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What I find interesting, as a practical demonstration of the effectiveness of triple glazing, is on mornings like today, when it' been pretty cold overnight, the condensation is always on the outside of the windows. 

 

Even with the pretty good double glazing fitted to our old house we would sometimes get some condensation around the edges inside, but there's never a trace of that with the triple glazing.

 

It does mean you can't see out of some of the windows for an hour or two first thing in the morning, though.

Edited by JSHarris
typo
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Fitting two, (first I've ever done) bog standard, upvc 2G windows and I'd rate Compriband over gun foam all day long.

 

The majority of our 2G windows appear to have been fitted with enormous gaps and not even foamed. Just some of that pig to get off trim. I think there was a 1" gap at the top of the bathroom one.

 

I hate to think what a FLIR on my place would look like.

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That's what I always hated with window fitters. You buy a well made insulated window and then installers seem to think it's OK to leave gaps all the way around and cover it with plastic trim - so it all looks nice :(

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On 10/11/2017 at 17:16, jack said:

 

Where was this advice three years ago! :D Who else would you get to design pipe runs?

 

We made sure when we designed the house that everything was as compact as possible. The bathroom and two ensuites are all in compact row directly above the utility room and plant room (which are adjacent each other). The kitchen is literally the only tap that's any distance at all from the plant room where the UVC is. 

 

I don't understand what sort of route the basin tap must take if it takes over 8 times as long for hot water to get to it as to the shower literally two metres (in plan) away. Even the kitchen tap gets water faster than the basin, and it's miles away! 

 

Didn't we use the same plumber? We have a hot return loop with very short runs to basins etc and, when running, I never wait more than a couple of seconds for hot water.

 

The loop was supposed to be on a timer with pipe stat but we changed that to come on with the MVHR boost which itself is activated by PIRs in the bathrooms (daytime) and light switches (evening).

 

Only the kitchen tap can be cold first thing in the morning if the pump's not been running but there is a MVHR manual boost in the utility so giving that a poke delivers hot water pretty sharpish.

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Yes, same plumber. He suggested a hot loop and we said no for energy consumption and potential overheating reasons. (Another) silly mistake not at least running the pipework so we could add it in the future, but I genuinely didn't think it would be possible to be waiting 45 seconds for warm water at the affected basins.


Live and learn - next house will be different! B| 

 

O.o

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1 minute ago, jack said:

Yes, same plumber. He suggested a hot loop and we said no for energy consumption and potential overheating reasons. (Another) silly mistake not at least running the pipework so we could add it in the future, but I genuinely didn't think it would be possible to be waiting 45 seconds for warm water at the affected basins.


Live and learn - next house will be different! B| 

 

O.o

 

45 seconds...that'd be thought of as instantaneous here!

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4 hours ago, Vijay said:

That's what I always hated with window fitters. You buy a well made insulated window and then installers seem to think it's OK to leave gaps all the way around and cover it with plastic trim - so it all looks nice :(

 

Yep, b'stards! 

 

20161109_181132

 

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30 minutes ago, jack said:

Yes, same plumber. He suggested a hot loop and we said no for energy consumption and potential overheating reasons. (Another) silly mistake not at least running the pipework so we could add it in the future, but I genuinely didn't think it would be possible to be waiting 45 seconds for warm water at the affected basins.


Live and learn - next house will be different! B| 

 

O.o

45 seconds? Have you got a pic of your setup Wendy? Maybe you can retrofit a HR pump cheekily just to warm the manifolds and the immediately connective pipework ;)

That would shave a LOT off that time. 

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Thanks Nick. I don't think I have a schematic, no, although my wife might have stored one somewhere. Will check.

 

I do know that all that's visible/accessible on the hot side is a bloody great pipe heading up through the ceiling of the plant room, so I suspect a manifold approach wasn't used. 

 

Plumbing (as in the actual conduit design and routing) is the one thing in the house I had literally no input into. From memory, the plumbing happened largely while I was neck deep in something massive at work, so I just had to trust it would all be done properly.

 

Like I said, next house!

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On 13/11/2017 at 15:07, jack said:

Thanks Nick. I don't think I have a schematic, no, although my wife might have stored one somewhere. Will check.

 

I do know that all that's visible/accessible on the hot side is a bloody great pipe heading up through the ceiling of the plant room, so I suspect a manifold approach wasn't used. 

 

 

Jan did our Hep2O pipework and it was her first plumbing project, though I acted as her labourer and did all the calcs and the central copper work. Absolutely no regrets.  I would never subcontract this to a plumber unless we'd agreed the overall design and pipe runs.  I did invite NickFW for a few days but he declined as he didn't want to mix business and pleasure -- Jan is far prettier anyway. 

 

Manifold layouts rule forever, IMO.

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6 hours ago, TerryE said:

Jan did our Hep2O pipework and it was her first plumbing project, though I acted as her labourer and did all the calcs and the central copper work. Absolutely no regrets.  I would never subcontract this to a plumber unless we'd agreed the overall design and pipe runs.  

 

Manifold layouts rule forever, IMO.

 

Yes, yet another mistake on my part. No need to rub it in! :(

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  • 1 month later...

I have been a bit busy over the last few weeks having finished first fix, plumbing and electrics.

Plumbing went okay, although one of the AAV's had a small leak so the pressure test on the foul drain kept failing. Once replaced it held 50mm of water without problem.

Had a major with the electrician who walked off the job at the end of first fix as he got a major contract for 10 houses. As we had no formal written contract we were stuck. As all the cables were in, none of the electricians would entertain the work other than as a final testing and inspection. After a bit of negotiation with the building control officer and we can go down that route.

Upside is that i have saved a couple of quid as all i have paid for are materials so the final test will be the only labour charge.

 

Plasterboard is about 60% completed and the plasterer is following us room to room. So far we have used 240 sheets including some sound and fire board. we have stuffed rock wool into all the walls and floors and will be pleased when finished as i hate the stuff.

 

Its been a bit of a challenge to board the high points as the plasterboard lifter did not quite reach and i am still working out how to reach the roof of the galleried landing

2017-12-01_12_36_57.thumb.jpg.36a264cdc91dd8b3a5b9f2499293ed62.jpg  

 

2017-12-02_16_15_56.thumb.jpg.4dd67a231467e045eb387397912cf742.jpg

 

2017-12-18_13_06_17.thumb.jpg.d6e4f25b10adfdb6444b7ffd536be923.jpg

 

The next issue according to my wife is the colour of the sofa. 

 

not sue why when i still have to plumb the plant room

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  • dogman changed the title to MBC build- A New Year update

Looking great.

Some really interesting angles in the vaulted ceilings.

We have the same.

We weren't sure what it would look like until actually built.

How wide is your service cavity between the airtight smartply & the plasterboard?

Is this what you have stuffed with rockwool?

What insulation is within your timber frame?

I am really interested to know as I have been thinking of doing the same.

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Kitchen is from Howdens. Most is here but their design and invoicing details are an absolute mare. The brochure. invoice, plan and delivery notes all have different codes. All the bathrooms have been chosen including a bath covered in copper:S

 

I have left it all to her other than a check to see if i can actually fit it.

 

2 hours ago, Moira Niedzwiecka said:

How wide is your service cavity between the airtight smartply & the plasterboard?

Is this what you have stuffed with rockwool?

What insulation is within your timber frame?

 

Roof is 25mm cavity, walls 48mm. theses are left clear

 

its the internal studs and the floor void i have filled with rock wool. Its a real pain but helps stop a lot of the echo and resonance in the house.

 

We went with cellulose blown insulation

 

 

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6 hours ago, Luckylad said:

Boarding looks nice and neat, would be a pleasure to go over.

Although I would double up the scrim on the small pieces on the gable :)

 

Plasterers said the same and have so far done a really nice job( oher than one dropping a float full of bonding on the others head :D it went everywhere and needs to be cleaned off)

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Some people use bonding to round out the ceiling or simply just for dubbing out .

i just use multi finish for both the above to save throwing any away.

im not a fan of bonding because it can take a long time to dry and can bubble, requiring it to be scraped when hard

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