mike2016

The VSL is at the rafters. I changed the insulation type from Kooltherm to Gutex requiring extra depth. Might be missing a step worth of landing too, hadn't noticed that before! It's quite a long room so may just push back the wardrobes but will see....plumber arrives Tuesday so all eyes on that now!!

Thanks all - the photos cut off the landing a bit so I'm sure it's wide enough as the Architect did it!! Putting the hinge on the stairs side of the opening would match what TerryE did although my plan to put wardrobes on the back wall would be more limited but it is a long room so maybe that would work too?

I've 1 door upstairs and my insulation is encroaching on the door to one side at the top edge. This bedroom is at the top of the stairs so the best place for hinges in on the side closest to the OSB wall to allow easier room entry and not kill anyone coming up the stairs! Plus I plan to install wardrobes on that wall. I could do a pocket door or trim the insulation back 800mm and use a standard door but any other options? Thanks!

They look very well - what a journey! I spent 8 years looking for mine! Hope you like the tilt and turn (same type I went for). Just have to figure out privacy vs sun block blinds for working vs sleeping although your views are much nicer than mine! Congrats!!

There are two shores on my land that are the highest point in the run for the row of houses. The builder last year knocked into these shores to connect up my drains. My house in feeding in from the bottom and the mains are off to the top of the pictures. I plan to dig out the existing pipe to correct the fall and extend from the storm drain to the foul drain. Was curious about the sharp bend, once I excavate I'll have a better picture and agree any sharp corners are to be avoided although the concrete rainwater harvesting tank limits the bend radius a bit but will work to improve it. Cheers

I had a survey done a few years back and they misidentified the two drains at the rear of my self build property. This fed into the Architects drawings then used by the builder last year and I've only now discovered while trying to install rat flaps that I'm plumbed into the wrong one for sewerage. I've yet to lay the storm drains myself. I measured the distance and depths and have come up with the diagram below. I think I'm just about ok - currently the foul drain connects to the deeper storm drain and I just need to extend it to connect to the shallower foul drain. It's a sharp 90 degree bend then. Any advice / gotchas / am I ok / will this work? No experience with this so just checking my homework here! Thanks.

Well, it's been a busy month. I'm taking weekly Pilates to keep my back in check and so far so good. This is the first week I've taken off without any incidents to progress the house. This is the list of what I'm managing currently just to tickle my brain in a years time! Plumbers due to start any day - prep bathroom fixtures - a lot of boxes onsite! Met Electrician to get quote Electrician recommended kitchen design be finalized - booked appointment in showroom Went to get sample of Moso bamboo flooring but they stopped making their natural product. Wanted to use sample to choose kitchen door colour. Contacted the bamboo flooring company so they do ship to Ireland, working out how to get samples and if I'll float / glue and use natural or strand woven downstairs (have a bedroom downstairs to transition between if I mix) I think my foul drainage is connected to the storm drain outlet and visa versa - contacted Irish Water rep to check as plans say I'm right but the smell and sludge says otherwise! Insulation - started Gutex under roof install, walls 90% finished Getting ready to order MVHR but my preferred spot is very busy and could be too tight for all the pipes! Japanese Bath arrived, looks very nice! Bought spa reheating setup and pump Got next bank drawdown after single digit typo held up cheque requisition for a week Cracked a tooth, 50/50 if filling will hold or I'll need removal and root canal treatment! Find out in a week! Installed Rat flap 4" fine but the other pipe appears to be a 6", flushed out pipes with some water. For the external walls (internal buildup) I'm using a 40mm gap and a further 2x6 wall inside. I fill the gap with 50mm rockwool as a thermal break (220mm timber frame) and then add 100mm Moy Metac to hit my U values. I've to use Gutex under the roof in a 60+80mm offset layer with ejot screws & washers and then a 2x4 stud to hold it all in place. Both setups give me a 40-45mm service cavity although the 92mm MVHR pipes will need more carving out of the Gutex when they are installed. I installed Cellecta Screedboard 28 upstairs to provide soundproofing on the floor. You glue these together and leave a 12mm gap around the room edges for some yellow foam they provide. I ran out of boards and had to get some other boards (5) for the landing as I'd miscalculated and they only ship pallets. I also left a 925mm square gap for the ensuite shower. The boards are heavy (18kg each) - I had 42 of them but needed another 5 for the 33m2 area I wanted to cover. I might still add sound insulation between the Pozi joists but for now, I'm happy! My poor car has been taking a lot of runs to the dump lately, offcuts and waste just builds up. I finally got rid of 20 or so pallets lying around so the driveway is clear for work next month. Just need a working toilet to get rid of the tufloo! So, about to start first fix and have a lot of stuff on order / about to order to get me through that. Am choosing Fermacell but can get 2500x600 sizes locally. Finally - I nearly paid the 8K heating deposit to a Nigerian who had got in between the communication between me and the supplier. They asked me to send to a GB CoOp bank IBAN which I thought odd and then followed up that the invoice person was on leave and had I sent the payment yet, everything was ok their end and they were waiting. Luckily I phoned the supplier and we realized what was going on so nearly 8K lost, goes to show! I got lucky as the delay in getting my next cheque from the bank meant I didn't have 8K to send anyway! If something does add up - ring!

Found some large droppings in the foul drain. Not connected to the house yet but want to ask if anyone has use those stainless steel rat flaps and had success with them? There are cheaper plastic variants that also prevent back flooding. I did buy two of the stainless steel ones for my last house but they always ended up snagging toilet paper and caused a massive clog twice so I removed them. Any advice to stop Rats making their way up the pipe or just live with it? Thanks.

Security Cameras with people/pet detection are pretty cheap and accurate these days with app alerting. Almost eliminates false alarms when integrated into the alarm system so it triggers only when you are out. At least you can call the police. They will get into any window eventually, does the one they got into open? Would it make sense to replace with a non opening version so no hinges / weak areas to exploit without taking out the entire window? Any alarm with a shock sensor should have gone off though, did it just have a break glass sensor? Ask about European Standard EN 1627 RC4+ (1-6 rating) when replacing, you're heading into military levels at 5 or 6.

Master Blaster Siren (inside), Strobes and Security Fog for full alarm set ONLY (when no one is at home), not part set / disarmed if that is possible on your alarm panel. Protect the most important rooms and really deter them being able to orientate themselves / find anything. A safe with nothing in it but monopoly money. Anticlimb paint on your side of the wall, not to stop them but to ruin their shoes, one of the few things they care about.....

I'll have MVHR and hope keeping the tub covered will handle the humidity, don't want the MVHR in boost all the time!! I've no underfloor heating only A2A. Will probably just run an inline water heater as you say looping it into the hot tank would add pressure to the heat pump there. I can always loop it in later by keeping all the pipework etc in the utility room. Don't really want an additional outdoor unit & heat pump at this stage but could add later if required.

I'm assuming it will drop down to 21oC and I need to get it back up to 38oC. I'll build a cover out of rigid insulation that might help a bit......

It's filled once per week, you shower before you get in. Used in Japan extensively - called an Ofuro. There's no underfloor heating. The hot tank would be 55-60 and I'd be drawing off this once per day to top up the heat in the bath. I'll have PV and Battery so I can time shift in line water heater electricity usage to reduce cost. Not sure about a third heat pump, but maybe down the road......

Seen those! I've A2A for space heating & cooling and a separate heat pump hot water tank so a third heat pump is an option but more holes in the wall!!!

I'm planning to install a 260 litre hot water tank with an integrated heat pump. I need to top up the heat in a soaking tub (210 litres worth) every day and have the option of an inline water heater from a spa company (easier to install and get my head around but more expensive to run) or to use the secondary loop from the hot water tank and a plate heat exchanger and presumably two pumps (unless there's one with two chambers?). Which is the best option and what would I need to make use of the heat pump method? The second option sounds complicated to me and more expensive to setup but if it worked would be cheaper to run. Anyone done anything similar / what parts did you use / would recommend? Thanks.

Do you leave the bathroom doors open after a shower or keep them closed? Just curious about air flow volume. Each door should have 80 cm2 of space beneath it (80cm wide, 1 cm high gap). Link to sub forum here: https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/79-mechanical-ventilation-with-heat-recovery-mvhr/

Have a 4,000 litre concrete tank buried out the back garden, pump in situ, just need to connect water pipe and run electrics to the pump and install the filter system that sits between the drain and the tank. Background: Planning expired and I forgot to remove all traces of the tank from the plans before resubmitting (I was in the middle of selling my house at the time) and the council picked up on it, loved the idea and asked for Loads of Detail about it in my planning conditions which I had to research and submit. Stuck with it now!! Still, was going to use it for toilets and the washing machine but my other post about a poor blower door test result began being interspersed with comments about rainwater harvesting. it's just untreated water, how bad can it be?! All experiences / comments welcome, especially those that don't make me feel stupid for having shelled out already for the concrete tank! Let's prove 2025 the year of Rainwater Harvesting.....or not!

The ducts are sealed where they penetrate the intello but they aren't connected to anything yet! The inside of the ducts were open to the outside so covered these up! Just was easier to chain drill the hole and fit the outside vents when I had scaffolding! Thankfully in a rented room 20 minutes away while the storm blows through - the build is still standing so far via CCTV! If I find leaves and branches around the inside of the house I'll know where to check! Will be getting at least one more test done at the end. I'm setting up my own testing kit using a desk fan and smoke pen and ordered some more air tightness products to tackle likely weak points. The windows are nicely taped to the intello but somewhere in the reveal / below the window opening may be the issue. Once I find the source I can take a photo or two and post before and after. Then repeat per window. Just need the tools and I can apply the remedy!

Good direction to question but I installed one into the upstairs of my old house and gained experience for my build but also much better quality of air in my bedroom at night which would reach 3-4,000 ppm of CO2 at night without it. I lived beside a busy road so not always possible to open a window (or it was too cold). I'd wake up gasping. Never had a bad night sleep with it installed. I value a good nights rest so it was worth the investment for that reason for me. Hence doing it in new house too!

MVHR is going in for sure. Have both pipes installed but closed with plastic bags and duct tape. I have an office fan to keep me cool in the summer in my rental so plan to join this to one of the ducts using intello & duct tape (!) and pressurize the house with it. I've just ordered a smoke pen with a small wick I can light / extinguish to pinpoint exactly where the leaks are. The tester did say the plasterboard would help and to seal around the floor as it will be a few mm off the concrete but there are going to be electrical backboxes etc / holes in this so it's not a perfect layer and I won't be air sealing those. It will help though! Building Regs over here is below 7 is a pass!! They only have to test 1 in 10 houses in a development though so the rest have gales blowing through them , meant to be "A" rated too!! The tester said one guy got a result of 0.24 and the final test was 0.28, he went nuts, demanded to find out why!! I'd be happy with any improvement but taking the time now to figure this out works for me! Thanks all!! Great advice and anecdotes as always!

Was thinking of getting a fan / smoke setup for exactly this. Will have a look around this evening before the storm hits and figure out a rig to let me do further testing before spending anything more on this. Cheers!

Yes and no. I can live with a 1.56 but this is the only chance I'll have to do something about it. I'm trying to figure out a way to get an improvement to at least < 1 but the screw penetrations have me at a loss. I can seal around the OSB with Pro Clima Aerosana Visconn Fibre and the screw head also and use glue to fix the plasterboard to the OSB, that way I can test the result with a home made fan and smoke box. Bit of a pain though! Still mulling the result but that was only yesterday so yes, may just shrug and get the house built......

I have a edge tape at this location, partially covered by the OSB but I'm happy that junction is secure......

Got a 1.56 on the blower door test. Disappointed as was aiming for 0.6. I did the membrane and tape (no one else to blame) but nearly all the windows and doors had issues from the smoke test. I used OSB with wood screws around the window straps to provide a level base for the plasterboard in the reveals. My guess is this is where the smoke was able to get through (the screw penetrations). I assumed the Intello Plus would have been able to seal around the screw but I have my doubts now. I can apply a liquid seal around the OSB and the screw head to help or remove and seal the hole with tape and figure our the plasterboard approach later. The plasterboard will also need to screw through the OSB so could make this worse. Any advice? Thanks!

I'm ordering a Japanese Ofuro bath and plan to heat it with a 2kW electric in line heater for about 2.2 hours per day (21oC->39oC) but keep the water all week. Their approach is to shower first and then bathe and the whole family can enjoy the bath at different times. They then use the warm water for washing clothes at the end of the week. I like the idea of a daily soak and while I could integrate with the hot water heat pump I'm not sure I'll do that up front until I'm sold on daily soakages which is an aspirational project only at this stage for me! Anyway, you only drain your hot tank once and after that top up the heat. With some insulation and a cover it reduces the heat loss and saves starting from scratch each time. Some hot tubs even come with heat pumps, a nice outdoor investment if you have a view to enjoy? For the rest of the loads, winter is the real issue. You could do Vehicle to load via an EV to your house but you have to charge the car somewhere and fast charging is a lot more expensive than off peak which you wouldn't have use of without nice neighbours! It's about transferring energy in it's easiest, cheapest form to maintain the lifestyle you want. Any rivers nearby you could stick some hydro on?! Maybe a community SMR scheme down the road?! Or move to Iceland near a fissure?