Conor

Yes. And if my Worcester combi boiler is anything to go by, nigh on impossible to access and open. In our system with rads, I just opened bleed valve in the main bathroom towel rail which is the highest point in the system.

Somebody is trying to pull a fast one on you mate. As somebody who worked on construction sites in chalky South Kent.... Don't even think about it. Limestone is the only option - try a different quarry.

The filling loop is connected to your cold mains supply that will pressurise the system to at least 1.5bar... but you only need 1 bar when cold. Connect hose to the drain valve (should be at bottom of boiler). Open valve. Water will start to drain. Open the fill loop valve. This will start flushing out. You'll need to open and close each UFH loop to ensure everything is flushed. This bit I'm not so sure on as I've only ever done this with a radiator system which is pretty easy.

That could introduce enough oxygenated water to cause corrosion. I'd suspect it's your oil boiler doing the damage. How old is it? Do you have a backboiler on a stove or anything? For the sake of £20 for inhibitor, I would. Not sure how yours is setup, but you should be able to flush using the filling loop and a hose attached to the drain valve.

It's normal, as long min cover is maintained. If the utility company has an issue, they'll request for the developer to divert the lines (assuming they are existing power cables)

We have a 5m opening for sliding doors at the rear of our house. Had planned on lift and slide doors as we know these are generally better thermally and air tightness wise over sliding folding doors. However, as we have windows above and want to mirror the frames, a five panel door looks much, much better and we're now committing to this option. Three or four panels won't work with the room divisions on the first floor. We've come across Lacuna who seem to fit the bill in terms of performance (passive suitable). Waiting for a cost estimate. Anybody any experience with them or know of similar products?

Nope. Try it again with a little fairy liquid on the leading end, works wonders.

This is what we used anytime when working on potable water supplies when contamination was a possibility. Easy to handle and you can make up to whatever CL concentration you want. https://www.ferret-technology.com/product-page/chlorus-tablets But, there are much more effective sanitising products out there for the food and beverage industry. Chlorine solutions will kill everything, but they are not so effective and lifting residues and material from pipes. I'd suggest a flush through first with a beer line cleaner or similar. Especially if you think there might be mould, dirt etc in the pipes.

This is exactly what we did in our extension. 100mm PIR between joisest and another 50mm on the bottom of joists, plasterboard then on. We have a ventilation gap between the 100mm insulation and the underside of the roofing membrane. Your scenario is a little different, but as you say you can leave a 50mm ventilation gap... Key thing would be, how much air flow would you get through it?

If you plan properly, and align your webs, you can screw in to these as you would for internal fittings. So you'd make sure there is a web inline with your downpipes. You'd obviously just get one of the screws in per bracket, so use one of those EPS fittings for the other.

In most cases it should be free. Caveat being you first have to replace all of the lead on your side of the stop cock.

We are in the same situation. Bought a 1920s bungalow with intention of renovating and extending. After we got it and took a closer look, was apparent that renovation would be extensive and expensive. Basically, we'd be stripping the house right back to 4 bare walls. Costs were coming in around £150k before VAT... And even at that it wouldn't be what we want. So we're now demolishing and building a new house. Ultimately, it will cost more at £200k but the finished product will be far superior, larger, warmer than anything we could have achieved through renovation. so is much better value for money. Planning has been tediously slow tho... Best of luck.

I intend on making my millions after Brexit by selling dairy milk chocolate on eBay with crazy markup. Couple boxes a week in my laptop bag should do the job. I certainly won't be declaring lol

We recently got multiple quotes for our proposed build, a few obscured 3G windows, no differences in U value that I noticed.

We were in a similar position, a little vague and different interpretations. Architect recommended we go for PP anyway to absolve any possible future disputes. In the end when we saw the ground cleared, we went out another metre so needed pp anyway. Design your ideal scenario then take it from there. Pp for an extension won't cost that much or take that long.

F**k Brexit. I'm in Northern Ireland and we're due to start on site 1st Nov. Building products from GB are expensive due to need for ferry transportation. From ROI due to the weak sterling. Tariffs will kill us. I will happily hire a van and smuggle goods across the "border".

Welcome. For passive standard build, you can make life easier for yourself but firstoy using an architect that is experienced with the standard and can design accordingly. If you use a modern construction method such as ICF or SIP, you can achieve passive standard much more easily than traditional techniques like brick and block. About to start our passive build using ICF... Hopefully will have more knowledge to impart over the next few months. Check out the blog sections on the website, lots of first hand experience.

I think it's because we are categorised as an alteration rather than new connection. I'll phone them tomorrow.

Thanks everybody. Pretty much just saved me £400.

Can works by utility companies be zero rated or recliamed? Was about to pay NIE for connection works at our site and it has VAT on. But we've not *officially* started the new build works. Wondering if it's worth holding off until we get full PP of the VAT can be reclaimed for the connection modification.

Not in our case - extension and renovation completed 5 years ago, on to mortgage company no 2 since then and only thing they wanted to see was copy of planning approval and final BC signoff.

That's a hell of a job. Are you digging a trench for the whole way? Have you looked in to a mole plough? Very fast and cheap if you can get access for a tractor and you've minimal utilities in the way.

Won't the windows be installed with straps attached to the core that will take the majority of the load? What are you planning for sills? I'll be doing the same in about 6months time.

What is your project? New build? Find out what the peak heat demand is, then see what size heating system you need. In our case, it's only 2.8kw, so a 5kw monoblock ASHP will suffice - these cost in the region of £2k. The cost of LPG is only going in one direction, esp as more and more people switch to ASHP and the market becomes less competative and lucrative for lpg.

Use the longer insert. Moisten everything before tightening. Don't use ptfe tape. Tighten just beyond hand tight. You'll soon know if something is wrong.