The best

[puntloos]

 

1 hour ago, jack said:

 

Is it cheap though? Sure, the pipe isn't expensive and is easy enough to self install, but you can't just bung it on top of chipboard. Whether you go for spreader plates, biscuit mix, whatever, it'll add significantly to the amount of effort and cost required.

 

Either way, I wouldn't characterise your "just in case" approach as being a "for" argument in a genuine debate.

 

All that said, I've been thinking a lot lately about what I'd do differently if I built again. I'd consider having tiled floors upstairs with UFH. I'd cool the bedrooms in summer using PV, and get some rugs made up for winter (and probably wouldn't use the UFH much in cold weather, if at all, based on my current experience).

 

This is indeed probably the point. I don't think heating will be a major issue (if you *really* have to an electric heater it can be pretty modest) - but underfloor cooling might be a reason to do it upstairs?

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, puntloos said:

 

 

This is indeed probably the point. I don't think heating will be a major issue (if you *really* have to an electric heater it can be pretty modest) - but underfloor cooling might be a reason to do it upstairs?

Under floor cooling is not that good and there is a potential condensation issue with wooden floors.  Less so in a concrete slab.

 

To implement cooling properly you are far better off installing fan coil units in the bedrooms.  That is what i intend to do one day, when I have more spare money and can find some at a sensible price.  Of course having installed FCU's in the bedrooms they could also be used for heating.......

[Bitpipe]

9 hours ago, puntloos said:

Can you elaborate why? What's the benefit?

 

A level threshold from inside to outside, no step down to get out or step up to get in. All I have is the few mm 'bump' of the sliding door rail.

 

Looks nice too and meets part P for disabled access should that ever be important in the future.

[Bitpipe]

2 hours ago, Thorfun said:

I would like UFH in the bathrooms and if I use wet UFH then I'll most likely just run the pipework on the rest of the first floor anyway as it's cheap to do so at that point and then if it never gets turned on so be it!

 

Best UFH for bathrooms are the single wire heating mats that are not very expensive at all and can be laid by your tiler and installed by your electrician.

 

I got mine here http://warm-star.co.uk/

 

 

[joe90]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

I got mine here http://warm-star.co.uk/

+1 ?laid it myself no probs.

[PeterW]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Best UFH for bathrooms are the single wire heating mats that are not very expensive at all and can be laid by your tiler and installed by your electrician.

 

I got mine here http://warm-star.co.uk/

 

 

Yep likewise - really helpful and they do a variety of products and thermostats from the cheap and cheerful up to the WiFi enabled ones. Mat is quicker to lay - prime the floor, let it go tacky and then roll out the mat. If you’ve got the height then a quick layer of self levelling over the top and you’ve got a perfectly flat surface to tile over 3 hours later. 

[Pocster]

Best thing in my house is me ?

[stubiff]

10 minutes ago, pocster said:

Best thing in my house is me ?

Unfortunately we can’t replicate that elsewhere!

[Pocster]

14 minutes ago, stubiff said:

Unfortunately we can’t replicate that elsewhere!

Yes uniqueness is a difficult thing to replicate 

[Gav_P]

28 minutes ago, pocster said:

Best thing in my house is me ?

Does not bode well for the house! 

[Pocster]

6 minutes ago, Gav_P said:

Does not bode well for the house! 

You wait until you visit you (expletive deleted)er 

[puntloos]

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

Under floor cooling is not that good and there is a potential condensation issue with wooden floors.  Less so in a concrete slab.

 

Yeah I asked my heating guy about this, said it would be fine given the temperature UFH(coolingmode) can achieve - of course wood less ideal as well.

But overall, assuming the system doesn't have to deal with someone leaving all doors open during a 40C day (..) then UFCooling should suffice?

 

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

To implement cooling properly you are far better off installing fan coil units in the bedrooms.  That is what i intend to do one day, when I have more spare money and can find some at a sensible price.  Of course having installed FCU's in the bedrooms they could also be used for heating.......

 

FCUs still require cold water though right? 

 

Either way I do plan to have some provisions to upgrade from MVHR to MVHR+cooled(airconned) air.. 

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

A level threshold from inside to outside, no step down to get out or step up to get in. All I have is the few mm 'bump' of the sliding door rail.

Looks nice too and meets part P for disabled access should that ever be important in the future.

 

Ha, I thought you meant that the door itself was flush with the wall.

 

[puntloos]

 

49 minutes ago, pocster said:

Best thing in my house is me ?

Time to go huntin for pocksters then. 

Location, Bristol. Big yellow smiley face. Should be doable.

 

[ProDave]

11 minutes ago, puntloos said:

FCUs still require cold water though right? 

 

With an FCU for cooling, you pass chilled water from the ASHP through it and power the fan.  It needs a condensate drain.

 

You can also pass warm water from the ASHP through it and it will heat the room.  To do both you would need a heat / cool room thermostat and switch between the two modes.

 

It should be easy to do, I can tap into the flow and return in the plant room above the garage and there is a route from there to above the bedroom ceilings to run pipes to two wall mlounted FCU's, one in each bedroom.

 

What stopped me before was the high price, anything I could find in the UK was silly money for what is a heat exchanger and a fan. The only ones at a sensible price were on alibaba and I didn't feel up to taking a punt from there.

[Thorfun]

5 hours ago, jack said:

Either way, I wouldn't characterise your "just in case" approach as being a "for" argument in a genuine debate.

that's a fair point. another thought I had was that if we ever came to sell the house it could potentially put buyers off not having heating upstairs. I've never lived in a house with good enough insulation and air tightness to not need heating upstairs and the majority of people wouldn't have either. I only really know it's possible to get a house to that level due to reading on here which the rest of the public just won't do.

 

so, is it worth spending that extra money at build time to not reduce your potential market of sellers if it ever came to selling?

[Adsibob]

24 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

so, is it worth spending that extra money at build time to not reduce your potential market of sellers if it ever came to selling?

I think it depends on the cost of installing heating relative to the cost of the house. If it’sa £160k house, and is going to cost £4K to rip up the floor to install UfH and then another 2k to lay a new floor, that is significant and could result in a 6k reduction in the price offered.

 If it’s a £1.2M  house, then 6k is neither here nor there.

Also keep in mind that the estate agent and buyer might not think to ask. If they don’t ask you don’t need to disclose, caveat emptor and all that.

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

Also keep in mind that the estate agent and buyer might not think to ask. If they don’t ask you don’t need to disclose, caveat emptor and all that.

"The house is heated by Under Floor Heating"

 

Would anyone come back and question do you mean every single room?

[Thorfun]

28 minutes ago, ProDave said:

"The house is heated by Under Floor Heating"

 

Would anyone come back and question do you mean every single room?

Fair point 

[puntloos]

 

51 minutes ago, ProDave said:

"The house is heated by Under Floor Heating"

 

Would anyone come back and question do you mean every single room?

 

It depends on how fancy the house is whether or not I'd ask such questions. If the house is marketed to me as "highest standard" then I would probably check if such details have been thought of.

 

(And I guess to me a sign of "well done" would still be "heating zones all across the house", not just downstairs)

 

Whether or not it would deter me to buy would depend on how many of such niggles I start stacking up which would be a sign of sloppiness overall.

 

But, a proper seller and/or a proper real estate agent would be able to explain the philosophy and proveit was well-thought-out.

Edited March 27, 2021 by puntloos

[ProDave]

I expect the sort of buyer that might be concerned the house has cold bedrooms, will have long since given up by the time they have found the whole house is heated by a 5kW ASHP, it has MVHR, it is air tight, triple glazed windows and has solar PV.  Throw in "passive house standard" and they have gone running to find a Victorian house with a gas combi boiler and radiators.

[puntloos]

14 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I expect the sort of buyer that might be concerned the house has cold bedrooms, will have long since given up by the time they have found the whole house is heated by a 5kW ASHP, it has MVHR, it is air tight, triple glazed windows and has solar PV.  Throw in "passive house standard" and they have gone running to find a Victorian house with a gas combi boiler and radiators.

 

Welllll.. 

 

*maybe*.

 

Look, fact is that this entire awesome forum is full of people who surely have their weaknesses and gaps in knowledge (or at least I do) but are designing super custom, eagle-eyed eye for detail houses. That level of detail will be wasted on people who have not spent that much time.

 

If I were someone like that, I would look for 'tell tale signs'. While selling my house I would make sure to mention that this house is exceptionally well-crafted and give a few examples. Someone with 'bags of money' would certainly be positively influenced by that, but also still check for things that they often get told about objectively much crappier houses than 'ours'.

 

My real estate agent would speak about service voids and acoustic isolation and hot return. 

a competing house's real estate agent would point at in-ceiling speakers and underfloor zones everywhere. THEY would make a point of those things, and for you to have zero answer would not be ideal

Edited March 27, 2021 by puntloos

[Visti]

On 25/03/2021 at 23:11, eandg said:

Particularly interested in the larch comments, what maintenance is required?

 

Have had to have it sprayed with a biocide just a year in as it'd started accumulating green and black mold. It's warped quite significantly in many places and has needed repair. Lots of sap coming out, requiring cleaning up an repainting where not left natural. Significantly distorted aging from panel to panel, do we're treating it ourselves to try and help even it out.

[eandg]

54 minutes ago, Visti said:

 

Have had to have it sprayed with a biocide just a year in as it'd started accumulating green and black mold. It's warped quite significantly in many places and has needed repair. Lots of sap coming out, requiring cleaning up an repainting where not left natural. Significantly distorted aging from panel to panel, do we're treating it ourselves to try and help even it out.

Thanks for the info (and spanner in the works!) - is that a wider issue with larch experienced by others or perhaps some defective supply?

[Bitpipe]

2 hours ago, puntloos said:

 

Welllll.. 

 

*maybe*.

 

Look, fact is that this entire awesome forum is full of people who surely have their weaknesses and gaps in knowledge (or at least I do) but are designing super custom, eagle-eyed eye for detail houses. That level of detail will be wasted on people who have not spent that much time.

 

If I were someone like that, I would look for 'tell tale signs'. While selling my house I would make sure to mention that this house is exceptionally well-crafted and give a few examples. Someone with 'bags of money' would certainly be positively influenced by that, but also still check for things that they often get told about objectively much crappier houses than 'ours'.

 

My real estate agent would speak about service voids and acoustic isolation and hot return. 

a competing house's real estate agent would point at in-ceiling speakers and underfloor zones everywhere. THEY would make a point of those things, and for you to have zero answer would not be ideal

 

Mine would say ' this 6 bed, 400m2 house with full footprint basement costs under £2.50/day for electric and gas'. 

 

 

[Cpd]

8 minutes ago, eandg said:

is that a wider issue with larch experienced by others or perhaps some defective supply?

I clad my cabin with Scottish grown larch 7 years ago, I paint it every few years to keep it looking smart with Cuprinol and the larch is as good as the day it went on, there is absolutely no movement that would be cause for concern and no distortion at all, I really could not be happier and it’s definitely my go to material for exterior use. I used minimal fixings - single row of ss ring shank nails along the centre of each board and ss screws in window work etc. I did all the work myself and was very carful with grading the timber and making sure that the overlaps were sitting down really snug on the board below it, using a draw knife to shave off protruding edges. The painting could be an issue for a bigger property but then you would just use a much better quality paint rather  than the budget Cuprinol ducks back that I used for £10 for 5 litres.