MikeGrahamT21

Just thought i'd give a quick update to this post, since I connected this all up yesterday, despite still not having all the radiators in situ! My wifes health is still not great, so i've just been doing stuff where I can, she is at home now and due to the early autumn weather we seem to be getting, she promptly requested the heating to be able to work. So after months of work which involved cutting out all of the existing woodwormed timber, underpinning a 60mm masonry wall, cleaning out under the floor of crap (6 rubble sacks full from the hallway and little room!), installing the manifold and all new pipework, knocking through and laying the insulation and new timber floor, here is where we have arrived: And yes that is a straight joint on the wood floor above, by the time i noticed it (was running on empty), the glue had already dried, its sat on a joist anyway, and seems absolutely fine. For the benefit of others, I've also picked up a few tips doing all this, from jobs which i'd done previously and thought were done. Turns out friction fit of PIR insulation even when done really well, isn't that good, in the rooms which I have already insulated I found many examples of insulation which had dropped through and was no longer doing its job, clearly i couldn't sort that out as part of this work, and will have to lift the floors to fix at a later date, but from now on I've been using some little L shaped brackets which protrude the bottom of the joists, to hold the insulation in place. I've also found that rather than using 1 layer of 100mm, which will obviously have joins in it, was to use 50mm (this was by total accident, supplier had ran out of 100mm phenolic, so ended up with 50mm), and to put the larger pieces with less joins in at the bottom, and then use up all of the offcuts on the top, along with a good helping of expanding foam to hold everything in place. I can now stop rushing quite as much, fearing the cold weather coming, and complete the rest in a reasonable pace. I've pretty much just got to plaster the new room now, and then put the final finish flooring down, we've decided on bamboo for this, looks really nice, extremely hard, and also sustainable which is quite important to me.

I totally agree, this is a building regs only exercise, it was a silent fan anyway so not a problem, in the future we are considering an airer in there for drying so I guess it would be useful. I can always tell when it breaks as the air doesn’t smell as fresh, think the garage floor paint I used was a bit chemical heavy, and still not 100% cured. I’ll consider buying something less complex, got this as we have one in the bathroom and was really impressed with it, maybe just bad luck, toolstation it is!

The only other thing I can think, is the room is quite airtight, and when you open/close the external doors, air gets sucked in the fan vent at a fair velocity, could this be the reason?

I thought it should have been fine, as you say a supply is a supply. Yeah, its never had any condensation through it at all, vented out through a tile vent via cold loft, with the pipe insulated. I'll take a closer look at the PCB, maybe ive just got unlucky, just not that fussed for spending another £50 on a replacement, again.

Got an extractor fan in the utility, its in the ceiling, and for some odd reason it keeps breaking. First one broke early part of year, was one i bought off ebay (Vent Axia Centra dMEV), and I just thought, ah well, clearly was something wrong with it, so bought another of the same model, again off ebay, lasted 2 months, and that one has stopped too, so i'm thinking there must be something more to it that this. I've connected the fan via a plug head in a 13a socket, think I used a 3A fuse (whatever the lowest rating was which would fit the plug). There is absolutely no action what-so-ever from the fan, when you power them on they are supposed to put a blue LED on and do several tests, but nothing at all, so I'm hazarding a guess the computer board is fried. Would the fact its connected to plug head be the reason for this? I've still got the old one too, can't see anything obvious on the boards for damage.

Yeah thats not too bad, wheres that from? Trouble i'm having is the G59 form which needs to be filled out for the grid supplier. I'm going to email a DIY shop and see if they would be able to help at all. I've taken a look at the form but wouldn't know the answer to most of the questions on there.

Use some marmox on it: http://www.marmox.co.uk/marmox-dry-lining You can also get curved boards too: http://www.marmox.co.uk/products/curved-board Treat them exactly as a plasterboard when plastering.

Extension was built where we had paving flags before hand, and basically all you can see is the cement which was under the flags which is pretty decent, but has holes in places. Yeah we've got plenty of air bricks and cross ventilation, including in the sleeper wall, which has DPC on top of it before the joists, so no damp will rise from there into the timbers. I stuck a soil probe into the bits i could get to, and it actually registers as dry, so it perhaps is just dark soil which 'looks' damp. Attached to this extension is a utility, and when they were building that, we had a huge downpour which filled the cavity between this extension and the utility, the concrete foundations are also higher on the utility, and I've a feeling its just the damp from that still percolating its way through which will evaporate in time. Because there is no floor down at present in extension, the airflow is going to be massively hampered, as its just coming straight into the room, once the floor is airtight, the under floor ventilation will improve massively.

Hi, We had someone in to do the foundations for an extension i built three years ago, and they forgot to put any DPC down under the oversite, now i've swept and hoovered the base, i can see areas of soil which are damp (no idea how with how dry its been). I know older houses have this style oversite anyway, so would you do anything? And if so what? Thanks for any input. Regards Mike

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Powerful-Inline-Loft-Extractor-Fan-4-100mm-made-by-Vent-Axia-Black/401391020024?hash=item5d74c4e7f8%3Ag%3AKOEAAOSwwE5WUxle&_sacat=0&_nkw=vent+axia+in-line&_from=R40&rt=nc Thats the cheapest 100mm in-line fan by vent axia i can find on ebay. My be worth changing for a centra though if you can change the ducting pipe for a longer one, should be a better overall experience.

Is this just a standard 100mm fan? Why not replace it with a brand new one, Vent Axia Centra Lo-Carbon is the one i've used, you can pick them up on ebay for around £50, will be a lot quieter than that old one, and use less power, plus its also a dMEV so will give continuous trickle extract ventilation.

Ive just had some samples of bamboo flooring through the post, and is say its probably a product which won't bend easily like laminate may to fit the unevenness. Not sure myself just how perfect it needs to be for a good finish.

God I hate wood worm! I've spent all day ripping rotten joists out and underpinning partition walls. Tomorrow, I start installing the new manifold heating system, looking forward to it, though going to be very tricky with no floors up trying to hit smallish holes in the floors in each room. Luckily 4 of 7 radiators are in the area where the floor is currently up so they will be nice and easy to do. Looks like the builder who did the foundations on the extension managed to get the floor 10mm lower than the old house, presuming overlaying the joists with treated 10mm timber screwed and glued to the top of the new joists will be fine?

Wow, didn't think house insurance would cover such things, will bear that in mind for future. All the floor is up now, the worst thing I found bar the woodworm, was one of the joists sat on a sleeper wall with an electric cable sandwiched in between! Must have been like that for about 30 odd years. It is nice knowing that things are correct once i've done them.

Underneath was clean, nothing to report, so yeah, i guess the only sensible explanation is the radiator has been leaking for the last 5 years, explains why i've needed to keep topping it up!

Yeah, i thought the same, but feeling round its dry, unless it only leaks when hot, i.e. more pressure.

yeah thats true, i guess the cold from the airbrick would make moisture accumulate here.

Under the floor boards looks fine, and doesn't have the damp stain, just a million wood worm holes in the joists! oh well i knew they were there anyway

Currently lifting all the carpets and floors in the little bedroom in preparation to knock through into the new extension... Floor construction is suspended timber, absolutely no insulation whatsoever at present. About 5 years ago, we had a leak on the radiator pipe where this black mould is, the stain on the floor would lead you to believe its still wet, but so far it all feels dry, though i've not lifted the floor board there yet, but the carpet grippers around this radiator pipe were coated in thick black mould. Underneath this area is an air brick, though its now open on to the extension though still gets to around 5c in winter. Humidity levels in the house are always around 50%, even through winter, with temperature around 20C. I just can't understand why mould would grow next to a hot radiator pipe of all places?? Will report on my findings what is beneath the floorboards...i dread to think

Just found this online: http://www.safetyassured.co.uk/products/ Would need the non standard cavity barrier, classed as a finger protector.

Yeah, the magnetic stay is absolutely fine on our, but this is more a belt a braces approach for the people who 'forget' to use it!

lol, love it!

Hi Does anyone know of an anti slam device for the opening door of bifolding doors? cheers mike

Yeah thats cheaper than toolstation, though i certainly don't need 6 bottles for what im doing! lol

Its a 1960s build, and the boards definitely don't line up to the joists, i know that from other rooms i've done! I'll stick to my previous practice of lining board ends up to joists