Kelvin

My wife is a keen cold water swimmer and only wears a bathing costume all year round. The Loch waters are very cold. My theory is it’s the reason the sea water temperature is rising, all the women of a certain age going for a dook.

The other day my wife asked what we’d do for showers if our system stopped working for some reason. I pointed to the newly plumbed in dog bath and electric shower. Has a handy shelf for sitting on and a door and step to get in. 😂

That’s normal though in my experience. Once you apply the final top coat with a harder paint it’s fine. I have always wiped the plaster with a damp sponge to remove any dust.

Like I said in another thread you don’t need anything special as a mist coat. I used relatively inexpensive Valspar Express Coat that I got half price from Travis Perkins. It has the advantage of not requiring mixing (in fact it specifically says not to) I used a roller rather than spray gun.

I paid £11 per linear meter in the end. I used a lot less than specified (approved by HH, their SE, and the BCO) despite that I still over ordered and have box leftover to sell.

Interesting discussion! Ours is a timber clad Heb Home. The nearest house to us is over 20m away and the boundary to the road is 7m. Most Heb houses are built rurally generally with nothing much nearby by them so the boundary issue is likely rarely a problem for them. We had very little discussion/guidance with Heb about keeping the building safe during construction. It’s covered a bit in the CDM (fire fighting, protection/fire containment during construction , and water supply) all highlighted red on the risk log. We didn’t have a water supply for nearly the whole construction although we had running water in the burn and a bowser on-site neither of which would have been much use. I was paranoid about fire so swept up every day sometimes twice a day. Kept most materials in the garage and only put what was needed for the next day or two into the house. Didn’t allow batteries to be charged overnight in the house they had to be in the garage. Had several fire extinguishers around the place. No smoking in the house (didn’t stop the trades from smoking when I wasn’t around as evidenced by fag ends on the floor) No unnecessary metal cutting etc However I didn’t see much evidence from most of the trades on fire awareness. As for the design, Heb had intumescent cavity barrier everywhere. Thousands of pounds of it. I had a long discussion with the BCO about it. While he wouldn’t tell me what to do he explained what was needed and acceptable and what wasn’t. Be aware that the stuff is expensive especially if you have to span a larger cavity. One quote was £21/m. All of the habitable rooms downstairs have a full height balcony type tilt and turn window so you can get out from any room. Wood cladding can be treated with a fire retardant. Russwood use a factory impregnation process using a product called Burnblock for example. We didn’t need to do this on the house but the original design of the garage was much like the house so timber clad and we would have had to use it.

Was 2 years ago. Supply and erect. I did the foundation which is also insulated.

For comparison. My detached 65m2 metal insulated garage with electric door and a large double glazed window cost £276/m2 including the foundation.

It’s an odd looking box for sure. Looks like a salt bin but in grey. You could argue at least they are trying a bit of industrial design away from the square white boxes. ASHP are hard to hide. As for location it’s a small looking back area so there weren’t many other options much like every other new build estate house. Unconvinced about the effectiveness of the ‘soakaway’. If that’s ok I over engineered mine! I couldn’t deal with all the external pipework and cables but it will be common given the layout of most typical new build estate houses and he already has the same thing for solar and batteries so obviously resigned to the look. Certainly would have been similar in the one I rented. The one I bought would have been an easier install with minimal external pipework and cabling but it would have some.

I had the same problem getting it off. I’ve used compression fittings in the garage plumbing.

I’ve had one weep like that too. Same rate. I have a few of these crimped elbows but fortunately all in accessible and visible places.

We have an Ioniq 5. I wouldn’t run it outside of a warranty.

Just reading that now. The other observation from your experience is installation location is crucial too which is true for lots of elements of a house build. You need to assume that a thing will fail and, if it does, how to access it after the house is built around it.

Not read all the posts but was thinking about the salt leak when plumbing in my dog shower yesterday. Shouldn’t the unit sit in some sort of containment tray in case it does leak. Chemical storage tanks often have bunds built around them for example.

It’s like a scene from Alien. Good news and well done Sun Amp. However, such a catastrophic failure is either a design flaw or a manufacturing flaw.

It comes in different sizes and is flexible so it might bend round the pipe enough https://www.armacell.com/sites/g/files/vzwtwi156/files/2025/01/09/ArmaFlex Tuffcoat - Product Brochure - en-GB.pdf

The stuff I linked is waterproof and can be installed underground so is robust. Assuming it’s UV stable just fit that. Quickest and easiest way to deal with the problem.

The dearer stuff will last and is wipe clean. No idea about that cheap stuff. Does it say anywhere it’s suitable for exterior use? You could wrap the pipe in something to insulate it then fit a larger diameter plastic pipe over the top although you’d need to figure out how to seal to the wall.

You can get the black nitrile rubber insulation with a white protective cover like this: https://www.pipelagging.com/armaflex-tuffcoat-class-o-1m-white-28mm-19mm-wall-underground-waterproof-pipe-insulation?srsltid=AfmBOorjDZqXxvhA4ncqCTJhwnkkGrjYJS5jkSnYEYYL3YjwWHPgkglh

We have Nordan aluminium clad timber 3G windows. They perform well (checked them with a thermal camera) and look great. The main selling point of the aluminium cladding is the longer warranty (typically) and you can ‘easily’ replace any cladding that gets damaged. While this is true how easy it is depends on which bit gets damaged. If around the glazing unit easy enough. If it’s around the frame then it isn’t. In hindsight I should have gone for 3G timber painted. Also our Nordan front door is a weak link as it’s not sealing properly when shut. I’ve yet to adjust it so hopefully it is just that.

Plastering is less common in Scotland where Ames Taping (tape and fill the joins) is fairly standard on new builds. So you can do either. Plastering takes skill to do well. We chose to plaster and the finish isn’t terrific. You can’t see it in most lights but is obvious when the low sun shines on one of walls in the hallway and guest bedroom. It was bad enough that I changed the lighting scheme in the house away from wall lights as it would have literally shone a light in the slightly poor finish. That said, I now pay attention to plastering in other folks houses and the finish isn’t great anywhere. We visited friends at Christmas who owned the house next door to our previous house built by the same builder. The finish of the plaster and paint was shocking.

One of those 3M pads from Screwfix with different grit size either side. I can’t recall which one specifically but I think it was the finest grit size. I’d try the Gardz sealer for problem surfaces before trying to sand it back.

I wouldn’t use those 3M sticky strips to hang pictures regardless of how good the wall was. I let the plastered walls dry for at least two weeks and used a moisture meter to check. I I also rubbed the walls down then washed with a damp sponge. I used relatively cheap Velspar coverall paint designed for fresh plaster. Doesn’t need watered down. I did two coats of this leaving at least 24 hours between the coats and then a finishing coat with a harder wearing paint appropriate for the room. All fine apart from the bottom third of one wall where the first coat was lifting off with the application of the second coat. I used Zinsser Gardz sealer primer which did the trick.

Congratulations it’s a great feeling. I too was at our plot pulling out gorse when I got the call.

Congratulations