Diablo

All, I own a large detached property that is being run as a HMO. The property has an integral garage that I want to convert into a home office/yoga area that the tenants can use, especially during lockdowns. The garage currently has a roller shutter, but I would like to replace this with a door and a window. This would result in two doors on the front of the house. Can this be done under PD? Many thanks, Rog

Brilliant! That's what I need. How do you get from the 180mm vent to the 167mm of the wider end of the reducer? Many thanks

All, We are having our flat roof done and I want to move the exhaust vent from the pitched, as it is making a mess on our slate tiles. I called BPC and they want £210 for a cowl and shroud, which seems a bit dear to me. The roofer is using mushroom vents for about £10-15/each which don't look that dissimilar. Has anyone come across any more cost effective alternatives? Thanks, Rog

All, We had flat roof installed about 4 years ago. The handover from builder to roofer wasn't as seamless as I would have hoped, as the builder put the OSB3 deck down and did not cover it. That night, the heavens opened up and by morning, the deck was drenched. The roofer did explain the risk of continuing, but we took our chances and tried to torch the boards dry, before applying the GRP. Long story short, the GRP did not fully bond to the deck and we have had several leaks over the years. We are looking to replace the roof with a 3-layer torch on felt. The roofer is insisting that it would be fine to board over the top of the GRP and then lay the felt on the new boards, on the basis that the GRP will prevent any moisture in the old boards permeating into the new boards. He is prepared to guarantee it. Does that sound reasonable? Many thanks, Rog

Gents, I think I can locate the boiler next to the house and avoid an underground run of pipes and power. I will use PeterW's suggestion and place it on a 3x2 slab.. . I can run the pipes though the old flue hole and seal it in the way Carrerahill suggests. What an excellent resource this site and its members are! Thank you.

Brilliant! That is exactly the sort thing I was looking for. I had a quick look online for the sealing compound, but came up dry, It looks like an industrial solution, so my guess is that there maybe a minimum purchase requirement.. What about expanding foam, as an alternative?

Hi, It is a System boiler. It is a good point and was my first thought. However, the issue is that there is a rainwater gully, manhole and grey water pipes all in close vicinity. It could be done, but in order build a solid base for the boiler, I would need to somehow micropile around the various underground pipes. I will have another think, as it does make it easier for power as well.

All, After years, we have decided to replace our internal Warmflow (total rubbish...) with an external Grant oil boiler. It will be located about 1 metre from the house, so will need to run 22mm pipes out of the boiler, underground and up the side of the house. I would really appreciate some advice on: 1. Is it best to use Copper of flexi pipe under ground? 2. What is the best way to insulate it? 3. Rather than drilling new holes for the pipes, I was thinking about using the hole for the existing boiler's flue. Any thoughts on how to seal up the hole once the pipes are in place? Many thanks, Rog

Hi Ed, I tested the motorised valve cables with a simple voltage pen. I am now back home and had a curiosity look at my own system, and notice that the two port valve for DHW is also showing current flowing to it even though there is no demand. My two UFH vales both have no current flowing to them, as there is no demand. Many thanks for the responses and video link.

All, My parents had a nest system installed a few weeks ago and there is something odd going on with the 2 port valves. There are separate valves for HW, downstairs rads and upstairs rads. The thing I find odd is that even when there is no demand, there appears to be current going to the valves. Also, I have noticed that the levers sometimes feel completely floppy, as if they are not connected to anything. I took the cover off one of them and it stiffened up, put the cover back on and it went floppy. Any thoughts on what might be going on here? Many thanks

Gents, Thanks again for the replies. We spent all of Sunday on the roof, mostly cutting out the really bad areas of the topcoat. The source of the leak was a particularly bad area where, once we cut through the GRP, revealed a rotten piece of OSB. This was cut and replaced. I cannot have this hanging over me (literally), so as has been suggested, we will take the plunge and replace all of the underlying OSB. I cannot believe that the single board we replaced was the only rotten one, so I am budgeting to replace the entire lot. Much appreciated.

JSHarris As usual, I think you are spot on. After all the blood, sweat and tears, it is a bit soul destroying to see water dripping into the living room…. However, I need to get through the Winter for now… Any thoughts on the best way of scraping off the flaking top coat so that we can get a relatively smooth surface on which to apply the repair solution? Thinking forward to next year, do you think we would need to replace the OSB boards? I am really hoping we can get away without having to go to that extent… Thanks again.

All, today's torrential downpours have resulted in a leak in my living room roof. When the OSB boards were originally put down, it started to rain before we could get them covered. The roofer did his best to dry the boards out and put down the GRP roof. He did warn us it was not ideal, but we were desperate to move in, so I told him to just go for it. 3 years on and the top coat is flaking badly and the roof has started to leak. I intend to go up tomorrow morning, clean up the roof and put down some repair product that my brother swears by. Has anyone got any advice on how to clean up the flaking topcoat as it is really tough stuff and cannot simply be pulled away? Thanks in advance, Narinder

Hi, in all honesty, I have just let the boiler run without the cover off. I figure that if we can at least see out the cold spell albeit with partially dressed boiler, that's fine by me. Beyond that, we will certainly need to get to the bottom of what is going on. I will call your mate and pick his brains. Either way, I will post the outcome here. Thanks again.

PM Sent

The front of the boiler is a removable panel that gives access to the burner, thermostat etc.

OK...just made an interesting discovery... The burner fires for 20 seconds - stops - fires for 1-2 seconds - stops - fires for 20 seconds. This pattern is repeated continuously. However... If I remove the front panel of the boiler, it burns as normal. As soon as I out the cover back on, it reverts back to the pattern described above. I should also add that there is more of an oil fume smell since it was serviced. If you can run that past your boiler Guru, it would be much appreciated.

Hi, yes, it is a Riello RDB 2.2 burner. I should say that the burn time is quite random and currently varies between 2 seconds and about 10 seconds.

Hi Nick, I called Warmflow and their view was that it is do with 'flame establishment' i.e. something within the burner is causing it to switch on and off. One of the things he suggested was faulty photocell, which the engineer replaced. He did increase the temperature, but I changed it back to where it was before. Hi, Yes, it is pumping. I am not aware he adjusted the pump speed, but now that you mention it, will ask the question. Hi, he did change the photocell, but obviously it can still be at fault and will b checked again.

All, A few days ago, my oil boiler stopped firing. It was literally 12 months to the day that it was last serviced. The engineer came out and did a regular service i.e. cleaned the baffles, changed the nozzle etc and would not fire. He then changed the optical sensor, and the boiler fired up. At this point I had to go out, but left the boiler running. Yesterday, I noticed that the burner was short cycling, which is something that it has never done before. Generally, the burner runs for about 10 seconds, but it sometimes fires for only 2 seconds and shuts off. I mentioned to the engineer this morning that something has changed since the service and that it never short cycled before, but in true 'engineer' fashion he rattled off a list of things that he thought needed replacing on the boiler, if not the actual boiler itself...all the while ignoring what I was telling him: "But it never short cycled before you serviced it..." Does anyone have any thoughts on what might have happened? I should add that the heating (UFH) was off for nearly two days, so the slab did require a lot heating to get it back up to a reasonable temperature. Thanks in advance, D

We have 75MM Airflex service ducts running to the rooms. We have Knauf loft roll between the joists, the MVHR pipes sit on the joists and we have the second layer going over the top of the pipes. So, the pipes are sandwiched between the two layers of loft roll. This is exactly how Airflex recommended it should be done, and it works fine for us.

We have 180mm of Kay Metzeler Polystyrene insulation and the screed has perimeter insulation all the way around.

Hi Nick, Just another follow-up: I adjusted my manifold mixer temp to 40oDeg and set the pump to 2. The one thing I noticed straight off the bat was that the rooms are taking longer to get to temperature. I assume this means that the boiler is running for longer? Coincidentally, the weather is also a bit cooler than last week - should these settings be adjusted accordingly, or are they set and forget? Many thanks.

Hi Nick, Turned both manifold pumps to position 2. Yes, the 45 deg is the setting on the manifold mixer valves. What effect do pumps speed and mixer temp individually have on performance, e.g. response time? Balancing: Do you mean fully opening each of the 'flow valves' on the manifolds? Thanks again.