Another From The North Of Ireland (and a hell of a lot more information and self-build chat.)

[Declan52]

Some good news at least dee. Have you started to lift them on yet.

[DeeJunFan]

Oh aye, they are all on.

 

Getting the last of the blockwork done today and should be felt & lathed come Monday.

[vfrdave]

That was a pretty good outcome, though it is always frustrating that you have to dig to get to the right people and potentially have to speak to the directors to get any traction.  

 

Trusses and felt will make a big difference to the look of the house over a relatively short period.  You got your windows coming soon?

[DeeJunFan]

1 hour ago, vfrdave said:

That was a pretty good outcome, though it is always frustrating that you have to dig to get to the right people and potentially have to speak to the directors to get any traction.  

 

Trusses and felt will make a big difference to the look of the house over a relatively short period.  You got your windows coming soon?

 

I was happy with the response once it arrived but it took an unreasonable amount of effort to get talking to the right people.

 

I actually had to do a company search and try and get email addresses.

 

But it got the problem sorted.  But a loss of faith.

[Declan52]

Don't be afraid to build a few extra wall plate straps in, they really help to keep the block work steady. 

The whole self build journey is based on the faith and trust you have in a tradesman or company and once it's lost its usually lost for good. As you say it is a happy ending but has still left a site taste.

[vfrdave]

Folks, Im thinking of going ASHP any thoughts recommendations?  Have any of you installed one or plan to.  I have one quote and Im scouring google for other suppliers in NI any recommendations.

[Weegaz]

We are in the same boat Dave, we are pretty set on ASHP system running our UFH and supplying DHW.

 

We have viewed a couple of houses with the system installed and it seems almost to good to be true, radiant heat and loads of hot water and fairly economical to run. Fit and forget technology also

 

It would be good to get some views from forum users as some very knowledgable people on here

 

 

[jack]

We're in the south east of England so not quite the same climate as you, but our experience so far has been excellent.

 

We have an insulated slab with UFH and MBC twin stud walls. 290m2 over two floors, no heating upstairs.

 

We have 8.5kW of PV and an immersion diverter for our 250L UVC, and as far as I know our 5kW ASHP literally hasn't turned on for several weeks this summer.

 

We had people, including our plumber, express a lot of concern over our choice of a 5kW Panasonic Aquarea unit for a house the size of ours. The general argument was that it would be flat out for several hours heating the tank to 55 degrees from cold, and that the house would go cold over this period. During the one admittedly mild winter we've so far been through, that wasn't the experience at all. Bearing in mind that it takes most of a day for the slab temp to drop any meaningful amount, we had the ASHP set to come on from 4 to 6am, to heat the tank to 55 degrees. At 6, the ASHP would turn off and the top quarter of the tank would then be heated to 85 degrees using the upper immersion. The slab temp stayed rock solid during this period.

 

To be honest, I set this up as a temporary measure when we moved in, but it's worked so well that I haven't bothered changing it yet.

 

We never ran out of hot water over winter and as far as I can tell there wasn't a lot of defrosting going on (based on temp of water returning to the ASHP, which we logged).

 

I haven't paid much attention to our bills but my wife says they're much lower than when we were running an 87m2 oil-heated bungalow on the same site (and that's without counting FiTs).

 

I do wonder how things will go when we have a cold wet winter but so far it's all good.

 

We also haven't yet had call to turn on the cooling function on the ASHP despite a long run of hot weather recently. We do have quite a lot of useful shade from trees along with carefully positioned overhangs, so clearly that helps.

 

If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

 

[Ryan85]

Well folks. Only heard from Declan the other day that the forum had reincarnated under a different website. Have quite a few questions needed answered but clobbered my way through them. One that I will need to sort is NI Water. My father is off the opinion that I should just tap into the water as it actually runs up the back of my site and not on the public road. Anyone tried this and if so was it twigged on?

 

 

[Ryan85]

Will be putting in floor screed next week. 70 sand cement with fibres on top of UFH which I ended up deciding to go for through part of the ground floor.

[Shell820810]

57 minutes ago, Ryan85 said:

Well folks. Only heard from Declan the other day that the forum had reincarnated under a different website. Have quite a few questions needed answered but clobbered my way through them. One that I will need to sort is NI Water. My father is off the opinion that I should just tap into the water as it actually runs up the back of my site and not on the public road. Anyone tried this and if so was it twigged on?

They may twig on when start going on all properties?

57 minutes ago, Ryan85 said:

 

 

[Declan52]

When they come round to put water metres on each house they will soon find out. If you dig the trench and lay the pipe up to where it needs to be it will only be a connection charge. Assuming that where ever you are teeing into has enough pressure to feed you.

House looking really well, the stone work is very nice. Is that the amber stone dash?? Was nearly my choice as well.

[slidersx200]

3 hours ago, Ryan85 said:

Will be putting in floor screed next week. 70 sand cement with fibres on top of UFH which I ended up deciding to go for through part of the ground floor.

 

Our screed came from CES and we had a fast drying agent added to the sand/cement/fibre mix.

 

It only added another £2-3/m2 at a similar depth to your plan, but we were down to between 3.5-5% moisture content in two and a half weeks.

 

Our builder used a liquid screed on their son's house and after almost 3 months it is still at 16% moisture content and cost nearly double what we paid.

 

We've had zero condensation issues, although all of our casement windows and roof lights are left on the ventilation latch and we opened doors and windows during most days.

 

Welcome back and good luck with the rest of the project!

[Declan52]

I used mapie 704 in mine and had the same results. You need to let the screeders know as it has to be mixed into the mix either before its delivered on site or added on site. Think it was about £200 extra for the additive.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Declan52

[vfrdave]

My architect used liquid screed in his extension recently supplied by RTU and he reported that it took alot longer than he thought it would to dry out.

 

Think you have made my mind up for when the time comes to use sand cement screed. I too would be using CES hopefully.

[Declan52]

There was only £200 in the difference between sand cement and liquid screed when I got a price from ces when I done mine. But the horror stories of liquid screed soon made up my mind. 

[Ryan85]

The liquid screed is a lot dearer than sand/cement. The tiler is happier working of the sand/cement screed too as it saves him with the priming and the extra levelling. 

 

Declan i have ground worker starting next week. I will get a yarn with him about the water but maybe safer just doing it by the books. I wonder when they intend to start the meters.

[Declan52]

Something in the news a while ago about the EU taking the executive to court due to us not paying for water even though do via our rates. The charge will happen it's just deferred at the moment but it will come in. The question is which of the lunatics we have running the show wants to be voted out as who ever brings it in will not get reelected.

[vfrdave]

44 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

Something in the news a while ago about the EU taking the executive to court due to us not paying for water even though do via our rates. The charge will happen it's just deferred at the moment but it will come in. The question is which of the lunatics we have running the show wants to be voted out as who ever brings it in will not get reelected.

There was a directive in June for niwater to stop installing meters as it is a waste of public money. This will be the case until there is legislation brought forward in the autumn to make them a legal requirement. That legislation can't be adopted until there has been a public consultation, so probably won't happen soon.

[JamieM]

Can anyone here recommend a good company to hire out scaffolding here in NI (we’re based between Antrim and Ballymena 2 storey house and storey and a half garage)

 

Had a family friend who was willing to lend us some, but that hasn’t worked out.

 

And now we’re just about ready for scaffolding and need to get some hired, or bought. Probably hired as I believe it is hard to get a hold of it to buy (second hand) this time of year but would consider either option.

 

I am going to use Google to find a few companies but thought I’d check if anyone had any recommendations first.

 

Thanks

[Declan52]

Just phone a good few as they all travel so even companies based not within a few miles of antrim will give you a price. Make sure you get a price that includes the cost of getting them back to do a lift when different trades need it done. Add all the sums up and see who comes out the best. Make sure you ask about their insurance certificate.

[DeeJunFan]

the cheapest quote i got was from D-Scaff in Newry.

 

They were totally booked out so you might be lucky.

 

Some of the quotes i got were crazy so shop around. Anywhere from 1900 - 3600 for supply and erection.  And £50 - 150 per week hire.  Also some were quoting 50 an hour for any changes needed.

[JamieM]

cheers guys

[vfrdave]

A few questions for you good folk. Done some work on site clearing grass and cut a few trees down on Tues, boy was it warm. This a pic of site.

 

Anyway I have to ditches sheughs on site both pretty much dry at the minute, was thinking of cleaning these out a bit and putting 150mm perforated twin wall in topped with clean stone. Is this a good idea? Or any other suggestions.

 

Is BT pipe still 50/60mm grey and can blue water pipe just be buried without any other ducting?

 

Thanks.

[Declan52]

Lovely site. Are those the red hills in the distance???

For your ditch how much water flows through it in winter when it's at its worst. Is 150mm enough to take it away??

What's downstream of you as in if it blocks here where will the water go if it can't fill up the ditch??

Bt is grey duct.

Water pipe can be laid in sand or dust with no duct.