ProDave

The last wall of my house, the back wall of the garage was finally given it's top coat of render today. This wall had been held up for the garage window which was delayed a bit, then it was a while before I could get help to fit it, then the weather turned. But out of the blue the renderer turned up today saying he "thinks" it will be okay. It looks good and has skinned over nicely. Then I saw the weather forecast which said -6 tonight. So I have covered the back wall with OSB sheets leaning from the scaffold platform and resting on the gutter, and covered around the ends with a dust sheet to try and keep the worst of the frost off it and hope it is still okay in the morning. This is the last bit of wall to be rendered so that is the main part of the house finally properly wind and watertight. well except for the fact there are no doors in the garage yet. More on my blog at http://ardross.altervista.org/Wilowburn/rendering-and-garage-finally-finished/

A bit more done on "the shed" I have dismantled the rest of my pallet collection. These are mostly the pallets that the roof tiles came on. These have yielded much thinner and narrower planks. these have been used to cover the joints in the original shed wall planks, to stop driven rain entering. What this has shown is just how many pallets you need to get any useful amount of wood from. What started looking like a very large pile of pallets in the end was barely enough to complete the shed. Watch out for the next installment. The bearers from the roof tile pallets are set to become the frame for a bench inside the shed.....

My shiny new Rationel triple glazed window are externally glazed.

I think i will agree that it's carp, and I would not have that on the outside of my house.

I think I will put a lead on and power it up. then turn it upside down and see if it makes any funny noises.

If they are fitted properly, you won't get the window out from the outside without breaking it. We had the same at the previous house, Initially I was somewhat disappointed when I saw how the glass was going in, but they assured me the double sided foam tape sticks so well the window would break if your tried to remove it from the outside. That was put to the test. we returned from a holiday once to find the patio door, all the bead was removed and sitting on the deck, but the glass was still stuck firmly in. The Police logged it as "criminal damage" rather than attempted break in.

This needs a picture of a complete box profile roof showing the gable end. To my mind, the barge covers will meet and overlap partly at the roof pitch, and will look unfinished. Some sort of cover is needed to cover the joint, just as with a tiled rood the end ridge tile has an end on it to hang down and cover the joint.

Another question. What happens at the top of a gable end to join the two bargeboard flashings together? I would expect an "end" ridge piece but don't see anything?

When I was in the south, the normal way was lead flashing set into the chimney that was dressed over the top of the tiles. Then under the tiles were soakers, one per tile, to catch anything that the wind blew under the lead. So when the soakers corrode, on a windy day, wind blown rain that got pushed under the gap between the lead and the tile didn't get caught by the soakers, and so ran down the inside of the chimney. Up here the normal way is a lead "sercret gutter" under the tiles. An altogether far superior method.

She's definitely a keeper .

Joining them is not the issue. Waste is. My roof is 3.6 metres long, so a 3M length and a 1M length would do nicely. Having to buy two 3M lengths is just "wrong" I can see me designing my wood shed to be a pitched roof 2M long JUST to use up the offcut.

That's what we have and it works very well. contrary to what everyone says, in a moderately well insulated house, it does not cause condensation and mould.

My pet hate with sinks is those "universal" ones that are neither left nor right handed. You end up with a blank plug at the front of the sink where the tap would go if it were the other way around. I did the wiring for a £14K kitchen a few weeks ago and that is what they fitted. If I had paid £14K for a kitchen (not that I would) I would not accept one of those.

Another issue I had on my 1930's house is they had used zinc soakers and they were corroding and leaking.

Bugger. I just paid a man to ship an mvhr from Lincolnshire to the Highlands. I'll bet he would have included a sink as well for next to nothing extra.

Ah, I hadn't appreciated the Misubishi unit and the Kingspan unit were one and the same. I have offered it up into position and it works out a bit awkward. It is fitting into the loft space above the garage, and to get inside and outside ports the right way round ends up with the filter access being in towards the eaves of the loft space. so I have to leave rom to get behind it, down in the low part of the loft to withdraw the filters. Oh how much more convenient it wold be if the filters were on the other side. Lateral thinking mode. What if I put it "upside down" that would put the filter facing out into the loft and would mean I could put it closer into the eaves. It's only a fan after all, I can't believe that would object to running upside down? Or is that just plan daft?

Does anyone have the full instruction manual for the kingspan units? And a simple question, which air port is which, they are labeled EA, OA, SA etc but none of those make any sense to me except perhaps EA is Exhaust air?

Hacksaw.

Energy saving tip for Tumble Dryer haters: In order to get the required "fluffyness" you do NOT need to run the TD for 2 hours or until they are bone dry. 45 minutes in the dryer is enough. The towels still come out a little damp and finish off drying on the airer naturally at no cost, and when dry pass the "fluffy" test

Just one comment about your drainage run along the back of the house. You appear to have a drain joining into the main run with a tee underground. I was under the impression a branch like that had to be made with an inspection chamber?

I will have to cost the anti condensation lining. In theory it's not needed, but would give the roofing membrane less to do I suppose. I wired one house that had a box profile roof that continued as bare metal beyond the edge of the house to cover a verandah. In cold frosty weather, as it warmed up in the morning it "rained" a lot under there.

I think the OP's question was regarding the fact a vented dryer extracts air from the house, so the mvhr will have to input more air than it is extracting hence it will be unbalanced. I am trying hard to make an air tight house so no letterbox, no cat flap, and definitely not a 110mm round hole in the utility room wall.

Thanks Crofter a lot of information there on that link. The only "issue" I can see with my rof at 3.6 metres wide, is they only sell the ridge pieces in 3 metre lengths.

I have a personal hatred of tumble dryers. Their sole purpose in life appears to be to make towels and socks "fluffy" which you can't achieve (so I am told) by any other drying means. I used to loath them because the thought of 3KW of heat just being expelled from the house through a hole in the wall was just "wrong" in so many ways. Thankfully our old one broke, and at the same time someone up the road was having a clear out and gave us a condensing dryer. Now although it still uses lots of electricity to fluff the towels, at least that heat now stays inside the house (the utility room becomes very warm now when it's on) and so I don't loath it's use quite as much as I used to. So condensing is my recommendation. I have to say the extractor fan in the utility room is the biggest white elephant in our house. It is there purely to satisfy building regs and i don't recall it ever being turned on, and we have never had issues with condensation or mould even with clothes hanging on a dryer in their.

There are a couple of us looking at box profile roofing so I have started this thread to talk about it. My first question is where to buy it from. Direct from a roofing supplier? builders merchant? My own roof on a rough measurement is a pitched roof, about 2.1 metres from ridge to eaves, about 3.6 metres wide on each side. Shallow pitch (I need to actually measure it) This is the first box profile roof I have done. It all looks obvious but here are my questions: I want to buy the sheets the exact length I need so I don't have to cut them. I believe the sheets are a standard width a little under 1 metre. I take it it's okay to "adjust" the length by perhaps a greater overlap on one section rather than to cut sheets. What is the "standard" overlap? 1 box? 2 boxes? or more? I assume the ridge piece has to be ordered to match the pitch of the roof. At the end (verge) it is covered by an L shaped piece. I have a 150mm thick timber verge and I want that completely covered by the L shaped end piece. I have seen these quoted as 150mm or 200mm. I guess I need the 200mm one as it has to cover the thickness of the box profile as well as my timber verge. What is the depth of the box section typically?