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We’ve built and will sell on as soon as our next one is complete We’ve added lots of extra insulation good airtightness Steels instead of lintels A nice bid expensive German kitchen and appliances Im pretty sure that none of the potential buyers will ask or care about levels of insulation and airtightness Or Sap rating Most will prioritize Location Size of house and garden and kitchens and bathrooms We all care But your average buyer won’t

@ETC and @craig I've been here for a few years, and i have never seen either of you try and promote anything. What i have seen is fantastic help from both of you to other posters. So, keep up the good work. Regards Big Jimbo

I took a jolly jaunt to Build it Live, in Bicester, yesterday. First of all the Burger and chips was not worth £11.50. However, my wife said that the Pizza was worth £10. To be honest, i was not very impressed. I kind of understand, Gas boiler, underfloor heating downstairs, Rads upstairs. Nice big hotwater storage tank, to supply 4 showers. I'm still waiting for my Building reg drawings, so i wanted to see a few products, and talk to a few people. My thoughts for my build are as follows. I'm not going to keep it. I don't need a large house, and i won't be able to afford to keep it. I might stay in it for 3 years to avoid £60k CIL, but if i get offered a decent price, i will sell. I live in Greenbelt, about 10mins drive from Two London underground Stations, and One mainline Station. I expect, and have been told that the new house will most likely sell to a "30 something, moving out of London, to start a family" It's a nice half acre plot, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. Large garden. Double garage, and parking for 10 cars. Posh shed that can be used for home office. High hedges, and a big 16ft electric sliding gate. It will be north of 1.5 million. My thoughts, and this is where i could do with your help. Build well, but only to 2023 building regs with regards to insulation. Nobody can see, or will care if i have put extra insulation in everywhere, so i am told. Aim for a decent air tightness. I have built twice for clients in the passed, and achieved Airtightness of less than 2 both times. My own thoughts are that air tightness is more importantant than insulation. The reason being that you can have as much insulation as you like, but if you have a leaky house, or leave the windows open for fresh air during the winter (my wife) then it makes little difference to have extra insulation because it is being bi-passed. So, my thoughts are as follows. (i'm happy to be shot down and won't be offended) I'm not too concerned about the inside. I spent 20+ years making the inside of new build properties sexy. Kitchen, Studies, Hidden doors, Cinemas, etc, etc. I even won an award, 7th in the country for One of my kitchens. I like to think that i will make a decent job of the inside, even though i say so myself. MVHR. I will have 7 wet areas, and the house will be in the countryside with it's fair share of smells, lot's of pollen on the wind etc. It makes sense to do this so as to not be extracting loads of expensive heat to the outdoors, and for indoor air quality. The manufacturers must make a fortune on those things. They are so simple, and can't cost much to produce. (bit of a rip off cost wise IMO. Solar. I have got room to build in 12 panels on the main roof. Won't cost a fortune, so to me makes sense. I might consider a storage battery, and a diversion to the hot water tank. With the help of One of the other Buildhubbers, I'm going to stick a crap load of Cat 5/6 from a main hub to several areas. The idea behind this is that it will be available for any purchaser to play with afterwards. There were about 10 smart home companies at the show yesterday. They were all the best. I'm a bit old, and basically didn't understand what any of them were saying to me. I expect atleast 1/2 of them won't be around in 5 years. ASHP. This is One of those things, that dispite reading loads of stuff on buildhub, watching loads of Youtube etc, I am still not sure about. I know this is prob because im an old fart, and i'm used to the convience of gas. Lots of hot water, and powerful heating that has been able to bring my houses up to temp quickly. Enen when i have been away of holiday for a few weeks. I felt that there was a real lack of people displaying ASHP yesterday. One guy whose company is often mentioned on here, said if i was going to sell the place than not to bother with ASHP ! He said that the lack of installation understanding was an issue. As was the total lack of people to service and maintain them. This kind of threw me to be honest. This was a guy that sells them ? So ASHP or simple gas ? That and any other things you think i should be considering ? I don't want to go gas and having potential buyers saying "So yesterday" I don't want to go ASHP and have buyers going "What the fec is that thing" I'm a bit stuck. Any of your thoughts would be great. Thanks.

Sorry for the lateness. But I prefer the 1st photo🙈 Compression on plastic if you don't overtighten and use a metal insert is fine IMHO. Would prefer a visible compression to a hidden push fit joint.

Personally I would dig up that flat featureless lawn and make a flower bed with an evergreen shrub in front of the heat pump so it isn't visible unless you are right in front of it.

I think that 'if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well'. There's so much low quality housing stock in the UK, I think we have a bit of a duty to do a good job. The extra cost will probably be minimal and at £1.5m you might get buyers who want something up-to-date. If the likely buyer is a well off 30-year old, then they'll want modern things that 30-year olds want. So I vote for insulation, air tightness and ASHP - not every 30-year old is a luddite.

That would also be a caveat . Market drops for whatever reason you either sell cheaper ( perhaps still do ok ) or hold . The last recession ( you know the REAL one ) ; whilst near to bankruptcy I didn’t sell our house in a collapsing market I held . It took 10 yrs before it was ‘worth ‘ selling . It was the right choice for me - with hindsight!!!

I you plan to sell in a few years I'd be careful about costs. It's not hard to build a house that is worth less than it costs to build.

All the above is good. I had a long chat to a family developer once.. they did one to 12 houses. Their name was mentioned as a plus on the sales blurb. Anyway he told me he specs and inspects every front door. This demonstrates the spec and build quality of the whole house....they always invited viewers to open the door themselves. It should click nicely and open easily, and have the right amount of weight. If the door sticks, there will be no sale, basically....the rest of the tour is pointless. Similarly the kitchen creates an impression. Walking round some commercial buildings once, I asked the agent what insulation there was. He didn't know, and hadn't thought to find out. He said that nobody asks. Sounds like your location is good. Not much else matters. Any other first impressions to work on,? Easy driveway entrance and turning. Nice but easy front garden?

When I'm buying - and I may not be typical: 1. Can I afford to run it. Heating with a history of running costs - not just the estimates - show me the house can maintain 20º ish when its cold outside. Air tightness etc don't care - thats more an invisible facilitator to the heating working which I can read out on bills vs. EPC/Surveys ( I mean I care - its just not the easiest way to see the house running costs) 2. Can I control it. Heating/HW Control systems I can use on day1 without setting up a dozen cloud accounts or dropping into IT support. A timeclock and timed temps. 3. Can I keep it running. If there is tech is there a really short list of support organisations/contractors to keep it running and a manual. Cloud integration left right centre would be a -ve & would feel like mandatory contracts required with different firms to get warm. If its current tech - electric vs. oil so much the better - gas with no solar on a new build is double edged - an opportunity, but also a miss. My appetite today would be to upgrade but as I get older not so much and would expect it to be present. On a new build I'd expect more finished obviously - on an old build looking for a coherent system I can build on and not some random confused setup I have to rip out completely before starting upgrades.

My view is the average buyer now does ‘care’ about low running costs but doesn’t understand sap / insulation / ASHP etc. They way I see it is …. My build is designed for me . So I add things that the average buyer won’t care about . BUT ! If I sold at the price point I want I’ve got LOADS of features to point out in terms of comfort / energy efficiency - a ‘sell’ point is even the brand . A battery … a Tesla battery ! Just as much as you name kitchen appliances if they are an upmarket brand . Depends on your target audience. Commutable to London I just smell truck loads of £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ Thats a lot of dosh - soak it up !

Yes compared to direct electric it's very good. You may find a humid climate slightly above zero worse for defrosting cycles, but even still the CoP will stay favourable compared to direct electric. This one is probably personal preference. I wouldn't want the internal unit on when in a bedroom, it's not quiet enough. More expensive units will be better I'm sure. I'm able to overheat the room the unit is in for most of the day when it's empty and leave internal doors open, which is the only way it can heat more of the house. There are still rooms it doesn't reach, hence the boiler still being on. If you can't overheat the central space I'd be very worried about a 7kW system cycling too much, depending on heat loss/size of the space. The other obvious disadvantage is if you choose to shut a door to a room, the room will get cold. Long term I'm likely to fit an A2W ASHP to get stable temps in all rooms. The A2A will do the large room it's in and provide whole house cooling if required.

That's a great thread, thank you. I did skim it previously when starting to investigate this. I see you're finding it worthwhile despite being on gas. I'm on direct electric (storage heaters) so should see an even bigger benefit. Very encouraged that your COP figures are so high. I'm in NW Scotland which is not exactly tropical. But one advantage is that we don't actually get many frosts. What would your thoughts be on fitting one big central unit vs several smaller ones?

If you're using a beam and block floor I'd increase the screed to 75m as the beams are prestressed creating a camber as much as 25mm at midspan, this will vary depending what infill blocks are used and finishes. My opinion not advice

Some thoughts on the DIY unit here: I've been happy with mine and offset whole house gas heating with the single unit. It's been working very well in combination with the PV since installation in March, but hasn't had a full winter to test it to its limits yet, though we did have negative temperatures in March. There are downsides (see thread) but overall no huge catches, it will pay for itself.

Make sure the flooring is able to lift out

and some spiders by the looks of it

Thanks. Yes existing electricity supply disconnected. I hope to be able to borrow the existing water supply until I get connected and the stop tap has been found about 200 m away in the middle of the new park. I tried tracing the pipe to the boundary but it shoots off in an illogical direction from the house so will wait till I have machines on site to trace it to the boundary and erect a 'stand pipe' No nasty planning conditions thank God. My planning consultant says that Ian his 30 years of the job he has never seen a permission granted with so few conditions.

Existing services disconnected/turned off in the road? Any planning conditions that say "Before work starts..?

no internal perimeter drain. 👍

I have seen far worse. It looks a decent size. I seem to recall that it sits awkwardly on the plot though. You covered your bases and are experienced on construction sites so you should find this easier than most. Good luck!

Usually how I judge other people's wives.

I asked my wife. She says a generous lobby or passageway is important at first impressions time. On this:an Architect that is regularly engaged for house planning, then paid off, was surprised to see that at construction stage, the lobby and landing were enlarged and the rooms reduced. That is what sells, he was told. Also bling in the bathroom.

HI Conor, Its possible it would be a better location once the extension is done, however its years away i think. Weve done a complete replumb inside of the heating system, all new fan coil radiators and large bore piping. No other refurb of the house at the moment, it was refreshed about 8 years ago so mostly ok.

I guess you also need to make sure all the waste traps are full of water.

Won't be a waste of time, once depressurised you can easily feel the leaks. Main ones are windows and doors, they can be adjusted, forgetting to tape up vents for the test, keep checking you really have done them all. Then there are the service penetration, squire silicone on the outside while the test is happening. Loft hatch. When @joe90 had his done, I did not tell him for days that the air inlet for his wood burner was blowing a gale. People that burn wood like that natural fresh air feeling. So kept quiet.

15 year old schoolgirls are vaccinated for @pocster' Pimple now.

@Big Jimbo Yup - I realise that is a thing. FWIW - and quite possibly I'm not your target customer which is fair enough - I've never needed any of those features - (Yet) You might find there's a whole market place of seasoned IT professionals that would run a mile before integrating all that stuff into a phone -or- not

I knew someone selling their house (2.6mill ) . Drove some shitty car . Took that off site and hired some (expletive deleted)ing sports car ( like 120k - I know nothing about cars so can’t even tell you what it was ) . It was in the driveway for all viewings . It gives the impression a. You are loaded b. You expect the house to match the motor c. You ain’t no mug and aren’t going to sell your property’cheap’ An illusion ? . Yep . All the HA etc. you don’t bother with - but you have cabling available for all this . Can’t easily add it afterwards. It’s shows ‘ thought ‘ towards potential buyers . My 8k front door has finger scan entry ( SWMBO can’t use it 🤣 ) . But every single visitor goes “ is that a finger scanner ? “ . Simple but memorable point ….

@RichardL Thats great, but you can't see any of that on a new house. What i think i might like to be able to see / do from my phone in a remote location. See what the inside temperature of my house is. Turn on my heating from my phone. So that it is nice and warm when i get in. Check the status of my home alarm / turn on or off Be able to view CCTV remotely Have a cctv in hall and landing to enable me to see if any intruders are actually in the property if the alarm triggers. (i did that for a few russians) be able to close any blinds, or shutters remotely. Be able to turn on / off a few inside and outside lights remotely. IMO we over estimate how tech savvy most young people are. They think they are because they can use tic toc and instagram. As @pocster has said. Nice quality front door. Decent light switches Nice taps and toilet roll holders. fec off big T.V and leave it there. decent internal door handles. Defo, stuff that you touch is very important. If you are going to have a couple of old cars, sitting on blocks on the drive, it ain't going to look good. Just now been reading about HPV. seems to be the next load of tec that i am about to be confused by.

Tactile things need to be high quality . An 8k front door looks the bollocks and sets a ‘sense’ for what is to follow . Taps that are quality to touch . Sockets / light switches not plastic white shite . Good Light fittings . Stick a 60” tv on the wall in the lounge ( include in sale as free ) . You are selling an aspiration . At this level - you sell a dream for someone who has deep pockets .

As you have already said, insulate to building regs, except add a bit to the floor because of UFH. You don't want to be loosing more to the ground than what goes through the roof. PV is a no brainer, cheap and easy. Diverter to a cylinder, cheap and simple. Forget batteries, just not worth the hassle, so let the next owner swap the inverter to a hybrid one. Get the airtightness as good as you can, then, as long as you have not put in stupidly sized windows, you can get cheaper windows, saving 0.2 W/m².K on windows is really desperation to get through SAP, or altruism. MVHR, worth it and you will need it anyway for ventilation. Why bother with data cabling, everything is going wireless. Stick in a car charger. We are heading towards EVs, so that is one less thing to worry about. Gas Vs ASHP. Assuming the plumbing is designed correctly for both, and connecting to the existing supply is cheap, it don't matter. I would opt for ASHP and not worry about gas at all.

There’s a guy on my local radio station that reads the news . He always says his name before the news announcement “ My name is Zak Hiscock “ - always makes me laugh . Had to do a double take on what he said first time . might be off topic 🙄

Prep for ASHP, install small gas boiler, with ASHP cylinder, if your keeping costs low. Install boiler as priory hot water or X plan. Rads in bedrooms designed for low temperature operation. No-one has a real clue where energy prices are going. Press and therefore people are starting to realise a SAP score is important, may take a few years for people to get what SAP is, but that is when you will be selling.

Well I installed an ASHP in a well insulated house and it performed well, but I get what you are saying about installation and commissioning, instal gas with the infrastructure to change to ASHP, feet in both camps. I concur with what you say about air tightness. (And I am positively ancient 😳).

Lol. And for those that don’t understand I am laughing at the idea that this isn’t the first time he’s put his foot in his mouth! (Allegedly so not to upset those of a mild disposition.)

I really wouldn't bother with UFH in bedrooms ever again. It's a complete waste of time and money. You only need to heat bedrooms for a short period, if at all. UFH unless you blast it with loads of heat (which isn't the idea of UFH) is way to slow to react. So I would keep to radiators. Nice wool carpet and UFH don't make a good partner either, bit like putting a duvet on a radiator.

It is @craig. It’s laughing at the notion that posters on her (apparently including me) are out to hood-wink less experienced posters into employing them or buying their services. I don’t have a business to promote and I’m not trying to sell a service. I’ve (hopefully) helped dozens of posters (mostly by private messaging) with the skills and experience I have amassed over twenty years in the building industry.

The exposed stone on the walls is a heat sink, but the bco was pragmatic and likes it as "heritage". Upstairs the ties are exposed for heritage too, but it also provides a tiny bit more headroom and much more feeling of space.

Well its seems necessity is the mother of invention, sat down for a few hours, previewed a few of the tutorials, the one regarding importing a pdf was the key for me, I was away then. I seem to have a workable layout now. 🙂 Off to find my floor tacker, and staples. anyone looking at this thread in the future RTFM. (or the video tutorials, they are good. )

Most (all?) pans have a round outlet pipe but on many it transitions to something not perfectly round when you look down the pan. In my many years of cleaning pans (I'm over 60) it's best to avoid the ones with are very "square" as you get err build up in the corners. Most toilet brushes are round and don't always reach into the corners of the square if you get what I mean.

Depends if you think you might want to use the water. I think most crate systems are just storm attenuators so it will all empty out before you can use it. Most tanks are the opposite in that they don't provide any storm attenuation when full. I believe it might be possible to get tanks that do half and half. Eg they automatically drain until half empty so you have half the capacity acting as a storage tank and half providing storm attenuation. I havent really investigated these.

Use this

Yeh ive done that before with void above concrete oversite. Sounds good

We didn't make the view but it is amazing. The field had the barley that will be Speyside whisky in a few years. The distance is looking straight towards @ProDave but there are hills between.

Welcome, and thanks for being upfront about this. Several members manage to successfully walk the line between commercial presence and unacceptable business promotion. @craig comes to mind, but there are others.

It depends what load each prop is carrying but probably not, the blocks especially would be vulnerable to a point load. Your builder should be able to make an assessment of the load, with the effect of the weight of any floors or the roof needs being considered. Note that Strongboys should be limited to 340kg (acrows are much stronger but due to the eccentric load on the acrow prop it is reduced a lot), which is around 150 bricks or so. Easily solved though, either remove a few blocks and prop off the ground or use thick timber sleepers to spread the load. Be cautious as a prop failure (at either end) would be Very Bad.

AFAIK the panasonic controller regulates the heat pump flow/return temps in one of two heating modes : WC or fixed flow/return temps. So what exactly does Brendon Uys mean when he describes the heat pump as controlling the temperature in Test 3? Has he set up test 3 with a fixed flow temp of 35C? That would be convenient. And would return a good COP but has nothing to do with the buffer tank. Brendon Uys has changed two variables in his test 3 (6 below), he has reduced the flow temp setting and removed the buffer tank. Surely a more scientific approach would have been: 1: Flow temp 50C + Buffer 2: WC + Buffer 3: Flow Temp 35C + Buffer 4: 50C no buffer 5: WC no buffer 6: 35C no buffer If, as I suspect, Brendon Uys has examined the COP from 1,2, and 6, and reduced the flow temps to 35 C when he removed the buffer then of course he will get a better COP. But that has very little to do with the buffer tank and everything to do with the lower fixed flow temps. Why not test the system with all combinations, to include a fixed flow rate of 35C and a buffer? That would return better COP, although it may be at 36C to maintain a steady simulated house temperature after the buffer losses. But at least the COIP would be better than allowing the HP to increase the flow temps.

Some monobloc heatpumps have a pump inside the unit (ex. Midea), but others don't and need an external pump (ex. older Samsung, not sure about the newest gen). Pressure drop across your whole heating system needs to be calculated, but if it falls within the capacity of the pump head, you can run the whole heating from the one pump (be it inside the unit or outside). BUT that's only the case if you don't have any 4-port buffer, LLH or CCT which create hydraulic separation. If you do have any of 4-port buffer, LLH or CCT, you essentially have a primary and secondary circuit, then your circuits are separated and each needs its own pump. Primary circuit is from heatpump to 4-port buffer, LLH and back, and secondary circuit is from the separation to your heating emitters and back.

you want 150mm insulation 75mm screed to make 225 to match external brickwork. EPS insulation is cheaper by far.