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so the line I've circled with red on this plan that's from the land registry: sure looks like the fence line circled red on this map that you said shows what was gifted to you: so, if that is the case, then that looks to me like the land registry map is wrong when compared to what was gifted to you. I don't know how to resolve that but I'd be checking the fence line to see if it is the case and then seeking legal advice as to how to rectify.

Does that grey upright member overhanging the tile in pic 2 slide with the window? If that is what has to clear the tiles I would be attacking the bottom with the multitool to give enough clearance to allow the tiles to sit a little higher.

Firstly, being your own project manager can increase the costs if you’re not experienced. As @TonyT said, get it all on paper, work through it again and again, every socket and every switch, the location of taps and doors and then move nothing. It isn’t hard to do, volume housebuilders do it all the time. It just takes the ability to say “No” when your other half wants to change something mid build. And shop around. Buy in the sales, get showroom kitchens, and pick up a bargain or two but make sure it’s all there when you do..! And finally, keep it standard. Your 650mm wide worktops may look nice with that “designer overhang” but was it really worth the £500 extra..?? Do you need shadow gaps, or bespoke architraves ..?? Was that £1000 lighting controller really needed..?? Spend the extra money on the things you touch such as door handles and taps, that is where an extra £20 a door makes a difference.

Sticking to a drawing and not changing design mid build

Strips of vinyl glued directly to the floor Its similar price to tile Looks and feels like timber slats

I presume your are referring to expensive contraptions as being MVHR system? Why do you have to say it in such a ranty way? The plenty of folk live in humid locations in the UK. I used to live in a stone cottage it was cold and had condensation/mould. But I wouldn't go on about it for pages, I would accept that I had to run a dehumidifier or open a window or spent more on fuel. Or move somewhere else, which is what I did. But the trouble here is that all solutions and help is dismissed. I do think that you are do some good work like your doors a few pages back, but as somebody who has followed this thread and others you appear to go through cycles of doing some good work and everybody is like good job then you go back to ranty Zoothorn. If your feeling annoyed probably best not to post and come back when you are in a better mood.

I'm confused. You brought the subject of condensation (and it being a problem) up, not us.

so what is you next question? oh but we do, but you constantly argue with any points raised. It is us that cannot win.

@Adsibob Never turned it off. Our MVHR runs 24/7, barely noticeable in the background unless on boost. You can set the supply, extract and boost speeds. Minimal condensation in the bathroom after having baths or long showers but clears quickly. Probably down to airtightness, quality of windows (3G) and overall build quality.

The term "thermal mass" comes up time and time again on building related forums and discussions, yet as a parameter it has one notable feature - it does not really exist. There is no such thing as "thermal mass" and never has been. Mass is a simple physical property, in simple terms it's approximately how much a given volume of something weighs at the surface of the earth. This, in turn, depends on the density of the material. For example, here are some densities for some common building related materials, in terms of the weight at the Earth's surface for a 1m square cube of the stuff (1m2? Brick ~ 2000kg/m2 Concrete~ 2400kg/m2 Plaster and plasterboard ~ 2700kg/m2 Water ~ 1000kg/m2 Structural softwood ~ 550kg/m2 Typical hardwood ~ 700kg/m2 Granite ~ 2700kg/m2 On its own the mass of a given volume of material isn't that useful for working out how much heat it would take to either raise the temperature of the stuff, or for it to give off heat as it cools down. What we need to know is the specific heat of the material, expressed as the amount of heat energy (called sensible heat, which can be measured in Joules, J) needed to change the temperature of a certain mass (lets say 1m3 to match the data above) by 1 deg C (or more correctly a deg K, but it's the same thing for this purpose). So let's list the same materials as above, with the amount of heat energy we need to put into increase the temperature of 1kg of it by 1 deg ? Brick ~ 840 J/deg C Concrete ~ 880 J/deg C Plaster and plasterboard ~ 1080 J/deg C Water ~ 4200 J/deg C Wood ~ 1700 J/deg C (This is an average value, as the true range is dependent on variety, with a wide range, from 1200J/degC/kg to around 2300J/deg C/kg) Granite ~ 790 J/deg C So, if you want to create a house with the highest "thermal mass" (i.e. Heat capacity per unit mass, if that's a reasonable way of trying to define this unknown term), then here is a list of materials, with the highest heat capacity for 1 kg at the top, and lowest at the bottom: Water Wood Plaster or plasterboard Concrete Brick Granite You may well spot a few odd things here. The first is that you cannot build a house with water (but you can include water as a heat distribution or storage system). The second is that concrete, brick and stone aren't great materials in terms of storing heat for a given mass. Surprising, isn't it? Even more so when building professionals keep harping on about the virtues of so-called "thermal mass".

I have finished crawling round on the roof so my attention turns to finishing off a few bits of fascia, then battening, fire breaks and cladding. I left most of the battening to Jeff while I put in the first few bits of wiring for the (almost Blackpool level of ?) outside lights and made the last cuts in the fascia ends so they meet the soffits nicely. This ended up as several hours of work, making what felt like tiny progress while the battening seemed to fly along. This is the fire break and battening surrounding on of the gable end arch windows. Next job here is to install the insect mesh over the top vents and I'm not looking forward to that much because the mesh is marginally more vicious than the autumn insect population and likes to tie itself into gordian knots. We have had more than our fair share of wind and rain over the last fortnight, so I quickly gave up on the fascia trims because the scaffolding was slippery and I didn't like the idea of gluing plastics when it is likely to be very wet, so I opted to start cladding on the finished battening - it all needs doing! This is the first corner near the front door prior to cutting the excess lengths off. A bit more cladding done. The priority is to get the gables completed, then we can think about getting the scaffolding down because it's at the point where it is hindering almost as much as it is helping. We now have a scaffold tower to finish off the last few jobs when the time comes. It's beginning to feel like a house now. I needed to attend work for a lot of this week but was able to escape when I got a phone call out of the blue from my window supplier. I was in there the previous weekend for something else and they had no news, but by Wendesday my windows were in their yard and they wondered if I would mind awfully taking delivery fairly quickly because they could hardly move. They agreed to my timescale of "Now is a good time" very quickly. Three round trips later and I had 48 pieces of glass and 15 frames. We opted for aluminium framed windows so that we could get away with very thin frame sections as well as having a reasonable performance. They aren't the best performing window on the market, but they are pretty good and the cost difference would never be recovered in efficiency savings. Besides, there are easier and cheaper ways to claw back the "lost" performance should it be required. We elected to store the frames near the apartures they are supposed to fill. The old bed frame and furniture is there to try to get some engagement from my not quite teenage daughter about room layouts and colours. It was partially sucessful. My first attempt at window fitting. I have put in wedges to hold the windows at the right position on the outside of the building and another to stop the frames tipping back so that I can see how the windows are going to fit before I drill holes and get out the expanding foam, in case I need to change anything with my plans. So far, so good... ... Apart from the scaffolding being in the way again. Only 12 more to go.

All depends on your skill set. Do you know how to schedule jobs and what happens in what order on a build ..?? Have you managed anything of this size (cost or time wise) before ..?

Better off fitting then horizontally (but keep them clean) as they can take advantage of scattered light on a dull day. There is too much reliance on direct beam irradiation in my opinion.

@Stones fitted a few vertical PV panels at the same time I fitted mine. Perhaps he might come and tell us how they are doing. As well as my main E/W split array I had 2 spare panels so I set those up vertically one on the E and the other the W end of my shed. The hope was to get a little bit extra early and late generation, accepting they won't do much in the middle of the day. They certainly won;t give optimum generation like that, but that was not the point.

I have Solar PV, and I have a disc meter - when generating more than using, it winds backwards for the maximum of one revolution then just stops spinning.

Hahahaha, if only this was as easy to do as say!

Ok, for the bearings in the fans to fail relatively soon was disappointing, the good news is that they are b a doddle to change and cheap. A new motor was £280 from Vent Axia, bearings cost £8 from Amazon.

Thanks. That’s what we are going to try. Will post the result.....? Thank you. Just for you, here’s the full wall.......we like planning our runs and cycles from the wall now......

We are in the same boat - in about 6 months time though.

It's a Facebook forum - Heat Pumps UK and Ireland https://www.facebook.com/groups/1432303803563678 Link to post https://www.facebook.com/groups/1432303803563678/permalink/3404957816298257/ I'm not sure re the refund amount as it doesn't go into details.

Would be better (IMO).

Emailed the Shropshire CIL team and the next day received the following: "When you submit CIL Form 7-2, I would advise you provide a copy of the letter you would have received from HMRC to confirm they have received your claim. That way, I will be aware you are trying to obtain confirmation of a DIY housebuilder VAT refund. You can then provide the confirmation letter when you do receive it. If the confirmation letter is not forthcoming close to the 6 month deadline, a potential extension can be discussed since this would be due to circumstances beyond your control. " So thanks Newhome for the suggestion.

Unfortunately it is plus 6 mil for matting

They're 250v so just put a plug on them and power from an extension lead, simulate them coming on and off a few times through the day as required?

Ah, the pic appears to show a deep hole the depth of the screed???

How are you going to fill that gap between screed and door frame?

ha, you’re not the only one, I misread some instructions and blew up my main PCB but managed to get a replacement thanks to someone on this thread finding a supplier in the EU.?

I believe you have a damp/condensation problem. What I do not understand, is your total reluctance to help yourself when help is offered. I bet there a a number of people on here that could turn up at your place and isolate the problems pretty quickly. But you would not allow that to happen. So ask yourself why you are posting up problems that you then do not want to investigate the cause of.

Other than grinding the screed You have to put a trim the edge of the tile Or look at using Karndean or similar

I keep reading this and I keep coming back to the RED map the boundary lines up with the fence line of property "2" If that is what was actually intended and you have documents to prove that is what was offered then it appears to be a conveyancing mistake. your problem is the "vendor" no longer appears to be supporting that position and not prepared to agree that is what he intended?

That may have been your intent but it reads like an assertion with a questionmark at the end. You said But you meant

Solutions to cold and damp dont have to be expensive pieces of kit. I bought an old railway house that had been extended (after being used for loads of purposes including a tyre fitting bay)... it was freezing and the rads would not get hot, damp everywhere and it felt horrible. I bought a new boiler, fitted it with a plumber mate in about 4 hours, fitted a radiator in the cellar because the kitchen above was freezing and now its a lovely warm dry house.

This is excellent news. If the red mapped area is the original offer from the farmer that @Highland girlaccepted, then she just has to persuade other conveyancing professionals to accept they mis transcribed 61.3m to 51.3m then tell'em to sort it out.

Tease

Why ! What did you see that I had done wrong ?? ?

I'm sure I saw a sprinkler in the ceiling of one of the rooms in the "let's go see how it finished" bit at the end.

I may just eat my words.... The drains man located a small flat frisbee shaped stone which was causing some problems with the pump. Now removed..... He is popping back in a few hours but it seems this could have been the cause. Plumber now also checking traps but I think these are fine.....

That was exactly our thought and we keep our house warm with electric towel rails. IIRC Owlman on the GBF heats his house with A2A HPs.

Sheet of graph paper and a pencil to work out a rough layout and then put in the online Nolte App. It was along time ago though so the app may have changed. https://www.nolte-kuechen.com/en-gb/kitchen-planning

Time for a bigger window. @pocster Wake up again. Do you have an overall photo of your shower interior? I have a question.

In general they can issue a revised invoice demanding the VAT they should have charged. I can't recall anyone ever saying this had happened to them on the forum. Its very rare for anyone to charge you too little VAT. Normally they want to charge you standard rate when it should be 0 or 5%.

In this photo you have a branch coming in at the bottom joining the main run which is flowing left to right. Ideally you would cut the concrete, bash a hole in the brickwork and form a new branch like the existing one. This would either come in from the top or one side of the existing branch. Then you repair the concrete (called benching). The new branch can be in plastic pipe. Here is one before the benching has been replaced.. Source: https://www.pavingexpert.com/drain05#exic Ideally the new would be at the same level as the existing branch but if your new pipe will only handle water not "solids" it should be fine to have a step entry as per this photo. You can have more than one branch on the same side if there is room.

Still trying to shift that glazing? ?

It comes under work closely connected to the construction of the building in VAT Notice 708 so can be reduced VAT @ 5% for a conversion. I would just say that you moved them for build safety if anyone queries it. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buildings-and-construction-vat-notice-708#section3 HMRC will ask your supplier to correct the VAT position not you, and they in turn may ask you for the additional VAT, but they are in a weak position once the job has completed. Worst case you will be prevented from reclaiming the 5% assuming that your project is eligible for the VAT reclaim scheme.

@Weebles Sounds like great idea, 20mm MDF may be a bit over the top though, I would have thought 12mm MDF plus your 6mm oak would be more than adequate. Love the wallpaper.

I drew up our initial thoughts using the planning tool on nobilia.de before going through it with the kitchen company we ended up using. The planning tool is good, but although the website has an English option, this doesn’t extend to the planner (Google Translate is a friend!)

My guess is he intended to gift the land on the red map and this somehow got messed up when it was measured and sent to the land registry. The reason I say this is because it shows the right hand boundary running between between two "features" which look like field boundaries or boundaries with other plots of land. Whatever they are they appear on both red and green maps. I think it very unlikely that he deliberately intended your plot to start "51.3m from the top right corner" unless there is another feature at that point that is not shown on any maps. Why not 51.3m from the bottom right corner? It is much more likely he intended it to run between these two points and the plot was measured incorrectly. If you measure between these two points now is actually 61.3m rather than 51.3m ? This also explains why he hasn't noticed a problem. Your house is still above where he thinks the boundary is even if it is in slightly the wrong place.

Well done. I’m beginning to think this is an excellent method of heating a passive house. It is relatively cheap to install, zero maintenance and super simple so shouldn’t break down. The main one is though the ability to use all that slab concrete as a giant storage heater. If i suggest to our builder at this stage we dig up the slab to install pipes I suspect the only way he’ll agree is if he can bury me under it! Out of interest have you any idea how much electricity you’re using compared to what phpp predicted?

No, I don't think so. But, it would be useful to start one. How about it @swisscheese ? If you do, you won't be on your own. I'm sure members will muck in with you. I will too. Then we can pin it. YooChube has a good range of how-to videos, and they are often a good starting point.