Gone West

Is this any good? https://www.rselectricalsupplies.co.uk/products/schneider-ultimate-flat-plate-stainless-steel-3g-2w-light-switch-gu12322wss

We did smoke tests, and the lift slide door was the only one showing a 'significant' leak, although nothing compared to most houses. I can't imagine even the joints would need taping, but it comes down to how carefully the panels are joined together.

Yep.

I don't know what I could have done to improve it other than not have a lift slide door, which leaked a bit.

OSB can be airtight, it depends on the thickness and how well made it is. I would be very surprised if a thick SIPs panel wasn't airtight to the degree required for an airtightness test. With the the way the SIPs panels are joined I would have thought the purple paint wasn't really required. I achieved an average airtightness on my house of 0.47ACH without any airtightness tapes, membranes or paints. I just had 15mm OSB3 and 350mm Icynene foam. The window and door frames were sealed in the openings with two rows of Compriband and Soudal SWS foam. There were no openings in the walls or roof other than the two ducts for MVHR.

I bought Knightsbridge plasterboard boxes from TLC for my new build and ended up replacing them with Appleby. I only bought the Knightsbridge ones because I was getting a lot of stuff from TLC and they didn't have Appleby. Knightsbridge were crap, so many of the sliding lugs broke off that I just chucked them.

I fixed the probe to be in the centre of the duct and didn't move it as I took the measurements, so I was always comparing like with like.

Almost definitely, we had to stop if it was windy because the readings were too variable.

A cavity brush is usually used to keep the insulation your side. https://speedybrush.com/cavity-insulation/

I haven't been able to find it. Have you got a link? I wonder if that means the DHW tank is now 165l rather than 185l.

Yeah it's the way it is towards the end of the build. We found these to be a very good price. https://www.internaldoors.co.uk/mexicano-modern-veneer-oak-door

I designed and built a PH that was heated by an electric towel rail in each of the three bathrooms, 4 m2 electric UFH in the kitchen. We also had a Genvex Combi 185 which had an EASHP that heated the DHW and provided warm air through the integrated MVHR ducting if required. We kept the whole house at 23C without a wet heating system.

Welcome to the forum. First of all good luck with your project. We lived in East Kent at the time and it took us eight years to complete the building work and two years planning, so it pays to have somewhere comfortable to live, while all that is going on. We also had an old bungalow which we replaced with a Passivhaus. We were able to live in the bungalow while building the house in the garden, which was a tight squeeze, but at least we were always on site. We built a timber frame on an insulated slab and did a considerable amount of the work ourselves, hence the eight years. We had never done any large building work before, but we designed and built our own Passivhaus, so just pace yourself and enjoy the rollercoaster.

We used a Fakro triple glazed roof window. Easy to fit, no trickle vents, no problems. Velux at that time only came with trickle vents.

Burnt sand mastic is the traditional material for sealing around window and door frames into stonework.

When I was a teenager cycling over to my mates at Barming, the gypsies used to string barbed wire across the lane at North Pole Woods. Fortunately I had been warned.

The Isoquick technician who came to site was from Germany, so I guess it's German. The first time I heard of it, it was being used in Canada.

Yes, it was a package contract from laying the type1 to power floating the concrete. We knew we were the first Isoquick installation in the country and so were guinea pigs to a degree, although we did have company technicians on site. We paid a fixed price, and all the extra costs due to the cock ups were covered by the company, who didn't quibble. There was a couple of weeks delay. Yes, and the fact the concrete was coming from too far away in warm weather. It came down to a good system, being let down by poor UK concrete laying.

+1 for Elfa. We've used that system for some time now, and it's really 'flexible', in a good way.

It took us a couple of years to finally get Planning Approval. We beat the LPA but still compromised on what we originally wanted. You have to really want to build your own place, to be bothered to persevere.

The 50mm layer of 3mm granite gravel just under the EPS should allow drainage if required. I was told the Peripor, which is made of very small granules, was more resistant to water absorption than standard EPS.

IIRC all the insulation was replaced. Ours was laid in July 2010 so we had the opposite problem of higher temperatures, we were in Kent. We found the Isoquick system to be fine and it matched our wall construction well.

We had the first Isoquick system installed in the UK in 2010. It didn't initially go to plan. We fortunately videoed the whole thing. We had the type1 and fines extending out 750mm beyond the edge of the insulation all the way around the slab. These are entries from my blog at the time. Sorry about the quality of the pictures.

I fitted an attenuator to reduce noise from the MVHR unit into the ducting system. I don't recall crosstalk being a problem although I guess it is more of a potential problem with a branched system than a manifold system.

@Novice Becky I installed a 125mm branched MVHR system in my last house and didn't have any problems. It was a PH so the flow rates were low. I fitted only one attenuator which was on the supply side and doing it again I would fit one on the extract as well.