ProDave

When we sold our last rental property, it had a still working, and serviced, Grant outside oil Combi boiler, with a date code of 1985. Obviously not condensing so not as efficient as a new one, but still working. The plumber did say he had trouble getting the burner set up at the last service and thought it might need a new burner some time soon.

put a dehumidifier in there, It will suck the moisture out of the air, and add some (waste) heat into the cupboard.

Interesting the variation in worktop height. I just set our units so the supplied kickboard was a cosy, but not too tight fit under, and then there is the thickness of the worktop. To get it down to 900mm would have meand cutting the kickboard down. Why would I want to make extra work?

Oil boiler needs an annual service, about £120 here, and there is no DIY option unless you are going to spend many £00's on a flue gas analyser and pay to have it calibrated every few years. (if you do that I don't think there is anything legally stopping you servicing your own oil boiler) No ongoing costs for an ASHP. Now it is summer and the heating is off, I have the hot water (via ASHP) timed to come on when the sun is up.so hot water is mostly free, and topped up by the immersion heater diverter. It was the volatility of oil prices that put me off that as a fuel. It's not so bad now, but I remember one year a few years back when the price spiked and it cost us £1200 for a years oil.

I disagree If asked to quote for a (wiring) job and give a fixed price, I have to assume the job us going to be a b*****d and I am going to have lots of hassle taking floorboards up, and anything that can get in the way will. On the other hand I much prefer to give an estimate and charge the job by the hour it actually takes. Almost always the hourly rate job is less than it would have been as a fixed price and the customer is happy. It is trust. I am honest and don't just skive and charge them by the hour for doing nothing. I would be very annoyed if my mechanic charged by the hour to skive and he would not get any repeat business. It is no accident I have been taking my car to the same garage for the last 13 years, and it is not the closest garage, it is the one I trust. If you mistrust your tradesman to the point of thinking he is goinf to deliberately rip you off, you probably need to find another tradesman who comes with a recommendation so you can trust him to be fair.

Our worktop is 935mm above FFL Even 950 would put it only very slightly above worktop making an awkward detail to finish. Our kitchen window cills are 1100 above FFL to give a decent splashback. Or are you wanting the window low so the worktop extends at the same level to be the window cill?

Looks like you do need the extension bits. Very poor to supply something that won't work properly.

It is a long time since I fitted Grohe. Years ago I would have agreed, now I don't know. Just like 20 years ago I would have said MK made the best electrical fittings. I don't say that now. It is a bit poor if Grohe have supplied a kit that does not work together. I question are you assembling it correct;ly? The nut that joins the fitting to the 3/4 nipple is plain brass. That suggests it is not meant to be seen, if it was, it would be chrome plated. I wonder if somehow that is meant to end up concealed inside the square chrome bit, in which case you might not need the extension you are seeking? Can you post the instalation instructions?

Ah, I see. The square bit that fits on the wall is unusual.

Why do you need the 3/4 thread longer than 34mm? @Onoff you can't normslly fit copper pipe in like thst, it does not have the machined "cone" to take an ollive. You normally screw a pair of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/endex-end-feed-adapting-90-wall-plate-elbow-15mm-x/83561 to the wall. You can get compression fitting versions but don't have time to search for one. Then the offset of the adaptors allows you to fine tune the spacing for the bar mixer if you have not got it exactly right.

I suspect that is in what is otherwise a no building zone, and you are allowed to rebuild under a replacement dwelling policy only, and that means you can only replace with the same number of dwellings.

There is one estate in a town near us where I have learned NEVER to book a job on bin day. It's one of those estates where there is nowhere near enough parking. If you park on bin day such that the bin lorry cannot get through, the council will slap a fine on your car. It's never happened to me but I know people who have been fined.

Ah yes, there is something about the "school run" traffic. I have learned to avoid one particular junction in town for a half hour period in the mornings. The School run drivers seem to think they have right of way to barge out of a give way junction in front of you in a continuous line without even looking. Re delivery. not so much anti social, I had one parcel delivered by DPD that took a week of delivery attempts. I kept getting texts saying "tried to deliver nobody in" but I WAS in. I kept contacting the company asking that they give my phone number to the driver and he can phone me as he is clearly at the wrong house. I kept giving instructions like "if there is not an old green Landrover outside then you are at the wrong house, phone me for directions" but none of that got through to the driver. On about the 5th day I was in all day and I watched the road like a hawk for any van. And sure enough one went down the road so I was standing in the road when he came back so he had to stop. Sure enough it was my delivery driver who had been trying to deliver it to the other empty new build further down the road, (in spite of that house not displaying a house name and our house was displaying the name) and he had no instructions at all. I cannot understand how a delivery company can refuse to pass delivery instructions to the driver and so waste their time and the customers time.

Re the stoves, the one in the large lounge at the north will probably be okay as it's a big area. But I would forget the ones in the small lounges. They are small rooms with no obvious place to open up to let the heat spread, and I expect it will very quickly overheat. My other comment is why is the south wing at a funny angle? looks like the sort of thing architects do to make it look creative, but it just complicates the build for no obvious benefit.

As I say you have an efficient design that should not throw any nasty / expensive surprises and no excess of glass. So affordability comes down to local rates, and how much you are willing to do yourself. I see it looks like you are proposing a velux window on the landing? That is like our last house with the landing completely enclosed by rooms. We installed a Solar Tube to illuminate it and it was very effective indeed, probably better than trying to install a velux window. Unless of course you want the landing to be vaulted right up to the ridge? Are you planning a detached garage perhaps as permitted development once the house is built?

That's a nice efficient floor plan so should be easy / cheap (er) to build. Looks like a nice plot.

We just set up an old spare BT home hub as a wifi access point in our static caravan which was a little too far for direct wifi coverage from the house.

The only time I might have done something similar is in the early 1980's boom, when I just by the skin of my teeth managed to afford the very cheapest house on sale in the county. They were releasing houses a few each month, and each time a few new ones were released the price was £500 more than last month, which equated to 1.4% each month or 16% per year increase.

Hi and welcome. That gives you a budget of £1750 per square metre. I suspect that will be tight if you are expecting someone to just come in and build the house for you, but perfectly doable if you are prepared to do some of the work. Look forward to seeing the plans/

The last garage I did that, but this time I wanted the door as big as I could get, that made it a non standard size. I ended up with an electric roller door made to measure by a supplier on ebay, for not a lot more than a standard sectional door and way cheaper than any local supplier could supply.

Just looked at ours. Some are one way, other are the other way. I rather suspect the joiners just fitted them whichever way they came out of the packet. I might have to turn some of them over to get the writing the right way up.

How about fixing it as the outer cladding to a timber framed building?

They are not. To an Electrician, they are Gland Pliers. (to tighten cable glands)

If NIE did what SSE do (or did) and fit electrcity meters with a built in output isolating switch, there would not be a problem. SSE just connect the meter and leave the electrician to connect the output to the consumer unit. On the rare occasions they fit a meter without an isolator, then they fot a separate 2 pole isolator in a REC2 enclosure. Oh and one of the rather important things missing from the smart meter spec is an output isolator.

That is totally bonkers. I could not work like that. I would be fitting the commando just to get past the stupid system and then connecting the CU once he had gone.