Temp

Take a walk around the house you currently live in (inside and out) with a note pad. Little things we forgot or didn't know we needed.. TV aerial and cable (although I remembered the distribution amp and cables to all rooms). Rain guards/bird cages on the chimney. Rubber boots between our rainwater down pipes and the 110mm drains Security cameras (should have put in wire for them when building). Spare slot in the consumer unit for the later shed (remembered one for the garage and outside power point). Driveway edging/conservation curbs. Linear drains for the patio and where driveway meets road. We also needed an extra course of bricks due to miss calculation I think. Sure there are others.

The main problem I see with your proposal is that the insulation is very thin so there will be heat loss down into the concrete slab and from there into the room below and/or the walls. You might be able to live with the increased running cost but the response time will be a lot slower. Do you have the headroom available to use thicker insulation say 80mm+? There is nothing peculiar to UFH that causes overheating. My guess is something else was going on. Perhaps too much solar gain? It is possible to have an issue with varying solar gain and a slow response time. Sometimes on a sunny winters day we get a lot of solar gain so the UFH switches off. Then when the sun sets the UFH takes awhile to respond to the loss of that heat source. The result is a small dip in temperature while the UFH catches up. They can be connected to a gas boiler using a mixer without a buffer tank. A correctly sized fully modulating boiler would be recommended if no room for a buffer tank. Buffer tank can help improve the efficiency but must be well insulated.

If they are happy to zero rate labor but not materials then the only option is for you to buy the materials (receipt in your name) and "free issue" them to the contractor. I ended up doing that for our windows to help the builders cash flow.

+1 to other replies. 1) You cannot reclaim VAT that you pay on labour (in error). 2) You cannot reclaim VAT on materials that anyone else has purchased. The VAT invoice must be in your name. They MUST zero rate labor to you. They must also zero rate the materials because in the case of multiple supply (eg labor and materials) everything must be rated at the lowest rate. Labour is zero rated so they must zero rate the materials as well. They can reclaim the VAT they paid on materials. It might help to give them a certificate. It's all in VAT 708.. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction If you can't find the relevant sections let me know and I'll dig them out on Monday. PS: If the contractor isn't VAT registered but still puts VAT on the bill that's illegal. In such cases they can't reclaim the VAT they paid on materials which might be why they are reluctant to zero rate. Moral - Check all contractors are VAT registered.

BG rang me some time ago. The man told me that my meter was "out of date" and that they "needed" to come fit a new smart meter. Since we had the meter installed when we built the house I knew exactly how old it was.

Depends on their view of the housing market. Some vendors will resort to a sealed bid process when there a lot of interest in the plot. Instead of going around all the potential buyers haggling them up they just ask everyone for their best offer. In England there is nothing legally binding about the sealed bid process. The seller is free to open all the bids and decide not to accept the highest bid if he wants. He can even go back to his preferred bidder and ask him to match the highest bid. In with the bid you should point out (if true) that you are a cash buyer or have a mortgage approval and you've done all your due diligence checks. They want to be sure the buyer is ready to go and won't pull out six months down the line when they find out a sewerage treatment plant is needed or some other complication they hadn't planned on. Remember some buyers won't have a clue. We weren't the highest bidder for our plot :-)

There are walls and there are walls. Check the foundations and that mortar is still sound. Don't want the whole lot blowing over next winter.

Might be of help.. http://www.buildstore.co.uk/finance/hsbmwork.html See also other links on the left of that page.

Consider running three pipes. Hot, Cold and Hot Return. Hot return needed if you are having a loop to reduce the time it takes hot water to reach the tap. If you are having a water softener you might need two cold pipes (softened and un-softened).

If you they are going to be driving heavy vehicles in and out then I think the concrete should be around 150mm... http://www.pavingexpert.com/concrete.htm Should also think about drainage. Will the barn be standing on stub walls or direct on the concrete slab? Common mistake with a shed base is to make it bigger than the shed so you end up with a flat strip of concrete around the outside on which rainwater can land and run under the walls. If the slab is fractionally smaller than the shed and raised above ground level then rain drips off the walls onto the surrounding ground/gravel anti splash. Best check what detail the building supplier recommends. Likewise at any door way - do they need a linear drain or concrete channel to stop rainwater running in under the door?

Could you fit flat panel LED lights instead? Then only the wires have to puncture the VCL and you can seal those. Most other lights need some ventilation.

Yes that's the best method _if_ the heights work out ok. Obviously the branch has to be lower than the outlet from the WC pan and this can be a problem. Note that you must not cut the stack down too low. You have to leave enough for the slip coupling to slide over as I think the bit of pipe on the branch coupling is too short to slide to coupling over that. If no other option there are these glue and strap bosses... http://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-sp319g-strap-boss-grey-110mm/93635 See what others suggest.

How about a wire hung system fixed between the two beams? Lots of systems available. If you don't know what I mean see.. https://www.modernlightingsolutions.co.uk/track-lighting/12v-wire-and-cable-lighting-system/ Edit: Oops I see Dave mentioned them above.

Our bco said it would be ok to have a level access from the car parking space to the front door so we created a parking space on the same level and have a flight of about 4 steps down to the rest of the garden. In effect we drive up our disabled access ramp.

Ours had to be fitted after tiling so no access to the nut.

It would be necessary to use a VAT registered builder anyway because you can't use the Self Build VAT reclaim scheme unless you are building a house to live in yourself. You should also check out the VAT rules on houses that are let before first sale. A house sale is zero rated but a let is an exempt supply and the difference may mean you cannot reclaim VAT you have paid on materials (eg Input tax). The HMRC issued a note in 2008 that said developers could rent out houses that they were unable to sell and still reclaim the VAT but that might not apply today or where the house is intentionally built to let? You should get professional advice on this before you start. More below.. http://bishopfleming.co.uk/property-vat-pitfalls-4/

That's why it's usually recommend to find the plot first then decide what sort of house to put on it. Being three storey might also be a problem unless nearby houses are also tall. Lots of three story houses are being built these days but they are mostly on modern estates where they are attempting to cram them in.

One problem seems to be fitting the bright work (eg spouts) to elbows. There seems to be no certain way to end up with the connection tight and pointing in the right direction. When we did ours up they sometimes went 45 degrees past the right position before I felt they were tight enough. Solution seems to be to undo it, add even more PTFE tape and try again. Hate bodges like that.

PS: If you use unscreened cable put it in the duct before burying the duct. I suspect unscreened cable is easily damaged if a lot of force is needed to pull it through a long buried duct? PPS: Make sure the duct can't fill with water.

I used Ubiquiti Tough Cable for the outdoor runs to my cameras. Mainly because it was screened and I was a bit concerned that nearby lightning strikes might damage devices on unscreened cable? Probably worrying unnecessarily. You need the right connectors to match screened cable and a crimping tool. The matching connectors have a tail that can be used to earthed the screen but it's pretty flimsy. Nothing survives a direct lightning strike.

A certificate isn't normally required (see 17.1 below) however there is no harm in providing one if someone thinks they need one to zero for you. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction#certificates-for-qualifying-buildings I had one or two people ask me for a certificate and I just sent them a letter containing the info mentioned in section 18 ... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction#the-certificates Sorry, for some reason I can't fix the missing end quote tag.

"How to find and buy a building plot" by Roy Speer. Try for latest edition. Beware planning rules change with time. Just because a plot has planning permission that doesn't mean the approved house can actually be built. There can be a lot of other things that stop you. These have to be checked before you buy. Not all are show stoppers.. How long left to run on the planning permission? Any planning conditions? Any restrictive covenants in the deeds? Any ransom strips or other access issues? Does the approved house actually fit on the plot? Are services available in the road? How far away? Can you and are you allowed to connect another house to those services? Any unwanted services across the plot? 11,000V line? High pressure gas main? Ground conditions ok? Trees? Mine workings? Contamination? Will soakaways work? Solicitors usually know what to check when conveyancing a house but most don't know what extra things need to be checked when buying a building plot.

Not quite sure how they work. Probably the resistance varies with humidity? Perhaps worth measuring the resistance while it's working in case it fails later. Then you know what to order. If you wait till it fails you might not be able to measure it? Just a thought.

What size tube is available for SS car exhausts? Perhaps that's the cheapest size tube?

See below for the essential and multiple steps you must follow (to the letter) or you can be charged.. https://ecab.planningportal.co.uk/uploads/1app/forms/form_7_self_build_part_1_exemption_claim.pdf So you must apply for and be granted the exemption and they must receive your commencement notice before any work starts on site. Ask them to confirm receipt in writing.