Trw144

You could still be liable to tax in this scenario if the taxman believes this was always your intention

@Ralph Yes that amount of glazing certainly would add some to the cost - be worth getting a few quotes.

And what size house? Anything unusual too it that makes it more expensive?

Well done - great transformation

I think they re is certainly a balance to be had - my build is certainly way above building regs, but also not near passivhaus levels. It costs me about £500 a year to heat our 300m2 house which I m quite happy with - we have a design with a lot of glazing so we would never get it super-low energy (I did nt want the tail wagging the dog). It depends on your outlook, but for me it was about the house design first, and then I looked at how energy efficient we could make it to out budget.

We re an 89A and that’s with a couple of points for solar thermal (I don’t think you get many points for solar with mains gas heating as it’s not seen as offsetting much co2). We ve got way too much glazing to get into an A rating - so I suspect it’s certainly possible to get an A rating without renewables if you are careful with your design.

A yes, the MCZ, I know it

Hi My business is biomass boilers and personally, on a well insulated, airtight new build property I d probably suggest ashp. I think biomass boilers are more suited to applications with higher heat loads. @Declan52 Out of interest, what boiler do you have?

@SteamyTea I ve just caught up myself - I had to go to bed before the climax. Can’t wait for the next episode, in a nutshell I think we re going to be crowdfunding @Nickfromwales to be parachuted into Scotland to go on his mission. I would imagine he s also going to need a little Snatch Land Rover dropped in with his tools and some vodka. Episode 3 will be based around @Nickfromwales buying his new suit and going to meet Carol Vorderman at the Pride of Britain Awards.

Well you can shift off a self build mortgage once it’s built ( or after early redemption period) but there are ways to speed this up

Yes sounds like a difficult one. Do you have any finances to cover the current mortgage until you demolish - at that point it may be easier to sort a self build mortgage.

One of the jobs I ve been meaning to sort is the door seal between my house and integrated garage door. The garage is outside of my airtightness but I have a small gap underneath the door between garage and house - when it’s windy outside you can certainly notice the air flowing through into the house. Any one have any recommendations on the best way to seal it? A couple of pics below to help envisage it.

We want a back lit bed head - it’s the one thing I have nt finished in the house yet. We have all the lights and plugs ready for it - let me know what you go for.

@divorcingjack Just checked some old emails - the plaster 3D wall finishes were about £800-1000 for a 6m x 2.4m wall. The concrete panels (1200 x 600mm) were £56 each. Another option might be one of the microcrete finishes that are applied like plaster - either skimmed, or I guess you could possibly do the same thing with the timbers mentioned in an earlier post to get a wood plank finish.

These people are who we sourced our panels from - they do some nice bits... http://www.3dartfactory.co.uk/decorative-concrete-2/

Its a timber frame construction, with tile board (wedi board) fixed to the battens, and then these concrete tiles fixed using tile adhesive. Here s a slightly better pic

This is above my bed - we used large format concrete tiles. I would take a better picture but I m still in my bed!

What’s the best way to clean it - I have one window cill that has a bit of render on it. It’s not too noticeable but just annoys be a little - I ve tried hot soapy water but nothing more aggressive yet.

I ve used it - I think the heavy duty one also. Pleased with it - looks neat and keeps the gravel on the drive. Relatively easy to install

If you happy with a Willis heater in future, what about a cheap/second hand air source heat pump to start with? I believe, once your “signed off” by building control then you can do whatever changes you want to your heating system, and I don’t know exactly how much they will check when it comes to the installation of the heat pump either.

We manage 300m2 of hard flooring with our V8, and you could just about blitz it on one battery of your quick and you have it on the standard power instead of boost/turbo.

We went with a V8 dyson - really pleased with it and it does make the corded ones redunandant. The only issue was when I dropped it and broke the battery - they sent another out under warranty though so all good.

To be honest, shadow gaps are certainly more difficult to install - the one grace is that painting is a dam site easier with just a shadow gap instead of skirting.

One thing to consider with shadow gaps is the floor finishes - downstairs we had tiles which is fine and basically we had the house tiled and then boarded/skimmed afterwards. Upstairs we had to install the engineered oak flooring after the plastering due to the risks of damage to the floor (general mess plus high moisture content due to wet plaster damaging the floor) - this means they had to leave an exact gap to allow the floor to be laid, with the floor ending up touching the bottom of the shadow gap profile.