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HI @hinge and bracket ASHP position?? Buffer tank? Sort this out very early!!!! If you want the ASHP to be efficient you need the external unit close to the building, if you are going to use a buffer tank the ASHP needs to be as close as you can get to the buffer tank. All external pipework (outside the buildings thermal envelope) needs to be super lagged. The plant room seems to be on the front garden side. Can you obtain permission to put an ASHP in the front garden (I would not want mine there). Check the MCS rules which would allow you to install one without planning (well in England but I don't know the Scottish rules) MVHR ducting in to all 'dry' rooms extract from all 'wet' rooms to the MVHR box. This is something that you should look at early because of all the ducting that needs to be installed. At least 2 pipes from the loft to the downstairs ceiling?? I'm not that good at form but form can be marred by function requirements.. @Iceverge is right about solar gain. It is a pain for us and we only have 4.2m2 in the east wall and 8m2 in the west wall. Because we have AIM we overheat when the temperature is over 16C outside. Luckily we also have APE so we can cool the place! Good luck The below may help. Marvin. It worth considering all the AIM and APE elements before making decisions. That is Airtightness, Insulation, Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery, and Air Source Heat Pump, Photovoltaics and Electric Vehicle. Some of these will not work properly without the others: A MVHR will not work properly without Airtightness. An Air Source Heat Pump will have to compensate for the lack of Airtightness and Insulation to the degree that the benefits become questionable, especially during winter, without them. An ASHP uses electricity and Photovoltaics can supply a little during winter and about 6 times more during summer when cooling can be a problem and an ASHP can supply cooling. PV can supply a little to an Electric Vehicle during winter and about 6 times more during summer (assuming your vehicle can be plugged in at home during sunny days). So if finances cause you to have to consider only a few in my humble opinion AIM first and go APE later. (but prepare the property for the APE works as much as you can).

Both of you need to breath. A friend of mine has the saying 'What's this really about?' Apologise. Understand each other's POV. Get an automatic, bags of salt, some time, and book yourselves in with Relate. The housebuilding has driven you both bonkers and you are frustrated that you have spent so much time and money and it's still not perfect... Sometimes we try to control one thing because something else is out of control. You will probably still have to redo the drive, but try to live with it for a while to both figure out what would be best collaboratively, or she may still not like the result...

This is the solution. Our local farmer had scissor lift and tele handler and helped remove large steel frame Agri shed for us. Then digger to remove existing concrete pad before starting to level the site.

That is very easy to take down and would only be a weeks work for 2 people (experienced) and a tele handler and scissor lift. if you want to do it yourself, hire a small scissor lift, get the sheets off, most of purlins out and then get someone local with tele handler to give you a hand for a day to lay frames down. Say £200 for 2 weeks scissor lift and £300 for tele handler for a day.

I'm jealous. Very neat!

Not at all. Concrete will protect the steel from corrosion.

Nope, they're the sole network owner in NI.

Well that took longer than expected. I had chosen a contractor and agreed to their price then waited for a slot in their schedule to come and do it. and I waited, and I waited. The last communication from them was a phone call last week to say we have not forgotten you but we still don't have a day to do this. At just this point SWMBO found another contractor we I had not heard of advertising on Facebook. I phoned him on Tuesday, he came and looked Tuesday evening and said he could to it on Thursday, and his price was the same as the other contractor. So I shook his hand. They arrived on Thursday and did most of it but they ran out of tar, so they came back today and finished. Very pleased with the job and glad to finally get the entrance to the house tidied up and looking smart for a change. I nice bunch of people to work with. They cover all of the Highlands so if anybody wants their details PM me.

That's about right. Ours came to £2300 for similar work. You don't have any other option really. I tried to get the VAT dropped as it was related to a new build, but the wouldn't. Worth a try yourself anyway.

As others have said, it's a nice layout - flows well and I would agree with the comments on the various window sizes and the choice of stone. One gripe I would have at this point is the wasted space under the stairs? What do you see happening here? Just keep it open and "light"? I'd like to see a section through the final flight as well to see if the door into the lounge is well clear - I don't like when it feels like its 'under the stairs' if that makes sense. If you wanted to reduce the number of doors in the master bedroom you could look at accessing the ensuite via the WIW which I think can be nice and works well. Depends on how you foresee yourself using it though - everyone is different. For such a big room, the bed feels a bit tight to the south-west wall - keep an eye on that especially if you are forced to reduce the height to 1.5 / 1.75 storey. If the view north-west was decent you could make that window full height and lose those two small windows facing south-west which would allow you to put the bed on that wall. Without knowing the context it's hard to tell. You could do the opposite too and lose that window to the north-east and have the bed on that wall, with a large window facing south-west. Maybe the MB, Bedroom 2 and the Stairs all have the same window type. The stone definitely isn't doing anything for you. I would keep it all the same. Black timber would look very nice here. This has always been a favourite of mine. Alternative you could look at applying the timber cladding in a different way, like standing it on edge which would help to define areas like this. It might be nice to have a stove in the lounge - you'd just need to consider the flue now. I would move the door to bedroom 2 a bit more to the east, closer to the wardrobes. Your bathroom looks a touch on the tight side too, maybe that door needs to move closer to the bath also. I'd consider a slot window on the landing looking north for a visual connection out front (for security). It looks great though and is a very good start

Normally applied to plots when there is only a 50/50 chance of obtaining planning permission, and even then it can be a hard slog to get it granted. Hence the plot is normally fairly cheap. Sounds like the C of E is selling this place ( they are the biggest land owner in the UK) bigger than the royal family.

You hope... :😇

The site we purchased the seller had taken about 6 years to get planning approved, due to special circumstances on our plot. They spent loads of money also. You could be in the same boat and still have to pay the seller a bunch of money at the end. Make an offer with the condition removed, even offer over the asking price if required and you want it badly enough.

Call @pocster ...

Postcrete, set up everything as you need it before postcreting in.

Well done. Needs a new topic on how you managed that.

On the seller motivation for not going for Outline: 1 - it may be the cost of getting outline. Applying for PP for a potential 6 or 8 bungalows is not cheap. Quite a few thousands. It could also take 6-12 months. 2 - It may be an elephant trap in the plot that is not in the sales literature reducing the probability of getting PP, and the same could be the reason for going to auction. Could be a former use of one building requiring expensive land investigations, or services or drainage being difficult, or a mineshaft, or a former oil leak from a heating system, or made ground, and so on. Do some digging (research, not literal 😁). Have you spoken to the people in the bungalows on the other half? 3 - Has it been marketed before? What happened if so? 4 - Or it could just be a quick sale required for any number of reasons. Death, divorce etc. In situations like this you need more information to allow you to trade off part of the risk. F

Wish I had a really steep drive.

I think most of us had already worked that out! The likelihood is you will get planning permission but it’s still a risk especially given it could accommodate more than one house and the plot next door built multiple houses. You’d be paying for land at a price as if it had planning before you get planning. I personally wouldn’t take the risk but your appetite for risk might be greater. All the books tell you to not buy land at extortionate prices without at least outline planning. Looking at it from the sellers pov, ask yourself why haven’t they sought to get outline planning? It’s relatively cheap to do and would lock in the value of the land etc. They must think there is a risk too as if they apply and it fails they then have to go through a lengthy appeals process so all they are doing is trying realise the full value with none of the risk and then have a second bite at it should you succeed in achieving planning. I can’t see many people running towards making that deal. It’s too one sided.

Don't know it if helps, but my average year usage is 3530kWh just for the heat pump. At 28p/kWh that's £988.40. This compares favourably to oil boiler alternative (no mains gas). We have a mix of radiators and ufh, but mainly rads. Water demand is approx 15% of heating demand - believe this was based on occupation and bathroom assumptions. The use is actually considerably lower than the design assumptions - about half. I think this is because it's an old house so conservative assumptions were appropriate, the wood fibre insulation is performing better than the u-value would suggest and the ASHP is in effectively a wind tunnel between the house and a barn. House floor area is 176m^2, but I can't give a heat demand because a proportion of that 3530kWh is for hot water, heating is helped with occasional log burner use, solar gain and SCOP of the heat pump not accounted for!

I would not bother. With just one of you in the house, just crack 2 windows on opposite sides open on their ventilation gap and that will give you all the fresh air you need. If time is limited, to it once and do it right when you get the time, rather than waste time bodging something temporary.

I run mine once in the middle of the day. Apart from being a bit more efficient because it's warmer outside, having the DHW kicking in a lot means the heating is going on and off, which isn't good for efficiency. Having said that, we don't use a lot of HW from the tank as we currently have electric showers. No solar, just single rate electricity.

my guess is they are wanting a claw back if you build more than one house on the plot EG if inten years time you decide to divide the plot and build more houses they are wanting a cut of the . Ilooked at one plot where they wetre wanting an uplift of 30% ofr every other house buiilt on the the land within 10years my answer has simple "no way jose"

No, you shouldn't need to drain anything. Actuator is separate from valve. Once you've removed it, you'll see the valve which you should be able to turn manually with a pair of pliers if it is not totally seized. If you're not sure how to remove it, look up the manual online.

No, any PP granted on the land in a 20yr period will trigger the overage clause. Payment is made a short while after each overage is triggered. Re valuation, this is why you mutually appoint a surveyor: you need to find someone who has some knowledge of the specific market and some expertise in the field. Not just a fat tie and too much aftershave!

This sounds awful. You have my sympathies. We had a similarly unpleasant neighbour who disputed the position of a boundary. He wanted to build an extension on land which we believed was ours. We sought help from solicitors. Initially we engaged one directly to write letters but this didn’t stop him and we could see it was going to be an expensive process. We had legal expenses cover with our house insurance so we made a claim and they agreed to support us. It took 6 yrs and a civil court hearing to resolve. Legal costs on our side were about £100k but we won the case with expenses awarded in our flavour. I found the behaviour of our neighbour traumatising but this was significantly ameliorated by have a lawyer beside me. So my advice is to get legal help, and if you can, get your insurance company to pay for it.

Ah, a posh version of my system in Dorset. Except I’ve got a stainless back boiler in a mk1 Rayburn. And no central heating 😉 The only thing I would add: please fit a laddomat to that 355. The back boilers are weak, and complicated/expensive to replace. The 355 doesn’t like being taken apart to have it changed. Not the finest Rayburn, but certainly the most capable.

I do wonder how accurate the readings of power analysers are vs certified meters, especially at the low end and with odd power factors...

I set up a dual rate electricity meter that measures separately on it's 2 dials the electricity consumed by the ASHP when heating DHW and the electricity consumed when space heating.

I like the layout. The look is fine I see what you’re doing, but the windows are too small in proportion to the amount of wall. It gives it a bit of a wincey look. It adds to the feel of massing, if you are trying to steal through a full height house it acts against you. I think the materials could be better proportioned too. The entrance also, could be more attractive. Bedroom 3’s window is too high for fire escape. in all, I think you need a designer to fix it up and ‘roll it in glitter’ as the say, but you’re on the right track.

Minor comment. That door clash from the Kitchen in to the Utility Room and Plant Room would drive me nuts. Suggest to move the door from Kitchen along to the corner-turn of the units, near the hob, so closer to the outside back-door. This also deals with the issue that corner kitchen-units are tricky to design for usefulness. Move the window and units along in the Utility Room accordingly.

Welcome. I’ve found this forum to be an invaluable source of knowledge experience and support. Look is great overall. Flows well with a good room layout. I agree with window comment. They look a bit randomly placed. The overheating problem is well made. That said, I just had all my heat loss calculations back which covers solar and overheating and their view is it’s not significant and we have more south facing glass but no east facing glass. I’m going to do my own calcs. The two storey design is a risk. Obviously you’re replacing an existing two storey building. We were told rural two storey buildings rarely if ever get approved. That said I have seen a few. Have you thought about how flexible your basic design will be in case they refuse the two storey design? i.e. could the front be reduced in height or even switch to room in roof design? I don’t know how far you’ve got with how the building will be sited, site levels, access from the road, visibility splays. It might all be quite straightforward for your plot but we ran into some difficulties with ours and an inexperienced architect and long delays for engineering reports. It’s set us back six months. Had I more experience we could have avoided much of the delay. Also don’t assume the architects get the application correct and follow the planning guidelines to the letter. Our application was invalidated due to really simple avoidable errors such as make sure every drawing submitted has a scale bar! If you are going to have PV and an ASHP include some documentation on both (technical brochures for example) They don’t need to be the final equipment you’ll use. Finally get the water source found and checked ASAP!

Hi and welcome. Not much I can add to the above, but if you get a push back against full 2 storey, try for 1.75 storey, with just a little shaved off. One house here where we also have the same expectation managed to get approval for full 2 storey at the back and only the front facing the road having a slight not to partly room in roof.

Congratulations and welcome. Well done for sharing with the crowd. I wish I had. So much knowledge here. I'll keep it brief. Good. 1.Layout. 2. Form factor. 3. Simple shape( Only one sticky out bit and one sticky in bit ) 4. Elegant overall proportions. For further consideration. 1. OVERHEATING!!! Large SW Windows with no shading will bake you not to mention the skylights in the living room. 2. Stone facade. A bit disengenious looking, not to mention far more expensive compared to other cladding on a TF. 3. Window jumble sale. To paraphrase Goldilocks, they're either -too small ( lots of thermal bridges and no light) -too tall(poor views) -too large (overheating and heat loss) -too wide ( structurally expensive if done well thermally) 4. Flat roof on sticky out bit would be better off pitched and ditch the parapet. It's a recipie for long term trouble. I really like TF but you need to be doubly defensive about weathering. Good luck!

Yes, also this from NHBC. “The window must be prevented from opening more than 100mm in order to comply with Part K.” I have seen this on hotel windows by a short flexible cable fixed from frame to openable window, also any guarding must not be climeable .

Restrictors.. https://www.screwfix.com/p/smith-locke-window-restrictor-white-200mm/218HR?kpid=218HR&ds_kid=92700058176431263&ds_rl=1244072&gclid=CjwKCAjw1ICZBhAzEiwAFfvFhFN_OVI9RzxY2CyRkjx1HrucCxIL8dzw2IjpXDPQSPMQABzDtOG0GxoC_XsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

We had same problem. BCO just asked for a wire to prevent the window being opened more than a few inches like you get in hotels. Cant think of their proper name.

No reason for it to be picked up in ‘the plans’ and you can have low level windows but they have to be protected so either not opening at all, or only top part opening and any low level glass must be toughened and laminated

I can't remember the rules, but I think windows may also need safety glass if below a certain height. I think anything you do on the inside is going look a bit 'unusual'. How big a job is it to move the window, or replace with a laminated non-opener?

I can understand your builders concern but their thinking is based on old housing standards with no internal vapour control layer and impermeable membranes like bitumen felt. The moisture from the house would pass through the ceiling (almost entirely through air gaps not diffusion) and condense on the back of the felt. The way to resolve this was to allow the wind to blow behind the felt but this brings it's own problems. The wind also blows through the insulation making it perform poorly, think woolly jumper on a very windy day. With a plastic anorak and the zips open. Sweaty and cold. A better solution is a proper sealed vapour control layer internally (also airtight layer) and a sealed breathable windtight layer outboard like tyvek supro or protect vp400 or similar. Think a woolly jumper with a Gore-Tex anorak over the top on a windy day. Warm and dry. Here's a screenshot from the Tyvek Supro agrément cert. Note figures 6-8 have the insulation touching the membrane. You need to incude a counter batten to avoid any moisture pooling behind the tile battens however. That's not to onerous. If sticking with I joists this would be a nice buildup. I'd be tempted to move the OSB racking to the outside and replace with a airtight membrane/vapour control membrane inside. It'd be easier to lay the OSB outside and would provide more protection against any critters that fancied making their home in your roof! Alternatively as I joists are more expensive than plain timber this would be cheaper for materials (but dearer for labour) Stick build a 9x2 roof with OSB outboard. Counter batten inside initially with 2x2, (I can't show battens at 90deg on the calculator). This would give extra insulation depth and thermally break the rafter cold bridge. Then a vapour membrane creating a 45mm insulated service cavity with battens laid over the top of the initial counterbatten. This would pinch the membrane between the two battens making it more robust. I've used cellulose throughout as it's a fantastic product, guarantees a full fill and really boosts airtightness and decrement delay (phase shift) and hand fitting mineral wool is not pleasant.

Hi We deal with overage on commercial properties. You need to be very clear with the type over overage agreement. You need to make sure that if you agree the overage that it is based upon the land value only with PP/PD and that you dont end up agreeing to pay 25% of the total value once built as it could very well be your profit is gone. You also need to make sure that you get a clause in there which allows for cost deductions so that you don't end up paying a fortune on design and planning, surverys and feasibility. So if you spend 50K on obtaining planning permission that cost is offset against the obverage calculation. I would also suggest agreeing land agent that both parties agree on prior for any future assessments. Longmores have done work for us however not sure if they do residential works.

Following up on some of the mentions about hole limitations in I-joists, Simpson make an 'I-Joist Hole Support' that enables you to put holes upto 250mm wide (and full height of the webbing) anywhere you like beyond 50mm from the bearing points if need be.

Yeah I can insulate it where the concrete slab is going but it’s a bit late to put armatherm under it

Lol ! We shall wait and see the “ my batteries in my basement caught on fire “ post … 😋

ill go with walk on glazing instead

Can you get a residence disabled parking bay painted on the road outside your house. There must be one member of the family that would loose an leg, or just be a bit wheezy in the moorings. I have noticed down here people are putting traffic cones outside their houses. Its a great idea, I move them and park.

On the hill start/stop. Buy an EV they are great for starting and stopping on hills. If you got a Model X the doors won’t swing back. £100k and problem solved. Cheaper than divorce too.