Thorfun

🤣 well, our heating engineers are coming back to connect the UVC to the manifolds in lovely soldered copper and so I can't easily connect the pipes they've left ready and the manifold. I guess I could just put the manifolds on the wall and then attach the hep2o pipes AFTER they've been connected up with water but I'm a little impatient. also, the hep2o pipes for the cold water manifold will be underneath a piece of wood with the hot water manifold over them so connecting the cold water pipes might be a bit trickier with the lack of movement available in the pipes once covered over (if that makes any sense at all!). which is why I simply wanted to test the manifolds first and then I could connect at my leisure while I await the heating engineers to come back and finish the job.

i was trying to do something correctly for a change. and the thought of unplugging >15 hep2o pushfit pipes from each manifold was something i was hoping to avoid

ok. thanks. me being naive then! will make sure that my boards are flat and true when i come to fit them. 😉

qq. what's the best way to test my water manifolds before I put them on the wall and attach the pipes? I have a pressure tester (https://www.screwfix.com/p/bailey-drain-air-testing-kit/19536) that I used for my soil pipes. will this suffice with a 3/4" testing plug? or is there a better way?

we're a long way away from tiling but from what i've read on the tiling forum here it's very well thought of and used often. apparently it is expensive but worth it. so it's on my list of products to consider and to talk through with the tiler when we get there.

surely the plasterer will get all the minor imperfections out? or am i being naive?

yeah. obviously that's an approximation but i'm still very happy. all those hours, days, weeks, months fitting insulation, AVCL and taping will hopefully be worth it in the end!

if i may join in here....our house isn't finished yet and isn't airtight (we have 2 openings to the garage and the garage doors are sheets of OSB on hinges (i have a piece of PIR leaning against a wall between the house and those openings). we only have heating in the basement at the moment. yesterday at about 4pm i turned off the heating as it's dry down there now and it's just using electricity for no real reason. when i left the build it was 19.6°C in the basement and 14.8°C on the ground floor. overnight temps were -3°C. this morning when i went and checked (at about 10am), the basement was at 16.8°C and the ground floor at 12.2°C. i'm pretty happy with those loses for now considering we're not even airtight and it's fricking freezing outside (Mr. Bigglesworth). so it really makes me feel good that eventually we should have an efficient and warm house with minimal heating loses. when i finally get it finished that is!

build a basement with a dedicated music room. 😉

this is a very valid point but for us the GI gave us soil composition, water levels, CBR rating, percolation rates, radon levels and many many other things so it was quite invaluable. the SE used a lot of the information and the CE also used it for their design of the driveway and crossover. in the grand scheme of things it wasn't stupidly expensive either.

might be worth looking at an insulated slab for foundations? obviously your SE will design what's suitable but i was of the understanding that a raft/slab foundation works ok on clay. also agree with the comment on getting a proper ground investigation done. it's what your structural engineer will work off.

battery storage isn't just for running an ASHP though! what about lights at night? the TV? fridge? etc. it all uses electricity that can be powered by the batteries.

That’s some plot! Well done. I look forward to following your journey. thanks for the photos. I can’t wait until we’re finished and can demolish our bungalow.

any photos? Timelapse video? everyone loves to see stuff being smashed up!

our ASHP/UVC is a long story but after being left in the lurch I had to find someone to install the equipment that was already on-site. found a local company who did it for £3500. that's install the UVC, buffer, ASHP, electrics (although I ran the SWA cable to save a bit of money), about 10m of lagged 28mm flow and return copper pipework from ASHP to UVC and commissioning and connecting to our UFH system. they did a brilliant job and I thought it was a reasonable cost. so there are good reliable heating engineers/companies out there that don't take the pi$$ with costs. generally they've been going for a number of years and aren't just cashing in the grant schemes.

without wanting to sound rude but i think the answer is to find another TF company that WILL get you to 0.8ACH if that's the level you want to get to. otherwise there are things you can do but it'll cost you time and money on top of what the current TF company will charge. or maybe negotiate with them to get below 1ACH as a target. then they have the knowledge and kudos of achieving that and can then market it as a reason to choose them

bought a 2.7T Kubota. great little machine but the lack of reach is frustrating. i managed to get smallish trees out with it by digging around the roots and then lifting out. it's been a great purchase and i've used it to dig our driveway, trenches, move pallets of blocks, carry materials around site and other things too. but i think a 5T would've given me a longer reach. But as @Conor says would probably be not as usable on a smaller site. for insurance i added machinery to our site insurance so it's covered under that.

so no one said not to go for the cheaper Aspen pump so I'm going to go for that one. saves me around £500!

I bought the Loctite 55 and have used it to put my water manifolds together. can't give any indication as to how good it is as they're not plumbed in or been tested yet! but it was easy to use. 😂 I also seem to struggle with PTFE, I think mostly because I'm not as methodical as @Nickfromwales and just slap it on and turn until I can't turn any more and then realise that it's not vertical and have to undo it a bit and then it leaks and then I have to do it again and mess up in the same way. whoever thought it was a good idea for me to do my own plumbing was an idiot.

welcome. sounds like a very interesting project and I know I speak for the majority on here when we say we want pictures!! 🙂 many on here have built basements (us included) but I don't recall reading any with those sorts of plot size constraints. would love to hear more details of the build so far and as you progress.

not used but did have a quote from them but they were too expensive to consider for us. YMMV. although they do use Norrsken windows and doors (at least they did when we were looking!) which we do have and are very good. 🙂

I think the TV position is more important than the sound.

if the soundbar is level with your ears when above the tv then your eyes are level with the top of the TV. I don't believe that's optimal. ultimately, the height of the TV depends on the screen size, distance from the screen, height of the sofa seats, the style of the sofa even (if it's a sofa where your head slumps back then you'll be looking upwards more!) etc so every case is different. yes, a fair point.

In my opinion the centre sound stage should be below the screen. If above the dialogue might keep drawing your attention higher up the wall.

We had Cemfloor and the guys that laid it were really good. Nice smooth and level surface with no laitence needing to be removed and could walk on it after 48hrs.