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32mm for basins, 40mm for kitchen sink, bath, showers ( sometimes 50) Height does depend on the item being installed, if it's pedestal then put it anywhere, but if it's wall hung with exposed chrome traps etc then you need to be precise. I always find it easier to get all the bits ( sinks, wastes etc) together and then work backwards from finished height. You must have learned by now there is feck all standard with UK plumbing. Other than left hot, cold right. (Exception Unless you buy a mass build house and it's pot luck🤣 )

If you'd spent 3 decades cutting out blocked pipes, you'd see my PoV. Even 40mm pipes from kitchen sinks and showers end up with enough bore to not get your thumb down the middle. If the small-bore waste is dropping vertically more than 1000mm, then you'll need air admittance, if it is dropping a whole storey then you'll need that to be in 50mm pipe with a 50mm AAV on the highest point. Wastes should never drop from FF to GF, they should always only travel horizontally to a stack, after falling vertically from a basin trap etc. Pipe unblocking chemicals etc is just a way of saying, its going to block so I'll pour this carp down there when it does @Thorfun, I would install 50mm anywhere where it's getting buried, and then drop to the size you want when it gets exposed / above floor. You'll spend a few tenners more upsizing and that buys a shit-load of insurance. You'll be using the same amount of time and labour regardless, so defo get 32mm pipe off the menu for starters!

For anyone that doesn't know , details are being discussed now on a private facebook page and whatsapp, these are for people that are owed money /in the middle of a build/still trying to use Isotex blocks. A lot of people involved so limited to direct involvement and not for "stories" or other recommendations.

This is getting very Daily Mail. I'm turning this discussion off. Ggc good luck with your windows. Start the question again if you want to.

In all my research I've found this online book about the architecture of building houses. This lady does architecture student books covering a number of subjects and I found out about her when looking for details on the latest building regs. See below, as well as residential she covers Basements, Passivhous, commercial and some others and I really like her diagrams. But, her name is Emma Walshaw, and she's done a number of online books call 'Understanding Architectural Details'. I've bought the Residential construction one. https://www.firstinarchitecture.co.uk/ Above this she has also answered some questions for me. Not cheap, but having bought lots of books this one has provided me with more info about the theory of building requirements than anything else.

Might be worth checking out any implication for the CIL. For example a self builder can only claim the exemption before work starts on site. I'm not sure if demolition is considered starting. It's possible that demolition might save them stamp duty but hit them with the CIL. There should be a common sense solution but the CIL rules don't cover a lot of common situations.

You will require Planning and providing the increase in height does not have a significant impact on the street scene and/or on neighbours, then there should be no reason why Planning would not be approved.

Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of excitement and getting really involved, but would love to! we know we will be paying a premium, but willing to factor that in and still feel the gains are worthwhile for us (based on what we know so far)

But PD also states it can be an equivalent standard. There is absolutely nothing stopping you or I, writing a standard that is almost word for word the same as MCS, but without the wording stating MCS registered etc.

It's different with gas. Every gas fitter has to have an individual registration with gas safe.

I would say you need a plumber AND an electrician, and the electrician in particular needs to be familliar with UFH. There are some people with the skills to do both, I know at least one on this forum I would trust to do both but most plumbers would not know how to connect the electrics.

Yes you can pay people to take your stress, but they are taking on your risks and will charge tidily for it. Costs rise from the lowest level at skilful self build, increasing every time the responsibility is handed over to consultants and contractors. Highest cost for complete turnkey with project manager and a single main contractor on a fixed price. Could double the cost. But probably a better job. On second thoughts, the highest cost will be with an overconfident, non-skilled self builder who has to do things twice, and has chosen the wrong contractors.

@Bozza and @Conor are right. My experience was that 2 different professional cost estimating/project management companies quoted between £2100/sqm and £2800/sqm for our relatively mid range project…This was 12 mths before the build started so factor in the material increases and looked more like £2200-£2959/sqm. Real cost : planning, prelim investigations, random special requirements, improved spec , unexpected expenses and completed build..less than 1800. ..and the professional cost estimating service was the most inaccurate. An expectation of 2-£2.5k/sqm is realistic and with some careful planning you can probably come is slightly lower.

Buy every bit of bathroom fittings you need . Working ‘ backwards ‘ from fitting too ‘ see ‘ how the pipework should be is much easier . Solvent weld is the stuff . If you aren’t brave that it sets in 3 seconds use tiger seal ( or similar ) gives lots more play time . Personally with waste from basin/shower/bath - unless it’s an exceptionally long run then any fall would be suitable . Await @Nickfromwales to tell me off . if your 110mm isn’t far away ( like mine , cause I actually planned that 😁 ) it’s unlikely to be an issue . Now stop fannying and posting and do it !

We spray sloppy render at it without any problems

not strictly true for some of them saab was bought out by general motors and rolls royce cars not aviation was also bought out -niether of those caused customer problems and neither did woolworths -- just the suppliers the banks are again not a good example of going broke as they were engineered by other banks whcih had shares in and was down to global derivative tradings -not normal banking we are talking about a simple straightforward company who make or supply goods and have ripped off the customers

got some and is certainly sticky! great colour as well.

This. If within 2m the whole building must be under 2.5m https://ecab.planningportal.co.uk/uploads/miniguides/outbuildings/Outbuildings.pdf

Our previous house has oil fired heating with UFH upstairs and downstairs, individual room thermostats. On more than one occasion in the morning we found a guest room thermostat turned up to 30 degrees, and the window wide open because the room was too hot. My conclusions: They turned the thermostat up a bit, nothing instantly happened so they turned it up higher. WHY do people think turning the thermostat higher will increase the rate of heat going into the room? Are they really either thick? Or too intelligent and believe the heat input may actually be proportional to the difference between actual and set temperature? Later in the night when they started to get too hot, they had clearly lost all confidence in the thermostat, so rather than turn it down, they opened the window.

Loads. How many people think turning the thermostat up will heat the building faster. 50% How many people think that turning the heating off means it must use less energy the next time it is run? Lots. Try explaining how a heating system is meant to be set up and work is not an easy task. Silly terms like 'thermal mass' and 'solar gain' soon enter the conversation. But I was not really refering to that. So yes, there needs to be a visible temperature control, and a standard to modulate that is universal. It does not matter how any particular type, make it model actually does its thing, just that the user and communication protocol is the same. Probably as simple as setting just the maximum flow temperature and the minimum return temperature. With those two, the highest power can be delivered, and the difference between the flow and return sets the efficiency.

Why not an A2A unit. Instant response. If only they had some less complex controls.

I would rather live in the site skip and I get on quite well with my parents and in-laws.

Yes, I had worried about this. If we time it right, we could move out to my parents for a couple of months to get the last bit completed.

For the avoidance of doubt Im not denying the political issues and agree that they are major, I'm just trying to avoid discussing for now while we work out what we want the politicians to enable. They don't have the solutions, of that I'm convinced, the public wont stand vast subsidies for any length of time, and neither will the public stand being forced to spend 15K on replacing a gas boiler with new technology when replacing it with a gas boiler would cost say 4K (installed). Its just not saleable! The 'hydrogen ready' brigade know this and are ruthlessly exploiting it, even though they also know that hydrogen will almost certainly cost 30% more than electricity, and have only the same efficiency as gas, thus will be 4 times more expensive to run that a heat pump. They dont actually care about this, it simply means that they can keep selling gas boilers and, when the truth is outed, claim that the switch away from gas is 'too expensive to afford'. So we need workable ideas for heat pumps which could be implemented by politicians/the industry. Once we know what these workable ideas are (hence the post and the invitation to critique it), perhaps we could go about lobbying. So far I think the summary is: 1. nobody has yet put forward a solid reason to dispute the basic premise of the post (where is @markocosic - he usually disputes any suggestion that departs from absolute perfection) 2. many agree that it would be helpful, perhaps necessary, to separate control from heat engine 3. all agree that there are regulatory/political barriers 4. several thing that A2A also forms a part of the toolbox 5. most/all agree that the heating technology is only a part of the 'system solution' and that insulation is the other major physical part. Incidentally I agree with this but would argue that the 'system solution' includes the regulatory and industry environments and that these are equally a part, but that until we understand the technical solutions we cant get these right.

I think it would be less if they went turnkey foundation / frame in actuality. This often includes B-Regs and SE content up to the point where the finished article is presented and the provider disengages. Doors and windows next, then roofer and external rain-screen, and you're then stood inside with a set of keys in your hand. After that it's electrician / plumber / plasterboard / plaster / kitchen / bathroom / final hard finishes and that's deliverable by a good local builder with relative ease, or it is easily within the reach of someone who feels confident to engage with these trades independently. There's bucket-loads of info on Buildhub that can be mined over the next 4 years. Absolutely no reason whatsoever to not plan ahead and make this a smooth project. Time, knowledge, confidence and budget need to be realised and realistically too, before deciding to proceed.

Really. So recent US events concerning women's fertility don't bother you at all?

They do filter installs yes. I think its by house size (demand) and whether there is a convenient location for the HP. I would characterise the post as suggesting to replace the gas/oil boiler with an ASHP configured to be sufficiently close to equivalent that it doesn't necessarily need ancillary works. Currently we make it necessary to do all the ancillary works, in many cases it isn't if we accept a modest loss of efficiency. Sizing (of the system not individual radiators) is a bit of an issue, but we have data here - the existing gas/oil consumption . This, based on my personal experience, is at least as reliable as full, paid for, surveys. Even if you do a full survey its only £300, not several 1000s which the ancillary works cost. In the way its currently done, no, it doesn't and wont (IMHO) ever fly. Hence the post Hence the post. Essentially I am suggesting way to change the way we do things so that the conversion from gas/oil to A2W is relatively straightforward, and results is approximately the same running costs (at current price ratios). The tweaking to make it super efficient, which we currently insist on bundling with the conversion, is essentially what results in all the ancillary works. this can be offered as an optional upgrade, not bundled. It requires a change of mindset (and of regulation) which is what I am tilting at. Agree, lets continue the debate! Once we have some well formed ideas we might be able to find ways to filter up/out. Precisely, that's the only way forward.

Heating method is not really what should be the focus. Its insulating the fabric of the building. This means Ground floor, walls and roof. This really cannot easily be done while the building is habited. The floors need to come up, insulation, dpc and screeded. Not cheap, not easy. pre- cavity wall properties that are suitable for external insulation are the low hanging fruit. Council housing etc. The rest are hard to do and £££. Doest matter how hot or what type of boiler/pump used, if the heatloss is too great your never going to win. Just boosting the heat temp to keep up with the heat loss is pointless.

Thanks very much for your comments. This came up, as I have to change a washer in a tap. I don't think the plastic piping is polyplumb, as there are no markings on the pipes. So there is already a mix of different brands, the T junction being polyplumb. The whole thing has been in place and fine for 20 years. The polyplumb T junction was probably added by a plumber who was extending the water for an extension. So I'll just leave it alone and switch off the water from the main to change the washer, like Iceverge suggested.

You can switch to them with an ordinary meter and they can't force you to upgrade change to a smart meter. Though of course without a smart meter you can only have the standard 1 rate tariff. Like any other supplier you have to ignore the pestering to fit a smart meter.

From my readings if the building is within 2m of the boundary the overall height is restricted to 2.5m. If more than 2m from the boundary eaves at 2.5m and ridge at 4m.

As I wrote upthread <Or are they merely harvesting my data for a leads database which they are then going to auction to the highest bidder?>

If you have WiFi connected devices, like My Daikin A/C, then there's a scheduler that can be shared by multiple units. Investigate the smart options if available for the equipment you intend to buy.

Lintels are the design of the attached (not this brand), i.e. the steel slopes towards the outer leaf.

I've got a vented, timber floorboard floor. 9 inch solid brick walls. Single glazed old metal framed windows. Concrete tiled roof with no underfelt. The truth is that the house leaks like a sive, has zero insulation. When the weather is really cold it is actually warmer outside than inside. To be honest the house is not fit for purpose. However, the majority of our uk housing stock is like this. I know some very rich people with stupidly large houses. Heating is on 24 hours a day. If it gets too hot indoors they open all the windows and doors. Thats how they adjust the heating ! That, while some old person on a state pension sits with a blanket over themselves. People with low incomes (The majority) are not going to pay out thousands of pounds to have thier houses upgraded. They struggle to find hundreds of pounds to pay the monthly bills. If put into the position of broken heating, and you say i can sort you a new boiler for a grand, or a new Carlos fandango system that will save the planet for 2 grand. 99% are going for the grand option. .......It's a mess, and i don't know what the answer is.

I'm convinced air-to-air has to be an answer here. Even if the government isn't willing to subsidize it! Generally more efficient (SCOP >5 in many cases) Usually less expensive, and can be done incrementally If you want to fully electrify, DHW can be a bit of a challenge, but there are options depending on individual circumstances.

There is clearly a lack of joined up thinking. We have to get to net zero. Somehow. The current approach really only skims around the edges of the problem. Lets fit heat pumps in place of all fossil fuel boilers. That will do it. No matter that for a good many people that will mean more expensive heating. Oh they don't seem to be queuing up in sufficient numbers to pay £000's just so they can have more expensive heating. I wonder why that is? Assuming they all do choose to get an ASHP, just like electric cars, where is the green energy coming from to power them? We still burn a lot of fossil fuel to produce electricity. We need to make sure we add to the electricity demand less fast than it is being turned green. No point adding extra demand faster than we can build and commission wind turbines or nuclear power stations, otherwise each additional heat pump gets powered by additional probably gas fired power stations. Now which produces less CO2, a gas boiler burning in a house to heat it, or an ASHP powered by a gas fired power station? And we appear to be completely ignoring the elephant in the room, or rather in the walls, lack of insulation and air tightness. I don't have the solution and it seems nobody does, but unless there is a proper plan to upgrade the old housing stock, then we are not solving the problem, just kidding ourselves that we are. Having built and now living in a near passive standard house, heated by a small ASHP with low heating bills, this is what we should be aiming for already for every single new build, not just a few geeks that choose to do so, but still we are not demanding that of the mass market house builders. If we can't even get all new houses built NOW built properly m what hope is there ever to get all the old poor houses upgraded? It is a problem that needs to be solved in a way that everyone can manage, and like it would seem everyone else, I don't have a clue how we are going to manage it. I am just glad for once to be ahead of the curve with my own house.

Hi everyone. Just an update on the garage build. I have plastered the exterior of the base for the garage, and then painted it white. Looks much better than before.

I decided to go for it and place the order Thursday and it’s all being delivered on Monday. I am more than happy to send some photos of some components if you would like me to, this is the first time I’ve ever dealt with UFH so I wouldn’t be able to comment too much on quality as had nothing to compare it too

Reading that one (and off topic) I'm surprised the old scroat got off so lightly. He's done similar before going back 25 years, and clearly thinks he is above the law where the law is inconvenient for him, even when it comes to damaging an SSI for which he is responsible, a salmon (and other species) river. He has a long history of similar vandalism, reading the history. It was an open and shut case, as he entered a guilty plea - so the sentence would be more like 18 months than the 12 he received. Plus 1.25m court and reinstatement costs. I'd be happier with more like 4 years for a (£25m) multimillionaire who thinks laws simply don't apply to him. Pour encourager les autres. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-65339969.amp

Unless something has gone horribly wrong your 3 flues, though they may share a masonry 'home', should be entirely separate, so yes, arguably ventilation still required. The 'beef' I have with flues on an internal or party wall (anything but an external wall, I mean) is that your vent is potentially pulling warm moist air into the redundant flue, and as it nears the cold roof void there is a chance that it will condense. This may then push nasty tarry 'products of combustion' through the plaster, so that apparent 'damp patches' are sometimes not only that, but also contamination. If it's on an outside wall, ventilate externally, but be sure you know which flue you are entering!

I’ve got Origin, quite pleased with them although would have preferred Alu-clad timber the budget wouldn’t allow. Maybe next time! Anyway no issues with Origin but your quote seems a bit steep. How many square metres?

I used them for a pump and mixer, got what I asked for quickly and at a competitive price. Also used UFH1 and Outsourced Energy, my go to place is Outsourced Energy their pert-al-pert pipe is good to use, manifolds and mixers are Ivar so all good stuff and prices are good. If you want to design a system just down loopcad and do it yourself. It is surprising how little pipe you need in your floor, on a well insulated house. I have less than 600m in a 192m2 floor.

Welcome @Katie AG Really useful thread this.. I think the advice about not rushing is super important and also trying to get some individuality into your build. Fabric first approach can give the really low running costs that ease your day to day and the payoff lasts. Planning permission is sometimes not the wrestling match you anticipate so push the boat out a little and you may be pleasantly surprised especially if you are able to get a design that maximises solar gain. We built with a local builder and it was a bog standard brick and block construction. Final cost per square metre for a medium to high spec was about £1750 to £1800 so not bad, but there were definite compromises in terms of the build speed and the airtightness of the building fabric as well as the fact that when you aren’t building it yourself you are powerless to control certain aspects of the build. And this can be extremely frustrating. You will know what matters the most to you and the more research you do the clearer what you want should hopefully be. Bridging loans are only suited to very limited situations… would require very careful consideration and professional assessment of your financial situation.

My quote is around £530/m2 for the shell only and £725/m2 including foundations. I'm in the South East

@ToughButterCup couldn’t agree more. I followed the advice from @saveasteading so no skip. We don’t really have the room anyway. I’ve done one tip run so far as the garage had a lot of waste with it. Plus it seemed to come with extra everything which I’ve kept. Every night I’ve been tidying up, re-stacking stuff, picking up nails and screws, putting tools away in the garage, re-stocking tea bags/coffee/biscuits/water, cleaning up the rest area etc and writing up my notes on work done, still to do, problems and subsequent actions and then take a bunch of pictures and video before locking up.

https://www.dan-wood.co.uk/en/projects/point-158a-e If this company can build this (longhouse ish simple shape and 164sqm) as a turnkey, allowing for founds, kitchen etc etc this house would cost you around £300k to build, so £1800 ish per sqm. Thats a turnkey imported house. So you can spend less than that if you sub contract etc. More than that if you put in higher end products & spec. A kitchen can cost £6k to £60k for example. I was just away to say therefore allow £2k per m2. That would be reasonable. As I was typing this @Conor just posted exactly the same estimation. And I was just away to also say all the estimates are correct. It’s like saying how much to buy a new car. The answer is anything from £13k to £millions. if £2k-£2.5k per sqm is your build budget, you’ll be ok for a “normal” self build.

@Gus Potter You alright mate?

Not to worry you can still make it work. We have a cold loft and it works fine. 1. Lay a wide strip of VCL on top of all the internal wall plates (if you have any) pre roof commencing. You don't want to end up trying to seal around roof timbers where they rest on internal walls. 2. Make sure that any of the internal walls without wall plates have enough space to pull a VCL through. say 25mm, also it'll make the sparkys life easy. ( easy job = non damaged VCL) 3. Apply VCL to the bottom of the ceiling joists. and return to the external walls. 4. Put 22*70mm battens below it to create a service void. Run them at 90deg to the ceiling joists so you can run wires easily. 5. Put 2 layers of standard plasterboard for noise, staggered and sealed to external walls. 6. Install MVHR plenums after the VCL and tape as appropriate. 7. Forget the airtight box in the loft. Make something like a base of timber suspended on wires or a platform on isolating rubber feet for the MVHR to sit on. put the upstairs MVHR manifolds on the floor of the loft and run your ducts from there. Cover the whole lot of the ducting in insulation. Wrap the MVHR unit if it isn't insulated already (many are) and insulate all exposed ducting with flexible foil backed mineral wool and tape. 8. Run 2 large ducts through your airtight layer to the downstairs and host your manifolds somewhere along the line. Sealing around ten to twenty ducts would be a total pain and they will need to be spaced out lots to do it properly. 2 large ones would be easy. 9. Substitute a sheet of OSB for the VCL above a suitable cupboard for all the wires that have to go in the attic We had 5. In hindsight just the TV aerial would have been needed. Get the electrician to drill ONE small hole for ONE wire and you can seal afterwards with sealant/tape. 10. If you can afford a blown cellulose insulation or mineral wool it'll cover the ducting much easier. Cellulose is my fave, helps airtightness, good for heat protection, noise, non itchy etc etc etc. 11. Otherwise consider something denser like Rockwool which will help with sound proofing too. Any questions just ask.