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Strange, I liked your post @jack at lunchtime and came home and I also had a package and VAT confirmation letter back from the HMRC Just one rejection for my velux windows, was not itemised enough by the building merchant, I'm asking them to amend it so should get 100% recoverability on all my invoices.

Well that was an unexpected surprise. We just had a signed-for delivery arrive. I wasn't expecting anything, and then had a slight panic attack when I saw it was from HMRC. Big bundle of docs, so assumed they were just returning the invoices, but turns out it came with a letter confirming they'll be paying in full within 20 days! A few notes: We moved in around Christmas 2015. It's taken us far longer than I'd ever thought possible to get things signed off, and I was convinced we'd be going to appeal as a result. We were upfront about the delay (i.e., we put in the correct moving-in date on the form), but did not give any explanations or excuses. The application was filed at the end of October (about 2.5 months after issuance of the completion certificate), so it's taken almost 4 months to get the decision. We had some oddities - a few invoices in the name of trades, an invoice in the name of someone completely random (something bought at a trade counter - our guess is that they made a mistake and used the last customer's account?), some cash receipts for cheaper items (each under £100, I believe), and one weird invoice for bathroom stuff that combined the amount owing and deposit paid in a difficult-to-fathom way. We put a brief explanation on each point in the covering letter. All invoices were accepted, which surprised me a bit. We did have some decent expenses in the months leading up to the completion date, which may have helped paint a picture of the work being ongoing. There were, however, periods of a year or more where nothing happened, so certainly there's nothing to suggest that the work was continuous. In any event, the money is nice, but not having the stress of a potential appeal and tribunal hearing is even better! I do hope this is indicative of a change in practice at HMRC. I genuinely feel for the people who lost significant money as a result of HMRC's behaviour.

So... in the end I needed a proper saw, and even then it was so powerful it was chipping at the end of each cut. Luckily, on the side I didn't need. I don't think I will ever buy these tiles ever ever again!!! haha..... 100 x 100 x 1 porcelain. Nightmare - i'm sure easy for a pro, but this is only my 2nd time tiling. Most are now laid (had to lay a few before kitchen fitters came the following day). I also done all the cuts for the step (And laid one row). I leveled all tiles to the highest point on the step and used a self leveling cement to take up the difference - before I tile the step itself. And that's where I'm at now. Builders didn't leave such a level step and also some concrete was taken away when they done a repair job on the underfloor heating. Overall, happy with it - but don't think I ever want to use such large format tiles again.

He meant the house build cost was £200k which equated to £815 per square metre. Trouble was he was driving with one hand and rendering a wall with the other, while supervising some tackers and quoting on another job, so the texting was not the perfection we have come to expect from young @nod.

I couldn't see where it says that at the link? Is that the tech guys personal opinion or can he back it up with a link to his company's, manufacturer's instructions? (I've got the hump this afternoon after a big company's so called tech guy gave me a bum steer! ?). A funny aside, a mate asked me if I'd ever seen a particular busbar system connector. I said yes it's so and so make. No he said I've tried them and they said it's not theirs. So I rang the tech line myself. A very nice young lady confirmed that's no it's not theirs. On the off chance I asked if a particular tech guy, Steve still worked there. We last dealt in 1987 and I had happened across his name in my old filofax. He did amazingly and we chatted about old times. No he confirmed, not their busbar. Yes it is I insisted. He put it to their parent company in the Netherlands and they found a box of 20 in what they refer to as their "museum". Old stock not on the system. My mate bought the lot. I got an email from Steve saying he didn't even remember them so how f***ing old must I be!

Says here it a "plastic body...for bronze model". Comes across that it's a valid substitite, as in plastic won't rust etc? Goes on "Can be used for open circuit / potable". https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WILO-25-6-1-Plastic-Body-Secondary-Hot-Water-Circulating-Pump-for-Bronze-Model-/292505594621

@Russdl That’s not a cast body - it’s a resin body by the looks of it so I would query the model number on the front as a resin body pump is suitable for potable water instead of a bronze body (and Wilo confirm this) And Hep2O can be used as a hot water return circuit. You have (incorrectly) read the guidance and don’t understand the BS/ EN definitions and I have had this confirmed by Wavin. For info the below is the definition they (Wavin) use for a hot water return circuit which you don’t meet on 2 of the 3 criteria so you have no issues.

I'd like to bet that cost (at all levels: screws to completed house) is one of the most eagerly searched for and read subjects on this board. That's why I was so interested in @SteamyTea's one word answer to a post I wrote some time ago ( here ) and the subsequent thread about costing method ( here ) To boil those discussions down: cost per square meter is problematic, but it's also common to do so because that measure is easily understood. There are lots of traps to fall in to because the underlying assumptions (when presenting the cost) made are rarely explained - because to do that is complex.

Thanks for the feedback, it’s what I thought it would be and we aren’t going any further with it. We are on instagram though but I need to get better at utilising social media.

It is pretty standard stuff The strengthening they are referring to will Steel’s etc All part of the SE remit

Lovely site you have there. I think I would be eating venison regularly!!!

I will stick down I am currently project managing a new 26 storey office build then ... well only one technical discipline ?

Our site temps are all in 20mm MDPE and we have had 4 leaks. We are taking our supply from a neighbor and his 25mm joint (5 years old or so) has just started to leak. I think the O rings in the joints are the weak spots. Like I say - best to avoid below ground joints if you possibly can. The pipe costs F/A in the scheme of things.

Should be reasonably cost effective as cabling and pipework is easy in a bungalow if it’s going up and then back down.

The 50mm insulation on the wall first when it’s taped up will act as a better insulator as it’s completely covering the whole wall. the battens fixed to the wall first , will give cold bridges.

You can take daily gas readings and convert to kWh, and gather daily heating degree days (eg see degreedays.net), for at least three weeks, load into your favourite spreadsheet and the SLOPE() is your heating efficiency in kWh/HDD, and the INTERCEPT() (at 0HDD) is your non-space-heat baseload. From the heating efficienct and the greatest daily HDD you see at your location you can estimate peak heat demand. Simples. Rgds Damon

You sound like you are building your own wall for your extension, and not a new party wall, that could sit astride the boundary. You have said that your neighbour can be a pain. I personally would make very sure that the outside edge of my new wall was sitting inside my boundary by about 5cm. Also make sure you take into account facia, and guttering. You do not want to risk being even a smidge over the boundary. Take a look on line at what a boundary dispute can cost.....Don't risk it.

If this is the full width of your property can you not set it out as @ProDave has suggested, so the edge of the wall comes out at 90 degrees from the house? I assume there is an internal party wall that you can use as a reference to get the external line. Even a sniff that you are building where you are not entitled to and you will be asking for trouble. Hopefully you have taken account for gutters, fascias etc. The party wall surveyors are not interested in boundary disputes or who owns the fence.

we are: self_build_ayrshire Just search for that username. But to find others you would search for a hashtag E.g #SELFBUILD Then that would show accounts who tag their pictures with #SELFBUILD, then you will quickly find lots of accounts. Works for anything on there, so if you want to see pictures of cladding search #cladding or maybe #timbercladding give it a shot.

Pour the foundation wide enough to give flexibility. You DO have permission for the foundation to go under part of next doors garden don't you? Then seek written confirmation from the neighbour before starting to build the wall if the wall of the extension is able to be built right up to the boundary (and no fence will be erected on that part) or if a fence MUST go back you will have to leave room for that. I thought this all should have been agreed before you started? Assuming an identical pair of semi detached houses, I would have said the mid way point would be determined by measurement, not by the position of a fence that might not even be in the correct position?

I’d lose 4cm to be able to not worry about it. If 4cm are going to make a material difference to your enjoyment of the extension, it’s not worth building ?.

This is on the potable supply as a hot water circulation pump. But agree about the lack of ferrous in the system.

Very tidy tilling - only one oven - are the others hidden away out sight? Still in these days of lock down who has dinner parties anyway!

We looked at this system, I think they use standard heat pumps, just checked and it is Samsung, and they offer systems with their own cylinders and Samsung heatpump, so the heat pump will be good bit of kit but not sure of the cylinder - hopefully more experience out there in the hub.

Along with plastic pipes. What's to rust in there? I'm lost. Won't any "iron in the water" be picked up anyway by a Magnaclean etc? With the appropriate inhibitors in there it'll last an age. If it does go t!ts up it's not the end of the world, minutes to change on a bad day. It doesn't run that often either does it. I reckon the biggest win here is the saving you've made of £428 (list ?).

I had a garden studio shed built out of SIPs including the floor and installed by a couple of Canadians where it is more common. They just put in some concrete piers and built off that. I didn't worry about vermin underneath and didn't have a problem (or maybe I just didn't notice the damage being done!). Anyway if the concrete base isn't already installed I'd definitely do that - much cheaper and provides the ventilation it needs.

So if you were to go with bronze as your choice (not that I agree with Wilo and they have been wrong before...!) then you can switch it if you want but I think you’re spending money you don’t need to. There is nothing ferrous in that plastic bodied pump to rust so it will never fail.

Consider one of the all in one units that only need the wall drilling for a pair of vents if it’s only one room.

sips floors used often in russia where permo frost is prevalent -- house is built on plies and then all sips construction floors walls and roof you will find plenty of examples on u-tube of DIY houses constructed this way using both OSB panels and MGO ones

Yes , it is possible. I have a similar timber frame build, air tight, 3G glazing, ASHP, UFH, MVHR and budget with minimal building experience. However, the only professionals hired were plasterer, electrician, ground floor screed, install of ASHP and commissioning for RHI and some minimal plumbing. If you can do the rest from groundworks up to the roofing and plenty of time, 3 years + go for it.

Wow 315 M2 didn’t see that Texting on the go again ?

Of course it possible We’ve built a 5 bed 3 bath home for 200 k 815m2

If you have trades to call upon then you will likely find yourself in a pesudo-project manager role, which is not a bad thing. Handing the whole build to a single contractor will usually be the most expensive as they will want to make a margin on the project as a whole (this is their living after all) and they may not be very motivated to save you money here and there - they will largely be concerned with their own cashflow, keeping to schedule and preserving their margin. Initially low quotes often increase with 'extras' which can be stressful to deal with. Becoming the 'main contractor' will in theory save you paying them the same margin but in reality will give you visibility of every cost and the opportunity to manage them up or down. You will be best motivated to get 5 quotes for a job or spend hours scouring the internet to source materials etc. The ultimate end cost does depend on the finish but don't skimp on the fabric as this will determine the long term efficiency of the house. Do invest in a QS detailed cost plan for your approved plans and then take this as a template that you work to - give you immediate access to quantities for materials and works plus gives you targets to beat and helps determine if trades are quoting you reasonably.

I used it a bit during our design stage but never looked at suppliers and didn't find it very good overall. My wife hated it with a vengeance. My details also got hacked from them.They didn't inform me, it was a piece of password security software that told me! I do run a business focussed on a local demographic and found that the most successful means of getting customers was Google. I know some people get really good results from socials, but I didn't so stopped putting in any effort other than website and search rankings. With another business of mine, neither socials, nor web worked, all word of mouth. I think it largely depends on your business and customer demographic.

I believe so, I expect that they are scanned in also. Plenty of people have reported the odd invoice out of 100s being rejected or challenged. Get filing then now - took me a month of weekends to do mine when I finally opened the shoebox of doom

Tried Houzz, bloody awful IMO! Instagram is far better

I think a lot of people with high specs and doing no work themselves are coming in at around £2000 a square metre. However, looking at cost estimators and knowing that people don't need the highest spec possible £1750 might be a reasonable figure to use nowadays. It also depends what you are including in that figure. You can easily spend 5% of the build cost on landscaping. A big driveway alone can be very expensive. Architects and other professional fees can run as high as 10% of the cost. Plumbing and electrics labour won't be that big a part of the build costs, I'd guess around 3-4% but every saving helps. Joinery would be more if they could put in the plasterboard etc, but that's a lot of work to be doing unpaid. If they simply gave you a good price again you are maybe looking at a couple of percent saving. This would also depend a bit on your build method.

Hi everyone, I wanted to give an update. So once the mixing valve was set and the temperature gauge on the flow went to just over 45c the floors felt warm (the kitchen particularly warm, as always, as it's tile). The other rooms warmed too and from about midday until 8pm the wall thermostat went from 15/16 to 22 (which is way hotter than it's usually set to but I had the thermostat on manual). It's quite mild out now, and overnight, so that only went down to 20.5 over night (my programme is set to 20.5) so it's not been on at all today. I am actually going to increase the demand for now to see if my old problem returns (the one I had for a year where despite being drained, over the period of a week, the floors stopped getting warm in the middle even if the system ran all day). I will post an update one way or the other so I can either a) get more advice if it happens again) or let everyone know if it's resolved, that way if anyone in the future has similar problems my thread with a resolution will exist. Thank you again,

Never heard of it ?, bit late now I’ve finished!

I was briefly working on a water meter installation project and I'd say 1 in 10 of the connections in developer estates were leaking by the time we came round to screw in the meter. Back to the OP, no harm in 32mm if it's not that more expensive. You won't see an advantage unless lots of water demand at the same time.

I mocked it up and I think you could get away with a space of about 1.2m X 2m.

Perhaos because CH loops can be dosed with corrosion inhibitors where as secondary loops can't. That might affect pump life but if you have already paid for it then I'd use it until it fails. Several ebay sellers appear to sell that pump as secondary loop pump but I can't find any info on an RS25/6 on the Wilo website.

I completely sympathise with your position if you had a fixed budget and this is now costing more than you expected. It sounds like he had other things on his mind and simply did not mention VAT and it's probably a genuine error. Which JCT contract are you using, as that will determine how VAT is dealt with? If it's the homeowner contract then the stated price includes VAT in which case he will either have to do the work and cover the mistake or withdraw from the work. If it's any other JCT contract then the contract price will be excluding VAT. I would be worried if he said he is losing money when you offered to meet him halfway as that suggests his margin is less than 10% which seems far too low. Bottom line, it's never a good idea to struggle on when there is this type of early dispute. Best to part company and find another builder as you'll never be satisfied and will always be thinking he's just trying to recover his money with extras.

Thanks for the replies alll. Turns out I was worrying about nothing - temperature was 7 degrees @ the pad and wasn't particularly well ventilated which I guess made it take a while to set. Annoyingly the sika instructions are silent on what temp the cure time is, but from looking at the same product from Weber it seems normal stated times are at 20deg, the 5deg times are 3 times as long. Thankfully gone off like a rock now.

Well done. Mine was posted 3 weeks ago, I have tracking information to say the package arrived and was signed for but so far no communication. When I can muster the enthusiasm to battle with their call system I will be phoning to see what is happening.

Don’t be, we are a very patient group here with lots of knowledge and understanding ?

scuttlebramblebee, just be aware that many (perhaps most/all) of the people here who are building for less than £1K per m2 have done a significant amount of work themselves, have previous experience of self-build, have friends/family in the trade or built their house/bought their products before the recent increase in prices due to brexit/covid. There is a huge difference on m2 costs between having those things to bring to your build and handing over a wad of cash to a main contractor to build a house for you. Where you are in the country can also change things significantly too (eg, NI is/was regarded as cheaper). The style of house (even if the same size) can change costs significantly too.

From: Model for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings "Buildings are designed for long life spans. According to the Eurocode 1990 [41], the structural system of a building is designed for a period of 50 years, the design working life. Nevertheless, with proper maintenance and with the ability to accommodate changes in technical and functional requirements, buildings can last much longer than the design working life, sometimes even centuries" So where does your 25 years come from?

I never used noggins except for light fittings I never screwed down a floor, never glued and never had a squeaky, well just one after the joists shrank on the way into new extension upstairs and Floor touched Old wall , easy fixed by removing a brick. Nailer and 50mm ring shanks

I am confused about the waste water drainage. If there is no mains (everyone else seems yo have a private system) then you will be looking at a waste treatment plant. Nothing difficult about that. BUT the processed water that comes out of it has to go somewhere. That can be a watercourse or an infiltration field (soakaway) You need to do a percolation test (well documented, dig a hole, fill it with water and time how long it takes to drain away) and from that you can calculate the area of soakaway you require. If your soil drains well it shouldn't be too big, but you have to find somewhere for it and building regs put limits on how close to a building, a road, a watervourse and your site boundary that it can be located. A common solution (which we used at our last house) is to get an agreement from an adjacent farmer for the soakaway to go under one of his fields. If you try to connect to your neighbours system, building control will very likely insist that is upgraded to current standards so that brings you back to all the same issues to solve. I can't stress how important this is to solve. It caused us several weeks of worry as building control rejected our first drainage proposal, then SEPA rejected our second, it was only then, that SEPA gave us permission do discharge into the burn, something they only do up here if there is no other option (and by that point we had exhausted the other options)