ProDave

I too am keeping it simple Standard UFH manifolds, standard room thermostats. Room stats set at 20 degrees, so what if there is 1 degree hysterises, that's well within the comfort zone limits. I am starting out without a buffer tank and will see how the ASHP deals with driving the UFH directly, I will only add a buffer tank if I find something does not work with this simple approach. The bit that irked me is i wanted to use a standard central heating control timer to set the heating and hot water on and off times, a 3 channel one so I can have the upstairs heating on at different times to downstairs if I want to. But the ASHP designers had other ideas and just wanted you to use their fiendishly complicated controller, so it was a challenge finding a way to integrate the two, most notably now to turn hot water on or off externally to the heat pump. Now I have cracked that, the heat pump's controller is just for setting parameters if I want to tweak something, not for day to day use.

Our discharge permit gives it as "unnamed tributary of the River Alness" and gives an 8 digit grid reference.

Definitely consider an ASHP if you have no gas. Any competent plumber can fit one if you are not intending to claim the RHI you only need an over priced MCS install if you want to claim the RHI then you have to weigh up is the inflated cost worth it for the RHI payments you might receive.

He will make it. but won't start until he has finished his bathroom. Don't hold your breath.

Then I would install a full soakaway, possibly with the backstop of a pipe from the very end of it out to the ditch just in case. Definitely install a treatment plant not a septic tank.

VERY true. By digging (and back filling afterwards) the connection pit myself, I saved almost £1000 from the first quote.

Thanks @Ed Davies Not seen that name for it before, but it is exactly what we did, though it was all on our own land and only 10 metres long and we described it as a partial soakaway. There is this really bizarre thing in building regs saying a soakaway must be >10 metres from a watercourse. I argued that since what comes out of the end of the soakaway is being piped directly into the watercourse, it would make more sense to continue the partial soakaway right up to the edge of the burn which would have in our case doubled it's length, but I was told no you can't do that. In our case it was high water table in the winter. The percolation tests (only done in a shallow pit) showed the drainage to be quite reasonable.

Get that certificate NOW. He might have vanished by the time you need it later. What pipe did you use?

"rumbling drain" is a new expression to me? care to explain? SEPA gave permission (eventually) for out Conder plant (very similar to the BipPure) to discharge to the burn, but insisted on a partial soakaway preceding the discharge. That actually works very well, in the dry season (when the burn flow is low) not a lot makes it past the partial soakaway into the burn. But in winter when the water table comes up and the ground is saturated, most of it just goes straight through the partial soakaway, but the burn is at full flow and dilution is high. So the partial soakaway makes sense and seems to work well.

I am still on a self build site policy. Another local self builder told me that once building control issued a certificate of temporary habitation, he was able to get an normal insurance policy. I hope to get to that stage by the next renewal.

Interesting and timely observations. I am about to connect the boost function of my MVHR (a timer switch upstairs and downstairs, nothing complicated) For the upstairs boost, I am going to connect that at the maximum mvhr speed to clear condensation and moisture as quick as possible. Downstairs, we have been cooking in the house for 2 months, without even a recirculating cooker hood and the mvhr just running at normal speed. I can't say we have had any issues or particularly notice cooking smells lingering long. Obviously fitting a recirculating cooker hood with carbon filter is on the "to do" list. but when it comes to the downstairs mvhr boost, I was going to connect that one so it runs the mvhr at a faster speed, but not necessarilly the fastest one.

That is totally different, a guy who should know better bodging it and possibly making it unsafe in the process. The book should be thrown at him.

What will actually probably happen is when I complete the sun room the gas bottles will move to their final location, and he will be presented with a length of pipe connected to the hob and it will be his job to connect the regulator, test and certify. If there is anything wrong with that then the law is an ass. This is one pipe from a changeover regulator to a hob. just 2 connections, one each end. It is is £20 hob from Howdens sale, and I don't give a flying fig about any warranty.

The stove manufacturer will specify a "distance to combustibles" for the back, sides and top. of the stove. That is your guidance. Alternative is cut strips of left over tiles and have a tile skirting in the alcove.

The three of us (me SWMBO and 12 year old daughter) spent 18 months in the static caravan, including last winter. We briefly toyed with the idea of sleeping in the house over last winter, but we would have still had to use the caravan for cooking, eating and showering etc so ruled it out as we would have to be heating both (and the heating in the house was not set up then) We moved in a few weeks ago. Bedrooms, main bathroom, and kitchen / diner are all operational (I won't use the term "finished") and heating and hot water are working. It's a lot more comfortable than the caravan and feels so spacious compared to the cramped quarters in that. We are still very disorganised in terms of furniture etc. We want all new for the new house but making do with the bare essentials of the old stuff. We don't have carpets upstairs, that is an expense that has to wait, as does things like skirting boards etc. So the static caravan is still being used for storage, mainly for clothes as we don't have wardrobes in the house yet. I am just completing my garage now. Up until now I have been using one of the rooms of the house as a work room, and moving around as we go. But now we are living in it, I don't want all the sawdust, and in any case with only 2 rooms to do we would be running out of work space. So getting the garage sorted to use as a work space before we start the push to "finish" the last few rooms.

I have to disagree. If I am asked for a fixed price, I have to assume the worst and assume the job is going to hit loads if difficulties and take a long time and price for that. On the other hand at a day or hourly rate the job takes as long as it takes and more likely I don't encounter difficulties and the job is quicker and costs the customer less than if I am forced into a fixed price. I accept the price for hanging a door is probably more predictable, than run a shower cable from one end of a house to another where you have to lift floorboards and don't know what you will find until you get started IF you find you have contracted an hourly rate and you find them deliberately wasting time then you need THAT conversation which may result in kicking them off the job.

Just a normal gas safe certificate. My local Gas engineer has agreed to test mine and issue a certificate when we are ready.

I am not planning trickle vents or mvhr in my sun room. But perhaps I might stick a dummy mvhr vent in the ceiling?

Yes I fear this guy is going to suggest a full rewire costing over £1000 and scare your buyers. And yes I totally agree that £320 would be better spent on a new CU. Getting your own EICR might be a good move, so when they come back and say we want £1000 off the price, you can counter that and say there is nothing wrong apart from wanting a new CU. It all depends how much grief you want along the way.

When I wasn't so busy building a house, I used to sell stuff on ebay. I found useable lengths (e.g 5 metres or more) of good condition red/ black T&e removed from rewires, sold on ebay for more per M length than new cable. I have even had people emailing me speclatively wanting to buy old coloured cable.

Do you care to suggest where such battery packs might be available?

Firstly, as you don't have a constructional hearth, you have to choose the stove carefully. You need one that guarantees the bottom of the stove will never exceed 100 degrees (which often means the raised ones with a log store underneath) and then it needs a "hearth" of a non combustible material at least 12mm thick. of a size described in building regs. If you just tile the floor with regular floor tiles, they may not be 12mm thick so it may not comply. As to a "step" or not. You seem to be able to get away without. Our last house had a constructional hearth but I set the tiles that finished it off flush with the wooden floor. BC had a grumble about it but passed it. And a house near here tiled the entire room (on a concrete screed) and that was also passed. What is the fireplace recess built of? If not brick, then you need to consider "distance to combustibles" from the side back and top of the stove, so again choose carefully.

Perhaps you need to call an electrician? (I'll get my coat) Most rcd tripping faults turn out to be a fault on a completely different circuit. A partial N-E fault will cause an imbalance, and a DP switch that might close the L contact slightly before the N contact, will momentarily exagerate the earth leakage due to the partial N-E fault.

Ours was floored in 11mm OSB as a temporary deck. It didn't get wasted, that eventually got cut into strips to drop into the bottom of the JJI joists to support the insulation. For that application it didn't matter that some of the edges had swelled a little.

I put satellite tv receivers / dvr's, the hifi, and the printer in the cupboard under the stairs. That is more about hiding "stuff" that you don't need to touch and all operates by IR remote control than anything else. Any "waste" heat from that will go up the stairwell to upstairs (that has no specific heating) so won't be a bad thing.