MikeGrahamT21

neither grout or tile adhesive is truly waterproof afaik Some people use tanking on top of s&c render which provides a true waterproof layer. a waterproofing strategy should include the failure of grout and adhesive, it’s worst case scenario stuff so if it happens your covered

It is indeed yes: https://walltite.basf.co.uk/

If you use liquid foam in the cavity, you will be limited to breathable only products on the external insulation, wood fibre, rockwool etc, you won't be able to use EPS or Phenolic, something to bear in mind

The older you get, the less you'll be able to hear it 🤣 High pitched noise is quite easy to block with acoustic insulation, you could considering putting a box around it?

Also take a look here, may save you a small fortune: https://www.secondsandco.co.uk/deliveredboards If you get the kooltherm boards, they are a step up from PIR in terms of performance, they're phenolic boards.

After the worst of the cold weather was out of the way, i decided to start chipping away at my huge jobs list this year, some is finishing off, and others additional bits. Started getting the block paving back down again, as i was fed up of bringing sand in on my feet all the time, was very time consuming as each block needed individually inspecting for chips, and cleaning of its old sand and sealer around the edges, but kept doing a bit every other day. Level is a little higher than i would have liked, but i was down to a lot of concrete, so couldn't really go much lower whilst being able to put a bed of sand down, decided to seal the walls with Nano Drex Protect in order to mitigate any splashback, and I have since filled the gap with geotex and 20mm gravel. Eventually many months later, i've removed any damaged blocks and replaced them, jetwashed it all and re-sanded with Dan Sand then sealed. I've not finished it all yet, still got behind the extension to finish, sand and seal which is one of my next jobs. 3 external wall insulation areas to complete, around living room window including swapping the bow window out for a flat window with 40mm triple glazing, around the boiler and gas box, and behind the extension off of the small bedroom. Beginning with the horrible bit, digging down to the foundations: Followed by leaving them for around 2months to fully dry out, which took longer than expected with the rain we kept having, but got there eventually. Plinth insulation installed, trench filled with loose fill and all of the damaged block pavers. Living room window also had timber glued and screwed to the wall and starter tracks installed on this photo plus a myriad of heavy duty angle brackets, and i had 5 spare so I added those too before i insulated it. Also added another piece of 4x2 above the window, which sits half on the brickwork, and half on the wall timber, screwed to it, which i'll screw the window to, along with the side fixings, and some window straps to fix to brickwork inside. Wall insulated and old bow window removed... New window in, and insulation added to top the timber, and wrap the edges of the window. basecoat render completed. Next step is adding the brick slips. Above the window also needs expanding foam, and a trim to close the gap, I ran out of foam! Really happy with the look of the new window, from both outside and in... Inside has since been taped to the wall with Tescon tape, cavity closer to the top of the cavity, also taped down, and the exposed brick needs plastering at some point, before a new window board. Area round the gas box was dug out and prepared with plinth insulation as best as i could. Gas man has since been and put a new gas pipe in through plastic tube where i core drilled, so the remainder of the plinth can be installed now. Gas box was spaced away from wall by 120mm, and a new longer flue has been installed ready for the wall boards to go up. has morphed into... few more pieces to go on, but need to finish block paving off so i've somewhere flat to setup my work platform. and last but not least, swapped out the MVHR filters, previously G4 and F7 for another G4 and H15, spot the before and after... More to follow, hopefully soon, but probably not that soon!

Don’t forget VAT and import charges to the UK on any prices

Seen people putting a spanner on the drill bill if you are going free hand, if you are level it shouldn't move

Ahh fair enough, makes sense why it looks different to what i expected. Those block and beam ends will be a rather large thermal bridge unless you are also insulating externally?

To me it sounds like your already way past the point of no return given the amount of money you'll have spent, not to mention the effort. I'd carry on as you are

The cavity looks rather slim, a bit too slim really, how did you manage that whilst sticking to u values? And its slimmer than the rest of your walls Door profile will likely be 70mm or bigger, in which case it'll sit on either leaf anyway with such a slim gap. Just needs closing with a cavity closer

that’s a good idea with chlorine test. Property is water metered and there’s no evidence of a leak on there so it’s definitely not from the metered supply.

My neighbour across the road has recently been installing a concrete fence, and when he dug the post near the bungalow it kept filling up with water…now I remember years ago my dad who lives on same side of road, 2 doors up, dug foundations for an extension and they kept filling up too. Neighbour was determined to find where it came from and we found a gap in a perp joint where the was coming out fairly quickly, hard to say exactly but definitely more than a litre a minute, so I decided to stick a borehole camera in to see what I could see, picture is 90 degree to the wall, and your looking at the engineering bricks on inner leaf, water seems to be coming through a small gap at a fair rate of knots. For context the camera was fully submerged during the video so the swirls you can see is the power of the water. It must have been this way for a good 25years. Bungalow appears to have slipped on its DPC coming outward by around 1 inch. Neighbour also said there was evidence of water when they did the kitchen years ago but was never investigated. Bathroom is getting done soon and they are going to check under there. It fills the hole up to the 3rd row of bricks from foundation and then seems to stop filling anymore, never any evidence of water from the surface. we live in a valley, and my dad has always talked of a natural spring, could this be it? There is also a disused rail track underneath the ground somewhere nearby which used to transport coal from the local pit. any ideas? 20230516140451.mov

You can get plastic contraptions which would sit above the insulation, so you can fully fill the eaves but maintain airflow. Lots of options, this is one: https://www.bcprofiles.co.uk/products/manthorpe-refurb-cross-flow-panel-25mm-x-400mm?variant=41199809298595&gclid=CjwKCAjw04yjBhApEiwAJcvNoa3M4krjrGdMNgrGvlf81ewC6oO5Z5D2WW_JDChLhAnnxRZzbbhjnBoClnAQAvD_BwE

blown cellulose?

QCAD was my weapon of choice for drawing the elevations. Insulation build ups came from ubakus (https://www.ubakus.de/u-wert-rechner/index.php?) which is free for most things, with a paid for option, but i just used the freebie.

Does sound very much like a lag in one of the monitoring clamps, check with manufacturer to see if theres any newer firmware to reduce the polling interval.

How can you possibly charge and discharge something simultaneously? Thats just impossible. The power can only flow in one direction at any time. What scenarios lead to your loss of PV gen? Perhaps you are talking about the polling interval of the CT Clamp?

Assuming you won't be on the FiT Rates, a hybrid inverter should be your go to, there is absolutely no point in going AC Coupled, due to the fact you will lose a lot of energy through inverter efficiencies. You'd be going Solar PV (DC) > Inverter (DC to AC) > AC Coupled Inverter (AC to DC) > Battery (DC) With hybrid you would be going Solar PV (DC) > Inverter (DC) > Battery (DC)

Tesla batteries use the less common Lithium NMC, majority of DC batteries use Lithium Ferrous Phosphate, each have their advantages, NMC is better in low temperatures hence why powerwalls are generally seen externally on marketing material. LFP is safer and generally more efficient at lower SOC. from google When it comes to safety, LFP batteries beat NMCs due to their stable lithium chemistry. Even at higher temperatures, the Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry is more stable than Nickel Manganese Cobalt. if it’s going inside I would rule Tesla out myself. I’ve got an ac coupled setup with pylontech batteries, I’ve written a blog about my experiences so far, on the forum, I can link it if you can’t find it

Sucking up warm air and passing it through a heat exchanger which isn't 100% efficient, surely leaving the warm air where it is, displace it with filtered cool air with recovered heat would be more efficient overall? The humidity helps with the heat exchange too, so by pulling from hallway you would be drying that air somewhat, and reducing efficiency? Maybe i'm wrong here, i'm no expert, just doesn't necessarily seem sensible

Maybe he misunderstands the regulations, as even tho he said it must be done before cert, he couldn't do it at the time as he'd broken his finger, and hasn't been badgering to come and do it, it's down to me to get back to him. Even so, i think it'll have to get done before any certs. I'll leave it for now, no rush anyway, and the "issue" with the plastic boxes isn't really an issue if you make sure the neutrals are done up correctly, which they are as i've checked them. Thanks for the info, cleared it up and quite possibly saved me £500, so much appreciated!

Yeah it was all nice and neat and made sense before the person who installed the battery came along with said chunky marker pen! The one to the right of battery, which isn't actually labelled, powers a single socket, and needs wiring into the main ring when i get 5mins, I could then move the battery along and stick a blanking plate in the gap which will make it spot on. I thought that about the minor works certificate, but he said he couldn't do it, which i guess leaves me in the position of needing to do what he says before he will issue the cert. Mind saying that it wouldn't be the first Building Regs which has stalled because of lack of electrical certs. I don't think he ran any earthing tests, or if he did i didn't see him do it.

Ahh that kinda makes sense, the only reason i realised the backup power was working, was the left hand 80A breaker tripped yesterday for some reason, but only the loads on the split side were being powered (Battery and to the right of it), unless i'm just being a pillack and it was because the main 100A switch was still on? Will try turning the master switch off and see what happens. EDIT: Yeah i was being an idiot lol, master switch off killed everything, inverter still powered from the battery but no loads powered. So last year had the main ring extended to cover a few sockets in the new extension, and he said before he could certify he'd have to change the consumer unit so everything was up to spec.

I've got to have my consumer unit upgraded as part of some electrical works last year so that the chap can issue a certificate, its a plastic CU at the moment. Recently my battery storage inverter had a firmware upgrade which enabled backup power supply through its normal circuitry (not the EPS), but my current CU has 2 sides (split load I think it was called at the time), and it only powers the side that its currently connected to. That got me thinking was there a CU which didn't have the split, and as far as I can see that would be an RCBO CU like this one: https://www.screwfix.com/p/british-general-fortress-12-module-6-way-populated-main-switch-consumer-unit/270VF. Does that sound right? Just so I know what i need to ask for. Cheers Mike