Gone West

Not really without a lot of work improving the insulation levels and increasing the size of the radiators to compensate for the lower water temperature. Saying that, there are oil/ASHP hybrids which use the ASHP for most of the time and have the oil kicking in when higher temperatures are needed.

We have just moved into an old stone walled cottage that has an oil fired AGA Redfyre cooker that does the CH and DHW. It's about twelve years old and we are going to have it taken out and replaced with an external oil fired boiler. We are removing it because we don't use the ovens and it's bulky and noisy as all oil boilers are. Have you lived with an indoor oil boiler through the winter.

My ducting was 750mm deep and came up through the floor slab and I didn't use any insulation. In reality I should imagine it depends where in the UK you live as there would be a big difference in ground temperatures between Truro and Inverness.

I used 110mm soil pipe with large radius bends as the ducting for my mains water pipe.

We stored our DHW at 45C in a UVC and didn't bother with the legionella cycle. It worked fine with the thermostatic showers and the bath thermal mixer.

At my last house our neighbours had a Nibe ASHP fitted which was 2m away from our fence. We lived in a quiet rural spot and standing next to our fence it was inaudible until it went into, what I guess was, defrost mode, when there was a hissing sound that lasted a couple of seconds.

I don't have personal experience but I remember reading on the Green Building Forum several years ago that a chap in Canada insulated an old house behind lath and plaster walls and it was effective. IIRC the person was Paul-in-Montreal.

@AnnaKH Three and a half years ago we self built a timber frame, timber clad house. We recently sold it and IIRC the first people who were going to buy it had a mortgage with NatWest which they said was ok with the construction. Unfortunately they couldn't sell their house so we accepted an offer from another buyer who also didn't have a problem getting a mortgage. I don't know who their lender was but there were no problems. We also heard that getting house insurance would be difficult but we had no problem with Aviva.

I used PU glue for fixing my timber studding plates to concrete floor. It also sticks metal to concrete. https://www.axminstertools.com/titebond-greenchoicetm-polyurethane-construction-adhesive-310ml-pack-12-tubes-718696

My mate converted a barn with vaulted ceilings. He didn't want wall lights so wired 5A round pin circuits in most of the rooms and even had floor sockets for free standing lamps.

I used Soudal MS Clear for sticking down the toilet pan in the wetroom at my last place and had no problems for the three years we used it. https://www.soudal.co.uk/pro/products/sealants/hybrid-sealants/soudaseal-ms-clear

My son has this flue arrangement with his WBS.

I think the builder is referring to Compriband expanding foam tape which would be ideal for that purpose. It comes in different widths and thicknesses. The thickness size is for example 3/10 which means when rolled up it is 3mm thick and then it will expand to more than 10mm but if less than 10mm it will be air and watertight.

At our last house we were supposed to have roof drainage dealt with on site but there wasn't enough room so I spoke to the local highways office and BC, and as a result we were allowed to discharge onto the lane. This then ran down to to a ditch a couple of hundred yards away.

Good luck trying that. At my last place after the planners had vetoed another design I asked them what they would like, and was told it's not our job to do the design, just to consider yours.

When we built our last house we designed the bathrooms ourselves and used Bathstore for all the fittings. They were well made and I would use them again but I'm not sure whether the current incarnation of Bathstore at Homebase is the same as the original.

I used a Vitrex Ultimate Diamond Blade when I had my tile cutter. I used a few over the years for roof tiles, porcelain floor tiles and sandstone paving with no problem.

We had 200mm type1, 70mm asphalt, 20mm resin bound gravel.

On the last one I fitted I trimmed the rubber/plastic seal strip on the bottom of the door so it also went under the hinge filling the gap.

We've just bought a bungalow with PVs and ST installed. Both of the previous owners unfortunately died last year so it was a probate sale. We found out various bits of information from the LA Building Control office and the executors. The good news is our PVs were installed in 2012 so attract a high FiT rate and the bad news is they are registered with SSE who are very slow at transferring them into our name.

I thought about making my own, but couldn't be bothered, so bought some from Everedge. https://www.everedge.co.uk/product/garden-rings/

On my timber cladding I ran it down in front of the reveal and left a 3mm gap between the reveal edge and the cladding as a drip gap.

I dismantled our old timber clad, timber frame bungalow a few years ago and all the timber was taken after I put it on Freegle. All the rubble was crushed and used on site.

That looks a tidy job, well done. Your level of experience is growing nicely now.

I was in East Kent at the time. The LPA didn't have a say in the matter as I was planting it as a barrier between my front and back gardens.