Temp

Our down pipes go straight into 110mm pipe bends with rubber adaptors/seals. We have a lot of leaf fall which fills up gutters but it's never been a problem for the drains themselves. If we wanted to rod we would need to remove a seal and probably a section of down pipe. I use a wet vac and some plastic waste pipe to clean the gutters. The trick is to have a short 40mm section that is cut at an angle which goes in the gutter but as soon as possible that opens up to 50mm pipe for the bends and down to the wet vac. Works on our 1.5 storey house. Not tried a two storey.

We opted for a 300L tank and a powerful 40kW boiler. This was able to keep up with our two high flow rate showers and similar size family to yours. The tank feeds a secondary loop that keeps the pipes hot in distant parts of the house so no waiting for HW. The problem these days is that such a powerful boiler is too big for the heating load. You can have issues getting it to throttle down and stay in condensing mode. To solve that our tank is actually a thermal store. The boiler heats the store and the store provides both heat/UFH and DHW. This also solves the problem that oil boilers don't modulate/throttle down. It can run flat out when heating the store. This has worked well for us but the store and associated pumps, heat exchangers and pipes leak a lot of heat into the room it's in so probably not very efficient. It was also hard to find engineers who understood the issues.

Is the CIL an issue in your area?

Ok I think I've got it. You're essentially just a self builder hiring a builder to do the frame and finishing it off yourself using trades. The building co must zero rate everything to you. Possibly excluding Architects fees if billed separately. Ditto other consultants. Trades you hire later must also zero rate everything to you. If they supply materials these should also be zero rated to you. Not all trades understand this and it's a problem if they aren't VAT registered. If they don't understand then show them VAT 709. It may also help if you give them a certificate (a letter) confirming that the work they are doing is on a new residential building and giving all the detail like site address and planning reference number. They should reclaim/deduct any VAT they pay on materials on their quarter returns. If you buy materials you can reclaim the VAT at the end but only within 3 months after completion (or is it 6 months now?). Think it's VAT417NB. You can use a spreadsheet with same headings. Keep VAT invoices/receipts. You cannot reclaim VAT paid in error (eg on labor or to the builder).

+1 Add more wool type on top of the existing. If he currently has insulation on the floor of the loft then the loft space itself is/should be ventilated at the eaves. Typically air enters at the eaves on one side, goes across the loft above the insulation and out at the other side. The idea is to remove any water vapour that gets through the plasterboard and insulation and prevents it condensing on the rafters. This is sometimes called a cold loft. If he adds more insulation on top he should try and preserve a gap at the eaves. There are eaves tunnels available to maintain this gap allowing you to stuff insulation down in there without blocking the ventilation. If he wants to convert the loft from the above cold loft to a warm/heated loft then its not as simple as adding foil insulation at rafter level. You normally have to redesign the ventilation scheme. How you do that depends on the type of roof membrane. In many cases you must create a 50mm deep ventilated void between the rafters and replace the ridge tiles with a ventilated ridge. eg so air can enter at the eaves, go up this 50mm void and exit at the ridge. The amount of insulation needed between and/or below the rafters is considerable and needs to be calculated. A single layer of a foil type insulation won't meet Building Regulations. You at least need a layer of rigid foam insulation as well. A random combination of insulation some at rafter level and some at floor level would be ineffective, and potentially damaging in the long term. Avoid spray foam in the loft at all costs. Sadly too many cowboys about and many mortgage companies won't lend on houses with it installed. The main issue is it messes with proven ventilation strategies mentioned above. There are ways it could be installed without issue but mortgage companies don't seem to appreciate the subtle differences. Some people have had to get it removed just to sell the house.

The VAT and tax rules are different depending if your company is acting as a developer/builder or if this is a self build. You need to discuss which this is with your accountant. If the company is developing the property I dare say there are tax consequences of the company owning the house and transferring ownership to you later, not to mention issues with insurance and more that I'm not familiar with. However it sounds like you might be acting as developer in a personal capacity eg self building, because your accountant mentioned reclaiming it at the end. Companies normally reclaim VAT every quarter where as self builders reclaim at the end. Note that self builders can only reclaim VAT if they are building a house to live in themselves NOT for sale/rent/lease out. Companies can only reclaim the VAT if the property will be sold, not rented or leased out.

deleted my reply as I see you are a company.

Yes it appears to suggest you just browse to the URL.. <motion_IP>/psovrd (replace <motion_IP> with the IP address of the device) then to <motion_IP>/cancel_psovrd. I don't know if it will actually return a web page each time.

Seems others have had similar issues but I couldn't find a recommended solution. Some say firmware, some say WiFi range etc. https://community.home-assistant.io/t/shelly-motion-sensor-battery-draining-fast/568442 https://www.facebook.com/groups/ShellyIoTCommunitySupport/posts/7363638563735444/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/ShellyIoTCommunitySupport/posts/5593851320714186/ I wondered if something was trying to talk to it too frequently increasing power consumption due to increased WiFi traffic? Found this on that last link above..

Perhaps check that all vents are moving air in the right direction. eh that the bedroom vent is an incoming not an extract by mistake?

We have two UFH loops in our dining room and I noticed today only one was getting warm. Discovered the pin on the manifold valve stuck down which I know is a common problem. I removed the extension pin and its guide to get to the real pin and managed to free it up. Problem is the loop is still not getting hot. There are no flow gauges on this FAR manifold but I can feel the flow pipe to the loop isn't getting hot. So question is this.. If the pin is free to move does that mean the floor loop must be blocked or can it still be an issue with the valve? I have valves on order as they are quite cheap. The house is on three levels and this is one of two zones on the middle level not the lowest. System was dosed up with plenty of corrosion inhibitor so I'm hoping that's not the problem.

Silly question but are you getting any heat to the rads? If some then with one stat it sounds like a balancing issue. If none it sounds like a system issue like a valve off?

Did the first one get cancelled? If not I would tell them you are building to the first approval and then when finished make a new application to convert the loft to bedroom. That might have worked out cheaper than paying the CIL.

Perhaps this is a better link.. https://www.doordeals.co.uk/product/external-oak-pair-maker?srsltid=AfmBOorOtk1mFOcjaro12yfRj_4w77K3aYc1yNURf0wuRe2Fl5lqYVmN "This pair maker will allow the creation of a door pair with any 44mm thick external doors within our range"

Deleted my original reply as I missed the bit about them being for fire doors. I can find 45mm like this but I assume aren't good enough for fire doors? https://www.davesdoors.co.uk/oak-door-pair-maker-3274-p.asp?srsltid=AfmBOors4zsjOLem-9uiJPEG7YWrJ56fC_ONw08DUBVxaAaRmiuvaYjP

Temporary buildings for construction site workers and storage are addressed under Schedule 2, Part 4, Class A of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (GPDO) but there are conditions... You could try quoting that at them. Chances are the neighbiur will complain again when you finish building and don't remove them. If they do I would then try claiming they are Permitted Development.

I think I would make sure it looks a bit less like a ground mounted array and more like a building with PV on the roof.... As I can see some jobs worth arguing it's really a ground mounted solar array which I think needs PP close to the boundary. Perhaps give it two or three timber clad walls and a brick BBQ?

If the tiles were laid direct onto chipboard I wonder how they did the fall in the shower? Perhaps the shower itself has some sort of shower tray under it that's not adequately supported?

Apparently there are heat tolerant versions of spade connectors used in ovens. I thought it was just the insulation that was heat tolerant but some say it the connector itself.

Did you mean you have or haven't filled it with water? Pressure Relief Valves can be temperamental. Possibly just got a faulty one. If they are ever required to open (eg due to over pressure) they are prone to leaking even after the cause of the over pressure is removed.

Do these +1 I'd have it out to see if there is lots of scale, perhaps descale it. Perhaps replace the starter capacitor. If that doesn't work replace the pump.

If Building Control are involved they might lean on you to dig it out to put more insulation in the floor than you have height for. I'm out of date but I think there are/were rules for where things aren't economic or impractical to upgrade. We have a concrete beam and block floor with 80mm high timber "battens" and 80mm PIR insulation between. Then 21mm thick Engineerd Oak glued together and secret nailed to the battens. In our case there is also wet UFH with heat spreader plates in/on the insulation. Wish we had fitted more like >120mm of insulation. I think Building Regs require at least 18mm thick floor boards so beware if you were thinking of using 15mm Engineered flooring - you might need another layer of OSB or ? below it.

Wherever you go its worth discussing the grade with the company, possibly even testing a sheet. Some of the WBP out there is worse than Wheatabix in hot milk

Perhaps check that the cold supply to the house can deliver enough for 2+ showers at decent pressure. Then what @SimonD said. Think you will need a decent sized tank.