divorcingjack

Looks like open vented is the majority of installs. Plumber is on holiday, so I can't ask him unfortunately. We don't have a loft, but could the expansion tank be fitted directly above/beside the tank in the utility room? How big are we talking here?

OK, one more question from trevor before I can order : Do I want open vented or unvented - about £200 difference in cost. Need mains pressure for the showers, ideally .. Thanks all - delivery next week! Exciting.

We have a slightly different approach - we wanted full height doors (to the ceiling, or as close as possible), but it was causing structural issues for the frame and we had problems sourcing them, so we're using standard doors but putting in a matching panel directly above the door to give a similar look.

They are quite a good find! I've been scouring eBay as well and some good deals on there. I notice that they are 3062 LED chips, but only at 60 per metre. From my understanding the newer chips can be installed at 120 per metre, giving much better illumination levels. Depends what you want them for, of course!

For supply only, you pay the VAT and reclaim it. If the invoice details supply AND fit, the whole thing must be zero rated at source and the supplier sorts it as part of their VAT return. If you pay the VAT at this point, you will not be able to reclaim it and arguing with HMRC is a pointless exercise. Convincing your supplier of this may not be an easy task - I found the best approach was to direct them to the relevant VAT notice and just flat out refuse to pay until the VAT was removed. Proved effective!

Back to the original thread.. we’re in Scotland and have had several toppy quotes for laying 5400 (120 sqm approx) reclaimed bricks with lime mortar and a bag rubbed finish. One at £60/sqm and one at £6000 for the job. Inc materials, although not bricks. Bricklayers are are not easy to come by. Good bricklayers even more so. I hope you get your founds sorted ASAP.

How about a waterproof concealed LED strip? They are cheap as chips on eBay and you can buy little clips to fix them with.

It seems to be an easy mistake to make, judging by the amount of taps and toilet frames on gumtree! Still, easy pickings for some; I've saved a fortune on other people's mistakes Glad you managed to find the right ones.

OK, got it Thanks! @Alexphd1, thanks, I'll have a look - the price is not that far off what Trevor quoted me, but always good to have options. Cheers all - no doubt back with questions later on!

Your wish is my command @Nickfromwales So, my shopping list... 500l Thermal store from Trevor at Telford - 22mm DHW coil - 6 KW immersion coil low down, - 3 KW immersion coil higher up for possible future PV. - Tapping for UFH (at the bottom of the tank?) - Tapping for DHW (top of tank presumably) If my plumber is a WB guy, then 35kw Greenstar Cdi, if not then the Baxi mentioned above - although it only goes to 32Kw, or the Vaillant. Sound OK? Valves, thermostats etc should all come from my plumber, unless there are specific ones I should have?

Thanks all, as ever, your advice is much appreciated. I'll speak to my plumber and see if he is WB accredited, but I'll definitely look at the Baxi too. Just while we're here - are there any disadvantages/problems about oversizing the store to 500l? Trevor said that the price difference between 4 and 500l is negligible, and we have the space...

Hi both, Thanks for your replies. @pdf27, I know it seems ridiculous, but it is an idea explained by Nick in another thread of mine in the heating section. We use a lot of DHW and have high flow showers, so the idea is to use a thermal store both as a buffer for the UFH (avoiding short cycling) and basically as a high flow combi, hopefully meaning we never run out of hot water. This is is why I’m having a problem sizing it because the radiator/heat load formula just doesn’t work. Very useful to know that 1kw = 20 litres though, thank you. The reason we decided against a high flow combi is that our bathrooms are quite far from the boiler and we wanted to implement a hot water return system. @nod what size is your boiler? We have 3 bathrooms to run as well but no rads.

I need to choose a large gas system boiler to supply UFH and lots of DHW for our MBC passive-ish house. Thermal store (400/500l), possible PV at a later stage - I was persuaded on an earlier thread that it's the way to go, but budgetary reasons make it a non-starter for a while. 2 adults, 2 young kids, very fond of baths and long showers. So, I'm thinking 35kW? Is this ridiculously oversized? I've seen WB and Valliant both get good feedback on here - does it just come down to price between them? Warranty? Any other top recommendations? Thanks in advance for any advice, you ever-helpful bunch.

I love ex display and pre-loved stuff. Champagne tastes on lemonade money Enjoy your bath! Sounds gorgeous ....

Apologies for bumping this up, but I need to order this kit ASAFP and am worried about missing something crucial ... Any advice anyone? There's a beer and a pie in it for you when visiting scotland

Bumping this thread again for specs as I've had a chat with Trevor at Cylinders2Go. We're pretty much decided on the TS + big boiler suggestion from Nick with a HW return for the further away bathrooms. We looked again at the showers we have and they are a lower flow rate than I thought, so we should be OK. So, my shopping list: Thermal Store (500l?) 22mm DHW coil, 6 KW immersion coil low down, 3 KW immersion coil higher up for possible future PV. We are not too short for space, and Trevor said that the price difference between 400 and 500l is negligible. Are there any potential problems in oversizing the store to this extent? As mentioned by @Nickfromwales earlier, we are planning to run it at a lower temperature and put it inside an insulated box to reduce heat losses. Realistically, any PV addition will probably not be for 2-3 years. Do I need any other bits and pieces (valves etc) to go with this? Controls? Now - boilers... Do I need to worry about modulation to UFH temps on the boiler, or will the TS take care of that? What size should we be thinking about? Valiant or WB come up regularly - are these all pretty reliable, or does it vary by model? I'm off to read some more threads....

@lizzie Gorgeous! Where did you get your linear drain? We are going for the same look, hopefully, but I just can't work out what drain I should get. Cheers

Is it a tap for a countertop sink? They come in different heights to match the various basins available. I found this out the other day when trying to buy one off gumtree - it was massive! I assume the poor guy selling it had made the same error...

We're going for artificial grass too, as it's great with kids, they can play on it straight after rain with no mud to track through the house. Also, we're sitting on 1000 tonnes of hardcore, so growing natural lawn is not happening ... I've got quite a few samples of the more expensive stuff and it is surprisingly realistic, with brown bits in and variety of individual blade shapes and orientations. Are you concerned about the look at all, I think that the cheaper stuff is often too bright green and shiny and looks very plasticky. I'd order a load of samples and leave them outside for a while so you catch them out of the corner of your eye every time you walk past! Is it a large area? If not, it might not actually be too much of a difference in cost to upgrade.

We had large format glossy porcelain in a previous house, it was an absolute nightmare tbh. My tiler hates me and if they saw a drop of water, they were a death trap for slipperiness. They had to be sealed too before laying but stained anyway. I HATED them. I guess what I'm asking is that if we seal this limestone with the proper stuff and re-seal once a year, do I need to worry about them in-between times? It will be in a wet room, so they will be down in a shower area. @Nickfromwales, unfortunately we don't know the owners. It was a previous job of our joiner - he took us to show the work he'd done with shadow gaps and built in storage before we agreed to his quote. It's a holiday home though (one of a number of homes!), so I don't imagine it is heavily used.

After making the classic error of going to see someone else's lovely house (with a massively larger budget than ours), we have discovered the beauty that is grey Jura limestone with a gorgeous smooth matt finish. I've heard some bad things about "regular" limestone; easily damaged/stained/resin filled, but apparently the Jura variation is much harder wearing. Has anyone used it? We're thinking of it on floors and *possibly* walls (budget depending) in 3 bathrooms. Where did you buy from? Is all Jura limestone the same or should I be looking for particular things? Does it need to be "babied" - we are a careless and clumsy family. I have managed to utterly destroy the (presumably unsealed) sample with a teabag, tomato puree and lemon juice. None of which should be present in the bathroom, but I do have small children. Actually, tea might well be present, along with wine.

So, just got an email through from my warranty provider CRL to say that their insurance underwriter has gone bust They are currently trying to source alternative cover for those who have a 10 year structural warranty, and have assured me there's nothing to worry about. Thankfully I paid the premium on credit card, so I can claim back if necessary, and we also won't be in a position to take a mortgage out for a few months - hopefully it should all have settled down by then. They have recommended that anyone who is going to need to mortgage within the next few weeks to get in touch with them to discuss a way forward.

I would second the suggestions to look at services connections before committing too much cash on professional fees etc - we lucked out with electricity and gas but our water and sewerage are going to be about 10-12K, and that's the cheaper option! The other one was 25K wish to dig up a main road, cobbles and caithness stone slabs. Not a happy thing. Also - definitely fabric first - our architect is a big proponent of this approach, and it makes sense to spend your cash on things that you are not going to change for a long time. Although, I will admit that it stings a bit to spend a lot of cash on beautifully seamed and jointed zinc that is round the back of the house that I won't see again! It's worth it though. Good quality internals can be sourced relatively cheaply second hand - ex display kitchens, furniture, appliances - even a lot of building materials. We got a gorgeous pitch pine parquet floor for our bedroom for £450. It will be stunning once laid. Use the time it takes to get planning and building control through to start sourcing bits and pieces.

Hi! We're coming towards the end (ish!!) of a 3 bedroom timber framed passive-ish self build in St. Andrews - not too far from you. If you want to, you're more than welcome to come for a visit to see our house and be bored senseless about the details. Drop me a message if you'd be interested incoming over

It would be cheaper to buy another plot and build another house! They sell for 30-35, 000 each. We had to buy two to get access to the rear of the house - carefully dismantled them and will sell them once we move in. Can't afford to keep them! It's madness, but there are a lot of very expensive houses in town with no off-street parking. A load of them are owned by pension funds too.