Russdl

For sound proofing, plus I fancied keeping plasters away. And shelves one day... I’d not considered that. I was under the impression that using the Jointstick and finishing off with the FST it would be smooth as a babies bum but I’m well aware of the weight issue. Is it really not suitable for ceilings or is it my plan to use half size boards that is the main issue? Yet again Russ, thanks for pointing out the bleeding obvious that I hadn’t spotted! The bars run perpendicular to the joists and/or studs so you’re quite right - it shouldn’t be an issue. Where would I be without you guys and gals.

Sorry to keep banging on about Fermacell boards but here I go again... Resilient Bars hang about 16mm from the ceiling and I plan on using 12.5mm Fermacell boards attached to them, that gives me 28.5mm from the board face to the joists above and the screw through the board shouldn’t touch the joists. The smallest screw Fermacell supply for ceilings/walls is 30mm which is too long for what I plan to do but they do supply a 23mm screw for their flooring system. Would that 23mm screw be suitable to attach the 12.5mm boards to resilient bars on the ceiling and walls, or will the whole lot come crashing down on me?

I'm planning on resilient bars as well which leads on to what I suspect is a very basic question. What should be done first? Ceilings or walls. The Fermacell help guy dude said 'whatever you want'. Is he right? Does anyone have any rules?

I don't quite follow you there @PeterW. Could you enlighten me on exactly what/why you used the router? What about cutouts for socket boxes? Did you router those or jigsaw or is there a better solution? I hadn't. @PeterW says he has, perhaps he can give us pro's and con's. I guess it works out cheaper and quicker, but less flexible if you cock something up. I'm about to plunge in to the board buying stage. Full boards would be ideal in theory, but in practice I could be doing this on my tod at times so '1 man boards' it will be. 1200 x 1200 seems an obvious answer, it's a straight forward 'half a board'. Any thoughts on the pro's and con's of the different size 'one man' boards, (1200 x 800, 1500 x 1000?)

@Dreadnaught Pretty much the same as @Visti expect I haven’t got a sister so the good lady had better be up for a bit of fun. The guy on the Fermacell helpline says exactly what Visti said regarding TE so basically of no use on a new build using Fermacell. Likewise I’m planning on 12.5 throughout as it’s ‘off the shelf’. 10mm would be a special order and they would only supply full pallet loads so there is the potential to end up with loads of excess 10mm boards if I got the sums wrong.

@Visti, I presume you’re referring to the highlighted 1200x800 10mm board? Unless I’ve read @Dreadnaught‘s table incorrectly your quote is way way more than 50p cheaper. It’s over £10 cheaper. I’ve had a very similar quote price from Encon for the 12.5mm board, regardless of the size of board.

In the 12.5mm they do 1200x1200, 1200x900, 1200x800

Beyond a doubt I think, but I guess the '1 man boards' can be done by, er, 1 man. The first quote I have for Fermacell is a m2 price and doesn't differentiate between board sizes.

It would seem that way. I've just spoken to Fermacell technical support (I'm going to have him on speed dial). He say's there is no need to use the Powerpanel in a domestic situation. "You can use our standard panel with our waterproofing product or anyone else's waterproofing product, there all the same" he said. He made it sound to be as straight forward as it looks, aimed at us DIY'ers. Jointstick on the factory edges, 5-7mm gap on cut edges and then filled later. FST for any painted finish. And he confirmed what we all know - it's very heavy.

Great research and detail there @Visti. I see that you've specced the Powerpanel H2O in the Fermacell table. Any specific reason for that? My understanding was that the standard Fermacell board, plus a waterproofing treatment, was suitable for domestic bathrooms/kitchens. Is the waterproofing treatment not required on the Powerpanel and therefore it works out cheaper?

I agree. Earlier when I said I'd found diddly squat in my Google search I wasn't being completely honest (shame on me) because I found this on Alibaba which would probably fit the bill, but I thought I'd ask the assembled masses first if they knew of a more local solution. Are there any 'specs' that a meter box should conform too? If so, does that Alibaba box fit the bill?

@PeterW Thanks, basically painting a white-is one the colour you want I guess. How has it faired?

As the title suggest really. I'm looking for an electric meter box that is black and not recessed. With good old Google I've found the square root of diddly squat. Does anyone know where I can get one: Black (or very dark grey) non recessed, electric meter box?

In a nutshell.

Sorry, not me, not yet.

All the above, and much more. Thats our plan, Sunamp, PV, offpeak elec and Willis heaters... and firmly crossed fingers.

That’s why we went for 40 degrees as our roof pitch, plus it gave a tad more head height in the fully useable loft space.

@SteamyTea Got back to the computer and the PVGIS website gives a 'slope angle' for the easterly facing array of 28 degrees, so to my understanding that would be 28 degrees up from the horizontal, it doesn't make that clear, apart from the words 'slope angle' which to my mind implies that. @Ed Davies If I've got that correct then I guess your assumption must be correct because it wouldn't get a great deal of direct sun from the low early morning sun at that angle.

@SteamyTea that’s probably the site I used to get that 30 degree angle, too far from a computer to check, but I’ll revisit it when I get the opportunity.

I guess all the above is based on a southerly facing array? My (non connected array) faces just west of south, 210 degrees, and is at 40 degrees from the horizontal. In the (distant) future I plan some easterly facing panels (120 degrees). I’d read somewhere that 40 degrees was the best compromise for the southerly facing array (hence the 40 degree roof pitch) and that for an easterly facing array, 30 degrees was the optimum. I was quite surprised that 30 degrees up from the horizontal was the ‘optimum’ for the easterly facing panels, I was expecting more like 60 degrees. I could of course have misinterpreted the information and it should be 30 degrees from the vertical (thus 60 degrees from the horizontal) but I’m sure that’s the information I gleaned. Have I got that completely wrong?

@vivienz I hope Paul (I think that was his name) from Earthsave Products gets you up and running asap, it is a real concern that the Eccocent Air can't pick up from where it left off after a power outage. Any other MVHR users prone to power cuts had any similar issue?

I'll start the ball rolling with the excellent Naim Mu-so, or it's little brother the Mu-so Qb, it will do what you want, but at a price - which might not be what you want! https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/naim-mu-so-2 https://www.whathifi.com/naim/mu-so-qb/review

Well, it's very early days yet as it's only been up around 2 months. It should be virtually maintenance free and stay looking sharp for umpteen years. I'll have to let you know in umpteen years if that is indeed the case.

It's not 'burnt' and it's not exactly 'wood' but we've used a wood/plastic composite cladding from Envirobuild. It's not far off being black and, we think, looks pretty sharp. It's also a good 'wood' imposter.

I would agree. For 2D drawings I still use SketchUp because I'm rubbish at CAD. From the SketchUp 'Camera' menu I use 'Standard Views' 'Top' and 'Parallel Projection' and that gives pretty reasonable 2D results but nowhere near as good as a proper CAD package.