Friendlyengineer

Thats exactly me... in fact, I was looking into exactly the same thing to put a thermal break into the steels , but like you i didnt get down to it in my list in time ....... and yes, ive also fretted about this for ages.

Thanks all, this has been a simple , but good sanity check. I appreciate it.

My wife is my commonsense , and I absolutely know the cost outweighs the benefits, but she tells me Im a perfectionist so I try and look for every tiny thing i can improve very often without looking at the cost...... My builder agrees with her and you all by the way! Very good point about the door handles.! Im certainly not oblivious to the requirements we want to achieve, the actual reality of that , and the fact we havent had a designer do proper calcs for us, I think which is why im just a bit stressed about pushing everything to it's extreme where its just not needed.

The steel is a whole frame designed by our Structural Engineer. I assume because the internal wall next to it is quite thin, and I didnt want a big pillar sticking out into the room , so thats just how he designed it. Yes, its heated and will be insulated. Yea ... Ha, the passiv certification thing. We are definitely not going to be certifying anything, I'm just putting products in our house that will push us beyond the current building regs towards Enerphit standards. I've got no intention of certifying it because there are places where it will fail miserably , like the current double glazed windows for example. They are not that old, so we dont have the money to replace them in this project.

SO : We have just had installed an internal steel frame where we've taken a wall out inside our house (1850s , back to brick, im aiming for Enerphit having done no calcs 🙈) . The bottom part of it is in the ground enclosed in concrete, and the side posts are bolted to the internal walls. I've attached a bit of our structural engineers drawings below for reference. Our builder has already boxed all of this in , but i cant help feel I should have wrapped the bits of steel I can see in something like an aerogel sheet https://phstore.co.uk/spacetherm-aerogel/ . I've done exactly 0 calculations and am just aiming high for insulation and airtightness. Is that enough info for people to have some thoughts about? Thanks all, I appreciate your time Mark

Hi All Been registered here a long time, but first time posting so I thought Id do an introduction. We are refurbing a house we have been living in for 20 years. We've completely moved out, back to brick 1850s house, and im going down the eco route. Internal wood fibre insulation onto a lime plaster base, then im actually thinking about the breathaboard system inside that if i can get any), all UFH downstairs with foamglass base and dry tile UFH build up. Wood fibre in our roof (new one has been fitted), and passivhaus rated doors where we are replacing them. Im aiming for Enerphit (without doing any calcs) for insulation and airtightness and will just see how far we get. Project managing ourselves, with a builder to do the really big stuff, who is really great but he doesnt understand insulating to Enerphit standards, which im finding difficult. Taken us 3 years so far, with another 2 or 3 to go possibly Thats us Mark