The best

[jack]

1 hour 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.

 

Scottish or Siberian larch? Our Siberian larch cladding is over 5 years old and mostly looks great. We do have areas of black mould on one elevation where it's under enclosed balconies, which I plan to treat this year.

 

We left samples of Siberian and Scottish larch outside for a couple of months and the Scottish stuff ended up bent like a banana across its width.

 

Virtually no sap. I can think of a couple of boards where there's been a patch, but that's it.

 

[Adsibob]

7 hours ago, ProDave said:

"The house is heated by Under Floor Heating"

 

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

Well technically that is correct, whether you heat the ground floor only or the other floors as well.

[Weebles]

Would do again

Timber frame build with render / cladding exterior

Passive standard - means low energy costs even though we don't have solar panels

Triple glazing - so quiet

No heating upstairs apart from UFH in ensuites

External electric blinds - a godsend to keep house cooler in summer

Aluminium trim around base of house for a finished bottom "edge" - looks smart

Larder (but would do it a bit better as it isn't perfect - gets too warm still despite being accessed via an insulated external door, and on a north facing wall with no sunshine).  But it is useful extra storage, hidden away and I do like that.

MVHR

 

Still might do

Solar panels (cabling to the roof is there just in case)

 

Wish we'd done

Two dishwashers

Some way of cooling the house via the MVHR ducts.  Got way too hot last year (though have since fitted solar film to some glazing so will see if there is any improvement this summer)

Insect screen on door to patio

 

Wouldn't bother with next time

Huge architecturally pleasing windows in upstairs bedrooms.  Requiring juliet balconies or safety locks.  Complete waste of money  - could have set them 300mm off the floor or higher, had a similar visual effect from the outside, would've been cheaper and easier in every way.

[Bitpipe]

9 hours ago, Weebles said:

Wouldn't bother with next time

Huge architecturally pleasing windows in upstairs bedrooms.  Requiring juliet balconies or safety locks.  Complete waste of money  - could have set them 300mm off the floor or higher, had a similar visual effect from the outside, would've been cheaper and easier in every way.

 

Me too - can we think what the common factor was there

 

[jack]

10 hours ago, Weebles said:

Wouldn't bother with next time

Huge architecturally pleasing windows in upstairs bedrooms.  Requiring juliet balconies or safety locks.  Complete waste of money  - could have set them 300mm off the floor or higher, had a similar visual effect from the outside, would've been cheaper and easier in every way.

 

Same.

 

I actually think it's 800 or 850 to avoid the need for protection. We're at about 400 in some places and needed lockable window stays.

 

We should have had a fixed pane to 800 (or whatever it is) and an opener above that. 

[puntloos]

I'm still somewhat surprised people are so strong about two dishwashers. I can kinda see the point, sure. Not having to "immediately" pull stuff out of the diswasher has a benefit, but the amount of "work" to be done in the kitchen doesn't change that meaningfully does it? It's just you can delay picking stuff out of the thing a bit? Am I missing something?

[Mr Punter]

3 minutes ago, puntloos said:

I'm still somewhat surprised people are so strong about two dishwashers. I can kinda see the point, sure. Not having to "immediately" pull stuff out of the diswasher has a benefit, but the amount of "work" to be done in the kitchen doesn't change that meaningfully does it? It's just you can delay picking stuff out of the thing a bit? Am I missing something?

 

Agreed.  I don't want the hassle of opening the door down, pulling out a rack and rooting round trying to find something.  Just run overnight and fully unload in the morning.

[Thorfun]

12 hours ago, Weebles said:

Aluminium trim around base of house for a finished bottom "edge" - looks smart

 

this sounds interesting. any chance of a photo please?

[ProDave]

17 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

 

Agreed.  I don't want the hassle of opening the door down, pulling out a rack and rooting round trying to find something.  Just run overnight and fully unload in the morning.

Or if you have solar PV, run in the middle of the day, and unload as you are cooking the evening meal.

[Ferdinand]

On 27/03/2021 at 18:54, Cpd said:

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. 

 

 

I would hope that "every few years" is more than seven.

[Iceverge]

On 27/03/2021 at 02:38, puntloos said:

People debate this then - @Bored Shopper hates this for cleaning?

 

So Far so good.  Ours is 400mm wide which I hope will help and the nearest trees are about 20m away. 

On 27/03/2021 at 02:38, puntloos said:

Why? Aesthetics? Seems annoying to not be able to use windowsills as 'storage'?

 

It looks nice and allows more direct sunlight deeper into the room. I think you have the wrong idea.The window sills are wider if anything. 

On 27/03/2021 at 02:38, puntloos said:

Why not? Works well as acoustic insulation, no?

 

Acoustically it's excellent. Much like a hotel or similar. Dimentionally totally stable too. Super fast to install. Less than an afternoon. You can have solid walls upstairs pretty much where you like too. 

 

It's a very thick buildup. In our case. 10mm carpet, 10mm underlay, 75mm reinforced concrete screed 150mm precast concrete floor, 110mm service void in suspended metal ceiling and 12.5mm plasterboard and 3mm skim.  I had to insist the fitters kept the service void as tight as possible. Had I not it would have likely ended up nearer to 150mm if not 200mm. A posi joist floor for the equivalent span might be 100mm thinner. 

 

Its very tricky to detail well for airtightness. I've discussed elsewhere on here previously. 

 

It requires a much heavier structure on the ground floor in places. In our case 215mm inner leaf and RSJ's over the load bearing openings. 

 

It's a total PITA to route wastewater pipes if you didn't put them in first day. 

 

Cost wise there's very little difference between posi joists. I think about €30/m2 from memory. 

 

On 27/03/2021 at 02:38, puntloos said:

And finally quite a bit of debate on UFH everywhere or just downstairs and in upstairs bathrooms?

 

If you build a very well detailed and  insulated airtight with MVHR house the heating debate becomes a bit mute.

 

You could put in direct electric heating, radiators, duct heating, a logburner, air to air, UFH, ASHP,  gas boiler, oil boiler, GSHP, mini nuclear reactor etc etc etc and the heat will distribute pretty evenly around your house and you'll have a super comfortable home with no cold spots. No cold floors and no drafts. 

 

Just do whatever is cheapest and/or greenest IMHO. We've a small electric heater on cheap night rate electricity in the hallway and the whole house is very comfortable. I hum and ha about whether we should have included UFH pipes "just in case" but as soon as you go down that route you're throwing away all the effort of building a passive house.  

 

 

[Iceverge]

On 28/03/2021 at 11:34, puntloos said:

I'm still somewhat surprised people are so strong about two dishwashers. I can kinda see the point, sure. Not having to "immediately" pull stuff out of the diswasher has a benefit, but the amount of "work" to be done in the kitchen doesn't change that meaningfully does it? It's just you can delay picking stuff out of the thing a bit? Am I missing something?

 

You save half your "cup miles" as 90% of the crockery etc only have 2 locations. In use or in a dishwasher. The extra journey to and from the cupboard is gone. The big unload that nobody likes doing is now just about 10% of contents because everything else has been taken out when it was used. 

 

Unexplained benefits:

 

The pile of unwashed stuff in the sink seems to have disappeared. When we run the dishwasher now it's always nearly completely full, I don't know why.  There is presumably a saving only doing full loads. 

 

You have a backup in case of failure. Nobody want's to have the victorian horror of hand washing a cheese scoop or a strawberry fork.  

 

 

[Adsibob]

On 22/03/2021 at 22:38, joe90 said:

I have mixer bars so nothing buried that needs changing

What’s mixer bars?

[joe90]

9 hours ago, Adsibob said:

What’s mixer bars?

one of these, very common and easy to repair or replace.

https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/cruze-round-2-outlets-thermostatic-bar-shower-valve?campaign=googlebase&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmIuDBhDXARIsAFITC_5ufWKKayPjppICKSXCORXaqkVChXNztaPnpe63DH9nLCDeXSSSjg0aAhfrEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Edited March 30, 2021 by joe90

[Weebles]

On 28/03/2021 at 11:51, Thorfun said:

 

this sounds interesting. any chance of a photo please?

It’s not a brilliant close up but you can see it. Can send some install pics if you are interested. We ordered it and fixed it ourselves. 

[Bitpipe]

On 28/03/2021 at 11:57, ProDave said:

Or if you have solar PV, run in the middle of the day, and unload as you are cooking the evening meal.

 

That's what we do - I set mine to come on at sun up and it's done a few hours later.

[Weebles]

On 28/03/2021 at 11:34, puntloos said:

I'm still somewhat surprised people are so strong about two dishwashers. I can kinda see the point, sure. Not having to "immediately" pull stuff out of the diswasher has a benefit, but the amount of "work" to be done in the kitchen doesn't change that meaningfully does it? It's just you can delay picking stuff out of the thing a bit? Am I missing something?

its not the unloading that’s the problem, it’s the plastic lunch boxes etc that the drip dry on the worktop above looking a mess. And the stuff that sits around whilst it runs it’s 3 hour cycle. Occasionally I just want a clear work surface. 
 

and we have to run it 2 or 3 times a day when we have overnight guests and there’s 8-10 of us in the house. Not a problem at the mo obviously.

[Thorfun]

1 hour ago, Weebles said:

It’s not a brilliant close up but you can see it. Can send some install pics if you are interested. We ordered it and fixed it ourselves. 

thanks. it does look smart. let me run it by the other half and see what she says and I'll get back to you.

[jack]

1 hour ago, Thorfun said:

thanks. it does look smart. let me run it by the other half and see what she says and I'll get back to you.

 

Take a look at this thread, which references several others that have taken a similar approach.

[DragsterDriver]

On 27/03/2021 at 09:31, ProDave said:

 

I am one of many that chose not to fit UFH in the bedrooms.

 

Several years use including a long very cold spell this winter has proved that bedroom heating is not required in a well insulated sealed house, even here in the Highlands.

 

I installed cables to each bedroom for an electric panel heater.  Even those have never been used and no panel heaters have been used, not even portable plug in ones.

that’s pretty cool! Having not yet lived in a ‘sealed’ house it sounds really odd having no bedroom heating  

[joe90]

17 minutes ago, DragsterDriver said:

it sounds really odd having no bedroom heating  

Nor me, just plug in heaters in case of very cold weather but never used. (I do have an electric blanket tho ?‍♂️).

[DragsterDriver]

6 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Nor me, just plug in heaters in case of very cold weather but never used. (I do have an electric blanket tho ?‍♂️).

It’s one of those things I know the family will stare at me. Maybe put them a fake thermostat up each ?

[joe90]

1 hour ago, DragsterDriver said:

It’s one of those things I know the family will stare at me.

Oh yes, most people think central heating in every room is a must, only because it’s what they have known in very poorly insulated housing which is the norm,

 

1 hour ago, DragsterDriver said:

Maybe put them a fake thermostat up each ?

yes, but if no hot radiator they may see through that ????.  I had to buy cheap digital thermostats in most rooms of my new build to prove that the rooms are not cold. My last house had no insulation but red hot radiators and was told it was warm when in fact it was not , the walls and air was bloody freezing but you could feel the heat coming from the radiators (which quickly left). Give me a well insulated and airtight house any day of the week.

[stubiff]

Thanks for the continued replies and debate.

 

Additions in bold.

 

Yes: UFH (inc upstairs bathroom e.g. here), ASHP, hot water tap, insulation, airtight, mvhr, triple glazing, Posi joists, external blinds/shading, active cooling, horizontal wiring, accessible services/utilities, timber frame, Sunamp (probably), shower recess, oak staircase, level threshold from in to out, trim around base of house.

 

Preference/Debatable: Bi-folds/sliders, upstairs heating (non-bathroom), external render, balconies, bath in ensuite, multiple ensuites, larch cladding, French drain.

Edited April 6, 2021 by stubiff