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MikeGrahamT21

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Everything posted by MikeGrahamT21

  1. MikeGrahamT21
    I got talking to someone who's mother had one put in, they always did all the readings, and submitted them etc, and they kept a record. He noticed when the smart meter went in, the readings started rising, as did the bills, yet the usage remained the same. He rung the company up, and apparently they dialled in and applied a patch to the unit!!!! I wonder how many more are unpatched!!. Its just unbelievable! I shall be sticking with my old clunky, but accurate, wheel meter!
  2. MikeGrahamT21
    yeah, roughing it up is fairly easy, so im going to do that, just done about 1/3 of wall in 10mins so its worth the effort, plus good exercise! lol
  3. MikeGrahamT21
    Just been and had a look how well bonded the paint is, stuck some airtight tape to the wall and pulled it off, and some of the paint did come off, not sure if that is OK or not. I could rough the surface up with a very coarse sanding board I've got, which should provide enough key, or just put a test spot of adhesive on, and see how easy it is to get off. Ideas?
  4. MikeGrahamT21
    I think i may have found a better solution, which I have actually used before as a tile backer board... Marmox Multiboard (in fact i've still got some of it left!). They're not stupidly expensive, and I'll save me on a few bags of expensive plaster, which can be replaced with cheaper board finish. I never realised you could use it in place of plasterboard, but more importantly it has the insulation layer, which is closed cell, with an Sd value of 3m, perfect for what I want! Thinnest they do now is 4mm (i've emailed Marmox for recommendation), which is suitable for dry lining, and its also ready out the box for a plaster skim according to their website. and I'll use some BAL white star tile adhesive to fix to the painted blocks (unless someone can recommend a better tile adhesive for the situation?).
  5. MikeGrahamT21
    If you want it to look perfect at the new wall thickness, i would imagine you would need new door casings which are wider, a fair bit of money involved and time and effort, but it will then look perfect.
  6. MikeGrahamT21
    Have a read of the link i posted. If you cut it down, the roots grow even quicker, the stump is the access route for herbicide, so don't cut it straight out, make good use of it! Any form of cutting, and it will simply strengthen whats left. So the last thing to do is cut it down, when it is truly dead.
  7. MikeGrahamT21
    Link for the article regarding Triclopyr: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/chemical-kill-ficus-roots-62378.html
  8. MikeGrahamT21
    Whatever you do, plan your attack and go in with intent!
  9. MikeGrahamT21
    I had nightmares after watching that when it was on the TV!
  10. MikeGrahamT21
    Just had a look online for you, apparently Ficus are particularly sensitive to the herbicide triclopyr, which is available in several products in the UK. Also any wood boring you do to inject this stuff, make sure it goes in instantly, as ficus heal rapidly, and wear gloves! Its highly irritant latex which comes out in the white sap.
  11. MikeGrahamT21
    Oh as for your glyphosate worries, as long as it goes in the tree and not on the ground you'll be fine, even if it does go on the ground it will wash away over the months and years ahead.
  12. MikeGrahamT21
    People on the 45p/kwh tariff, this may make sense for, for everyone else, just make a consideration when your inverter goes pop, and get the best one which is reasonable in price at the time.
  13. MikeGrahamT21
    Get some tree stump killer, same as above, drill holes into it, and keep putting it in, eventually it will get the idea and die, but don't expect overnight results. Also if you can peel a bit of the bark away and get some down there too, that will likely speed things up a little. Dig a trench all the way around the tree(s) (if you can, not sure it one side is neighbours), and sever an roots you find, should also give you an idea of where the offshoots may pop up. Then it'll just be a case of digging up the smaller ones as and when they pop up. A digger is likely to be your friend for the trench, there will be a hell of a lot of roots from that set!
  14. MikeGrahamT21
    ahh right, no worries, thanks for the replies :-)
  15. MikeGrahamT21
    OK, thats a good comparison, would imagine the builder will have used it before. Is there anything on the tub of the blowerproof to say what its made of?
  16. MikeGrahamT21
    Yeah I just noticed the advise had changed on the blower proof website, but even on the same page there was conflicting advice, as though they’d only just made the change. Have you ever used blackjack? Long shot I guess, just wondering how the 2 products compare?
  17. MikeGrahamT21
    everbuild just replied, they don't have any values for water vapour resistance or an Sd, so i'd be going in blind, whereas the blowerproof does have a tested value. Surely a DPM product would stop vapour passing though? Blocks have been painted with emulsion, would that be an issue? i would imagine DPM paint will stick. Its not flaking in any way, was an interim measure so we didn't have to look at horrid grey blocks, wish id not bothered but whats done is done.
  18. MikeGrahamT21
    Yeah, everything still OK? I presume they are all quite similar in their make-up?
  19. MikeGrahamT21
    EDIT: or would I be best doing neither, and just plastering the blocks, so at least water vapour can come back in?
  20. MikeGrahamT21
    Hi, Just wondering if anyone has been here before, and done anything like this. My initial plan was to use blowerproof liquid as a whole wall VCL (we have external wall insulation EPS on this part of the house, cavity wall construction with cavity filled), to stop the water vapour passing through, and getting trapped, or semi trapped at least. Its quite expensive, but seemed to do what I needed. Now they seem to have changed their advice, and say it needs a grit coat over the top of it, something like feb bond blue grit, before plastering. Thought i'd look a bit further afield, and found Everbuild BlackJack D.P.M, which is a 2 coat solution, and is suitable for application to walls as a plaster bonding agent, and throw sand on the second coat so its ready for plaster. Only problem with this is there is no vapour permeability values, I've emailed everbuild to see if they know. Obviously the everbuild product is a lot lot cheaper. Any insight would be greatly received. Regards Mike
  21. MikeGrahamT21
    Check IG lintels out too, even their standard lintels have a much lower PSI value than catnic if I remember right, and they're cheaper!
  22. MikeGrahamT21
    love the video they've done for the DryFix! Though as an addition to it, i'd be using a spirit level! Very mixed opinions on the whole foam fix, you can get fire rated versions now, like DryFix which would be best. I remember looking into it for external wall insulation, and everyone said cement based adhesive, though there were plenty of big manufacturers using foam fix, i went with cement in the end.
  23. MikeGrahamT21
    The more airtight the building, the better MVHR will perform without doubt. A few months back I read a university paper from Leeds Met (i think) Uni, which fitted MVHR to a number of properties and Standard Extractors to a number. They gathered information on all before they were fitted, and performed basic airtight measures on the MVHR properties (hardboard on top of floor boards, and mastic wherever possible), bringing the ACH down from around 20 to 11 or 12 ACH (so still quite high), and they performed very well, obviously fixed all of the issues with condensation, but also dramatically lowered CO2 concentrations in the air, and reduced consumption of gas for heating. So it just goes to show, that even in a building which is very leaky, they do still work. Obviously the less leaky, the more savings potential, and after installation, get a smoke pen, and work your way round sealing all the gaps, its a long hard job, and some will be more sealable than others, but you will sure make an improvement. The MVHR properties outperformed the Standard Extractor fan ones by a fair margin in terms of energy costs, and humidity/CO2 reduction.
  24. MikeGrahamT21
    Aluminium in its natural form is extremely hard to ignite, and melts at over 600C, so I'd say its perhaps fire rated as it is. The fire rating would likely come from intumescent (sp?) seals around the door, which you may be able to swap out yourself. If it needs a certificate for BCO though, you would be better going for an off the shelf one with cert.
  25. MikeGrahamT21
    PIR has a double foil face, and its not practical to put supro underneath, i'd probably be able to get it part way, but never with a proper seal, as we don't have a crawl space, theres only 2 bricks worth of room. I had a look on ebay, and managed to get a 75m2 roll of Protect BarriAir for £68, so I'm going to go down the route of VCL on the warm side to protect the timbers best I can (since the reason i'm replacing is because of woodworm infestation which we believe is no longer active, obviously caused by the timbers being too moist, though i think this was more to do with the air bricks being mostly blocked/semi blocked, which now isn't the case), and on top of where the joists are, I'm going to use 50mm butyl tape to seal the penetrations from the screws in the OSB, and be very careful that i'm 100% accurate with my screw placement!
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