Omnibuswoman

Thank you! I’ll message @Moonshine and @Redbeard directly. @markharro I will message you about the invis tape as I may be able to help!

Does anyone have any leftover part rolls of tescon tape they would be willing to sell and post to me pls? I don’t need a lot - just coming to the end of the taping, but suspect I will run out before I get it all done. I want to avoid a hefty delivery charge for just one or two rolls from GBS or similar. Thanks!

Thanks Iceverge. There are wide drainage slots in that channel and I don’t think they are blocked, but I will check tomorrow. Looking at an earlier thread on this topic, it is an issue several people have had with Rationel doors due to improperly fitting door not compressing the rubber seal. I will test the drainage channel tomorrow.

In this case the rain came from the most usual direction: south west. It visits @SteamyTea first and then heads over to us. The back door is West facing, and the back of the house is a bit of a wind tunnel unfortunately, so I suspect this is going to happen a lot unless we find a solution.

During the storm that passed through on Monday night we had a great deal of water come in through the back door. On opening it the door threshold was covered in water (see pic). Any thoughts about what might be causing this? The door and frame are aluclad timber frame from Rationel.

De bene esse

We went with the open book type of arrangement with our builder, over a higher cost fixed price contract. We were not on site daily, or even weekly, and left it to the builder to manage his team. We broke the contract by agreement once the house was weathertight, and I am now managing trades individually (when they actually turn up!). Budget-wise, this has turned out to be the most cost effective method, but not without its issues. We had expected the builder to be on site a lot more than he was, and his team were a bit lazy. So we were left feeling that there were an awful lot of smoking breaks taken, and quite a lot of early finishes, with no consequence for the workers. The builder really didn’t have good management skills, and we felt that he made excuses for some poor behaviour. However, we got to the end of the contract without having had any significant falling out with him, and still think he is a skilled builder of low energy houses. Compared to going MBC or similar it did come in several tens of thousands cheaper for us, albeit that we still feel that things were not done that ought to have been. We placed a high value on maintaining our relationship with the builder, and him staying in business, and in that context we feel that we probably made the right choice overall. Self-managing trades is not for the faint hearted. The time it all takes is considerable. It seems to be really hard to get trades to turn up, even with what seems to me to be a great working environment. Definitely easier to manage costs, but almost a full time job.

Speaking from experience, the initial DNO quote isn’t always the final cost. In my case, I was quoted around £15k to begin with. Some careful research and negotiation with the DNO saved me £14k - we paid about £960 in the end.

Fantastic! This is something like my ambition for our rainwater management, just on a slightly smaller scale, and with rainbox planters as the very first stage of the rainwater's journey from guttering to pond. I shall be using your picture of your miniature stream to demonstrate to HWMBO my stream plan!

I don’t want to derail Botus’s thread, but yes. We agreed that a few 800w electric radiators plus a couple of heated towel rails would suffice, and that the solar panels would provide sufficient energy for the majority of our DHW for 8/12th of the year (as we have 9kw of panels and only two of us here). We have a My Eddi / My Harvi to divert surplus electricity from the panels to both the DHW and to the car charger.

I can recommend the company we have used - Dartmoor Energy. They gave it a great deal of thought to our needs and ultimately recommended no ASHP simply because our anticipated heat demand will be too low most of the year to justify the spend (we don’t have underfloor heating), and would become inefficient trying to run a wet heating system at such a low level of heat demand. They had our budget in mind as much as their business needs. We used them for our solar panel system and we were really happy with them.

@MVHRDesigner thank you for sharing this information. One of the buildhub conventions is that people who work for companies that we might purchase goods or services from indicate their interest/affiliations, so that buildhubbers can take account of that when considering any position put forward. So I would just like to invite you to do that, if you will. Thanks ☺️

I did approach the SE, whose reply was “you need to seek the manufacturer’s specification for joist penetrations. Fortunately, Steico provide detailed tables for this, so I’ve been able to work out the suitability of the route for each run of pipe. I would have preferred the SE to have done this, but hey ho!

For the long runs through the joists it’s about 10 400mm pieces, joined with a male/male gasket (right word?) like this:

We proposed it in our BC application because we don’t have the required access for a fire appliance. I took your recommendation from a previous post to use the Welsh company you are familiar with. They’ve been great so far.

Brief update: I decided to keep the rigid system as it had already been delivered, and have outsourced the cutting of the ducts to a local guy who is a skilled metalworker. GBS amended the design to make it simpler, and jettisoned any 160mm ducts crossing joists. It all feels more manageable now, and we’ve made a start. Below is the fruits of several hours’ labour yesterday.

No, it is on my list of things to look at, but I haven’t actually got to it as yet.

Thank you Botus… I actually gave you a little wave this morning as I drove past on my way to Topps Tiles. Despite their protestations about how easy it is, I’m just not up for learning to angle grind galvanised metal pipes. I lost a thumbnail on a vacuum cleaner at Christmas, so I know how easy it is to do oneself a nasty injury! They knew full well what and where our joists were when designing the system. I actually checked with the guy I was dealing with asking him the question about how we would get the pipes in, and asked shouldn’t we have flexible or semi-rigid pipes to make it easier. I regret accepting his assurances now!! I’m taking out my frustrations on the floor, chipping off bits of concrete. Very cathartic!

I’ve just spoken to GBS designer who said that it’s “very easy” to cut the rigid pipes into pieces to fit into the joists, and “hundreds of happy customers” have found this “easy to fit”. I’ve asked him to have one of these “very happy” people to call me to explain to me just how easy it is…

Update: I just spoke to the builder who built the house who said: “We designed it based on semi flexible duct. The rigid stuff you have to install as you do the joists which we didn’t want…” … which is useful information, about three months too late 🤦‍♀️ What I’m astonished by is that the company who did the design & supply knew that the house was built, and still designed a system that we wouldn’t be able to install.

As well as doing the plant area we are starting to fit our MVHR system this week. The ducting has just arrived in 3m lengths of 160mm, 125mm and 100mm diameter. I’m now looking at our ceiling thinking how the chuff am I going to get these long runs of pipe at right angles to the run of the 400mm centre I-joists without cutting it all up into 400mm lengths… I have a sinking feeling that the answer is “you can’t”… I’m also concerned that the web depth is only 160mm, and the pipes are 160mm, which means undermining the structural integrity of the joists. So my questions are: Should I jettison the 160mm pipe and do it all in 125 and 100mm diameter pieces? how do I feed rigid pipe through the joists? how do I cut rigid metal ducting? should I go back to Green Build Store (who did our design) and ask them to amend the design? Does anyone have any good advice for me? thanks!

I am starting work lining and tiling the plant room this week. The conduits for internet, electricity and water come up through the slab and I’m not sure what to do with them. Any thoughts? photo below: The plant area is behind where HWMBO is sat, with the black tiles on his left marking out the right hand boundary wall.

We don't have any other equipment going in there other than the MVHR and DHW tank, so the risk is def lower than areas such as kitchen and laundry, but at this point the extra cost of lining with something more fire retardant than osb is so small as to be insignificant. We will definitely put a smoke/ heat detector in there too, and put intumescent strips around the cupboard doors (which will be fire door rated), and fire rated plasterboard on the ceiling. At least then I won’t have to worry about a hidden fire going undetected ( I can focus on the myriad of other things that I have to worry about!)

The plant cupboard has the MHVR and the DHW tank. So yes, some risk of electrical or mechanical fire, but probably a low risk. There’s no mister head inside the cupboard, only outside of it, so I would be wise to line the cupboard with a more fire resistant material.

We also plan to have a double ended bath with central filler/waste, and I’ve been mulling this question myself - how to access for repair or replacement. We will have a separate shower cubicle. I will be sitting the filler/waste on the side opposite the wall, for access. For an over-bath shower, I don’t know your layout but could you build a freestanding low level false wall at one end of the bath with an access panel on the back, and attach a thermostatic mixer shower to the face of it?