Thorfun

i've set the flow temp to 30°C for now. will see in the morning what temperature the basement is at! 🙂

yeah. it is getting there. we can still see the tide mark but it's just darn cold down there although it was hovering around the 9°C - 10°C mark constantly even during the cold snap we've just had so it's not all bad! but with some heat down there now the damp will evaporate and the warmer air will hold more of the moisture and the dehumidifiers will be more efficient. i'm keen to get it all dried out so we can put our stuff back down there and carry on with first fix. we can't really do much at the moment as the ground floor and first floor are full of boxes and stuff lying around waiting to be put back in to storage.

ok thanks. so i can crank up the temperature a bit more than 20°C. The house isn't airtight yet so ventilation shouldn't be an issue, plus we will be running dehumidifiers to assist in removing the moisture in the air as it evaporates.

greetings all. i managed to find someone to install my ASHP and it is now up and running. all that's plumbed in at the moment is the UFH in the basement. i've started it out at a flow temp of 20°C and the plan was to ramp it up by 5°C every week to aid in the drying out. The screed was laid Feb 2022 so it's been down for quite a while now. my question to you all is "Is it still necessary to do a gradual drying out regime?". Factors to consider are that the flood water would've got under the screed and in to the PIR i would presume. Also, i would presume that the concrete screed also absorbed quite a bit of water. would that absorbed water increase the risk of cracking the screed even this far down the line from laying? can i bump up the flow temperature more rapidly?

so it wasn't the controller at all. my troubleshooting included taking it apart and plugging a 9V battery onto it and it jumped in to life. i checked the power at the FTC6 end at the connector block and there wasn't any power going to the connector block. after going through the manual i saw it stated to ensure the ASHP was turned on before the Controller. so i went and checked the isolator and that was on but when i checked the CU the RCBO for the ASHP was turned off! doh! turned the ASHP and controller is now working and ASHP is running. i do forgive the installers for missing the fact that the ASHP wasn't powered on. it was quite late yesterday evening after a long day that they were commissioning it and were amazing at getting the install fitted in before the Christmas break so it's all good in the end. glad i didn't have to buy another controller and we can now get the screed warmed up in the basement to help with drying it out.

evening. resurrecting this briefly to see if anyone else has come across this at all? my Ecodan ASHP and UVC has been installed and they went to commission it and no power to the remote control unit. it was subjected to the recent flooding event I had so the conclusion from the installers was that it must be broken due to the flooding. I've brought the remote controller in and put it in the airing cupboard overnight and will try again in the morning but I was wondering if anyone else had any things for me to try before I get the installers to get a new controller.

my wife has a Cricut for her arts and crafts needs. obviously not the same as a milling machine but it cuts stuff out and says it can do engraving after a fashion. i've not really looked at it tbh but she likes hers. https://cricut.com/en-gb/compare

oh...I'm so over it all now. but at the time I was incensed! although I wish they'd told me at the time to contact @craig rather than just saying 'no' as I was already talking to him about windows. oh well, I know for next time. 😉

that's a hard question to answer as one person's reasonable could be another's pricey. I think you'd need to get a quote for what you need as the price will depend on those requirements. personally I was happy with the cost and had already budgeted for it and designed for them to built in to the fabric of the building. @craig mentioned in another thread that he can supply Roma blinds without the need to have the Gaulhoffer windows so give him a shout to discuss your needs. otherwise you could try a.n.other manufacturer to find a local supplier. even though our house isn't finished yet when I lowered the blinds last summer it made quite a dramatic impact on the internal temperature by keeping the sun at bay. so if you're worried about overheating (and anyone building a new house to high insulation levels should be!) then seriously consider external blinds. In fact, I believe that overheating needs to be considered now as part of building regulations. just can't remember the Part letter off the top of my head.

I didn't go with Warema in the end. used a local company called Powell blinds and ended up with Trojan blinds we're not in the house yet but they definitely feel sturdy and don't seem to let a lot of light in but we've not tried sleeping in there so can't say about it for that. Warema only offer through a single supplier who I had issues with but you might have better luck. a bit about our blind install here

seems reasonable to me. never heard of Eurener panels but I'm no expert. I would, however, get a couple of other quotes for comparison and then you can make an informed decision.

i bought mine from ebay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333714806299) but they were only £104.99 at that time. have gone up a tenner since.

install them in your basement. I've heard it's the done thing. just keep them off the floor in case of flooding events!

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong but this sounds like you want to airtight outside the windows before cladding/rendering. Your airtight layer is internal. The outside of the building needs to breathe. I guess I could’ve got the wrong end of the stick for what you’re talking about here though.

don't forget to ensure your CIL exemption is signed off before commencing/demolishing! the last thing you want it to be hit with a massive bill for CIL.

thanks. sorry to hear about your problems too! I'll take a look at their alarms but I have a high water alarm, plus a Shelley flood detector, plus I plan on (as per @pocster's recommendation) notifying my HA system when the second pump is running as that would indicate an issue with the first pump. I'm very confident that my new solution will do the job and will check the pumps annually (if not more regularly) like @pocster suggests. fortunately for us I guess, the basement probably won't be finished for another couple of years so I have that period of time to test the new solution. 😉

🤣

if I may just add a +1 to the 'leave it and crack on' responses. I've had many of these 'agonising' decisions so far in our build and can safely say that they end up being quite inconsequential and soon fade into distant memory but, at the time, it feels like the biggest decision of your life that could have massive follow on effects as it's not what you thought it would be. I remember our groundworker saying to me that 'building is basically a bodge'! now he wasn't saying that it's done by cowboys (although I think that sometimes it is) what he was saying is that it isn't precision engineering and things happen that are slightly different to as expected and then you just deal with them and find a solution around that. as has been said I don't think you'll notice it. Also, even though you said it's cheap with 3 or 4 days for the bricklayer but that could end up being about £1000 which isn't really cheap. it is in the grand scheme of the whole build but when you get to the point of the build that you're penny pinching as costs have spiralled and you need to save as much as possible that £1000 could go a long way. when I first started I had loads of money from my bank and was like 'yeah, an extra £500 here or there is fine!'. now I'm like 's**t! I've got no money left. I could've done with that £500 I spent last year' etc. just my 2 cents. 🙂

Is there any kind of matting or underlay needed for engineered wood flooring?

yeah. groundworkers do the stuff in the ground like foundations, drainage, STP etc. maybe you could pick up a copy of Mark Brinkley's Housebuilders Bible (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Housebuilders-Bible-14-14th/dp/1916016812) . it's a very good book and has loads of great information for self-builders in there to help you not use the wrong terminology! 😉

cor. sounds like your Architect made a big blunder there if they thought Zinc was standard and not expensive! we only had Zinc guttering and downpipes specified and knew that was going to be expensive but a whole darn roof! I wonder if you could get away with a material amendment rather than another full planning application? good luck! at least you're value engineering now and not after you've started building.

thanks. each pump has an NRV on it. there's no chance of water never being in there! even during the drought last summer there was still a trickle of water coming in. I'm tempted to put a monitor on the 1st pump to record when it runs and for how long to keep some form of stats and so I can see if it is running or when it last ran etc. but that's a very nice to have and can wait.

afternoon all. I've finally got my dual pump system up and running. the new pumps are really good and clear the water very quickly. one is 200mm higher than the other so if that one ever kicks in we know there's an issue and I will eventually get alerted if that happens. thanks to @pocster for that suggestion. I've also got a separate float that will go to an external alarm that also has a trigger that will feed the HA system as a last line of notification if both pumps have failed. that will go in at some point soon but I need the electrician to come over and wire all this up properly as it's just on 13A plugs for now. still got the Shelley flood sensor on the floor of the courtyard so if the sump does overflow that will alert me. feeling a LOT better about the risk of flooding occurring again now. Basement is free of water now as well. we've got a hired dehumidifier running and a 2kW convection heater going to try and get some heat down there. it's 'kind of' working but I'm now speaking to companies to bring forward our ASHP/UVC install so we can get the UFH going in the basement to help dry it out. thanks also to @Nickfromwales for his advice and effort in assisting. I'm just waiting to hear back from the second company with their quote and timelines before I make a decision between the 2 companies. Sadly, though, this has had an impact on the schedule for our house build. all the stuff we were storing in the basement is now in the house above ground so we can't really do any work as there are boxes and things all over the place drying out. hopefully we can get the basement fully dry again soon so we can put that stuff back down there and get on with working on the build. no one ever said self-building was easy!

if this is the case I think it'd be a waste to build a bungalow! as has been said it'd be cheaper to build a 2-storey house and put in a lift. that way you can enjoy the views of the sea every day for the rest of your lives while sipping a beverage of your choice from some form of sun terrace. 🙂

And I think the moral of this story is to always get more than one quote (3 is the magic number for me) to compare and then make a decision based on cost, previous work examples, personality and gut feeling!