Adrock

Good stuff?

I've used a fair bit of OB1, which as far as I'm aware is a copy of CT1. Anyone ever used CT1 power grab and bond? @Nickfromwales where do you get the illbruck foam? I could do with a bit of that.

I'd probably look at getting the big transformer you linked to if the site is going to be that heavy. It's also useful for rigging up 110v lights and such, which can be left plugged in permanently. But there again I'm not really into domestic building yet, my 20 years so far have been in healthcare and bigger building sites (electrician and then project/contract managing). Increasingly, in my experience anyway, 110v tools are not widely used apart from those that require a bit more oomph and even then they're being replaced by battery alternatives. Maybe provide 230v socket outlets and let the trades provide their own small transformers. Is site lighting your responsibility? That was a bit waffley.

What rig are you using? Diamond drilling rigs probably don't get anywhere near 2000W. 13A at 230V is a LOT of power to be using continuously, you'll struggle to do that with one or even two tools on the go.

And? I assume that's because they don't expect you to fully utilise the full rating of the transformer. You linked to a 3.3 and 5kva plug in transformer. 5kva at 230v gives you well over the rating of the plug top fuse, over 20A. I've also experienced them tripping 16A type C MCBs upon plugging them in over the years. Anyhow, I'm being pedantic. Apologies. For the OP, you're right, stick a few metal clad sockets on a 32A RCBO and away you go.

Power triangle gives the following 110V x 32A = 3520W 3520W/230V = 15.3A I've had those blow fuses quite regularly in the past, it'd need to be a decent draw go get that far though so I'll admit in most cases you won't have any issues because you'll never be at capacity. The 32A plug rating is just that, what the plug is rated at, but you'd not be able to utilise its full rating let alone both the 16A and 32A at the same time with any kind of decent load without blowing the plug top fuse.

That's not true. If you're installing a 32A transformer it's not going to last long on a 13A plug top fuse. On our sites, commercial admittedly, we install 10 KVA transformers. Those require installing by electricians

Blanks should have been blocks. The joists sit in the hangers so aren't touching the wall. I'm thinking maybe air tight sealant and then paint with air tight paint on the block wall and around the hangers.

I thought maybe a photo might help illustrate what I'm attempting. You can see the reinforced concrete and block wall behind the cavity membrane. I'm mildly confident the cavity drainage membrane will help with air tightness even before the VCL is installed. My concern is the block wall you can see to the left of the picture. The joists are in joist hangers set on top of the blanks, so they'll also need some attention. Any thoughts?

I thought it might be difficult to explain on my phone without access to the drawings. The above shows a snapshot of the extension, the back garden is circa 1.7m lower than the street level at the front of the house. We have constructed a reinforced concrete retaining wall and built on top of it. The waterproofing membrane has been installed to be above the DPC for those walls. My intension is to install the internal wall insulation to "overlap" the cavity wall insulation, as best as I can. The elevation facing the back garden is within a small lightwell. Those walls do not have cavity drainage membrane on the majority of them (snapshot below) This was something Delta Membranes detailed within their instructions as an option. I have already sealed the tops of all of the membranes and introduced airbricks to ensure there is some ventillation to the cavity, as per their instructions. I am intending to install a VCL to the warm side of the internal insulation and have already installed one in the floor, with enough left to join it onto the wall VCL. We have a warm roof on the extension, which doubles as a terrace for the ground floor. The VCL has been installed to the warm side of the insulation on this already. Hopefully some of that clears up the lack of detail in my original post.

Prior to my finding this place I embarked on the lower ground conversion and extension. The extension is a masonry cavity wall, the original house is a solid brick construction. In the lower ground I've installed a type c cavity drainage membrane and I'm going to be installing internal insulation throughout the lower ground, overlapping slightly the new cavity walls. The extension has maybe 30m2 of bare thermalite blocks after the waterproof membrane was installed, from what I've read I around here they'll need some kind of airtightness detail to help with that. What I'd like is some pointers for how best to achieve an airtight finish within the environment I've got. Any areas in particular I'll need to look at closely?

Bit of a bump, I'm 2.5 years into a basement/lower ground conversion, garage conversion and total house refurb. Whilst living in it and working a full time job. So I'll call it self build. Last weekend we cut through the 1920's reinforced concrete ground floor slab to form the stair opening. I reckon I'll be finished the lower ground in a year or so.

Far too late I'm afraid. The screed has been down for a couple of weeks now. I'm going to be internally insulating the walls shortly. I need to get that moving, might be another thread.

That's @Stratman, do you have a link to a website? Anyone else know of a decent supplier of windows and doors that will be suitable for achieving decent airtightness? My house is a mess of phased refurbishment so it won't achieve any degree of airtightness until I get everything done, which could be years the way I'm going.

Hmmmm, considering I’ve spent most of my evening planning my next thread in the ventilation part of the forum, would the single seal have any performance implications for air tightness? It sounds like standard windows are the answer.