BotusBuild

Next time. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - one house build has been enough 🙂 Hang on - I have a garage to build and an outer porch floor to pour

At the top of the page click on your forum name - choose Manage Followed Content - click the appropriate button 🙂

A subtle (or crazy) feature of the forum - you have to "follow" you're own posts Admins - is there a way to setup "auto follow own posts"?

Glad it wasn't just me. They still insisted on sending too many bits that I have not used.

I didn't pay for the design. But I ended up with some extra ducting from what they reckoned I needed!!

I presume the same applies for plasterboard (guess what one of my next big purchases will be)

Best thing to do is to remove the show screen and refit the screen. Before refitting, clean the tile and bath surfaces really well and then use methylated spirit to clean away any greasy residue (including that from your fingers!!) Refit after having made sure that there is appropriate waterproof (bathroom) sealant between the bath and the hinge and the tiles and the hinge.

I had this problem, and there was a lot of "squashing" of high chairs and "fettling" of U bars. Alongside all of that I was fitting the UFH pipes to the mesh and trying to keep the whole lot with a 50mm coverage. It can be done!! Take time to think through the laying of the mesh. FYI - 2 layers of A393 is 30mm in thickness if you overlap them, not 20mm. If you get the overlapping at 90 degrees to each other that goes up to 40mm

Ooooh, we're nearly back on topic with mention of the BUS grant 🙂

Not of the final bracing, but it was follows: Scaffold boards laid sideways, then heavy concrete blocks every 2m or so, then some extra packing before driving 12mm rebar offcuts 600mm or more into the ground (so each piece of rebar was about 1200mm in length. Our pad is partial sub basement, so where we were in a hole (like most of the build time 🙂) I also braced between the side of the hole and the scaffold boards for extra security. Might be overkill, but worth the peace of mind, and not having to run around like a headless chicken at pour time if anything went wrong

Whatever you do, DO NOT rely on the upstand itself to withhold the pressure of the concrete. BRACE, BRACE, BRACE as they say when the plane is about to ditch. We used Jackon for our slab foundation, and it was very well braced come pour time.

Just spoke with someone who seems to be prepared to accept that I know what I'm doing and talking about, and will trust my heat loss calcs (based on Jeremy's ss). Will report back on what transpires

Context: asked for a quote for an ASHP + 300L cylinder and UFH buffer tank (for a zoned UFH system fitted by myself) Following MCS guidelines the heat loss calculations have resulted in a 6.0kW Mitsubishi Ecodan being specified along with a 300L UVC and a 30L buffer tank. From the quote: The total cost for the complete system detailed in the above specifications will be £6,764.62 + 0.00% VAT. A £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme voucher has been deducted from the installation cost above. So a total of £14,264.62. A quick interweb search: Ecodan 6kW - £3,162.66 300L UVC for ASHP (I'm going high cost case with a pre-plumbed unit) - ~£1,800 30L buffer tank - ~£300 Ancilliary pipe, cable, switches etc - I'm going to allow for £1,000 which I think is fair give the pre-plumbed cylinder. Note there is no UFH related kit except for the 30L buffer tank. So I make that a total of £6,262.66 Leaving £8001.96 for labour !! Two people to get all the parts into place (2 hours each) One plumber to do their work (12 hours being generous) One electrician to do their work (4 hours being generous) TOTAL hours: 20 hours Hourly rate: £400 Even if we round it up to 3 full days (24 hours) that's £333/hour I will let you all choose the first optional word to the two word phrase "******* off"

They would likely work, but what about doing something like this ... Dowels top and bottom of each vertical slat, short at the bottom, with a shallow hole in the bottom horizontal rail. Put two metal washers over the dowel before locating in the hole. At the top, the dowel and hole would be longer. Insert the top first, drop the bottom into place. This assumes you are fitting the top and bottom rail first then adding the slats. Otherwise, no need to make the top dowel and hole longer.

Got any pictures of the current situation and the drains that are to be fitted?

Might have to invest in a small drone to update the Chinese and Russians on a more regular basis 🙂

Got bored and was down another Internet rabbit hole ending up on Google Earth and the timeline feature, and came up with another version of the timelapse. Match the pictures to the satellite imagery 🙂

TBH you can do what is necessary yourself unless you think there is something not right with the unit. Check for any loose wires (carefully of course having isolated it), and remove any debris that may have built up at the rear of the unit e.g. leaves, feathers. Use a vacuum if necessary to remove any dust. That's about it.

What do you do if you have 21 windows. Sell nine 1 inch brushes 🙂 (if my maths is correct)

Some would say yes 🙂 However, it's your build, and if you want it a particular way make it happen. Be ready for change control payments 😉

In the picture you will see the opening for windows created in Nudura walls. As I approach plaster boarding, thoughts turn to the traditional wooden window cill at the bottom of each window. Am I safe to presume that I can attach the cills directly to the Nudura, with nothing else in between.

There are a few good experienced roofing people on here who I hope will be along to help you. I am not one of them but hope the following will help kickstart the conversation for you. My observations: 1. You will require the roof to be thoroughly clean and dry in the area to be repaired. This is the KEY AND MOST IMPORTANT part otherwise any repair will not adhere properly 2. I would ensure the repair covers the whole length of the join between the current GRP and EPDM layers including, very importantly, up under the tiles. You could start the cleaning in the wet, but be careful up there! 3. I would avoid lifting any of the existing GRP or EPDM if it is clearly well adhered to the subbase - in your diagram it appears the proposed fix is to insert the GRP repair piece under the EPDM. In fact I would be looking to remove anything that is not clearly stuck down, then you know the extent of what is to be repaired. You may need to temporarily cover with a good thick sheet of plastic after cleaning and before repairing - have this to hand!! 4. Whatever you use is going to need to be flexible to cope with expansion/contraction. This is where you should rely on other knowledgeable folks on this forum. 5. The repair piece will need to overlap "good existing roofing" by 100mm+ I would think (maybe more) and have flexible sealant between the existing roof and the new repair piece and some way to ensure that rainwater falls onto the existing roofing a good distance away from the sealant to avoid it collecting. I show a double run of sealant (orange blobs) in the diagram below to act as an insurance policy (FYI blue line is the repair piece (see 4. above), black lines are the existing GRP or EPDM). Others may be along to disagree with me 🙂

I agree. it seems the first quote they are providing is not worth the PDF it was sent in. I used to have a good room by room heat loss spreadsheet, but many PC changes over the years has resulted in its loss. Does anyone have one I could plagiarize? If not, I'll look to adapt the JHarris sheet

Thank you all for your replies - I thought I might have been missing something, so I'm much happier about pushing back, but they are now saying they will need to do a room by room heat loss calculation. If that is the case I am going to treat them like I treated the window company and make them come and measure it all themselves 🙂 I dealt with MCS some years ago on the supplier side and didn't much like the "one approach fits all scenarios" position that was taken then and this does not seems to have been updated. There is no flexibility in the system for some of the types of houses we are building.

260m2 Air Tightness not yet confirmed, but it will be as low as I can get it. I am sealing things as I go both inside and outside. My contact has been Lauryn (surname retained for some privacy)