ProDave

It does not mention Scotland, but I KNOW prices here are still not back to 2007 levels, let alone those levels allowing for inflation. And I have said before, a self builder here would do very well indeed to sell his house and just get back what he has spent.

The reason I asked is to do with ease of fitting. If they made the frame with the PIR insulation it would likely be machine cut and a good fit. If you are fitting it, then it is a lot harder to cut by hand and get a perfect fit. So for DIY fit, the frametherm has many advantages. It is flexible enough to compress a little, so cut a few mm over size and push it in. It is then stiff enough to stay put. As already noted the frametherm will have a better decrement delay. My own build has 190mm of frametherm 35 and 100mm of wood fibre board over the outside of the frame. Adding it all up, render, wood fibre, frametherm filled frame, OSB, service void, plasterboard gives a U value of 0.14.

Use 75 owm satellite coax, something like RG6. But be warned it comes in many variants. The best being copper foil and copper braid. the cheaper ones are aluminium foil. You don't want a "booster" you want a "distribution amplifier" that adds very little gain, other than to ensure the signal does not get weaker by being split several times

Are you buying a package of frame with insulation fitted, or buying the frame and fitting the insulation yourself?

I paid my builders to supply materials, build the frame, and erect it. They also did the foundations (though I did the digging, they just poured the concrete and did all the under building) I wanted an all in package so they could do the job VAT free. If I had supplied the materials, I would not have been able to reclaim the VAT until the end. I never did actually get a price from any other firm as there were not many that would do the insulation levels I wanted. But based on several on here that have used MBC, I probably paid a little more than they would have charged. I suspect my frame and erect price was higher than that estimate, but I am pretty sure my total cost will be less. I am still expecting to complete for £1000 per square metre.

It might be good point to point out that whilst it is strictly speaking legal to DIY your own gas work, you must still be competent to do that work. Be very careful.

I wonder if the CH flow rate has dropped and you are getting localised boiling (kettling) inside the boiler?

Remind me not to let SWMBO see this thread.

There is the issue of saleability and mortgagability. You probably won't get a mortgage on a "caravan" and it won't be worth as much as a proper house even if extremely well built. No possibility to extend later beyond the size limits of a "caravan" The 3.05 metre height is the ceiling height inside. You can put a proper pitched roof on it, you just can't use the loft space for accommodation as that would no longer fit within the definition of "caravan"

You are right that if you can't get planning for a "proper" house you can fall back and build the maximum permitted size of "caravan" And the legal definition of caravan is such that it does not even have to be on wheels, just movable in some form and that may involve the use of a crane. There is also nothing stopping you making a really well insulated "caravan" as good as any house. There was one such featured on Grand Designs a few years ago. The other issue is you may not be able to reclaim the VAT. You normally need a building control completion certificate for a VAT claim but you won't have that as it is exempt from building regulations. That however may free you up to do things with the layout that would not be possible if you needed building regs. I assume all services are connected already? If not, you will need building control for the drainage work.

The best you can do is sleeve them yourself. I used the outer sheath from some old coloured tails that were going for scrap

What insulation levels do you want? I wanted a pretty well insulated house, better than the standard offerings of most of the timber framed companies. I tried talking to them about taking a standard kit and adding extra insulation, they then refused to quote. I ended up paying a local eco house builder to design what I wanted, and then paid a local firm of builders to make the frame off site, and bring it to site in sections and erect it. I am now doing all the detailing and fit out myself.

LPG use different flexi hoses to a mains gas cooker. Go to somehwere like BES to get the tight hose and they sell the fittings for it to plug into if you don't have them For instance here is a kit with the hose and the fittings https://www.bes.co.uk/micropoint-gas-cooker-installation-kit-no-4-lpg-16175

For my money, Triton all the way, cheap, reliable but not fancy, If your water pressure will support it fit the largest power you can find.

Yes I stand accused. Poetic license, I know my switchfuse is wired "wrong" I would not do it like that for a customer. I would run the inner cable of the SWA up into your consumer unit intact and distribute the earths using the earth bar in the CU. Only taking the gland earths direct to your main earth terminal.

The key difference is how they store the heat. With a UVC the water stored in the tank is the water that comes out of the tap. Of you heat it to say 55 degrees, then when you turn on a tap, water comes out at 55 degrees and continues to do so almost until all the hot water is used up then goes cold very quickly A thermal store stores it's heat in a static volume of water that never changes. You draw water via a heat exchange coil. So as soon a you start removing heat it starts to cool down. So if that wa heated to 55 degrees, the hot water would start at that, then start reducing in temperature. So you will in practice have to heat a thermal store hotter to get the same amount of usable hot water from it. The advantage of a thermal store over an UVC is the lack of requirement for over pressure valves etc and need for discharge pipework, and in theory at least you need a qualified plumber to install a UVC.

Yes, I think I will be making my own liners. Thanks for checking the market and confirming still nobody makes it in the right sizes. I used all flush hinges in my last house (except for the fire door) but thought you would call me a bodger if I suggested that.

Just to be clear. In my picture those are insulated AND sheathed cables, it's just what the cable the DNO's use up here have colour coded sheaths. It was the markings with the sharpie that he got wrong. I have installed my own rod already.

the meter monkeys round here just seem to use a white sharpie and don't always get it right

Hi and welcome to the forum. Make sure you have a good solicitor on board that understands plots. Check the planning permission. Measure the plot to make sure it is what you think and the house will actually fit. Check the services, water, electricity and in particular drainage. How will the services get to the site and from where? Easements etc. And re drainage, if not mains, what system is proposed? will it actually fit? will it actually work? These are more fundamental to get right first. Then you can design the house that suits your needs.

I too don't like the double deck Henley's. Just one thin web of brittle plastic separates them. I much prefer two singles side by side, some makes even interlock when so arranged, but much more substantial separation. But they are in now so I would leave them. You are not supposed to strip the outer sheath outside the enclosures. If you want to check the colour you take the cover off.

I would just drive a small grid tied inverter to feed into the mains. the sort of thing that's very cheap on ebay, at say a constant 50W or 100W thinking it's better to just offset the base load than just heat water with it. Alternatively if I do make a solar PV battery storage system it would just charge those batteries.

Okay, I am on the verge of ordering my stairs. I thought it worth listing the options I looked at: Pear Stairs came in at £900 for the basic price, that was before I started tweaking things that were outside the scope of their on line design tool, so very likely to have risen in price. TK stairs, I could not get their on line design tool to produce the staircase I wanted. I got close but had to fudge it. The basic price was coming in at £799. I contacted them with the saved quote and a list of the changes I needed to get it to a final quote. A week later they have not replied. Stairbox of all of them had the best on line design tool. Read into that the only one that could (almost) properly give me the staircase I wanted. The initial price was very keen. So I got them to tweak the few things I wanted changed (just short dwarf newel posts, and a slightly longer going at 260mm giving an angle of 38 degrees) I was initially a bit peeved when that pushed the price up another £150, but they are still the cheapest at £811 inc VAT and delivered The local joiner wants £1420 plus VAT. So it looks like Stairbox will be getting the order.

Why would you link it to your DHW? Assuming like mine it would be very low power, it might as well just generate 50W or so of 240V and offset the base load. It would be rare not to have that much in use in the house ever.

The (almost) finished item The stove is a cheap Chinese Kresnick from woodburner world, 4Kw I don't expect it to be particularly efficient. The granite slabs it sits on are offcuts from worktops I got from freecycle ages ago, at last I have found a use for them. The back one and the one up the side of the unit have an air gap behind them. I just lit some cardboard in it just to make sure it draws okay, better wait for that fire cement before I fire it up properly. And here's the flue. It's raining now and it doesn't seem to leak.