JohnMo

The main reason for using was really airtightness and vapour control, so was applied per instructions and used their tapes and jointing materials. If it adds anything to thermal efficiency that's an added benefit.

If you are adding an airtight membrane and battons, look at something like PHS Hi Therma, which with a service void gives an increase R value of 0.79. Then skip the PIR.

Just made a few changes to the way the UFH is working. Did away with the bathroom thermostat all together, the manifold has self balancing actuators, so went for a simplified scheme altogether. Timer to run pump with and without a call for heat, runs for about 14 hours a day. Only have thermostats (simple dial type) in bedrooms now; to keep the bedrooms cooler than the rest of the house. Only one other timer/thermostat to switch of the boiler on/off. Thanks to the contribution on this and many other threads, I've read over the last few days.

I needed anti freeze in my gas powered UFH as it pressurised during last winter without the house to keep it frost free. The slab was a huge chunk of ice most of last winter. So well insulated, that once it froze it stayed frozen for days. But this has mostly been flushed out now get air out the system during commissioning.

Do you run the UFH all the time, or on a time switch

Great will have a fiddle

Hi after some assistance, does know of a thermostat that can be installed in a bathroom. The heating is wet UFH. Ideally a wireless one, as would be easier to install. The problem I have is, the thermostat is outside the room and I was going to have a probe through the wall. But we moved the bathroom around and I now have a shower the other side of the wall.

That's the anti freeze I used. I had no water at site, so fill with a hand pump, same pump was used to pressure test. So I pre mixed it with the fill water in the Jerry can. To manually fill took about an hour (50 L) RHays 10 bar is what the instructions of my pert-al-pert pipes stated. The risk is at the high pressure, something is likely to fail at the high pressure, not when you have lowered the pressure. Because you done something at lot of times doesn't mean it's safe or less unsafe. I've climbed ladders for 50 years, never had an issue, fell off one this week, it still hurts.

This what Uponor instructions state • Pump up the pressure in the manifold to 2 x the operating pressure (minimum 4 bar, maximum 6 bar) for at least 1 hour. After an initial slight drop in pressure as the pipes expand, there should be no further drop in pressure. Check the pressure gauge during this period to ensure that the pressure remains constant under this period. • Decrease the pressure to the system working pressure, or a minimum of 2 bar. The system pressure will initially increase as the pipes contract under the lower pressures and will then stabilise. If the pressure has not fallen below working pressure after 1 hour the system is pressure tight. • Uponor recommends that the system should remain under pressure whilst the floor is laid so that if any damage occurs to the pipe, the laying of the floor can be stopped and the damage repaired immediately. The floor should be laid immediately after the pressure test. • Where there is a danger of freezing, suitable measures such as the use of glycol-based antifreeze should be taken, using the correct mixture of water and antifreeze solution. However, before start up, the glycol mixture should be thoroughly flushed out of the system and disposed of carefully. Any reason the manifold cannot be installed? Assume the pipes are stapled or fixed down to the insulation. The pipes held unpressurized are liable to be being crushed as the screed contractors walk all over the pipes.

Or get the blow torch out and char them also. If you can see them, so can UV and eventually what ever you treat them with will need to be retreated, with little or no access.

We had ours filled with water and pressurised last winter, just add antifreeze. We used flowmaster antifreeze from Screwfix it's cheap and works. When you install the piping, you need to do an initial stretch of the pipe wall at 10 bar, then lower the pressure and hold between 4 and 6 bar. Filling with air has a lot of stored energy, so if anything does come loose you could damage equipment yourself or others. You will have several hundred meters of of pipe with (maybe 10 bar) 4 to 6 bar in it. Equipment pressurised with air when it fails, fails with a huge amount of force, because the air is compressed and expands, water cannot be compressed, so when you get a failure it is a low energy event. It's not safe I would recommend water and anti freeze, but it's your choice.

Our door has 15mm PIR insulation within it and it gets a U value of 1.0. You could do the same on the internal face and then over clad with some ply and paint.

Practical exercise in what can go wrong with ladders, if you don't listen to your head telling you it's stupid to do something. Yesterday my wife was out and it was raining, so decided to clean the inside of the upper windows of our lounge, approx 6m high. Our flooring is down and it's a waxed finished oak. So moved chairs and nest of glass side tables out of the way of the ladder. The glass table were still under the ladder. Cleaned the upper part of the windows ok and reduced the ladder height to approx 2.0m, proceeded to climb ladder no problems, when at the top, the feet of the ladder slipped on the wooden floor, me and the ladder came crashing down one the glass side tables. The tables broke in thousand pieces, but many large shards of glass remained. Lucky for me I only had small cuts all over my legs and quite a few bruises, it could have been a lot worse if I had landed differently. Back to working today, so can't be too bad. Learning of the story 1. Think, if it all goes wrong where will I land. 2. Ladders and waxed surfaces do not mix. 3. If your head says it's not a good idea - it may not be. 4. It maybe a good idea to have someone around when you are up a ladder, in case it all goes badly and they can call for help. 5. Think can I use an extension pole and not a ladder.

For reference, our panels were on the roof for about 7 months, before being connected to inverter. We had them wired to the DC isolation switch, which was switched off.

No idea what they are called, but all the Slater's here use them (NE Scotland). The support for the scaffold board in knocked into the sarking board under a removed (or not installed) slate. It think they would only work with sarking boards

Go 4G, £35 a month all the data and calls you want, you can even connect a landline with right hub, although you get a mobile number. Doing all via mail order, took a couple of days, and about 30mins walking about the house to find the best signal.

Never seen why radiators were under windows, all the heat got trapped behind the curtains and not in the room. When we renovated our last house I put all the radiators on the walls the other side of the room from the window. It work well. But maybe best to plan it around the furniture, if that's an option

Double post

It should be pretty good, the only thing that lets it down is the bridging caused by the metal ties of the posi joists. The spray foam is expensive, but they were in and out in 2 days, we have approx 240m2 of roof. It would have taken me weeks by hand and not achieved any better. The good thing about the spray foam is its gap free. The additional PHS Hi-Thermia Reflective Membrane (air tight and vapour tight), when installed with 25mm air gap adds an additional 0.78 to your R value.

I was on my roof this afternoon, sticking the rubbish corrugated flashing back on as it was starting to lift at one end. The lead flashing looks very tidy.

My electrical contractors are signing off as part of the overall electrical cert. They don't have a solar person so to speak.

When we had gas meter installed (June this year) the Scottish Gas installer spoke about a transition to mixed gas and our medium pressure gas main, which is due replacement, would be lined to cope with the mixed gas. So likely to have a transition period across the country. Reading between the lines "gas" boilers may be banned, but a "mixed gas" may not. To run on mixed gas may just be a burner change and some bits.

Welcome. We are just getting to the end of our self build, like you I wanted to do as much as possible myself. I used Durisol blocks for the walls, easy to work with and good insulation values without additional insulation. Our house has a 70m perimeter and wall height at rear is 2.5m and front around 4m. Took two of us 4 weeks to complete the walls, having never used them before. Plan as much as possible before you start. Will make your life easier when it come to construction time.

This is what I did I needed an additional 100mm, so I cut short pieces of 47x50, fixed these at 600mm centers, then further 47x50 were attached to the short pieces. In my case the whole lot was filled with spray foam. Then a reflective Air tightness vapour control layer and then a further set of counter battons.

I did generally go to one BM, for all my wood, plasterboard, internal doors, except cladding. Mainly because they were good to deal with, friendly and reasonably competitive. But what I found interesting in the buying process, was I would go around getting prices locally, get stupid quotes (sound proofing) or be told they could not supply Thermolite or similar. Buy from the internet from London with free delivery (600 miles away). But it was delivered by the same local merchants. Big ticket items like glazing, I went zero risk and used a local manufacturer, so they came and measured, manufactured and installed. The gladding is Scottish Larch, it does have a nice colour. It came from a mill in Nairn, which is local to us. Having another batch delivered next week, so hope it's the same colour. Borehole and treatment came from GRC Aquatech, Aberdeenshire. They sent a water deviner to find the best place to drill. He hold us the depth water was at and what was feeding it. He said water was at 32m the borehole ended up at 36m. There are a couple of good write ups on here worth finding and reading. Low yield, my be worth running the pump long periods low flow rates into a large accumulator, so you have plenty of water when you need it.