ProDave

But my point is why do they need proof of ownership for a transfer? That was already proved at the setup of the FIT account. The long running saga I was reading about, the new owner was arguing ownership transfered to him as "fixtures and fittings" when he bought the house, but the FIT did not accept that.

Speaking as a fellow caravan dweller in this cold winter, I would say the best thing we did was fit a wood burning stove in it. It has been running continuously all November and January so far. Having enough free firewood obviously helps that situation and we put coal on it overnight so it stays in for the night (usually) That on it's own mostly keeps the caravan warm enough and we use electric convector heaters in the bedrooms overnight. Electricity bill running at about £80 per month. LPG should not freeze. You are using Propane aren't you, not Butane (which will not off gas much below 0) Upon installing the 'van I added more insulation to the pipes, insulated under the floor and panelled in the gap between the 'van and the ground. Nothing has frozen in this cold Highland winter, not even when we went away over the Xmas / new year break and left it to it's own. Re Windows, have you tried Rationell? For me they were the cheapest of the quality window suppliers and I am very happy with them.

Well done I can never understand why this should have been so difficult. You wanted a replacement dwelling so that should be straightforward, not as though you are trying to get permission for green belt land in a national park......

I would not rate scaffold boards as being durable enough for outside decking without decent timber treatment, having suffered several rotten boards with my Kwikstage. The best I could find was 50 boards for £350 so £7 per board for sound but used boards.

One thing I have observed. A "normal" build where the frame goes up, the services go in and the plasterboard goes on, as quick as possible, seems much more prone to issues like this as the frame settles. Our frame has been standing for 2 years now The first plasterboard went on last year and then a while later the plaster. It is my perception that the frame has done most of the settling it is likely to do now, so cracks are less likely. There are advantages to being slow.

I was reading on another forum of someone trying very hard to transfer a FIT contract to the new owner of the house, and it had stalled because the FIT provider was not satisfied about "proof of ownership" of the panels. That is one thing on the original application, but you would have thought there would have been a simpler transfer process? Do you think he has given up trying? or just ignorant if the FIT and not ever bothered?

No, a self builder selling a few left over rolls on ebay and nobody else bid for them.

It is a lot less nice to use that the Tescon, in particular the backing is fiddly to peel off. It is not as "nice" in that the adhesive tends to ooze out a bit. But at £9 per roll for the few I bought I am not complaining. Also to add to the above. The Barriair membrane is not reinforced with a woven web but it is very tough and won't tear easilly. If you want cheap, a recent grand designs appeared to be using ordinary damp proof membrane as an air tight layer.

It does seem to be a lottery. In my case Rationel were the cheapest (ali clad 3G) and second best. Internorm had slightly better Uw values but at twice the price. Yet others have reportd Internorm being cheaper than Rationel. I have not had any problems with the Rationel doors or windows.

Just as I said in June. The Protect Barriair membrane was the cheapest I could find, I got it to order from Jewson and the Tescon Vana tape from a German ebay seller way cheaper than any of the UK sellers. One thing I would caution. The Barriiar membrane has in built tape down both edges so that is supposed to be the air tightness tape to join adjacent strips. BUT I found in places where the taped joint did not line up with a stud (and hence service void batten) it had a tendancy in places to come unstuck. So, what I did was everywhere there was a joint not ending up underneath a batten, I screwed an offcut strip of OSB over the joint to hold it together, just in case. It might be better to tape the joints in the Barriair with Tescon Vanna rather than rely on the inbuilt adhesive strips.

I can think of Beattie Passive and Touchwood for a start, we had discussions with both, and I am sure at least one person on her has used Touchwood.

In our last build, we were paying band A CT for a static 'van on site. We moved in when we got the temporary habitation. It was then several months before we were anywhere near actually finished and the CT valuer did not deem it "finished" until some time late in the process. So no, they are separate departments and a temporary habitation should not on it's own trigger a council tax bill. For us, the temporary habitation enabled us to do the VAT claim before it was 100% complete, and the VAT refund paid for most of the garage build. Yes we lost out on the VAT for the materials for the garage but it helped our cash flow.

You will have to use an air tight membrane inside to get decent air tightness, I can't see your wall panels fitted into an oak frame being very intrinsically air tight as it is. That will be several £00 for the membrane and a not inconsiderable amount of tape. Air tightness would come included with an MBC frame.

What's the desired outcome? Cheaper or easier filter changes? or better filtering?

When it has calmed down, I would want to inspect the aftermath and see what has failed, and see what improvements you could make if you re install the same i.e. look at reinforcing or suplementing the fixings provided. Flooding is our issue today, heavy rain and melting snow. The burn is up as high as I want to see it just now and still it rains.....

Oh dear. I wonder if your site insurance will cover that?

Sounds a similar situation to mine, though I steadfastly refuse to borrow so we are scraping along slowly. How finished is the house? If you can get it basically habitable (basically safe, working heating, a working kitchen and working bathroom) you can get a certificate of temporary habitation from building control. That will be taken as "complete" for the sake of getting normal buildings insurance, so would a lender also take that as "complete" for the sake of a small mortgage?

I kept the function of sample chamber and distribution separate. But I don't think this sample chamber is much cheaper http://www.drainstore.com/premier-tech-aqua-conder-sample-chamber.html

Hi and welcome. Which side of the border may determine which building regs you have to abide by. I would be surprised if an oak frame and then infil with I beams would be cheaper than an MBC build. Make sure you are really comparing like for like i.e. including all the wall structure, insulation, air tightness detail etc. Make sure lots of S facing glazing does not overheat the house in summer (the sun does occasionally shine in Wales)

Which might tie with the primer not put on at all?

To recap for those that don't know, my house is timber frame, clad in 100mm thick Pavatex wood fibre board and rendered with the Baumit.com render system, comprising a base coat of lime based render mixed from powder, and their silikon top final coat that comes ready mixed in tubs. We were away for the xmas / new year period and came back on 3rd January to find a thick layer of ice all over the plot and the road, the neighburs told me nobody had been able to get their car up the road for 2 days. So it had obviously been very wet, then very cold. I observed a small but of render has "blown" almost certainly frost damage. This is the end wall of the garage. No other parts of the house are affected. Obviously it will need repair. But I am trying to understand why it happened, and what I can do to stop it happening again. My random thoughts: I believe it is only the thin silikon top layer that has blown, the base coat I believe is still solid. This bit is closer to the ground than any other part. That together with the fact it's a concrete parking area, means it will get splashed with rainwater far more than any other part of the house. That should not be an issue. The wood fibre board sits on plastic support trays at the bottom so splashing water should not make the wood fibre board wet. The fact it is only the top layer that appears to have blown suggests I am right and the wood fibre board is dry. If excessive splashing rainwater is the problem, that will largely be solved eventually by the fact this concrete parking area will eventually be covered with a car port. My other thoughts are at the moment, there is no garage door (garage door opening only just out of shot to the right) So the inside surface of this wall is at ambient temperature (i.e. damned cold during the period this happened) So this section of wall is cold right through, so much more likely to get frost than any other part of the house. That situation will improve a lot when I can eventually afford to fit a door. My last thought is a bit of an unknown. With this render system, you apply the base coat, then paint on a primer then apply the top coat. I was not present when this wall was rendered (the last one to be done) but I have a suspicion the primer may not have been applied, or if it was, the primer was applied and then rendered the same day. All other walls had the primer applied and top coat of render next day. This wall has always been "odd" in that it appears a whiter colour than the rest of the house, in spite of being finished with the same colour render as the rest of the house. Also worth noting, it is common to see frost on the walls, particularly the north facing wall and it has never created this problem before. Anyone got any thoughts on this please or experienced similar?

Did YOU not specify what windows and finishes you were proposing on the planning application?

I have has a poke around in the routers menu's and find we have used 18GB in the last 5 days (presumably that's the last time the router crashed or was reset) That scales to a scary 110GB per month. Unlimited it is then, any pay per amount mobile package would be astronomical.

Perfectly true. But to someone like myself perfectly capable of a DIY install, it "hurts" that I can't install approved kit myself and claim the FIT. So to all practical purposes for me, the cost of a professional install is the premium I have to pay in order to claim the FIT . My last install took me two part days. Had it not been winter with the short days it could have been done in 1. So lets say there are 2 man days to install my proposed ground mount system. Now show me an MCS registerd company that will install it for £400

UVC - turn both the pressure ant temperature relief valves periodically to make sure they discharge and the water flows through the tundish and out f the discharge pipe without it blocking or spilling out of the tundish. And to check they seal again whern you let go.