Another year, another Ecobuild, new venue, new chapter. The switch to Excel will no doubt be hailed as a success and the organisers will cite more exhibitors, more seminars and more visitors as their yardstick. But as others have suggested, it felt like there was something lacking at Ecobuild this year. The journey over was surprisingly trouble-free though and afforded a panoramic view of our Ferrier Point tower block retrofit in Canning Town to the north of the DLR.
ECD’s Ferrier [...]
13 Joyce Avenue
Blog 1 (24.01.11)
United House Contractors www.unitedhouse.net started work started at 13 Joyce Avenue in early December with initial work focussing on asbestos removal, site strip out and scaffolding of the front and rear elevations completed. In order to avoid a stepped flashing at the party wall we also obtained the neighbours consent and planning approval to insulate behind the existing wall hung tiles to their property as well. A number of the long lead-in items [...]
Timber frame, 22/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
The front and rear infill panels have been removed and most of the new timber frame has been installed. The build up for the frame is: plasterboard and skim finish, Intello plus vapour and air barrier, 125mm deep timber frame with Celotex PIR insulation tightly fitted between. This is then finished with ply. In the new year Walltec, (the external wall insulation sub contractor), will then fix 60mm Phenolic insulation over this, finished in a silicon render. [...]
Windows arrive, 09/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
The excavations below ground are now complete and we found on the corners we could not go as deep as we wanted as there are concrete pads about 200-300mm below the surface that support the concrete cross panels. Also on the gable the ground floor slab cantilevers over the foundation wall, so we will need to cut this projection off to allow the external wall insulation, (EWI) to run below ground level. As much as we prefer to specify EWI over IWI, things [...]
Spacetherm Dry-Lining, 22/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
Installation of the Spacetherm dry-lining is well underway over the existing cavity wall. This is supplied by A Proctor group in Scotland. Their normal build up for this kind of project, (which has been tested by the BRE!) is to fix Spacetherm F (aerogel laminated to Fermacell board with an integrated vapour barrier) to timber battens fixed to the existing wall. In this case the depth of aerogel is 60mm to give a U-value of 0.15 W/m2 K. We have [...]
Windows arrive, 09/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
The windows have arrived and are being installed on site now. The windows we have chosen for this project are EcoPassiv triple glazed windows from the Green Building Store. The thermally broken frames are made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified timber. The argon filled triple glazing with warm edge spacers gives a whole window u-value of 0.75 W/m2k. Looking at windows that have been installed beside the old PVC ones, one thing that is [...]
Internal wall Insulation and Micro CHP 22/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
The internal wall insulation to the rear extension is now mostly complete, except the bathroom wall that needs to be left off until we seal up the existing manhole. The existing brick cavity walls have been lined internally with 70mm Celotex. We originally specified Spacetherm here like the first floor, but we changed this to Celotex to help bring the project back on budget with a minimal drop in performance. The savings is [...]
Window Problems, 16/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
Since my visit last week most have the windows and doors have now been installed, but not without problems! On the rear brick extension it appears that the main window into the dining room has been manufactured too small. Once the window was installed the gap around the frame became very obvious, and as the extension will be insulated internally there is not much opportunity to hide these gaps unless we render the whole rear extension externally as [...]
Blog 3: Windows and hidden manholes, 09/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
The windows we have chosen for this project are EcoPassiv triple glazed windows from the Green Building Store. The thermally broken frames are made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified timber. The argon filled triple glazing with warm edge spacers gives a whole window u-value of 0.75 W/m2K. Fitting the windows on the concrete frame part of the house we have discovered old concrete cills below the pressed metal cills that [...]
Meters, 22/12/10 By Ruairi Kay
Not much to report here other than the new electric and water meters have been installed and the internal decoration is being finished off, still waiting for the windows to arrive though..... In order to fulfil the monitoring requirements of the project we need to install new electric, gas and water meters with a pulse output. Normally the various utility companies would be engaged to replace the existing meters. As utility companies are notoriously difficult to [...]
Follow us on:
