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Cheap, warm, thin. Pick two.

Expanding PU glue all the way. And loads of it. All edges, even cut edges, and joists. Depending on the set time I also use ratchet straps to squeeze the joints tight. Once dry the glue can be scraped of the floor where it has oozed from the joints. I used egger protect on my projects, with their own glue and you get a solid, water proof, hard surface floor. Rolls Royce solution. The glue expands and fills any unevenness and you end up with a flatter floor, solid and no squeaks, now or in the future.

You dont actually need construction drawings done by a 'professional'. Depending on your enthusiasm you can just use planning drawings, elevations and floor plans. These are enough to get it QS'd as long as you fill in some blanks. Build type, materials to be used, foundation type etc SE is only needed if your footings are non standard or you need steels. Everything else BCO can do. Put up your plans so we can have a look, no point blowing £18k on useless architects drawings which will be wrong anyway when it comes to build them.

Class Q legislation has been updated from 21.05.2024 Currently, only the Amendment has been published: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/579/made So needs to be read in the context of the previous Order with its updates https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/596/schedule/2/part/3/crossheading/class-q-agricultural-buildings-to-dwellinghouses The main changes I see are that converted dwellinghouses are now limited to 150m² floor area each, where as previously you could convert 1 up to 456m² and another 4 up to 100m², although you can now convert up to 1000m² of floor area (previously 856m²). You can now however create up to 10 new properties when previously limited to 5. Interestingly, in some circumstances you can now add an up to a 4m, single story extension to the rear of the building, if there is already hard-standing in that area. You can also now extend beyond the existing building envelope by 200mm, removing one of the particularly onerous rules of the previous legislation.

Simplistic you could just use a normal thermostat that can switch to cooling. I like Computherm Q20RF. And let it say when you cool/heat and when you don't.

The link is in Italy, so subject to a chunk of import duty also, so make sure you factor that in, so no nasty surprises.

Here is the thread where @Nickfromwales states his preference.

get an indemnity policy to cover it. cheap as chips

If the original house front door remains then a porch is exempt BRegs up to 30m2 (subject to having safety glazing in the correct locations). If the door has been removed then it's a hall extension. Built getting on for 10 years ago? No direct action for contravention after 12 months so Sept 2015 ish, now long gone. They can still obtain an injunction to prevent a contravention persisting but for a 10 year porch? No way, I've only heard of that being used once. It's not going to happen here. The Council never ties PP to BRegs, whoever carries out the work should know the law and go through the process, they didn't, but assuming its sound, doesn't leak and isn't damp nothing has been lost except the paperwork. By all means buy an indemnity but it seems a bit of a waste of money. By the time you come to sell, that porch will be even older and even less interest to the authorities than it is now.

For steel frame Agri buildings especially, the way the rules were set up meant that the existing steel portals would typically be visible externally on the walls, but have purlins on and a corrugated rain screen for the roof. Depending on how deep in plan the building is it may also have internal columns, which meant the converted building would have steel work external to the thermal envelope in the walls, but likely inside the thermal envelope for the roof and internal columns. With the Thermal conductance of steel that leads to a serious thermal bridge that needs to be mitigated. Allowing a 200mm "extension" beyond the existing envelope gives a chance of getting all the frame within the thermal envelope more cost effectively.

I did it in probably not the optimal way, but I'm OK with it. - 4x2 timbers attached to the block wall with large L brackets - Insulation packed between them (70mm K5) - Breather membrane cover - Battens 15mm thick over the top, nailed onto the 4x2s - Counter battens 2x1, painted up with Black Jack - Millboard vertical cladding

Soakaway must not connect to a main drain. The whole point is that your drain doesn't reach streams or sewers and add to flooding. It all adds up.

Assumed from OP

If we hadn't gone TF, we'd have had to pile which would have significantly increased costs, TF was built on site starting mid November; not certain where you got the year from, plus we could build during winter. Horses for courses as opposed to a blinkered view of alternative build systems.

Well no the caravan wasn't insulated enough but you get what you get - 25mm polystyrene between a metal skin and vinyl coated hardboard. For a 12 month stay it's not worth overcladding the outside (ruining any resale) and it's small enough inside already. So yes you have to suck up the extra cost of using electric heaters. As for a 4x4m shed - luxury! SWHMBO has put up with a 6' x 4' with washing machine and tumble dryer and a small freezer balanced across them. This is a building plot not a sports field. What with a sloping site needing to take a 100m2 footprint house plus scaffold space, a 36' x 12' static, two 20' containers with our stuff in them not to mention two cars which can't be left on the single width track outside; add materials and contractors vans.... As for mud - don't have any! Wish! We did have stone laid but hey as soon as a machine gets digging during wet weather I defy anyone to say their site stayed clean. Just taking the machine from excavation to low loader spreads mud across the access let alone moving around the site. All that lovely stone laid under the sun disappears under a coating of glutinous brown clay that sticks to everything. It's then you find out why you kept all those offcuts of carpet in the loft of the previous house - told you they'd be useful! Throwaway door mats - the latest thing. I wouldn't say these are negative views, just saying as it is. If you can't manage a bit of discomfort (or even the occasional "why the f... did we start this" screaming match) then self building is probably not your thing. Go buy a nice house already done for you. With a clean driveway.

No I made sure the ends landed on a joist.

If I understand this correctly the 'problem' is that the system is switching (a bit noisily) on and off at the present time. Any heating system is going to do that when the ambient temperature is close to the demand temperature. Best at this point just to switch it off altogether or turn the controlling thermostat down (or the temperature limiting stat up) so it doesn't trigger. Having said that you should ideally not be using external controls to control the heat pump, that is best left to its native control. Do you know what the Honeywell thermostats are for. If correctly installed they should be used as temperature limiters only, ie the native control of the heat pump does most of the work (using weather compensation) and they are set above the design temperature to kick in only when there is excess heat eg due to solar gain. You dont need a smart stat for that, a dumb stat does the job. Were you left any documentation/instruction on how the system operates/a system diagram - you should have, and if you weren't I would first complain about this as its easy to fix and indisputable. They do this, but if the honeywell is doing the actual controlling it wont help much. I would understand/get the control system sorted first! https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/samsung-heat-pumps/samsung-ehs-wifi-controller-kit-mim-h04en Is this space heating or dhw heating? In what circumstances? How do you know its 'louder than normal'

We paid £140 for as built SAP in 2018. We were allowed to use my PHPP results in place of as designed SAP.

You don't mention your location, so assume not Scotland. For a detailed reply we need to know the dimensions, current floor make up, height between current build stage and FFL any. Details you have will help with a solution. What U value do you need to achieve?

I think it's hard to beat SIPs for performance- the wall is almost all insulation, with no cold bridging.

and keep the fence post conc 100mm below your slab level so they sail over the top.

we packed the underside of the stairs with leftover loftroll before boarding, made a massive difference to the sound.

Welcome to THE forum for people like us.

All fencing and groundwork first.

>>> We're aesthetically wedded to steel windows There are a few aluminium equivalents that look nearly the same. I think that some of the newer steel windows have thermal breaks like aluminium / aluclad ones. You should be able to get the whole-window u-values if you push for them, but the guys selling dodgy frames (heat insulation wise) are often cagey with their numbers, so that's a warning sign. Don't be fobbed off with glazing component only as compared with whole window u-values. When you do your heat calcs you may change your mind re steel windows. We have a flat with Crittall steel windows and below average wall insulation. It's a nice flat but we'll sell it in time mostly due to the dodgy heat performance.

speak to a structural engineer who specialises in insulated rafts. you might be surprised what you can have. it might be that your current SE is just doing what they've always done and hasn't considered or ever done an insulated slab. if you're in West Sussex then i can recommend the guys i used. https://www.customclimates.co.uk/contact/ . small company and really nice guys and did very good work. they didn't do our MVHR but after seeing the quality of their work on my ASHP install i would've been happy for them to do my MVHR as well.

Hello @joshwk, I have to say I’m not much of an expert in any of this stuff, so please don’t give my experience too much weight. If you raise any of these questions in their specific sections you might get more discussion. Usually it doesn’t take long for some of the more knowledgeable people to chip in. I have added some comments below in green text.

I too used stair box and rate them as very good (mine was oak as well 👍)

d4 expanding glue, can put a couple screws on the starter row. I never bothered with any more anywhere. Floor is rock solid.

A bit like watching your house getting burgled on the 15 CCTV cameras you've installed.

Sure you can. It might depend on how difficult you think it might be to get approval though and how much research you're prepared to do. V. difficult might suggest a planning consultant or someone with an existing relationship with your LPA. Depending on how haughty your LPA is, you might also like to do a pre-app to get a feel. Also, you'll make more money if you can get permission for something smaller rather than larger - but judging a likely size to get approval might need research and/or experience. There's also the question of what you do if your LPA are not immediately convinced - do you push through maybe going to committee, fold, appeal? Also, don't underestimate the impact of a pretty drawing / photomontage / watercolour ... both to sway the planners and for the sale particulars after. I did, but someone more subtle than me might have got approval quicker / with less hassle / less work.

I paid an architect as little as I could and a planning consultant as much as I needed to. you want to gain planning permission, not draw a fancy house.

You might also consider whether Permission in Principle could be a more appropriate route https://www.gov.uk/guidance/permission-in-principle.

It's not an architect you need for outline it's a planning consultant. The drawing work is minimal but the "planning" bit even for outline these days can be a trial. Check out the Council's local requirements for registering various types of applications. Even an outline may require a flood risk assessment, a sequential and exception test if in the wrong flood zone, ecology assessments, etc. I've tried the arguement that it's only the principle being considered at this stage only to be knocked back with; the principle cannot be assessed without xyz.....

It's not to bad I found , as above if you meet all the criteria it saves you a fair chunk of money if you have time to do it .

Its completely possible, really planning drawing just need a scale on them. Put them in and see what the response from the LPA is, if they ask for more info then you can look into then. Main think is showing that its viable from an early stage. I put in my own pre-app submission, got a semi nod and paid an architectural technician to work up full planning submission.

Fill the side gaps with gravel.

Thanks! I’ll check and report back. I think it might have been around 90mm though 🙃

It seems eena I've been doing construction wrong for decades. I didn't realise it was simple to avoid mud.

"just had a notification to say the house is massively on fire, better finish this pint and head off"