HerbJ

Try the Greenbuilding Store for information. They have a lot of case studies that may be useful. https://www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/category/case-studies/

We talked to them about our house design in mid- 2014 but they seemed a bit stuck in their "Surrey/Berkshire Georgian" style and we weren't convinced they could do anything different. My friends have used them to get PP in Ascot and currently working with them to revise that PP - "Berkshire Georgian" but that it was they wanted!

Ascot Design?

I think you may be asking the wrong question to the wrong person.... The question is really about design of foundations close to trees, specifically an insulated passive slab foundation in your case? The question should be addressed to a experienced structural engineer. The foundationd design will be specific to the site and its parametes - soil conditions, proximity to tress etc. My passive slab foundation was installed by MBC and designed by Tanner Structural Designs Limited, who were a little concerned about its proximity to two big oak tress and other smaller tress and hedges. They specified a much deeper excavation and filling with MOT Type3 stone nearer the big trees than typical for a site without my specific tree issue.

What a journey! Great milestone achieved after so may steps along the way, including a few backward steps..... Well done and congratulations

These may be helpful in addition to @SteamyTea recollections, which I are good. I think (I downloaded them without any references!!!) the attached are Jeremy's orIginal UFH design and his later mods for the SUNAMP. Heating and cooling system.pdf Hot water layout - Sunamp PV.pdf

Fortunately, the slab was only being floated to give good surface for tiling and other floor finishes. So, the finish we managed to achieve was acceptable, though not to the expected standard. It was never our plan to have a"polished floor" as the final finish.

I remember it well. Concrete delivery was late and weather conditions were such that concrete would not go off as quick as anticipated Bottles of wine for neighbours, fish and chips for the MBC team. 2200hr in September, finally had to stop.

I forgot to mention that my roof doesn't have OSB on both sides to contain the cellulose. As you can see from the photos, (and detailed in the MBC Attic Trussed roof detail) there is a 22mm OSB sarking on the external face and the internal face of the airtight membrane held in place with the service battens. I think the photo attached shows the airtight membrane in place before the cellulose was blown in. There are a good few of us on Buildhub with MBC Timberframe houses and this construction detail

Yes and that is how my roof was built and insulated. I've attached a few photos, which may be helpful

I would recommend engaging a qualified electrical engineer/electrician that can review this installation with all the actual detailed data. Given the range of cable sizes and potential costs, it is worth spending a little money to reach the optimum size, underwritten by a qualified electrical engineer/electrician. As usual, everybody is trying to help and giving an honest opinion but none of these opinions may be relied on because they do not have the actual data to work with.

I have an Enerphase monitoring system - Enerphase Envoy - that provides this data, together with performance data on each of my PV panels/microinverters and the battery pack (if installed). It measures export energy and power directly from the inverter systems and measures imported power via CT on the incoming main supply at the suppliers meter. Similar functionality is now available as part of more recent models of most PV diverter control systems. My installed PV diverter, which is anold model Solarimmersion, does not have this functionality. I also have a Export Meter, which is a requirement of my FIT contract. I read my meters once a month. I submit meter reading to my Energy Supplier one a month to ensure that my invoices and DD payments are accurate. I submit export meter readings to my FIT company every 3 months on a published schedule, to ensure that my FIT payments are paid promptly every quarter -

This has been covered several times in the pats 2 or 3 years. I attach an old post which shows a very nice detail employed by @Scotrock. It also shows an alternative detail that used on my house.

Anthracite RAL 7016 aluminium outside and larch inside

Thanks, we completed in late 2016 and moved in early January 2017. There are lots of photos of the house and particulalry the garden on the BH website. SWMBO chose the colour of the doors and Ecowin were very excited that someone had finally moved away from RAL7016 for a front door.

Ecowin/Gaulhofer supplied the Front Doors and all the windows. The garage door is Hormann and the red was a standard Hormann colour, RUBY RED RAL3003. We specified this colour for the front door to match

Snap , with RAL 7016 Window Frames and Sweet Chestnut cladding

Directly imported Design, manufacture and installation of Timberframe, including insulation for passive foundation, Ireland Bathroom sanitary fittings, shower bases, shower and taps fittings, bathroom furniture,accessories, Germany Kitchen and utility basins and taps, Germany Various electrical fittings and KNX fittings and cables, Germany Staircase design and manufacture, including glass supply, Ireland fakro rooflight, Poland Furniture, Germany Kitchen Extract fan, Italy Indirectly via UK Agents and suppliers ( tried very hard to import direct but most manufacturers have agreements with UK Agents. and sometimes it's actually easier and the same price to use UK Agents/Importers..) External windows and doors, Austria Internal Doors, Spain Kitchen cabinets, Germany Pantry furniture, France Kitchen Appliances, Germany Garage Doors, Germany Slate roof tiles, Canada Porcelain Floor tiles, Italy Bathroom Wall and floor tiles, Spain MVHR Unit, Germany Paving, India

It may be that the surveyor didn't properly check his work product before issuing to you and your greater knowledge of your plot identified some errors. Feed that back and ask him to correct these errors to your satisfaction. Our survey had similar errors, which were obvious and really important to us for Planning Submission. They concerned ridge heights on the two neighbouring properties - the original submitted drawings did not appear to be correct, from just looking at the houses. Anyway, we requested that he checked and he did ( admitting that he thought he was getting some issues with his instruments when he was surveying the property) - we were correct and the ridge heights were corrected and a revised drawing issued.. The other key learning for us was ensuring the architect properly used the survey information for the site layout, so that all subsequent drawings and plans could be overlayed and all used the same data. This came to light when the engineer responsible for designing all our BC drawings, including drainage, rainwater, and also our retaining walls, identified that the architects layouts did not use the surveyed data. We then had confidence in using surveyor to accurately layout the groundworks (including all the underground drainage, landscaping and retaining walls, and the insulated foundation installed by MBC

As far as I am aware, MBC only design, supply and install the insulated/passive slab. They do not take responsibility on the ground work - that is al the preparation for the installation of the insulated/passive slab. So extract from my quotation from MBC "Supply and fit Engineer signed off Passive Slab foundation system, with a 0.105W/m2.K U-value and Zero Cold Bridges (The client strips the site, installs the first 150mm of stone and the site roadway). MBC supplies and fits 50mm stone for levelling, the concrete, the steel, and the drainage pipes are brought 1 metre from the finished foundation for others to connect to." There may be structural engineering requirements for extensive ground works, depending on the specific site and soil conditions. Some sites may only require 150mm of stone, on which the insulated foundation is normally installed but most require a much more stringent requirements - because of adjacent existing trees my foundation required a 850mm of stone at the front of the foundation decreasing to 600mm at the rear of the foundation. Other sites have required piling.

I have used can strongly recommend Wet & Forget for algae on myrender, . It was brilliant for cleaning algae around the MVHR Exhaust vent, which I know was the subkject of a post on here a few months ago. But it doesn't really deal with dirt from raIn splashes off terracing, coping stones and borders etc

Useful, thanks Slightly off topic, what is the best method of cleaning render? Clealry, power washing is a NO and it cannot be brushed too vigorously either! Can you offer any tips?

Glacier slate-Natural Canadian 508x254mm

As you can see from my photos, my slab is flat and the transition to the ACO drainage channel and drive is also flat/level. It is SUDS drive which gently slopes way from the garage and house. I have a 4877mm x 2125mm HORMANN electrical operated garage door, which incorporates a substantial rubber seal on the bottom of the door , which compresses slightly as the door closes.. We have never experienced any water ingress, even from driving rain, and no leaves or dirt blow in when the door is closed.