willbish

Is anybody using a hot fill washing machine? Or are they all a thing of the past. Could I connect a normal cold fill washing machine and even dishwash to a plentiful 34° hot water source?

Around the 3min mark

A brine heat exchange ground loop might be worth considering. I wish I had the land to bury 100m of pipe but I just can't fit it in unless it goes partly under the slab which I've dismissed as a foolish idea but can't get it out of my head! Your architect @Visti has also installed this system on his new build and there is a brief YouTube video where he chats about it.

Producing an electric current from PV’s come rain or shine! Is this going to be a significant development for PV panels?

This has got to be ideal for someone

@Russell griffiths Yes he certainly does, although I would question why you would need to go to such depths, but I don't know what you are planning to build

Im not sure I would second this advice. My SE asked for bearing capacity at 600mm below slab height. Unless you are digging down metres then a small rig, like which was used on my site today, will easily be able to tell you the information you are after. I'd want to know sooner rather later if I was going to have to change foundation design to accommodate unsuitable ground conditions.

Had my Ground Investigation done today Used the same chap as @vivienz after the positive recommendation on her blog. I had two quotes and MSS were significantly cheaper. Was quoted £1250 in VAT for two boreholes to 2.8m with SPT testing. Fortunately the results are looking very good and the ground is suitable for a raft foundation. There is a small amount of clay on site but that will be more than removed when we scrape back to the level required for the hardcore.

Can fully understand your frustration @Visti. Only hope I can offer, hasn't the property market cooled in the last year.. Property prices have certainly slid a bit in my neck of the woods, much the same in Oxfordshire perhaps? http://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_report.htm?location=oxford&lastyear=1

Ditto, have just read your blog @PeterStarck. Have you talked about this incident elsewhere on the forum, apologies if you have Was it immediately obvious after the pour that there were voids? Was the concrete vibrated? What other costs were cut, other than lack of pump to cause this? I suspect insufficient labour may have been a factor

Ive been researching the many different ICF products on the market recently and have complied some data for comparison. A lot of the info is available online, but details from some manufacturers aren't so easy to find. The spreadsheet is far from complete or exhaustive, the products with the most detail are the ones I've been personally interested in and have sought quotes. Ive settled on a product now and my motivation has moved on to the next pressing decision! Hope this is some help to anyone thinking of building with ICF

@Plumbersmateuk Isoquick use and recommend J.Turner & Assoc. I've been chatting with them over the last couple of days and have a quote for all the structural engineering work on my build, £1850+vat They are regularly designing raft slabs and ICF I am building a semi detached with some details that require extra work. One end is retaining, the other joins a neighbouring property. Plus there will be some strip foundations in close proximity to the raft. Nothing too complex but the extra work is clearly reflected in the quote.

I'm getting excited and they aren't even mine!

@Plumbersmateuk No probs will do

Isoquick have just quoted for my raft. £550+vat as an extra for structural engineer design I don't know if this is in an in house engineer or who they sub the work out to. Will find out in the coming days as I am also yet to get a SE onboard.

Ah okay if there's no such fitting then it'll have to be another seperate run to the I/C. Thanks!

Is there such a fitting as rest bend tee? I'm planning an internal stack so will need a rest bend underground for support. Was hoping to 'pick up' the stack on another waste run using a tee at the base. Alternative would be another run to the inspection chamber but its going to be crowded there.

Also done, trying to bring down the average age! Now off to find out what the councils self build register is all about..

Out of interest @Triassic which product have you gone for in the end?

@RichS I refused 21k retention and managed to negotiate 5k off sale price. @Jml thanks, will have a look

I hoped that the permissions would be granted within the one year time frame. I tried my best to move everything forward as quick as possible as I want to move out of overpriced rental accommodation. The 16k goes some way to offset the extra time renting because of the bats. But yes if I couldn't afford to extend and lose the 16k I would not have gone ahead

Another reason why I feel my solicitor may be somewhat negligent. Fortunately I spotted that same error and had it amended. The clause was written and signed so quickly. We were under pressure to exchange before Xmas 16, my solicitor sent through the contract on her last morning before Xmas break, she stated that they were finishing for lunch at 1pm and it needed signing.. To me that sounds like poor practice.

The matter relates to a property I purchased last year. The house sale was completed on 6 Jan 2017, there was a clause in the contract: "On completion the Buyer will pay to the Seller’s solicitor the sum of £16,000 to be retained as stakeholder for a period of one year. If during the period of one year commencing from the date of completion the buyer is granted planning permission to convert the property into a 4 bedroom dwelling then the said sum of £16,000 (with accrued interest) shall be paid to the Seller in full. If the Buyer is not granted planning permission by the expiry of one year from the date of completion to convert the property to a 4 bedroom dwelling then the retained amount £16,000 (with accrued interest) shall be paid to the Seller. The Buyer will use reasonable endeavours to obtain planning permission to convert the property to a 4 bed dwelling and will provide to the Seller a copy of any application and planning permission received within that period" This clause was written because late in the sale process I commissioned an initial ecology scoping survey as a prerequisite for submitting a planning app Bats were found using the attic so I tried to negotiate the price down, arguing that because of the presence of bats it was unlikely that I would be unable to convert the property into a 4-bed (The limitations of a semi detached, maintaining ridge height and the need to incorporate a bat roost in the loft space) The sellers did not agree but proposed retaining £16k as a sort of insurance. Now that the one year period is up, the sellers solicitor is of the opinion that because planning permission has been approved the monies should be transferred to the seller. I dispute this because although planning permission has been approved, we are still working towards gaining ecological consent. A European Protected Species Licence (EPSL) from Natural England is currently being processed. If Natural England require we will need to make changes to our building plans to further accommodate the bats. Any changes to building plans will require consultation and permission from the local planning authority. I believe the planning permission is still an ongoing process and full permission has not yet been granted. I appreciate that to the letter of the clause, yes planning permission has been granted. However the spirit of the clause (is there such a legal term?) was such that the permission would include planning and ecological consent. In fact the draft of the contract stated: "If the buyer obtains the necessary planning and ecological consents to convert the property into a four bed dwelling then my client will be entitled to receive the £21,000 if not this amount will be returned to the buyer in full" I did not realise the term ecological consent had been removed until I have started investigating further. The seller is a large organisation who I don't want to name, they own hundreds of properties and their solicitor ranks very highly on the legal 500. It feels a bit David and Goliath... My solicitor has said she will represent me if I want to further the dispute but she feels, after consultation with other partners in her practice, that I would not be successful. I get the impression she is not up for the challenge and would prefer to be doing straight forward conveyancing work instead. An equally match Legal 500 firm have had a little look, are interested but want £2k upfront to start. ? I may have sufficient grounds to write my solicitor a formal complaint with the intention of involving the legal ombudsman but am a little reluctant to pursue this route as I don't think it will be successful and will burn bridges. Any other options besides forget the £16k and move on? ?

Insulated pipe work for a Monobloc ashp can leave the thermal envelope through the floor slab. If the alternative is a flue from a gas boiler then I reckon in terms of heat loss the ashp would be preferred. With regard to noise, have you looked at a split type ASHP? Where the external condenser and internal compressor are separated. This gives you the option of placing the condenser around 30m away. I think you need to decide how you are going to power your systems before getting into the detail of design.

Around £1900 at the moment