Russdl

Soz, but I have to disagree with that as well.

Have to disagree there. You can get custom ‘wardrobe’ doors, obviously very small ‘wardrobe’ doors. DIY’ing those is a walk in the park. There are several companies out there that will make the doors to the exact size you want (height, width) with the external finish you want, and supply the tracks you need and a couple of hours later you’ll have a flash looking concealed storage space.

That is wide. We have two largeish sliders, 900mm openings, we used 1000mm fire door blanks which are very good at blocking sound. (One thing to consider with your sliding doors which we didn’t until the deed was done. Redecorating them could be nigh on impossible. We had the blanks sprayed, beautiful finish but once the doors in it’s in forever. Some sliding kits allow you to remove the door - ours doesn’t. Not ever).

@bob the builder 2 that build up is very similar to ours apart from the kitchen where the ceiling is fermacell (that stuff is a bitch for a non skilled DIY’er). The remainder of the ceilings are acoustic PB. No normal sounds make it through the ceilings, unloading the dishwasher, listening to music, watching TV etc. If the doors are closed I can have music on in the kitchen at a good volume and it can’t be heard in the bedroom above.

@ToughButterCup we’ve got valves that are relatively flush, not sure if they’re less than 10mm though. When I get home on Tuesday I’ll measure it and see, if you haven’t come up with a solution by then. *** @ToughButterCup nope, sorry. Well over 10mm depth to our ceiling valves. ***

If you choose that route cut out a much bigger section of PB so you can work unhindered. When you have the cables where you want, refit the previously cut out section of PB and fill the joins. It will be an invisible job after a bit of decoration.

Tell the ‘committee’ that she doesn’t know what she’s on about. it will look great 😃

If you don’t want to cut out a bit of PB which would still work how about making a painted plinth (MDF) for the light to stand on? Bigger than the light base and hollow so you can dig holes all over the ceiling to fix the wiring and then the painted plinth will hide the carnage and the light fitting fits over the plinth.

I would ask for the instructions up front so you can have a good old gander and get everything prepared. I’ll see if I can find what I had. ~~~~ (sorry, can’t find anything)

As far as I’m aware expanding foam is a big no-no above a sliding door unit as it can expand sufficiently to distort the frame and consequently prevent the sliding doors from doing just that. I’m pretty sure that’s something I read in the Internorm installation instructions as well. I presume you have the installation instructions?

@JohnMo yeah, good point. I couldn’t find any data regarding temperature/humidity when it would activate but even so it appears to be off with no way (that I can see) of setting it to auto

If it doesn't have a preheater, I've been had.

That very same thought had crossed my mind. Pretty sure it is, but I've not laid eyes on it so who knows! Just trying to fathom that out now..

I was just browsing through my MVHR stats, wondering how often the preheater had been on in this cold snap and it would appear that it's not been on at all, well at least for the last week which I find quite surprising. I then see that it has 4 different settings: OFF - AUTO - LOCK CURRENT - LOCK MAXIMUM. Of course mine is set to 'OFF' the problem I have is that I can't find any way of selecting it to 'AUTO' not on the wall mounted control unit, the app or the web access. Does anyone have any idea how I can set my preheater to 'AUTO'? Also, how much preheater activity have others seen in these current conditions? Does it come on just now and again or is it on almost permanently?

Yep.

Here’s a pic from inside the house looking out (taken from inside my pre filter box)

Nope. No fine mesh until it reaches my ‘pre filter’ box inside the house.

@LA3222 I’ll see your ice covered intake and raise you with an almost completely blocked intake vent. Looks like a combination of spiders webs and frost. There was no noticeable effect in the house but I was very surprised to see it.

@gmas2001 Have you seen Ali Dymock's YouTube channel? If not I would thoroughly recommend it. He documents a highly insulated timber frame garden room built from scratch with every detail discussed and explained, it's brilliant stuff.

@anonymous it may be worth looking in to vacuum double glazing, apparently can be as good as triple glazing. Thinner, lighter, no idea of price comparisons though.

@Garald sorry I can’t offer any opinion on the internal installation of an external heat pump but regarding the price, if they’ve lopped €3000 off the price without too much effort then they were clearly coming in at a mad high price and there may be some more discount available bringing the price down to a less eye watering one.

Could the fire burning too hot have caused the flue joints to fail? Do you have a flue thermometer? I would have thought it would be difficult to get a blazing/roaring fire going with a blocked chimney and plenty of evidence that it was blocked whilst trying to light it (unless the lighting process was ‘accelerated’).

Agree it’s probably a mouse, but look on the bright side, if it is a rat then you won’t have mice because the rats will eat them. As already said, mice can get through tiny holes, I watched one go through a gap after scaling a brick wall and I couldn’t get my little finger in the gap it went through, quite astonishing. (I’d vote for poison. In the past I used humane traps but that gets tedious after a while).

@build_a_bear 1. Sorry, can’t help with alternatives as we’ve got a Brink but there are negatives to the Brink from my point of view. All the good stuff is good but the app is poor as is web access - all seems a bit last decade, but not a game changer, hardly ever need it. 2. No. A silencer before the manifold should suffice. The manifold has baffles that help as well - not 100% effective on a quiet night, maybe 95% but that’s subjective. There will be a tiny bit of ‘white noise’ but you’ll have to try hard to hear it. 3. Don’t pay too much for it. Can you DIY the pipes? A day of fun and save a fortune?

Excellent! Something for me to worry about if I choose block 😂 (I think I will...) I was getting worried that I couldn't think of much to worry about.