vcps2021

Hello, I'd be very grateful if someone can help with this..... I will have a piece of stud wall that forms a shower cubicle and separates the shower from a cupboard. How do I find out what the kg/m2 of that piece of stud wall will be? It will be: - 2360mm tall, 700mm wide and about 82.5mm deep - the depth includes 12.5mm plasterboard on the two sides (moisture board on one and regular on the other) - it will probably have some plasterboard on the 82.5mm side too - I saw the mass (stated kg/m2) for the moisture board was 9 - it may be ceramic tiled (8mm thickness) on the shower interior and the 82.5mm width too I'd be very grateful if someone could help explain how this can be worked out... Thanks!

Thanks for everyone's input - it's very much appreciated......... George - yep, it's specifically about a pocket door

Thanks for your reply - I understand that as a concept with the bags of flour example but when translating that to the real world situation where the pocket door is measured in kg and it's not spread over a metre square, I don't know how I use that information to find a suitable door....

Hello, A structural engineer I am working with goes between using kg and kg/m2 and I wondered if anyone could help me understand the difference and whether they are equivalents. In one location he says it's fine to use a pocket door of up to 60kg (so far so good) but in an other location he says it's not ok to use 60kg per m2 unless the floor is opened up to check joists. Is 60 kg per m2 like saying a door that weighs 60kg? Thanks for any help you can give - he doesn't seem too keen to answer this question - I guess he is more used to dealing with architects than homeowners but still.... Thanks!

Thanks ToughButterCup, but knowing the regs is useful to me especially to know for sure that FD60s are not required as I put in FD30s

Thanks for your reply - from what I have read for my situation I don't need any internal fire doors - that surprises me and just wondered if anyone knew for sure..... At this point, I'm tending to agree that FD30 would be the nice to have even if they are not required.

Hello - I am trying to figure out whether the internal doors I intend to replace, need to be fire doors and if so 30 or 60 etc......I'd really appreciate any input from someone more familiar with this. I found this site and chose the first document (Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings, 2019 edition incorporating 2020 and 2022 amendments): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-approved-document-b#full-publication-update-history If I have read it correctly it doesn't mention (on page 21) that my first floor and top floor flat (finished floor is less than 4.5m above ground level) needs any. It mentions that all habitable rooms (ie not bathroom) and excluding kitchen should open directly to a hall leading to a final exit, which they do. I'm a bit surprised and was really hoping someone with some experience of this might confirm or let me know what I should be doing. I might still get some even if I don't need them but would prefer to know what I have to do so I can decide how much extra I will do.... Thanks!

Great - thanks for your help!

Thanks for your replies - probably should have mentioned it's an all electric flat so there's a possibility the induction hob and instant hot water system will also be on at the same time. Not sure if that makes any difference or really what level is considered to be enough to make it necessary or worth having a spur. One builder mentioned it was regs to have them but another was okay to follow the manufacturers guidance. I'm guessing it's very much harder to add later than do when I'm having a lot of other work done? Thanks again!

Hello, I hope this is the right sub forum and appreciate any help you can offer. I am going to buy Rointe electric heaters (1 each of 1600w, 990w, 770w, 450w and 330w) for my small flat and all the builders have said I'll need spurs for that setup. Rointe say they don't require spurs and although you can hard wire you don't have to. For this level of power usage in a flat that's about 25 years old, do you think it's necessary or even a "nice to have". They may look neater wired in but if they ever fail or just need moving it needs an electrician to remove and reinstall. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Thanks!

Or they have bought carbon offsets from companies like Tesla. Customer choice has little effect on RE generation capacity. Legislation is what is driving this. I need to read up on this more but seems like Octopus energy are one of the better companies - hope I'm right there.... Do you know of such an instantaneous heater? I'm googling but not sure I'm using the right search to be honest... Thanks!

Thanks for all replies. @Nickfromwales - is this the one you got? https://www.elementshop.co.uk/stiebel-eltron-dhe-27-204285-set-three-phase-touch-instantaneous-water-heater-4i-technology#reviewsTab This is all new tech to me and I have no idea what the difference really is and what the 3 phases mean. It sounds good and I'm open to this one if it'll better suit my needs, although I live alone so rarely will run into the shower and tap running at the same time issue. @Carrerahill - more than happy to hear the flaws in my thinking.....at least before I take the plunge! I realise there are not 2 separate grids for green elec and coal/gas powered elec but by choosing a renewable plan, the electricity is purchased from a renewable source and put into the grid, thereby increasing the amount of green electricity in the grid overall - I think that's a good thing. @Iceverge - thanks for this - I'll go through the gas bill next

I'm typically in front of my computer by 8, till 6 with all the toaster/kettle/lighting/fridge stuff mentioned by Mr Punter. Probably the quote for nearly 4k is a bit of a one off as I'd planned to put the flue through the roof this time to make positioning the boiler higher up more simple. It would be 24w. Does anyone have any experience with devices like this?: https://www.stiebel-eltron.co.uk/en/products-solutions/dhw/instantaneous_waterheater/compact_instantaneouswaterheater/dce-x_premium/dce-x_10_12_premium.html It looks like such an easy solution for 2 sinks + 1 shower and if it has reasonable performance and lasts then I think it might work well for me.... For me it's not just about the running cost but balancing that with doing a greener option and still living comfortably, Thanks!

Sorry for confusion, yes ProDave, I meant freeholder.

Thanks for all the replies - I more or less decided against economy 7 (and therefore storage heaters) as I'm working from home more now and use electricity through the day too - that's a shame as I think it would be a good solution. Yes, the electrics needing to be upgraded is something I haven't costed yet or thought about what the landlords attitude will be. I'd likely be better off financially with another gas boiler but not by a huge amount when you factor in maintenance, large upfront cost and inherent inefficiency of a GCH system. I'm interested in the green perspective at least as much as the financial....

Hello, I live alone in a 45sqm flat that's about 25 years old and doesn't seem to take a great deal to heat using gas central heating. The boiler is old and dying - I need to decide what to replace it with pretty quickly and given low usage and environmental concerns, I'm seriously considering all electric, knowing it will cost some more to run, but also has some benefits. I hoped to hear other people's thoughts before I take the plunge.... So basically I've ruled out an air source heat pump (even with the proposed £5000 grant) as I live in a flat and the people in charge of deciding how we alter our properties are conservative and slow to say the least. This decision needs to happen in days and weeks rather than months (years!). What I am thinking of doing is getting an instantaneous water heater for the 2 sinks and shower (again, low usage) such as: https://www.stiebel-eltron.co.uk/en/products-solutions/dhw/instantaneous_waterheater/compact_instantaneouswaterheater/dce-x_premium/dce-x_10_12_premium.html For heating, I'm planning on electric radiators or infrared panels, ie https://rointe.com/uk/d-series-wifi-radiators/ or https://www.herschel-infrared.co.uk/ My thought process is that although gas is significantly cheaper to run, it's more expensive upfront and takes more yearly maintenance. When your boiler dies it's 4k in one pop but hopefully the electric radiators will have some decent longevity(?) and hopefully can be replaced in a staggered fashion. The higher unit cost is slightly offset by higher efficiency versus GCH and more chance to do zoning out the box. I'm also hopeful (delusional) that our dear leaders will subsidise renewable electricity to make this kind of decision easier to make. As my electricity is from renewable sources, it should be a pretty green setup. If anyone can see holes in my logic, has some opinions on this or knows any grants available for ditching gas, I'd be happy to hear. There's a lot of research for me to do here but experience of others is more valuable than research alone. Thanks!

Hi Gus - thanks for your detailed post. Just one quick question to clarify....when you said: Did you mean, I can have 10 to 15 kg of stuff per square metre? I'm pretty sure that's what you meant but I don't wish to be guilty of "hearing what I want to hear"! A SE did visit the property for another purpose and happened to mention the loft was rated to 25kg/sqm in passing. From what I have read and understood since, I found that 18mm chipboard weighed 11.7 - 12.4 kg/sqm and thought having 10kg of stuff per square metre ie 400kg (well spread) would be sufficiently cautious. From what you've said, I think we're on the same page? Thanks again!

That's good to hear - would like to put more up but realistically should't be anywhere close to 1000kg! I pulled up some of the insulation in an unboarded section so you can see how that looks..... here the strip of wood towards the bottom of the image (under the white wire) corresponds with some wall here are some of the trusses with info on them... Thanks again for taking a look!

Hello and thanks for your answers.... I have 140kg of stuff spread over about 5 positions. My flat is meant to be 45sqm so the loft is roughly the same, It's more long and thin with the longest dimension of the flat being 11.5 metres and varying widths. The actual beams are boarded over and insulated - I recall seeing some writing on the trusses but it was more about the plot number the truss was intended for - I'll take another look to see if there are further clues.

Hello, I'm not sure if anyone can help me with this... I have moved into a 20 year old property with a decent sized loft space that's already been boarded with chipboard (and insulated) and I'm trying to find out what weight the floor can take per square metre? The joists are 60cm apart on centre and are 4.5cm wide by 9.5 cm high. I'm not planning to push it close to the maximum and I'll spread it out as much as possible - just wanted to get an idea of it's rating so I can feel reassured that I'm pretty far away from it. Thanks for reading!

Thanks for the posts everyone!

Hello everyone - hope I'm in the right place......I'd be really grateful for any advice offered! I am renovating my flat and will lay a laminate or engineered wood floor throughout. It's a timber framed building and I believe the subfloor is timber (possibly plywood or chipboard). I wanted to improve the sound proofing as much as possible within a limited budget and have seen various products like ProSound™ SoundMat™ 2 Plus which combine a spongy layer with a mass vinyl layer. This product in particular suggests that you check the compatibility with a structural engineer as it's 8kg/m2. I understand that domestic floors are designed for 150kg per m2 live load plus self weight (usually 60kg/m2) so at 8kg/m2 sound proofing uses up about 5% live load allowance. I'm not really sure what to do with this information and I hoped someone could help me understand and put it into context. Is it fine to go ahead and use up this amount of my live load allowance? I'm sure most people put huge sofas in their flats without a second thought. The structural engineer who worked on an earlier part of the project would charge a fairly large amount to investigate thoroughly and it seems like it would require us to tear up the subfloor to expose the joints in every room! Any comments or thoughts gratefully received - thanks for reading.