-
Posts
4111 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
11
Everything posted by Conor
-
Foundations on original side extension?
Conor replied to SimonHills's topic in House Extensions & Conservatories
Likely the same but you'd need to dig a small trial hole at one side to expose the footings. No other way of knowing. What are you planning on doing? -
Are these external stud walls, and therefore is this your main insulation layer? Or, are these internal partition walls? If the former, then you'll need to batten out using 22 or 25mm battens. If you compress the insulation, you reduce it's performance. If these are internal partition walls, use 50mm acoustic insulation instead. How are you running services?
-
Realistically, you've two options if you want a warm house. 100mm EWI directly on to the existing walls. Don't worry about the 'dash. Second, is the knock and rebuild. Any talk about widening cavities etc is crazy. We were in a very similar position, but with even less work than you are describing. Rebuilding on the same footprint worked out more cost effective once you calculate long term running costs and resale.
-
Teething issues with MVHR
Conor replied to Tom's topic in Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR)
Once you have a trap full of water, it's weight will be greater than the negative pressure from the unit. Was there not one supplied with the unit? It can even be a loop of pipe to form a trap. I've still not got mine plumbed in and it's just flowing in to a tub. Only need to empty it every couple of weeks or so. Is this a newly completed build, then your house will be soaking and the unit will want to be boosting. Override the humidity settings and set the fan to something like 33% -
You've probably figured this out by now, as posts above have explained, but a heatpump normally works to a set delta of flow temperature. Let's say 5c. So if your slab is 10c, the initially the water coming out will be close to 10c. So your heatpump will only deliver 15c. It will slowly ramp up to the set flow temp, e.g 30c. You can change the settings to deliver the required flow temp regardless of the return flow temperature. This just costs more. You'll get a COP of 1.5, rather than 5.
-
Option 6. Demolish the lot and start again. What you are planning to do will cost more and perform worse than a new build.
-
When to change build insurance to home insurance
Conor replied to Gaz Bancroft's topic in New House & Structural Warranties
Day you get the completion certificate is the day you should change to a normal home insurance policy. Our self policy was voided upon completion. -
Faulty seals, new units needed. Go back to your installer.
-
Leave that up to your renderer. All of our walls were rasped.
-
1. Don't trust the drawing. It could be anywhere / not exist. I've worked in the utility sector, and specifically mapping side of things and they are rarely reliable. At our last property, the drawings showed a main sewer running right through all of the gardens, and if I'd trusted it, we would not have bought the house. In reality it was a further 8m back in an alleyway. You need to get somebody out to lift a few lids and tell you what is what. 2. It will likely be a small pipe serving just a couple of houses. Shallow, but easy to deal with. 3. Build over agreements are possible, you won't know until you have all the info and speak to the water company.
-
Brink bypass valve error
Conor replied to Ultima357's topic in Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR)
Had this issue on my salda, I taped the contact shut so the error would go away. It's the Internal bypass so it's never needed as we never get temps low enough for it to activate. -
Vaulted rooms - benefits and issues?
Conor replied to Benpointer's topic in New House & Self Build Design
All of our first floor ceilings are vaulted. Love it. Zero issues. Just avoid angled windows as they are a pain to dress. -
A for the win. It all has to be the same direction, minimise or eliminate joins. We have 75m² of herringbone laminate , all centred and continuous from the front door.
-
MVHR - one unit or two?
Conor replied to SBMS's topic in Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR)
I went for two 400m³ units for our 350m² (gross, 275m² net). Largely driven by shape of house and needing one unit on each side of the building. Other than duct run savings, other advantage is both units are only running at 25% capacity, so dead silent. You really want to oversize you mvhr so it's running on low rpm. Don't get a unit that scrapes the flow rates for your floor area -
Water flowing back into the grid during a mains fail
Conor replied to puntloos's topic in General Plumbing
Your meter box will also have an non return valve. -
ASHP stopped working. What's possibly the problem?
Conor replied to Marvin's topic in Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP)
When I had a power cut, It glitched the controller and I had to do a factory reset to get it working again. Cant remember the specific issue but sounds similar to your, unit would say "on" but nothing happened. Only issue I've had. -
ICF cladding : fiber cement vs Aluminium
Conor replied to MariaD's topic in Insulated Concrete Formwork (ICF)
Render (Sto, Webber, k-rend etc) on to your ICF is by far the best option. -
Our plant room is still bare screed nearly three years in. Can't see it changing.
-
I would not be installing a door frame on EPS. Use compactfoam or similar and set directly under the frame to act as a door block.
-
We've 12mm laminate on top of 5mm wood fibre underlay on top of our screen floors. Love it. Esp in working areas and with kids running about the place. Something like 70m². So, so glad we didn't go for wood.
-
Planning permission refusal due to creation of 'formalised space'
Conor replied to LJC1995's topic in Planning Permission
It boils down to you converting an informal area, to a formal area, resulting in the increased likelyhood of people gathering there, and having an adverse effect on your neighbours amenity. They are treating it like a new balcony. Key take-home from this is "lack of mitigation measures". Can you put in a higher fence or plant dense hedging? I'd supply a drawing to show this when you appeal. -
I'd contact your water/sewer provider and tell them there is a leak but you cant investigate and you don't know who owns the asset. Do you know where your water supply comes in? I think I can see your meter box just to the right? In that case your rising water could be a blocked storm sewer, that other MH could be your foul sewer.
-
Avoiding steel wind frame with portal I-joist frame
Conor replied to thaldine's topic in Timber Frame
Steel will likely end up being the easiest and most cost effective solution. That's why it's used so much. Do you have an SE that can looks tit for you? -
Nope. Must remained sealed. We had a blocked drain about a year after moving in. I pulled out a load of mortar and stone that had gotten in some how.
-
How is the basement ventilated?
