Bitpipe

Helpful chaps but not idiot proof enough for me What goes in between the pump that Jeremy recommended and a hozelock connector ?

Ok, what's a fool proof method to use one of those safely then? I ultimately want a hozelock tap end that I can connect the sprinker / hose to when I want to use the water. Feel free to treat me like a complete idiot

I had a google and you're absolutely right, now trying to recall what I ended up putting in the calculation Not sure if it made a material difference though as the property was owned for 11 years and rented for 2 1/2 so under the PRR rule we were only liable for one year of linear capital gain which would have been well within our joint allowance for that year.

We had a similar situation - rented out the old house when we bough the new as market was flat and then managed to sell it to fund the build. From memory, the CGT is calculated from when it ceases to be your primary residence to when it is sold - so if you have it valued now prior to marketing for sale it's the gain over that period that is relevant.

Ok, that's good to know - I just attached a garden hose to the end of the old pump with a 1" to hozelock fitting but this one will obviously need some better thought!

May look into that - the cheap pump died and I got a refund from Amazon so was planning to get a new one next summer. Does it need to be upright or would it work on its side?

Correct, as I had the expensive boudoir a cheap solution made sense. I also bought a cheap 1100W pump (£40 Amazon) to get the water to ground level - which is a 2.8m rise. The pump could only really generate about another metre of head so the sprinkler is decidedly underpowered, when attached to the mains it has a 3m head. So an interesting experiment but I rarely use the stored water as in the summer, that tank will barely cover the lawn and in winter it's wet anyway. Maybe when we have a few more flowers etc I will get more use out of it.

3 internet TVs, XBox, NAS drive, PV controller. I'd have plugged in put internet radio / streaming thingy but it's in the one corner of the living room that has no cat6 socket and the wifi is weak there.

Agree - I had a mix of receipts, invoices etc. Made sure they all had a VAT number on, a few I had to write them on myself. All accepted. Those rates are not outrageous, I'd happily pay £200 to have a joiner on site for a day so horses for courses!

Yes it's possible - every self builder at whatever stage of life is somewhat in over their head! Your immediate challenge will be secure the plot. Also consider dilapidated properties already with services with a view to demolishing & rebuild. These type of properties are not always that attractive to commercial builders, especially if there is only room for one unit, tricky plot etc. Take account of the pre-build professional services which can rack up cost - while you can circumvent some, others are unavoidable. Look at your current earning capability and decide if you're better off working and hiring someone to do critical skilled bits (like frame erection) vs those jobs where you can do them yourself in your spare time. Where will you live ? This is a frequently overlooked build cost - If you secure a plot then you can get a cheap second hand caravan and live on site which will save ££. Sell it on after. You have no kids (I assume) so should not be too much of a hardship.

Yep, it is quite tiddly but not protected but needs to be in duct.

Gates are good for privacy and will deter the opportunist who may wander in but pretty useless against the determined thief. Our gate reset code is still the default - i pointed this out to the installer and he agreed this was poor security but then pointed out that it would be easy to pop out the panel with a screwdriver and short the connections to open the gate.

The thought has crossed my mind However our kiosk has a lock which needs a triangular key to open and can additionally be padlocked. That said, in the 5 years it has been there, it has never been touched even when it was open to the street before we had the wall built and gates installed. When I finish landscaping, it will be even more obscured. Bottom line is, aside from mischief, cutting power to house would trigger the burglar alarm so not much value in that either. If I'm honest, the kiosk location is not perfect and was dictated by a large walnut tree which we wanted to keep but died. Yes - this is one of the key benefits, no return visit from DNO required. Maybe, DNO does not leave slack in their cabling but you could maybe introduce some in the joint pit but SWA is not very flexible and when you have more than a few in the kiosk, it will be hard to move. To be honest, that flood event was very unusual, and a result of a tropical downpour all day, also it was never close to anything that could be damaged aside from the induction loop controller which is now higher up.

Out of interest, how does the rest of their build perform from a low energy perspective? Are they building to a passive standard?

Ultimately, what's the payback period for these types of technologies (include materials and labour) and the cost reduction over, say, 25 years? I know some of them can nudge up the SAP by a few points but would expect that investing in a well insulated and airtight frame, decent glazing & external doors, MVHR, PV and an efficient low temp heating system then further gains are very marginal. I would lump rainwater recovery into that category - we were lucky in that we were able to build a very cheap DIY system due to spare space in our basement design vs burying a tank. My realisation is that even with 3500l of stored water, it doesn't last that long when used in the garden. Logically it is full when it's raining and empty when it's dry so only gives a bit of a buffer - not much use during an extended dry period. Would not use in toilets due to the potential health risks of using water containing bird poo microbes - unless you include an expensive filtering system. Better in my view to use efficient taps, toilets and water using appliances. Again - once they are in use, what's the payback for installing an expensive grey water recovery system?

What was the cost (fixed or %) if you don't mind me asking? I procrastinated hugely over mine but ultimately only took a few hours over two weekends to complete - one weekend to collate, sort and request missing invoices and the second weekend to type in the amounts and bind everything together.

I reclaimed about £14k on a £550k build. I was surprised how low it was TBH, however all work and majority of materials were zero rated at source - I went supply & fit wherever I could. The bulk of the claim (by receipts) was on landscaping materials where my workers were on a day rate. Other big items were velux windows, EPS for basement insulation, lightwells, first and second fix timber, flooring, doors, MVHR and bathroom 1st / 2nd fix. Lots of little things too, I had about 180 invoices / receipts.

Our electrician did the cat 6 terminations to the 19" patch panel - seemed logical to have them all come to one point - the switch just lights up individual ethernet sockets in the house. They all share the same internet connection - the BT hub takes care of all of the IP address assignment automatically. 19" rack just keeps things nice and neat - 20cm ethernet path cables are cheap as chips. If you're using your DSL provider modem as a wifi node (e.g. BT Home Hub) then you probably don't want this stuck in a cupboard or in the attic. We have the BT master immediately where the cable comes into the house (in basement) and then have an extension line run to the study where the Hub is plugged in. The hub ethernet is sent to the switch using one of the Cat6 runs to the patch panel and then into the switch. We have a few old BT Hubs that act as wifi repeaters through the house (one on each floor). Agree that you need to think on what you're using them for but a good rule of thumb is that things that do not move (TVs, printers, routers, NAS drives, streaming units, internet radios, PV controller etc) should have a fixed connection and things that move (laptops, phones, tablets etc) should rely on WiFi.

Hmmm.... At a minimum you'll have a patch panel where all your Cat 5/6 is terminated (at rear, sockets at front) and an ethernet switch (I have a 24 port one but I do have a lot of Cat 5 sockets). You'll then have some internet source, maybe the actual DSL/Cable router or you may choose to patch this into one of your room Cat5 sockets up to your patch panel and then into the switch I do this as the BT Hub is on my desk in study).. You then do some old school telephone exchange style patching of external socket terminations to the switch to make them live. Patch panels and all but the smallest switches use 19" racks. You can mount your rack in a cupboard somewhere (where all your cat5 cables terminate) or you can wall mount it in a unit with a door. Mine is in the loft eaves. You may also choose to put other gubbins in there = Sky boxes, RF splitters etc but they will have different cabling requirements.

Problem is just behind it we have a soak away for a street gully which was overflowing so that didn’t help.

Eek.. It’s dissipated now but rain has been torrential all day - even porus resin driveway was flooding. Will need to move the gate induction loop unit up a bit as it has a 240-12v transformer next to it, don’t want that getting wet. Everything else should be well out of the way.

We did this and had over 18 months of residential insurance before the completion cert was issued (delays on external items). Bit grey as to whether this was an issue - I scrutinised small print to see if a completion cert was required but never found anything - but then I suspect that only if a claim arose you would really find out.

Jeremy, you’ve slipped in my estimation. I was sure you had a leftover ex military atomic clock in the shed that you used to synchronise the clocks.

That is cheating and you know it.

A tale of four ovens. Oven one is a combo microwave and oven. Used lots, reasonably filthy. Oven two is a full size oven with a hide & slide door (blame Bakeoff for that). Used for most general cooking & baking, moderately filthy. Oven three is a steam oven (although it turns out ovens two and four are also steam ovens, who knew). Mostly (i.e. only) used for steaming broccoli for roast dinner (about once / twice a month outside of summer. Quite clean but has a definite whiff of broccoli. Oven four is the 'good' oven' and is a carbon copy of oven two. It was supposed to be the 'super oven' for baking but the original oven two was discontinued and we got a fee upgrade so use that instead. Beyond heating plates at Christmas, I'm not sure it has really been used and it mostly contains all the spare trays and shelves from ovens 1-3, pristine. Admittedly they look smart in their 2x2 formation even if I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get all their clock displays synched.