ProDave

I think the simple answer is no. It's not a "buy to let" tax, but a "second home" tax. You would have a second home and it is irelevant what you do with it. There is a mechanism that if you sell your existing home within a certain period you can get it refunded, that is to cover the situation of buying a new main residence before you sell the old main residence. Whether that would cover your situation I am not sure.

With a timber frame, like mine, the joists sit on top of the downstairs walls. The upstairs walls then sit on the joists (with a laminated ring beam all around the outside). So the ends are well and truly fixed and are not going to flex as they might in joist hangers. At the 2 intermediate (supporting) walls the joists sit on those walls. One continuous joist nearly 12M long right from one end of the house to the other. The upstairs walls again sit on the joists directly above the downstairs walls. It was designed this way, and at the ends, and intermediate points subject to the compression load from the walls above, the joists were made with solid infill pieces between the upper and lower chords. I can't measure any static deflection. I don't know if mine were pre cambered or not.

I just fug a trench 1 bucket wide (2ft) about 300mm deeper than the pipe, filled it with stones, laid the perforated pipe, more stones around it and over it, some plastic sheeting then the soil. Npthing over complicated.

In my case I was very limited for space. We have a road at the front and a burn in the middle of the plot. It was a recent change to building regs up here that increased the minimum distance from a road to a soakaway up to 10 metres (it was already 10 metres from a watercourse) That only left me with a thin strip of land that was "available" for use as a soakaway. That's why I had such a problem finding a solution and it was only then, when I had run out of options that SEPA agreed to permit me to discharge into the burn, but with a partial soakaway. So I dd the best I can. The effluent comes out of the treatment plant (which only needs to be 5 metres away from the road) across the plot a little to the "available strip" There is then a linear section of sokaway (perforated pipe set on stones and covered with stones), adhering to the other limits of 5 metres from a building and 5 metres from a boundary. It then goes back to solid pipe and out to the burn. It always struck me as completely bonkers that the soakaway must be 10 metres from the burn, yet it is allowed to discharge into the burn. It would have made more sense to me to install a larger soakaway area going closer to the burn and that would have resulted in even less being discharged. But rules are rules.

Why do you need a coat of bonding on plasterboard? Ours is skimmed with a single coat of multi finish.

If you wave the watercourse and can get a discharge permit (a LOT easier in England than in Scotland) I would do that without hesitation. We were directed to use a partial soakaway system, and I have to say it works well. This is a small infiltration field, very much smaller than you would normally use, and the far end of it discharges to the burn. What happens in practice is the partial soakaway absorbs a lot of the discharge, particularly in summer when hardly anything goes into the burn. Even in winter, it has the effect of acting a bit like a sponge so there is no sudden discharge when you let a lot of water go, rather a steady but slow (barely ever any faster than you can pee) but more constant discharge.

Another "issue" with the standard baths we fitted at the last house was the pre drilled tap holes seemed overly large. The bath we have for the new house, does not have pre drilled holes, I will have to drill them, and I will make sure the holes are only just large enough giving a greater area for any sealing washer to sit on.

I would only add that as above, if you choose an electric plant, you choose one that uses the aeration principle. I have seen the ones that have mechanical rotating parts, motors, gearboxes and pulleys in the "works" of the plant and thought I would not want to be the one replacing any of those parts WHEN they fail. I also saw one where the infiltration field had blocked and the tank had over filled completely submerging the motor.

My normal philosophy is to try and crack it open with the tank full. If it moves I proceed. If the tank starts buckling, then I abort and advise the customer a new tank is needed and hand the job to a plumber.

Take care when cleaning off the remains of the old fibre washer not to scratch the surface of the flange. You want that to be nice and clean and flat.

In the last house, the source of bath leaks was the incredably poor standard sealing arrangements around a bath tap. When showering water splashing around the taps would occasionally leak through and drip under the bath. They are now sealed to death and don't leak any more.

Try to slacken the heater a little bit while the cylinder is full. At least get it to turn a bit so you know it will undo. Once the cylinder is empty the force needed may move the cylinder if you have not cracked it first. Have some towels ready as once cracked it will likely weep a but until emptied.

I had the foresight to include them on the planning application, knowing the trees create too much shading for a roof system.

There is a lesson from this. In Scotland you can get a certificate of temporary habitation when the building is nearly complete. Hmrc will take this as evidence of completion. If you then miss the 3 month deadline for the VAT claim, then wait until you get the actual completion certificate and that gives you another 3 month window.

Hi and welcome. How about making a post in the Introduce Yourself section to tell us a bit about you and your project? Are you planning to discharge into the watercourse or into a soakaway? Building control have limits on how close a treatment plant and soakaway can be to a watercourse. I briefly looked at non powered plants but space was limited for us, and all the one I looked at were 2 stage systems and took up a lot more space than a simple air blower type treatment plant. Is it the energy saving that bothers you with a powered unit? If you later want to add a second property, make sure the system you installed is designed for the total occupancy you expect. If you use the search facility and search for "clearfox" it has been discussed before and I am pretty sure at least one member ha installed one.

I don't see an issue. My "warm roof" has insulation over the rafters AND insulation in between them. This seems pretty normal on most builds now, and the design was accepted by building control. So I don't see why adding extra insulation as you suggest will cause an issue.

about 18 years ago I worked for a company that made laser machining tools. One of the machines we made was for processing these small "roof tile" panels. I still see no sign of that product hitting the mass market. I suspect the huge number of interconnections and how to make them reliable and simple is the issue.

Very true. But in my case it will all be ground mounted, so for me very cheap to make suitable frames and fit the panels. But I suspect an MCS company might force me to use a very expensive proprietary ground mount frame instead. I will look into it when the time comes. I might be able to do what I did last time, and install it myself on behalf of the MCS supplier. In effect I became an unpaid employee of the company for 2 days and installed it myself and they charged me a much lower rate just for the paperwork, but it is not easy finding anyone that will do that.

The issue is what do you want? Solar PV generates power when the sun shines. That is not necessarily when you want it. If you have the freedom (retired, work from home etc) then you may well be able to use all the big appliances like washing machine etc in the day and heat your hot water in the day. For space heating, the problem is there is not enough sun when you need it most in the winter and possibly too much in the summer. In the past that was neatly solved by the FIT. You got paid for what you generated, so it didn't matter much, you were in effect using the grid as a battery. But now the FIT is so low, you get paid a lot less than the import rate. This brings into question is it now worth signing up to the FIT? My belief now is probably not. It's possible to buy a 4KW complete system for just over £2K and install it yourself. It would probably cost more than double that for an MCS install to claim the FIT. A quick search suggests at current FIT rates you are looking at a 14 year payback time. So you have to question is it worth it? Personally I intend to install at least 4WK of panels, sourced as cheap as I can, and DIY installed. I will focus om maximum useful yield rather than max total yield, siting one string facing east to start usable generation as early in the day as possible, and the second string facing south to take over as the sun moves round. Possibly a third smaller string facing west as well. That will reduce the total yield, but give a slightly more even and longer usable yield making the chance of self usage more likely. And the other element is looking at battery storage to try and store some of what I am unable to use.

My "out of the box" solution is a drip tray where you expect the leak and 2 electrodes to detect the presence of water.

It's no harder, probably easier in fact than a normal system boiler. Some plumbers may shy away believing it to be complicated. The expensive myth comes from the fact that in order to claim the RHI subsidy, you must have it installed by an MCS registered installer, who for some reason seem to charge a lot more than an ordinary plumber might (my plumber friend paid in the order of £10K supply and fit for his ASHP and HW tank). With a well insulated modern house it is doubtful of the RHI payments would even cover the extra cost of employing an MCS registered installer.

"He also has his own £18m grand project: a development of 109 new-build homes in Oxford. It will perhaps be a bigger challenge than most Grand Designs. McCloud's company, Hab, is aiming to create low-cost, affordable and sustainable homes that embrace an eco-vision that includes car clubs, cycleways and food collectives." Is that Graven Hill, or somewhere else?

having spent a week in a house with this sort of shower I would say I would most definitely NOT want it as my only shower. Personally I hate water falling on my head all the time with no option to get your head out of the water. Give me a wall mounted adjustable spray head any time, I can wet my head when I choose and just wet my body when I choose. All I am saying is find someone with this sort of shower and give it a try before you comit to that as your only shower. You may like it, you may not. As for the coloured lights. Pointless.

Excellent news and a real world example of the much improved air quality that mvhr provides. It would be interesting to know which mvhr unit, and is it standard filters or did you specify special filters?

We are having an external balcony. A timber structure supported on 2 legs and fixed to the wall. It gives the outside space for the few days you can use it without any compromises to the room. We did consider extending the roof out above it but decided the extra complication and expense was not worth it. After all if the weather is right to use it, you won't need a roof over it.