ProDave

I had my completed house insured via the broker GSI often recommended on here. At renewal due imminently they asked me to contact them. the insurer I was with has withdrawn from the market, and trying to find a quote from an alternative has brought up that we are in a "high risk of surface water flooding" area. Last time I checked this, it was only a little bit of the farmers field behind us shown at risk and sure enough that did occasionally flood, but more of a little but of a puddle in a dip due to poor draining land than a risk of actual serious flood. Sure enough checking the SEPA flood risk map now shows almost the whole of our garden is at high risk of surface water flooding, which means each year it has a 10% chance of flooding. I have managed to find a new policy and actually at a cheaper price than the old one, but it looks like this might become more of an issue in the future. If you live in Scotland and have previously been close to a flood risk, you might want to take a look at the updated map https://map.sepa.org.uk/floodmaps/FloodRisk/PostCode

I read that as you must provide 1 working charge point, PLUS the cabling installed ready to add additional charging points for each vehicle space you have so those can be upgraded later. for the additional ones, I would just say suitable SWA cable with the ends sealed to keep water out, from the parking space to the consumer unit, ready to be terminated when you want them.

And a tape measure.

I would be completely filling the 140mm gap, then fitting an air tight membrane, battens following each stud and then plasterboard. This makes it easy to seal the building and make it air tight, then gives a service void inside the air tight layer. More insulation, better air tightness, easier for the trades, what is not to like?

1. DO NOT waste your time and money laying UFH pipes on the upstairs landing. The WILL NOT ever get used, more than enough heat from downstairs. Yet the professional designers still show this. Just fit a normal programmer and individual room thermostats. It will tick a lot of boxes for building control and SAP assesment. Many will say you don't need individual room stats but that really only works with a very well insulated house and if you take the time to balance the rooms properly. As above wider loop spacing, and even wider upstairs as that will need little heat. If you are fitting mvhr, don't aim for ACH 3, aim for ACH < 1 Why not aim for the best you can get? to do it properly at build is little cost, it is all in the detail. I would put the downstairs manifold under the stairs then just rely on the heat from the pipes passing too / from the manifold for heating the hall. The hall has so little external wall the heat loss is tiny.

I would just go for a new broadband connection, which should be free. I think you actually do that just by signing up with BT and paying a nominal connection fee of about £60 and they take care of dealing with OR. Then when / if FTTP becomes available then upgrade. At least you will have some form of connection. Open Reach are notoriously hard to deal with, and their database is WRONG. It says FTTP BB is available here where all we had was a very long bit of wet string connecting us to the exchange and very slow broadband. We now have fast wireless (not mobile phone) delivered broadband by an independant supplier.

I have found another report on this from a different angle with pictures. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12026285/Man-reveals-toll-four-year-legal-battle-force-neighbours-rip-80-000-extension.html?ico=related-replace-2 Now we have a picture of this rogue extension: So just what did the complainant expect? The extension to be built with a 2 1/2" gap between the neighbours extension and their own that would be impossible to maintain and fill up with debris that would cause it's own problems? God some people can be so petty and vindictive. I am just glad my nearest neighbours house is 100 feet away and I will never face this situation with Mr horrible neighbour.

The court settlement should be "you have effectively gained 2 1/2 inches bu however much of next doors land so you will "buy" it at the square metre price for the area. I would be very surprised if the total area "stolen" is more than a square metre, so even in London £20K should cover that. The only "winner" here are the lawyers and that is the most obscene bit about the whole sorry affair.

That's one thing I will stand my ground. Having built very similar "gable end dormers" these are streets ahead in terms of easy to detail, easy to insulate and make air tight and way more usable headroom than ordinary dormers with side cheeks.

Okay, we want simple. ANYONE including the house owner can buy the ASHP and any required parts, tanks, radiators etc.. ANYONE can install it as long as there is a gas safe person to disconnect the old boiler. Upon submitting the gas safe boiler disconnect certificate, the receipt from the installer and the receipt for the materials (that may or may not be supplied together) and a couple of photographs, the BUS scheme will refund up to £5000.

£85K turnover for compulsory VAT registration.

I am probably not the best to comment as I am winding down my business towards retirement, so not the young keen active person I used to be. But I have never wanted to be VAT registered, for a sole trader it adds a level of paperwork and costs that I don't want and never have. It was the introduction of VAT many many years ago that persuaded my father, a self employed plumber to give up being self employed and become an employee and let someone else have the bother. I have installed (as in wired) a number of ASHP's for self builders who have bought the kit (and will reclaim the VAT) and because I am not VAT registered my labour only charge to them has not included VAT.

I am watching this thread with interest having tried Valspar decking paint and found it hopeless, it comes off after the first winter. Not wishing to try another expensive experiment, I will await what people in this thread say of their experiences. When someone is able to post details of a product they have used that has actually stayed put on the decking over 1 or more winters, I will start to take notice and might even try it.

You are happy that they have to pay £200K costs and demolish an extension, because they could not agree a settlement with the neighbour over 2 1/2" of land? Lots of unanswered questions like why did the neighbours not mention it to them when the first course of bricks were laid when it would have been easy to correct. The press have just printed the click bait, not the full details.

The water from an ASHP is usually heated to a lower temperature, so while a 210L tank heated from a boiler may be adequate, a 200L tank heated to a lower temperature from an ASHP might not be. Top mounted immersion heaters are a poor relation, as another recent thread has shown. Is there no way you can get a vertical tank in?

^^^^^^ Top post

No problem. the heat loss from my house at +20 inside, -10 outside is a little over 2kW A 5kW ASHP works fine. It does not need to be on all the time (it needs to spend some time heating DHW) and it seems to modulate down enough. Agreed a 10kW unit would be too big.

Re the skillset of electricians / plumbers. I come from a generation when we all did proper 4 or 5 year apprenticeships. That is largely a thing of the past now and the skills I see in practice seem to reflect that backward step. It dismays me how often I come across a plain ordinary gas or oil boiler heating system that has never been wired properly right from the install and has never been working properly. Clearly there are a lot of people out there that do this sort of work, totally unaware that they are not doing it right. To put this right I just know any new scheme is going to come with a requirement for the installer to do another course and get another "ticket" to say he is competent to do it. Well that counts me out then, I am not expecting to work a lot longer so I would see the time and money spent on that as poor value for the short return I would get from it. I still think the answer lies in making the equipment simple enough for the existing installers rather than trying to educate enough installers quickly enough to install more complex kit. Re weather compensation, you would think it possible to build in some software so a new installed ASHP could learn the environment it was installed in, work out how much heat imput results in how much temperature rise compared to outside temperature, and auto tune the weather compensation. That would be a big step forwards.

We have very similar what I call "gable end dormers" in our house and unlike normal dormers with side cheeks, they give a lot of headroom and there is only a tiny bit of the room with low headroom. Agree a 3D model should be done just to make sure.

If I am reading the plans right (site layout would avoid confusion) you have your living room on the north facing side, so it will get no sun. I would want a pair of double glass doors directly from the kitchen diner to living room to let light and sun through, and allow you to open it up as effectively 1 big room sometimes. Small point but you have some useful if low loft spaces, don't forget a couple of doors to access the storage space. The site layout would also explain the angled wing.

Playing devils advocate, are you sure the leaking waste was not the problem all along and the bath to wall seal was okay?

Simple solution. We have 3 bathrooms in our house. I just choose whichever one of the three is furthest away away from people, so no need to worry about sound.

Do you NEED 3 phase? Ask them what supply they can provide without an upgrade single or 3 phase. I was in a similar position, I was offered a 12KVA supply (I had asked for 23KVA being the standard single phase 100A supply) anything more would need the transformer upgraded. I accepted the 12KVA supply that has been entirely adequate. I am convinced they wanted me to pay for the transformer to be upgraded but I would rather leave that for someone else to fund. ALSO have a look at this thread And in particular the link in the first post. It is not clear if this reduction in network upgrade costs apples just to export or to new supplies as well. Read it, digest it and see what you think. Here is that link: https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2022/06/distribution-connection-charges-to-be-reduced-ofgem-publishes-its-decision-on-the-access-and-forward-looking-charges-significant-code-review This sentence may be relevant " For connections serving demand for electricity (or mixed use connection sites with import and export) in most cases no reinforcement costs will be charged to the connecting customer. " Tell them you are having solar PV and will be exporting as well as importing so you are a "mixed use connection site" and see what they say. You might want to wait a few days until we are in the month of May. The new rules take effect in April but they don't say when in April. I have not yet heard anyone reporting reduced fees so you are now officially the forum guinea pig to quote that change in network charging legislation to the DNO, and see their response, and of course tell us their response please.

If there is meant to be an attachment for us to look at, I am not seeing it.

And how would it separate heating energy use from "other" energy use? In a low energy house like ours, heating is NOT the biggest user of energy in this house.