oldkettle

Thank you. May be cheaper ones generally have lower light output per meter? Those you linked to are 10W / 720Lm per meter, this one https://www.ledhut.co.uk/led-strip-lights/non-waterproof-ip20/led-strip-non-waterproof-60-small-led-chips-per-metre-5-metre-roll.html at £2.6/m is a half of that.

When I was looking at it, I noticed "commercial grade" was usually applied to strips requiring 24V (as opposed to 12). Is it the same in your research?

Congratulations, it looks great and must feel amazing. Internal doors are certainly on my wish list. How you have managed to achieve this cost I don't quite understand - but this is certainly a question for another day.

Thank you, Peter, yes, will check the wires in the evening. They also said 2-port even though it is clearly a 3-port one. Will ask them as well.

Thank you, Nick. I will check in the evening. What confused me was that most 5601s say 5 wire and 3 port in the description unlike this one.

@PeterW, thank you Does it look the right item? They say 4 wire but I think I can see 5 in their picture. The product code is the same. Just before I press the Buy button...

Hi, The old actuator we have for CH/HW valve hardly moves any more even though I can hear (and see) it trying and turning the head a bit. The plastic in it is already broken but I can move the valve with my fingers so it is not stuck. Here is how the whole setup looks https://www.flickr.com/photos/97587014@N08/shares/298y9j And here is the actuator https://www.flickr.com/photos/97587014@N08/shares/397z1A I looked it up and the new ones cost in excess of £120. There seem to be refurbished ones on ebay : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DM5601-SUNVIC-DUOVAL-2-PORT-4-WIRE-MID-POSITION-MOTOR-NEW-ACTUATOR/162735175159?epid=1310816191&hash=item25e3c5b5f7:g:E~YAAOSwgeRZnEU0 (the name seems wrong as it should be 3-port but the pictures and the name are a match) What is the best option for me here - based on our hopes of ripping it all off next summer STUC :-) It feels like a professional would take an hour to install a completely new system, but it would probably have to be re-wired, thermostat replaced etc, which is not really feasible. Is there a reasonably priced direct replacement for the valve + the actuator that wouldn't require drastic changes everywhere else? Or should I just buy off ebay as I then should be able to install it myself and with 1 year warranty it is a reasonable temporary solution? Thanks in advance.

Wow, this is specialised stuff with a matching price tag! Thanks for clarification. Edit: on a second look, is this the one? https://www.customaudiodirect.co.uk/acoustic-membrane-vl65-mass-loaded-vinyl Seems £40 per roll? And Isobase http://www.domesticsoundproofing.co.uk/sound_proofing_prices.htm - £138.75 per 27.75m2?

Thank you. As wall acoustics is included in "Walls" line why is there a separate "Acoustics" item worth quite a lot even including savings? You will need some between the floors of course, but I think the amount is going to be comparable with the 155m2 line you have for internal walls (smaller size but possibly double layer). Unless you are adding it in the first floor ceiling as well?

@Visti, one position I don't understand here is Walls - what does it cover?

I just wanted to say big thank you to @Visti for raising this question and to everybody for weighing in. This is an very helpful topic for us during our planning stage.

@MikeSharp01, are the double units here 80cm or 1m wide? We have several Ikea bookcases bought over 10 years ago and 1m wide shelves don't take any load, definitely not books. 50cm units are perfectly fine.

@PeterW, thank you I did not get a quote for a rebuild but I did look at the costing Jeremy made publicly available. It was quite a revelation for me that in spite of all his experience (that I don't have) and doing a significant amount of work himself (which I won't be able to do) he still ended up above 1K mark IIRC (that is excluding items that we would not need). Now, yes, getting a shell for £500/m2 did look very attractive but there is so much more to spend on that I honestly got scared. It may well turn out to be a false economy, I know, but the kids are growing up and I need to build rather soon for them to be able to enjoy it. Switching to a larger project would delay the whole process substantially.

@Jml, thank you for your reply. I keep returning to this idea but just can't see how the math works here. It seems impossible to have anything built cheaper than £1500/m2. This is by far beyond our budget. The extension is large and is actually greater than the existing building but since the foundations stay it is not that bad, at least, so we were led to believe. And we will be able to live in the house, apart from hopefully a short period of time when the roof is removed and the first floor structure and new roof are erected.

A couple of points. RH inside currently stays above 70% for days. This is with very little inside clothes drying as we have a new drier with a heat pump, and with me opening the vent immediately after showers and keeping at least a night vent open. Our bedroom on the ground floor stays close to 80% - again, with prolonged periods of keeping windows open. Admittedly it happens now when it is quite warm outside, but in winter we had rh above 60 quite often. Why that happens at all - no idea. But this is why I am keen to make sure I am not going to ruin the house after the extension is built. It seems I may well have to go the service cavity way - my guess is this is what @Declan52 had in mind as well. It probably loses 50mm overall, hopefully, we can live with it. To be honest at this stage I am not sure how exactly the extension TF walls are going to be positioned with respect to the existing ones. Since they will definitely have service cavities we may have no choice but to match those. Alternatively may be we can wait and see how RH behaves with Mvhr installed.

Ah, the only difference now is in my form EPS is showing 0.031-0.038 depending on the type and the resulting u-value is 0.16-0.18 for 50mm cavity. With graphite 15kg/m3 priced below £10/m2 there seems to be no reason to select the cheapest.

@A_L, thank you very much, this is very helpful. The main difference may be that I used 22C/90% for the inside conditions to reflect occasional kitchen/bathroom situation. Now, the bathroom will be tiled or panelled but the kitchen won't be hence I wanted to see the worst case. Not sure about the size of the cavity, 50 to 70 at most, the whole wall is close to 300mm with plaster. And I was not allowed any demolition :-) until planning is available, so don't know what type of a block we have here.

This is an old bungalow, c. 1955. Not sure how dense the internal block is. I thought breathable insulation has worse u-value, does it not? We are detached but the space outside is not unlimited :-)

May be not too much but would be difficult to put it everywhere (about 30m of the existing walls). Would it help significantly ? I looked at using insulated plasterboard but it seemed to make no difference in condensation analysis.

Thank you, yes, I met people who do Walltite as well. So do I understand you correctly that with Walltite there is no need for cavity ventilation?

Thanks, @Dudda yes, extra insulation is something I will consider. WRT the build up, Plaster Block Filled cavity Brick Eps Render I have found a thread on ebuild discussing the same issue, the analysis showed similar risk apparently. I am yet to use free WUFI trial. My architect also confirmed the risk.

Thanks you, @A_L When you say ventilated to the heated space, do you mean just airbricks or Mvhr? I wanted to go for Icenyne in the cavity as it seems to be the best in terms of both u-value and air tightness, but if there is a potential condensation risk I would rather leave the cavity empty and increase EWI depth. I was told it doesn't affect the price too much if I go for 150mm instead of 100.

As I mentioned before, our architect recommended that we upgrade our current brick and block wall by installing 100mm EWI. Now it looks like there is a significant risk on interstitial condensation in a standard buildup with full fill cavity. I used http://vesma.com/tutorial/uvalue01/uvalue01.htm and it shows condensation risk in the outer layers when the internal RH is above 60% and it is below 5C outside. The only way I could get this calculator to show no risk was with an empty cavity. The architect also mentioned ventilated cavity as one of the options. Leaving the cavity to ventilate outside does not sound like a good idea - what's the point of EWI then. But what if we used MVHR to ventilate this cavity? Mad / useless? Other options?

Thank you @chrisb We are detached so hopefully this is not going to be a problem, but I will check with the architect.

Hi all, Our architect asked us to choose a colour of the rendering for planning application. While we are thinking about it I wanted to check whether rendering is the only option available to us. We have a standard brick and block ground floor which we are planning to extend at the back plus add a first floor. All new structures will be TF, hopefully, MBCs 300mm kind. As agreed with an architect we will need to add at least a 100mm of external wall insulation to the existing walls. 1) My understanding is TF (at the ground floor level) has to be covered all the way to the ground and we should also try to bring the EWI all the way down and into the ground to decrease the cold bridging. At the same time, the brick wall - please correct me if I am wrong - should not have the rendering bridging DPC. We are on a slope so most of the side walls and the front wall have ground level well below DPC. 2) Does it make sense to even consider using plastic cladding for the first floor in this situation? Seems to be a cheaper option, but will probably make detailing of a joint between floors even more difficult. Thanks in advance.