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Just so you know (in England) this is still technically legal. As long as its not discharging to a watercourse, do not let people in this industry scare you. I have seen tanks from 100 years ago still in use, someone cleaned it out, re-pointed it and added an air blower on a timer. If it was me, I would negotiate the price to reflect this. But in reality, you could move in, have the pipe from the house jetted and re-lined, jet the tank and probably be fine until you get round to installing the new system. With a healthy dose of muck munchers once a month.

Are they from https://www.vermland.dk/aurens-deli-1 also https://www.nordiskakok.com/english-nordiska-kok

The T&G PIR boards are designed as full fill with approx a 5mm gap, I used xtratherm ones on my latest build, now unilin but these ones are the same. have a look at their install guides, there will be buildup examples, but I know it’s full fill as it was one I’d considered using myself

Brick, block, render, tiled roof. Traditional materials. Materials tradesmen use everyday keep the costs down. Cladding requires the exterior material, membranes, baton's and counter batons, fire stops and lots of stainless screws. Glass is expensive, avoid overkill on windows. You can still get a nice design without 20+ windows. zinc roofs, etc Number one rule to keep costs down is don’t build a house that is too big! Wasted space, bedrooms at 40sqm of space you don’t need. 4 bedrooms and only 2 of you and the dog live there. Im only building a 2 bed because that’s all I need. A 3 bed would involve a whole upper level. Stairs, floor joists, another ceiling, more heating, electrics, insulation, en-suite, doors, The list goes on. All for what? A extra bedroom that I’ll never use. 90% of people on here who have built, will have built too big and probably regret it in some way or another. You dont need fancy switches and wireless this and that either. A light switch should be just that, a switch. Not using your phone to turn on the light.

Have a sort of documented install and years worth of data on the reef tank forum. https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/my-solar-experience.921115/ It can still be done if you’re willing to be hands on and keep away from complex designs and expensive materials. I’ll be the first to say mine is a basic design but nice on the eye and suits the area. But with basic design and single floor living comes affordability.

I got the feeling they would be a on the pricey side. I only looked at them for design purposes. To be honest, I can’t believe the costs involved of timber framed kits. People have asked me why I’m going block and block traditional, but that’s were my savings and my ability to be able to build it comes from. It’s my trade so no labour costs for 75% of the build. Without that it would just be a dream.

Well I currently have 18 x 425w panels facing west and get approx 4400kw a year. so with more than double the amount of panels spread across east, south and west elevations, I’d hope to see 10000kw. The system I have at moment is Voltacon 11kw off grid inverter, 20kw of pylontech us5000c battery storage and Tigo optimisers on the 18 panels. It were a self install apart from the electric back up from the mains and the connection to the consumer unit. Hour and half for electrician. Wouldnt go back. Been brilliant and I charge up batteries in winter on octopus go tariff if needed. On the new build I’d go with double the storage and 2 x inverters to cope with 22kw loads and as a back up if one went went down.

Difficult and relatively expensive. Would be happy to talk with you about our experience. I’ve documented it on here too.

A bit late to reply but here goes. From my September 2024 quote from Norrsken. Innova sliding door 2.1m, S319A matches P33A windows, two panes, aluclad 0.76uW £3500 plus vat plus delivery, installation, sills, compriband etc

Very nice design. What do you think you'll produce with the solar? What setup are you using?

Yes that's the one. Looks to also be available in SF, T'Station etc.

From my recent experience on this topic I would ask your chosen Structural Engineer for a detailed explanation of exactly what information he/she needs in order to correctly design your foundations/house. But still be prepared for some vacillating from them. We needed to have some ground investigation done (planning requirement) regarding percolation rates, drainage etc. I found a suitable company and got a quote from them for the work. I then sent that quote to the SE and said "Will this survey be sufficient for you to do the foundation design work?". Yes, was the answer. When the results came back, I sent them to the SE and told him to crack on. He then said he didn't have all the information he needed and suggested I might need another survey... A short re-briefing ensued, I told him to speak directly to the ground investigation company, and harmony has now been re-established.

Seriously, try a Cramer touch up pen.

Caught it with your guiche?

For the inner bathroom a light tunnel or solar tube works well, we had one in a previous house to light an otherwise dark landing and it worked well. That revised layout flows a lot better.

Must admit I am not a fan of rooms with no windows, I know that they are mainly bathrooms but given the overall shape of the house it would be difficult not to do what you have!

Your wife is very very right. It's a house not a branch of currys. nothing more frustrating than being unable to work the controls. It's more expensive, more lightly to break etc. Single zone heating on a timer or single thermostat. All rads no plinth heaters or fan coils or UFH. UVC for DHW only. No messing with banking heat for space heating. It doesn't really work unless you have thousands of litres. dMEV to every wet room. Electric UFH in bathrooms on a switch or timer. Fastidious attention to Airtightness. As much insulation as you can fit. As much PV as you can fit. No home automation or connected nonsense. It's out of date as soon as it's installed and everyone who is not Geek hates it.

All very personal taste I know, but if the ensuite is steamy will opening it up to the closet work.....I also woudn't fancy either having to wait or worse, walk past someone on the loo......I know true love knows no bounds but.....

As @crooksey says. I have such a system. When we bought the property we assumed we would put in a treatment tank but never did. It blocked once, so had it emptied but the crucial thing was sucking out the outfall pipe. I went in the pit and saw that it could do with repair BUT then realised it is leaking and filtering at the same time. Also saw that the in and out T shape pipes ( to below the surface) were broken so sorted them. I needed building regs. A letter from thd owner confirming long yerm use satisfied them. The drainage company demanded a replacement and also went away meekly after being reminded of thd rules. In summary...plan to replace it but get a letter from the vendor to confirm hos long it has been there. Do not oversize the treatment tank. They work just fine at maximum use and very comfortably on lower use. As above....Air bubbles is better and cheaper than mechanical. I specify Marsh....others look OK too.

Indeed, I have had 2 quotes which are both around £1,500. Meeting one of them on site tomorrow to discuss it, with a view of getting it done early next week.

I had exactly the same idea, a few prestressed concrete lintels are cheap enough.

Absolutely aware of not just charlatans, but also those who know they have you over a barrel as it has to be fixed, almost regardless of cost! In fairness, when ringing around to find somebody with availability to conduct the percolation tests, the same recommendation for the local sewage 'god' kept coming up. Which is the Guy that did the inspection for us. I need to percolation test done, to verify that a new drainage field is possible, before I am prepared to allow exchange of contracts. In reality, the old soakaway was likely to have just been a pipe buried in the field. Especialy some 70+ years ago. Putting in a new drainage field is going to make a mess, but it will soon grow back and be invisible in a large field. Just have to take care of any tractors driving over it, or over the feed-in pipe while cutting the hedge. Any particular brands, or models of tank to prefer, or avoid?

Shelly H&T. Gen the usb version than it stays plugin without need for batteries.

Am in a minority here but I like the Polyplumb pipe and fittings. We inherited a rainwater system which had PP fittings inside the plant cubicle but JG outside. Useless, I was never confident they were done up properly and one actually sprang off under pressure. OTOH the PP always inspired confidence. The grab ring is inside the seal ring so it doesn't scratch the seal area on the pipe. Can be push-assembled, and unscrewed again with bare hands. Have installed much pipe above ceilings with PP, only problem was where I didn't mark the correct insertion depth on the pipe end, you need to do that.

Will try it. But I think the HW algorithm maximises flow temp as it tries to minimise the HW heatup time to avoid disrupting the heating schedule too much. So it might not help, and may actually make it worse (power = flow rate x dT and all that).

That’s a fairly good argument for a reduction in price.

In haste.... Read up on the General Binding Rules

No I’ve not done this but instead I suggest trying a ‘passive repeater’. It’s basically two off 423MHz antennas, linked by a 50ohm coax cable. One of them would live outside high up, the other is next to your smart meter. It won’t be as good as actually connecting it to the smart meter - but it’ll look less dodgy, be simpler to do, and maybe good enough?

Trees with TPO on them, look into this now, if having the trees there will hamper the build then your in trouble. getting a TPO removed is a lengthy process unless they are in poor health.

just checked my quote and our slider was around £5k+VAT (front door £2.5k+VAT) so sounds like they're taking you for a ride. shop around. we got quotes from 6 different companies before whittling them down and making a final decision.

4.8m lift n slide door from norrsken was about £5500. front door £1800.

Our 5m triple glazed slider came in 2 panes. Don’t remember how much it was but it was nowhere near £27k. All our windows and sliders came from Norrsken.

>>> I had this, the local housing stock was a complete abortion of 1980’s fake Cotswold stone, there was no way they could say they wanted me to match in with a load of houses that shouldn’t have been built like they were. Yeah, quite, sometimes LPAs can’t see the wood from the trees. Soneone should tell my LPA that the objective is to improve the housing stock, not to bring everything down to a 1950s prefab standard.

Hep20 all the way home for me too. Less joints is always better than more joints.

That says it all, crack on and feck them. Just be aware they WILL contact the council but just quote the above. 👍

You would be relying on Part 2 Class A surely? - erection, construction, maintenance, improvement, or alteration of a gate, fence, wall, or other means of enclosure. Now back in Paragraph 2 - Interpretation, we have sub- paragraph 2: (2) Unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Order to the height of a building or of plant or machinery is to be construed as a reference to its height when measured from ground level; and for the purposes of this paragraph “ground level” means the level of the surface of the ground immediately adjacent to the building or plant or machinery in question or, where the level of the surface of the ground on which it is situated or is to be situated is not uniform, the level of the highest part of the surface of the ground adjacent to it. Now I accept we have a fence here rather than "building" "plant" or "machinery" it would seem to be perverse to deal with a fence differently to a building in terms of height.

Tell them Solid concrete blocks 7 n You cavity will dictate your insulation thickness T&G cavity batts Echotherm or similar You need to leave 100 mil cavity airflow So 150 cavity 100 mil insulated board Or you can full fill with a wool batt (Cheaper)

@lookseehear It's amazing how similar our properties and heating solutions are. Ours started as a pair of 1840s sandstone and cob cottages. In the 1970s they were knocked into one and the cob first storey removed leaving a sandstone/rubble walled bungalow. This was then increased in size with a concrete block, cavity walled, extension. Currently heated with an old oil fired Aga, we will be updating to an external condensing oil boiler heating a thermal store connected directly to the radiator heated central heating. We already have PV and solar thermal to help heat the TS. It will use a plate heat exchanger for DHW. The cavity walls, 70mm, will have EPS beads CWI and the 600mm stone walls will have hempcrete type IWI. The cold loft will have 400mm insulation. Good luck with your project.

Roof lights or sun pipes into the living room might help

+1. However without UFCH the floor will be several degrees below air temperature in mid-winter, so it's not surprising that floors feel cold. With UFCH (provided the house is air-tight and well insulated, and provided all rooms on the floor are heated to the same temperature) there is also typically 2 or 3°C less variation in air temperature between floor and ceiling, compared to using radiators. All other things being equal, UFCH can therefore provide better thermal comfort but, as mentioned above, it shouldn't be the priority - airtightness, insulation and MVHR should come first.

You need to build it to comply with building regs, I don’t care about your planning, but for future use if you allow anybody to sleep in it and you have a fire and somebody is hurt they will crucify you. what if after the build you want to chuck it on air b+b, it will need to have a fire safety plan to let it. doing it right will not cost much more and you will end up with a usable building, doing it on the cheap I bet two or three years after you move out it will be scrap. have you looked at the timber cabins and add more insulation and stuff. I agree about renting £25 grand down the drain build something that will be useful. will the house have a big garage. how about a big triple garage with granny flat above, build that first and it’s there forever.

Most of the site houses I work on seam to aim for 2 It many years since I’ve actually seen an airtightness test being done Most are done as a desktop study We’ve built traditional)Solid) the last two times Our present home is extremely airtight and the one we are currently finishing should be the same When we are ready for sign off Probably six months after moving in We will tip up our 200 quid and get our pass certificate Get your house as airtight as possible But don’t take the corrupt testing to seriously Because Red Row and Barratts will hit a lower score than you without trying

Let me take you with me on my first steps on the road to cynicism in the building sector. For some reason (sewage smells?) many people appear to delay attention to the soft and smelly until it’s either too late or until they’ve backed themselves into the smallest room in the house; and then, trousers round their ankles, they allow someone to lock the door from the outside. Evidence? Use the search terms refusal and percolation on our LPA website. ‘Refused pending percolation test results’ is all too common. Imagine then my incredulity when, on the recommendation of a colleague, a company turns up to do a ‘PERK test (mate)’ for a drainage field on our land. Just a bit of context…. we live in sight of what was a clay quarry, within cricket ball throwing distance in fact So, there might just be a bit of clay around “Yeah, that looks fine (mate) you’ll get a drainage field on here no bother” he says without so much as lifting a shovel. “Tickety boo ” I say. “Gonna do the percolation test then?” “Aye… I’ll get ‘t shovel from ‘t van” “Where’s your machine then?” I ask. “No need for one (mate)” “I’ll get the tea on then” . Tea duly made…. yer man’s gone A square foot of the turf has been gently disturbed in one spot, and carefully replaced. An alarm bell sounds in the dim, dark recesses of my brain. And instantly switches off. Time for the pub. Friday is International Party Night in our place. Monday – Here are verbatim copy and past unedited (anonymised) passages from the written report; …I can confrm [sic!] that we have carried out a porosity test to determine the suitability of the sub soil. The percolation results indicate that an excavation area of 23m2 for the sub surface irrigation system is required…. …Condition of soil: Loam soil to the base of the excavation…. …Number of excavations: No.3 trail [sic!] pits to a depth of 550mm…. …Percolation values: Pit 1 – 16 secs/mm. Pit 2 – 20 secs/mm. Pit 3 – 19 secs/mm. Average percolation value: 19 secs/mm…. (Condition of soil: Loam soil to the base of the excavation.) The briefest look at H2 Drainage Fields and drainage mounds page 31 to 33 shows the requirement for hole to be dug to 300mm below the intended invert (para 1.33 page 32). In our case that would be a two meter deep hole at least. So, trying to be fair, I suggest to the company that I pay for a properly constituted percolation test. Here’s part of the emailed response from the company . ..However [our report] would be based on the procedure we carried out [reported in the quotation above] to confirm the first report which we have done 100’s of times and never been questioned by Building Control/Planners once. Talking to a different company rep about the matter and he grins disarmingly. And tells the story of a completely built house without access to either off mains drainage or a sewer. Off-mains drainage can be a show-stopper, not a lot of people know that. If like me you aren’t a builder, there’s no substitute for reading and reading and reading.

Can I have some of whatever you're having please? Optimism cake.

Who wants to finish the :two nuns in a bath together" joke.