markharro

Are you referring to ply here? Why would this necessarily be expensive in material costs? I know premium grade ply is ££ but you will get quite a few cills out of one sheet!

I have a slightly different angle on this. We are building a passive house. UFH on ground floor only. I don't even have a £1 of budget for Loxone so the home automation solution for us will be Homekit using Thread/Matter devices. We are agreeing specs for our UFH/ASHP design at the moment and the installer has listed the provision of "room thermostats". Any point for me in questioning these/their functionality etc? thanks

Hi @saveasteadingdo you have a link to a specific vapour barrier product? thanks

Thanks both of you. I am stuck with company A putting in the pipework afraid and there's no way around that. That's very interesting @JohnMo to get an idea of the prices for the parts. What would be the cost of a typical day's labour for this type of install?

Company A is installing our insulated slab and UFH pipe network. I am proposing to use our ASHP installer to connect up the network and get it working with the heat pump and tank etc. The issue is that the ASHP installer is proposing £1500 for the manifold itself and to connect up and instal room thermostats. This all for a relatively modest ground floor system. This sounds a lot of money to me but welcome others' thoughts? thanks

I have just literally emailed this company today https://exclusivedoors.eu/s1-about-us.html enquiring about doors. The chap replied very quickely. I see they also do windows. I am awaiting quotes.

Did you finally manage to get this resolved - sounds a nightmare? On a connected point we are thinking of buying doors direct from a Polish company. From reading this thread if I contract directly for purchase as a self - builder I can expect that UK vat will be added to the price but I can then reclaim at the end of the build? Someone mentioned import duties - anyone know anything about that? Brexit literally makes me angry every single day!

I also previously wondered about sarking boards. We have a curved apex and I think that would be easier to form in sarking boards also. Its def interesting if these are half the cost of the cheapest ply! My other issue though is time. I have allocated 1 week to boarding the roof with ply with my partner's assistance as labourer but I won't be able work 9-5 on it. I have my day job to juggle as well so its probably more realistic to allow maybe 3 hours of roofing per day over 5 days with a bit more over 2 weekend days. With ply and a nail gun I was banking on that being more than enough time for what must be around a 120 - 130m2 roof surface. Will it suffice if I use sarking boards? thanks.

This is interesting as I will be boarding our roof myself prior to the zinc roofers taking over. I was planning to use ply and have bought a nail gun to fit it. I was guessing that this would be fine using 50mm ring shank nails but this is just an assumption. I need to find out the correct method or methods and also the correct number of nails per full sheet. I'm assuming our SE could provide this detail but it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of people on the forum. I'm in Edinburgh in case its relevant.

Yes @MikeSharp01 I would be interested to know how this went too. We will have a Passive insulated slab installed in March with steel reinforcement and UFH pipes 50mm under the finished surface which will be the powerfloated slab. Our installer says they won't fit any expansion gaps etc I think because they would be paranoid they might hit one of the UFH pipes. That leaves me in a difficult position because how do I minimise any cracking to the floor when this is to be used as the final finish? A quick look at this - https://www.hanson.co.uk/en/ready-mixed-concrete/technical-information/concrete-expansion-joints-explained guidance suggests that @Dudda 's advice about cutting slots is spot on. However with our 150mm slab that would mean ideally 37mm deep slots which is painfully close to the UFH pipes. Actually this reminds me - technically I think I need contraction joints not expansion - https://www.cement.org/learn/concrete-technology/concrete-construction/contraction-control-joints-in-concrete-flatwork Do I ask my contractor to tool these in during the instal to thus avoid completely the risk of cutting pipes? I am thinking that if the joints were put under where our internal walls will be they would then be hidden. Would it be best however to continue across door openings too? thanks

I have a slightly different question. We will have firring strips installed and I need to work out how to insulate in between. The highest part of the firrings will be 62mm and obviously then tapering. I am thinking about using rockwool but of course it doesnt come tapered. I dont need an immaculate solution as this will be belt and braces for our overall roof makeup. How feasible would it be to use 75mm rockwool and somehow tear section off the surface as it is laid to reduce the bulk down to zero? Any better solution?

Hi @SimonD how do you normally treat it? Some sort of coating? How much does that add per full size panel in material costs?

Interesting @JamesP any idea where you buy this stuff in UK?

Wood wool is another of my ideas - this time exposed as ceiling panels.

I'm thinking about this as well both to create something more distinct than normal PB finish AND to allow diy (and hopefully to a reasonable finish. I have two ideas - a decent ply but as @jackmentions there is a bit of sting in the materials' cost> Birch seems over £100 a sheet but I am hoping to just some samples of Poplar and Maple which are (from memory ) around £60 at least for the poplar. I have also seen D Fir used which looks pretty rustic and could have its place. Anyway I was thinking to mount with maybe 10mm (shadow) gaps around the panels. Originally with hidden fixings but not thinking making a feature of a star head screw and using those rebated. Other idea is to use Fermacell board again with the gaps as a feature. Either hidden fixtures and leave the exposed face as finish or screw just below surface, fill, sand and paint. My thinking is that I can do all the steps and with a bit of care there is the potential to achieve a quality result that is maybe cost neutral over PB ignoring my labour of course. With plywood I have yet to get me head round (Scottish) building regs re fire hazard so that needs more research

Well I'm the proud owner of a padsaw and jigsaw so all of this is opening up endless possibilities...dont begrudge the cost of proper tools but I'm tending to agree with @Thorfunthat jigsaw with fine blade is the way forward. Another question however - cutting one hole in either the internal or ext OSB will be easy - but how best to cut the matching one so it mates properly in the horizontal and vertical planes?

It does indeed - check the useful link above....

This will be for MVHR ducts through ext wall. I was thinking a jigsaw would be the simplest option?

It can be fun at times too. Atm I am trying to work out how to legally instal an Apple Homepod mini in our bathroom - to be used for smarthome duties eg lowering blinds and music.

As someone who is using MBC Timberframe can I give them my vote. They are a 5* company to deal with. 100% professional and very efficient. Our circs are that finances mean that I am project managing. MBC will be as close to a MC as we'll have. Its good that they will lay the slab and then erect the kit house. We will then, through a combo of DIY and specialist labour, aim to finish the remaining. We are about to start groundworks with MBC due on site in March. Comments from experience so far - 1 Project managing (with no prior experience) as well as my normal job is a taxing combination. And that's before I start labouring as well. 2 It literally takes 1000s of hours of research and there is a huge amount of future planning to have a chance of maintaining momentum. 3 The sheer amount of detail coupled with trying to master the rudiments of tech stuff is "challenging". 4 Remember that MBC don't take you to wind and watertight. After they leave I'll be on the room fitting plywood and then specialist roofers will fit zinc and flat roof waterproofing. The external wall cladding then needs done - again something I am aspiring to do. Then windows to get fitted. 5 On top of that I have to organise ASHP/MVHR/PV/electric and plumbing. We intend to try and do as much of the internal fit out ourselves but I am a bit concerned about how time consuming this will be. The advantages of this approach are not insubstantial - (hopefully) more potential for a fine finish; prob a 6 figure cost saving; and ultimately a huge satisfaction in having played a substantial part in building the house we hope to spend many years enjoying. Oh and its a passive house......in my maybe slightly biased view all new houses should aspire for this rating.

Thanks yes this is what I think I am looking to do to avoid you paying for permission that might be refused. The intent is that (where it makes sense) I can dump the maximum production from the array through the 3 phases. I just have no idea how the system needs to be set up to do that. Hopefully the installer does/

If England is like Scotland then the court will have a role in sanctioning the scale of recovery of costs from the unsuccessful opponent. Its not simply a free for all.

This is a scarily technical thread for me. I may be in the same boat with 3 phase and wanting to instal around 11kw PV to max out. I def want the option for battery storage now or later. I also want to be able to export without constraint ie without having to get the tiresome DNO permission. If there a single recommended 3phase that will do what I need and allow batteries to be added in due course? I really don't have the time to master this particular brief so its really just knowing what I need to be making clear to my proposed installer that I am interested in. Hopefully I can then trust them to set up what I am aspiring to.

Can you remind me is it 5% or 20%?

this....https://eu.store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect/products/uvc-g4-doorbell ?