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Decision notice issued at 19:00 and granted, finally.

As an update, i got my building regs signed off this morning, grant of planning permission is due today. Who of thought i would have building regs signed off before planning granted. Ground workers on site in a couple of weeks, though need to get my self build exception in and agreed before then.

Changed to Octopus about 5 or 6 weeks ago. It took a month from asking for them to come and fit a SMETS2 meter (they did it this afternoon). Apparently it takes up to 2 weeks for everything to connect and sort itself out, and after that you can go on whatever whacky tariff you want. The installer was excellent. He did an extremely neat job - the result is a lot tidier than the original network installation. He also mentioned they're an amazing company to work for.

I believe as long as it says secure on it, it's OK. I have this one: https://www.camax.co.uk/product/secure-sprint-211 And I'm using Octopus and they say as long as a SMETS1 meter has "Secure" on it, it is OK. It's submitting readings every 30 mins to them. https://octopus.energy/agile/new/

WHY do you want MCS certification? The only tangible need for that in the past has been a requirement to claim the FIT. But with no FIT any more, why would you want to pay the "MCS Premium" for a bit of paper that is worth virtually nothing to you?

I really do not understand why people are bothering with hydrogen as a main stream domestic/light industry/commercial fuel all the studies point to it being inefficient and costly.

I think you need to get a copy of that report. Write a letter to manufacturer's registered office (which you can look up on Companies House for free)giving them the background and in writing and politely, but firmly, threatening legal proceedings unless they provide you with a copy. The basic points you need to make in your letter are: logic dictates that either the manufacturer is responsible or the installer is responsible; if they, as the manufacturer, are not responsible then there is nothing for them to hide and there is no good reason for not sharing the report with you; in circumstances where they are refusing to give you the report, the logical inference is that the report must implicate them and therefore you can only infer that actually they are liable; accordingly, if they don't provide you a copy within 21 days of the date of the letter, you will make an application under civil procedure rule 31.16 for pre-action disclosure of a copy of the report. This should rattle their feathers a bit and may get you the report. The report won't necessarily be the gospel truth as its author is probably biased, but it is likely to be relevant to your determination of who is at fault. Your only alternative at this stage is to hire a expert in sliding doors and sliding door installation to assess them and write your own report which you can then use to cajole the responsible party into fixing the issue. If you go down that route, be sure the expert complies with Civil Procedure Rule 35 and the Civil Justice Council's guidance on experts to be used in Court proceedings. I'm not suggesting you actually go to Court, but doing these things and threatening the sliding door company with a discrete Court application that just gets them to give you the report may help in making it look like you are willing to take that step, and that might be enough to prod them into action, get you the report and then use that to take matters forwards.

ah i see! thanks for the breakdown and explanation. I really appreciate it. I am just waiting on a couple more quotes now!! wish me luckkkkk in finding the right trader!

Another interesting point the SE told me about was to notice where the cracks have formed, they (mostly) formed along a path where the original builders used small cuts to fill gaps, he said that if the original builders had planned it a bit better then they would not have had to use small cuts and could have made it wholly from full bricks which would have provided a better structure, so there is a lesson to be learned here - well I'm learning a lot anyway!

Anything that reduces water flow will help, but perhaps not much in extreme or long duration storms. Harvesters are easy enough with newbuild but messy with retrofit/rebuild. They reduce all flow to drain because you have the same rain but reduced bought in water. As Ferdinand says, rainwater butts are easy. They are also a recognised solution in new developments where there not be another solution, or simply as standard. If already full, then they don't help much. But you could do what I do, to take the load of my old drains and soakaway in the garden. In summer the several butts are used for the garden, but in winter I turn on the tap slightly and let it dribble to empty over a couple of days, thus doing what a complex storm system does, and slowing the flow to downstream problem areas. Anything can be presented formally as a solution, and if well presented with logic, has a chance. You might need a lot of butts though.

All of use it to some degree. I have a few big butts (water butts). But nearly all go for the "for the garden" sort rather than a second plumbing system to flush loos. The second sort is very complicated for the benefit, and you have to have more holes in your house. Shower heat recovery is an easier halo, if you want something.

However if you don’t use all the rainwater the excess has to go somewhere so a soakaway is still required.

I respect the difficult job of the overstretched planners. So I suggest make an impressive and easy to understand schedule of why a plastic chimney is a bad thing. Carbon, weakness in structure (drawings of extra work) , maintenance (what is the life to replacement or repainting the faded bricks?) , and of course pastiche. Throw in 'vernacular' where you can. ie make it easy for the planner to agree with you, and difficult to answer each of your points. You might, for balance, also state why it is a good idea.....because the planners may like the roofline. Any precedents? 20 years ago, housebuilders were adding fake Elizabethan beams, screwed onto block walls, and using new bricks stained to look like recycled. Again the planners were strangely unaware that these were pastiche until told. Have these fads passed? I found that most people , including planners, favoured the roofline effect, but had no idea that these were dummies. The use of the terms 'plastic, dummy and fake' helped the argument. Planning officers are especially skilled at understanding the rules and in diplomacy. They are not usually so good with drawings, architecture or the practical side of construction. Vernacular architecture is described as a built environment that is based upon local needs; defined by the availability of particular materials indigenous to its particular region; and reflects local traditions and cultural practices. Does a plastic chimney satisfy the above? No re materials. No, re local needs and No, re cultural practices (of having a fire) But, you presumably have an infinite amount of time to complete the house. Maybe the plastic chimney can be stuck on a bit later, when you have found one that meets your standards.

This construction is really a 'deemed to satisfy' construction, and what it satisfies is the requirement of ADE that the internal walls and floor meet min Rw 40 dB. You can meet Rw 40 dB with out the insulation and 18mm board, though with 15mm wall board ceiling. https://www.gyproc.ie/sites/default/files/C106029.pdf

The net result is the same in terms of power output, but the impact can be different. The better quality diverters generate a proper sine wave output that's in-phase with the grid. That's how the Eddi works (same as the Immersun, of which it's an improved version). Phase angle firing is a lot noisier and might cause interference with stuff like radios. People with crappy dimmers might have experienced this. Burst firing can cause perceptible flickering of lights, although I don't know what sort of lights are affected, and it probably depends on how much energy is being diverted. Presumably if it's a lot, it's probably very bright, so pulsing lights aren't likely to be noticed.

That looks really good. The horizontal beam at 1st floor level, the top of the steel needs to sit flush with the 1st floor so you can sit the glazing or door frame etc onto it. As the steel beam was smaller than the floor joists I built stud work underneath with insulation and a membrane to fix the top rail of the downstairs sliding doors to ( the downstairs doors are 2.4m high). Then I finished the outside with a 400mm fascia board that tucked behind the upstairs doors cill and used some soffit board between the fascia bottom and the downstairs doors. Hope that makes sense! I got all the Ali trims from factory that made the doors and glazing so they were all the same RAL.

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Might be worth a look at Hoskins bricks if you want something 'old' looking; we used Old Farmhouse Blend.

Just finished running a scarifier over my lawn. Think I managed to get all of the grass out of the moss ?

My installer mentioned how (expletive deleted)ing amazing I am - which is of course true .

There ya go folks.... us mere mortals make our way to Screwy's or a local Shed and buy stuff. Dave scours the Scottish countryside for bits and makes his own inverter. Still, look on the bright side, @MrsProdave is missing: some knitting needles, a large quantity of sewing pins, the face on the kitchen clock, the battery from her watch, the copper wire she uses for her jewelry making class, the phone charger that used to be on her side of the bed and her best Tupperware waterproof box. One day, our Dave is going to get caught, just like they always catch the miscreant on Line of Doody. Eventually.

No its not, those detailed in ADE are just examples of how you can meet the requirement of ADE for Rw 40 dB for internal partitions. You could have a partition floor made solely of cheese and as long as you had a lab test showing it met Rw 40 dB it would meet the requirements. Though meeting the fire regs for a cheese floor would be interesting, and a tasty fondue.

£7,999.50 in change to be exact