Great_scot_selfbuild

I’m trying to make sense of the BR and what I can see of BS5396-6. We’re installing the electrical first fix and have a circuit for fire alarm covering the required areas shown in Approved doc B. What have people done here for their fire alarm design & installation? The BR guidance seems very straightforward and clear about what we install and where, but then Approved Document B, Volume 1: Dwellings, Section 1, under “Design and installation of systems” also states: “Fire detection and alarm systems must be properly designed, installed and maintained. A design, installation and commissioning certificate should be provided for fire detection and alarm systems.” Is the mention of fire alarm commissioning certificate (which has a section for ‘designed by’ required for self-build residential homes (I.e. not HMO, not especially large - no single floor over 200sqm etc)

We have a telegraph pole on our land. BT says that the rate they pay is what their rate card says at the time of a new owner registering with them, and that it never changes until the ownership changes. The current rate card is £10.50 per year(!). Has anyone tried challenging this? The previous owner was being paid £8.82 by cheque once a year (since early 1990s). This seems to be a very favourable inflation rate for BT. My simple ChatGPT-aided search has shown it to be a BT policy rather than law and the bit that annoys me is the reference to it being a fixed rate for the whole duration of ownership. A neighbour wasn’t aware of this at all until I mentioned it. The response they have had offered: £10.50pa or £315 one-off payment my personal concern with a one-off payment is any implied rights, whereas an annual payment is far more clearly a rent-like payment. I’m sure some of you have opinions on this. I’d love to hear them… 🫣

Not that it applies to us, but my interest is piqued - how 'heavy' for fire protection to not be required? (thanks for the other points - we pored over the fire protection discussions early on in the design stage with the PD, SE and TF company; I've since filled my head with MVHR, UFH.... and need to go back and re-read it all.)

I think this sounds sensible & practical. I did my UFH (16mm PERT-AL-PERT) install. It was easy enough, but the companies that produce the drawings don’t consider bend radius at all. I knocked up a simple bending tool, though I quickly got the hand of doing it and didn’t use the tool - though my test helped give me confidence in handling and bending it. Not sure if this video will upload - here’s my DIY tool and demo of bending the pipe (showing how much / little the cross section is affected). IMG_2232.mov

Was this aerogel spacetherm? (From what I’ve been able to ascertain it contains aerogel, but is a variation on the original aerogel product which started as a firm ‘flexible, not so flexible’ board). The spacetherm stuff definitely appears higher up the search results. And I thought getting the ground truth on waste treatment plants was difficult! 🤣 trying to work out what is sales BS atm…

Here are two companies I’ve spoken to: https://coreprosystems.co.uk/thermal-insulation/ https://www.thermablok.co.uk/our-products/ I’ve sent them details of what I need and am waiting to see what comes back. A lot of valuable detail came out I. The call that I hadn’t found on any website. The description ’flexible’ is a bit misleading g as the bare material (not fitted to another type of board) doesn’t actually sound very flexible at all! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

I plan to do this internally, where I have the space available - I don’t have this option externally.

The thermal property of tilebacker boards is nowhere near comparable with aerotherm though.

Is this aerogel or spacetherm? From the suppliers I’ve approached, aerogel is like a stiff board/sheet (these pictures look like a loose fabric). It appears that the term ’aerogel’ is used across a variety of products, but not all with the same thermal value.

Thanks - was this internal or external? Do you mind sharing where you got it from?

I am planning to fit a layer of 10mm aerogel to the outside of a steel column. Any recommendations on glue / other methods? (Please state if you’ve managed to do this before - my experience of contact adhesive is that it can behave very differently based on the material type and I’m not sure how well aerogel will take to it. https://www.buyinsulationonline.co.uk/product/spacetherm-aerogel-insulation?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22363171127&gbraid=0AAAAAolHs10y0c_FTCj4HYGnIHug1AoAk&gclid=CjwKCAjw6rfSBhAqEiwA_yocplauhT7e_l1Z4u49lcBwb0LQX6mldg5QaCV0ZC2lrjISc1cW3JRo5hoCFTQQAvD_BwE

Well timed - I’m just looking around at this myself. Following with interest!…

Ah - I should have been clearer, they mask the window frames (ironically, this is where we had found the small leaks); pleased to hear they're that good.

Sort of... looks like google has yet to catch up - Frame Technologies sold their yard to Broadaxe very recently who were literally (by coincidence) just down the road. As far as I understood, I thought Frame Technologies had stopped operating, but I've just checked companies house and that's unchanged. Afraid I can't comment on Frame Technologies, but here's my experience of Broadaxe. We've used Broadaxe and have been very pleased with the experience. Our build (very non-standard, complete with a curved stairwell - all in the Larsen-truss system) has just achieved 0.64, though as mentioned in another thread - I'm putting the 0.04 down to non-TF reasons. Broadaxe summary: Lewers Firth is the MD and his carpentry background and focus on quality and customer satisfaction really stood out to us. I visited their factory mid-build of our frame and was impressed with the setup and the installation didn't disappoint. Our design was done by an architect for planning, we then used an Architectural Technician / CAD designer for building regs drawings and around this time we (finally) selected our Broadaxe as our TF supplier. Broadaxe costs included all the structural engineering and design of the TF (some of the TF companies, not all, wanted us to pay for the SE separately which would have brought in the VAT costs as a professional service rather than being part of the TF provision). I arranged joint teams calls with all our design team (Broadaxe, Window supplier, Foundation Structural Engineer - my SE for everything up to the wall plate for the TF to sit on, and our Architectural technician who was still contracted to formally produce the 'construction drawings', but the frame itself was done by the designer contracted by Broadaxe). These joint calls were exceptionally valuable and enabled me to spot issues such as the window supplier and architectural technician showing the window schedule from the opposite sides (one looking in, one looking out!). The windows were ordered off design 4 months out and the apertures made by Broadaxe were basically mm perfect, including where we had two huge steel columns and lintel. My TF search: I did extensive searching and tendering for TF company - I would strongly support the mention of checking companies house; I now do this for all trades / phases of the build. It doesn't mean I only use huge companies, but it means I know what I'm going in to and to manage my risk. I look for (in particular) when companies were started, how many directors they have and then (probably most important) how many companies the directors have been linked to and whether they are set up and closed quite readily. TF suppliers I got quotes from: Broadaxe (selected) Arfon Blokbuild Flitcraft MBC Solo Timber Frame Stickbuild UK Structures Ltd Based on the same tender document being sent out, the quotes ranged from £74k to £263k(!!). I spent a lot of time poring over the fine print and looking at how much detail they had considered and excluded (stated or implied). Broadaxe was somewhere in the middle and for the specification and quality I believe they've been good value and (almost more importantly) easy to work with. @garrymartin Good luck in your research.

@flanagaj hope you're doing ok? I've been finding the 'lows' recently and needing a lot of resolve to find the resilience to keep moving forwards even if it's slower than desired or, in our case backwards on some aspects which still aren't moving forwards yet! Looks like there's some good advice coming through in response to your query. Good luck!