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Okay, so I know that I promised another blog post soon way back at the beginning of December but it was busy on the build. Crazy busy, details to follow. As for Christmas, well, that didn't turn out as planned, and I had planned it so well. Both OH and I were proper knackered by the time we got into December - me with the build, OH running our business by himself, so we planned some quality R&R by running away to Gran Canaria on Christmas eve for a week. A fly and flop, turn ourselves into zombies for a week then return all bright eyed and bushy tailed for the new year. You just know this isn't going to end well, don't you? You'd be right. 2 days after we got to Gran Canaria, Paul started to feel off-form, then he felt crap, then he felt like death would be a more comfortable option. Turns out he developed real flu, not man flu, but real, proper, can't get out of bed to pick up a £20 note that someone has dropped on the floor flu. Not great, but it got worse. On Thursday, I learned the hard way why all-inclusive buffet style food has such a poor reputation and I mulled on this whilst turning myself inside out and wondering whether, in my sickly state, I had the necessary co-ordination to take care of everything with only one WC and no handy plastic bowl available. Thankfully, I did and whilst recovering the following morning I thought that the worst was over. You just know this is going to get worse, don't you? It did. We just about managed to get home (thankfully flying into Bournemouth) with OH in an increasingly sickly state. Ever the prima donna and insisting on trumping my food poisoning, flu became something between bronchitis and pneumonia and OH was a very sickly boy to the extent that tomorrow will be his first day back at work. I banned myself from the build for a few days in the new year as I'd caught a cold, but I couldn't be self indulgent about it given my patient was worse. So, if there's any justice in the world, we should be good to go for the next and final stint on the build but I'm all to aware that life isn't fair, so we shall see. Enough of plague and pestilence, let's get onto the plastering bit. Actually, I'll come back to that because although in real time we are mid way through the skim now, a vast amount has gone on since early December when the cellulose was blown in as first fix got started in earnest and at a break-neck pace. The plastering has only started in earnest in the new year and I'd like to cover the first fix stuff that happened in December, given that this is the heart and circulatory system that will make the building function as a comfortable home. We received our planning permission just over 1 year ago and I already knew largely how I wanted the building to function, as a result of reading so much here on BH. About the same time as PP was granted a BH contact was looking for consultancy work and I offered him some on this build. Although he had no prior experience in this area all mostly went okay and plumbing and heating systems were integrated into the build plan and were executed satisfactorily until the second fix and final stages. The nature of the first fix work means that it's hard to photograph the amount of effort that goes into it, but there is plenty. Initially, the team is focussing on getting all the MVHR pipes through the metal web joists and, in time, insulating them. Then there are all the underfloor heating pipes to be run through to the right places and the manifolds. We're having UFH upstairs as well as downstairs - the ground floor manifold is in the very useful cupboard under the stairs, the upper one in the loft space along with all sorts of other interesting things. Here's a nice selection of the MVHR pipes, some insulated, as well as the clipped up UFH pipes that are insulated where they are tied together and in contact with one another. And here's a close up of the insulated UFH pipes. Thought has gone into how air will flow around the building with the aid of the MVHR system. In particular, in the large open plan lounge/diner/kitchen area, and how to ensure that none but the stinkiest cooking smells make it out of the kitchen area. As a result, there are long runs of the MVHR pipework leading to plenums at the far end of the lounge area where air will flow into the room. The exhaust pipes for this area are (almost) directly over the hob on the island at the far end, so the airflow should ensure that all the cooking smells get sucked up and out over the kitchen area. Here's a photo of the inlet plenums either side of the window at the far end of the living area. Originally, the architect designed the entire upstairs to have vaulted ceilings, including the landing. Whilst MBC were still drawing up their engineering drawings, we asked for the landing area to be boarded out to create a loft area as this would be an ideal space to stuff a load of plant, including the MVHR manifolds. On reflection, this was also a good decision as I think the proportions of that area would have looked very odd and felt like a vertical tunnel due to the height of the ceiling at that point (4.7m). The MVHR manifolds have been neatly attached to racked out sections in the loft area, making sure that room is left for the upstairs UFH manifold and, in time, the PV inverters. One note with the benefit of hindsight is that having an MVHR unit directly over habitable rooms, in our case bedroom and ensuite, should only be considered if the unit is going to be thoroughly sound-proofed. Ours was never given the promised sound-proofing measures and it's hellishly noisy without them, but we will be rectifying this soon. Here's the loft area back in December: And the one on the west wall. You can also see the UFH manifold and the black cables from the PV panels that will be connected to the inverters. There were also the soil pipes to tackle and these were planned to get sufficient fall on them as they came through the web joists: For anyone tackling a similar build, I can't stress too much the advantage of having your systems people involved from the very start. It means that any holes that need to be put through steel beams to accommodate pipework can be designed in and made at the fabrication stage. Even then, things can go awry and a couple of the steel penetrations were either off kilter or not in the right place, but the majority were where they needed to be and made life much easier. An example of this kind of thing is the stud wall between the landing and the en-suite for the master bedroom. In order to be able to hide the various pipes that travel up to the loft space, MBC were asked to make this into a twin stud wall and specified the depth so that it would carry the pipework. Here it is. A bit tricky to see, but you can easily see the benefit of being able to conceal this bulky pipework into the fabric of the build. Speaking of concealing things, all the loos in the house are wall-hung with the cistern concealed in the wall. All you see is the loo and the flush plate, and so the framework needs to be put in before walls are boarded and plastered. Here's one such frame: I'm on a bit of a catch up now so stay tuned for the next exciting episodes of ponds, brise soleil and vertical slate cladding. Ta ta for now.

Hi, we just wanted to introduce ourselves and our Red Kite mascot. Our Kite is a life size steel sculpture made by a blacksmith in Pembrokeshire - started out bright steel but is now rusting nicely to a lovely red kite colour. We love it, and its carefully mounted on a temporary post in anticipation of the demolition of our scuzzy 60's bungalow and moving to our snazzy self-build. Well now at last we can join the ranks of the Self Builders - after a 4 year battle we FINALLY won our second Appeal and have Planning Permission (we just can't stop grinning). We can't tell you what a relief this is: 4 years of 'life on hold' and at the whim of an inordinate number of stupid Willy Wonkas who seem to have either egos the size of a planet or brains the size of plankton. Planning has been a complete nightmare and is worthy of a blog post in its own right - a combination of a painfully slow and inconsistent LPA (6 planning officers and counting), being surrounded by some truly VILE neighbours (105 letters of objection!) and vicious local politics with an 'interesting' planning committee ( we made three appearances and vowed 'never again'). So a combination of 1 pre -app (complete waste of time and money), 3 CofL's , 4 Planning apps and 2 Appeals (both with officer approval and rejection by committee), we are there and we can finally move from Dreaming the Build to Building the Dream. It is, as they say, water (and a lot of money) under the bridge, and we are trying to put it behind us but as anyone out there who has been through it will know, it has been a truly unpleasant experience. But now this is where the really EXCITING whirlwind starts - the pace just seems to accelerate, and sure the storm is just starting to build up. So far lots of meeting with Architects, SE's, Timber Frame vendors, Window makers, Money men, Accountants, Services, Groundworkers etc etc. As yet no decisions on build route or construction method but accumulating lots of information, reading this excellent Forum, picking brains and thinking a bit. The plan is to build two contemporary, lowish energy houses and live in the bigger one. The challenges are a sloping clay site with tricky drainage, building into the slope, and a bungalow that we are itching to move out of and demolish! We will try and keep up with a few progress posts and a pose a few interesting questions to the knowledgeable community out there. We are on the Gloucestershire / Wiltshire border so if there members nearby we would love to see what you are doing. Oh and by the way did we say we are just so EXCITED to be building!!!!! We am sure Self Building will have its lows but its hard to imagine it being worse that 4 years of Planning misery.

Well that’s 5 weeks now since we made our move into the house, our joiner worked away until December 21st then cleared all his stuff away to allow us to get ready for Christmas. We have a fully functional kitchen, lounge, dining room, bedroom, ensuite and bathroom and it has been pure bliss living in a house again! The glass for the staircase should be this coming week after which we will get the upstairs organised and maybe buy some new furniture ? the chap from the heating company came down eventually and sorted things out for us , turned out to be something minor but with nothing labelled it was difficult to get your head round so now we have a better understanding of it all. waiting for the better weather now to get a ramp, steps and decking done and the garden and drive sorted out but all in all I am very happy with my new home and haven’t yet found anything that I wish we had done differently, although this could come! They do say you’ get your third one right ?

Sod all to do with making one, just about knowing how they work so that one that does heating and cooling can be chosen. Not rocket science, just a matter of reading the specs and understanding that the manufacturers of ASHPs often hide the fact that they will cool just as well as they heat, perhaps because to be eligible for the RHI the cooling functionality has to be hidden, even though it's always there for a heating ASHP.

That all sounds excellent - I shall do exactly that - thank you. More questions will be coming on the central heating and wet room extension....... But we have something taking up all our time at the moment - I just had to share! She's called Tegan and is 8 weeks old. we are going to socialise her for Dogs for Good, a local charity.

We did exactly that when we brought the electricity in We got wind of a road widening scheme that would have meant us having to pay for a road closure So we had it run into the box at the side of the house and capped What would say is don’t have a meter installed They were pretty keen to put a metre in but we would have been charged quarterly We had the gas there capped for 15 months When we wanted a meter it was one phone call and two days later we were up and running

Can I ask why they insulated the mvhr ducts? You normally only do that if they pass through a cold zone.

I’m in bed Ill, so I’m bored for anybody who has recently received planning or thinks it may come soon, get all those trees and hedges removed before bird nesting season starts if you don’t get them out before March you could be looking at long delays or expensive ecology survey to prove no nesting birds are present.

Mike - you're welcome to pop over to see my garage doors, if it helps.

Other option is to 18mm shuttering ply ( cheapest of the plywoods ) the whole thing prior to PB and crack on. NB : Don't forget to provision for the power and bell push wires

I have just fitted two Horman sectional doors and you need to fit them before plasterboarding to ensure solid fixings to carry the weight of the door when it is open. It will look alot neater when it is finished as well. As @Nickfromwalessays just drop one bracket at a time to plasterboard then re-attach afterwards. The other way I have seen it done was to plasterboard/skim and then attach a fairly decent timber the width of the garage opening to the joists/trusses above and then attach the brackets of the Horman door to this timber.

Just the odd Welsh plumber eh? Emphasis on the "odd"!

the tracks are only held up by a couple of "L" brackets, the door can be fitted then when plasterboarding is done the tracks can be propped up with wood and the "L" brackets removed and then reinstated after the plasterboarding is completed

Lol, the blog is being written retrospectively, but i am sure it'll all come good in the end... ?

It seems to be always the big unknown is to do with a groundwork....! Our build will start this year and planning to have a 25m2 basement. How large is your basement? Is there any chance you can share a bit more breakdown of the ground work cost? There might be some lesson to learn. Big thanks in advance. It might save some cost to have Ikea kitchen unit with custom design doors. https://www.reformcph.com/en/ https://www.nakeddoors.com/ikea https://superfront.com/uk/

My neighbours have a similar set up in their own home as since the kids all left home they rent out their spare rooms to contractors at the local power station where they work. Their house is similar in size to mine so pretty large and the contractors have their own en-suite bedroom large enough for a sofa and tv too, and one of the reception rooms is for their own use too but they share the rest of the house with my neighbours. Seems to work pretty well and the contractors tend to stay Mon - Thurs nights and then go home to their families. They have anything between 2 and 4 staying at any one time. They tried to persuade me to do it too but I don’t fancy it TBH so I just rattle around here on my own ?.

You could ask over on UK White Goods.

I now have more cladding samples than I can shake a stick at, ranging from TrespaPura/Formica, through various composites (Dura and Enviro have almost identical products which look good and some of the composite decking products look ok for cladding), to the wood products (Larch, Accoya, Cedar), most treated and some untreated. The cost difference is significant, ranging from around £25 per sqM for untreated cheaper timber to £35-£40 ish for some of the composites to around £100+ per sqM for Accoya and some of the more engineered products. I am concerned that some of the timber treatments, though prolonging lift expectancy, may result in early/differential blackening and I have been given some horror stories regarding treatments. Accoya seems to get a good rating generally if given a Teknos coating though it is at the expensive end of the spectrum and will be very pale unless stained. It does have a broad spectrum of colours and wood shades available. It also has the best warranty and a good reputation as regards resisting blackening mould. I would be wary of some of the other technical woods (heat treatments etc..) which do not have the acetylation treatment of Accoya. To my mind the composites look best in greys where they are not trying too hard to mimic timber colours. They are also at the cheaper end, only beaten by the cheaper timbers like untreated Larch. TrespaPura and Formica are printed so the range of effects and colours is limitless and the smooth surfaced products should be easy to clean. I have not been given any information on how quickly and to what extent the more synthetic products are likely to be effected by UV bleaching, though the darker composite benches I have seen seem to have survived well. Natural timber seems to suffer more from differntial weathering/bleaching and will require regular treatment if you want to delay the bleaching (2-5 years depending on the orientation and conditions) and as I mentioned earlier, the treatments themselves can cause problems. The timber can be pre-weathered to avoid differential weathering with e.g. Sioox, at a cost of something like £15 per sqM. The Sioox should also extend the life of the timber. Lots to choose from and I have no experience in this area but the above is what I have gleaned from talking and reading up.... Any comments/thoughts would be appreciated.

As soon as I saw the picture of it, I thought that round hole with 2 flats to engage on the drive shaft was a weakness. It will "round" over time and the hot one will probably last the shortest time. Second hand pumps will be unknown and their impellers may be on their last legs. These are clearly getting harder to source so personally I would go and buy the 2 that bloke on ebay has.

The joins can also be chased out. Going at 90 degrees is an issue but our 90 degree angles downstairs are in shower and utility where we do not mind having a lowered ceiling service void. The main rooms have straight runs. Upstairs we have vaulted ceilings with service void so no issues. We went with concrete first floor for soundproofing, thermal mass and UFH. PosiJoists would probably have been quicker and cheaper and gives much more flexibility. Decision making is, after all, the art of the compromise.

You can't reclaim any VAT via invoices a builder supplies you with either VAT registered or not. Those that are VAT registered must zero rate their labour and materials when they invoice you. Those who are not VAT registered zero rate their labour but cannot zero rate the materials so you will have to pay the VAT that the builder paid on those. So the builder is wrong I'm afraid. He also can't order any materials on your behalf and give you the invoice to reclaim the VAT as the invoice MUST be in your own name for the reclaim scheme. The only way of working with this guy (if he is not VAT registered) is for you to have an account at the builders merchant and for him to order materials that you pay for. He may not like that as he will likely make a bit of profit on materials if he buys them. The VAT reclaim scheme is for qualifying materials only that you buy yourself during the course of the build. No labour, no services, no 'jobs' can be reclaimed. It should all be explained in this thread:

Similarly the main builder can provide the scaffolding (and any machinery) as part of his package of work and it can be zero rated, but if you hire any of those separately you will need to pay VAT although even then there are some bits that can be zero rated. Scaffolding erection and dismantling fees can be zero rated but the hire charges cannot, and if your hire machine arrives with an operator it can be zero rated and if not you will pay full VAT. It's a minefield and often builders won't know the regulations that well so if they charge you VAT @ 20% on everything they believe that they are covering themselves in case they have made a mistake and undercharged. Do think things through and ensure that the price you are paying a builder to have all of these extra things included isn't more than you could hire them for yourself even paying the VAT. Builders are going to want to make a profit - they aren't going to supply these things to save you money ordinarily. Paying the appropriate amount of VAT is important but getting the maximum amount zero rated is not THE most important thing in the great scheme of things so keep your thinking flexible when it comes to deciding how to source these things that ordinarily have VAT added to them. I don't want to tempt fate but the idea that you may have the same groundworker back later may not be how things turn out. Sadly there are many occasions where you end up parting company with a builder for various reasons or resolve not to have them back. I wouldn't want to have tied my builder in to do anything beyond what I had originally asked him for on the strength of him having left some Heras fencing on site for me. Every job really needs to be specified and quoted at the appropriate time and you need to retain the flexibility to choose who you use at every stage of the build.

Ouch!! Good luck with reviewing the remaining budgets. I'm sure there are savings to be had across the board and all will come good in the end. I suppose now that you are out of the ground, you can have a bit more control over the budgets as the ground works were always going to be the unknown quantity!

I feel for you! We’ve also got a basement and digging it out went from an estimated 4 weeks to 12 weeks. Luckily we have a large sloping site so we were able to loose the excess spoil on site and I did all the labouring so as to keep costs down.

Stage 1 of mount done. Tanalised fence posts and decking joists. The Unistrut will span front to back over the decking joist to mount the panels on. Then I will asses how rigid the structure is and what diagonal bracing needs to be added. The eaves are over long at the moment and will be cut when the panels are on and I know where they really come to. The space underneath will eventually be boarded in to become a shed with the top part up the bank just having a rough platform for limited storage, and the lower part looks an ideal candidate to become the bike shed. We were planning to start mounting the panels this week as SWMBO has some time off work so could help manhandle them, but that plan looks thwarted as the Unistrut has not arrived yet.

You are not clear whether this is 1 - A flip and sell, 2 - A short term (<5 year) investent, 3 - A long term investment, or 4 - Somewhere to live for the short term, or 5 - Somewhere to live long-term. That affects things significantly. I have recently been investing for the long term (=10-25 years), though could sell earlier, which means I have an eye on what the standards will be in say 2030, and how I want to balance off more investment now against whether my typical tenancies will be 1-2 years or 6-10 years. I have turned down possible purchase of several renovated properties on the basis that the basic work (eg IWI or UFI) has been done, or not done, to a poor or typical standard, and that money has been spent on making it posh no top of that, so that the net result has been a tarted-up old house that will need to be fundamentally gutted in 10 years time in order for it to be legal in 15 years time a rental. IMO You can sell lower standard refurbs more easily to owner occupiers than to knowledgeable people who will rent it out, because required minimum standards are higher in rentals than Owner Occupied dwellings even now. I think you need to take time to look at your overall goals and how to get there before you do anything. The problem is that you are presumably already paying Full Council Tax on it ! My normal current mix for long-term investments is roughly: Target at least current Building Regs standard, and an EPC C grade. Do Underfloor insulation anyway if a long term refurb. Do IWI if solid walls, with 50mm or 75mm of Celotex or PIR insulation. That is, highly insulating stuff. Smaller rooms reduces sale price. Do not necessarily do IWI if cavity wall where cavities have been filled. Fit good well-sealed windows - better quality 2G. Do Underfloor Insulation of some sort if floating floor. On slab insulation if solid floor - but needs to be quite tactical wrt door, ceiling height. Bring services inside the insulated envelope. The last one I ran them in voids in a floating floor. Not sure about this yet. 250mm loft insulation - usually done for free. If too much insulation in loft to get it free, but less than required, use existing loft insulation to insulate under floor if possible. Obsessive attention to detail wrt gaps etc. Deal with ventilation separately, usually via a loft-fan (Nuaire etc), and an outlet fan or two on permanent trickle, either HR (Heat Recover) or not HR. My next one I will probably use UFH and a boiler that modulates down, or a ASHP if I can be confident enough. The usuals - Rewire, Replumb, Kitchen, Bathroom, Plaster, Redec etc are much more run of the mill stuff. Assuming no pratfalls on your part, that mix seems to keep Ts happy and deliver bills around half what they would be in a non-renovated house. The question is whether that matches your identified goals. Tenant management is an entirely different shark-infested custard. Ferdinand

Dead simple. In 80mm of depth it would be nigh on daft to attempt to overlay 30mm of product where 16mm of that was pipe as its integrity would be that of a KitKat. Also, trying to bond those two thermally dissimilar layers ( one would be heated, the other would be being heated by the other ) would be a proper ball-ache. They 100% made the right decision for you there.

I get lots of contractors for big employers e.g. Rolls Royce Airbus. So they usually own a home at the other end of the country. Need a nice relaxed place ; cheaper than a B&B but want all the modern mod cons. Certain 'young professionals' also like to share with similar. Cheaper than a 1 bed flat. They like it because all bills are included including cleaner, wifi, sky sports etc. etc. etc. So it's just 1 monthly bill that covers everything. Similar types of people get on real well together. It means they socialise more with people in the house; feel more comfortable and therefore stay longer. A few years ago I noticed 'luxury HMO's' coming up in London ; so knew this would filter through to Bristol. I am of course hoping better tenants in a better property look after it better.

One reason to go for an HMO is that the furniture and services are supplied, so it becomes a pied-a-terre not a main home. That is a different market than say someone who cannot afford a house and the HMO becomes the main dwelling. An example might be a mature student at Canterbury University or a South-East rep, both of whom have family and home in the West or the Midlands or the North and commute weekly. They are not struggling for somewhere to live, but want somewhere where they can just land temporarily as a compromise between a hotel or B&B and a rented house where they have to worry about lecky suppliers and finding furniture. Some of the same type of tenant may have their wares and stock kept in a small unit at a Big Yellow Self-Storage. One step further on the spectrum towards hotels or B&B is that as the campaign to make it harder and harder for LLs has continued, more are now using properties as Holiday or AIRBNB lets, as these still get generous tax concessions. The other sweet spots currently spare bedroom tax allowances and being having lodgers to just below the HMO threshold. (That is one reason why I would carefully at potential developments before jumping on the Holiday Let bandwagon as a self-builder. Holiday lettings LLs may be next on the hate-list). F

I'd agree to splitting the kitchen, and consider carefully how much "walkway" you want to leave. You could even put a similar thing the other side and leave the walkway in the middle ?. And I'd hope that "narrow" meant at least 300mm (ideally 600mm) - ie at least the width of wall units, so that it could function as something useful in the context - either as a slimline BB or a shelf to put things on. You could perhaps use wall cupboards or shelves to give extra space. Where it joins the side of the kitchen, you could just take out a 600 unit and leave a small gap as say a hoover or bin space. Yep - that is the type of thing I had in mind. It will make them walk diagonally a little less, and act as "punctuation" in movement around the kitchen so there is a slowing-down and consideration at the hazard point. If it were so narrow as to only be like a fence or a set of banisters they might protest :-). F

PS I would be thinking about things like spreading Junipers that will be 20ft wide and up to about 5 ft high, in 12-15 years, and a huge bank of different-coloured Pyracantha in front of the garage (heaven for birds). This is Landscape Design not gardening - go to town on it. F

If like here you can have a buried gas meter away from house or on the wall what ever you like --so they can just bring it into the plot and cap it off till you ready to connect ,just ask them .

Lovely job. I just happened to glance in the mirror; I have gone slightly green. The language ... esp. the heavy eaves, and window / door proportions and placing eg heavy chimneys, mullions and windows continued to the roofline: for me that look is Lutyens or Arts/Crafts inspired .. looking at places like Deanery Garden or Fig Tree Court. The marker is heavyset vertical proportions but still an emphasis on the horizontal as the frame. I am sure that someone can identify parallel comparators in Scotland sure that. William Kerr and The Gean? I would be interested to hear a bit more about your inspirations. What is your landscaping scheme? To me a key element is how you are going to handle those large pieces of blank wall next to the front door, and on the face of the garage. Not having features on the wall there, to me it needs a concept or something to root them into the plot. I would look to something quite architectural as the core, to provide a counterpoint to the smooth texture of the walls. Good job. F

Thank you! Will have a read....

yes oak internally and some external but it's not an 'oak frame' as the structural integrity is from the icf rather than the oak. Our gable ends are structural oak though - see below in the picture. We'll also have an oak porch on the side.

UFH is a can of worms in a retrofit. Be very wary of what youll do to keep the place warm if youre not going to remove the wooden floors ( joists and all, eg nothing between you and the dirt ) and insulate under a new slab. You can insulate under the joists a little and then insulate between the joists, and then you can lay aluminium spreader plates directly underneath the floorboards which will work. If you zoom in you can see the shiny aluminium panels with the two indents for a piece of 16mm pipe to sit in. This really is a question of how far you can improve the building in order for UFH to become suitable. A house like this would normally need high temp emitters such as radiators, which quickly change cold air into warm air and circulate it around the room whilst doing so. LOTS to consider before even thinking about UFH

All on my link.

Better people than me to advise but think about it from this angle: Seal that old house up tight and insulate without ventilation and you'll have no end of condensation and mould issues plus it won't be a very pleasant place to live. So you will need to ventilator. With MVHR you can recover something like 70-90% of the heat vented out. Worth a read: https://passipedia.org/planning/refurbishment_with_passive_house_components

Before going mad what's the roof like? Get that in good order or it has the potential to ruin everything else. Also you'll be looking to use airtight tape around the windows if you door properly. If you're going that far worrying about insulation and air tightness are you considering MVHR?

Oh my. I have just read this thread start to finish. What a beautiful beautiful house. The stairs are stunning.

So for clarity the builder should charge the VAT rate appropriate to the main element of his work (in this case the groundworks) and all other elements should also be charged at this rate as long as they are needed for the job and invoiced as a 'package of work'. So a groundworker who is charging you for groundworks and needs skips, machinery, security fencing should be able to charge zero rate as part of the arrangement as it is necessary for the job and "closely connected to the construction of the building". You start to push the boundaries if you ask him to provide Heras fencing and leave it up for the duration of the build because you can't argue that the work he is doing requires fencing to be installed for months after the groundworks are complete. So if you are strictly following the guidance in VAT Notice 708 (that VAT registered builders are obliged to follow) then no he can't really zero rate the Heras fencing beyond the point when his job has completed IMO. That said what matters is what the builder is willing to do for you. I had a couple out to quote who refused to zero rate anything at all. I think they thought I was on some massive fiddle and no attempt at explaining the new build rules would persuade them otherwise so I didn't use them. If you use a non VAT registered builder (for others who may be reading this as I believe that your prospective builder is VAT registered) although they won't charge you VAT on their labour they will have no choice but to pay VAT on the skip hire etc so you will end up paying the VAT on those things too. Similarly if a non VAT registered builder supplies materials. So ultimately you need to have a chat with the builder and agree the rules of engagement in respect of the VAT for your build. As I found out you can quote what you like at them but if they are not willing to do it that way then you are stuffed.

That should come under work closely connected to the construction of the building in VAT Notice 708 so can be zero rated as long as planning permission is in place. If the builder provides equipment such as skips etc and it is all invoiced as part of the main work then that should also be zero rated. If it's on a separate invoice it can't be. When you say Heras fencing are you meaning that the ground worker will bring this in and remove it again when he has finished the groundworks as you will then need more for when the real construction starts presumably? https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction

Yes that's correct, we have access to another 100 amp main fuser and meter. We install it's own split phase supply just fot the ASHP's and one goes to one property and one to the next. Each has it's own domestic hot water tank. I have a call with her scheduled for Monday So will be interesting to see prices.

Hi, SE plans attached, as requested. 9423-01C Foundation Plan.pdf 9423-02B Ground Floor Plan.pdf 9423-04A Second Floor Plan.pdf 9423-05D Sections & Details 1 of 3.pdf 9423-11A Columns & Beams RC 1.pdf 9423-03A First Floor Plan.pdf 9423-07B Sections & Details 3 of 3.pdf

So secondary metering after the main meter. Still a district system if it’s from one billing meter ?

Just to put the floatation aspect into perspective, we have an 85m² slab, which is EPS that's 300mm deep. If the water level rose to the top of the slab (DPM level) then the upward acting buoyancy of the EPS would be around 242 kN. The mass of concrete and steel in the slab is around 14.5 tonnes, so that exerts a downwards force of around 142 kN. The mass of the house built on top of the slab is around 30 to 40 tonnes, so that exerts a downwards force of between 294 to 392 kN. Summing these forces, using the minimum house mass, we end up with: Downwards forces = 142 kN + 294 kN = 436 kN Upwards force = 242 kN So, even if flooded up to the top edge of the slab, the point where the house would start to get flooded, there is zero risk of the house being displaced upwards by the buoyancy of the EPS, all that would happen is that the force acting on the ground beneath would reduce from around 436 kN to around 194 kN.

Been watching a few of these recently. It's a US series where, I think, they usually look at renovations, but the last series on Home has been a new factory-made house. I find it far more interesting than the UK series as they go into some detail on many aspects of the build. For example, showing you how to lay out and attach shingles (not that I can ever imagine wanting to use shingles!). They can do this as they cover each job over a number (many?) programmes. The house in the current series was wrapped in Raindrop 3D, which Kingspan don't seem to sell in the UK. This appears to allow you to clad directly on to it (without using battens), as its surface has drainage channels. On another programme I've seen them using a plastic mesh over a membrane rather than battens. Last week they poured the walls of an open-sided basement and unless I misheard they shuttered and poured all in one day. They used reusable shuttering. Terminology is different too. Building code rather than regulations, R values rather than U values, different term for MVHR (but can't remember what). It looks like Home may not be showing any more in the current run, but I've watched some from season 40 online. PS I have absolutely nothing to do with the programmes, UKTV, or Kingspan. Just found them interesting and could find only one very specific reference to them on here

I hate it when untreated wood goes grey too. They always say on Grand Designs "and it will weather off to a beautiful silvery grey" but in reality it just goes manky and looks like a garden shed.

Super cute We lost both our six and 12 months ago