MikeSharp01

Ah - thanks @jack I get it now.

@Onoff not clear what you mean. By knocking down I mean leveling to the ground so you end up with a blank canvas allbeit in its old context.

+1 for buy a wreck, knock down and build your dream.

In the end it will come down to the debt equity ratio you can stand. In the sense that the size of the mortgage you can get will depend on how it is secured. So the more equity you have in your various properties the more you can borrow against them, provided you can pay the mortgage. In this way you might get enough to buy the land and do the build then sell up and largley, or perhaps wholly, pay back the mortgages. The challenge with self build mortgages is managing the money as you go because you only get the payments against the equity you have built up in the property you are building. So if you can get the money against your current houses you don't have that problem.

Welcome @Babybirddog. Sounds like a great project and you are forging ahead just perhaps not at the pace you wanted. Things do take longer than you imagine in this game. I think you can rely on your fellow self builders here for support throughout and we will look forward to seeing progress. PS can see why it might have been forging ahead but where does babybirddog come from?

Why not investigate a dry stone wall just a short jump from pic J, perhaps expensive but the rocks will last forever, building it will be very therapeutic, no cement so other then the digger diesel getting it out and the lorry to haul it to you almost carbon zero and it can be repaired very simply.

I think @recoveringacademic is doing something like this is the link.

I guess that is progress of sorts, might it be worth checking the SEPA process to see if there is any consultation process or stakeholder comment scheme?

At the moment I am not sure, have not done the detailed work of calculating, of the economics (thermonomics) so I was keeping my options open to allow a system that could use either so it could choose at time of use which one to use depending upon the conditions / energy costs of each source at the time. The ASHP should do most of the work but there may be times when it cannot run at a high enough COP and the cost of gas gets under the curve and we use that. I don't like the buffer tank idea, because of the standing losses but provided the total heat output is used in the control calculation I am optimistic that it could be made to work. This not the least because I have a feeling that we will shortly be facing variable electricity pricing which could change the the thermonomics on a minute by minute basis. As things stand our design demand points are the UFH, DHW and an air heating battery in the MVHR system with PV, ASHP and Gas Combi as our prime movers, (me and my other half as the other, not so prime, movers) so getting these to all work cooperatively and optimally is the design goal I just need to work through the detail.

Yep. Looks like we will also have ASHP for UFH am working on how to make the UFH run from both sources.

Hey... We are contemplating a 35Kw boiler in our passive house for on demand DHW so 30Kw does not sound out of line for a semi.

Spent the best part of last two days, when not raining and or trickling my life away here, on the garden room roof. Came to realise that my tool belt, sturdy as it is won't take two nail guns, nails, knife, pencil, stapler, staples, hammer and a sharpie without falling down, albeit slowly. If you have one nail gun then it kind of jams as the load is all on one side. Anyway I have concluded that I probably need some braces. I have looked at many on-line but thought it would be good to get the collective experience as it were. Any polite suggestions?

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the forum.....

PS where is international party night starting this evening? My Lear jet is waiting but not route plan as yet....

It is raining here so I have had time to reflect upon the challenge Ian faces. The essential point is that the responses so far all assume that one needs to fit into the world around you while it is entirely possible to make the world around you fit in with you even if only slightly. Given this one could envisage a situation where the mind set of your average Lancashire ball goer could be so rearranged that they feel underdressed if they do not appear at the events in a ball gown that is covered in dust, has small rubble like elements in the hems and is otherwise unkempt. Indeed it may be that you could leverage this new punk like trend and create a revenue stream around the storage on site of other people's ball gowns so as to ensure they no longer feel out of place.

So I run it into a nail and it sorts it out? Must get one

Just drill a clearance hole in the boards then screw it down, jacking won't be a problem. If its floor boards then glue is also a must to prevent squeaking You can set a depth stop on the drill using a short length of suitable diameter pipe round it.

My friend from HSE sent me this. Not sure I understand it ( Ken it) but I guess fellow members north of the boarder will get it. The rest of us will need the sub titles https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DHpVhSx0fZwM&ved=0ahUKEwimqYPH5_LTAhVhCsAKHdW5C28QyCkIHjAA&usg=AFQjCNHgkdPCY8kbk2jzjPRB9_2XfYVv-w&sig2=MnjXqoFX3FVsl5GPJ_aLEw Enjoy

Not sure the NHBC has no value as without it most homes are not mortgageable, so it gets you a mortgage, but that is also a ticking time bomb because it won't be the mortgage company who picks up the pieces when it all falls to bits, it will be the home owner who thought they had a guarantee.

This is really interesting @jamiehamy the discussion gets a bit detailed but the tennor of it is very clear - the inspection system that everybody thinks is in place is not and never really was. Quality of build was actually a function of pride rather than QA or QC of you like. The deskilling / delayering of the workforce on the building sites, the lowest bid price culture and the risk based approach taken by the Scottish system all play their part in creating an almost perfectly disfunctional system which does not have the consumer / house buyer anywhere near the center of the mix.

I guess that's what he means cos reflections in the main line will be common to all and loop means, IIRCC, take the main cable right up to the transducer and out again.

@ProDave I think will probably have best ideas but you can definitely get 3 phase isolators which I would put in the line at the terminal end for the two phases you won't be using and take your 240 from there. Then, if at a later date, you, or a future occupier, want to use the other phases - perhaps to increase your PV return to supply you have a way of getting to the connection in safety.

I think its the normal VAT helpline but when I asked a question they just pulled up the VAT for new build guide and read me the portion I had told them I was not clear about. @JSHarris did not have the greatest experience with them. The safe thing is to get the pump cost included in the concrete delivery so the invoice reads just 'concrete' then there can be no question that the VAT is recoverable.

This sounds obvious but, assuming you are up for it, have you been back to them for a bigger mortgage, the new contingency, if your loan to value is OK it perhaps won't breach their risk appetite and you won't need the money unless you need to go into the new contingency. Should be fine if you don't need it as you won't draw it down although that would depend on any early repaymet terms in the mortgage.

I think you can see from the above that choosing windows is not easy. I am going to add a little more by following up what @Bitpipe says above because for us the decision in the end came down to how the windows 'read' from the inside and outside. {By read we mean how it looks - chunky, thin, invisible, & colour because as you move from inward opening to outward opening or fixed panels the inner frame read and outer frame read often change thickness.} If you have inward opening above outward opening you get the frames stepping in and out as you go down the building. With outward opening windows you can thin out the in the internal frame by plastering (or otherwise finishing) right up to the opening frame but on the outside the frame will be chunkier. In some systems the frame is designed to look the same from the inside and out while on others you can have as much as 50mm (in our experience) difference. With inward opening you can do the same on the outside and take the cladding into the reveal and hide the frame either completely or partially. The chunkiness read is also linked to the material such that if you want very thin contemporary windows then you probably have to go for straight aluminum insulated frames while more chunky styles can be achieved in softwood, hard wood & UPVC with or without aluminum cladding. Hope this helps.