ProDave

In a previous employment, we imported a lot of stuff from Brazil. What lovely packing crated that came in. For a while it was all just burned on site on a bonfire every week, and employees could help themselves. I still have my trailer planked in that lovely hardwood, and a lot of the stu walls of the extension in a previous house were made of the frames of the packing crates. Sadly this scrap wood became "registered waste" and it was no longer allowed to burn it, or even give it away, and they had to start paying a contractor with an appropriate waste licence to remove it and dispose of it.

My thoughts on the Thermals store Vs Unvented hot water tank. An unvented tank heated to 45 degrees, will deliver hot water at pretty much 45 degrees until the tank is empty, when it will go cold very quickly. A thermal store heated to 45 degrees will initially deliver water at 45 degrees but the delivered water temperature will start to fall off unless heat input can keep up with the rate of delivery. So for practical purposes, to achieve the same useful hot water delivery, a thermal store needs to run at a hotter temperature than an unvented cylinder. I did an experiment recently, I ran a kitchen sink full of water that was as hot as I could tolerate. It was on the verge of burning to keep your hands in it for more than a few seconds. I then measured the water temperature, and it was 45 degrees. So that indicates 45 degrees is plenty hot enough for dishwashing, hand washing etc (mixed with cold water) About the only "need" for water hotter than 45 degrees might be for thermal mixing showers. That is only because to achieve say a 40 degree operating temperature, they might not be abler to blend so far towards hot and maintain stability, so it may be necessary to have hot water for a shower hotter than 45 degrees, just so the mixer can blend it back down properly. That will only be found by experiment and is likely to vary from one shower mixer to another. Therefore my plan is deliver raw 45 degree tank water to all sinks and basins, and just have the in line boost heater for showers, if it proves necessary. Some experimenting will be needed. An obvious disadvantage of storing hot water at a lower temperature is there is less energy stored in the tank. So you will probably want a larger tank than would ordinarily be recommended for the usage. Re unvented tanks and sign off. I installed the last one myself. Building control were happy with that though they did check the discharge arrangements. There is also a guidance note from nhbc that explains how to use a waterless trap to take the discharge into a drain stack to avoid a vent pipe to the outside. that is what I will be doing, and referring building control to that document if the disagree. then arguing it up the chain if they still disagree. I have attached the nhbc waterless trap discharge note. NHBC_discharge_guidance.pdf

It might be a "time of year" thing. Every year is exactly the same for me, November and December goes completely mental, always my busiest time of year. Everyone's project MUST be finished by Christmas (and for me that's two new builds at the moment) All building trades I meet at this time of year are also running around like headless chickens. Come January, all will be calm, and tumbleweed will be blowing across the roads. You might have better luck then. I would always say stick with builders who have been recommended word of mouth.

Tiles?

I have only just read this thread. My immediate question is why use a "packaged" solution for a pocket door? all i have ever done (and seen done) is to hang a standard door on a sliding mechanism, and the joiner to construct the "pocket" for it so slide into. With Worldwidewebs question about a light switch, the answer is no problem. I just did one like this where there was a socket within the pocket area. The joiner framed the pocket in 2" by 2" timber each side of the door. So the "challenge" is to get a socket, or switch, within that 2". No problem at all with a standard 25mm switch box, and the wiring within the pocket area enclosed in pvc conduit so it can't stray and get tangled with the door.

Priority to DHW could just be achieved with the programmer, turn on the DHW 1 hour before the heating. Turn the boiler pump up to 3, and the manifold pumps down to 1 to try and ballance the system a bit. How is the boiler cycling? If everything really is running tepid, it sounds like the boiler cannot cope with the demand? in which case it will be burning continuously rather than cycling on and off to maintain it's flow temperature. Could it be the boiler is too small for the size of house and area it is heating? Also, what is the floor make up? how much and what type of insulation under the UFH? For that matter how well insulated is the house? near to passive house standard or just scraped through the minimum requirements of building regs? And where are you? what is your climate like?

My only observation is there are no holes in that steel beam. It's to late for you, but anyone reading should take note. you really want 3 or 4 good sized (100mm?) holes in every beam. Otherwise when your electrician and plumber comes to first fix the wiring and plumbing, some pipes and cables are going to have to take a very much longer route to get past that beam, often going down or up into another wall just to get around it. (the job I am working on at the moment, the steel manufacturer put the holes in, then the builder put them in the wrong way round, so only 1 of the 3 holes is of any use, and it has ended up VERY full) It's nice to see it taking shape. Most people when it's just a slab think "it's way too small" but when you see it with the walls up, you suddenly realise is is quite big after all.

That is exactly what I have, oil boiler, 3 circuits on their own 2 way valves, UFH downstairs, UFH upstairs, and DHW (via 250L unvented tank) I have no problems at all. If the UFH appears to be taking too much demand from the boiler, I would be looking at the UFH manifolds. These have a thermal mixing valve to regulate the UFH temperature, and a lot of the time most of the HW from the boiler is going straight back down the return pipe as it doesn't need much heat to top up the water flowing round the UFH system. Check your UFH is not set to run at a way too high temperature for a start and if you have a thermometer measure the flow and return temperature to each manifold and the UFH flow temperature. Because UFH takes a while to warm up, we have the programmer set to turn on the heating earlier than the DHW. So by the time the DHW turns on, the heating has been on an hour or more, plenty to warm up the system so it's then running at a low demand just to keep it up to temperature.

That merely replaces cheap, (usually) easy to replace mechanical parts, for expensive, probably hard to get electronic parts to go wrong.

I would say when there are no hazards, e.g no scaffold to climb on, no holes in the ground to fall into etc. Mine is not fenced in. Most people keep asking when are we moving in, it looks that complete from the outside.

Hardly any of my power tools have the original flex on them any more. They are always way too short even when new. Who wants a drill where the flex is not even long enough to reach to a standard height ceiling without lifting the extension lead it is plugged into off the ground? So fitting a new, very much longer flex is a standard upgrade I have done to most tools.

Brushes. BRUSHES. Those are serviceable items. Just fit new brushes and it's good for another 5 years.

Well done. now you can ENJOY the build.

All that timber. I could have made another shed......

That is something I have to work out. The builders already fitted mine, 600mm apart, and about 200mm up from the bottom edge and similar down from the ridge. If the ridge ones are to far down for the fixing bolts of the ridge piece to screw into, I will have to move them or add another one.

That lot needs to be put in a junction box. And as it will not be accessible, it has to be a maintenance free type of junction box such as a wago box etc. That's a lighting junction, would previously have been done inside a ceiling rose. No doubt the light fitting below that hole in the ceiling was changed and there is not room inside it for the junctions. Don't let the floor go down until that is sorted, or if they must, make sure they leave a removable trap so it can be sorted later.

You can download any number of free photo editing programs to re size them. But I thought the forum software re sized them when you uploaded them? you don't have much time to get an opinion and possibly get it fixed if the floor goes back down today. Can you delay the re laying of the floor. I am not sure what you mean by "hardwall"? do you mean big chipboard floor panels rather than boards? If so almost impossible to lift to get to the wiring later on.

The point is, few of us know what to specify when ordering glass units. and this example just shows how much variation there can be between units that look alike. In some ways it was easier when choosing the windows for my new house. All the suppliers that quoted, provided the Uw and Ug values for each window. They were not bogged down in detail about what coatings the glass has or what gas is used to fill them, just the overall performance. And as it happens the choice was easy, the second best in terms of Uw values (only second by a tiny margin) was also the cheapest quote so that is what we chose. I guess later on when I start looking for the tripple glazed stained glass unit I just need them to quote the Ug value and then compare different options.

While that cavity is open under the window, is it not a good opportunity to drop some lose fill bead type insulation in there? Keep pouring and pushing it down with a stick until you can get no more in?

Thanks. It turns out it is one of a handful of channels that are on freeview, but stubbornly remain as pay channels on satellite so are not of freesat. And since the only recorder I have is freesat I can't record it. I could watch it live on freeview, but I think I have made my preference about adverts known. Quite why this ludicrous situation persists I don't know. Does anyone who pays a subscription for satellite tv really feel they are getting value for money by paying to watch some channels that are free on other platforms?

Our present house was built by us in 2003. We actually paid a builder to build a wind and watertight shell including windows and doors. At the time I didn't know much about what were good or bad windows, but I always thought what they fitted were pretty basic timber windows with double glazed units. Having said that, we never had any issued with condensation or anything like that. Right at the start very early on, one DG unit cracked. Even with a crack in it, it still worked well. Some time later another one broke, we don't know how. Since we are trying to sell the house, we thought we better get them replaced, so got the local "double glazing" company to fit new glazing units to them both. In the summer. The new units fitted perfectly and look identical to the original ones. BUT now it's getting colder, we noticed if you drained a pan of boiling water down the sink, the new pane mists up with condensation, while the original two don't. A test on a cold day (I didn't measure the outside temperature) with my IR thermometer showed the inside pane of the original units to be showing 16 degrees but the inside pane of the new unit is showing just 14 degrees. Now this might be partly my fault for not specifying anything about the replacement units other than they must fit. But it's certainly a heads up to anyone else to be careful. It also must show our original ones were not that bad after all, probably better than we gave them credit for. It's also a concern as soon we will be looking for someone to make us a tripple glazed unit with a stained glass panel in the middle, and unless this local company can explain why these units were so poor, and genuinely assure us they can do better, they are off the list.

Do you want to post some pictures of the suspect wiring?

If anyone is interested I have been doing some measurements. When i powered it up in "fan speed 1" for my upside down test, I was surprised how noisy it was and how much air it was pushing out. now as a simple guy, I had expected speed 1 to be the slowest. Don't be silly. Speed 1 is the fastest speed. Also the one I have appears only to have 4 speeds available. So power consumption measurements: Speed 4 = 0.2A = 49W Speed 3 = 0.5A = 122W Speed 2 = 1.1A = 269W Speed 1 = 1.7A = 416W Obviously I will be delighted if speed 4 is sufficient for trickle ventilation but I won't know that until very much later on when the house is sealed and it's all ducted up and flow rate measurements done. Another point is according the the manual SW2 should give you the ability to increase or decrease the motor power, but on my unit SW2 is not fitted, though the pcb has the pads and silk screen labeling for it. On speed 4, the slowest, it is whisper quiet.

I have done the "upside down" test this morning first picture shows how it would have to go the "right way up" leaving just enough space to withdraw the filters while crouching down right in the eaves. The second picture is with it "upside down" that will enable me to push it almost tight into the eaves and you will access the filters from the outside edge. It makes no strange noises when upside down, the fans run just as they do the right way up, anf the bypass flap also operates correctly upside down. Next question. How are you all mounting these? the manual seems to major on hanging it frm the ceiling via threaded rod to the 4 lugs. That would be very hard to do in this location. I am thinking of still trying to support it from the 4 lugs but on some kind of anti vibration mount?

Isn't "home" a pay tv channel? No hope of me watching it then.