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It’s 2.5m and only when within 2m of a boundary. People would have to be careful if they are start reducing levels in order to provide more height as you start getting into the realms of an engineering operation, which would require Planning.

@jeli Let them formally determine it. You can then challenge the decision via an Appeal. You cannot Appeal a withdrawal. At the same time of submitting the Appeal, submit another Planning application to the LPA for something that is likely to be more favoured.

talk to an expert.

The people doing the 3d renders just need the CAD drawings from the architect and site survey people, together with some good quality photographs. You don't need an architect to do the renders.

engage a planning consultant not an architect, they will frame the application (outline ?) with a view to appeal from the start. appeals are free.

Western power dont give an option of single phase on any new builds. Not to say you cant have a single phase meter (wee did) after the 3 phase cable has been connected.

like it, bet the planners will spill their vente oatmeel lattes when they see it though.

I think it’s better to get the same architect to produce both the planning and Building Control construction drawings. There were lots of mistakes because I tried to save money using a different architects as I didn’t understand the pitfalls as a newbie.

Definitely worth comparing. Also see what the offer you, there might be no choice in some locations.

I have just taken out the glycol on my system and now using VDI2035 (straight water with testing). Without any other changes the water flow rate jumped from 1m³/h to 1.3m³/h. So glycol slows the system right down.

A year ago I would have said not to bother with 3 phase. We're probably going to get a second EV within the year and I'm already struggling to see how ill be able to charge both on low rate at the same time. But good point by @markocosic, older EVs tend only to have 3.6kW charging (like our leaf) and newer ones are rarely more than 7.2.

If you have no use/plan for them at the minute, save money and just cover them over. Don't be spending more on networking kit if it's not needed. If you have a slow 4g internet connection, a high speed wired network is a bit redundant tbh.

Self-building business is slow these days. You can get planning and building regs under £10k if you shop around, even with more famous practices

Extra radiators aren't more efficient in terms of running costs, they are equally efficient to a mixture of radiators and UFH (in your circumstances). But I imagine that extra radiators would be much cheaper to install than UFH.

The first elevation looks pretty close to your image and you've not given a huge budget to evolve other ideas so you may need to temper expectations a bit or give a bit of feedback and budget to evolve the design - @ETC's sketches are a nice start in terms of ideas to build on the original. Personally I'd prefer the hall to be more central to the main rooms (and of course stairs to line up). It sounds like you're not too impressed so far though - cheap is great but not if it means a battle to direct your architect to deliver what you want. In terms of the application, perhaps show the new and old elevations overlaid so it's clear you're not actually going much if any higher at the ridge, and make another attempt to win over the neighbours, telling them how much the new design means to you and why. In person may work better than email.

I’d also say you want to access your plant room from inside, do you want to go outside to clean your MVHR filters, reset your internet, reboot the iboost etc etc.

once you’ve bought it, unless the neighbours have a covenant on the land about house design their opinion is just a ‘neighbour’ and is unlikely to have an effect on planning. Our land had a covenant where next door could effectively refuse any design, funnily though they didn’t have know that they had that right. We chatted our design through with them and asked them to make a positive planning comment which made their ‘approval’ a matter of public record.

What you describe is a hybrid Warm Roof - some insulation between the rafters - not really a Warm Roof - and some over - the 'Warm' bit, tucking up the rafters in warm stuff. However, when you do a hybrid you need to ensure that there is not a risk of interstitial condensation at the interface between the 'between rafters' insulation and the 'above rafter' insulation. The 'rule of thumb' sometimes used is to have two-thirds of the R value above the rafters and one-third between, so it is not 'cold' enough to allow condensation at the interface. (A proper condensation risk analysis is better than a rule of thumb). Even if you could 'engineer' your 50mm uplift vis a vis your neighbour's roof that would mean only 25mm between (the one-third to the two-thirds represented by your 50mm). 75mm, even of PIR, may give you a U bvalue of around 0.3W/m2K, about half as good as the Building Regs U value target of 0.16W/m2K.

The stairs don’t even line up, so it’s complete garbage.

4x2 with 100x100 posts conced in ground every 1200 will be rock solid. you can allways put a length of 4x2 both sides of the posts if you went mega rigid for the little extra cost. Dont bodge it by sitting on bits of block.slabs etc.

Goodness. Except where you're craning in huge windows (I'm not) I plan to do myself. Just read the number of dodgy installs detailed here on BH by 'professional' installers. >>> want the supplier to measure and take responsibility for any errors Buy yourself a laser measure and check a few times. Control your risks, have a backup plan etc - it's not rocket surgery.

Unless it's high off the ground, which you don't want, you can give the joists as many intermediate supports as you like, and 4*2 would do nicely.

Apart from the cost of a Planning Consultant.