saveasteading

Ours is being installed by the electrician, but it seems to be so standard now that it isn't expensive. From memory about £50 plus the fitting.

If there was an emoji for ' silly me' I would use it now. Yes of course.

It's compulsory in Scottish regs. That's not the way I've seen it promoted for 15 years, but I think you are right.

OK. If by chance the ph3 clicks in to the head and stays there, no problem. More likely you are going to have to support it until it starts to cut. Steel workers have very hard skin from holding the thread while it turns. You might need to find another way....something to hold the screw ( a ring spanner?), or a dab of glue on the head. Or you could make a pilot hole or indent to engage the point.

I have experimented with ventilation, with client consent. School classrooms are said to need ventilation at a dustbin quantity per second, or kids sleep. I think any school built to that soon has it turned down or off. I've designed and built about 30 classrooms in 5 schools. All have windows, some have high ceilings, none have any forced ventilation. No problems reported or noticed in my return visits. That sounds risky but they were designed to allow retrofit at the same cost, if necessary. So I am bemused at the specified quantity of forced ventilation. Why do mine work? I can only suggest high ceilings, and multiple door opening allows enough air movement. Then they are empty for 18 hours. Hence I suspect over-design is general. Likewise sports halls. The worst I have experienced had complex and extensive ventilation systems, as designed by m and e consultants, and the hall stank. That musty smell is mostly a lack of oxygen i think. Our halls had fans at one end and louvres at the other, but mostly self ventilate because of wind suction and pressure differences at 30m distance. Fans used when necessary but that is seldom. Done 25 of them so it isn't luck. (BTW that means 25 schools have saved £50,000 or more each for books and pencils) Again i think that the industry that designs and makes the stuff are overspecifying. Does this logic apply to new houses? I think so, and will soon find out.

We have chosen not to fit mvhr as the cost would have been about £10k. If the building is as efficient to heat as planned, then we think that cost would never be recovered. We have some areas of high ceiling, which helps air quality a lot. We think that everyday movement will shift enough air for health and comfort. But we will find out!

Any normal hand drill will do it. Having variable speeds will help find the optimum. It is entirely rotary so sds is wrong and the machine unnecessarily heavy. Goggles. What head type?

By not running a motor, and not expending energy on the manufacture of the plant and pipes. A large proportion of the population can't understand radiator valves, and turn them on full then open windows. No chance of understanding MHVR. I didn't understand it til recently. Some systems clearly had short circuits in them, and reps couldn't explain how they worked in principle. I get it now, but note that many rooms will be ventilated (and lose heat) whether needed or not. In the SteamyTea setup it will be understood and made to work. As for payback time in cash and carbon, I am not convinced.

You soon will though, in other buildings, because you will have become a wall nerd.

Trickle vents, opening windows. All a bit low tech but easy. There are various conduits too. Fan outlets in kitchen and wcs, grilles near fires, wbs flue provides stack ventilation.

But if it rains, the surface could be ruined. A temporary and wateright infill is a high cost solution for 8 hours use. A robust tarpaulin, fixed tight at the top, is probably the optimum.

Airtight first, then ventilation. That allows control rather than random draughts.

If you know where the toilet fittings are going exactly, then you can board inset between studs to get solid fixings. That needs only offcuts ov osb or any timber. Kitchen doesn't need strengthening but you can do the same at wall cuboard hangers for security. Elsewhere doesn't need it. For acoustics, in normal domestic situations it is normal to just put insulation in between rooms where you think a bit of quiet is preferable. Up to you to improve it if you want, but not osb. There you are. No osb required, or a few offcuts.

Good point but how to do so and keep the link for interested parties?

If you want to go round tapping on them, then maybe. For that though, plasterboard is cheaper as you say, but also denser for acoustics. Remember that acoustics is density, from plasterboard; absorption from insulation; and isolation from double stud or resilient bar; plus careful jointing at the perimeter. After which noise still goes through the floor and ceiling.

But I do. Does the answer become yes?

Good work. I would have guessed it went much further but that is the point of challenging and checking isn't it. I make it 3 x that by mental arithmetic, so if the rest is about right, 2% of the new houses. Rather than bury, that has to be worth while. I checked out the possibility of buying local fleeces but the cleaning is the problem. fleeces are messy and tangled and dense. But that is where organised technology should come in. Using green energy and no caustic solutions of course.

No. Most of it will be redundant. yes for toilets and perhaps yes for kitchens as it will support whatever you hang from it. Otherwise I have only specified it in certain school corridors because we know plasterboard will get kicked in.

Isn't glass technically liquid?

For the record. Size of hole and thickness of steel, and how long to cut including setting up?

Yes, i bought 2 sizes some years ago, thinking they were briliant. But they are unused because they would have remained visible in every case so far. For use in a plant room or cupboard perhaps.

You should have drilled another hole above first, to hook the safety line. There are goggles that fit over specs. Worth looking for. I think mind came off some official "look at our project" site visit. But where are they?

I'd say pragmatic rather than downbeat. Midnight with a glass of wine brings out the inner feelings. The wallet thing is key. Most people will buy what they want, if it is cheap enough, and it will be from China. If wool insulation was the same cost as glass insulation then we woild use it as standard. Farmers lose money each fleece so they are very very cheap. A reborn wool marketing board could turn this around. If nothing burnable was buried or exported, but used for power then clay bricks could replace concrete and eps. And 100% recycling plastic into whatever. Subsidised house improvements will quickly repay the investment. And so on. Put Gus in charge and i will help, and it could all be sorted....BUT would the government allow big oil and other cosy relationships to suffer? Most of all perhaps, who in govermnent would understand anything slightly technical...a different mindset.

You are right of course. This is what they do and they know their costs. They also appear to know that they can put up their prices and still get the work. I was meaning pricing a project generally, esp not knowing who will build it. If all contractors quoted the same price then we wouldn't need to get more than one quote. The industry seems to think that large scale housing projects will slow down dramatically in May/ June as housing developers complete projects but don't start much new. Whether that capacity will feed through quickly to reduced cost nobody knows.

I agree with Radian. We once had multiple toilet cubicles to be fitted by the manufacturer, and they were clearly wary of the wall fixing efficacy. You would think they would have a preferred solution. After research we supplied these expanding fixings with rivet gun. It worked really well. Fitted impressed and no follow-up issues after years in a school. Without the gun these fixings are a pain.