Big Jimbo

Whats it's being used on ? That looks like mineral felt.

Fantastic picture. Stunning.

Yeah , but thank heavens for that @joe90 There are some many things within the building regulations that conflict with each other, great to have them onboard and trying to work out solutions with you. I have had some great debates with BCO's over the years.

@ProDave It is.

As far as i know, you don't need an escape window in a bathroom in England, because it is not a habitable room.

Any chance of putting a second outlet through the wall to keep them both independent ? Either that of 1 exit hole lower down to give you a bit of scope for sloping down to it better. Neither idea any good if the pipe going through the wall goes straight into a soil stack ?

You sound like me. I'm more than able to run pipes, connect up etc. However when fitting anything other than a basic system i think there is a lot you can get wrong. I'm going to try and at least get somebody to design a system for me. Whether i end up fitting any of it myself, we shall wait and see.

The garage is detached, so i'm going to have to cross the patio to get to the house.

I'm considering fitting ASHP on my new build. Thinking of putting the unit behind the detached garage. That means the pipes would have to travel about 6meters to get into the house, under a side patio. Any idea how this is usually done ? If i can bury the pipes underground and insulate them, would i be ok to carry them on underneath the block and beam floor. I could insulate them well under there. If i am better to bring them up into the floor of the house, i'm planning on having 200mm of pir before the screed. Would it be better to run the pipes in between the Two layers of pir. I am planning on having the hot water tank, and ground floor underfloor heating manifold under the stairs. Any pointers kind ladies and gents.

I think a lot of people do a lot of the management themselves. If you hand it over you are going to be paying top dollar for what you get. ie: Plumber want £25k to supply and fit out your plumbing and heating. The actual cost to him will be say £18750, but he wants a margin. vans, office, pension, holiday, sick, office costs, accountancy, etc etc. I have no problem with any of the above. However, the main contractor now gets the plumbers price and puts his margin onto the top, say 25%.. Your plumbers price is now £31250. For me cost + is a bit of a no no. No incentive for the main contractor to get the best prices from the subbies he uses for your job. I have known plenty of small main contractors who have said in the past. "That new boiler round my mums. Stick the cost of it on here". Just not for me, but i'm sure others have been happy to do it that way.

So you basically need £300k to build ? Keeping the £50k in you pocket for overspends ? Where are you getting the 3 to 5 months timescale to knock and build? Regardless of where you get the money from, say you end up spending the £350k for the knock and build. You come to sell your house and find out that you can only get £200k for it instead of the anticipated £250k. After paying your old mortgage off, you will need a new mortgage of £190k. Will you have the income to borrow this ? Lots to consider.

1260mm is the height, from your photo, that i think i would be considering when looking at a fire escape. IMO i think that the top of the glass would need to be 1100mm from the top of the step, as i would consider that to be the floor level. Can anybody see a reason why that would not be right ?

Thats what i am intending. @Dave Jones I was doing my own Part O calcs. I couldn't find a way to make it work. All my windows open to meet ventilation. On my upstairs windows, i intend fitting them at about 900mm from the floor, and guarding them to exactly 1100mm. Once passed out, i will remove the guarding.

Zoot the Hoot. Having read some of the posts here are my thoughts. You are going to have to accept some stuff. You don't understand a lot of the technical stuff. Neither do i. You talk too much, and in riddles. I talk too much. My thoughts are that you have Three options. 1. Accept what you are being told by valliant. 2. Tell them to bugger off. 3. This is what i would do..... When the bloke comes around to do all your heat loss calcs, rad sizing, equipment requirements etc. Ask him if he could spare you 15 mins. Make him a cuppa, and press £20 into his hand. Forget all the crap that has gone on before, nobody will be interested in hearing that. I usually start with. "I'm as thick as shit when it comes to ASHP. Can you talk me through what you are going to do, and try to explain it to me as if i was a 10 year old. Then shut the f up and let him have his 15mins. At the end you are permitted to ask him to clarify a couple of things if necessary. These questions should relate to how to operate the system, to get the best out of it. Not questioning why he is fitting that, or not fitting this. He is the designer, not you. You have to have some trust in people who know better than you. (i stuggle with that, but thats life. Then let them get on with it. Remember, It ain't gonna be any worse than what you have already. Best of luck bud.

@AliG So basically, nice large oversized rads upstairs, and loops at say 100mm apart downstairs ? The more surface area you have to let the heat out, the better ?

I like it, but to make it even harder to make, i would have every angle different. Totally mess with the sound waves.

Depending on when it was built, you might have permitted development rights to add a second storey. Then you could move out, build stud walls, and put a roof back on top. This would give you full height eaves.

I used to frequent a lot of music studios when i was pretending to be the next Smokey Robinson. From what i remember the vocal area was always covered in those foam tiles that looked a bit like egg boxes on steroids.

I have an existing place that i will be knocking, and building a new house. It is currently supplied by a lead water main. It says on the affinity water web site, that if i change my water main to plastic, i can ask them to change my lead communication pipe to my boundary. So basically, i can get a lead free water supply. They say that they "normally" connect to a 25mm plastic supply. They don't however say that they won't connect to a larger pipe, (under 63mm or it needs certain tests) So as the new house will be much larger than the existing, with 4 bathrooms, and a W.C. kitchen and utility, would you try and get them to connect to a larger pipe ? If so what size. I'm thinking that if i could get that sorted now, it might prevent me having to pay under there development scheme. Thanks for you responses in advance.

Sounds like a plan.

looks like an illegal distillery set up to me.

Don't know where i heard, but i didn't think they were allowed under windows ?

@Dave Jones Any idea where a built in the side of a garage wall 3-phase box might be available from ?

For me it was aesthetic, and wanting to be like the big posh houses i worked in. Having to have points internally to rod etc, was a right pain. If you can get them on the side where they are not really seen, i would do that.

In my last house i had 4 internal vertical soil pipes. I was being posh, and didn't want them outside spoiling the look of my stunning render. On the new house i will probably have 4, but this time outside, although to the sides of the house. I wouldn't want One on the front elevation.