ProDave

You should, with the correct insulation over the rafters, be able to make this a warm roof. BUT the complication you will have is all the bits of the truss sticking out into the roof space will make it very hard to seal and make the roof structure air tight. Expect to use a lot of air tightness tape sealing around every bit of the trusses structure.

Are self builders "normal" of curse not. In a conversation I was having yesterday, the phrase "self builder anoraks" popped into the conversation (not by me)

I think the issue here is not so much the soil type, but the water table is very high, much like we have here at times. I bet of you dug a hole just now it would fill with water almost up to ground level. If you do create a drainage channel system it needs somewhere to drain to. Perhaps an open trench / ditch along the front of the plot? (we have a burn through our garden so have somewhere for water to drain to)

I solved the Firefox / memory / slow issue by (on your suggestion) using Pale Moon instead.

I am not sure a gas combi can do this. A lot (most?) oil combi's maintain a small store of hot water that is ready to be drawn instantly. I think they do this as the start up time of an oil burner would otherwise make them suggish. This I guess is what could allows a re circulation system to work.

Not planning to. Go on convince me? I have a lot of short runs from the airing cupboard to the bathrooms, planning that in all copper. 2 longer runs to kitchen, thinking of using some left over 16 * 2 pex al pex UFH pipe for that. Later on will be the longer runs from ASHP to buffer tank, HW tank and UFH manifolds. I really like copper (apart from the cost) I will take some convincing that plastic will be reliable enough.

Screwy' only deliver bundles of 10 and they don't do a bundle of 10 lengths of 22mm but they do seem the cheapest I have tried so far. I thought someone might know another on line supplier? I can't be bothered to even try and work out how much I need so I will start with 10 lengths of each.

Thats the thing. Now Fred Drift. Where's the cheapest place for copper pipe 15 and 22mm?

Thanks. But on the basis what I have seem to fit a 15mm compression fitting are they not 1/2" rather than 3/4? P.S don't see bent ones at Screwy's.

Only those north of the border know what Dwangs are. To everyone else they are noggins. (even in Wales)

Floor mounted bath tap. Terminates in the ends of two flexi tails emerging through the floor. What fitting to join these to copper pipe. They are a perfect fit onto a straight or elbow 15mm compression fitting but I am sure I have read that is wrong as it would only present a narrow edge to the rubber washer in the flexi fittings. Preferably a right angle fitting, flexi in, an copper out at right angles. Sorry about lousy photograph.

Our builders used the same method to endure the air tight membrane went around the ends of the joists, though they did not know it as a "Tony tray"

I doubt it I wired a house just over a year ago, easily twice the size of mine. The Hot water tank was in the plant room at the opposite corner of the house to the kitchen. There must have been 20 metres or probably more for the hot water to get from the tank to the kitchen tap. This was a plumbers house by the way.

I thought a "householder" planning application was for things like extensions or alterations to a house. I know this is what we did when extending our former house many years ago now. A new house is outside the scope of that.

I don't see why they need to delay their build just so they can move the wall 300mm? Or do you think that change would force it to go through planning again? It would be a barmy solution of you both stepped your walls in and left an unreachable, unmaintainable gap between them.

I was going to use it. It's basically wood fibre beads. Then I worked out I could get the same U value for half the cost using Frametherm 35

Well I have ordered the Hudson Reid ones today. Once again thanks to the collective wisdom on the forum.

When the utility companies quoted for a new supply., they each provided a map showing where their services were, so something like that should show you.

You MUST use the supply that is there, as you have solar PV and the FIT contract will be tied to your MPAN (Meter Point Administration Number) If you get a new supply it will have a different MPAN and goodbye FIT. In fact I would play safe and just keep it as 3 phase. you don't want to do anything to kill off your FIT payments.

You might pay a slightly higher standing charge for 3 phase. But it certainly does no harm to have it. If you have solar PV, them make sure your house connects to the same phase as the solar PV (otherwise you won't be able to self use what you generate and it will all get exported)

Don't forger an unvented cylinder has an over pressure and over temperature relief valve and that needs a "D2" pipe to take the water out somewhere, with a specific set of rules on size of pipe, number of bends and distance. So check you can fit that before you order the cylinder. (might be tricky if the cylinder is in the middle of the house for instance)

I have been put off buying anything "long term" from ebay. I had a submirsible pump fail after 5 months. I then found the ebay seller I had bought it from was nowhere to be seen, nothing listed on ebay and did not answer emails. I did get my money back from Paypal, but that only covers 180 days. So basically don't bank on anything you buy from ebay having anything more than a 6 month guarantee. I think I will go for the HR ones, much more likely to be around in years to come. I don't expect to be refurbishing the bathrooms any time soon. The wall will be "wet wall" not tiles so you can't just bust a couple of tiles out, replace the valve and re tile. It has to be servicable from the front, or a MAJOR re fit of the bathroom to replace.

Which one is that? the same Hudson Reid one that @Onoff suggested? At the moment the Hudson Reid ones are now my favourites.

As I see it, you just need to give permission to the neighbour to build the wall on the party line (half on his garden half on yours) in return for an agreement that you can join onto it when you are ready to build your own extension. The obvious question will be is his extension the correct size for what you have in mind for your own?

I would dig a test hole carefully by hand to investigate what the walls sit on. I caution this because close to us someone bought a barn to convert, and when they started scraping away at the floor is when they found no foundations under the walls and the excavation needed to lower and insulate the floor undermined what little the walls sat on. They ended up knocking down and rebuilding.