Ferdinand

Stairway to Heaven. or Dancng Queen if that is refused. Or make the other half agree to make the sign, then choose something with 43 letters.

There are standards which apply (see the Building Regs docs or your council website) if you do more than a certain amount of work on a "thermal element". I trust you have looked at the possibility of renovating *both* as dormer bungalows and selling the other one on. That way you will bet savings by ordering double the amounts. Ferdinand

DIY EWI is quite possible - you can buy kits. Or plan it for later. I have now looked at EWI on three different houses over the last several years, and in each case doing the basics properly (insulation, 2G, appliances) has at least halved bills, and destroyed the justification for EWI unless 50-70% reductions eg grants were available over commercial quotes. Ferdinand

As ever with selfbuild ... do the homework and map out the elephant traps, with professional advice where necessary. Of course, you may end up selling for reasons you do not know about, or dispose to kids if you need to end up living somewhere else, or a CGT liability may attach to a future sale depending on what happens, so keep the records anyway. Best of luck. F

Read this thread to help you develop the necessary scepticism muscles and sense of guesstimating reality:

See eg 2nd last para here https://www.primelocation.com/discover/buying/guide-to-the-3-stamp-duty-surcharge/#7KgouIrTHFQLRVp4.97. and here Check with your accountant or the HMRC, but that is what they say. As we know it is *freaking* complicated. F

Were it to end up outside the reclaim period you could offset the expenses of purchasing the second house against the cgt you pay on the huge price increase you will make because you chose it so skilfully . Expenses of purchasing includes stamp duty. I think.

Then marzipan, icing and a chocolate Christmas Tree on top ! I have a Tenant with a buildup of inside to out cladding, membrane, 100mm rock wool, 4 ply polycarb (do not ask - conservatory conversion), ventilation, metal cladding ... on a sun lounge. She does get noise through the roof in the rain / hail but says it is acceptable. That suggests that you do need something more towards the type of thing @JSHarris is suggesting if you want to be much quieter. My only comment would be that acoustic plasterboard may be a possible shortcut should you need to simplify; It can be effective. F

I would say get the self-build one first if you worried. But also talk to a broker to run your numbers on Btl first ... due diligence is much more than it was. Also if You are the higher tax rate bracket your mortgage payments over the basic rate threshold will be treated as if they were income not expenses within a few years. So talk to your accountant to make sure that you will actually make an income. And think about the management and the mountain of regulations too, attending an appropriate suite of courses. If you are in a landlord registration area in England it will add £10-20 per month. Cheaper in Scotland. You may find this appraisal calculator helpful, as a calculator or checklist. I think it will do the calculations without requiring your email address. https://www.property118.com/calculating-rental-yields-and-returns/ Ferdinand

Maplin have a £4.99 one that seems networked. https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/foxx-project-water-sensor-a76wa

Yep. Modern and complicated ;-). For the substantive point, what about the normal aluminium sealing tape - though it may be a sod to get off again, or cannibalise ribbon connector or 2 or 4-core phone wire? F

You seem to be buying excessively new or excessively complicated cars .

@HerbJ What is the low walled area on the right, please. A pond? Ventilation for a basement swimming pool? Looks interesting.

Dad used to argue that the space was always more useful inside the house for British weather reasons, and say to fit French doors with a 'fence' aka Juliet balcony. There may be exceptions eg south coast or other coast or views or rivers or town-centres. or perhaps for outdoorsy people or for dog space. I have argued for something more like the two level + canopy boardwalk on a Deep South house which is more useable and really nearly part of the garden not the house; perhaps even to be structurally separate from the house in these times of wall penetrations being bad. Were I to go for a cup-of-tea-and-newspaper balcony, I think I would want a combined one across rooms or more for the kitchen or living room to get wider potential use. Think of the tendency in Eg Grand Designs to have French Doors in Ground Floor bedrooms eg Underhill House in the Cotswolds. http://www.seymoursmith.co.uk/underhill-psv.php F

Welcome. I think your single most important step, if you have not already done it, is to go and look at one for your ultimate size of application installed in a site as similar as your requirement as possible which has been there for 5 years, and have an in depth conversation without the presence of a rep, particularly about the reliability, ongoing maintenance, and install costs on top of the supply of the unit itself. And about space requirements, since the 16 person Clearfox seems to be a bit of a chunk once assembled. I would be interested to hear the Clearfox price, as it does not seem to be widely advertised. We had a normal Aquatron at my parents home for up to 4 bedrooms, and that did fine for decades with zero maintenance except a once a year minor dig-out for compost. I am not clear why you are thinking about the stream - if it is as good as you say it is and you are on 20 acres, then a leach field or land drains should probably be good enough. I think simple septic tanks are now ruled out by regulations on output quality. On the electrics, the Clearfox EW16 Nature (is that the one?) technical data seems to talk about a "dirty water pump 230V", which is far better summarised by the German word "- Schmutzwasserpumpe 230V". "Ew" seems an excellent model name for such a device. Not sure what that is about. Check the datasheet section on this page: https://clearfox.com/en/domestic-wastewater-treatment/ . One question that some here have prioritised is whether you have to get down and dirty when doing maintenance. We have some threads which touch on this and some questions around sewerage treatment, regulations etc - I have linked a couple below, but you will need to explore if you have not done so already. The old Ebuild checklist has links to regulations. Ferdinand http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/18509-checklist-in-preparation-off-mains-drainage/

That was The Triangle in Rugby - at least the plywood chimneys were. They are now on about site 8 or 10. I tracked the the first few, and they did get better each time. At the start they were a bit gimmick-driven eg pocket orchards. Now they do far more in-house, and particularly thorough engagement and Design statements. But they are still in expensive areas. https://www.habhousing.co.uk/projects I am quite impressed with how he has driven it on. It is the type of smaller company we need another hundred of. Ferdinand

Isn't that actually 2 and cut as they are 450mm long?

Here is Eden Council's explanation. It may be called a "Predicted EPC" or similar https://www.eden.gov.uk/planning-and-building/building-control/building-control-guidance-notes/sap-calculations-explained/ Having read that, I am now thinking that it may not be quite as straightforward as I suggested.

Sorry. What I meant was that your Building Regs submission will have a document which I think says how much it is estimated to cost for energy. And you know what your current bills are. If you take the difference (which may be £1000 or more per year), add up that saving over say 25 years, it is perhaps more than the 20k you have just sunk into your foundation, and it may be a source of encouragement when the self-build blues strike. So you still are up on where you would have been, even in addition to the benefit of having a nice new comfortable house. It is a bit of a motivational trick.

Super.

If you have a heat model or Design SAP, running a set of numbers including the first 20 years of index linked energy bills can be encouraging as a self-motivation tool to look beyond the crap, when compared to the same for your current home. F

Keep in mind that there are thin wet ufh systems that will sit on top of the slab or suspended floor in addition to in-slab systems, as shallow as 18mm, and that they can be not much more cost than rads. Just flagging up the option. Obvs depends on slab build up and floor finish. There has been a recent post or two about a system by Wunda from eg @PeterW. Ferdinand

I don't know .. I will ask you in 2045 should BH still be running . Being a bit more serious, since so many people asking questions on BH are building low maintenance and low cost forever or retirement houses it is probably a good question to keep asking, along with 'where could the lift go should you need one in the future'. Especially given demographics and that as a country we will be working to get social care right for decades. From my own family one relation just about to turn 80 reckons that the good fortune of a house with a shallow staircase and half landings able to take a dining chair for a rest gave them years extra of being able to get upstairs reasonably comfortably. Thinking too about all those people stuck downstairs in terraced houses who are there for a decade or more stuck downstairs after they are unable to get upstairs due to injury or low mobility. Fit people, accident-free mountain walkers / cyclists, yoga / Zumba types / physical workers who keep within limits and dancers etc may be better off. Personally when I get round to self-building from scratch it will have potential full living facilities downstairs and lift-provision as I have a chronic condition that may eventually cause serious physical problems. Had a salutary reminder this week when a tradesman currently working for me has been off for 5 days because he did his back picking up an empty cardboard box at new year. Ironically it was exasperating an old "Good Samaritan" injury from when he lifted a heavy bike off someone being crushed after a motorbike accident 2 decades ago - so no more heavy work and a career redesign will be necessary for him according to the doctors. I guess there is similar stuff about landscape plans designed to need less maintenance over the years. I still remember a garden programme from the 1980s where 2 vigorous 6x or 7x year old golfing-type ladies described the garden of their shared bungalow as a Geriatric Unit designed to be adaptable to zero maintenance plus an occasional gardener as the aged. I love people like that. F

Have you had the 'relaxed staircase gives you 5-10 more years in your house' presentation yet ?

It does say If in doubt, Ask in large red letters in the notes, so presumably they welcome questions . On your roof windows, you could decide to leave your trusses exposed and insulate on the slope if you like that look. F