We asked Andy's dad Dave if he'd come and help us on site - and so grateful he did. He arrived on New year's Eve and stayed for six nights, and we could not have got things ready without him. An extra pair of hands that knew what they were doing and someone for Andy to discuss things with was such a relief and helped us practically and mentally. Thanks Dave! Daily routine changed slightly to accommodate an extra household member, but we continued to crack on as before.
Whilst waiting for the delivery of the replacement insulation we could finally finish off that DPM laying, taping and the air tight seals. And then the underfloor heating! Adam had commented when he'd popped to site before Christmas that the one circuit we'd done via head torch was exceptionally neat and tidy but very tightly laid and we'd never need anywhere near that density of pipe. We'd followed the advice of the heating firm, but realised they hadn't counted on the amount of insulation we'd have. So we relaxed with the coil tightness, and fitting the rest of it was far easier to bend and manipulate. I was in charge of the plan and getting the lengths right, marking out the internal walls (roughly), making sure the right bits were insulated and the right routes taken, Dave stood on the pipe giving out clips toAndy laying it. And on New Year's Day we had a surprise visit from Andy's Uncle Trev who joined in too! So a slightly sociable day. We managed to get all the pipework done in two days, in time for the Friday when the groundworkers were back to start fitting the steel mesh on the top section as well as start clearing their stuff out.
No time to test it though. Or pressurise it. Or any of the things you're supposed to do. We had no time, and more to the point, no one to do it, as everyone from the heating firm was off over Christmas.
Anyway. With the underfloor heating pipes in place, Andy and Dave were then back on the cavity insulation together, which took another day and a half. They had to wedge it in place and do a load more cutting than anticipated, but it was still easier than the EPS. More trips to get expanding foam. I marked out where we needed shuttering for the shower trays. Then it was on to fitting the Compac Foam - special threshold insulation that we had in our design - this sits under each doorway. Thankfully Andy and Dave knew what they were doing (seemed like magic to me), which involved more of that M10 bar, which we then replaced with M12 (that's thicker), so a bit of metal work and a lot of sawing. Andy had hoped to use his circular saw on the Compac foam, but the heat of the blade started to melt it, gassing us all in the process and ruining the blade. Back to sawing.
Finally the Compac Foam was sitting in place late on the Sunday afternoon. Monday was the day for preparing for the concrete pour. We'd done it in time, with about one hour of daylight to spare.
Phew. But we still didn't know if what we'd done was any good of course. Just had to hope.
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