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2 post and 4 post with room to move other cars. The floor is power floated concrete been down 10yrs industrial use and very few dents, the floor brushes up very easily.

pretty sure my post was dropped onto threaded bar on a pad extending from the founds, or at the very least you could just resin bolt them in. Ive had a look and have no photos of it going in, the builders just did it all. You'll have to go back to your SE surely to see how thats meant to go in, as mine was drawn in by them. It is a thermal bridge as its in the cavity and into the inside but its insulated behind it obviously and a strip of aerogel over it on the inside and the thermal camera doesnt pick it up now its all boarded.

Pictures? There is an alternative, I think called an over fascia vent. This has the front vent holes facing downwards so less likely to be troubled by a membrane hanging down the front.

i used 50mm as the 75mm you can only get from insulation merchants really in bulk. Centre of the stud, plenty of room for pipe or cable drops. Its great stuff like has to be said, i love working with it in comparison to any other type of insulation. Cut slightly oversize with an old bread knife, whack it in and its self supporting. Easy to cut around boxes or reduce its thickness around services. It works a treat as well it really does.

My designer originally proposed them. I took one look at the detail, which added complications to the founds for the wind posts to bolt onto. And then appeared to compromise the insulation by having a steel goal post built into several of the timber frame sections. I asked for a re think and he came back instead with a standard timber frame, but modified to have two layers of OSB with staggered joints to give the required racking strength instead (normally only 1 layer used)

Last structural engineer made no reference to wind posts, but the new SE I employed to come up with a lintel schedule, says that I need them. Thrown a complete spanner in the works as these were never designed in and I have no idea how you go about fitting them to the slab? Brickies are on site and building up to DPC, do they have to be bolted to the slab?

Would add to this - if airtight isn't at the top of your list of priorities, don't bother with MVHR. Look at demand control dMEV or MEV instead. No need to add heating to the MVHR unit, a good unit is a big block of insulation. Outside the heated environment all your ducts need good insulation and vapour protection to stop condensation. In a loft you need access ladder, access walkway and a maintenance area all as proper flooring. Or better still don't put it it up there.

50mm in the centre of the studs. The air gap make the whole wall perform better from noise perspective. And the wiring has somewhere to go

We used 50mm and I think it was fine acoustically. it’s amazing how small 39mm space is for running cables (14.5mm either side of the insulation) depending on the size of the cable you’re not left with much before the boards. So can’t imagine how tight 75mm will be.

I generally used a piling company that had several technical options ( driven, auger, vibro) ( end bearing, surface friction, ground inprovement) so that they could help decide on the best solution. But this involves 2 way trust which takes time to form. And they aren't likely to suggest another method of construction with no piling. Looking forward to your info.

I assume she has royalties and advances as her primary income plus however she has her savings invested - stocks and properties I imagine. But again writers and singers and artist are another example of complexity creeping in. If you had your perfect tax system that taxed everyone progressively on their annual income what do you do with the person who earns £100k in one year (sells painting) and then nothing for 5 years. They should pay the higher rate of tax as a 100k earner but in reality they only earn £20k a year so should be taxed at a lower rate There are provisions in the current system but it's another example of how taxes become more complex as exceptions are required. It's very well to say "no exceptions" but they always run up against messy reality. The "pre owned asset" tax was created to stop people giving away their houses to their kids and renting them back for £1 to avoid IHT. So the rule is you can't ever benefit from an asset you gifted. If you did the gift is considered never to happen and the IHT bill appears. Great, except this also covered houses you helped buy. So lots of people who helped their kids with their home are then unable to move into that home when the age and become infirm. So they had to create an exemption for elderly care. Which opened up a loophole (a financial advisor tried to persuade us to use my father's dementia to to access this loophole - we declined as it seemed very sketchy) There are so interesting ideas here and God knows the tax system is complex and creates all sorts of perverse incentives and opportunities for avoidance (or sometimes inadvertently cruel traps (eg the inteste IHT rules have forced mothers to sue their infant children to avoid all of them being forced out of the family home) But the dream of simplification and cutting red tape is somewhat of a mirage.

Yup. Leather is a very hardwearing and easy to clean finish. Makes it easier to clean after I get in wearing muddy trousers guv.... It was getting bad - crew cab pickups in particular - that HMRC has clamped down really hard. Now anything with a 2nd row of seating is considered a company car and taxed appropriately. This actually affects me as my preferred work vans are converted people carriers with all (including the front passenger) seat removed. This is now considered a company car, so will have to go when the transition period ends. But I can see why it had to be done. There are loads of builders wives driving the kids to school in souped up pickups with a tow bar (never used) and tiny roof rack clearly claiming them as work vehicles despite the fact they are crap as work vehicles and never haul anything bigger than a fold up pram. I've had plumbers turn up in sign written crew transits with kids seats in the back.

I would definitely be in favour of CGT tweaks to make it more comparable to income, but I can see how it would be much more complicated than the "x% of the profit" we have at mo. Ideally it would be the profit amortised over the years held and taking account of inflation. But then you need the past earnings to work out if that equivalent income took you over the higher rate thresholds etc. it all gets complex fast - which is my point One tweak I would definitely do is equalise the CGT rate with IHT, or effectively make IHT into capital gains tax. When you hear about the amount of IHT avoided what isn't always clear is that it is avoided by transfering before death which incurrs CGT, which is lower. On IHT I would allow people to "pre pay" IHT before they die with some sort of account you can pay taxes to and then can be out against your IHT bill when you die. This helps reduce the issue where the lump sum (or 10 year spread) is the issue rather than the overall amount. It would also provide a forward revenue stream for the government now.

50 I'd go with. Plenty room for services, I think the air gap actually helps acoustic performance and it will be cheaper too

Yep. AFAIK the way you decide a tax is progressive/regressive is to see what overall percentage of income the tax takes, not the headline rate. If the tax takes a greater percentage of income from poorer people then the tax is regressive and there are likely better ways to extract the same amount of money. (assuming you want either a income neutral tax or a progressive tax). It's very difficult to eliminate every regressive tax. What is most important is the overall tax burden (including benefits). You could (for example) make the vat tax less regressive if you provided a low income benefit that approximately canceled out the vat. Despite the 'vibes' the UK tax system is progressive overall (could it be better? Absolutely, but it isn't regressive)

Thanks, appreciate all the comments. I will post more detail later.

Don’t go 100mm as it will stop the boards going on! Choose a better supplier and use 75mm with the gap then used for services.

Indeed, and, as above, even a quote given to you will be loaded with caveats; stating that they’ll need to keep sending the pile down until it hits something robust etc. You need a creative / proactive SE who could consider all options and value engineer (and not over egg it!).

That would be money decay by time - effectively inflation. It does incentivise spending quickly rather than saving because it effectively prevents saving. I was suggesting money decay by use. Your £ can sit in the bank forever and not lose value. I wasn't suggesting a bitcoin copy (I have many issues with bitcoin) just illustrating that a digital only currency is possible. Our current £ is becoming more and more digital, I barely use cash now and there are plenty of places that are no cash. The card fees are now equivalent or lower than using cash for a business. Maybe if the UK (or EU and UK) set up an equivalent of MasterCard or visa, that had card fees lower than both but the fees went to the respective treasury. You could even imagine two fees one to your treasury and one the merchants so buying a crepe in Paris would send some tax to the UK and some to France but pie and mash in London would send both sets to UK.

Possibly a can of worms question but my internal studs are 89mm deep and we’re looking to use Rockwool rwa45 slabs. First question is thickness: local merchant stocks 50 and 100mm so was going to go 100 but now wondering how best to manage wiring ie to sockets and light switches within that? Many thanks

Now by now you should know that there is no way any of us that can take a punt on this. Post your geotech info, a site plan etc. You know the rules, the more info you provide the better quality response you'll get.

Welcome to the forum! If the loft is the only place it will fit, then installing it within an insulated but unheated enclosure is good. Your loft access trap also needs to be big enough to get it through, and you'll need good access for filter changes & other maintenance. And, although good MVHR units don't make much noise, I'd not put it directly over a bedroom if there was an easy alternative. If it will fit within the heated envelope - utility room, kitchen or elsewhere - then that would be preferable. No need for a heating loop unless you're planning to use it to feed a duct post-heater to top-up the air supply temperature. That's not often done except when the MVHR is used as the main source of heating in Passivehaus. BTW, if you've not already picked it up, add airtightness to your to-do list. It's likely to be the most cost-effective improvement you can make & it plays a major role in protecting the fabric of the building from potential moisture damage.

Reading a lot of these posts it's pretty clear that that many on BH don't have a high opinion of folk like me who design as a day job. I can see many professionals have lost their compass and are not delivering value for money and are not that good at running a business, hence the poor service delivery. I've been in the construction industry for over 40 years, 20 spent as a contractor running my own business' , did my own self build, really pretty much all by myself on the tools ( took me three years) then off to uni to be an Engineer, now for the last ten years I wear two hats as an Engineer and Architectural designer. Thus have a fairly rounded view of the in and outs of this. I can say that in the last 20 years there has been a race to the bottom, not just from designers, but also say the timber frame suppliers, ground works designers ( UFH and rafts etc) and designers who think that if they curtail their design brief, caveat it a lot the money is going to flow. But in the long term it doesn’t, as often the key to good business is repeat business, recommendation, even in the short term cutting you brief down often leads to problems, queries, design mistakes that just eat into your profit and leads to potential claims or Clients rightfully withholding money. Ok, lets look at some financials. The bottom line for a new self builder ( not someone who works in the trade with contacts) is the tendency to split each element into work packages, say foundations, timber frame and roof ect. Each package supplier takes the cream out of the job, leaving nothing for the self builder. Then you have planning and BC regs on top not least, that all adds to the cost. I work on a lot of projects where I'm involved holistically. I work very closely with the Client, not just as a designer but also do hand holding and participate in all of the design. Now to be blunt. Say for a self build the design fee is £10k. An experienced chippy ( joiner may cost you £250 a day, a labourer £150 as day, total 2.0k per week. All I have to do to wash my face is to save you a few weeks, just on the labour alone and I have well and truly washed my face! The pendulum is swinging back where folk are clocking that we need to "go back to the old days", but now you need someone like me who can cope with the modern code requirements for example, and the modern way of doing business., much less trust and more hard arse stuff. I get this kind of business where folk are happy to pay me a bit more as I can guide them, hold their hand and most importantly we all have fun, we do whacky designs that you only get to do on self builds! We also tend to avoid " work packages where we can, say from MBC et al and keep the cream to ourselves. This also often helps cash flow and gives the Client more control on day to day site activity. Now in the round if you want to make some money then try and find a designer like me that is local to you, with good contacts.

The easy option would be stick on plastic like this

Do you have access to the borehole logs? Just a statement that piling is required is of little use. Is there hard ground at 5m depth or 50m? How soft is the clay? Does only the structure require support but not intermediate floor areas?. That said, a starting point of "about 30 or 40k" lets you start on feasibility. But there are lots of piling techniques too. By considering that and the method of construction you could be saying "allow 20k to 80k". I've probably done about 20 piled buildings and often used a different method to that suggested in initial reports. But never for clay... yours must be very soft indeed. Any chance of seeing a borehole record? And what about the house? Big/small/ conventional or huge rooms, 1 or 2 storey?