MikeSharp01

Just one thought, which I am sure you have thought through, in the WC pipework you have the heat / pipe under the pan and most pans are fixed down with screws so extra care needed when drilling the fixing holes! An alternative, given the other pipework in the room as @PeterW says heating the WC area, you could delete that section of the loop or at least ensure no pipework is anywhere near where a drill might be used to fix down the pan.

I think that if you insist they have no choice but to provide a VAT receipt, if they don't offer to report them to HMRC who will wonder if their VAT system, which must be vast, is sound. As I understand they have a duty to show you, the customer, how the cost of your purchase is split between goods and taxes - its an EU law so perhaps they think brexit has already happened!

Welcome. Looks interesting, can't see a problem putting the upstand on afterwards but you could just move the formwork out 100mm and put the upstand inside the formwork, might be simpler! Also you have about 300mm of insulation under the floor and only 150mm in the walls so your overall U value will be relatively low with the floor performing better than the walls. Might be worth thinking about thickening up the walls, with some PU, on the outside of the SIP as you have room over the ali flashing, will cut your bills in the long run.

Looks great, wish i could work at this pace.

Welcome and what a lovely situation to be in. I only know what I have picked up in along the paths of life but you could perhaps look at putting the 2nd property into your company pension fund, assuming you have a self administered fund, this might be tax efficient but won't allow you to realise instant profits for the staff. If its a true part of the business you will be liable for corporation tax on the profit not capital gains (a tax for individuals) unless you are keeping the property privately - in which case you will need to ensure traceable payments are very carefully made by private individuals and on the VAT reclaim side you will need to declare your relationship to a VAT registered company when you make your return to claim back the VAT on the first house IIRC. There is is also a possibility of setting aspects of the build off against tax if you handle parts of it as R&D (EG Developing innovative energy systems), training and development of the staff (EG air tightness skills perhaps - wholly and exclusively naturally..) and possibly apprenticeship(s) unless you are big enough to be paying your CiTB contribution already! Given all the options your accountant would perhaps be best to provide insights.

I got my PHPP free with an introductory course at BRE and it was well worth it. Think it was around £500 for the one day course and the software was free.

Yes around 6.5 - 7% - you can usually afford more than you think because the interest is only a proportion of the payment (assuming you have a repayment mortgage.)

Hi and welcome. I think you could look at your business model and see if you can optimise it around the stuff people, even here, really struggle with because I suspect we would all either have paid for, or will pay for, support in those areas - the high stakes as @recoveringacademichas said above. So for instance we all struggle, and evidence is more than abundant on this forum, with getting the energy systems design and installed to meet our needs. Even the omni competent @JSHarris(that's a compliment Jeremy) had a couple of goes at several aspects of this - you can read his blogs, a great resource, all about it here. The choices around UFH / DHW / Vented & non vented / GSHP / ASHP / Phase change energy storage / battery storage / PV arrays etc take a great deal of understanding in the first place and is high stakes as most, unlike Jeremy, will not be treating the build as a research project. So being able to offer project support in this area, and others, would, I expect, have value for self builders for which they would be prepared to pay. This could then be rolled up into the budgeting programme stuff you have already mentioned. If you work your away around the various topics here you will see where the needs are and how the cost / value equation might pan out for customers and hence for you.

No they will be looking at the big stuff and will use your credit file to check things like outstanding credit card balances and the like. Essentially they will look and see if you can afford it even when the mortgage rate rises - I think current stresses are set at about 7% so provided they think you can afford the monthly repayments at that rate, with everything else squeezed they will go for it. If they don't they may come back to you and ask how you would go about affording it. Given what @ragg987 has said I may have misconstrued your post!

They call this 'Range Anxiety' according to a friend of mine at FORD. There was some research in the states a while back that said people look for a range about twice their round trip commute / typical journey - which is daft but that was the range anxiety effect at work! They have a special training pack for the sales teams to help them get across the message about how people actually drive and that you only use the fuel when you are actually moving (other than the ancillary gear EG headlights!) Also I am with you @jack my Micra has now done 184000 miles and I wont get rid of it until it falls apart, which it is showing no signs of. (touch wood) When I do it will be time to get an electric replacement.

If you don't want a screen what about a groovy curtain on a rail you just pull across you can get some great looking ones. We use such a system in our downstairs wet room to keep the splashes off the loo. Works great, looks great (arty), easy to install and very cost efficient. When it gets grubby we just wash it an hang it back up to dry!

Bit harsh Ian - referring to your workforce on this way.

Yes but which Technology and Why is it complicated? I am not quite with Jeremy and others on this. I think, can probably prove to most peoples satisfaction, that where we are now is not a particular indication of where we will be in the future. This because although the future itself is not predictable the Soft systems (humans) perhaps soon to be aided by AI that underpin development are predictable in their unpredictability. Although high costs are indicated in moving from one technology to another and vested interest is a serious challenge to change we have, as humans, often demonstrated that such changes when provided with enough pressure (push or pull) our ability to make such changes. So from the time the flint knappers were wiped out by the bronze using hoards to the railways replacing the canals, to the Jet engine replacing the piston engine (and the attendant move from wooden air frames to metal ones) and so on we have demonstrated our propensity to move quite quickly and find the money. Many loose their proverbial shirts while others clean up (pardon the pun). Was it ever thus?

Singular!

Also you can probably be confident that the next technology, the one that will take over from the one we have now is already being developed along with very many that won't make it. In the end it will be about picking the winners - au revoir Flash player, Beta Max, HDVD, VCRs.....

I am confident it, or something like it, will happen the mood music is all in one direction and in 23 years it will be avalanching. What we 'more mature' coves tend to forget is that the younger generation will be well in charge by then and they are, for the most part, more planet friendly that our contemporaries. This means that they will adopt this and many other ideas and make it happen because it is in line with what they want. Already car makers are moving and the oil companies are beginning to diversify even further. The number of new build oil refineries across the planet is down by a significant percentage and, although we have yet to get any significant control over it, micro generation is making inroads. When I look back across the past 30 years I am reminded of my colleagues in the senior common room who said that my mobile phone (brick) would never catch on and now I look at my Samsung phone and realise that in 1986 you cold not have predicted the Samsung so by 2040 I think you can be confident that you won't recognise it.

Is that good or bad?

Oh er Mrs...

You can also by very long straight edges onto which you can put a spirit level these can run up to 3m and longer. One technique an old brickie taught me was to use two post at each end of the wall being built with nails in at each course level he then just moved the string up by a nail at each end once a course was complete. He marked them out together and leveled them with a dumpy level so each end was perfect. He had two lead weights on the ends of the string to stretch it straight. He told me the line drooped about 1/16th inch over 20 feet when held taught by these weights.

All sounds good but two things come to mind. Air tightness will make your insulation work hardest for you so attention to detail there will pay great dividends. Domestic hot water installations in the 'eco' sphere is a difficult one as there are so many solution there has been many a discussion on it here so you will need to pick your way through it I am afraid.

Just saw this on the BBC gives yet more credence to an advent around the corner. Worth a look, not very sophisticated in some senses but nonetheless prescient.

Welcome Adam. You will get loads of help here just upload the details and ask your questions.

When you go on streetview you can start to see their problem a pared cars along / one the kerb will obscure the view as you emerge into the road. That said it does not look like a fast road. 20 is plenty kind of place, so should not really be a problem. Looks like an immediate appeal, as you have suggested, will be your best route once you have written your case out. Several things do stand out - it is defo brown field site so development is to be expected, and the dropped kerb for the existing entrance indicates traffic is expected finally you might argue that double yellow lines 20m each way on your side would solve the problem but will incur the wrath of your neighbours

Was that you!? Very interesting read especially as we have the same planning partnership working on a similar problem not far from us.

The essential point probably is that installing an MVHR system with enough insulation, great air tightness in the fabric, windows & doors alongside a UFH system driven through a reversible Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) - so you can cool the slab as well as heat it, you probably won't need those rads upstairs just a couple of towel rails in the bath rooms and your energy bills will be tiny.