MikeGrahamT21

Love getting all the trimmings out, despite not being a huge fan of Christmas

Yeah thats your issue, i'd say its definitely a mixture of both ingress and condensation. Externally, make sure that any pointing is good, no gaps in it, and you could apply a water repellant to the masonry to help further. Inside you are going to need to create an insulation filled cavity, and then an internal wall, with the metal frame. If it were me i'd do the following: Remove the red, keep the green. In between the metal frame kept, and the wall, fill with insulation, PIR will likely be the best choice here, and use some adhesive expanding foam to 'glue' it to the reveal. Then go over with your plasterboard. I would considering using metal frame wider than that too, if possible, or add some timber spacer to it, so your insulation and PB overlap the window. And ensure that the outside is fully sound, and water repellant applied. Make sure to treat any internal mould with either proprietry mould killer, or white vinegar before covering it up too. See what others think of this plan?

Are you sure that’s just condensation? What material is the painted bit to the left of the window made of? And what’s on the outside? Looks a bit like water ingress as well as condensation to my untrained eye

Yeah just looked for Bristol, barely any choice and nothing thermal outside of aircrete. Any on eBay that will deliver to your location?

It’s a full fill system with unventilated cavity so the board and its HIPS facer gives the 125mm, which is what the cavity has to be built as, I remember it was a snug fit as per the installation instructions. They have a really good fitting outer profile which keeps everything tight and sealed. https://unilininsulation.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/2913_CTPIR_UK_Final_V2.pdf have a look on huws gray, they always seemed to be cheapest for blocks for me at least, loads of options too

im not sure I agree with you on that completely, yes the cut edges where the cells are open will leak the blowing agent, but the rest of the board should stay as manufactured unless punctured in some way. I’ve made fresh cuts in PIR which is more than 10 years old and can still smell the gas escaping from the fresh cut

Definitely swap out the aircrete for dense blocks, look out for the ones labelled as thermal blocks but as an aggregate block. I used xtratherm (now unilin) CT-PIR at 125mm in my latest side extension, which is an interlocking board, and having done previous extensions with aircrete inner and full fill 0.032 wool, I can say that the latest build is by far the best in terms of insulation and energy use. if I remember right the Kingspan full full boards need their joints taping on the cold side. normal wall ties are absolutely fine, and another +1 for wet plaster

Engineering bricks are definitely less porous than blocks or other bricks, but will allow moisture to pass over time. As @joe90 said, it’s going to be pretty much permanently wet below ground anyway so I wouldn’t worry too much.

SBR diluted would certainly give a good bonding surface for tile adhesive, much better than paint ever would.

What is the current rating of the MCB in the fuse board for that circuit? Youd need a 16A MCB for the 3kW device minimum but it all depends on cable thickness as to whether it will take it.

Yes the inners come out, available in varying colours, here is a terracotta one: https://www.screwfix.com/p/air-brick-terracotta-76mm-x-229mm/13873 A note though, not all of them have replaceable inners, so just watch out when you go to buy As above, whoever put it in, has put it in upside down, so ensure the louvres are pointed down when you replace.

Sounds like you’ve got a Guinea pig in there 😂 Air bubbles in the water supply?

the live data will be available on the front of the inverter, using the display, assuming that all Solis inverters do it this way, certainly how my AC coupled storage inverter does it

I can't say for sure 100%, as i've never heard of anyone doing this, but from a technical perspective the inverter doesn't know what type of panels they are, so having the 2 types on differing strings I would say is absolutely fine and shouldn't pose any issues. Speak to your inverter manufacturer if you want a 100% sure answer

I’ve had my MVHR running constantly for around 5 years and it still looks like the day I bought it inside, not even a speck of mould. I wash the heat exchanger out once a year (if I remember)

Spent a bit of time looking at different options today, aside from whats mentioned above, rigid insulation board, which has brought these options: Bosig Phonotherm 200 (1.35m x 500mm x 15mm) - 550kg/m3 density and 0.083 W/mK conductivity - £43.20 per length - Delivery at £65 makes it uneconomical though CompacFoam (0.97m x 100mm x 20mm) - 200kg/m3 density and 0.046 W/mK conductivity - £13.64 per length - Delivery at £25 BRIGi Foam (1.2m x 100mm x 20mm) - 150kg/m3 density and 0.040 W/mK conductivity - £12.57 per length - Free Delivery The Bosig just doesn't make sense, poorer thermal values and a lot lot more expensive. So that leaves CompacFoam and BRIGi Foam, which are both flame retardant EPS products. And the cheapest one of those is the best in terms of conductivity. Hadn't heard of BRIGi foam before today, but its read up suggests its an ideal product.

Yeah would be an option, but for what its worth i'll just insulated the hanger/vertical strut for ease

Yeah they were like that when we bought the place, so been that way for at least 16 years. Theres not a great deal of 'stuff' in the loft, so no great weights bearing down on the timbers

yeah that’s certainly feasible, that particular one on the photo has a horizontal timber too going over the ceiling joists, the others kind of have this but the horizontal is nowhere near the vertical. Hadn’t considered that with the horizontal one being there and I’ve not checked how these verticals are attached and where to. In that case I’ll look into cladding them with insulation board on 3 sides and something breathable on the 4th

As per the topic really. There is one of these vertical timbers in each quarter of the loft space, which I have realised after getting a thermal image camera, are causing a cold bridge into the rooms below. Ideally i'm just wanting to cut them out, but are they actually doing anything? My gut feeling is no they aren't, since the purlin rests on masonry, and that will be doing the heavy lifting, one tiny piece of wood onto an unsupported ceiling joist wouldn't work even if it had to, but just wondering why they are there? what are their purpose? Cheers Mike

Bought a new thermal camera the other week, and have since found a number of 'defects', or rather things i didn't realise would have been such an issue. I have 4 openings which have IG Cavity Steel lintels, non thermally broken, but they are insulated in between the cavity with polystyrene. It seems that now i'm well on my way to insulating everything in sight, this has become a much more obvious point of heat leak than it was before. The steel of the lintel is visible externally, I was going to glue some PVC trims to match the windows but never got round to it. I'm now thinking to use some form of insulation, and then make a box section out of PVC trims to hide that insulation, but what to use? It would have to be fairly thin, and i had a quick look at Aerogel Thermal Bridging Strips, but having never used it before not sure how well it would work in this scenario, and even it it would be suitable to be used externally (1 of the lintels is well hidden away from the elements, but the others are exposed). Other options are neoprene which i've got a part roll of, much like the aerogel strips its adhesive backed to stick to lintel, and should be fine to stick other things to it, in terms of the trim. What would you use for this purpose?

As promised, Black Friday did me well…

I know foam insulation is the gold standard for this type application. had a quick look online and can see climaflex 76mm bore for not much money, but only seems to be 9mm thickness, probably wouldn’t make a worthwhile difference for the immense amount of effort I’d need to put in to install it. hopefully my efforts yesterday which I’m paying for today will work some, there’s no gale force winds up there

temperature does have importance, during my many years of caring for my late wife and doing IV treatments at home, we were told to only ever wash hands in cold water, since warm water opens your pores which can allow any nasties to hide away, since then I’ve always washed hands with cold water

went up after work and decided to tackle it whilst it’s still cold out, doing work under the eaves is no fun at the best of times! found quite a few bits which I’ve now corrected, where the ceiling joists end was warmer than I’d expected it being, so the wool is clearly doing it’s job, was just too patchy in places, fingers crossed it’ll do the trick anyway. Managed to cut out some excess pipe too from the supply runs, around 3m in total which should help also