Nick Laslett

I will be getting this unit soon too. I was planning a self install too. Good luck, I hope this works out.

Under ordered both clip track and staples, luckily had enough time for the 2nd Wunda delivery.

I’m using that exact 125mm pipe for my cooker extractor vent. The builders just cut a hole with a hand saw in the ICF and used expanding foam to fix the pipe. The walls how now been poured. To be honest I have not examined the pipe closely since the pour. I wanted to fit a larger pipe as a sleeve, put lacking @PeterW common sense I gave up on the idea. When I gave the issue some thought, I was reassured that very little concrete was impacting the pipe as it was at the very top of the wall.

This might be useful to some people, the “Reverse / inverted” pattern is also know as “counterflow” serpentine in software like LoopCad.

Hello @hendriQ, did you post any pictures? How is the SN70/35 glass. We are just about to place our order.

Thank you for highlighting this. I’m still a long way from finishing my build, but this issue with MVHR sucking in bonfire smoke seems like a potential problem for some sites. This is a potential downside to MVHR that needs to be flagged up during the design stage, so that it can be planned around.

Do you really need such a large ASHP? DHW reheat time seems to be the default excuse for sizing such a large unit. My take away from this is that on those rare occasions when I need additional HW quickly, I will just use the immersion. The advice from @PeterW is to also have a slightly larger UVC tank. I was originally thinking of a 300L UVC, but will now get a 400L Telford with twin immersions. The Heat Loss spreadsheet and LoopCAD calculated that on the coldest winter days I’d need 3kW of heating. I’m thinking of the 9kW unit from Panasonic when it comes time to get this kit. You could also add a heating coil to the MVHR if you wanted some additional heating. I’m going for separate electric heated towel rails in the bathroom because in my current house towels don’t dry for 6 months of the year. MVHR supposedly fixes this too. The Heat Loss spreadsheet and LoopCAD allow you to enter the air tightness figure, this is really the most important data in the spreadsheet after external outside temperature. It is easy to spec high U-value insulation, but a little trickier to nail an air tightness target. Your final heating requirements could differ quite drastically depending on this.

I went with the Kore Insulated Foundations. I used Tanner for the foundation design and he works closely with Kore.

Hello, we are half way through our build with Thermohouse. We used their structural engineer and their team for the build. Our architect did the internal soil vent pipe/waste water design in conjunction with a drainage design engineer for the external drainage and rainwater. We are not on main drainage and needed a package sewage treatment plant.

@joth Thank you for posting this. I feel your frustrations. It is difficult to know how to model in advance these issues. Please keep us updated, this summer hasn’t been particularly warm yet, hopefully you can get the room cool enough to be comfortable.

Hello @Russell griffiths, thank you for posting this. When you get the chance any more details about your air tightness approach would be much appreciated. My build is ICF too, and I have been wondering if there is anything extra I need to do for some of the junctions. Did you treat the inside bottom of the external walls where they joined the slab? How did you deal with the MVHR penetrations, expanding foam plus the paint? Have you already discussed your windows detail?

Congratulations Russell.

You have my sympathies. I had this exact issue with my foundation pour. 150mm slab with 200mm ring beam and thickenings, 1 layer of reinforcing mesh in the slab, 2 layers in the other areas, grade C25/30. The groundworkers said ask the Structural Engineer, they said it was up to the groundworkers! My understanding is that there is a minimum slump required for it to work with the pump truck, my supplier said that was S3, range 100 to 150, target 130. The ground workers seemed very happy with a slump of S3. Sorry I could not be more helpful. They did not have a poker.

Projector is the only way to go if you have the room. But to have a really good picture you need to bring down the reflected light which destroys the contrast. That means decor with dark colours. Been without my setup for 12 months since starting the self build journey. Here is a picture of the last film I watched before packing up my kit.

@djcdan Hello, my builder ordered my steel beams from https://www.lemonsteel.co.uk. They just arrived today, and the order was finalised 26th May.

@tanneja Hello, how did you get on with your windows? We are looking at Pilkington Suncool 70/35 triple glaze which have LT 60% and 0.35 g-value.

Just adding another short tread on the topic. New suggestions here are Eurocell soffit board and slate wall tiles with a nice picture.

Thanks, good advice. I might still have a tiny overhang as the ICF without any render is already 10mm out from the Upstand edge.

My MVHR needs 200mm spiral ducting, I couldn’t figure out an appropriate sized sleeve option before pour day. So for the lack of alternatives, I put the actual ducting in place before the pour.

I have now passed this phase of my build, the ground floor walls pour has been completed. In the end the UFH pipes were cable tied to the top of the reinforcement mesh in the middle of the raft. The raft was 150mm thick, the top of the UFH pipe in most places was at 80mm, with 70mm of clearance from the top surface. In some areas where there was 50mm ducting for water pipe runs, the reinforcement mesh was lifted and the UFH pipes were at 110mm with only 40mm of clearance. The wall props were 114cm long, and placed 120cm apart with fixings at 18cm and 1m. For the front fixing the builder used M10x70mm tapcon style bolts, we had no UFH pipe where there were front bolts fixings. For the rear bolt fixings we used M8x50mm tapcons, there was UFH pipe present for all these fixings. We ran an air pressure test during the prop fixing process and none of the UFH pipe work were compromised. The walls were poured with only one very minor incident and the props have now been taken down. Hopefully this helps anyone that is concerned with how ICF wall props work when you have an insulated raft with UFH.

@SuperJohnG, Thank you for consolidating some of the other threads. This has been exercising my mind of late, too. Even with the other solutions, the fixing options are not clear. On my Tanner drawing they have spec’d render for the Upstand, which I think will be okay. I do still wonder what to do with my DPM, fold it down over the Upstand, that creates a problem for rendering, or fold it up onto the wall, again, issue for rendering. So just cut it, which doesn’t seem right?

I had this problem. I tried a few different approaches, but found this free web base tool was the best. https://cadsofttools.com/pdf-to-dwg-online/

Thank you. The Ubiflex looks promising. On the Burton Roofing website they also have Alcan Aluminium Flashing 8m roll. https://www.burtonroofing.co.uk/alcan-aluminium-flashing-8m-roll.html I wasn't sure if the roofing material like Roofinox Terned or GreenCoat PLX Pro BT were overkill? This website seems to have many of these options. https://www.roofing-tools.com/metals-for-roofing-cladding-c102x3122254

Hello @AliG, @Alexphd1 any chance you could give more details of the banding solutions you used. Searching for either Aluminium band or Stainless Steel band didn’t yield many promising results. In the USA coil stock looks like a similar banding solution. The other question was how did you affix it to the EPS. Any help would be much appreciated.

Just asked in another thread about the theory about immersion placement. Surely at the bottom to give fully use to solar divert is better?