Conor

A lot depends on the pressure in the mains you are tapping in to. are both options coming off the same main / supply area? A 7m rise is nothing - 0.6bar drop in static pressure. You will need a 32mm supply pipe for that length tho. Water in a pipe is easy to understand. Pressure drives flow, higher flow and therefore higher velocity results in pressure loss. The longer the pipe, the more friction there will be and the greater the pressure loss as flow rates increase. The way to get around that is a larger diameter pipe. 32mm over 25mm may not sound like much, but you'll have significantly less pressure loss. Try and find out from the water company what pressure the mains are at. And the diameter of the host main is largely irrelevant. Utilities aren't really an issue when installing a supply pipe, there's plenty of scope to avoid as your supply pipe is small and flexible. I'd go with the cheaper option.

An ICF wall with a 150mm core and 200mm EPS will give you 0.15. for u value of 0.1 you are talking a 450mm thick wall.

Thanks everybody. I think I'll punch a few holes in the ceilings and brush it down in to 1m³ bags and see if anybody wants it!

Yep, you've paid for a 32mm service but been given a 25mm service. In reality the pressure loss over that length will be minimal unless you are trying to fill a swimming pool..... But you did request and pay for a specific service, which they have failed to deliver. What has happened is the guys only had 25mm ferrules in the van and proceeded anyway saying they had the road open. The UU guy may be right regarding the closeness of the tappings, but as that is a modern PE main, it's not a concern. But again, they have to adhere to the standards. I'd outline the above comments and send back to UU requesting the connection is redone.

We're starting the tedious demolition process in our bungalow while we wait for planning permission to come through - doing it by hand with intention it save or recycle everything from the house. The attic is filled with loose polystyrene balls / grains... It's a mess and covers all 115m² of the loft. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it? I want to keep it seperate from the plaster etc and dispose of it properly. Super large industrial vacuum? Calculated that there is about 10m³ of the bloody stuff! Largest one I've found online is only 60l. And then disposal.... I've been told I can recycle clean EPS... But this will be full of dust and crap and the council guys couldn't give me a straight answer.

Well that's weird. I used to work on new meter connection contracts (not UU) so feel free to PM me the photos and their site report for an educated opinion (rarely I get to say that!)

Most meter boxes have 25mm connections and take concentric meters. It won't make much difference to your flow as long as the 25mm pipe is short. The tapping off the main should be 32mm, and again just reducing to 25mm in to the ebco/atplas box. You can calculate the pressure loss over that length if you know the static pressure and the max flow rate you'd expect to have.

We're in the same boat... Intended to renovate but now makes much more sense to knock and rebuild. Waiting for planning to come through. Learned so much about building in that time.

I used 12mm for similar tiles on to concrete floor.. a tad too deep. 10 or 8mm would be better.

@Mr Punter yep - adding 2.5kw of PV brings it up to 90. I've just read through it again and it does seem to make some worse case assumptions - massive heatloss (2kw) for DWH tank, cold bridging everywhere etc.

We had an initial SAP done on our designs. The house meets passive standards of insulation and air tightness but EPC comes in at 85.... the heat demand, heat loss, DWH demands etc are completely different from what will be reality. It's basically meaningless.

Thanks everybody, very helpful. A few things that will be changing from that version of the plans: 1. Laundry room is gone, space then available for either bedroom. Chute gone. 2. Fitting washer and drier in to the main bathroom and losing the bath. 3. Stairs being moved over to other side. 4. The downstairs guest bedroom will be a dark, quiet TV room, but with the accessible bathroom staying for future proofing. 5. Considering a full size basement - the cinema room would be a large guest bedroom, we'd fit in another spare room, then rest of footprint would be storage and gym) games area. We won't be building the garage. Rather put that money in to a full sized basement. Because of the area and size of plot, 4 useable bedrooms are essential. Wish we could build a smaller house!

See above edits.

Hi. We have a dilemma. Currently our design has three bedrooms on our top floor (1.5 story house with basement). It's not quite working as two of the rooms are quite small. We're thinking of having just two bedrooms on top floor (master and a large second room), and the other two on the lower ground floor. We've no issues with this as we've no kids... but concerned about resale. For those with kids, would having a floor separating you and two kids rooms be a turn off for buying a property? We'd prefer to keep the main ground floor living space only. Reason for this rethink is I'm toying with the idea of making the mezzanine full width across the back of the house, so we'd lose 1.5m off the back bedroom. We really have no need for 4 bedrooms, but we kinda do for valuation and resale. Don't want to make the house my bigger than it is and we're already pushing limits with the planning

You'll need liability insurance if you are going to have anybody on or near your site. You could lose everything if somebody trips and falls on your site. You may need insurance to cover damage against neighboring properties if there is any risk - e.g ground works caus ingdamage, accidental plant damage, flooding etc.

We use shipping containers all the time for temporary or emergency works... E.g pumping stations, UV plants, chemical dosers etc.... 99% of the time they sit on 100mm concrete rafts, in all sorts of ground conditions. Don't see why you can't do that for an extension. Your best bet to connect to the existing house would be to use a glass "link" to join the two.

You could have taken a load of photos and used augmented reality app! So obvious....

My comment was a bit hurried... I was meaning UFH in communal spaces and wet rooms downstairs. Interesting to read that it may not convect... I'm used to radiators that get very hot, heat the air and chuck it upwards. Our upstairs is always warmer than downstairs. May have to rethink my strategy (UFH in basement, and just hall and bathroom downstairs)

If you are going to put UFH in anywhere, put it downstairs, as the heat will rise anyway.

Got a quote online yesterday.... £1500 for 18months. They did ask me a load of extra questions as I've demolition, deep excavation, retaining wall and basement. They won't cover the demolition unfortunately.

Noob question, why do you need to mark on the pipe locations? Are you planning on drilling in to the screed at some point?

Ours is just on the IKEA adjustable feet. No issues, with the huge weight, it'll never move

Higher ceilings are really important in large open plan areas that are the fashion. The bigger the room, the higher the ceilings should be. We're going with 2.7m in most spaces and vaulted on the first floor.

Thanks @ragg987 I'm in Northern Ireland and building regulations and inspections are run by the local council. I'm assuming I'll need to contact a warranty provider and arrange inspections etc from the start?

Hi. I've been focusing so much on technical and design aspects, I'm off the reservation in terms of building warranties etc. What do you actually need in terms of warranties etc for mortgaging and insuring your house after completion and BC signoff? It will be unlikely I'll be using a main contractor, so won't have a warranty for the whole build. I'm building using raft founds, ICF, part basement, rest conventional. What do I to arrange to satisfy mortgage companies?