Thorfun

so.....while I was procrastinating about what to do with the RWH header tank I decided to cut out the chipboard for our en-suite shower former. we decided on and bought the 1850mm x 900mm Impey system. I was very fortunate in that the tray was 39mm away from each wall and the blade on my circular saw, by complete chance, was 39mm from the edge of the guard! I set it to 21mm depth so as to not cut in to the posi-joists and let rip! I couldn't do all of it though and had to use the multi-tool for some, which was really slow. anyway, it's done and the former fits and there's space for the waste between the joists.....just!* lovely. but, as always, I have questions! 1. do I need to fit extra support at the right end (it overhangs the joist by about 40mm) 2. do I need supports along the long edges? our joists are at 300mm centres which leaves about 150mm between edges of joists. I'm thinking that the impey should be fine without extra support but thought I'd double check. 3. our tiler wants the tray to be 6mm proud of the floor so he can put board down to tank and tile on to. he doesn't recommend tiling straight on to the 22mm chipboard. What is the best wood to use to raise the former by 6mm? would it simply be 6mm ply? or is there something better? * I've not actually got the waste out to test yet so that comment is with this caveat. but it 'looks' like it'll fit. 😉

ahh, right. break tank makes sense. I believe that is all handled within the Rain Director message received and understood though. will carry on with 15mm and can add a pump later if we need to. thank you!

sorry Nick. not sure what you mean by a break tank? this is a gravity system. when the header tank is empty the pump in the underground RWH tank kicks in and fills up the header tank in the loft with rainwater (or mains if the RWH tank is empty) and then the toilets/washing machine are run from the header tank. the loft is over 5m above the washing machine so we have sufficient head for that. thanks for the explanation about why the 22mm is specified and it kind of makes sense but the 22mm pipes will need to be reduced to 15mm at the WC/washing machine though, right? so is that not then a bottleneck to the preservation of the pressure/flow? part of me is very tempted to just ditch the header tank and rain director and just take a feed from the basins in the respective bathrooms to fill the toilets and be done with it! much simpler but kind of is a waste of the RWH tank then. 🤦‍♂️

morning all. I actually need some plumbing help so I'm hoping that @Nickfromwales and others are around this morning. I just started to look at plumbing in our RWH header tank to run the toilets from and have just noticed that the supply pipe from the header tank to appliances is shown as being 22mm. my manifold is 15mm and I was planning on running 15mm to the toilets and washing machine. here's the plumbing schematic from the manufacturer. Scan_18062023_103638_000693.pdf so as you can see it's a 22mm pipe from the rain director to the tank and appliances. Can I run a 22mm pipe from the Rain Director (that's the control panel) to the header tank and tee off that near the tank and reduce to 15mm in to my hep2o manifold and then run 15mm from each manifold outlet to appliance? any idea why they've specified 22mm to the appliances? that would have to be reduced at the toilet end anyway as aren't toilet's/washing machines 15mm fittings? I would phone the company I purchased from (rainwaterharvesting.co.uk) but it's a Sunday and I was hoping to get this done today as I'm back to the day job tomorrow. any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you.

Not sure if you’re talking about plumbing or sex anymore! So confused.

I think going straight down feels like the right thing to do. I just can’t figure out why I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about drilling the floor in the loft! I mean, it’s a loft ffs! And if it ever gets converted to bedrooms then I’ll just re-board it. I really need to get over it, right?

Then you married her

can someone please sanity check my work? I will have 5 pipes coming from the manifold which will be installed on the right hand side of the stand holding the tank in the photo below. 4 of those pipes will be doubling back on themselves. I've run one of them and it looks kind of wrong if you know what I mean. I've used cold formed bends so there's no chance of kinking but I'm wondering if I should just go straight down and then 90° under the caber deck rather than doing a 180° turn at the end of the flooring? part of me is reluctant to drill through the decking in the loft but I'm not sure why!? that decision just doesn't seem rational. what would other's do?

that'd be a first

thanks. i have plenty of cls off-cuts. i'll put some diagonal bracing in the stand as well just in case. i'm sure it can't hurt!

thank you and that makes sense. I don't recall our architect ever saying we needed fire rated loft hatches. although, ironically, our hatch holes are 900mm x 600mm and the only off the shelf hatches I can find at those dimensions are fire rated! 🤦‍♂️ these https://www.jupiterblue.co.uk/loft-hatches-c2/fire-rated-c13/sd-fire-rated-loft-hatch-part-b-and-part-l-compliant-in-6-sizes-p96

my reading has informed me that if a building is 3 storeys then loft hatches must be fire rated. but I can't seem to figure out if a basement counts as a storey? we have a basement, ground floor and first floor with a loft space above the first floor. we have 2 loft hatch requirements. do I need fire rated loft hatches?

this weekend I'm planning to get the toilets plumbed in which includes installing the RWH header tank in the loft. here's a picture of the area I'm going to install the header tank and the header tank.. I was planning to build a table/stand for the tank to sit on so it's higher and has a slightly higher head. Also I can then install the manifold for the toilets near the floor level so they're easier to access if/when I ever need to turn a toilet off. Can anyone give some advice on what sort of supports I'll need within the stand to take the weight of the tank full? it has a capacity of 100 litres.

welcome! this whole forum is full of useful threads and has a useful search function. as you've got time i recommend just slowly working your way through the relevant subforums to get a handle on things. Also i can recommend picking up a copy of Mark Brinkley's 'Housebuilder's Bible' as a great place to start to get a good understanding as to what is involved. good luck on your journey

ufh click tracks are expensive, staples are cheap! 😉

nothing stopping you reapplying after you get the 8kW permission! 😉

with SWMBO still inside?

none at all. tbh, it would be impossible as we haven't got any doors! 🤣

still am happy despite what @saveasteading says. he did finish with 'presumably resolved now' so I'm sticking with that. the guy seemed to have the correct equipment and we could definitely feel a few areas where air was coming in that we resolved there and then.

just without the sticky floors, unlike @pocster's place.

and the results are in.............. ........0.98ACH! i'm very happy and hit my target of 1ACH. could we have got it lower? maybe, but we calculated the internal volume at just over 1400m3 over 4 stories (basement, ground floor, first floor and loft) and it's got some interesting junctions between sections of the buildings so i think to get in below 1ACH is a job well done.

that's a very fair point and my apologies for misinterpreting Dave's initial post.

That’s what the day job is for….wasting time……errr….I mean researching important information on this wonderful forum.

£50k isn't really peanuts. our build won't be far off £700k and I can tell you that another £50k would be extremely useful! and if it had cost us £50k to get planning the first thing I would've had to do is go back to planning as I wouldn't have been able to afford what got approved. just because someone has a big budget does mean they're loaded and have cash to burn.