markharro

Ah sorry my last comment was about the whole ground floor concrete slab - not the shower - tray area. Yes accept there may be cracks but we have been to other houses with powerfloated slab finishes and they have been quite acceptable

The price is decent but just as important we really like the doors they are offering. I think I will get our Polish neighbours to give them a call.

We are currently getting a quote for PV. We have 3 phase so interested in installing max 11kw instal. I have also enquired about battery storage although we prob cannot afford it. Installer has reverted "The only 3 phase battery available at this moment is solax, and would come in at £8000+VAT for 11.6kWh of storage and a hybrid 12kW" Can anyone explain what this means? What is the "and a hybrid 12kW" bit? Thanks

UFH just to ground floor. Don't really understand zones - I know there are separate pipe runs back to a manifold. No idea about volume or flow rate. Its not that we "need" 3 phase - its simply that we have it in case of relevance. Pump will be 5kw. Yes we are building a passive house

Yes that's what put me off trying to rebate a tray in flush. So now planning standard stand on top tray but even with this struggling to understand what recesses in slab needed underneath it to accommodate drain etc and whether to aim for vertical connection to drain etc. We are going for powerfloated concrete as the final finish and hoping to luck that no major cracks.

but I think you have tiled havent you? we dont want anything on top of the poured concrete.

I have been in dialogue with them for other a week but now started to ask some questions about airtightness and they appear to be going quiet on me. Their spec sheet offers "up to" class 4 performance but I have asked them to confirm that can supply with a definite class 4 performance.

Just trying to agree a quote with installer and I want to check I am not missing anything in terms of the overall spec I am getting for the money. Can anyone provide a tick list of what I should be checking are included in the price? thanks

Thats a really neat solution but we won't be screeding or tiling so it wouldn't work for us. Good tip about the 110-50mm adaptor however - thanks for that

This thread is of interest to me. We are using MBC and their insulated slab will be our finished floor surface on the ground floor. We have 2 ground floor shower rooms. I have still to decide on the trays to use but am thinking of something that stands on the slab rather than flush. This type of thing - https://www.my-bette.com/en/product/shower-trays-and-shower-areas/betteultra-700-900-mm?variant=DW_0095 but my partner is also interested in designs with linear wastes. The issue is that I am struggling to understand how to allow for the waste provision. MBC will instal a 110mm waste I think and we can specify where but can I be confident for example that they can place it accurately if we want to use a vertical connection from the tray?

Could I buy one from you @joth? It would be good to get this running without spending more than the price of a new light+driver combined.

Thats what I though - the driver is a transformer is it not? I can't find the exact model online but I have found very similar looking 15W lights which have the same connector - https://www.lampshoponline.com/bright-source-15w-round-led-panel-200mm-172mm-cut-out.html Would it be worthwhile seeing if this retailer could confirm the specs of the driver for this light?

Thanks @ProDave here you go.

Hi I have picked this up on freecycle but it is missing the driver. Similar lights + correct driver are available for less than £10 so just wondering if anyone can suggest source for cheap driver that will be compatible? The other thing is that is says on the back that input is 100 - 265 VAC. That seems to cover UK 240V. Why then is a driver needed? I am assuming that a driver is a voltage transformer but of course I may be wrong with that?

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?