ProDave

We have just had our granite worktops fitted with under mount sink. I was surprised at how deep the sink bowl is, something I had not been expecting. At first it seems very strange washing up so low down, but you get used to it. I can answer the "why a plastic bowl" conundrum. At our home when I was a child, and indeed my sister still works like this. She washes up in a bowl. The reason for soing so, is part way through if you find something than needs a bit of a pre rinse, you can turn the tap on and rinse it down the gap between the plastic bowl and the sink. That also helps explain why the underneath of the bowl can get so disgusting. The real "issue" is you are trying to wash up in a single sink, when really you should never ever consider anything less than a bowl and a half (you you can do any unexpected rinsing in the half bowl) then you don't beed the horrible plastic bowl.

If I posted the "design" for one of my favourite extension leads I would have to delete my post them. I had a good length of 5 core 2.5mm screened flex "donated" so I made a nice long lead using two cores in parallel for L and N and one core plus the braid for earth. It took some soldering and heat shrink sleeving to do it, and the old style MK mains plugs will accommodate two 2.5mm cores if you are careful. Of course nobody should ever attempt such a thing. It was built not for particularly large loads, but to minimise voltage drop.

Most of the noise from cheaper ones appears to be a large "clunk" as they start up, and then bits of poorly designed casing rattling when they run. Ours does none of that. Just a quiet little "squeal" as the inverter starts up and then really all you hear is the compressor purring away and the noise of the air moving through the fan. I have said it before, I doubt our ASHP is any noisier than the burner of an oil fired boiler, yet people are happy to have that burner noise inside their house, but complain at the noise of an ASHP that is outside. That does not make sense to me. We have a 5KW ASHP for a house that needs just over 2KW of heat at -10 outside (which is not a rare occurance up here) so the heat pump can heat the house with it only being on half the time. That allows plenty of time for it to be heating the DHW, or to be off.

Changing a plug is not something taught now. It is a redundant skill as everything now comes with a plug on. My MUM taught me to fit a plug when I was not very old at all.

Some people's lack of practicality astounds me. One of the relatives we visited over the last week had a wobbly toilet seat, to the point that the ladies were advised to use the other toilet. It was just the fixing bolt to the pan that had come loose. They told me this was the third seat that had "broken" and they could not afford to keep on buying new seats. I once watched in agony at my sister trying to drill a hole to fix something to a wall, before I could not help myself and said "give me the bloody drill before you break something" The best thing unskilled help can provide is assistance lifting something that is too heavy or too big be be lifted by one.

I can't fault your logic, but having lived in the SE, I would be pretty sure the planners will say no, green belt etc. The village I lived in had several such plots all had been refused, even a lovely barn that would have made a nice house was refused permission to convert.

Don't forget if you are using a contractor, then show them the existing PP and they should do "supply and fit" zero rated.

If it turns out a garage conversion is not eligible for a VAT reclaim, could you instead knock down the garage, and build a new build house that may just happen to sit on the same big of ground and may happen to be of similar size to the old garage?

What was building control's reaction when they refused a temporary habitation certificate, but it was abundantly clear you are actually living in it?

My Mitsubishi mvhr does not even provide you with a condensate drain point, they "know" there never will be any so don't provision for it.

I remember a case in Oxford years ago where someone built a garage without planning permission. They did not enforce it's removal, but they did plant a cast iron bollard in the footpath that blocked any vehicle from ever getting to the garage.

If it was only completed a year ago, then you should have had a Design SAP report, followed up by an As Built SAP report that will give you a very much more accurate EPC rating than any home report surveyors RDSAP report. It is a piece of paper that gives you a warm feeling and everyone else ignores, including the surveyor doing the home report and he will dream up some random probably much worse figure. If it really matters and you do decide to sell, then give anyone that views the house a copy of the as build SAP report and tell them to ignore the rubbish printed in the home report. And of course you can give them real like examples of the actual running costs.

Normally your planning drawings would specify site and building levels and the datum they are referenced to. In our case there was no obvious calibrated datum to work to, so I created a temporary bench mark and referenced all levels to that.

Total Heat Loss 174 W/k So at +20 inside and -10 outside total heat loss = 174 * 30 = 5.2KW You are probably looking at something in the region of an 8-10KW ASHP

We were just to to discharge to the burn via a "partial soakaway" with no size mentioned. The reality is it passes through a soakaway and anything that makes it to the other end goes to the burn. In the summer it does indeed attenuate the flow to the burn, but in winter it probably acts as a land drain to limit the local rise of the water table in that area and probably more comes out of the end into the burn than goes in from the treatment plant.

Yes that's the manometer from my drain test kit. One hose inside the house, the other through the cardboard to outside to try and measure the pressure differential achieved.

I would recommend one that works with an air blower, and avoid at all cost, those that have moving mechanical parts down in the smelly stuff. I have a Conder, @joe90 is happy with his Vortex, and several have the Biopure. Graff and a few others also make air blower treatment plants. Check that whichever you choose has an option for pumped outlet built in rather than having to have a separate pumping chamber.

I would be aiming for the stream running down the side of the wood, as high up as you can get, somewhere near Nursery house. It looks to be a downhill run. But using a pumped outlet treatment plant should mean you can do that all in 50mm mdpe.

And this was my effort, an old 12" desk fan, some cardboard and a roll of duct tape, It was stuck in the door between the house and the garage which is the only one that was not a proper sealed outside door. It could build up a reasonable pressure, enough to go looking for leaks (not many found) and get an idea of performance. The telling thing was if you opened a door or window with the blower running you could feel the blast of air escape and the pressure change.

Scotland has the right to roam, so just get your boots on and with respect go for a wander and see what you can find. Have you looked on the OS maps? any watercourse of any significance should be shown there.

A treatment plant to a stream is by far the best solution if you can find a suitable watercourse. Generally SEPA don't like you discharging to a dry ditch, but at least one person on here has achieved that. SEPA will start by saying you must discharge to land, and will then ease there position as the options are ruled out. We had to go through that process to get permission to discharge to the burn through our garden. You best bet is put your boots or wellies on and go walking for a suitable stream first. Then you can start negotiating with the owner of the land about access rights. A pumped output system should not be a problem, many treatment plants are available with the pumping gear integral to the treatment plant, and you only need a small diameter pipe, often something like 50mm mdpe for example. But you will need to check with the manufacturer how far and how high it can pump. Are any of the other houses having issues? it sounds like the ground used was probably not best suited to a soakaway in the first place. If so a communal effort may be the best approach.

Yes just loosen the top part slightly.

Ours is a 45 degree roof, almost the standard build up here. I have to say there is a lot to recommend about a 45 degree roof, not least the ease of marking out stuff to cut.

If you don't like "dormers" you could see if your planners will accept my idea of "gable ends" a style I first saw on the west coast and had no problem getting through planning up here.

Up here 1.5 storey IS a dormer bungalow. Are you thinking of what we call a 1 3/4 storey, where the walls extend up to at least window sill level upstairs meaning you get full standing room