Gone West

I bought a 620mm wet bridge saw for around £150 back in 2010. I did all my floor tiles, roof tiles and sandstone paving with it, and at the end, the bridge bearings were knackered so I gave it away. Used several blades but always got clean cuts with no chips.

We only had two trades who I considered to be very good, the plasterer/tiler and the carpenter who did the cladding and plasterboarding. The first carpenter, who was recommended, was useless, so he went on the first day. Others I let go and did it myself. I ended up doing the studwork, electrics, plumbing, kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, doors etc. The reason it took eight years.

We had a Genvex Combi with an EASHP and when we had a problem with it we used Isoenergy who were excellent. We were in Kent and they are in Surrey, don't know if that is your area. https://www.isoenergy.co.uk/

I think 55% RH is good. It's roughly the same in here at the moment. At the last house, with MVHR, it was around 45% which we also found comfortable.

We didn't have UFH and our bamboo flooring pulled back from the edges in the summer, in the main bedroom, if the sun shone on it for any length of time. The solution was to close the blinds a bit.

We kept our bathrooms at 24C with electric towel rails.

This was a few years ago, but the make was Nikles and I think the model was Pure Tronico.

We heated our EASHP powered UVC to 45C and didn't have any problems with our bath thermostatic valve, nor the thermostatic showers.

We've used 247Blinds several times, good choice and reasonable prices. https://www.247blinds.co.uk/

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.