dpmiller

guessing it's to give DHW priority over heating?

Productive weekend. First few sheets of PB up downstairs, more tiling (both side wings complete, ridge tiles on etc), and the main ducts in place for the MVHR. Still need to strip them all back out to seal joints/ make up hangers/ insulate etc.

ta. Tried a couple of Lidl's finest fake Fisher plugs and they took OK.

cheapo chinesium wifi thermostat.

I've used plenty over the years- never really liked the Stripmaster, but *do* rather like the new automatic jobbies like in post 2 above. Other than it being right-handed of course... Nice clean strip of inner and outer with a couple of squeezes.

I've got some ridge end caps to fix "up above". They're pretty heavy clay and I woudn't want'em falling off... They're drilled for two fixings on the face, that's not a problem. Likewise, I'll need to pop a bit of treated timber in between them and the blockwork to space'em out for the verge trims and future render. Again, not a problem. But has anyone a recommendation on fixings onto the blockwork? Unfortunately I use that term pretty loosely as there's mostly mortar buttered into the peak... Too soft for concrete screws obviously, so are any specific plugs a definite go-er? Don't want to risk bursting the mortar. Or is it a case for gripfill / AN Other anchor into the screwholes and behind the timber?

Makes me glad I went with a bog-standard UPVC company- deposit on CC, bulk payment immediately before install on CC, cash to fitter on installation.

Goodies from Larne!

Half- lit means leaking slightly. Neons begin to light at 90v or so IIRC. Could be an internal fault keeping the "switch" partly on, eg a capacitor or diode; a neutral fault on the load not allowing it to take the natural leakage of the "switch" down low enough; or an induced voltage in the wire to the load caused by proximity to another. Or any combination thereof.

Your building regs approved document should have infos- in NI it's document E, 4.36.

The first time I met our BCO, it was exactly that. He'd tripped over the blockworker on another job and mentioned he would pop in on the way past just to "see how things were progressing"...

Plenty of focus on it, here. Laminated advisory supplied with the TF kit, all installed by the erectors, and then confirmed by the BCO for the blockworkers as it was a while since they'd clad a TF.

Not if you spec a hide-a-hose, Dave. The hose is stored inside the wall pipes. You just pull it out, use it, then let it get sucked back into the wall when finished. Only caveat is that the length of pipe in the wall determines the maximum hose length so a bit of care is required in design...

looking at the way the paint is worn off that cutter, has it been dropped or bent?

Certainly with diesels, the sweet-spot of efficiency vs emissions was reached about fifteen years ago. Since then, each added emissions tier has required inefficiency, followed by *more* added tech to scrub it back clean again. Only the latest stuff with Ad-Blue hits that spot again IMHO. There's a fine balance in combustion- the most efficient combustion creates the least CO2 and particulate per mile and the best mpg, but at the expense of NOx emissions NOx emissions were historically controlled by making the combustion cooler and dirtier.

so streaming 24/7 regardless of actual useage?

Yup, the Caberdek is already down, factory glued into cassettes. Certainly the couple of houses I've been in with screed upstairs have a very massive feel to the floor. We'll have a mix of floor coverings- carpet/wood/tile- to contend with but I'd tend to follow the same logic as @JSHarris that some level of decoupling is better than none.

@Nickfromwales @PeterW I've quite a bit of 28mm to do on a forthcoming job and wondered if you have any thoughts on bending machines other than the bog-standard floorstanders? Specifically handheld/ portable. I'm thinking of the crossbow-style ratchet or hydraulic ones in particular, but keep reading that the ratchet ones are only suitable for soft copper and would wrinkle half-hard. No, can't use Hep before you say, it has to be good for steam service, and we're pretty much limited to compression fittings. As we're only going to be looking at 30-45deg bends for offsets and such rather than pulling 90s, is one of the above units worth the try?

old pair of tights stretched over the F7 as a prefilter?

This is my concern and why I'm considering decoupling the mass of the screed from the structure beneath in some way.

100mm earthwool between the posijoists.

We're having 50mm of hemihydrate upstairs and down. Downstairs is standard polythene sliplayer over PIR, but I'm wondering what to do upstairs. Obviously there'll be a polythene layer, but are there any (reasonably inexpensive) products worth considering as an acoustic barrier between it and the Caberdek below? Thinking in particular about some of the 2-3mm underlay rolls for laminate or such, but I see 5mm XPS being an option too? Or is something like this a possibility, taping the overlaps instead of having a separate poly layer? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laminate-Solid-Wood-Flooring-White-Underlay-DPM-25m2-x-3mm/161040149754?epid=1831830781&hash=item257ebdacfa:g:tBoAAMXQiNdRdp1l ... it's a local supplier...

Yes Dave. It's a TS and I'll be dumping energy in from PV, ASHP and a boiler stove. I'm willing to risk the COP losses in getting the water up to 50C or so as it'll still be cheaper than oil and we don't have a mains gas option. Plus E7 is cheap in NI and the timing works well with our lifestyle.

in the flesh they're a very neat solution. Harlequin are well respected locally, and it doesn't require the massive amounts of glycol my other favoured option (Copper industries Maxipod) would have required.

Has a month really passed? About 400 tiles left to go we reckon. And boy will I be glad to see that job complete. Guttering (UPVC ogee) arrived today. I've got the microinverters in place in the attic, and they're all flashing away happily. SWMBO and boy have some of the sloped ceilings stuffed, I've got VCL over some if them, and the PIR awaits cutting and placing. Next stop firstfix of the MVHR and other services.