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Assuming the builder is VAT registered, then no, he will reclaim the VAT and zero rate it to you. If it is a small tradesman like me below the threshold for VAT registration, then I would give you a shopping list and advise you to buy the materials so you could reclaim the VAT and my labour would not have VAT on it. If I bought the materials I would have no way to reclaim the VAT.

No. The certificate only applies if you are building something other than a dwelling (like a school, prison, hotel etc)

I am PM'ed our project myself, with assistance from our architect whom I paid on an hourly rate to help out with PM as and when I needed him. My main job was ordering hundreds upon hundreds of things, sorting out returns, chasing late items, liaising with third party contractors and photographing things to send to my architect for his confirmation that it looked right. On simpler items I also checked my builder's work myself and gave him instructions when he didn't have any, but on the whole I was lucky that his workmanship was so good it didn't really need that much checking. I found it extremely time consuming and at times very very stressful, but I think this was because I was holding down a full time job at the same time, so I was regularly pulling 18 hour days trying to juggle both jobs. I was also completely gutting an existing 100 year old house and the rebuilding it as modern as possible. This was probably harder than a new build where you are building everything from scratch and aren't constrained by existing things, like the position of the sewage pipes, the electrical supply and the weird roof trusses the original builder erected 100 years ago. If i had my time again, I would have spent more on project management, but hindsight was not available at the time. The only thing the BCO did prior to completion was check the depths of our trenches for the foundations and require them to be made deeper at points before the concrete was poured in. He also raised a few issues with our drainage. There were a couple of structural bits I asked my structural engineer to check, but hardly anything. Depends how much you trust your main builder.

If you do not have a good to excellent understanding of the building process and the industry - yes you are mad. BCO is not there to check your build goes to plan, they may not even show up till the end. They just look at compliance and will not really do what I think you think they may be doing. They might just see a concrete found and go, yup that looks fine (like a recent build of mine) but no check or rebar, depth, didn't even ask for a concrete delivery note to prove mix and volume. It could have been 50mm deep! Speaking to a consultant engineer(s) is a good idea, structural to start then M&E - agree X no. of 1/2 day visits and reports and I think you will be sorted.

Atumn greetings all. Have to put an update. No hasn't burnt down.. It's proving a triumph: each weeknight in cabin now, got a nice chair in. Of course the energy crisis meaning I've fluked it too: I'm not using the ASHP for central heating, impossible to afford, so retreating down here is proving invaluable. Just then to run the gauntlet to dive upstairs & put 'leccy blanket on 11.30pm. No cost at all too. I do put a hottie (heat the water top of stove) on my lower back, as chair cold to start off but then I'm tickety boo 8-11.30pm. Cheers Zoot.

My comments are based on the bricks being old ones, permeable. Pre ww2/ww1. Check out what I suggest and your plans on https://www.ubakus.com/en/. It gives a heads-up on moisture probs. Plus lots more. It's free after 6pm and weekends. Your concept works out moisture free. I would probably go another way. With battens i would plaster them to old wall Example. https://www.backtoearth.co.uk/product/wood-fibre-insulation-uneven-walls/ With the loose material, blown in, is good for blind spaces. Blow in from not just top of wall. Say halfway up as well, anywhere that gives good access for hose into space. Wood fibre or cellulose. 9mm board is okay with your depths. Won't bend much. I would not use a membrane between wall and insulation. I would just use one where you have the avcl, something like intello plus. The reason for my build up. you do not want air spaces between the layers. Water vapour may get to there and condense. Leading to issues. Blown in insulation may well push membrane right up against wall though. while you are at it, make all house Airtight. That will save lots of money. Plan this first, whole house. How it joins up and connects up. Also which side of house is exposed to weather? Should need more thought. Check the stud wall is deep enough for sockets if you need them. Fwiw. I suspect you can find someone who knows lime. Check Www.spab.org.uk. Or https://www.buildinglimesforum.org.uk/ If forest of Dean/Gloucester. Check https://www.carringtonlime.co.uk/ I managed to get someone who loved gypsum to plaster lots of clay. I suspect if you don't want a guantee lots will plaster on lime to learn Also re blown in stuff. If it's under pressure not much settling. Standard practice is to check to see if it settles with an inspection camera just after blowing in. A company that does not do that, do not use.

I've concluded this is a bit of a myth. They can certainly walk into a merchant and get given a better rate straightaway, but if you can work out what the best genuine rate is and then tell them this is all you're willing to pay there's no reason for them to turn you away. Plus, time is money for many builders, so convenience is a key factor as opposed to chasing the lowest possible price.

You can't. If the builder is going to be using the materials and installing, they should be supplying them zero rated. You can only claim back goods in your name and address. As long as the invoice has the site address on as the delivery, then you're ok. But best using the site address as default with any merchant. You're best setting up cash accounts with the three main local merchants (Haldane, macblair, Murdock) and just emailing them a list of items each time. Best grouping the lists together so you'll get better prices and save on delivery chargers. You'll soon build up a relationship with a sales rep and get the trade prices. You'll soon see you're being quoted 40% less than the list prices.

Re the earlier question do builders get a better price. Very debatable. they may get more "trade discount" than you could get with your own account, but they have little incentive to spend hours phoning all the different merchants to seek the best price, or look on line etc. they are more likely just to place an order with their favourite merchant and not haggle as "the customer pays" So you might do what all us penny pinching under funded self builders do and spend hours getting the best deal on absolutely everything. I guess it depends how much time you have free for that and how good you think you are at it.

If they buy a lintel and fit then it’s zero rated and you should not be charged vat, if they just buy a lintel for you then it should have vat and you would have to (try) and reclaim it. Much better and easier for you if you supply all materials but you need to be on the ball or the subbies will leave themselves short of stuff and blame you.

Any "supply and fit" on a new build should be zero rated by the tradesman or builder, you won't be able to claim back any VAT charged by them. You might need to provide them with some evidence like planning permission to convince them it is a new build particularly for things near the ens of the build where it might look like a finished house (almost) The VAT re claim is only for materials that YOU buy to be incorporated in the build. Address does not matter, we started off with our old address, then swapped part way through to the new build address when we moved into the static caravan.

I don't have experience of grohe rapid sl frames, but we used Gerberit Duofix frames / cistern / flush plates and Villeroy & Bosch Subway 2 rimless toilets. Combination works well, easy to clean and no splashing. Looks great.

We are already using 35mm boxes and they are recessed back into the block with holes cut. I have gone through it with sparkie and he came up with the simple solution to use 47mm back boxes rather than pack out the 35mm. Should work o.k, with the advance of having deeper space for sockets etc

We did it with no prior experience but we were using one main contractor to demolish existing, excavate and construct a basement and lay services and then a second to build a passive timber frame with all internal floors, walls etc. This massively simplified and de-risked the project but it still required a lot of time to source and co-ordinate windows & external doors, roofing, cladding plus all the internal services and finishes. We also had the advantage of building more or less same time and in same area as a few others on this forum (we used same TF company) so were able to share research on trades, suppliers etc. Other major advantage was that we lived on site (caravan) and I worked from home so was usually always here to keep an eye on things or be called on to make a decision. Private BCO visited for the key milestones and was helpful in telling me what I needed to provide him to get sign off. We achieved a lot on the budget and I don't think using a professional PM would have done any better or cheaper (we did commission one early on but could not justify his fee). A good costing spreadsheet from a QS is essential, especially when getting quotes from trades and suppliers, ordering bulk materials etc.

How are planning to structure your project? Single contractor all the way, part of the way, splitting everything to individual trades? PM'ing a build means different things to different people, and the level of involvement needed for different approaches varies massively. We have ending up falling more towards the individual trades end of the spectrum, and the technical involvement has ramped dramatically.

f#cktard

Ours is a timber kit. I am taking responsibility for the groundworks with a very good groundworks company and they are doing the timber kit to weathertight then handing back to me for the rest of it. I feel more comfortable PMing it that way. But don’t underestimate the time it takes. It consumes a few hours a day for me and we’ve yet to start.

I wouldn't worry about the lack of building experience as @PeterW says, BCO will check that stuff and what they don't check you'll pick up on pretty quickly. I would be more concerned about the amount of time it consumes! it's very much a full time role. researching, purchasing, ordering, planning and so on and all very much in advance of when you might actually need it. It's not easy but it is very rewarding. it will also save a ton of money on materials (as the main contractor won't put their 20% on top of all of the materials) and also allow you to shop around. it's not easy but is definitely do-able.

The main thing is to get people to think about it. Nudge economics.

A PM should not be signing that sort of stuff anyway - your BCO should confirm it meets BRegs but maybe worth paying a structural engineer to validate this sort of stuff if you don’t feel confident.

Completely agree, Jack. Fortunately we're still in a negative net cost situation for our energy use so the odd quid here or there is irrelevant. I was merely pointing out that 'doing the right thing' delivers a personal benefit as well as for the grid.

We're just doing it (without going crazy) because it seems like the right thing to do. If you were really struggling and your usage pattern allowed you to significantly reduce usage at the right times, being able to make a couple of quid here and there wouldn't hurt.

You would have one nut either side of the white threaded part. Basically lock the first terminal, the other units, move the nuts out of the way, the inner one, screw well out of the way so it doesn't limit adjustment. When adjusted, pop the terminal out of the ceiling and lock the nuts.

Hi all! I've just joined as we're about to start building our home on our small holding in Perthshire, Scotland. The footprint is 150 sq.m and overall floor area is 280 sq.m over one and 3/4 storey with detatched double garage. Construction will be timber frame, finish in wetdash render, stonework and some cladding with slate roof. Planning is now approved (although still waiting on that in writing from our incredibly slow planning dept) so starting to go out for quotes, organise structural engineer and building warrant. Looking forward to trawling through this site for advice and tips, and I'll apologise in advance for the number of questions I'll be asking ☺️

I have mine on a internal wall on a double layer of 18mm ply from floor to ceiling. Little or no noise transfer. So you should be ok on a solid brick wall.

Have the cover in position, but wind out as much as possible while still having enough screw engagement to install the lock nut. Good luck

Ours is on a wall in the loft (above a bedroom) and I opted to effectively sit ours on some rubber exhaust hangers to provide some isolation from the building. We don't hear it, but that doesn't mean it was necessarily necessary as we didn't try it mounted direct!

Thanks Jack, mine is not that clever, I wish it was it would be a lot easier.

It can be worth getting a second opinion on the bats. Local enthusiasts sometimes do surveys very reasonably, but I'm not sure if they can count as official surveys. You can also discuss/negotiate the mitigation plan they come up with to better suit the building. I didn't know any of this and spent about £6K (I weep to think of it) all told on surveys/natural England licence etc. I was present at the hand strip of the building and we found one bat which flew off and didn't make use of the posh box provided for it. I have a friend with a pond and the surveyor found a single GCN egg (which my friend was obviously suspicious of!) and they spent many thousands on surveys and a building a hibernacula. I want garden pond, but I am worried about encouraging the wrong type of newts if I build a garage. Apparently they can now do a DNA test of the pond water for GCNs which saves a fortune in surveys.

We were also told a late season survey would be required I said that I’d get someone else They then said early season would be ok

So roughly 75% on the night rate, that is actually pretty good. 7 kWh a day is pretty good as well. So say you use 2 kWh during the day. That is about £1 to £1.30 a day. A battery system would have to be around 5 kWh to give it a decent longevity, and be able to reliably power a decent size inverter, around 6 kW so it could cope with kettle, oven and a cooking ring (hopefully you have an induction hob as they are just better all round). Now I would think you would be looking at around £8,000 to have something like that installed, and it should last 10 years, so £800/year, plus the running costs i.e. the night rate electricity. If your night rate is around 15p/kWh, and you can get 80% efficiency on the charge/discharge cycle, that is 54p/day, £200/year. Not looking good. But you will save on the high daytime rate, that is between £365 and £475 a year, a real saving of between £165 and £275. Not looking good at all as it cost approximately £800 a year, a you are in the red somewhere between £525 and £635. You could probably save more by showering for 1 minute less each day, or 1 inch (25.4mm) less bathwater.

Not sure if you ladies have finished arguing over the relative merits of the scheme, but we've just completed the third saver session. We 'earned' 75p in the first session and (to my amazement) £1.12 in the second. Pathetic in the overall scheme of things perhaps, but on the nighttime Go rate of 7.5p per unit that equates to about 90 miles worth of free juice for the Electric Mini. All being well we've just earned another 50+ miles worth - which has to be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I paid 750 plus vat for 4 surveys. Plus 700 for an initial ecology survey. I was there for the duration of the first three. Three of which they found nothing but they did invent a swift entering the property which didn’t happen. I know cos I was there. They wanted a late season survey at the end of august and after removing his sheet from the loft that was clear of droppings he resigned himself to thinking that there were no bats and it had all been a waste of time. Feeling somewhat relieved I headed for the pub it was while I was gone that they spotted all the bats. It’s bullshit. Now I need a bat licence at a cost of 3 - 4 k my advice is don’t leave them there on their own.

I think most ASHP have some level of standby/frost protection power consumption of about the scale commented on. Also, of course, if your running, the heating / hot water it won't be on standby!

None, and personally I doubt that any current brand/model should be avoided on the basis of standby power consumption. For me the most important takeaway is to be very careful with one's own attempts to measure standby consumption. Things may not be what they seem! Look up the manufacturer's data sheets, they won't lie.

I'm not sure I can help much. Generally, I think Ecodans are excellent, and I'm not sure there are any to avoid (?). I think the main question is whether the power measurements being discussed are taken from the Ecodan approximations, or whether they are actual measurements taken by monitoring systems - in particular for power consumption. I do think that for some models, the power consumption approximations provided by the Ecodan system are currently incorrect for standby. For my 8.5kW system, they were overestimating it by a factor of 5-6, which I can now see, having had a power consumption meter installed. The 14kW system had a much lower approximated standby power consumption. I would recommend a metering system is installed, if you can afford it - I suspect it would pay for itself quite rapidly (although I don't have one for the larger system and probably won't have one installed on the basis of cost - go figure!). Hopefully, Mitsubishi will use this information to alter the firmware, to improve the approximations for all models.

I've been pricing my roofing for my SIPS build. As it's a SIPS roof, I had been looking for membrane, counter batons running vertical then normal batons so I had the ventilation space. I will be using a slate roof (Cupa heavy 3) in Scotland. Now one roofer has said Batens are harder than sarking to fix slates on and hence says, I should do the counter batens, but then fit sarking (22mm thick, 150 wide, etc) and that would be better and reduce costs for labour install. I need to check cost implications but thoughts anyone from a technical (or any other) perspective???

Same here, but a bungalow, we rarely heat the bedrooms.

Just to elaborate on initial high heat demand when first turning on the heating. Here is the last couple of weeks data for my place, turned the heating on 17th November. Settles down to around 14 kWh/day. This includes DHW and everything else.

“Iceberg, dead ahead!” 😎👍👊