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This seems a more appropriate avatar:

Any roadworks near you that have the pedestrian barriers than fit nice into the back of a car!!

I guess that the one upside of this is that if I get the roof removed in order to relocate any bats, then the property is uninhabitable and I won't have to pay council tax any longer. That alone will save £150 per month. Off to read the ecology report.

I will only add that, as the former manager of multi-million pound contracts in my old day job, there is absolutely no way that I would take the risk, as a self-builder, of appointing anyone into any legally binding role. It's a minefield of potential personal liability, and one that self-builders are very well advised to stay well away from, and let their contractors sort out amongst themselves, as they are required to by law.

My thoughts entirely. If you wanted a house with a large flat garden, why would you buy one that has a burn running across the garden with the ground rising steeply the other side? I agree it's a lovely feature to have and I would not want to hide it. What's not to like?

Said the voice of reason shaking his head and wondering why he bothers...

This is only NOT mental IF your not doing the UVC anytime soon Even more so if you go for another header tank.

It seems to me that you are set on a secondary cylinder, so can you lag all pipework well to reduce losses? It is just like electrical wiring, except backwards, you need to insulate it well, odd I know, kind of goes against the grain, even for most plumbers

Thanks Redoctober for the planner. I'm using this.

Yes, the lining has to match the door thickness. Personally I prefer planted on stops so I can set the stops exactly to the door after it's hung.

Don't be misled by guidelines which don't compare apples with apples for UVC size. Remember that you are having a direct with immersions NOT one fed off a boiler and wet coil. Big difference between the two as the recovery times are worlds apart. Forget about house sizes, "x size UVC for a 4 bed house" etc etc as DHW consumption is unique to each property. If a family stays and all use the shower in rapid succession then you'll even struggle with a 200L TBH, so you need to draw a line somewhere. To reheat from cold with just an immersion takes MUCH longer, and you also get less meaningful input from them whilst the hot water is being consumed eg they can't replace the energy being used as fast as it can / will be used, even more so vs a wet 'high recovery' coil. I'd say allow 70-80L of DHW per shower, and about 10mins worst case 'towel time' between showers ( for recovery ) as a benchmark for your calcs, and you'll be ok. That For starters you'll want a dual immersion tank, ( so you have redundancy / failsafe heater ), and if you go Telford then I know you can also specify 6kw immersions instead of the standard 3kw. With dual 6kw you could get away with a 150L or 180L imo based on an estimated 70/30 split of DHW/DCW consumption. The killer is two long showers back to back, so maybe for you the 180L is the safe limit. You can even buy UVC's with 3x 5kw immersions too, so one of those at 150L would suffice. There are plenty of solutions to this problem, just need to fine tune the criteria and size accordingly.

I'm using a 9Kw unit just because its what I purchased cheap ! We're not at passive spec either, but air tightness is key and we also have the MVHR.. If you time your DHW / Buffer / UFH correctly then nothing is fighting for heat anyway..!

As long as their is room for the plumbing. Ours is in the airing cupboard, built around it once the tank was in. We have 250L. SWMBO has showered until it went cold, then complained the tank was not big enough. Don't under estimate how long a woman can spend in a shower.

My house was built on a department of agriculture grant in the 70s. It isn't even taped and filled- they simply painted over the plasterboard. Some of the rooms have been papered, but you can still lie in bed and count nail heads as you drift off.

Welcome - Sequence and interfaces between the trades becomes everything in this sort of project - being clear of everybody's scope and knitting the scopes together is vital. Covering up is not difficult if needed but probably the knock through can be done once the extension is actually part built and perhaps largely watertight. Have you a drawing that might help us understand what you are doing? Otherwise a typical sequence might be (Not exhaustive): Get design including specifications for materials / finishes etc. Get planning permission. Get building control on board. Ground works - including any soil pipes, electric / gas / comms ducts etc. (Usually the ground worker) Foundation formation - fitting any insulation, laying DPM and pouring the concrete of a particular specification to a tolerance in the ground works. (Usually the ground worker) Walls including damp proof coursing, insulation, window apertures and airtightness. (of whatever construction - sounds like timber frame in your case). (Chippy) Roof timbers, sheathing - wooden surface, Vapour Control Layer if required, air tightness and link work to existing roof. (Chippy) {Rainwater goods probably needed here as well to take water from roof} Cut into existing roof and cover up. (General builder type work but chippy might to it) Roof covering including VCL if not in chippy scope, EG membrain, and refitting / making good any tiles from sloping roof to meet new flat portion. (Roofer - they usually want a flat, boarded / sheathed, surface to work from and connect roof to rainwater goods) Brick infills, required damp proof courses, associated insulation and structural connections(Bricklayer) Cut through existing building including fitting structural steel if needed. EG Lintel / RSJ (General builder) Fit windows and maintain / continue airtightness (Window company or general builder) Complete outer surfaces EG render or whatever. (General builder or specialist depending on finishes} Internal fit out EG second fix etc, without damage to airtightness. (General builder / Electrician / Plumber) Plastering / Drylinning (Plasterer / dry liner) Kitchen fit (Kitchen fitter) Decorating (Decorator, significant other - if persuadable or yourself!) Kitchen warming party. Each one will need a clear scope and check that there are no gaps and minimal overlaps (no point in paying twice) between the scopes. Hope this helps.

Welcome.

Thanks for all the comments I'm not overly concerned about heating as if the house performs as promised then we will need very little. I'm concerned about running out of hot water and nuisance heat esp during the summer. If possible i would like an option of being able to cool the slab. Just on mobile

Use this to help keep your architrave nice and tidy. http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-mitre-adhesive-200ml/41795 Lay the 3 cut pieces out on the ground/ anything flat using battens to keep them lifted up and use the glue to hold the bits together. Easier to have a few doors worth cut as the glue sets rock hard in under 30 secs. You can then lift the complete bit up and nail it with out the risk of your cuts opening up and looking untidy. Also works with external corners of skirting.

Can I remind you of two points I raised: "the builder and self employed person need to be different people" and "a limited company is not required". Nobody needs to "to learn how to set up a company". A self employed person is not restricted by what you call "the HMRC VAT reclaim scheme" for self builders - so yes I agree with you, you are mistaken. I do not understand your comment "there were some concerns over how VAT would be managed" and I have completed hundreds of vat returns. .

I strongly disagree; the cost is not "so high as to make it a pointless exercise.". A self employed person, acting as builder does not need to have an accountant nor do they require any audit charges; a limited company is not required. They do need to maintain accounts but so does a self builder to recover vat after the build is completed. There are major advantages of employing a vat registered self employed builder to build a house for a self builder in that the builder can submit very simple vat returns on a monthly or quarterly returns which has significant cashflow assistance and avoids bank interest charges on overdrafts and credit cards. The self builder would not need to complete the ridiculously complicated vat return, and stupid vat recovery rules because all vat would be recovered by the builder who has less onus to prove the vat claimed is justified. The builder can also recover vat for business petrol and can recover a proportion of their house costs used for a study in their income tax return, a self builder cannot. The builder invoices the self builder with zero vat; the builder and self employed person need to be different people. Provided the builder does not make a profit there is no further taxation payments. Setting up an individual as a self employed person has no setup costs and minimal admin costs; this is what I and millions of others have done. Closing a self employed person's business costs nothing. The self employed builder in this scenario will only have to submit one tax return. A self employed person can close down the business with one letter to HMRC; I know because this is what I did, I was self employed Accountant and Management Consultant.

Re: your not allowed to speak to her I'm wondering if the company you paid subcontracts out the actual work to self employed solicitors. They may not want you talking direct in case the solicitor steals "their" customer.