Gone West

Welcome back. Sorry to hear about the problems. We've moved to the west country, so are a bit closer to your neck of the woods. I'd be happy to provide assistance but as I'm also in my 70s I don't think it would actually be much help. Hope it all gets sorted successfully.

Does the drawing show chamfered edges on the underside of the slab? Is that because there is a fillet on the edge of the concrete conduit or just where crud has built up.

Can't you buy a 30cm square concrete slab and cut it to size with an angle grinder.

God, that's grim. Mind you it's pleasantly warm compared to the temperatures in Calgary recently. I don't know how my daughter puts up with it, but she doesn't mind, that's youth for you.

I'm going to be installing Cedral Click T&G on the back of my place this summer and from what I've read it's pretty straightforward.

+1

Thirty years ago I neatly cut the bricks out and mortared around the horns.

Felt really pleasant going out today. Mild breeze was a pleasant change from the recent cold. Shame it can't last.

We haven't had any snow but have had 43mm rain in the last 24 hours. It was 13C when I woke up this morning! My youngest daughter lives in Calgary where the forecast maximum temperature today is -10C. It got down to -30C last year.

I haven't fitted windows with horns since the early nineties.

We live in a bungalow and I took one of the chimneys down last summer. It went ok, so I'm taking the other one down when it warms up, and it will be a similar job to yours. I was going to cap it off in the loft after bricking up the opening and pouring insulation down the hole. I haven't decided what type of insulation yet, but probably EPS beads or expanded glass beads. Someone else might have a better idea about the insulation.

Welcome to the forum. Self building can be very overwhelming at times but stick with it and BH will help get you through.

What you mean is, you, don't want a uniform temperature in every room. I designed and built my own house, to better than minimum PH standards, which resulted in a uniform temperature throughout the house. It was very comfortable. I now live in an old stone bungalow, and have the whole house at the same temperature. I could never go back to the old, uncomfortable arrangement where walking from one room to another meant a change in temperature.

The only potential problem I have with an in-roof system, is, if a PV panel needs replacing in the future, will the same size PV panels still exist.

Would you be able to rig up a Willis Solasyphon for something like that?