willbish

I've not long finished building with Logix ICF, welcome to come for a look and a poke around if you're passing south Bristol

Pretty sure it was @Triassic who made his own raft. How much of the £2k saving will be eaten up by timber formwork and moving aggregate around? When I looked at pricing the savings from DIY was a lot more. Have the raft foundation systems held their pricing whilst the price of EPS has creeped up?

Interesting article but the example of the office block with a 1,140kWp PV array is barking. If I'm not mistaken that's over 3700 panels, what sort of office building would have space for that?

The extra £1500 how much is that as a % of the total bill? Anything over 10% extra, I'd want to be notified prior to the work being done.

No need for a specific fitting. Just use a standard Y junction and then use a 45 to bring it back parallel with the input. Insert appropriate length of pipe between Y and 45 for required offset.

If you don't feel confident making your own formwork for the falls you could use Impey Aqua Grade system. Although they are a couple hundred ££ and you are limited to their sizes and waste position.

I've been looking into the fire rating of windows close to the boundary and since the above post the Part B building regs has been updated (from 84 pages to 180 ?) The sections now relating to external walls, boundaries and unprotected areas are Section B4 11.4 Boundaries Section B4 11.16 Methods for calculating acceptable unprotected areas Appendix B25 Table B3 External Walls Appendix B25 Table B4 Dwellinghouses From what I can see the numerical values haven't changed regarding 1m2 of small unprotected areas such as windows. Larger windows or other unprotected areas will most likely require 30' fire protection but depends on building size height and distance from boundary Part B Building Regs 2019

Not yet but it is something I am considering. I've had a quote, and had a test patch done for clay plaster directly onto the EPS. Primer and a backing coat with mesh pushed in then the clay.

@K78 sounds like you might be onto something. If you can get all your structural openings to marry with the size of the lego blocks so you don't have any cutting onsite it would be an easy build. One thing I think you may have missed when it comes to ICF is that when using the larger blocks (200mm EPS on outside skin) the chance of a blow out is zero. With my build I added additional strapping on the outside for the first pour (up to 2.8m) but was told this was totally unnecessary. For the second pour I put nothing on the outside at all. The inside was obviously fully braced and strapped. No blowouts, no bulges, no movement on the outside skin in the slightest. If you think about it a 200mm block of EPS sandwiched in on all sides cannot twist or deform enough to blow. Different story for the 70mm inside skin where I do have a couple minor bulges in places where the bracing was not sufficient. Might be another option to consider if the Lego doesn't stack

I used 2-5mm limestone chips. And used a 3.0m screed bar to level. Advice I was given is that sand could wash away in heavy rain if there is a period of time before the EPS goes down.

The tricoya particle board is mashed up accoya, which is pickled radiata pine, that comes from New Zealand mostly or Chile. Lot of processing and a lot of traveling. But they still claim it is CO2 negative ? Wish it was cheaper, I can think of so many uses

I thought the price of panels was a result of global demand and uptake, which would have happened with or without the UK feed in tariff.

18mm just over £70, compared to Tricoya extreme coming in at £180 ? Good to know, there's no guarantee with Medite Exterior but the sales bumpff says 'proven over 15 years use'. Where as the Tricoya extreme is guaranteed for 50 years above ground, only 25 below

You can get it in 10x4 sheets @Russell griffiths but yep still got to join it.

Does anyone have experience using Medite Exterior MDF? I'd really like to use the Tricoya Extreme for fascias and barge boards but the price is just ridiculous, so reluctantly making a compromise. MEDITE-EXTERIOR.pdf

@Alexphd1 Thanks, hope your head is not in a shed this morning! I'm having an in roof system and a vented loft space so poking the cables in is not a problem. I would like to avoid a mass of connectors and am looking for a solution to make things look tidy. Something like this (fundamental error in the wiring! but hopefully you get the gist)

Thought this one might be up your street @Onoff Im imagining one box, located inside the loft space. 10 panels coming in (10+ & 10- wires) and then two output wires. Will all be live DC so I think it would need some safety stickers on the front. I agree it is going to require a lot of extra cable length and faff but possibly worth it to be able to isolate individual faulty panels in the future. My loft space is vented so there is no need for extra work around airtightness

I'm still considering this approach. Can anyone suggest a suitable connection box to bring 10 panels together in series. The only specific PV boxes I can find are combiner boxes which bring multiple strings together

Thanks Russ appreciate the offer. I've got plenty left over but not looking fwd to prizing the battens off now they are peppered with ring shanks. This is my error. I've now spotted in the ebay listing, some 230 words into the description, that it is infact a seconds product. If I had known that I would have steered clear. Or if using it I would have been on the lookout for any substandard sections. Que battle with ebay seller for refund...

Has any experienced this before? Cromar Vent3 Pro membrane laid directly on OSB sarking with counter battens on top. In my haste to get the membrane on during a windy afternoon I left off some counter battens so the membrane is only fixed at 1.2m intervals. I've returned today to carry on with the battening and notice the membrane has decoupled in one area. All three layers have clearly separated. When I was laying the membrane I noticed a wrinkly section mid roll but didn't think anything of it at the time. It appears the decoupling has occured before or after this wrinkly line. Added confession, this membrane was purchased from eBay supplier who Ive already had a minor dingdong with regarding missing VAT receipt. Does this section have to be cut out? The lap on the membrane is supposed to be 225mm (16° pitch) but I have exceeded this at around 300mm, if that has any bearing.

Continuing on with @Patrick idea of sound insulation from above the joists. How about cutting ~100m holes into the chipboard and filling with EPS beads? How frequent would the holes have to be to get a decent fill? But can you imagine how annoying that would be when you inevitably have to cut a hole in the ceiling a few years down the line...

I'm interested in doing something similar. But wondering how you made all the connections internally look neat and tidy. Any chance you have a photo or two please?

Sorry spelling error on my behalf. https://www.woodlandhp.co.uk/

Thanks @MikeGrahamT21 I shall give it a try, I've got a few tricky places where a new air tight build meets an old party wall. The only other foam I can find that claims EN12114 air tightness is Everbuild Thermofoam , which is slightly cheaper, do you have any experience with this?

How much better is FM330 compared to a similar gun grade low ex foam for airtightness? Is it correct to assume that other foams are just as air tight but the FM330 has the flexibility so will stay airtight over a longer period. Comparing the datasheets for different brands isn't much help as they don't have common parameters