ProDave

Many on here including myself will confirm a near passive house building will work perfectly well just with UFH downstairs and a small ASHP. My 5kW ASHP works fine even over here on the east where I am sure it is colder than Ayrshire.

Re mvhr "evening out" temperature. When we light the WBS, we tend to put the MVHR onto the medium boost speed for a couple of hours in an attempt to spread some of the heat around just a little and it does seem to work, it can easily lift the temperature in the non heated rooms a degree or sometimes more in an evening.

I suspect what it will do, is at temperatures close to the dew point, is increase icing up as the recirculated air will be colder, and increase defrosting frequency, and hence reduce efficiency that way. I still favour rotating the unit 90 degrees so the cold air gets blown past your door not across to your neigbour.

FAR more important than size, is the type. We once made a gravel area with 20mm stones, but they were all rounded stones and they just rolled on each other, bad enough to walk on, hopeless te drive on. Whatever you get make sure they are crushed or irregular shaped stone.

This is the you tube vid about guys deliberately boxing in a heat pump and watching the air flow with a smoke candle.

I assume the open door in the picture is yours? Rotate the ASHP 90 degrees so it blows along the passage not across it. It would blow the cold air past your front door not your neighbours. Putting screens in front of them is very bad, on another thread recently someone posted a you tube clip of an experiment to box one in, and it ended up recirculating it's own air and choking itself.

It was at the time Kingspan had a little forray into the market and had re badged the Misubishi Lossnay units. They had abandoned that idea and the Kingspan units were coming up on ebay. I think i paid £400 for the unit and £100 to get it delivered.

How much are CO2 meters now? I remember looking when they first became mandatory (we missed that requirement for ours) and thought HOW MUCH?

My recollection of school classrooms is at change of period when you all march to the next classroom previously occupied by the last lot, the air in the room as you walked in was rank, and all the windows were thrown open to make it breathable. You tend not to notice the stink and lack of oxygen when it is you creating it and it creeps up gradually. Scottish regs now demand a CO2 meter in the master bedroom. If they were not so expensive I would buy one out of curiosity, as a measure of how well the mvhr is actually doing.

I find that a staggering cost. My mvhr unit was about £500 and all the ducting about £1000 all DIY fitted. Even allowing for doubling due to inflation I don't see where £10K comes from.

BUT in Scotland if your air test is better than 3, you MUST fit mvhr. One self builder near me wanted just to use MEV ventilation but was "disappointed" his air test was so good and BC forced him to fit mvhr. It was a pig od a job as much of the plasterboarding was done so he ended up with 2 small mvhr units one upstairs, one downstairs. Far better to plan for good air tightness and mvhr. If you really really don't want it, build in some deliberate leak to give a poor air tightness test, a leak that you can then "correct" after the test has been done.

The only time I have seen a chimney rendered like that (though usually at least smooth!!!!!) is following damage from a chimney fire. Is the foam just a crude attempt at blocking air and possibly smells coming through from stinky neighbours?

We found Sutherlands would transport a static they sold for free, but the distance was less. Completely different matter if you want to buy one privately and just want them to transport it. On our first build when we came to sell the static at the end of the build, the buyer ended up getting someone almost from Aberdeen to transport it as the local people just were not interested. This time I arranged the planning so it does not ever have to leave our site, it remains with PP as a garden outbuilding (not for habitational use) You would not get such a large garden shed for the money.

Normally you would apply for temporary planning for a static 'van with your planning, but I believe crofting law allows 3 caravans on the croft so I doubt you need to bother. GNR Sutherland at Edderton is the local caravan dealer and they always have a selection from posh to basket case. Next time you are passing up / down the A9 turn off at the Dornoch Bridge roundabout for the short detour to take a look.

Hi and welcome. Another Highlander here just north of Inverness. You are in good company. Dare I say if for getting a reputation, but how about selling the house and moving into a static caravan on the croft? WAY better if you can avoid borrowing and the hoops that makes you jump through.

I remember cladding our sun room, a major part of the planning was setting the spacing between boards to work, meaning a different spacing on different walls, a bit like gauging a roof so a whole number of tiles fits the gap. And I wanted to get a common detail around each window so an outer board comes up to the corner. I painted all mine because I don't like the weathered "old wet shed" look. One coat before fitting and one coat after fitting. In this case the windows outer edge was only slightly back from the inner surface of the timber so just a small filler was used around each window and the outer boards overlapping over this filler. Above the windows the bottom edge of the board was cut at an angle to make a natural drip bead at the outer edge.

I assume that central bar is attached to one door and the other door closes against it? So the door it is fixed to just seal the gap with any outside sealant. The door that closes to it, you will have to improvise with some way of extending or giving something for it to close to. Just poor design. What is the fit like from the outside? it is not a case of the frame is too tall?

I am interested in how a roof with a ridge board works without collar ties or a lower level tie? i.e. what stops the roof spreading? Are you sure what you are describing as a ridge board, is not in fact a much heavier ridge beam?

Another for the "feeling brave" When it first turns on and makes it's vibrating noise, while it is making that noise, try spinning the fans NOT with your hand, some form of push rod or stick. If they start running that is a sure sign the start capacitor has failed. (I must get around to changing the cap on my pillar drill that needs a spin.....)

I bet the size you want is missing from all sets. Or blunt.

If you want to be "BBC" about it, they would be "Metal web joists" (Aka Sticky Back Plastic)

I am struggling to relate the 2 pictures. The first is a view presumably looking along the house wall? and then the garden wall, but I can't relate that to the aerial view. In the aerial view, are you left or right house? And what are you trying to do (or stop)? and what is the issue?

+1 to that. I would say All you can do is a galley kitchen units all down the left side and down the right side as far as the door in that side wall. Plinth heaters or move the radiator to the bottom right wall between the 2 doors. Wall space in that small room is too precious to waste with a radiator anywhere else. You will have to choose one corner for a tall unit probably e.g fridge / freezer. The window in the left wall will have to be bridged with units and a worktop, you don't necessarily have to replace the window to do that, a good joiner / kitchen fitter will find a way to marry a worktop to a window that is lower.

With only a segment of drawing, it is not entirely clear which are outside walls? On the face of it, the window is internal between 2 rooms? For such a small room, ditch the radiator. Fit plinth heaters instead. Dimensions might help.

I would be considering filling the cavity while you are at it. Any chance of a DIY pour something into the cavity (genuine question, is is possible, would it work?)