Keeping your home warm / heating / energy crisis / insulation etc

I feared this would be the reality

But underfloor insulation after/on top of any pipe work? We want to replace one and add another radiator

It’s fine, just be prepared for the longouts. We did ours in a week, including floor sanding and waxing.

We didn’t find too much wrong with the plumbing/electrics under there, but used the opportunity to run brand new insulated pipe work to all rads, data cable to various points around the living room, and a draw string to pull through an EV charger cable when the time comes.

another airtightness question

I am putting a DMEV fan in my kitchen - the builders will core a hole. What materials should i use to ensure air is only coming in when the fan is on?

I was planning on using illbruck airtight flexible foam around the unit when installed and then airtightness tape with a fuzzy backing (that can be plastered over) around the unit edge.

I keep reading about rubble in the floor voids. I'm in a bog standard victorian/edwardian terrace and, when I lifted the only floorboard I have access to under the stairs, the gap between floorboards and rubble seemed to be about a foot so far as I could see.

I could see the light from airbricks front and back so they weren't blocked, is this usual, would excavating this a bit potentially help with damp issues?

Depends how deep your subfloor void is, and how high the piles of rubble (if any) are in the rest of the void spaces).

Optimal state is having zero rubble, nice deep void and loads of unobstructed airbricks. What kind of damp issues are you seeing?

I assume this is taping to brick? If so, your plan sounds good, although you'd need to PVA the brick prior to taping (let it dry properly) as otherwise the tape will be ineffective due to dust. The PVA/tape would still be your weakpoint (adhesion to brick). I did some tests with the PVA/tape combo on bricks and it's great for being difficult to peel, but eventually you can 'unstick' the whole thing if you keep attacking it enough.

An architect friend did mention some sort of Passivehaus putty/slime that was being developed for better retrofits, essentially a better airtight foam but I can't remember what it's called. There are also roll/paint on airtight membranes (glues) that you could use instead of the tape, but I expect it'd cost £50+ for a tin instead of £5 for some tape/PVA.

There's a special masonry primer for airtightness tape: Tescon Sprimer https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com/product/tescon-sprimer

I've used it in loads of places around our house, sticks like shit, loads better than PVA/SBR/whatever.

Thanks - should have mentioned I'll be using primer as Ecto says.

Yep, I did it myself but I’m a carpenter. It was quite a lot of work In the end. I had to level all the joist again and tie them together as they were just rested on the sleeper walls. I replaced a couple that had some rot and treated everything with wood preserver. The membrane installation is physically hard as you have to constantly stoop down and reach to staple it whilst also trying to keep it taught. The taping is also fiddly and takes time to get right. Putting the insulation in is the easy bit. We made it harder for ourselves by trying to limit the floor build up. So we also had to batten each side of the joist and cut OSB to fit between to form the sub floor. None of it is particularly complicated but it is hard work. It probably took me and my partner a week to do the ground floor of small 1950’s house. I’m really happy to know it was done right though and the floor isn’t going to rot away beneath me.

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I guess I'm mainly wondering whether this is actually rubble or the subfloor. I've got damp coming up on an internal hallway wall which I'm struggling to work out why.

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I'd start removing material and see how deep it goes until you hit soil.

That is a proper job, lovely to see!

lovely stuff there @josho

It probably took me and my partner a week to do the ground floor of small 1950’s house

Was that from scratch, or just the installation, after you'd done all the clearing/prep?

Looks great and must be really satisfying to know it's been done right

Refinishing floorboards…

We’ve got relatively thin (1/2”) but wide (9”) old pine boards, which I’d like to patch up, replace a few, and refinish. The consensus on the internet is that anything less than 18mm is too thin, and ours are already ~13mm, but I’m assuming that’s more for standard-width boards (4-5”?).

Has anyone done something similar / how thick were the boards? I’m wondering if we just use an orbital and belt sander to do a less intensive job, without removing too much material, rather than the more industrial sanders people generally use to fully flatten the entire subfloor.

Edit: whoops, wrong thread

Thanks guys. At work I see insulation being installed soooo badly all the time. Honestly horrifying how much people are paying for building work and the insulation being put in is truly awful. So I was pretty motivated to do it right on my own place. I’d actually love to get more into sustainable building / retrofit for work.

From scratch I reckon, so floorboard removal, prep and installation included. It was basically 3 rooms and a hallway.

Finally completed our heat pump plant cupboard, all kit and systems up and running.

Had to squeeze a lot of shit into a 900x700mm footprint; UFH manifolds, several controllers and wiring centres, girthy cylinder and a load of insulated plumbing.

ASHP installer originally demanded a minimum 1500x700mm footprint for the cupboard, but together we managed to fit it all in without compromising the kitchen layout.

Don’t watch the messy cabling, I’ll dress it all at some point…

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Packed tight. Good installer!

I do wonder how those kitchens cupboards will look in 10y. I need to do new doors for ours in a year or too and natural does look nice.

All the ply has been sanded and fully treated with ‘Rubio Monocoat’. It’s already had loads of shit spilled/smeared on it by my kids (especially the bench seating), and it’s all just wiped off so far.

The Douglas Fir ply is a bit more fragile than the birch equivalent; there was some splintering of edges when doing the initial sanding and oiling, but it’s holding up well to family abuse so far.

We fit gledhill usually.

Good to know!

Looks really good. I'm trying to work out how to get it done at ours but the tales of dodgy trades worry me - willing to do stuff myself but not sure on skills required or how long it takes so any experiences are useful! We'll be doing just one room to start with so less area at least, but still sounds like a lot of work and my day job keeps me busy enough.

I think if you find the right builder and show them the exact detail you want then you’ll be ok. The problem as I’ve seen it, is that on bigger jobs putting the insulation into a building often falls to the labourers without much instruction or supervision. So what you get is some wonky PIR cut with a handsaw. Again if you get the right person and show them what you’re trying to achieve a lot of builders would be interested to learn a different process.

If you do it yourself (and I think most people could do it) then you can guarantee it will be done right and save some money. But if you’re short on time the idea of ripping your floor up can be pretty overwhelming I guess.

And you’d recommend them as a brand? I have a tendency to over research things like this, so would be very happy to be told there’s not much in it.