revelation

Hi all. We are laying kingspan K103 insulation boards before putting out UFH pipe on top. Normally if it’s a foil face board you tape up all the seams and joins. But the K103 that kingspan recommend is a paper faced board. Is it best to leave it as it is or to still tape it up? regards.

I have taped most of it already but will add the VCL too to be extra safe. Appreciate the help.

From what was being said I thought that the vapour barrier was going on top (of the 120mm insulation between the rafter) before the 25mm insulation. I have plastic washers that I was going to use for securing the insulation. So I get this right, the vapour barrier is on the last layer before the plasterboard goes on?

Would it be best to secure the VCL with staples? Or to use some kind of adhesive? Especially considering it will be pierced when screwing the 25mm insulation boards and the plaster boards

Just standard polythene or is there a specific material for use as a vapour barrier.

Thanks Tony, I have a fair bit off tape so I will tape the timber too. Looks like a separate vapour barrier doesn't seem that necessary.

I have foiled taped what’s in the picture. So add another 25mm layer. Then foil tape again. Then plasterboard. (when foil taping the join between insulation and timber does the whole timber need to be covered or just the joint?)

We have had a loft conversation with a dormer which has a staircase going up so no hatch. I hadn't thought of a vapour barrier until one of my builders asked if I am putting one in while I was taping the insulation. I wasn't sure I assumed the foil tape would suffice. I am not sure what you mean by airtightness layer and whether it is hermetically sealed. I have attached images which show the set up (this was before finishing expanding foam and foil taping). So I was going to just add the large insulation sheets screwing them to the timber work. Then the insulation on top.

I have had my roof re-done and also a dormer added with a cold roof. I have 120mm kingspan between the rafters of pitch and the flat roof of the dormer. We have 80mm kingspan in the walls of the dormer. I plan to add another 25mm kingspan in large 1.2 x 2.4 sheets over the ceilings and walls and tape all the joins. The plasterboard. The question I have is whether I need to have a vapour barrier added anywhere, if so where and what kind would be best?

I appreciate the advice, I have two main builders who are fairly sensible as far as the right foot gear, ear protection and eye protection when needed. I am hopping that all my plumbing work, plastering and first fix electrics are done before the stairs go in, then try to manage the rest.

True.. that will deal with dust but not massively with stones etc in the shoe tread. Regards

I have had issues before in this situation, where they say they need boots on 'health and safety" which I guess is a fair point.

We are getting closer to fitting our flooring, we have Caberdek board on the first floor and the loft. We are looking to put down engineered wood flooring on-top. We have wet underfloor heating below and we're looking to float the flooring rather than glue it. Firstly is that a bad idea? If we go ahead with this method I was looking at using an underlay to help with sound deadening etc... Would an underlay of say 2mm interfere with the heat from the underfloor heating? Are theyre any underlays that anyone had had good experiences with?

Thanks for all the advice all, we will get the plaster/skimming all done before hand. We will try to delay things for as long as possible to get the stairs in. Once we do we will clean and seal with Osmo asap and then will get them wrapped and covered as best as possible. I will be painting and fitting skirts myself, but the second fix for electrics and plumbing still need to be done. We have had a loft conversion so have 2 staircases to contend with.

My builder said I’m better off skimming up to the oak string. So it’s got a nice finish, so you’d advise getting it skimmed up first. Then installing the staircase, so how would it be finished along the edge? Caulking? Will that crack over time with movement?

Hi all We are having an oak staircase going in. But the stair won’t be treated. After they go in we still have trades coming in including boarding and skimming. So we’re concerned about the stairs getting stained or marked. We wanted to immediately paint/spray the the stairs with a clear coat of something so it brings out the oak but also protects its. And we’ll also cover the stairs with some protective material too. What would be the best stuff to use for this purpose that’s long lasting and will look good?

which ones have you come across that give good advice? Regards

Sorry when you said lagging I thought insulation, so just some flexible conduit should be ok. Its new but I bought it about 8 months ago and its been mounted on the wall, but haven't connected anything up to it yet. The UFH companies seem to say 200mm spacing is fine, I thought 150mm spacing would have been decent, but I am learning quickly its not the best. We do have 100mm kingspan below the pipe too. 180 restrict the flow more than a 90 so I guess that makes sense, I'll try and make some changes. I want to get the system set up as efficiently as possible, before beginning I didn't realise, the UFH companies haven't been giving very good advice either.

All rooms will have stats (heatmiser) Sorry should have had them labelled properly Room 2 is a utility room, Room 4 is toilet and wash basin Room 5 is a hallway area, and I am not sure whats going on with 6 as thats where the open staircase is. The front and middle room are sitting areas/play room. The house is a mixture of new and 1930's, we will be externally insulating the old part of the house with 50mm of kingspan K5. The chances are especially with the ground floor we will be running the heating on low all of the time during winter so do you still think its best to lag them? And what would be used to lag as we will only have 50mm of screed? The centres are currently around 150mm, I think if i reduce the centres I will have to introduce more runs and we may run out of space on the manifold. Is serpentine that bad? Looks like its the easiest to do, would it cause any problems?

Thanks for your reply. I guess I wanted to keep the temp from the boiler as low as is reasonably possibly. That way it would be running more efficiently than if it was coming out at say 60 degrees and being mixed at the manifold down to say 30-40. Does that make sense? I guess in that case my design looks ok?

Hi all, We are getting closer to having our UFH pipes laid on the ground floor (in 50 mm liquid screed). My design is as shown in the attached image (150mm centres) , however have been told that its not the best way of having it and a spiral design would be better and give more even heating and less chance of any cracks. Is that right or is my design perfectly adequate? All the runs are less than 80m long, I didn't want to go more than 150mm on the centres as I wanted to improve heat up times on the system and the plan was to run the UFH at as low temperature as possible so that the boiler is condensation mode all the time while the heating is on (If anyone has any further information on system design in that respect it would be much appreciated). Thanks

We only have 4 occupants currently 2 adults and 2 young children. We have two bathrooms (one with bath & shower, one shower only) and a cloakroom (toilet/wash basin), its a 4 bed house This is one of the videos I have seen that suggests the boiler can do this?

I have been advised that the Viessmann 200 is suited to running UFH at low temp? We have a manifold that will serve the ground floor (on the ground floor) and a manifold in the loft that serves the first floor and the loft. We will have actuators and heat miser controls/stats in each room.

Hi all, We are starting work on our plumbing next week. However, stumping on some information online and on youtube, I am now slightly concerned. Our original plan was to use a system boiler, and a 250 litre tank, for our heating we were looking to have UFH in screed on the ground floor, and UFH between joists on the 1st floor and Loft. We were going to have each room in the house zoned so that each room can have its own individual temperature (we have a few extremes of temperature preferences in our household). From what I have read and seen is the general recommendation is to run the system on all the time so its at room temperature, so a low temp from the boiler (with weather compensation) and let that run through the system without mixer valves etc (in theory is makes sense). That way a consistent temperature is achieved the boiler is always condensing and its supposed to be the most efficient way. I have a very good and competent plumber, but his experience with actually setting up UFH systems through a whole house are very limited so whilst I know he will connect things properly if he has some instruction. Could anyone provide any advice or pointers to resources that will give the ideal set up. An efficient system that will still give us flexibility to control individual temperature. Thanks in advance :)

With the external walls, the new part are proper cavity walls which will be rendered, the old part is a double solid brick wall with no cavity. It had render which was hacked off a couple of months ago and will be externally insulated and then rendered. Our outside ground levels will be a little lower than the inside. The only area where they are level will have a 5m run of Aco-drains. There is no leakage or blockage anywhere.