PeterW

You mean like this..??? Left one has DNO connection, Meter and Henleys with 80A Switched fuse to the house. Right has control for power to gates/lights etc and has a key lock rather than a simple plastic lever. All in the back of the wall where the gates are now.

Thats new MoT1 - quarry is Maltby and the haulier is John Owen Aggregates

The Insinkerator ones seem to be about half the price of the Quooker - are they any good ..?

I'd seriously consider building something to put the permanent connection in to and be done with it. From memory they cannot refuse to connect into a BS meter box that is ducted correctly - as @JSHarris says there is plenty of room in a box for connections and you can get an IP65 caravan connector now with an RCD in it so even if your box only has the DNO fuse, meter and a single CU or switch feeding something directly below the box then it must be cheaper to only do it once. How much of the £4K is contestible works ..??

I'm always amused when I see the sorts of articles like this where it's "xxxxx must do yyyy to save energy..." The biggest loss on any house is the ventilation losses and yet we still insist on trickle vents and the ridiculous notion that air tightness is a novelty...! Air testing is borderline useless on developer builds as they test 1 in 10 and the rest get to take their chances. I mentioned air tightness tapes to the BCO on Friday and he was surprised in one way but said it was good to see someone trying to exceed the regs - as we have a part conversion and part new build it makes lots of insulation a challenge. But reducing the losses from ventilation to 0.6 ACH by using MVHR means that the wall difference of 0.18 to 0.14 is lost in the noise. The big issue with new developer builds is they aim for the lowest bar possible and usually fail to hit that too ..!!

Get your gate posts / piggery / shed built and get the permanent supply done - that number is mad !! Is that including a road dig and connection..??

This isnt the latest but you get the idea

Thanks @JSHarris - more a rule of thumb than technically accurate as I quoted ..! I've had some fun with ours as the PA values vary depending on which section of the building it is so I've calculated them as 3 separate values and had to combine them. Also doesn't help that the integral garage also has an EPS layer under it to try and reduce some heat loss from within there ...!!

@JSHarris and others have a Kore or other manufacturer EPS fully insulated slab. With a standard strip or trench fill construction you can do the same, building up your external walls until you get to DPC and then backfilling with 100-150mm MoT1 and 100-150mm PIR insulation before casting the slab. PIR needs approx 1/2 the thickness of EPS for the same uValue but in certain situations it makes more economic sense if you have a lot to lose on levels. I'll dig out our sections later and show what the build up is

Be careful - most liquid screeds need 50mm above the heating pipes so you need 65mm min Why not go for a ground bearing slab and just put insulation then concrete with UFH in it ..? One less pour and type 1 is much cheaper than concrete ...!

@JohnW you have a similar floor build up to me but with a couple of exceptions.I have a 125/130 PIR going down with a 25mm EPS all round to absorb the lumps instead of sand a la @Onoff. My top course is a flowing concrete from a local supplier with fibre reinforcement in it - a polyester fibre - and a number of plasticisers that make it self levelling and self compacting. Target for us is 0.14, but that is a choice as we have a conversion element too and it won't allow us without a significant amount of work to get to a very low uValue on the walls so we've gone for a very warm "hat" on the build ...! Concrete flooring is probably the easiest part to get wrong but I've basically gone with it as it will make life easier. Is it more "dense" than normal..? Who knows..! Unless concrete is aerated, the mix of aggregate and sand to cement and water will make a very minor difference to the uValue overall.

Quarry just came back to me ... £11.95 per tonne for 20 tonnes delivered .... quarry is 10 miles up the road ..!

Excluding VAT...?? Think I'm at £15.50 and thats only for 20 tonne

Yep.. ! ABS, PVC-U and PVC-C all have different ratings (from Wavin Tech): Pipes and fittings manufactured from PVC-U or ABS Osma Soil systems and ABS Solvent Weld Waste system – OsmaWeld: Suitable for use with intermittent discharges of water up to 90°C Pipes and fittings manufactured from PVC-C or Polypropylene PVC-C Solvent Weld Waste system, PP Push-Fit Waste systems (to BS EN 1451-1 and BS EN 1566-1) and V-Joint Traps: Suitable for use with intermittent discharges of water up to 100°C So for a 90c thermal/pressure relief you could use either but Polypropylene would give you a margin of safety.

So on the back of the comments made by @recoveringacademic about his Austro-Germanic house, I've gone the other way and found its surprisingly cheaper to buy local on some stuff..! I was chatting to the local muck away contractor on Friday (he's £125 for 14 tonnes away...) about the cost of concrete. My quotes for Gen1 so far had been AI (£103), MKM (£86) and Travis Perkins (£76) for 28 cubic metres. He asked if I had tried the local concrete plant and I gave them a call..... 28 cubic metres of Gen1 sir..? £71 a cube... Followed it up with a conversation about flowcrete/self compacting and I've got a best price of £141 including fibre for 8 cube... his price is £115 as I'm only 10 mins up the road and apparently its like transporting water ! Rang the quarry that the concrete place recommended and I've got my MOT1 at £4 a tonne cheaper than the best loose price from any of the merchants and apparently they supply both... Next stop is the timber merchant up the road - apparently he's got 3,000 ft of C24 joists he needs to get rid of....

They were probably once white...... Angled flexi and job done - got to be the easiest !

@Nickfromwales can confirm but I don't think you have to. The HepVO can be used for a discharge pipe from memory so you can go into a stack, but I can't remember the exact rules. ... and here's the link ! HepVO for discharge

I've been promised a sample of this stuff Powerpanel H2O but unless it comes with a hefty discount I will go with normal fermacell and tank the ar$e out of it with this stuff Aqua Seal I looked at the Fermacell tanking kits but needed to sell a kidney....

When I looked at them (as a gadget more than an appliance) then I was reminded that we have a very nice and expensive Le Cruset kettle and an induction hob ... I tend to drink more coffee than tea so my machine is permanently on so I'm not sure I can justify the change yet but if I see a bargain then it may happen ..!

If you use 6mm then it won't come out when you're done - what sort of damage is there ..? Back filling can be a challenge as there is nothing for the shuttering to brace against.

I saw Stiebel Eltron did one which was interesting but they seem to have paired up with Blanco and my experience of them is less than perfect ..!

Just double check before you do just how much you will lose - I've done the same today and looked at a couple of corners but I worked out that I would only save £40 worth of concrete with £55 worth of OSB and that's at zero labour cost ...

You do like making things difficult for yourself ..!!

I hate you... I didn't need that til I saw the price reduction...

One thing to consider is IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) which @JSHarris swears by as do I for cleaning up most things. Solvent weld has enough MEK in it to clean the joint anyway - make sure you make the joint up properly as a dry joint, mark the joint for depth and rotation with a sharpie and make sure when you glue it up you give all the joints a good twist.