newhome

Welcome. Another one for the list. Does the planning permission have a CIL payment attached to it? As a self builder you can apply for an exemption but you MUST apply for it before you start any work and follow the rules to the letter otherwise the exemption can be cancelled. And another. Do you know what the ground conditions are like? Estimating foundations can be one the the biggest unknowns in a build and the costs can mount up. It will also be worth trying to get some indicative quotes for connection of services as sometimes the costs can be eye watering.

So your set up re the floor slab isn’t really a million miles away from mine even if not exactly the same. The guys above have said all of the tech stuff so this is just my experience using the UFH daily. I tend to have the UFH come on once a day and it takes circa 2 hours to heat the floor up to temperature (20 degrees) in the largest room downstairs. The boiler doesn’t run at max for all that time though so the running costs aren’t enormous even with electric that I imagine costs twice as much as gas. The floor then retains the heat enough not to bother running it again for another 24 hours. Sometimes when it’s baltic outside I have it switch on earlier in the day but mostly every 24 hours is fine, and I don’t have any other heating. My losses will be higher than yours too as your insulation is better. Clearly if you’ve been away and the floor is brass monkeys it will take longer to heat up but the floor retains a surprising amount over the course of 24 hours.

Something you can point out to him later if he complains. Shows how shockingly poor the sound insulation in their house is if you can head the drums from inside the house across the street.

The ZIp Hydrotap I posted the link to does all 5 things (hot and cold tap water plus cold, sparkling and boiling drinking water). Comes in at 3.5k in a domestic setting. The filters etc seem very spends. Thankfully the ones at work only do drinking water as seeing how some people use the washing up sinks and taps wouldn’t encourage me to use them for drinking! ??. The unit pretty much takes up the whole cupboard underneath it and is always on full blast (pretty noisy too). Here is the price for one of the Vivreau taps. A bit less than the Zip ones. https://www.cs-catering-equipment.co.uk/brita-vivreau-vitap-water-dispensing-tap

I guess it does depend on the area. Down south where I lived the water was incredibly hard. Up here the water is soft and nicer to drink IMO.

All of the fencing up here has gaps between it, whether hit and miss or single sided because otherwise it just blows down. Took a bit of getting used to after living in the south of England where everything is closed in. I painted my fencing before it was installed and that’s much easier but it’s all needed redoing since and took forever so I can relate to the Forth Bridge comment ?

Sure is. I love plain cold water from the tap. My OH hated drinking water unless it was flavoured and sparkling. Ugh!

Zip (the type I have at work) do them too but they are £££ https://www.zipwater.co.uk/shop/hydrotap/zip-hydrotap-celsius-all-in-one-arc-bcshamt2790uk

Have a look on Bing Maps too. That can bring up a different view from Google Maps.

I’m the other way round. I drink coffee pretty rarely and have a white elephant coffee machine ?. I make coffee about once a week just to stop it from seizing up. I left it switched off for about 6 months once and it didn’t much like that so I make an effort to keep it ticking over now.

Boiling water taps weren't really a thing when we did our kitchen design so I don't have one (but would like one). We had a Zip Hydrotap put in at work and to begin with it worked great until the filter needed changing and then it was out of action for about 6 weeks whilst we waited for someone to fix it. They've now installed 4 taps per floor but there are always one or 2 out of order. They weren't cheap either at circa 4k each. So it seems that they are great in a domestic setting but in an office setting with many users not so much. Mind you, it seems that some people at work don't know not to put metal into a microwave either .

I just caught up with the last episode. I really liked the house the older couple were building, and he seemed like a really lovely guy too. The other house, well you couldn't really tell what that was going to be like as it just wasn't far enough along. @Visti are the houses that are not yet complete on the programme further along now or was the latest filming quite recent? Wonder if the guy from episode 2 is still living in a shell with no bathroom etc?

A chicken findaloo and some strong larger then

I can't believe you still haven't used the loo (a decade in the making ....) for a number 2! ?

The male toilets at work are apparently disgusting. From the tales I’ve heard (no aim, no attempt to clean up, lack of hand washing etc) if toilets become gender neutral I am retiring!! I’m surprised that the cleaners don’t refuse to clean them.

What’s the harm. I’d let her know.

So your buyer clearly was a knob as it has all been sorted out quite quickly!

We have the stone stacking championships on the beach here ? https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/apr/23/2018-european-stone-stacking-championship-in-pictures

My boiler only fires if the UFH calls for heat and the TS isn’t at the desired temperature. Or as you say when the DHW time clock is set.

Yes, I would agree with that. Things like kitchens too.

And it’s not just cover for goods physically arriving, it should cover you for quality too, so you may have had backup for your window issues had Section 75 been available. https://www.resolver.co.uk/rights-guide/section-75-consumer-credit-ac

No, not instalments, you need 2 completely separate orders each under 30k in total to make Section 75 valid. So maybe order the front windows separately from the rear. And as I mentioned, to avoid questions being asked split the order into 2 time periods. It may not be necessary but at least you can say ‘I was still considering whether to order the rear windows’ or some such to justify having 2 claims if (God forbid) you need the Section 75 cover.

Welcome. This is a new forum, set up when the eBuild forum was taken offline without notice. There are some familiar faces, and usernames but lots of new members too ?.

Also research the company. How long have they been trading, how many dissolved companies have the directors been involved in? It won’t protect you but some due diligence before handing over a large sum of money potentially without being protected is always good practice. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

The easiest way is to use a credit card to cover a small deposit, say £100, that for purchases will cover payments up to 30k under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. You will need to ensure that the total invoice is less than 30k (potentially by splitting it into 2 transactions). If you do that I would suggest that the invoice dates aren’t the same. There are a number of companies that still won’t provide the ability to pay by credit card unfortunately but it does provide you with the best protection at zero cost to you.