mike2016

Try this site - the main reason is to show the moisture layer. https://www.ubakus.de/en/r-value-calculator/index.php? You don't want to see that moisture line inside your house! I was going to use Koolterm in mine but it's not breathable so going with 220mm Moy Metac in the timber frame & 140mm Gutex wood fibre behind this which is all breathable, my preference to PIR etc but it adds cost.

Concrete was poured via a pump on Monday. Finally have a Concrete sub foundation! Took delivery of the Kore insulation for the actual foundation. Lots of angles sheets, L shape and other ones. I've 88 silver EPS boards too in packs of 8. They needed 2 men to move, the others could be handled one by one. The delivery driver helped offload as getting a forklift and driver for 4 Pallets (@150kg each) was going to be expensive and on too much short notice to arrange insurance for me to drive one. Plus I don't know how!! We got it all offloaded in about 30 minutes by hand and then another 45 to shift it to the back of the site. There seems to be a dip where water is collecting in the middle there and some rebar patterns are showing up in one corner, will discuss with groundsworks lead next week. Next is to find a blocklayer to place two courses of blocks on their side around the perimeter to hold in the Kore and lay the DPM/Radon barrier on. Stops the Kore moving around. That's the holdup as brick layers are flat out over here currently. I put a call into a 2nd who said 7-10 days give him a shout. Plan is for Timber Frame to go up in early March.

Looked into this a few years ago - getting ethanol was a problem for me - also heat output, despite being small was a problem if I recall!! Looked into LED alternatives but nothing like a real fire!!

Get the design ready, flow rates etc. Align electrical and condensate drain requirements with other trades so they're not forgotten about. Check price of replacement filters and where to put the external intake and extract - roof or wall > 2.5m apart. Tried BPC for quotes, didn't end up buying from them. Did retrofit in last property, going to use same crowd in new build just started. They switches supplier but the rest of their kit is the same so waiting on a quote currently and will see how it works out.....

I'm stuck with a hockey stick for broadband in the wrong location in the building. This corner of the house hosts the master bathroom! The Mains Electrical connection is over on the other side of the house. Once the broadband company get hold of this they just want to poke through to the other side of the house wall, terminal the fibre and install a router which needs power. With tiling, waterproofing and no electrics near the bath in this corner, that's not going to be a runner. I can either try to run this upstairs to the bedroom above or snake it to the utility room further down the house on the same side, either in the 50mm wall cavity or service cavity the other side of the wall. I've pozi joists so may be able to lay some 1" or 2" pipe to allow a path to the utility that way but maintaining air tightness will be tricky. I could use the service box to house power and space to install the router there, make it a bigger one like for the mains electrical feed, then I'd run 4 x 10Gb CAT6e to this location and can hook that into the service providers box. The only issue is reliability, temperature, damp and protecting the electrics - I work in IT so I need a reliable connection. Puts the router on the outside of the house though! Any suggestions?!

I'm not sure where to start unravelling a system like that but if it was my house I'd be looking at installing an Air to Air system for the main rooms, plug in heaters on a smart timer for the bedrooms, see what is the cheapest way to heat hot water with the system you have & if you can disable all the underfloor stuff and get some Solar PV going, the cheapest way how to help offset the Electric costs a bit. Youtube channel EV Puzzle has some info on Air to Air & oil rads on a smart timer. At least it's an option if the current system is dimming all the lights on the Island?! Hopefully more knowledgeable chaps on here will have better suggestions shortly.....

Wood has better thermal performance but it's not the best product for a thermal break. There are structural insulation boards that could be used (EPS) around the reveal but you would need some professional detailing to ensure correct installation and to prevent water ingress. You may find local companies - these are two in Ireland I'm aware of for comparison: https://www.prodomo.ie/online-shop/#!/Structural-Insulation-Board/p/468917076/category=0 https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/product/phonotherm-200

Forgot to remove it from the plans when I resubmitted a fresh planning application! The council wanted all manner of details about it at that point, too later for water butt's then!

Everything kicked off on January 8th 2024 finally after 8 years of faffing about and trying to line up finances, finding someone to sign off building regs and a year of selling the old house eventually succeeded. There was about 120 tons of muckaway judging from the number of trucks. The guys brought a 17 tonne digger and were glad of it. The big roller they didn't use in the end but went with a more compact diesel unit. hardcore was added and leveled. The trickier element was getting a rainwater harvesting tank installed. It had to go at the back of the site before we could block it off with the next phase of works. I found the office staff didn't have a clue about the dimensions so how deep to dig the hole?! They did the next best thing and sent a guy out to the yard with a tape measure and I passed these info on. The crane used was impressive - 350K worth to move a 4.5tonne concrete tank into position. They then crawled inside it to commission the pump etc and seal it up until the next phase of adding power (need to drill a hold into the tank but they provided enough electrical cable to go back to the house to hook it up later. It holds 4,000 litres and needed balast to stop it shifting as even at that weight it can move around!! Got a hose and friendly neighbours to assist and half filled it up!! Only 1 complainer - a neighbour around the corner giving out when the flatbed dropped off the excavator, there's always one! Did get a site inspection the next day but only to confirm we'd started within the terms of our commencement notice I think and he seemed friendly anyway! I left the mortgage a bit late, still waiting on approval so am spending cash currently. Hopefully that comes in this week! The Timber Frame prep is starting in their factory - I think I'll be ready in 5 weeks or so or on March 1st. Onto the exciting portion - Foundation Screws, 1.5 meter long and will have a 300mm x 300mm plate bolted to the top of the screw head. They spend an entire day prepping the holes, measuring and remeasuring to ensure everything was fine. There was some confusion around the height the screw was to end up but the groundworks team had marking the fence panel and I put them in direct contract with each other and didn't hear a peep from that point. All was good. I was hearing 100mm differences in the levels one day and this changed to 2mm the next!! I was sick with flu so not being able to be onsite was a curse, you just have to hope it works out. They pre drilled down to break up some rock but nothing too severe. The delivery took a bit longer than expected, so they started later than I'd hope which means I lose the groundsworks team for a week at the start of February but what can you do. Some start when they say, others, well, it's a moving target!! But once they started they've been onsite every day despite the cold weather and are making good progress. There are 89 of these to be driven in to a level set by the laser. They use an electric motor to drive in the screw with an arm braced against a previous screw they leave half way up. Eventually all you'll see is a field of square plates. A raft is to be poured around these and the Kore passive raft is being delivered to site later this week for use next month. Yep, there's a second raft going in on top of the Kore - like a Kore Concrete Raft Burger!! Enjoy the photos!

Co2 monitor as suggested or voltage monitor on mvhr supply with low voltage draw alarm so at least you know about a fault?

The alarm keypad won't do anything if ripped off wall, no one would bother takingit out. The main box is usually deeper in the house, both it and the outside alarm box will have battery backups, once the alarm is triggered the external bell will sound until disarmed or dies. If your alarm has nighttime mode, any downstairs opening will trip the alarm and wake you up except main door which gives you 30 seconds warning. The exit doors have to be opened without a key for egress in a fire. Seal the letterbox and install external postbox. Get security film installed on all downstairs windows, slows them down a bit. After that master blaster alarm or security fog but only to trigger if no one in the house. Grt cctv with speaker and human detection to trigger on perimeter breach at certain times. Also remote alarm and cctv app on your smartphone. Or move!!

Can be, am getting a Daikin one in my self build. There's also an Ariston model? There is a review on YouTube from a plumber who installed one. The only issue was supply, not many available in the UK yet. Needs more holes in the wall - the plumber used his garage.

Note: Eufy won't charge below 0C so extending battery life with an external power bank is problematic when temperature drops.....

Installed a eufy starlight with solar panel. Battery only lasting 3 days though. Got some external battery banks but not reliably charging so will take down and test at home this week....

Public liability insurance, 12 month plan 300-400 p.a. just in case!

Give the installer a call, any alarms on the control display of the ashp? Defrost cycle should kick in to handle the cold. Look at a Willis heater as a backup for next year?

Hi - has anyone installed Brise Soleil and found any good companies to deal with? Looking to get the Structural Engineer engaged shortly regarding mounting but need to select a specific product to get weights / mounting templates etc - I'm building Timber Frame with 50mm cavity and brick/block outer leaf. Thanks!

So, I've gotten a quote and double checked it covers timber frame with an outer block/brick leaf. It does exclude subsidence but at least allows me to build. One aspect is that there's an option for non-negligent cover - for damage to the house next door by collapse, subsidence, vibration, removal of support and lowering of ground water. I'd need to reapply for this cover - and as subsidence is already excluded, they may or may not cover for any of this. Is it worth doing the rounds on this or should I just pull the trigger on the current plan and go build?

That's what's been done - out design is good and there are other approaches but it's still made ground, anything other than perfect virgin soil and the underwriters are running a mile after lots of silly site building decisions over here (ROI) years ago. If I was a builder I could proceed but as a lay person using direct labour as it's cheaper that's a no go for insurance. I doubt I can afford a main contractor even for builders finish. Best sell the site I'm thinking and close up shop.

My take is that they won't cover a build that uses piled foundations or equivalent. 1 response was "Sorry, I don’t think this is one for us due to the made ground and raft design." I've taken a shot a Plum underwriters who do more bespoke designs and Aviva who DO cover piling in the UK but I believe won't in ROI even though it's the same insurer! One broker suggested a Contracts work policy for the project itself and signing as a co-insured along with a builder, or just get a main contractor to deliver the whole thing but there are costs and other risks trying to navigate these approaches. Basically as soon as any ground risk is mentioned brokers are walking away....

36K (piling) vs 21K (Groundscrews) but all the policies I've checked so far rule out piling completely or any excavations below 3 meters.

I could take out site insurance (not mention groundscrews etc) and go with it but if the house was burned down and the underwriter sees the reinstatement cost I could imagine them walking away worst case. Home insurance companies don't seem to care about the house unless its anything more bespoke than timber frame with block/brick outer leaf over here. Might ring one or two to double check but getting the project finished, I need some insurance cover up to that point.

It's liability insurance i need. You can't get latent defects insurance for one off builds any more in ROI which is sad.

So the site is almost ready to start, my house is sold, moving out this weekend. Got the last tree stump ground out so there's nothing blocking the foundations. But the reason we write some of these blogs is to vent frustrations and in my case today it's about insurance. My site has Made Ground. I went through the trouble of getting a ground analysis with dynamic probing and there is good load bearing at 2.2 meters but it's poor above that. I switched Structural Engineers and Tanners in Cork did a great job looking into piling and groundscrews before settling on groundscrews. Anyway, I have a design, someone lined up to build etc but before I sold I wanted to get my self build insurance in line. I had focused on scaffolding issues as I may need to put scaffolding on a public footpath at one point or in the neighbours side passage so I was making sure this could be accommodated. In my ignorance, a lot of which I'm going to experience during this project, I didn't think for a second that piling / groundscrews would be an issue for an insurance company. So today I got the big NO from the insurer so I'm ringing around trying to check if there are ANY underwriters willing to take this on. Time to start posting questions in forums etc! I'm based in the Republic of Ireland just so you are aware. Anything non standard is very hard to get covered at the best of times! Will I be able to build, I'll find out in the next few days! Contracts are signed, I'm moving out, new house prices are crazy, maybe time to move to Thailand or the Philippines? What can I say?!

No movement due to the air but you may have other cables or pipes in close proximity and in my attic I often kick the ducts as they are under the insulation as I am moving about. I just like knowing they stay where I left them!