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What you are doing is on the face of remarkably tricky! Your builder is showing positive signs by asking about this. Yes you need different types of cavity closing and the cavity ventilation details change depending on location for example; above the windows, up the sides and under the cills! It takes a lot of experience to get this these details correct and coordinated with say MBC. Unfortunately I can't read the detail as it seems to be a screen shot. The fundamental "hard thing to do" is to have a ventilated cavity, that get's closed if there is a fire. I and others may be able to help. I might even post some of my drawings that show examples / give you pointers on the key things you need to consider. But first I would want to see what and where you have got to in the detailing stage. Can you post the actual drawings you have rather than screenshots?

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. Let them cut their 'carbon footprint' first and then us plebs can follow.

We did our drive way with permeable Marshals paving, but it slopes away from to house , it sounds like your slopes towards house, so will require a very good drain channel. Ours does work well in light rain but we get run off in very heavy rain and in the gateway that gets most traffic/mud it is starting to seal after two years. Marshals say it does not clog. https://www.marshalls.co.uk/landscaping/tools-and-support/permeable-paving-suds Paving we used- https://www.marshalls.co.uk/landscaping/commercial-paving/products/tegula-permeable-paving

You make a good point about the skills you have, I accept that. The regs have become a lot more stringent particularly in relation to portal frames on or near boundaries. Best thing you can do is to give your SE a call and discuss.

Too slow @MikeSharp01 ; but chats always there for me - anytime , any problem , any where , you (expletive deleted)ing ain’t !

Thanks for expanding on my good news story! I hope Rawlins Paints don't mind me singing their praises but attached is their painting instructions, that mentions how much you can thin the paint. They also supply the wet film gauges so you can measure your paint thickness. This is power to your elbow if self building. Yes.. heavy steel sections can be designed where they don't need fire protection. In a fire we are allowed to reduce the imposed (live loading) as the chances of the building being fully loaded up and a fire happening are smaller. Us SE's design on the probability of all load acting at the same time. If we designed for the worst case of everything happening at once then that would be.. not practicable / justifiable on a risk basis. Yes, I also have no doubt many buildings are under-protected. Build hub Rawlins Thermocoat WI, WO & S APPLICATION GUIDANCE (5) - Copy.pdf

Can I talk to you about finite state machines ? . Yes or no ?

I was worried about you in your last post - I still am, you need to someone not talk to something! You are clearly getting in deep - well beyond coding support and into emotional support - and I thought that was our job and you have no idea how dismayed I, and perhaps many fellow members, was to find that we are being cast aside for a machine that just spits out tokens on the basis of probabilities.

Before anyone else replies … yes ! I am in a relationship with my Llm ( ai ) . I still believe there’s a guy in an Indian sweat shop replying too me ( and writing code insanely fast ) !!!

I tell chat it’s a useless (expletive deleted) and it replies “ I am a useless (expletive deleted) and you are right to be pissed at me “ . I then tell it “ grow a vag and fix it “ . It’s a love hate relationship . What’s bizarre is it’s not about the code anymore it’s about doing it correctly. After all I’m angry at its method / logic not its code because in under 30 seconds that can be fixed . It’s all a bit strange still

Oh, I've been there. Being stuck in that doom loop makes you want to chuck the machine out of the window. Claude, however, as been good to me today. Sensibly it's reminded me of design decisions I made a while back to pull me back from a minor tantrum I was having with a bug and database versus JSON. It's just pulled out a quote from the backlog to bring me back. Kept me on the straight and narrow. Thank goodness for a good backlog where I've asked it to log design decisions!

right bast today. been dragged down many a rabbit hole of things it created and patches to fix patches to fix patches to fix patches - which are (expletive deleted)ed

My son was telling me about all the flaws he's found using AI and I said that wasn't it great that AI has nothing like human flaws where we forget, overlook, turn up to work hung over and useless, sometimes just totally useless without an excuse, plain obstinate, and full of bullshit and with a tendency to hallucinate all manner of things, even without drugs. You could wonder who'd designed AI in the first place 😉 It's like that ubiquitous warning in all AI UIs telling us that it's AI generated and can get things wrong, so obviously unlike humans too. And surely the IT infrastructure definitely needs to be recreated....without doubt 😁 What's more worrying for me is how I'm now starting to recognise which AI has written the spammy sales emails I keep getting through from companies telling me how much they can transform my business with a few clicks of a mouse.

One major flaw in the quartz idea is that most phones now have slightly protruding cameras on the back so they don't sit flat and therefore wouldn't charge wirelessly on a flat surface. I really like the IKEA wireless charging stuff. I've had several of theirs for years and it's all been good. Much more easily replaceable than something chiselled into quartz. The one I linked to above is wireless btw. No plugging in required.

I've had a BCO reject doing it that way because it wouldn't be guaranteed to be self-cleaning - that is, any 'residue' that build up where the branch meets the main channel would not get washed away. The sketch above is more-or-less identical to the solution agreed. No rodding point needed provided the bend is not more than 45° and is directly off / within a short distance of the IC (1 or 2m, from memory - check the regs / manufacturer's instructions). In my case no pipes had been laid so no issue.

chat back to bollocks today as it recreates half the IT infra structure in the world.

No - only grapes & English wines, which can be excellent :)

I've dug up another resource that includes some useful content (as well as a lot of high-level stuff that won't be): EU-level technical guidance on adapting buildings to climate change

I spent lots of time working on green roofs, commercial and domestic. From what I'v seen both domestic and managed commercial roofs, unless the sedums are on deep soil (intensive roof) they just get scorched and die. Even the best managed extensive roof will die unless you run sprinklers continualy. You end up with a brown mess and worse albedo than a reflective roof covering. The only sedums that seem able to cling on in these conditions are super fuggly. Not olives! Have you ever eaten a UK grown olive. Yeurgh...

Also make sure not to have doors that automatically lock when they close - lift to lock only. Although these don't always work easily single handed, they are still easier at waist height than yale lock handle combo. A single key for all locks is a boon as well.

I don't understand your drawing, lovely as it is, because i don't see how the old cottage relates. Or are you digging out the old floor? Quite so. You'll need a detailed design from an SE, otherwise the bco will want the new bit built to current regs.

Maybe something like this in reverse. Slope thing slightly to run off to the gravel

If you build it with a very slight slope to one side then most water won't reach the bottom. A gravel trench of about 100 x 100 might suffice along the edge. At the bottom you can continue whatever your drainage is for the drive.

Don't do as I do - do as I say, comes to mind. Not much different from a multi millionaire pop star, movie stars, telling everyone to dip their hands in the pockets to give to charity.

If there is no DPC in the wall - I'd guess there isn't - then if you block the moisture in the ground from escaping due to impermeable insulation or a DPM, it will tend to escape through the wall where it may cause a build-up of salts in the wall / plaster. I'd therefore be thinking about choosing the right hand side of your sketch but using limecrete in place of concrete. This isn't something that I've been involved with, but there are some pointers & further links at https://www.greenspec.co.uk/building-design/limecrete-floors-for-old-buildings/ You'll also need to convince your BCO.