tommyt11

Has anyone managed to find an off the shelf access hatch that can be plastered up to and on top of, that is also of a high standard of airtightness AND has some level of insulation incorporated? I am doing a basement conversion that has service hatches to rest of ground floor underfloor crawl space; house will be fixed up with oodles of insulation and MVHR hence I need something good here. In the absence of finding something off the shelf I will just get a well-gasketed plasterable hatch then inside it fix up a PIR inside a 3x2 carcass that can be screwed or similar to the inner reveal (which will be quite deep). Thanks, Tom

What are others' thoughts on the efficacy of PIR retaining clips. I have anecdotal evidence from someone about them working lose over time thus leading to draughty gap between inner leaf and PIR. My wall build up (just starting) is: 100mm Thermalite, 150 gap with 100 PIR batts, 125 cotswold stone. I will say in advance that I have an excellent blockworker who is a stickler for detailing, knocking snots off, etc. He already beat me to the punch on foil taping all PIR joints (assumed I'd have to nudge on that). I was going to start a convo with him re: sticky foaming the PIR to inner face as they work, as well as the retaining clips on wall ties of course. Overkill? Cheers Tom

Ripped out our old vented copper tank in May and replaced with a 210l Mixergy. Solar diverter from a 7.2kWp PV array. Very impressed with how Mixergy drip feeds from excess solar, its low heat loss, and its HW delivery performance generally. We are gunning for a ASHP install in late spring next year (I have already decommissioned the existing WB 30KW heat only boiler - we won't be living in the house during the renovation over winter). I like Vaillant, but interestingly one of their big selling points is high temp operation, ironically I don't need this feature really - we will be charging the Mixergy via heat exchanger, so a flow of say 60, and the heating system is all low temp UFH and large rads, so not expecting to require a heating flow temp of more than 45. House will be well wrapped up in EWI. Will be using weather comp as well. Will be tracking this thread.

@Olf Most of the new glass is replacement on the unextended part of the house (incl the slider), and on the sunnier aspects. @Conor That's interesting, I will look into aluclad uPVC. I had not considered assuming sight lines would be too chunky and not enough improvement from current bog standard white uPVC casements. FYI front door is not so bad at sub-4k off the bat. It's some of the windows (all fairly standard sizes an opening styles) and other external single doors that cumulatively really inflate the total. The big slider is nearly 8k before VAT and the magic discount.

Hi all, Starting to investigate glazing for our project. There is approx 45m2 of glass, including a 5.5m slider, front door + side panel, one french door, two other back doors part glazed. Spec is aluminum good quality DG with small sightlines. First quote from Ecohaus (Visiline range, which are Qfort under the hood mostly) is nearly 40k incl 5k of fitting, VAT and a ''discount''. Seems faintly ridiculous to me. There is a 900mm fixed pane round window in the mix which came in at 1.8k! So all up that is 866/m2. Gimme a break. Going from other threads, I should be at the worst looking at sub-600/m2? Thoughts? Anyway I haven't replied yet. Others I am starting to engage with are Rawingtons (Reynears), Ideal Combi, and Smart Systems via a local supplier. I fear this is going to be a long process, which is just as well as its still early stages, but I want to manage my expectations of glazing cost early doors, as it will be the single most expensive materials item in the job. Cheers, Tom