j_s

Yes you will get air ingress through the conduit. I used 25mm conduit for various cables from bedrooms and lounge through loft and used rubber stoppas by pro clima both ends and I still had condensation build up at the top of the conduit in the loft so moist air from the house was still getting through. I ended up following advice on here from jsharris to use amalgamated tape

We used matt endurance paint on the latest renovated rooms skirting (made out of tulip/poplar) Before the endurance we used a paint made by ecopaints (now called something else) and it has a sheen to it even though it's a matt paint, washable too. Dustier looking but I hate painting on anything else other than your typical wall/ceiling paint

Keep it simple? Oak handrail and posts with glass infills ?

https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/29/the-morning-after-sony-wearable-air-con/ How about personal cooling?

As in which part of the room first?

Had the electrician , builder and carpet fitter in today, all miserable from the heat. I spared the electrician from having to go in the loft to run a new cable from mvhr to kitchen this afternoon, I did it instead and **** was it hot up there. Outside temp was 36 , just north of Nottingham. loft I have no idea bit I was suffering within seconds of going up there. 29.5 in north facing bedroom, no Idea in the south facing bedroom, builder had to drown the thermalite blocks when doing some repairs in this room. His current site he is having to wet even the fibolites to stop them from drawing too much water out of the mortar too quickly and doesn't normally have to do that. In the hall and lounge it's 26.5 but windows have been open all day , I tried to tell my very heavily pregnant other half ( 2 weeks to go ) but I'm not going to argue with her.

Qlon seals that can be fitted to timber doors? I think you cut a channel in to the door for the seal to attach to the door. The seal has a foam inner and waterproof outer. The foam then compresses to the shape of the gap. You can get various thicknesses.

I thought it was to do with radon/gas most of the time. It is the reason building control stated for our extension where we were blocking up 2 vents for our block/beam floor on the main house and had to route a deeper duct under our solid extension floor to join the original vents. Luckily we could go down quite deep so it didn't cause issues with the extension slab.

We ended up using a multitool with a brick cutter blade to grind away the cill from the inside and now the window doesn't sit on the cill any longer. I have now foamed the gaps and we will be adding the cavity closers in the next week and then I'll foam any further gaps and then tape.

Hi guys, taken out all plasterboard of the final room in my house and found that although some plastic Packers are used they are 1mm thick and only packed on the edges of the frame. The stone sill is reconstituted and there are 2 of them butted to each other. Towards the middle they probably rise very slightly and now the inside of the window frame is touching the sill and a very serious cold bridge. No wonder when I had no mvhr there was so much condensation in the centre of the window at the bottom! 3 potential ways to solve 1. New window and sized better, can get new cavity closers in easily if so and foam the gap along with tape to seal completely. 2. Refit the window but not sure if I can move it up much at all. 3. Grind a few mm away on the inside of the sill under the window very carefully with a brick blade on the multitool ,can then get cavity closer in and foam and tape, risky though. Window is 2.3m wide by 1.2m high, aluminium so gets very cold in the winter due to the cold bridge Any thoughts guys? Thanks James

Hi guys Any advice for a lounge that will have home cinema equipment in it. All back to block work. Will be running speaker cable up and over ceiling. Recommended speaker face plates? Should I use sound block plasterboard on ceiling and internal walls (baby on the way and he's due in August). Due to original idiot house builders, joists aren't level enough so will already be losing ceiling height so I can't double up plasterboard. Thanks James

We cut them so when the ceiling was plastered it was flush with the plenum. Valves are tight on the plenum so it seems ok how we've done it

Little update, mist coats went on 2 weeks ago. All dried nicely

We grouted and tiled a little bit of our utility room ourselves, had never done either ever before. Tiles were pretty ok ( not perfect) but the grout was spot on. No issues 6 years later, looks exactly the same. We just mixed it up and did it without putting too much thought into it

Agree, but had hoped if the air rate was low enough it wouldn't cause issues with the plaster

Hi Mike that was my worry but what I've read elsewhere is that as it's room temp anyway it won't cause the issues a dehumidifier or big heaters would. All it will serve is to push the excess moisture in the room to an extract point. I could just turn the mvhr to low mode after the plastering is done so it's as gentle as possible. I'll switch it off when it's being done and then add the protective covers and then give it a day or 2 max Thanks all

I've finally sorted out my loft insulation and switched on my mvhr today, still to balance etc but it's been a long journey so will look at that another day. We have the plasterer in to do 2 rooms a week tomorrow, one a bedroom, the other the dining room. Can/should I leave the mvhr on during and after the plastering. I have read but not found the forum post (old site, gbf or here) that it will help to dry it out quicker and help with the excessive moisture especially now it's winter. Thanks all

Ok thanks guys, much appreciated

Yep will do. It might be hard to wrap the cables individually first , will see what I can do. Do you think once sealed and the conduit is buried I should hopefully be ok?

Sorry I should have actually asked the direct question. I suppose the question is, can I seal from the loft side as per Jeremy's reply or could that still cause issues even if conduit is buried within the loft insulation, or alternative is how to stop the warm moist air getting there in the first place. I'm not so sure I can stop it from getting there now. Jeremy , you say self amalgamating tape, could you please give me an example? I use and have pro clima tescon, could I use that? Edit, I understand what tape you mean now Jeremy. There is a cheap one at Screwfix (£2.50 made by Diall) or everbuild do a silicon based tape which is £11 Any advice as to which to go for? Many thanks James

Hi guys, I've got some 40mm conduit that carries aerial and cat 5 cables from one bedroom (office) up to loft and then the cat5 continues down into another bedroom stud wall and down to the lounge via another 40mm conduit. Conduit does not connect between the 2 points. I use pro clima stoppas to seal end of conduit and the cables go through the stoppas and it's meant to seal it. Issue I have as the stoppa on the office end in the loft isn't sealing around the cables very well and warm moist air is coming up the conduit and then some condensation is forming near the end of the conduit. I've put some expanding foam in the conduit ( allowing a gap for the stoppa still) last night but it's not completely sealing it still. If I tape up the end will this stop the condensation as long as it's buried under at least 200mm of dense wool (I'm using dri therm 32). I can't get to the other end of the conduit now as it's within a just recently redone stud wall but I am taping up and foaming any gaps in the sockets and will seal the stud wall under it too with tape and whatever I can find. The bottom of the stud wall is open for the mvhr ducting to get down to the lounge and dining room so I'll have to find something to seal that as it is a large air path to the open end of the 40mm conduit Thanks James

A further update. Not as great as previously thought. A lot more to do since the colder weather is here. Major issue last night! 40mm conduit from lounge to loft and office to loft full of condensation where it hits the cold space. I hadn't sealed the lounge conduit with the pro clima stoppas, and I had removed the stoppa from the office one ready to drop some cat5. The warm moist air of the house therefore drawn up the conduit to the vented loft space. Lesson learned , oops. Have also insulated the top of the conduit for now so will check tonight and through the week to make sure there isn't any more condensation

Battens would give more control to make sure everything is sealed behind before the plasterboard goes on and gives you the service void you want as well as less risk (not 0) to insulation when it comes to picture hooks and other fixings to the plasterboard. You could even do the insulating your self then and make sure it's all done correctly

Agree with Dave, I found this a major issue with my 10 year old house. But as long as you have made sure your inner block is parged/sealed and sealed all joins above in the loft then dot and dab is fine. 3/4 of my 1st floor rooms are now fixed with 1 bedroom to go. It's crazy how a few small holes affect the house. I don't always find it blowing a gale outside affects the house, the air pressure makes more of a difference in terms of push/pulling the air in and out. The current builder I used got a score of less than 3 on 2 semi detached houses without even trying to seal it all up ( just his normal attention to detail) and it caused issues with building control and forced ventilation, I'm not actually sure how they got round that in the end

A little update Taped the window to lintel but had trouble with the tape sticking to 1 section. Got the orcon adhesive out which solved it. I then used sikaflex on a different part of the lintel where the metal joins the inner and outer part to seal it up. I think it feels a lot better now but it has been warmer this weekend. Still more work to be done to this room but builder and joiner are in this week to overboard the ceiling and redo part of one of the stud walls with new sound insulation, 40mm conduit for aerial, satellite and cat 5 cables , 12mm ply and then plasterboard. Original ceiling will be sealed to ply with blowerproof, then overboard, any gap then foamed. I also tape above in the loft over the stud wall top plate. The new insulation in other areas of the loft is already cooling the loft right down so very much paying attention to finding any tiny holes, cracks etc as I don't want any condensation up there! The roof is vented on all 4 sides as well as having breathable roof felt but obviously on much colder days and still days there is still a danger.