up that yields a decent u value and the right thickness.

I did like the macerator plan when I thought the macerator would sit just above the main sewer manhole invert level. That way if I disconnect the macerator there would be no backflow, and I could even flush the small bore waste pipe with a hose connection. I know macerators can handle constant back pressure but everything goes wrong eventually and it’s not a good prospect if a load of filthy water escapes when dismantling. I appreciate that a pump station is a proper job but I think the notion of dealing with a failed pump in a manhole full of filthy water really doesn’t appeal either. I think it’s either put my potty on a 500mm pedestal or give up on having a potty.

A while ago I posted seeking thoughts on what was, and was not, likely to be a good idea for me to take on myself. I’m retired but still time poor and I want our build to not take forever and cost an ok amount, and have a warranty. Perhaps I’m being nervous but making my own sips would feel dangerous unless I used timber splines everywhere, in which case I’m back to being stick built. Goodness there are so many factors!