ProDave

What does your plumber recommend? Is he saying the cold feed into the house is poor? Blocked pipe coming in (mud in the pipe?)

I would seriously look at extending the ground floor by that 1 metre so it enlarges the living room and solves the shading issue of the living room window and obviously solves the issue for upstairs as well. Yes it's a new strip of foundations for that bit but probably no harder or more expensive than trying to cantilever the upstairs (which would only solve the shading issue for upstairs anyway) I sometimes despair why the original designer stepped it back like that without regard to the shaddow it would cast.

I think the issue of whether to use a passive slab, and what timber frame system to put on it are mostly two separate issues, though of course it is nice if you can get the whole thing as one package from one company. Slab first: Not all sites are suitable for a passive slab. There are cases where a passive slab may actually be easier than any other foundation system, but I don't think so in our case. Our issue was a sloping site and wanting all parts of the site raised from their existing ground level and the finished floor level in some places nearly a metre above finished landscaped ground level. So firstly we would have had to dig out a lot of soil to get trough the vegitation layer, then built it all up again with inert infill and some more. This built up area would have to extend some way beyond the actual passive slab, so either the whole site would need to be raised, which would work out rediculous compared to the neighbours, or there would be a "plinth" all around the house before dropping down to the garden level which would have it's own complications. So in our case it was a lot simpler to use a conventional strip foundation system and use a suspended timber floor downstairs. Not to everyone's liking but there is no reason not to achieve a well insulated air tight house with that. Next the frame. I found it very hard to find a solution. I did approach mbc but there was a hickup and they never did get around to giving us a quote. I looked at Touchwood, to expensive and Beatie Passive, again a lot of up front costs for design and licensing that just did not work for us. I tried some of the local "standard" timber frame companies with a view to taking their standard product and improving the insulation and air tightness details, but as soon as they got a sniff I wanted something better than their standard offering, refused to quote. In the end it was a local eco house builder that sorted it for us. The local firm specialises in modular built buildings and our design did not fit into what they do, so the compromise was they designed it, and it was built by a local firm of builders who did the foundations, then built and erected the frame.

You are trying to over complicate it. The "hot water" output of the time clock is what I normally use to control the boiler heating up the thermal store. So just that switched output and the tank thermostat on the thermal store, probably the middle one. A tank stat has quite a lot of hysteresis (unlike a room stat) so once the TS has heated up and the boiler shut off it will need to drop several degrees before the stat turns on again and calls for heat from the boiler. Yes you could have two stat's and a set / reset arrangement to give a wider hysteresis but you won't do that with all off the shelf parts. The second part is then use the heating output of the programmer, in conjunction with room thermostat(s) and zone valve(s) to turn on the pump to circulate water from the TS to the radiators or UFH. And the third part if you have a stove is an over temperature stat on the tank that turns ON when the tank gets too hot. This should override the heating programmer and rooms stats and force it to dump heat to the radiators or UFH.

Are you worried about excessive heat gain through the roof? If so then the key to combatting that is the amount of insulation and importantly the type of insulation. And that is no different between a flat roof or a pitched roof. Solar gain through too many windows is a different question. MBC should know about fitting enough of the right sort of insulation to ensure you don't have a problem.

Back to LED lights in general. I have always been a fan of flourescent lights, particularly in kitchens as they are not a point source of light so cast very little in the way of shaddows. but I am outvoted as they are "old fashioned", look horrible and "hum" But recently I had cause to fit an "LED" flourescent light. Standard switch start flourescent fitting but with an "LED tube" and an "LED starter" I have to say I was impressed with the quality and colour of the light, the instant start, and total lack of hum. And at 25W it's less than half the power of a standard 58W flourescent tube. Now all i need is someone to make a nice looking fitting to pt them in.

I can't see any problem there. Just cut off the 13A plug supplied and fit a 5A one.

We have stony soil here (admittedly mostly rounded glacial pebbles and boulders) and it is normal just to bury mdpe pipe direct in the ground without even any sand.

Not all earth sheltered houses have big concrete retaining walls. At least one GD house had a "retaining wall" built of stacks of old tyres rammed full of earth. Vary labour intensive, but virtually zero cost in materials. When we came to the Highlands in 2003, we looked at 3 building plots. One was on a very steep hillside and would have needed some probably expensive under building, and any garden you had would be small and terraced. The second one had only a small area of ground at the "higher level" before it dropped steeply down to a lower level. Planning dictated the house be built on the upper level as the lower level (beside a river) was prone to flooding. We were put off that one as it appeared someone had recently tipped a load of soil to try and increase the area of the upper level, which left us thinking again of lots of expensive under building. It was therefore a no brainer when we looked at the third plot which was the largest, the flattest, and the cheapest. One has to wonder how the agents arrived at their pricing for the other more difficult plots.

Another point often made is who is to blame iof the foundations don't match the timber frame? You get into an argument as to who got it wrong. I solved that by contracting the same building firm to build the foundations and supply and erect the timber frame, so if something did not fit it would be squarely (excuse the pun) their fault. As it happened the blocklayers measured and re measured to ensure they got it the right size, square and level. Then the joiners came and measured before making the frame just to be really sure. And it all fitted very well.

That's about 260 "points" (some guesswork as the number of kitchen points not specified) So at my labour rate of £25 per hour that would be £6625 labour. Rates in the south will be more than £25 per hour. So is there £6000 worth of parts there? quite likely if you have gone for all stainless steel. So in summary nothing there looks particularly alarming. I do agree that's a lot of lights. I hoe you have low energy or LED lamps in them.

So what rate has he quoted per socket? Like I tried to say, I estimate on that, but it's not a hard and fast rule, and by charging by the hour the reality is an extra socket costs very little if you are advised about it in time. The ones I hate are big building firms who include a set minimum number of sockets and then charge you £100 extra if you want any more. As long as you decide how many and where you want them at first fix stage it does not cost anything like £100 extra per point.

I am about to have a break from my new build. I have spent the last 12 months since the basic frame was up, working on my own to get it fully wind and water tight. Last winter came WAY to soon, the building and me were not ready for it. Only now are things in a state where I don't mind winter arriving. I'm having a break now from the new build, as our existing house has been neglected. the garden is a jungle all the windows and other woodwork need sanding and re varnishing, and there are lots of minor repairs like two rusted drain covers to be replaced, gutters to clean and unblock etc. So that's the priority now, get the existing house back in shape before I do much more on the new build.

your link to your blog does not work. It is asking me to sign in with "one account, All of Google." and I refuse to sign my life away to google. Having searched for your blog and found it, THIS link will take you there http://auchlossen.blogspot.co.uk/

I estimate (never quote) on the basis of 1 hour labour per "point" where a point is a socket, light switch, light fitting etc. I have not gone over an hour per point yet and usually it's under. Just to give an example I am wiring a house at the moment that has about 165 points, and it has taken 50 hours to first fix it so far. So if you work on an hour per point at whatever the hourly rate for labour is where you are, you won't be far wrong on the labour element of the job. Materials can vary a lot more depending on what you want (i.e you can spend anything between £1 and £10 on a humble 13A socket) As I said I avoid quotes. If I was forced to quote, I would have to price it higher to allow for unforeseen difficulties, and then every time the customer changed their mind, added another socket or light fitting I would have to formally vary the quote. Instead I am open and honest about my hourly rate and give an estimate of the length of the job. If the customer wants to change things (they always do) then it's just an informal chat how much it is likely to cost. Some people refuse estimates and an hourly rate, they think the tradesman will sit on his but while charging you the hourly rate. That comes down to trust and the reputation of the tradesman whether you think he will earn his hours paid, or skive just to drag the job out.

Yes that makes sense now. Look forward to seeing it take shape.

Okay, I have to ask. What makes that a "retaining wall? I would have expected at least block on flat, if not two layers filled with rebar and concrete. you appear to just have a single skin wall. I am sure there is more to it, it just doesn't make sense - yet.

No mortgage on the house. It's already insured on a guest house insurance policy, it has to be as it's been trading as a B&B for 12 years. I am pretty sure there will be no CGT liability. We only operate as a 2 room B&B, which is a bit of a loophole / exemption in the law. You don't need planning permission to let 2 rooms for B&B and are exempt from a lot of the red tape, e.g you don't need a commercial kitchen, you don't need fire doors on every room or a full fire alarm system etc.

Who was the Scottish company that would not deliver south of the border?

My understanding is while you live in the property, it is exempt from capital gain tax as your main residence. If I move out and rent it, and then later sell it, there would ge a capital gain liability from the value at the time you move out, to the value at the time you actually sell it. In the present market, I am not anticipating any such capital gain.

A lot of PIR sensors have a "time on" delay so it will only activate for say 6 hours after dusk. I feel certain you should be able to find the same in a light sensor.

The person wanting to buy it currently runs an on line marketing business which she is trying to grow. She also wants to run the B&B. We have never run the B&B as anything more than a hobby so it's never been particularly widely advertised and occupancy has been quite low, but that suited us for an easy business that helped earn the not very much we need to live on. She has been doing a trial run for 2 months now, living in, running the B&B and marketing it more aggressively and the results are already showing with much increased occupancy. We looked at selling the B&B as a business but there are several pitfalls there compared to just selling the house. One was the only agents interested in marketing it as a business wanted a hefty up front fee to engage them and much higher sale fees than a normal agent, then there is the possibility of capital gains tax if sold as a business asset. This is why you will see many houses clearly trading as a B&B advertised with a normal agent, and advertised as having "B&B potential" (nudge nudge wink wink) All I want from the house in total is what it's currently marketed for, which is presently 5% under the professional surveyors valuation. If in the intervening few years the buyer turns the B&B into a fantastic business and by some miracle property prices here rise, then that will be her gain and not my loss, I will still be happy to accept the same. If we do go ahead with this, we will take the property off the market and tell the agent it has gone to rental. There would not then be others looking at it to buy it. It's still in the early days of exploring this and it's unlikely we would move out and start formally renting it before the spring. Yes I think I will have to take the tax on the chin. As we are currently non tax payers, some of the rent would just use up the last bit of our tax allowances so it would not be taxed on the full rental income, just a bit of it. We are not planning to do B&B from the new house. That is our retirement house, and part of the reason is downsizing. We felt if we stayed where we are and just stopped doing the B&B then the house would be too big. So the new owner would be able to contine the B&B without any competition from us.

My thinking is as currently non tax payers, if we accepted £10K rent in a year, and that resulted in us paying £1K tax (purely guessed figures) then as far as I am concerned she will have only "paid" £9K towards the house.

Here is an interesting conundrum. As many of you know we are trying to sell our old house, without a great deal of luck We have someone interested but not in buying it just yet, but eventually. What this person has in mind, is renting the property for a few years, and in that time building up the B&B business with a view to buying it in 4 or 5 years time. But here is the rub, any rent they have paid, would then reduce the eventual purchase price. So say (arbitrary figures to make the maths simple) she pays £1000 per month rent, and buys the house in 5 years time, she would expect to pay £48K less than the valuation price because she would already have paid £48K in rent. Now in principle, I am fine with that arrangement. The house would not be sold until a proper legal offer was on the table when the time came, and if it all fell apart, then at least we have had rental income so won't have lost out, and the rental income should help us move the new house forwards. But here is the complicated bit. TAX. If we just sell the house, it is (and has been for 13 years) our family home so there is no tax to pay on the sale. At the moment we are both low earners and with todays high tax thresholds, neither of us pay any income tax. But if we accepted rent for the house that would push both of us into paying some tax on the rental income. So if we just informally treated rent payed as advance purchase and then accepted a lower sale price, we will in effect have paid tax on part of the sale price. That it ethically wrong. Is there any legal way to set up such a rent to buy agreement such that the monies paid count as being towards the eventual sale of the property and are therefore exempt from tax? Also bear in mind this is in Scotland so we are talking about the Scottish legal system here.

Re mvhr and operating at the lower levels acceptable for humans. The flow rates are dictated by building regs based on occupancy and size. Our new house, with 3 bedroms, is deemed by building control to accommodate 5 people. The reality is there will be 3 of us living there. So we will have a house with an air supply capable of supporting 5, with only 3 of us using it. I think that will do. I suspect very few self built detached houses come anywhere close to their maximum occupancy. Our present 5 bedroom house is sized for 8 people but rarely has more than 7 (when both b&b rooms are occupied) and very often just the 3 of us. Where this may be an issue is at the other end of the spectrum ins small 3 bed terrace houses in town where you will much more likely find all rooms filled to (and beyond) capacity.