Barney12

Awesome! Thanks Peter.

Actually that makes perfect sense! It would enable you to change the expansion vessel without draining the system and as the system is glycol filled that would be expensive!!

Here's what the full setup should look like. You'll see that the outlet by the PRV is connected to nout! You will notice the condensation drain at the bottom of the exchanger.The manual makes no mention of that either! Its some sort of 8-10mm chrome pipe.

Ah good idea! I'll report back!

Here goes. Looking at the valve thingy more closely I think its definitely designed to be connected as there is a rubber ring seal. When screwed together the two sprung center pieces (black in the photo) appear to push against each other which is making me scratch my head as surely that stops water flowing in either direction???

I think we can all relate to this image:

So, my gshp unit for the mhrv has arrived. The instructions are almost non existent, not even so much as a parts list! It all looks fairly self explanatory but I've got two questions. What is this? It was in the box assembled together but appears to be a set of non-return valves? Possibly for the expansion vessel? My next question relate to this set. Left (with the arrow) is an outlet which I believe should be connected to a tundish and drain as its after a pressure relief valve. Strangely though the instruction don't show or make any mention of anything being connected to this outlet. No blank plug/cap is supplied. Seriously underwhelmed by this particular purchase so far!

So did you plaster after the kitchen units were installed?

Yes, and by the time you've added the cost of the firehoods you're back to similar pricing of fire rated units

Crikey I think that's a first for the forum. Ecology actually working in the self builders favour

Ive been thinking the same about those led lights, I can't see how you can use them in any ground floor rooms as they have no fire rating?

Is this reality or one of your dirty dreams?

Oh gawd I hope not

Ah thanks interesting. I've got s sample of Ash thermowood sat on the coffee table at the moment and I rather like the look of it.

Out of inteterest what's the wooden cladding. Cedar and coated? The house is looking very sharp, I like it al lot.

So yesterday I went to Toolstation to pick up a 10 pack of 3m 50mm waste pipe. Bloke dumped it on counter and bogged off. I picked it up, chucked it on my shoulder, swang round towards the exit and wiped the entire contents of the counter onto the floor with the end of the pipes. Monitor, keyboard, pdq machine the lot. The lady behind the counter on the next till position looked like she was going to poo herself! Oooops!!

Your last point raises an interesting question. The scaffold will be up to the second lift for the timber framers. Will I then have to take it all down or will the brickies be happy to work around it? with just the 2 board bracket removed when they get that high? MBC's spec is stepped out from the foundation by 2ft so its not tight: The scaffold needs to be set approximately 2 feet from the outside of foundation base edge outline. The primary lift decks need to be a 4 board width platform and there needs to be a 2 board bracket to the inside of this to bring the planks in closer to the edge of the foundation base (so a total of 4 boards on main scaffold + 2 boards on the bracket). For the platform lifts, we would then require platforms set about 2ft (600mm) below first floor level and the same at eaves level. And again we’d need a scaffolding lift at the gable ends set 2 ft below the ridge

Deepest darkest Devon.

Well the guy that wants to charge a day rate has come in at £410 a day (2+1) and wants 15 days to lay 160 square meters of block. As I said nothing complicated just a single skin which will be rendered. Thats roughly £38.50 a sq meter, labour only! .........NEXT PLEASE

Yes 1+1, mixing onsite. Going to be fully rendered (not thin coat) so pretty isn't exactly important.

Can anyone tell me what a reasonable "blocks laid per day" would be? Standard dense concrete blocks, nothing complicated, just a single skin for a timber frame. Just trying to gauge costs as one guy will only give me a day rate.

As @MikeSharp01 says above just pre-drill the top board. You could save even more time by using a countersunk pilot drill. Something like: Linky And glue too!

Well my as designed SAP report has just come back. I used SAPS4U http://www.saps4u.com/ Our house design is far from a bog standard box and our quote was £180 (inc VAT) for as designed and another £90 (inc VAT) for the as built assessment. I cant fault their service, they said it would take 10-14 days and it did. I've checked through the core inputs from the forms sent back to me and it looks very thorough and accurate. I must admit the level of detail sent back is a bit mind boggling but frankly I'm just going to send it to the LABC! The magic number? The assessor has said in his notes that we can probably improve the scores when we have a bit more detail about the MHRV/GSHP heat exchanger. When I submitted the assessment info I didn't have the data to hand so it was excluded.

Phone their customer service line and "come clean". It worked for me with a Bosch tool where I did the same. OK, they didn't give me the warranty but they did repair it FOC. There is the whole 2 year EU warranty period but it's a grey area: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1677034/Two-year-warranty-EU-law.html Honesty is always the best policy. (Unless you're a politician )

I'm not helping your thread but those matt black taps are striking. Ill be interest to know if they show water marks/droplets/spray easily meaning constant cleaning to keep then looking as stunning as they are?