HerbJ

I agree with @ProDave The main reason I went with a UVC was that the prevailing opinion in ebuild/BH when I was finalising specifications for plumbing was that heat losses from TS and UVC were to be avoided if at all possible and certainly minimised. This was in mid/late 2015 - the SUNAMP was just coming onto the scene and @JSHarris was sharing his issues with heat losses from his system. I originally had a TS in my design and was persuaded that maintaining this at 75C, was the path to huge losses and problems with temperature in my plant room. I was very happy to pay for additional tank insulation but none of the manufacturers really seem to care about this and only offer relatively modest insulation levels. On reflection,, the heating is not required for most of the year and the PV supplied immersion heaters deal with the majority of our HW for most of the year , with a two immersion heaters -one top mounted and one bottom mounted. The thought of keeping a TS at 75C throughout the year to maintain decent HW seems illogocal, at least for us. ... If the UVC temeperature drops we can recharge it in 40 min or so with the gas boiler, when and if necessary.

I'm with @Russell griffiths on this - what is the reason for fireproofing the roof? Is it something to do with the wooden roof shakes? Is it necessary, if you have a plasterboard interior lining?

There is a lesson to be learnt here and not just for windows. A few things spring to mind.. Check ALL deliveries carefully before and after it is lifted off the transport, if possible. That is not only obvious damage against but all the parameters against the order/invoice - quantity, specification, colour , everything. ......Our front door assembly was delivered with the wrong external RAL Colour and the wrong internal wood finish - I spotted this on the lorry but kept quiet and made the fitters install it because i needed to get the house secure, weathertight and progress towards the blower door test. In the event, there was little argument as it was quickly proven to be a supplier error, but the replacement door took another 12 weeks or so and caused delays with internal completion and also external rendering. Also watch the BM's - they often will deliver what they consider to be an equivalent product instead of what you ordered - insulation, plasterboard, etc without contacting you to get you approval. Reject deliveries and do not accept, if they are clearly damaged or incorrect We had a few problems - we had a all the glass balustrades for our stairs/landing delivered to our site and it was clear that some of then panels it had never been packed correctly, as there were glass shards on the lorry as we started to unload. We took pictures on the lorry, and then every piece of glass, which basically we unloaded piece by piece. The delivery was a day or so later than scheduled and it transpired the load had been quarantined by the delivery company at their marshalling centre, because the load was unsafe and they had repacked it, as best they could, before delivery. Again, we had to have about six panels replaced, which delayed completion of the stairs. Report any problems to the supplier / responsible contractor immediately with photos evidence. Be firm and reject anything before it is incorporated in the works. Contracts normally state a period for reporting damage - make sure you understand your contract in this respect.. Know your specification and orders in detail. Sometimes, the mistake may be yours. it saves a lot time to understand this quickly, accept it and move forward with a quick resolution/replacement as necessary.

This is fine - many of the big developers make the secondary access to meet the Part M Compliant access, so that they can have a grand front entrance.

As @Nickfromwales said earlier, not quite... First things first, to answer your your questions: The UFH manifolds are set at 32C on the inlet. Two UFH manifolds Ground and First Floor. No heating on Second Floor. We have deliberately kept towel radiators at same low temperature as UFH - 2 reasons, we don't really need towel radiators for heating as bathrooms have UFH - they are just to give a bit of comfort with warm towels - and we have two small grandchildren and we didn't want hot towel rails. Max Ventilation/fabric heat loss is 4.3 kW , to maintain the house at 21C with the external temperature at -10C. The downstairs is controlled as one zone. The First Floor bedrooms and bathrooms are individually controlled. This is for a 337 m2 house. And now the boiler controls I can set the minimum AND maximum kW output for the boiler together with maximum flow temperature and lots of other settings. The minimum output is set at 4.5 kW ( I think this is the lowest setting but I can,t find that figure in the MI) and maximum as 18 kW currently. I can allow the control system to set the "Economic central heating temperature and it has showing 43C, which is what it is set at. The boiler controls control the cylinder temperature with a direct connected cylinder temperature sensor. I set the cylinder temperature between 40 and 60C. i can also set the maximum midpoint cylinder temperature at 50C, though I have no idea how it can set this accurately as the sensor is at the bottom of the UVC and I don't use this feature?? Interestingly, i have just skimmed through the Installation, Commissioning and Service Instructions for the Greenstar i System and I can find no mention of the lowest modulating level for the boiler.... So, as far as I can understand I am operating this WB boiler exactly in accordance with the MI and I am happy with its performance and efficiency. These boilers are getting more sophisticated and can be controlled to operate efficiently for most systems. We have one full year's data for the house and our NETT gas and electricity costs were £278 - £857 for 3654 kWh electricity and 10393 kWh gas with £579 for 3752 kWh of PV from our 3.99 kWp system - so I'm happy with the installtion and performance to date. Also, pleased that we avoided the complexity of a TS and other unnecessary kit.

As @ProDave recommends, the new condensing boiiers don't need a buffer tank. We went through all the options and I was set on a TS but the complexity and heat losses, as outlined by posts on the Forum persuaded me that a UVC and Modulating boiler was the correct solution. We have a 300l UVC with a close coupled 18kW WB gas condensing boiler. The boiler is fitted with the optional diverter valve so that we can run the UFH system (and low temp towel radiators) at 40C and the HW feed to the UVC at 60C. it's a good solution with the UVC mostly hea ted by two electric immersion heaters supplied by out 3.99 kWp PV system. The gas boiler modulates down to about 4kW and has enough power to recharge the UVC to 55C in about 40 minutes, if needed.

Luck over skill every time ......... You deserve some luck and I hope it all goes well on Wednesday

This was the only major problem on our build, though we did get it resolved in the end. The trouble was that we lost weeks, no months, and had to decorate some rooms a couple of times. As @Declan52 points out, every time we thought we had resolved it through the summer going into autumn, the changing sun and resulting shadows highlighted further areas that required resolution.. Even after we thought everything was sorted and we decided to move in, fitting curtains/blinds highlighted more problem areas as the light was again altered with new shadow patterns. It is all fixed now and the contractor did deal with all the costs for repair but we had to deal with the delays and some redecorating costs. So, the lesson to be learnt is be very firm and get it fixed now - only do it the once.so you can move forward ... Best of luck

+1 to @vivienz

We had 395 Invoices in total and 104 were submitted for the VAT Refund. My OH was the Build Accountant and rigorously maintained a detailed spreadsheet, cross referencing all the Invoices and costs, including potential VAT refund invoices for review on completion. We only had a four invoices rejected outright by HMRC - of these, we successfully reclaimed the wrongly charged VAT off two invoices (as they had labour content), another was for a safe and its installation ( which HMRC argued the safe was not allowable for zero VAT) and the other because it was design element of the stairs contract (which we foolishly allowed to be invoiced separately and so was not allowable as services). So, out of a total claim of £16368, we manged to successfully be refunded £15575 - the main difference being the design element, which we could have avoided if we been smarter and arranged for the invoice to be submitted differently.

We had the same problem with the two contractors/suppliers that we had invoice rejected by HMRC. They both complied very quickly on receiving our request for the VAT refund with a new Zero rated invoice. With one, he flapped and fussed, said he had to check with his Accountant etc and needed a bit of pushing but a couple of weeks later we received a new Zero Rated invoice and a cheque for the incorrectly charged VAT. The other company was a larger company and they just responded quickly with the new invoice and a cheque. As I was told by HMRC, contractors charging VAT " in the course of construction of a new qualifying dwelling" are acting illegally in charging the incorrect rate of VAT but if push comes to shove, the only final solution is to take them to court if all else fails. HMRC will not intervene and assist but they did give me the ammunition to fire....

No, HMRC will reject any invoice with labour. The work should have been issued with Zero VAT and you will have to go back to your contractor for the VAT REFUND. It is not true that you cannot go back and obtain the wrongly charged VAT. HMRC informed me that it is illegal to incorrectly charge VAT and it's possible to take the contrcactor to the small claims curt to recover wrongly charge VAT..... We had two invoices rejected because they included clearly included labour but HMRC gave us clear wording to use when going back to the contractor for the VAT refund. The following gives the form of words we used to one of the contractors. I am in the process of reclaiming the VAT back for the Chandelier (under the DIY scheme - VAT431) - but HMRC has rejected your paperwork because ... ‘These invoices are invalid as the goods/services have been supplied and fitted or services have been provided in the course of construction of a new qualifying dwelling and no VAT should have been charged. Your supplier must correct the error. If the supplier still has any queries regarding the liability of their services or want to know what to do to make the necessary adjustment, they should contact the National Advice Service on 0300 200 3700. Ref: VAT431 NB Notes, Section 2 – VAT wrongly charged’ Please can I request that you review and amend these invoices to be zero rated for VAT – and refund the VAT that we’ve been charged on these invoices (£1064.60). To support this change I supply - The Certificate for zero-rated Building Works - The Completion Certificate If needed, I can supply the full letter from HMRC.

This is a very important and valuable thread. There are a couple of additional things things that may also be helpful. When I completed my Proposal Form for Construction Insurance, I had to complete the following questions (among others): So, I ensured every contractor/ supplier working on my site had a written contract (some very brief, depending on the scope of works) and had the appropriate Public Liability Insurance cover in place. I insisted on getting a copy of the Policy Schedule, to ensure that it was current, BEFORE they started any work at site. Failure to comply with either of these questions may have invalidated my insurance Policy in the event of an incident. In fact, I did have an incident which was dealt with by the subcontractor and it was not dissimilar to the one experienced by @newhome but I did not have to make any claim on my insurance. I created a template that I used in my enquiry documents or in a letter/email, prior to a contractor working at site- very simple, as follows: Can you please confirm that you have a minimum Public Liability Limit of Indemnity of £2 million? This is required to maintain my insurance cover on my Construction All Risks Insurance. Also, please send me a copy of your PL Insurance Schedule for my records .

Great advice ..

+1 to @dogman I also tried it and it's not worth the fee

You should consider instructing a barrister/advocate instead of a solicitor. They are usually much cheaper than a senior solicitor (because they are self employed and don't have the high overheads), they're more efficient and you can choose a barrister with the specific expertise in property law you require, even to reviewing their CV and experience. In any case, if a solicitor gets a difficult legal problem he will be proposing that he instructs a barrister with the specialist expertise on your behalf and you may end up paying both their costs for the same problem. Not exactly sure of the position in Scotland but on a quick check http://www.advocates.org.uk/instructing-advocates/different-ways-of-instructing-an-advocate you may be have to be a member of a professional body, or similar, listed in the Faculty of Advocates Direct Access Rules - attached. In England, anyone can instruct a barrister for legal advice - it's called Public Access. I have done this successfully in a neighbour dispute case some 10 years ago and saved a lot of money. A barrister can write opinions, letters and represent you in meetings but they cannot start legal proceedings in court on your behalf that's back to a solicitor, who then works with your barrister.. The first thing to do is google "barrister specialising in Property Law" in say Edinburgh (though it doesn't really matter and you could use an advocate from any Chambers in Scotland) and that should get you to a list of advocates and their chambers. You should then be able to ring the Chamber's Senior Clerk and outline your issue. They may be able to give you a lump sum, if you can define the issue (maybe sending some documents) and what you want - a written opinion, for instance. new-direct-access-rules.pdf

Great news - you must be very happy and satisfied. Snug and smug....

That's what we did for the first submission and same again for the follow-up appeal documents. They sent all the originals back by recorded delivery, with their decision letter. HMRC did send a letter of confirmation of receipt for the first with a timeline for making a decision. I don't think they did this for the follow-up submission but I did ring the Contact No and they were helpful in confirming that they had received it and also to give a timeline for response.

Result... you must be very happy!

This is a really good question. Another thing to consider is how much more difficult will it be to install the 1st Floor after the roof is fitted? There may be some benefit to at least getting all the heavy stuff lifted into place before you complete the roof. It would save a lot of manhandling of floor boards, joists etc.

Is that everybody following this compelling post?

This brilliant and what BH is all about The Heatmiser UH3 is only a fancy wiring centre. My son installed one in an extension and it was fairly straightforward =-I attach a brochure with simple schematic Heatmiser-UH3-Wiring-Centre.pdf

Look at ACO Building Drainage - see attachment, though not sure it's the latest. Ther are plenty of similar manufacturers. Harmer, Wade, ..... aco_showerdrain_technical_and_wetroom_systems.pdf

It might be that there are two timers controlling the boiler - the E2000 time switch, installed as part of the metering equipment , and also a second timeswitch controlling the bolier within the E2000 period, as a method to limit electrical costs???

I have reread the Policy and there is a section on "Intruder Alarms" - see Special Conditions, 8 on page 10. This Clause only applies IF an Intruder Alarm is detailed in the Schedule as a Condition of the Insurance Policy = my Schedule did not include such a condition . The Applicable Clause 8 details the requirements to be met by any Intruder Alarm System to be installed, IF it required as a condition of the Insurance Cover. This should be resolved with your Broker when placing the Insurance Cover, to ensure that there is no such requirement. It is unlikely to be a requirement for a one off building site, but may be a requirement for a large multi-unit site. FWIW - i do have such a requirement on my Household Building and Contents Policy and have a suitably specified Intruder Alarm System. This is not unusual depending on the value of the building & contents.