ryfly

Thanks, the reason for the battens is I can get a very good price on 100mm but not so much on 125mm PIR (almost double, would be 100mm and 25mm separately) If going down the no batten route does both the PIR to concrete and PIR to floorboards need glued/adhesive or can anything float? I was hoping to go for a "dry" construction method as far as possible

Looking to do a partial garage conversion on a new build integrated garage so the dogs have somewhere to sleep. Existing internal door from utility room with a 150mm step down into the garage. I'm planning to partition off with a stud wall. To bring the garage finished floor level up with the house I was thinking 100mm PIR boards, ~25mm thick battens at 400mm centres topped with 22mm thick floorboards. Concrete screws to secure battens and PIR to the concrete floor and then screw the floorboards onto the battens. Any issues with this approach? Specifically, is inch thick battens sufficient and do I need a DPM under the PIR (on top of concrete)? Any suggestions for alternatives if this is rubbish? Thanks

Not a lot unfortunately, just the metal back boxes and their respective cable entries There's a foil layer behind the plasterboard, it looks similar to what's on the outside of the timber frame in the cavity between timber frame and block (Fast house protec thermo tf200). I'm not sure what the insulation is, I've never seen the buildup of the actual walls. Do you have any suggestions for how to find out? As best I can tell from outside-In. Render, block, cavity, protec thermo tf200, main timber frame with insulation, another foil layer (maybe the same thermo tf200 maybe something else), service void, plasterboard. No solar panels, I would guess that houses in NI will score better than mainland due to less stringent insulation requirements, although I may be wrong. They were updated about a year ago to be more inline with mainland UK but takes a while for new houses to be built to latest specs - anything with planning permission before release of the newer specs is given grace. Absolutely, it's just something I'm interested in so want to make small improvements wherever I can. I'm not in the house yet but would hope that you're right! It's fully built and completed. I can't upload many pics here due to the size limit, but I've added an external pic of the in progress build and a few internal ones here - obviously I don't have anywhere near this level of access still! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BnYxMUQApHUmg8jBVfSBg8B8tSaM_n43

Thanks everyone for the overwhelming response so far! I'll try to answer all the questions, apologies if I've missed anything! I can borrow a thermal camera from work so that's high up my list. How would I go about setting up energy monitoring? Not currently in the house so can't comment on heating costs just yet, but want to reduce them as much as practicable. Feeling the pain that if I got in a few months sooner I could've expected (and paid for) a much higher performing building, rather than fighting for marginal gains now. I'm not sure of frame thickness, I guess I can estimate next time I'm at the house by measuring the total thickness of the walls from inside to out. I'm in Northern Ireland, and unfortunately the building regulations were only updated in June 2022 for the first time since 2012! Since planning permission was granted before June 22 the only requirement is to meet technical booklet F1(2012) standards. Average limiting u values in this document are wall 0.3, floor 0.25, roof 0.2 - so very slightly above the standard. (This was lowered in 2022 to 0.18, 0.18 and 0.16 respectively). How much can I feasibly do to minimise "plasterboard tent"...I assume there's no real way to do it other than to identify leakage paths with leak tester/IR camera, cut out/drill a hole in plaster to access the service cavity and try to plug hole in insulation either with airtight expanding foam or other means? Ideally I'd like to not "destroy" the brand new house in the process of fixing the issues. I'll have a look at sealing the bottom of the plasterboard, I assume this won't cause any unexpected issues? How would you expect an independent blower test to compare to a builder commissioned one?(I dread to ask, presumably significantly worse?) Have I missed any likely leakage paths potential major issues that anyone can think of?

Hi, longtime lurker and first time poster. I've recently moved into a new build house and would like to improve its performance with minimal disruption (insulation, airtightness and anything else anyone can suggest). Unfortunately I purchased the house at too late a stage in construction to have any real say on the build specification/quality. It's ~150 square metres, timber frame house with block external walls and an integrated garage. Ventilation is provided via a PIV system in the loft (no electrical heater) and heating is from mains gas with standard sized radiators. Hot water is from a 170l unvented indirect cylinder. According to the builder the house is built as follows from outside to in: Render, concrete blocks, 50mm cavity, timber frame and insulation, vapour barrier, 50mm service void, plasterboard. The EPC gives the following information (score 83): Airtightness: 5.3m³/m2/h (as tested) Roof U value: 0.15 W/m2/k Wall U value: 0.28 W/m2/k Floor U value: 0.23 W/m2/k (interestingly this is about 0.05 higher than houses on the same development which don't have an integrated garage - I'm unsure of the reason why). My thoughts on easy wins: - To significantly improve airtightness I believe I'd need to remove plasterboard covering the service void (expensive and a lot of work); can I do much without doing this; I don't want to tear a new house to pieces so trying to do as much as possible "non invasively", likewise don't want a plasterboard tent! - Seal ceiling roses and cable entries into sockets and light switches with Orcon F airtight sealant. - Seal cable and pipe penetrations on inside and outside of wall (outside block and inside internal plasterboard) with above sealant. - Seal any larger gaps (potentially around extractor fan pipework) with blue airtight expanding foam/airtight sealant as appropriate. - Fit (and seal) airtight down lighter hoods to upstairs bathroom and ensuite downlights. - Add 170mm additional loft insulation (Reduce roof U value to 0.095 if my calculations are correct). - Insulate exposed hot (heating and dhw) pipework. Increase cylinder pipe insulation from 9mm to 13mm thickness PE foam (19mm is over 3x the price of 13mm) - Thermal camera review and basic pressure test using hob/wet room extractor fan. I noticed during construction that the internal plasterboard only came to about 2 inches off the floor and the rest is sealed by skirting. Is this normal / should I do something about this? Is there any benefit to insulating cold water pipes? I know passivehaus says yes, but what's the benefit in a normal house? Thanks for your input.