MikeGrahamT21

Hi, Wanting to try and get a firm answer on this, I've got a solution for both, however the 'requires VCL' method is more expensive. I have applied 90mm of EPS external wall insulation to a block - 100mm filled cavity - block contruction building. I've ran some simulations using WUFI and another app i can't even remember the name of, and both suggested even with the worst possible humidity inside, the construction would be fine and free of condensation risk, however its always been playing on my mind that these apps just might be wrong! lol So if I do need a VCL, I plan to dry line the interior with a 6mm Marmox multi board (which has integral XPS as part of the construction) and then these can be direct plastered. If I don't need a VCL, i'll just wet plaster the walls, or dry line using normal plasterboard, though would probably do it right, and wet plaster. Let me know your thoughts. Mike

We always used to wash at 30C, with 60C for bedding, but I recently discovered a new mode on our washer, Eco Clean 20, not only lower temp, but also uses half the amount of water the the other mode used! We put in the anti-bacterial liquid to kill any nasties, which we always did anyway, and that works down to 15C, i've not noticed any difference in terms of wash quality. Just need to get me a heat pump dryer now, then i'll be able to run it off the PV with zero cost quite easily.

Still seems a bit on the high side for what we got quoted. Spec i asked for was: Eurocell Modus which is 75mm profile (4/16/4/16/4 Optiwhite Pilkington KS Pilkington KS Argon SuperSpacer Premium Full Thermal A++ 31 0.8U) Price was £386, and window size (2 side openers, 1 top, 1 fixed pane) is roughly 1.7m2, though it is just a price on an email, so theres the chance they could have quoted wrong, but I would hope not since i gave them the exact spec.

Those definitely won't be BS5250, dont think IP20 is high enough for it, if airtightness is a concern to you. Something like these may be more appropriate? https://www.amazon.co.uk/MiniSun-Brushed-Recessed-Downlights-Spotlights/dp/B01535DAVC

LED GU10's still get warm, but I wouldn't say hot, you can certainly hold them. The only negative of having insulation packed round the fitting is the LED likely won't last as long as its stated run time, but thats hardly a game changer given their cost now. Ensure they are BS5250 (if I remember right, for airtightness), and fire rated fittings and personally I don't see an issue, but if you are concerned check with BCO (though they likely won't care anyway).

Fingers crossed. She has the NHS's finest working on her at the moment, we are so thankful for the NHS as we know the costs for all the treaments and admissions she's had in the past 12 months run well over £1m! We are in a 1960's bungalow, i've made a lot of improvements already, there is no noticeable air flow from leaks, but I know the leaks exist, especially behind the kitchen cabinets at floor level. I'm hoping the air purifier will have a positive impact though, time will tell I suppose. Yeah I totally know what you mean by the 'don't look that sick', she gets it all the time. Her lungs are only a tiny part of her complications though, she has a rare genetic disorder with a subset of other nasties which make her totally unique in the world. Life is tough, but we just keep smiling :-) I hope the new house does you the world of good, I can't see it not doing with all the research which has gone in.

Yeah me also, though i am a constant worrier anyway. Thanks for your kind thoughts, she's had a lot of difficulties since last year, firstly with a multi drug resistant pseudomonas infection, and now with aspergillus! Following a quick google the other day, I discovered that the pseudomonas was actually holding the aspergillus back, now thats gone, its having a party in there! After much consideration of MVHR, and I must have been looking into it now for over 2 years, its not do-able for us at the moment, partly because we just aren't airtight enough yet, and partly because one of our lovely neighbours has a wood burning stove which pollutes the street, the airtighting is fairly easy but time consuming to fix, the smoke issue i've not been able to get round as yet, so for now I've invested in 2 BlueAir Blue Pure 411's which filter down to 0.1micron (anything less and mold spores are likely to get through, aspergillus for example can be 0.2micron), and i've bought a FooBot to keep a visual check on things.

I'm probably going to go against the grain here, but... Have you considered Eurocell's Modus Range? 75mm profile, and with the correct glass will get you a Uw of 0.81, for a pretty reasonable price. I got a quote for a Window which we had made by another supplier who use Liniar profile, and ended up a 1.1Uw, and Eurocell were cheaper! The Modus Profile is also suitable for passivehouse, but isn't a certified component, its been designed with PH in mind. Pretty sure you'd get a good discount on them too.

Yeah I agree, black mould in the MVHR isn't what i was expecting to read there! Does the area where its collected have any interface with air movement at all? I suppose if air never gets near, its probably reasonbly safe, but if it does, there could be spores everywhere. To get rid of the lot, you'd need a 0.1micron filter post MVHR to remove the majority of these, perhaps that is the case? I had considered an MVHR, and still am, but this makes me a little wary. My wife is currently in hospital with a fungal infection in her lungs, so this kind of thing should be taken with a lot of thought, and not just brushed off.

Never knew that, a very useful thing indeed!

One thing I've never found out, is Ozone good or Bad? You hear both sides on the net

Yeah i've got a spare one something like that laying around somewhere, it did remove the smells, but it choked the hood so much, that it barely moved any air, so I took it off, think our hood is just massively underpowered.

That would be brilliant, look forward to seeing what you come up with :-) Yeah a lot advertise that they take out PM2.5 in some way or other.

Thank you for all of the replies, very useful links too. The CarboAir ones seem to be pretty high flow, but I suppose i'd have to match it correctly with whatever MVHR unit I end up with. I suppose the most important question, would it get rid of the smoke smell, and would an F7 (can you get F7 filters?) filter remove the harmful particles? Just trying to keep the dream of MVHR alive, what with all the neighbours who seem to love burning things round here all the time!

Yeah I did think about cannabis myself when I read that lol!

Hi, Everywhere I ask about MVHR and outdoor smoke, everyone seems to recommend a carbon air pre-filter to remove the smell and any organic particles. They are stupidly expensive! I have come across these though: http://www.carboair.co.uk/carboair-100-200-660 Seem to go for anything between 100 and 300 on ebay, which is much more palatable. Not sure they are designed for this purpose, but as long as the air intake can be located inside our ventilated roof space, I don't see an issue bolting this onto an MVHR duct. What do you think? Would it work? And would having the air intake inside ventilated roof space be suitable? Having the intake inside would increase summer temperatures though, so that maybe needs a bit of thinking about. I suppose I could house this in a sealed container, which also has a duct to the outside world.

You can use any thickness of the marmox, dependant on how much insulation/VCL effect you want from the product, obviously the thicker it is the better, but all thicknesses are suitable for tile finish. You don't need any tanking with Marmox, its ready to use once fixed, and is far less vapour open than the other products mentioned, which do let water vapour through despite being waterproof.

You will never get a grab in an AAC block with those type fixings, they only work when theres aggregate present, of which there is none/very little in AAC, always has to be some form of plastic sleeve around the fixing for it to work right. For battens, you need helical fixings, they are quite expensive though, but I found them to have the highest strength of anything out there for AAC. Search Thor Helical.

+1 for nylon plug and coach bolts, they work very well. Just drill your hole slightly smaller (0.5mm) than the plug suggests to get a tight fit. As part of fitting the external wall insulation to our aircrete, I tested about 20 different fixings for various applications in the blocks, and was impressed by the strength of fixing of some of them, so much so that my pull out test involved standing on the block and pull as hard as I physically could, and still couldn't shift the damned thing! But as Nick says, use a plug which is too small for the screw/bolt, and this helps greatly. I used coach bolts and nylon plugs for wall starters off of aircrete, and the drill clicked off with the setting on 25 (almost as high as it will go), so its a very good strong fix.

My vote is for Marmox boards, they also provide a little insulation, but work very well as tile backerboards for both floors and walls, and are impervious to water and also have a high resistance to water vapour permeability. They come in a variety of thicknesses, and there are other brands too, but basically, its XPS inner, with a cement polymer and fibreglass coating on either side. The cement backer boards, such as no more ply are horrible things, really heavy, hard to cut too (you'll go through plenty of blades for both circ saw and jigsaw).

Wow, you must have one large property!

If you don't want to put more plasterboard up, why not just put a piece of wood (or similar) on the lower part, just before the step, and simply paint it. This is obviously only OK if you don't mind the step being visible, if you want it seamless, you will have to overboard... or take the entire ceiling down in the old bit.

I used flexible brick slips (available via ewistore.co.uk), made by elastolith. These are DIY, and very easy to do yourself, just a little time consuming, but they look great when done. We even managed to get a good match. Building on left hand side is existing house, centre is the brick slipped one, and right hand side is a utility with real brick. You could also consider brick effect render, which is pretty impressive these days. There is a growing number of contractors doing this, but expect to pay in the region of £50-£90 per m2, its not cheap. We had a rough quote from this firm: https://www.decopierre.co.uk/ They can do pretty much anything!

I ended up with a continuous extract fan (dMEV) venting out via a roof tile, not what i was after, but it does the job, and it only cost me £30!

Yeah, this is a grit sanding board, very coarse indeed. I bought it to sand down the joints of the aircrete blocks as we used thin joint method, so its probably about the same as you say. To be fair its done a good job, i'd say we have around 30% exposed now, and any bits I've missed i'll pay close attention to individually. Hard to see how much i've done because the bloody adhesive for the thin joint is white and the paint is cream! lol