Solar Shading | Marsh Flatts Farm Self Build Diary

Week 43, Day 1:

Another failure of the automated blog posting logic, because the mains power was off for several hours on Sunday and I’d forgotten that the Raspberry Pi computer which is responsible for grabbing the hourly snapshots from the time-lapse camera loses time when the power is off, so it was taking snapshots but not labelling them with the correct time
Delivery of the MDF boards for the architraves and skirtings
Assembly of the solar shading panels ready for installation tomorrow
- These arrived as separate cedar fins, brackets and fixings for assembly on-site
- Cedar is notoriously bad at holding screw fixings into the end-grain so it is good to see the fins held in place with 12mm pins attached to the end-plates rather than screws into the cedar, and also to see a gap between the plates and the fins so they don’t rot at the ends
Installation of the first of the internal doors, which are pre-finished oak veneered fire doors from JB Kind doors in Swadlincote, South Derbyshire – specifically their Roma Diana model
- These are nice looking, solid doors and are available in bespoke sizes at a reasonable price
- They do some more traditional oak doors with raised panels or grooved detailing but those are only available in standard sizes – unless ordering in very large quantities
Installation of the engineered oak flooring in the Dining Room
Installation of the last of the zinc roofing on the main section of the north roof
- Now just the edges and fascias to complete

Week 43, Day 1

Solar shading units partially assembled

Internal Door (to Plant Room)

Oak flooring in Dining Room

Last section of zinc on main area of north roof

Week 38, Day 2:

The team from Contrasol were back on site to install the steel support brackets for the brise soleil
- The large expanse of glazing on the south elevation in particular is good for natural light and passive solar gain in the winter but potentially introduces a risk of overheating in the summer
- A horizontal brise soleil just above the sliding doors blocks the high-level sun in mid summer but allows the lower winter sun through underneath
- The exact projection of the brise soleil was included in the PHPP calculations to take account of both the passive solar gain and the risk of overheating
The first of the wet plaster on the masonry walls
- Almost all of the rooms have at least one masonry wall
- The external walls are wet-plastered to form the main air tightness barrier
- While the internal masonry walls could be plasterboarded (with dot-and-dab fixings) most of them are also wet plastered, which is better for thermal mass