epsilonGreedy

You are right about the price, I would save £150 even with their top-end 165 gsm Vent Pro. Trouble is even roofing super store has this on a 1 month lead time.

There seems to be a growing shortage of 1.5m wide roofing membrane with very little available from the top quality brand names such as Tyvek's supro plus. The 185 grams per m2 green roof shield used on most small development near me is not available in 1.5m and neither is Glidevale's VP400. I can get hold of Klober's Forte membrane at 1.5m wide, this is only 145 gsm but claims to have an extra 4th layer of grid reinforcement. Klober https://klober.co.uk/storage/download/klober-membrane-guide-2021-web.pdf The same supplier also offered Permavent Apex claiming all the big sites have gone over to Apex. I have a 185gsm sample and it is very strong but disconcertingly it is both vapour and air permeable and it is easy to suck air through the sample sheet. I suppose the mass house builders like using an air permeable membrane because a still wet fast build can be made weather tight and then continue to shed moisture through an air permeable roof membrane while the house dries out.

Yes indeed, if I was @LakesDylan or one of his neighbours I would want the details added as an amendment to the deeds of all parties. The important legal principal is that these rights (easements) are attached to the land.

Beyond things you cannot control like geology, trees, heavy plant access, historic discoveries and gradients, then I reckon the greatest variable is your attitude to risk. Many self builders try to insure their foundations by spending money on test digs, soil samples, engineer designed foundations, rebar and slip sheets. I had an easy site where I did the setting out, the trenches cost £500 to dig minus the garage and the concrete pour at 600mm x 600mm required about 38 m3 at £84 a cube. One semi retired builder recovering from a knee operation helped me on concrete pour day. Job done.

You can achieve a lot with "bagged" pointing, white cement and a mixed granular sized sand that colours the white mortar and produces a rough granular finish when rubbed. I only learned about mixed granular sand after my walls were up even so I am pleased with the finish using bagged pointing, white cement and a sand with a rich yellow colour. There are other details where you can spend money to age a property: Roof drainage gutter hoppers. External soil pipes. Cast aluminium gutters. Trad chimney pots. A couple of courses of grey bricks in a chimney flare. Low rise window cills rather than 150mm commodity modern estate cills or even white painted concrete cills cast onsite. No window recess or full brick window reveal rather than mainstream half brick reveals. Fat walls up to knee height. Brick corbels at gutter height. Contrasting brick colour two or tree courses above ground level. Fan light above the front door. Wisteria growing up the front wall.

Is this planning term specific to the Republic or Ireland?

I think @SteamyTea is correct. He is saying the raw stored energy in one litre of heating oil is 10.35 KwH and a diesel generator can convert that into electricity with a 40% efficiency. A discussion on a canal boat forum claimed that an Eberspacer hot air heater outputs 5kWh of heat with an hourly fuel burn rate of 0.82l. Clearly oil fired central heating boilers are the technology of the future 😉

A BBC Dr Who fan could explain.

Sounds encouraging and yes Robinsons are much cheaper. PM will be sent.

I would like to encourage a little trickle air ventilation through the attic space via the eaves and I decided not to fit top of fascia vents under the eave support tray as I did not like the idea of drawing air into the attic via the bottom of the gutter. Just a personal hunch that I have not seen discussed elsewhere.

Before I close up my wooden box eaves I need to fix lengths (4m to 10m) of mesh along the small gap where the 20mm thick wooden soffit butts up against the facing bricks. My brickie did a good job, the wall is straight and the typical gap is small (< 3mm), however my heritage bricks have larger irregularities that would allow a nesting wasp to crawl up through in some places into the eave box. My proposed solution for this is to run a length of mesh along the inside of the eave at the soffit to brick joint. Soffit mesh is available in stainless steel and plastic. My inclination at the moment is to buy a trial 10m roll of 50mm wide stainless mesh because I think once it is fixed in position I will be able to shape the mesh further into some of the irregular dips in the facing bricks. These are the products I am looking at: Plastic = https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suregreen-Plastic-glazing-insects-entering/dp/B00H0KBE4E/ SS = https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stainless-Insect-Mesh-1-31mm-0-28mm/dp/B077XY88DP There are also plastic comb products available but these seem to be intended to fit a vertical gap under profiled tiles. Note to experts: Due to indecision on my part the soffit does not rest on the top course of facing bricks because I could not give the brickie a desired height for the wall so he went an extra course higher.

His first two posts are historically correct.

I have not heard that song for years. Back in 1967 my Dad was working for Unesco in what was then Ceylon and let my Mum choose a new house to relocate the family back to South Wales. He was not impressed with her new-build choice and used to sing Little Boxes when back home. In retrospect he had a point as I can still remember all the neighbours along the avenue of 4 bed detached 60's houses. In order: Head teacher of the local primary school and his high school teacher wife. Professor and department head of local university biology department. City chief planner and his GP wife. Senior engineer (MBE) at the Royal Mint. Professor & Chair of local university maths department. High school teacher and her retired vicar husband.

@Caroline PI think you are asking the wrong question, builder/tradesman insurance is a mundane matter. Your priorities should be: Verify you own the land on which the extension is to be built. It might be communal land shared by the other flat owners or your property Deeds might restrict what you can do. Next port of call is your local authority building control department. They will need to approve your plan and will likely take a keen interest in your structural alterations and also the heat insulation of the proposed extension. Finally someone needs to review your Deeds and management contract to confirm if you are allowed to mess around with the structure of the building without consent of the other co-owners.

Would a hire place stock these or are these best sources on eBay or Amazon? I don't want to mark my part painted wooden fascias.