Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 12

Back from the Christmas break, our team at the Great Yarmouth retrofit have gotten stuck in once again. Over the past couple of weeks, they have managed to finish installing all the Magply board, to create the void around the property

This week, the insulation material arrived, and the team on site have began the process of pumping the insulation into the void. With the insulation going in and most of the other structural work almost complete, the residents should begin to feel the benefits of Passivhaus living!

Around the back of the property, we have begun removing part of the brickwork around the window in the upstairs stairwell in order to install Automatic Opening Ventilation (AOV) – this will help to ventilate smoke and other toxic gases in the unlikely event of a fire, helping to meet fire safety standards in the Building Regulations.

Finally, the team have also been working to finish off the eaves at the back of the building and will be done very soon.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 11

Our team have been working hard on installing the Magply A1 fire-rated board around the property. Still some more to go, so work continues on that into this week.

We have also carried on installing firebreaks on each level of the property, to ensure that Beattie Passive’s higher standard of fire safety is reached.

Finally, as work to install the Magply fireboard was underway, it was discovered that an adjacent property has a fishpond not very far from the wall we were working on. Initial thoughts were to just remove this, however we expect challenges like this to present themselves regularly as we take the TCosy forward, and so are trying to find ways to work our thermal envelope around it.

 

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 10

Another busy couple of weeks at King Street!

The team have started installing the non-combustible fire boards around the building and have also been busy fitting the fire-board around the window reveals. The fire breaks are also going in on each floor level inside the void.

The eaves have been built on the roof. Once the building has been clad with steni-board the gutters and downpipes will be attached.

The Monoflex Radon barrier is being put in place in the trench around the bottom of the building, to wrap around the void down to the foundation of the building.

Finally, all the MVHR units have now been checked and commissioned. The machines have been left turned off until we have pumped the structural thermal envelope with insulation. This is because the MVHR ducting runs within this void and thus currently would be very inefficient without it being fully insulated.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 9

A busy few weeks at the Great Yarmouth Retrofit have seen a number of things come to fruition.

18mm Versapanel has now been installed around all the window reveals throughout the building to enhance fire safety – Having in excess of two hours fire resistance.

The aluminium rails have also been completely installed, and the Magply is also on site and ready to be installed onto the railings. This will create the void into which the insulation will be pumped.

The team have completed decking the roof, and the wraptite membrane has been installed on the roof to make it weather tight. Work has now begun on constructing the gable detail.

Finally, installation of the DPC (Damp Proof Course) membrane has begun, about 150mm above ground-level, to the existing foundations to combat Rising Damp and prevent moisture from entering the property.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 8

Over the last couple of weeks, the team completed  installation of the (MVHR) throughout the building – the main unit in the roof space is complete and now all of the flats are connected to it. We’ve also made sure to make good all the holes required for the ductwork on the outside of the building, blocking them up with concrete, reapplying the Passive Purple, and then putting firestops around the ducting.

The team have also installed the roof joists and have now started to deck them, and the aluminium rails continue to go up around the building, and these will eventually hold the external cladding.

Finally, this week we had visits from Alan Osbourne from Building Control, and Paul Quinney, an independent inspector, and were able to show them the progress we have made on site so far.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 7

The installation of the MVHR continued apace this week – we’ve finished installing the main unit in the roof space and have now started working on connecting each flat to it. So far we’ve connected 4 out of the 6 flats and this should be completed by the end of week 10.

Whilst installing the MVHR ducting care and attention is taken to ensure all exit points for the ducts are sufficiently airtight.

Good progress has been made on installation of roof joists this week.

The team completed the installation of all of the wall brackets and have now started putting the aluminium rails onto the brackets. The A1 fire-class board will then go over the top of these in the weeks to come.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 6

This week the team have continued decking out the loft space in preparation for the MVHR system to be installed next week. We have also installed lights in the loft space to allow for the MVHR systems to be fitted and serviced in the future. Work has also continued on the roof, this week we’ve started to put in the roof joists. Once all the roof joists are in place, we will deck them and put the cladding over the top, essentially creating a new void which will then be insulated to form the top part of the continuous insulation layer.

More brackets have been installed, and we’ve also had a visit from the Passive Purple team, who have finished spraying on the Passive Purple airtight membrane. This will help us reach our target airtightness of 1.0m³/hm², and it’s also given the King Street building a distinct, colourful look!

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 5

Week 6

Work continued this week on stripping the roof tiles and installing the brackets on the walls around the building. The team have now also started working within the roof space – we have begun decking out the roof space with OSB, this will make a workable space when installing the MVHR machines and ducts. Decking this out completely will not only make is safe for install but also safe for ongoing maintenance by Great Yarmouth Council. Preparations are also being made to install the Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) unit in the roof space.

Week 7

This week, it was our pleasure to host our Great Yarmouth Retrofit Site Visit. We had over 20 interested parties attend, and heard presentations from both our Managing Director Ron Beattie, as well as our Alastair Howard, representing our partners on the project Oxford Brookes University. After a Danish pastry or three, we then made our way to the site itself, where Ron was able to explain what had happened so far and our plans for the retrofit for the future. We had a great time meeting our partners and our guests and enjoyed providing more insight into the project.

The work on the retrofit was unfortunately slightly delayed this week due to adverse weather conditions, meaning the application of the airtightness membrane was slightly delayed, pushing back installation of the MVHR system to next week. The team have however continued fitting the brackets onto the walls, meaning we now have over 500 brackets installed with about 200 more to go. The loft space also saw more work this week as we prepare it for the eventual installation of the MVHR system.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 4

The team finished removing the chimneys from the roof earlier in the week and have now started work on removing the existing roof tiles. This will give us access to the roof trusses, over which we can install our air-tightness layer. We can then put the boards over the top of it, and this will form the top part of the structural thermal envelope for the building.

Great Yarmouth TCosy Retrofit – Entry 3

The team have made good progress on preparing the building for the TCosy these last 2 weeks. The permanent scaffolding is now in place, going all the way up to the roof so that work can begin on removing the chimneys from the building.

The team have also started removing the existing drains from rainwater outlets, and these will be re-positioned as the retrofit progresses.

We have also been progressing on installing the brackets on the wall to support the external cladding – the first step in the actual building of the TCosy!

As you can imagine, all this work has produced quite a lot of debris – so we also dedicated some time this week to cleaning up the site.