Andeh

Government have already made it clear they are looking to reduce this on elec & apply it to gas! That being said, for OP, I'd stick with current boiler until it dies. Don't replace it for the sake of it. ASHP is a long term solution, space protect for it... But use your existing until it gives you an imperitive to change.

Sorry for the layman's question, but where is the air passing through? It looks like the window is silicone to the brickwork already? Just as ill be in a similar situation in a couple of months, I'm keen to be educated! Thanks

Fully this, we were hit with £2000 costs for stupid tree stuff we could have avoided by cutting them down ourselves. We did get away with bat's by demoliting before we were told to have full surveys. DESPITE ecology report saying no bats!! Otherwise that'd have been another £2000++ Our builder saved (his!!) costs by sending all the brick & hard-core off in several farm trailers for them to use for field entrances etc etc. I bet that was a few grand saved in skips!

I'm not so sure... I think most won't know what it is & will just see an EPC rating and be happy with it. The difference between being top 2% vs top 10% just isn't that meaningful to average Joe, even with higher energy bills hitting us all If OP isn't designing his forever home, just get the architect to design it for a SAP of 91 (or a B and be 81 ) and leave it at that. Anything more then this is money you simply won't recoup.

My very layman's description: Grout is cement based and used for tiles etc where there is no movement & reasonable gaps. Slightly porous. Silicon is the super flexible stuff that goes on around wall to floor interfaces etc. Showers, shower trays, toilet to floor, around sinks etc etc.Totally water proof Very very different method for application. For a novice, silicone can be tricky to get the hang of! Spend plenty of time on YouTube researching techniques & tools, then practise several times before you try it for real! Eith those gaps you will probably only have one go at doing it neatly.

You could try silicone, in a colour very similar to your tiles? Use a silicone scraper to ensure a flush finish & clean up of over spill. Might take some time & patience, but im sure it'd do the job? Again, test in a small discrete area first.

If the gaps less then 1mm you'll be probably struggle to grout it? I'd be tempted to try the LTP grout sealing spray thoroughly into the gaps to seal the concete behind & then just leave it. You could try grouting a small area as a test, but I'd be more worried about visual risks then damp risks, esp if it isn't directly in the shower area.

Never even considered this! Ours is bang on 900mm, I almost think it's slightly too tall now that I think about it. I'm sure our previous wasn't slightly lower, we had to cut 20mm out of the kickboard for the dishwasher at our last place.

Use your EPC rating, which I imagine would have used the assumptions made at time of construction?

Try a new stiff tooth brush, that helped with ours, that or lay flat a Stanley knife blade, to dig a bit more out. Then ensure clean & thin bead of silicone!

This is exactly what we did, cost around 8% more (as you don't pay 20% VAT)...but you get a brand new home!

What camera is that? Impressive capture quality!

Apologies OP, I wasn't being funny bringing up the cost of our project, I just wanted to demonstrate the cost differences we faced in a refurb v rebuild on a similar age/style bungalow to you. FWIW, our project started significantly smaller until my wife & I went through 2 years of multiple bereavements. It's been a very bitter sweet project indeed. We are around £2000psqm for our rebuild (build only/high spec) . Demolition was very quick & easy actually.

We did similar to Joe, proceeded at risk! Shitty way to spend several weeks, but we had a really good dialogue with the planner so when we got a design verbally "generally agreed" we went full speed ahead to meet builders timing whilst last few details were agreed!

Depends on the situation, ours was a timberframe '70s with zero insulation except attic & 3 extensions over the years. It was the wrong way round for the garden, so we were needing to remove 75% internal timber walls We were going for a full refurb & reroof, and significant 130sqm extension. The refurb raised several concerns eith people in terms of what they might find. Overall project was around £500k refurb vs £540k rebuild (vat removed off rebuild), which made it a no brainer for us! Demolition was only around £15k IIRC.

We started off on this journey & ended up demolishing! Would have saved a decent chunk had we started off with that plan in the first place!!

Great progress, how are you getting on from a £/2sqm investment into the build? Loving it coming together

Hmmm... Does seem excessive that doesn't it? I'll query it... He was actually quite reasonably priced on some other tweaks we made (roof lights & internal brick walls...) so maybe I'm missing something! Thanks

Big, but not that big... 250sqm! He gave us a spectacularly keen price to start off with, so not unexpected some of the upgrades come at a premium.

Going through similar ourself. 100mm PIR gets a u value of around 0.18 (I think) , 125mm gets you a 0.14, 150mm drops it to around 0.11ish. Law of diminishing returns & cost needs to be factored in, and its prob several years+ payback. Anything more then 150mm is overkill for 90% of people (IMHO)... But this is a forum for enthusiasts! However, if you can... I'd always opt for more. We are just facing a £4500 bill (builder supply, fit & overheads) to upgrade from 100 to 150mm in our bungalow, as build already well under way! Probably will, but its a tough call balencing all other aspects of the build costs

Woweee....! What an emotional roller coaster. Love to see what it looks like completed.

....i wouldnt feel confident of not having to back date those payments.

Buildzone was £2600 for us for 275sqm brick & block, mono pitch. LABC wanted £7500!

Thank you very much Mr Punter, that makes much more sense on a comparison point of view! Very grateful.

Sorry to bump my own comment, but im still trying to get my head around this? Have they really dropped the numbers by nearly half in some of these contexts? Vs current PART L values?