gavztheouch

Anyone used these guys recently? I sent them an email months back regarding delivery costs. Havent got back to me so was wondering if there still on the go.

Thanks! The reality of the install in terms of neatness does not match the clean pics on the manufacturers websites. I seen one website has the heat pump pressed hard up against the house, I assume this is impossible as the air normally is pulled in through the back of the pump and out the front. Brining the pipes through the wall gives the neatest install. However I would rather bring the pipes through the slab as I don’t like the idea of having a have in my wall that would be difficult to seal. I have an open rainscreen cladding so some driven rain will get in. i think your install looks good. That’s a good point about landscaping around the heatpump. I am also not sure what my finished landscaping will look like and what the final level will be. I guess I could do a temporary base and adjust from there. Where did you get your pre insulated pipe from?

Hi I'm thinking about using a 32mm duo pre insulated pipe to bring my flow and returns into the house by coming through the insulated slab. To anyone who has done this how did you detail connection between the insulated pipe and the heat pump. The heat pump needs to sit something like 200mm from the wall that doesn't leave a lot of space to bring the pipe up vertically. The pipe connections are at the back of the heat pump too which leaves even less space. I could move the heat pump further away from the house to give more space?

Hi all dimensions and details of installation are know ie insulation around the pipe to allow for movement. It’s more a question of how you would normally measure the position is a tape measure form the string line of the external walls ok

About to start my foundation. Is it worth running string lines with batter boards to mark out the location of things like soil pipes and ducts bring electric in etc. is this over kill? It would be a lot more work than just marking the four corners of the foundation. What method is best? I could just measure off the external perimeter with a tape to get x and y coordinates. Feel like I’m overthinking this one. I’m using an insulated slab.

Embodied energy is the big one when it comes to the battle against climate change. The next 10 years will be critical so even if your house was to last 1 million years it won’t matter if we all build with high embodied energy because we will have already crossed tipping points. A stick built or straw bale house will last well over 100 years. If you build it in a way that can be repaired it could last forever.

To add some context I think about this a lot in relation to building my house. What materials I use (embodied energy) and also will it still be here is 40 years time (I'm 10m above sea level ) or will it be flooded.

Last year I was following the news about the rise of the sea temps. I know the start of el nino had something to do with it but the chart was way higher than before and this year is worse. These measurement are an average of thousands of different sensors so they must be accurate and also unlikely to be wrong. I heard speculation that this might be something to do with the removal of sulfur from shipping fuel, which reduced particles in the upper atomsphere allowing more light in. Anyone else feeling distraught at the speed of warming at this rate we are going to be in trouble very soon and there is no clear way back. I don't see any other option but to massively slow down human activity.

The ultimate accuracy is a class 1 tape which I think is about +-3mm over 30m, class 2 is +-6mm over 30m so not much difference. You can feel a fibre tape extending under pressure so steel is better as it has less flex. I agree that if you want to get it done quickly get someone in. If you value your time then it will cost more doing it yourself too. It's a balance isn't it trying to figure out what you enjoy and think is worth tackling yourself just cause you want too. I bought a theodolite like this one, although mine isn't digital. I plan on making a cad drawing of my founds with all the important points measured radiating out from one position. I can use the cad to calculate all the lengths and angles from that one reference point. Then I can use the tape and angle measurements made with the theodolite to plot them out. To double check I can then measure the distances between the points, that will tell me if I got it right. I mark the points using a 45x45mm wooden batten driven into the ground. I get this near the mark and then use a nail hammered into the wooden stake as the real mark. I usually need a few attempts at getting the nail in the right position. I look through the theodolite sight and make a mental note of where the nail needs to be by looking at notable marks in the wood like knots and wood grain. I walk over to the stake at hammer the nail in lightly, then I walk back and check the position and adjust if need be until it's right. You do this at the same time as making sure it's at the right distance by using your steel tape. You can strike an arc with the tape and a pencil to make a mark of the distance on the wooden stake to help.

I would use steel tapes not gps to mark out. I’m marking out and digging my own foundations but I’m using an insulated raft foundation so the shape and size is not so critical as the isoquick foundation is pre manufactured. I just need to make sure it’s square. I bought an old optical theodolite off gumtree which I have found useful and very accurate for marking out points on the ground in conjunction with a decent steel tape.

Thanks, hopefully they will send me a full vat invoice.

Just bought my rebar for the project. £3k worth of steel over 110m2 seems like overkill to me. 4 layers of 10mm mesh with 200mm grid spacing. 2 layers on top and two on the bottom. My current plan is to try and run the underfloor heating pipes between the top and bottom layers of mesh. At the end I’m thinking I can hook the pipe up and tie it to the underside of the mesh with a cable tie. The hard part will be routing the pipe between the mesh chairs that support the upper layers of mesh.

Do you need to show evidence the money for buying stuff has come out of your account? Is a proforma invoice ok. I guess with a pro forma invoice there is no way of knowing if you actually bought the goods.

I wish they would let you split the whole claim into say 3 individual claims. Quite a burden carrying the VAT for lengthy periods of time.

Model finished ready for review with architect to sort out window sizes and positions. I haven’t added the dormer windows yet. Going to call an end to the modelling for now and focus on the foundations.

Cad work is done for now. Meeting with the architect next week to try and finalise most of the window sizes and some other details. Almost finished printing the parts for the model and made a start tonight glueing it together. I’m using PLA plastic for the prints and super glue to stick it together.

Gus that is extremely generous of you. Thankfully I have already had the frame engineered by a SE. This exercise is mainly to work out the construction details and find mistakes in the drawings. I’ve found a few so far. I would very much appreciate your eye as the project progresses.

Progress so far, I have taken out the repeating studs at 600mm centres for clarity to focus on the important bits

You could add external insulation to protect the frame from wasps a little. Also an insect screen is useful. I’m using both, the insect screen also needs to be sealed top and bottom with stainless steel mesh

A similar construction here in this video. I have an external breathable racking board and I also noticed my studs are actually 245mm not 225mm. Its definitely a worry regarding the warping with such a large piece of wood. About 8 months ago I made a test section of wall from c24 245mm, there is no racking boards fitted and everything is still straight. I still have about 40 or 50 pieces of 245mm by about 3.6m sticks, it might be worth going through them all to see how badly twisted they are? So far my intuition tells me they are pretty stable along their length, maybe more so than the smaller sections like 2x4, but obviously across their width there will be lots more cupping and shrinkage. If I let them dry out somewhat then they won't shrink much more but it will be impossible to savage twisted/cupped lumber that could have been used when wet. The theory being if you nail them quick enough together they should be prevented from twisting in situ. Not sure I 100% subscribe to this theory. Another possibility would be to buy more wood than I need and let it all dry out in the shed over the next few months and then select the best ones to use in the house. The rest I could cut up for shorter lengths?

Hi I’m in the process of designing my timber frame. I thought I’d start a thread to pick some brains as I go along. The frame will be c24 225mm by 45mm timber with a breathable racking board on the outside plus 60mm wood fibre. I have engineering and architect drawings and designs. My next job will be to create my own drawings to use myself or pass on to a joiner to complete the actual work. I’m using a cad program called fusion 360 and I plan to 3D print the design to give me motivation and a nice visual model to refer to. I used to build prototype machines in the workshop without drawings, now that I’m older and wiser (hopefully) I find that concept laughable. I need a clear plan to refer to. I’m going to make mistake building this house. I have some time before the spring, building the frame in cad will hopefully help me make at least some of them in the computer before I take it to site. Below is a practice part of the wall. Printed at 3.5% of the original.

https://youtube.com/shorts/PecSnukpndw?si=CxSRduTSesWGMPF Probably a waste of time but I enjoy learning about these things. I built this self levelling ram that follows the rotary laser level. The idea would be to build a self levelling screed robot to level the final layer of stones under the isoquick. it uses light sensors inside a 3D printer hood that’s painted black to stop light coming in from outside. This is clamped against the laser receivers led light panel to read the grade.

Thanks for the advice. I am also unsure if there is a legal reason that will not let me run power to the house from the barn. I use a lot of power in the shed during the summer maybe 4 weeks in total then everything is turned off for the year. My plan was to install batteries and solar in the house so it is almost off grid. Then the power from the shed is more like a trickle charger. I have enough equipment to blow through my available capacity and I need to think about what to turn on when and will it exceed my capacity I have reserved on the network. This is common sense. The transformer is sized to give me double my needs so there is no concern there.

Im planning on building a new house next to an existing farm shed with 3 phase electric supply. I have a 3 phase solar installation so Ideally I would like to have three phase in the house. If I run a new cable to the house from shed I'm not sure if I also need to run an earth cable, so I need a 5 core or 4 core SWA. 4 core would be cheaper if I do the earth separately. I could use the SWA armour to carry the earth cable? or place an earthing rod at the house?

That’s a shame I was following Along with their website to check cladding prices and they were one of the few to drop prices as the market fell. I fear this may be the start of a lot of failures. Cladding prices doubled during covid and have not reversed