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Hi everyone We've unfortunately heard that our window supplier has gone bankrupt. It's a little complicated for us but I thought I'd use it as a reminder to pay for large items at least in part on credit card. Especially ones that will take a while to produce. Also - trust your guts, if people seem too 'salesy', maybe there's a reason. We did feel this, but built up a good relationship in the end. We won't know what really happened, but perhaps a reminder to everyone will help it not happen to anyone else. If you pay at least £100 on a credit card, and the rest by bank transfer or other card, you should be covered by 'section 75' if the purchase total is under £30,000. The credit card company should refund you the money, as they take on liability. Fingers crossed our slightly complicated case will get through the section 75 and we'll get our money back too. Sending good vibes out there!

IMHO any RHI payments for new build should be on the assumption of A rating, whatever the house actually is.

CT1 the pedestal down, and a small bead on the top to bond the basin to the pedestal. Nuts are fine on the basin - nothing else needed.

There hasn’t been much happening here since the joiner finished mid January, we started oiling the staircase and associated newels etc, we’ve had carpets laid in 3 of the 4 bedrooms, the 4th one still needs decorating but neither of us has the inclination to do it and I’ve built up a couple of things for the grandchildren’s rooms. We got a brickie out last week to look at getting the steps and ramp done but with the turn in the weather again we’ll have to wait before we can have the machine in again to dig foundations for these and sort out the driveway and garden, so today at a loose end I spent the afternoon counting! With all the talk of price per sq m I wanted to get it all added together, I knew how much cash we’d had but what with using credit cards for some things and using the current account for others and with both our wages going into this account it seemed there were days when I didn’t know how much I’d spent or where it came from! So much for the spreadsheet I started which went ok until things got really busy and I was getting requests left right and centre for all manner of things.It took me a good few hours to go through bank statements, cc statements, cash withdrawals etc but I eventually got it all counted up and receipts into some kind of order, I wanted to get this done so I can hit the ground running when it comes to filling out the vat forms but I also want to now make a spreadsheet of individual costs such as , foundations, block work, drainage and so on just in case we ever decide to do it again! I’m a great believer in fate and things happening for a reason and the two plots we are marketing there is a couple very interested in one of them subject to talks they’re having just now with the local council regarding style of build, this would leave a spare plot?! Would my OH go for it again? I don’t know, I very much doubt it but stranger things have happened, after all we didn’t mean to build this one! Oh and btw we just found out the builders company we were using has folded, apparently one of the two brothers left the company a fortnight before we parted company with them which goes some way to explaining why they suddenly seemed to lose interest and stop coming which at the time seemed strange to us as they had done the majority of the work apart from the finishing joinery which they kept telling us was 4 days work, the joiner we got in after that spent the whole of November, December and part of January finishing off and redoing some of their work which was substandard.

I used 40mm of pir on external walls (as I was lining the inside of the timber frame with 40mm), and the edge roll stuff on the internals with 50mm poured screed. The screening guys ok'd it (in fact, they fitted it for me). It's been down over a year and it seems fine. At the risk of stating the obvious, depending on how you're building, you might just need to bear in mind that the perimeter insulation thickness will limited by your internal wall/skirting finish, unless you're floor coverings will be ok laid on a strip of insulation round the edges!

And two become one!

I've purchased brand names from Appliance Direct before no issue. Also running two ElectriQ Android boxes here on two old tvs. Assume they have fingers in many pies. https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/about-the-appliance-industry/manufacturer-information/4057-electriq-appliances

I've purchased from appliances direct in the past with no problems. The self-install air-to-air heat pumps look to be easy enough to fit, and quite neat. For the modest heating demand for your extension I can't see why one of these units shouldn't work well. The only thing I'd perhaps want to look at closely would be the maximum cooling capacity and the noise level. The latter can vary a lot from one model to another. One office I worked in ended up replacing the air con units because of the noise, and the replacements were virtually silent.

Reminded me of this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5gxnF-2jB8 I am sure that your journey is going to be paved with many additional grands here and there, got any big trees nearby? :)

Sorry to hear your news @Roz and I hope that your section 75 claim is successful. Indeed a good reminder to people to trust their gut and maybe now is also the time to walk away from sellers that are not prepared for you to pay even a small amount of the cost by credit card.

You need to choose an Ecologist to carry out an Ecological Impact Assessment, that covers the points they mention and request?

I am increasingly coming to the conclusion if we are ever to seriously reduce energy consumption on heating, then there needs to be a modern equivalent of slum clearance and replace old houses with energy eficcient ones en-mass. Of course that needs mass market house builders who really understand how to make low energy houses, and I don't believe we have that yet.

The RHI scheme is supposed to get a "measure" of how much energy your house will use with it's new renewable energy system and pay you a subsidy based on that. So yes if your house is old and needs a lot of heating you will get a bigger payment than a modern well insulated house. But you will be paying higher fuel bills than that modern house. When someone starts talking about telling the RHI energy assessor how poor the house is to get a low EPC, and then goes and builds the house to a better standard, then that is just simple fraud.

We've met. ...... You know I'm a meat-head

Hi, I have just had an e mail with this exact thing in it send me your e mail via pm and I will forward it to you.

Many thanks for your message. I had already read the HMRC guidance but could not establish the point of the roof removal hence was hoping someone else may have had a similar situation and been able to help. Thanks also for the link to introduce myself, I was not aware I should have done that so will do now. ☺️

What about using a bypass valve (tee'd between pump and motor valve) to open if the pump's running with the 2-port closed? That would give you circulation without flow through the coil.

Hi. Not quite French. But I'm buying my roof in Poland . They actually got price lists on their metal roofs. Just as an example, standing seam in a superior quality than the Urban colourcoat stuff is approx. 11-13£/SQM. And a massive choice.Since nearly all new roofs are metal over the east side. If you're interested I can send some over and give a hand with translating the catalogue. Advantage is that every one in the building supply business over there speaks fluent English and even most catalogues come in English. As of warranty /quality. It'sbEU, so not a problem.

You can get nail guns for fitting metalwork that fire twist nails but they are eye watering to buy and hire. Decent hammer, nail pouch and fit the metalwork from the bottom upwards ..... when you’ve got a bracket in your hand you’ll realise what that means !!

Yes, council wasting your time and money. Make sure that the ecologist doesn't write a report which requires them doing even more work and getting paid more. What a great job where you get to generate your own extra business.

The first draft of the plans arrived today - I open them all excited and love the initial look of the building. Then I look a bit closer.......... I am SO disappointed that I'm not even going to load them up here. I mentioned to them many times that I hate being too hot. That I haven't put windows on the south side of the first floor deliberately - for two reasons. 1) I don't think that planners will accept windows on that side because of overlooking the horses next door and the planners appear to think that they will object and 2) we don't need anymore light and we will overheat. We spoke about our exrrememly tight budget - the glazing alone would take our budget. I gave them the roof light sizes from @pocster - why have rooflights when you can have full length windows into your bathroom - right by the bath? I put an overhang along the whole south side of the house - I appreciate it may be difficult to build and require "boys stuff" to hold it up. However, it will help shade the ground floor. It's gone, so the ground floor will overheat as well - no explanation as to why it's gone. If they were going to tell me it's really difficult to build, I would accept that and think hard about it but to just remove it is gutting The kitchen has so many windows that you can't put any cupboards on the walls - god knows where the oven will go The dining area of the kitchen has sliding doors PLUS a single door within 5 ft of each other. I think even when I'm eighty I might manage the twelve steps to get from one option out onto the patio to the other. There - I feel a bit better now. I will have a discussion with them tomorrow and we will get back on track to plans that we can afford and that will achieve what I want.

It just shows how some councils like to waste YOUR money on "ologists" We had none of that up here, in spite of the fact I know bats are around, it is common to see them at dusk. I guess some councils would want all sorts of impact studies and schemes because we are a riparian site.

Yep as above thats another grand you will wonder why you had to spend