ProDave

For my money, if I was in that situation, I would pay for a structural warranty. If it's the ticket you need to avoid the CIL then it suddenly becomes much better value. At least this thread has outlined the hoops you need to jump through and the pitfalls that could make your claim invalid.

Play nicely gentlemen please.

A VAT registered contractor should zero rate parts AND labour for a new build. you certainly won't be able to re claim VAT on labour, you will be told to go back to the contractor and re claim it from them as it should not have been charged.

I paid a builder to build my shell and all the work he charged me was zero rated as it was a new build. If I had paid him to do the whole lot, it would have been charged VAT free and I would have nothing to reclaim the VAT on.

I like the thinking. Leave the reel (part used) of lead free kicking about. But in all honesty do you even expect the BC inspector to ask?

Very useful post. However: So if you have paid cash (no mortgage), not bothered with a structural warranty, and paid a contractor to build a house ready to move into you won't have a VAT claim as it will all have been charged to you VAT free. Might be a problem for a few?

Okay lots of points there. That analysis I linked to was done by the architectural technician who designed the basic structure. The "spruce" layer I think was his best guess at what to use for the service void. Later in the design process a structural engineer detailed many of the construction aspects of the frame (including the fact that in many areas we have two layers of OSB inside to give sufficient racking strength). Also a company subcontracted by the AT did the SAP analysis for building control. they calculated the U values of the walls and roof more accurately allowing for the frame and came up with 0.148 for the walls, so slightly worse. But they only allowed for the one layer of OSB not two so that will very very slightly improve it. If ever we get an "as built" SAP I will make sure the details are corrected. My frame was built by a local building firm. They built the frame in sections in a steading (barn) 2 miles away and brought them here a few panels at a time on a large trailer. Some of the larger gable panels looked very precarious on that trailer and he admitted he drove very slowly! The roof was cut and framed on site. I really liked the idea of the twin stud frames and tried to get our AT to think of something on those lines but he couldn't or wouldn't come up with anything. I had tried MBC but not got anywhere with them, so unfortunately that option slipped away. So it's a pretty standard timber frame except of course being much thicker than the normal 150mm, and the peculiarity is the OSB racking layer is on the inside. SO many people told me I had put the frame up "inside out" I changed the insulation mid build. It was going to be filled with blown in wood fibre beads, that was until I found the price. I then changed to using the earthwool frametherm 35. The U values are near identical, but I suspect the decrement delay with the earthwool may be a bit poorer. In the end it's in some ways a compromise. Not as good as we could have got if only.... But a lot better than a standard off the peg timber frame. The other "change" I am making is I am installing an air tightness membrane all over the inside walls before the service void battens. The designer had specified the OSB with taped joints as the air tightness and VCL and is aparently all they do on the buildings they build, but largely on the advice of the builders that actually built it, a separate air tightness /VCL membrane seems better.

I'm not ruling it out. I'm just not sure if I am going to go from busy, to rediculously so. It's something like a 3 hour 130 mile trip for me to get to you so it will almost certainly be cheaper to get your local electrician. to do it. Is your boat in comission? should I bring my LJ?

CPC still sell 60/40 electrical solder.

2 layers of 90mm thick To add to Jeremy's point above, take a look at the analysis of the wall make up done for our house and see how little the internal temperature varies with a big swing in outside temperature. u-wert-berechnung (10).pdf

the Frametherm is a glass wool based roll insulation (you can also get it as batts) that's a lot less nasty to use than most glass wool type insulation. It's used to fill the frame. It's stiff enough that when you push it into the frame it stays there. As a test, I fitted a bit to the frame of the 45 degree pitched roof very early on as a test to see if it fell out or slumped before it got boxed in, and it just sat there for months without moving. Here is some going into the roof before I fitted the OSB to the inside

I used 100mm thick wood fibre board. It's available from 20mm to 160mm and you can use multiple layers if you want to.

Someone more clever than me will be along I am sure to show you how to do the sums. In the mean time what thoughts do you have on the external insulation slab? and what sort of frame thickness are you thinking of? I have a 190mm frame, filled with Earthwool frametherm 35 roll and 100mm Wood fibre board on the outside, achieving a U value of 0.14

Yes but don't you think it's a shambles that three different sized ranges of pipe can all be described as "50mm" From now on I will be referring to the pipe by it's actual size so I am currently plumbing with 56mm solvent weld. In my previous house I discovered that you can't rely on one make of push fit waste to fit another, particularly with some of the obscure makes sold by some of the sheds, so that's when I converted to solvent weld which generally all fits. Also in the previous house I used those rubber reducing plugs into a boss which are far more forgiving with slightly different sizes of pipe so hadn't discovered my current problem in that situation. Anyway I hope others reading this thread will take note of the "peculiarities" of the way waste pipe sizes are described and can save them some trouble.

If I wasn't so busy I would do it if he can't find anyone more local. I've done plenty of "stopover" jobs like that before. I have a supsicion in the next week or so it might go form a "bit busy" to "oh my god"

Stick it on freecycle. I got a car full of offcuts like that and used them to insulate under the floor of our static caravan.

Firstly you are in Scotland. There is no such thing as part P here (I get shot in another place for saying that) so if you are COMPETENT you can do it all yourself. Even if it did come under building control, all they want is an EIC which you are supposed to issue anyway regardless. Your best bet is find a local electrician who is willing to let you run the cables and then come and make the connections. you really need to find him before you start. He will give you the run down on what cable to run and more importantly Where to run it (look up "safe zones") If you run the cables first then ask someone to connect them, the answer is more likely to be no. Do you have a supply to the new house yet? This is certainly the sort of job I would do and have done, but a day trip to Skye is a bit too far.

Well the seller of this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112166397752 has confirmed it will fit 56mm diameter solvent weld pipe. So some time next week I can carry on. Got to find something else to do this weekend......

According to the link in OnOff's post above, even "50mm" push fit has an OD of 54mm, so I appear to have a fitting made for "metric pressure pipe" being the only one where a "50mm" pipe is actually 50mm diameter. Do you find as a plumber you have to carry lots of different makes of waste pipe and fittings so whatever you are presented with you can find somethign that matches? I honestly find it appalling that pipe sizes are not standardised. Ihave emailed two different ebay sellers asking them to confirm that their fitting will fit Osma 50mm solvent weld pipe with it's OD of 56mm. It's the wait to get the next fitting to try that bugs me.

Okay, done some measuring. Osma "50mm" pipe measures 56.5mm OD That fits the "50mm" solvent weld fittings that I have. I also bought a "50mm to 40mm" reducer. The OD of the "40mm" end is 42.7mm So how do I solve my problem? Do I seek out a reducing coupler that's really 56mm internal diameter? Or do I BODGE it. I have found a short length of pipe that is actually 50mm OD and fits my reducer. The OD of that is also a fairly snug fit INSIDE the Osma 50mm pipe. So Do I solvent weld the smaller pipe inside the Osma pipe? I am sure it would work but honestly I should not have to be bodging it like that with an odd short offcut from some previous plumbing nightmare. There must be a "what fits what" table somewhere giving the ID and OD of "standard" makes of pipe and fitting and what fits what. This is almost as bad as us electricians having to deal with different makes of standard MCB that don't fit into other makes of board.

The reducer is 110 male (that bit fits, stack pipes seem to be standard regardless of make) the "50mm" end of it is female but it's internal diameter is a lot smaller than the OD of the "50mm" pipe. I got the reducer from ebay (because I could not find it anywhere else), I can hardly try fitting a bit of pipe on the screen can I? I can see I am going to enjoy this waste pipe plumbing NOT.

Building warrant in Scotland is slightly different (and more expensive) it's based on the value of the building work, so I guess Jamie convinced them it would be a lot lower than they thought it would be.

Hi and welcome to the forum. You may be aware that there are quite a few in Ireland, north and south on here so you should have a good source of local knowlede as well as general building advice.

Okay, some HELP needed urgently before I have a Victor Meldrew moment. I bought a 110 to 50mm reducer as seen in the pictures above. I bought some 50mm solvent weld fittings from Screwfix, but they will only sell you a bundle of lengths of pipe, not just one. Today I passed TP and bought 1 length of 50mm solvent weld pipe. The pipe fits the SF fittings BUT it will not by a LONG way fit into the 110/50mm reducer. The vernier calipers tell me the diameter of the hole in the reducer is a shade over 50mm. It's labelled as "Reducja HT Plus 110/50" BUT the pipe (remember I asked for "50mm" is close on 56mm outside diameter. It's this sort of nonsense that drove me mad with waste plumbing years ago and I learned then to get everything from the same make at the same time otherwise there was no guarantee anything would fit. Why can't you buy a "50mm" pipe and expect it to fit any "50mm" fitting? Absolute nonsense. Can you imagine if only crabtree 2.5mm cable would fit into a crabtree socket? Do I change the pipe? or change the 110/50 reducer for a 110/56 reducer, even if such a thing exists. yours VM. P.S that's this weekends work messed up as I can't finish the under floor plumbing and get on laying the floor

Don't forget Steptoe and OnOff are also electricians. I haven't watched this one yet (I never watch commercial tv live) so haven't yet seen the house. For a normal new build I have never yet exceeded 1 hour labour per point. Assuming expensive fittings and a higher labour rate than mine and an awkward build, then I still reckon that has to be north of 700 "points" Nobody would have 700 points in an ordinary house? So was it some form of home automation system linked to an expensive cabinet of stuff?