epsilonGreedy

I read the original post 7 hours ago and thought "simples, terminate the contract with the builder and move in asap". My guess is that the builder would like the job to drag on into late Spring, on the pretext of the fire door supply delay, so he can prioritize other work and use @Adsibob's job as a fall back to fill in idle time. I think the OP is looking at this from the wrong perspective of "what I am allowed to do" and "who might be upset if I do". I suggest the thought process should be "if I do what I need to do would I end up facing criminal charges or suffer serious financial penalty and how soon might such consequences manifest". Taking the bankruptcy concern at face value I would plan to move in ahead of a natural break in the current rental tenancy. Just do it without a dialogue with the builder, he has seriously let you down at significant cost. All the builder can do it allege breach of contract and seek damages after the contract is terminated. The cogs of Local Council enforcement move slowly and at the end of the day they just want a tidy conformant wrap-up to the works. Mid works site safety is another department.

How large is this regional variation in percentage terms?

If the kWh price climbs past £0.30 will the traditional cry of of the Rag & Bone Man change from "any old iron" to "any old air source heat pumps"

My boiler needs to be powered cycled off and on at its mains 240v connection if an LPG bottle runs out of gas before it will fire up again with a fresh LPG bottle.

I heard much the same from Martin Lewis on TV, he said the pricing formula is well know and works on 6 month average. At this point it is difficult for the April price to land outside a 40% to 50% range. Martin Lewis also said follow Cornwall Insight to understand the energy market, no not this one @SteamyTeathis one https://www.cornwall-insight.com/price-cap-set-for-46-rise-for-summer-2022-winter-2022-23-cap-may-exceed-2000/

I hate to rain on your recent sprint of progress but it is not too late to knock off the 3rd row of trench blocks along the rear 3rd of the footings while the mortar is still green. The cost of rebuilding that footing course as a cavity wall with regular blocks and facing bricks might be smaller than raising the land an additional 225mm along 20m linear meters of external wall. Just two additional points. Aerated trench blocks do not like freeze thaw cycles so need to be clearly below ground level. Also would a 1.5m high rampart along the rear wall frustrate garden landscape plans? Presumably your architect thought all this through so providing you are not deviating from his plan you can ignore internet experts. Do you need mobility ramps at all external doors?

Crikey that is a lot of back filling. You have a tricky financial equation to get right between rapid progress with footing blocks now and later backfilling cost v. Switching gear now and using regular facing bricks lower down and thus saving on hardcore later on. How close to the rear of the house can a laden lorry dump a 20 ton load of hardcore get? You will need a mid size digger for a few days for the back filling, hopefully before autumn weather softens the ground.

True but I hope the finished level will be improved in a following course of regular inner blocks before the floor beams are lifted in. Trench blocks are difficult to level because the large seat area means the blocks do not respond well to leveling taps. Does anyone think the 3rd course of trench blocks is a mistake? If a 4th course of regular medium blocks is required to take the point loads of floor beams the FFL/DPC is going to be way above ground. Maybe the front door is approached via a castle drawbridge!

I gave up after 5 tons and ended up with a humongous 200mm thick slab for the garage.

Did you retain the trench excavation subsoil on site? I ask because the gradient will require a lot of soil/hardcore to make up the level. Similar work on a property near required 200 tons of hardcore.

They are manufactured to some HSE prescribed one person lift weigh limit. Their composition is similar to a thermolite whisper bar consistency and they also have finger size handhold recesses moulded in, probably about 20kg each.

Some seat of my pants arithmetic suggests those extensive footings will require 280 trench blocks. Given the difficult working conditions in those slurry filled trenches and long frosty nights that limit the working day then a complete course in 3 days is not terrible. They will probably build standard corners in the second course. I would be more concerned about the pooling of water in the near lefthand corner and would hire a rotating level for a day to verify the height of the concrete pour at all corners or borrow the brickie's. If they are good they will have already quantified errors in the pour level but might not feel it is their role to complain.

In the second post the OP told us the site engineer returned after the concrete pour to install reference pins.

There was a period on BuildHub when the excessively dry atmosphere caused by MVHRs was a recurring point of discussion. Has this problem gone away? I recall some fit special MVHR units that transfer moisture back into the feed air supply to maintain a health higher humidity level. The notion that an MVHR combats damp, rotting timbers and mould is a bit fanciful in a new build. I will be fitting one but in the interests of giving the OP a balanced view let's not get carried away with group-think.

Assuming that other people are as rational and reasonable as you in a boundary dispute is your first mistake. I think your solicitor said it is a "civil" law matter and not a criminal law matter. So don't worry that the long arm of the law will come knocking one day in the form of a uniformed police officer demanding that you remove the gutter. To enforce a claim for trespass your neighbour would have to initiate a civil claim against you and that would cost her money and take ages to work through the legal system, however at the end of the day the dispute would be adjudicated subject civil law. The judicial system hates boundary disputes and looks for evidence that neighbours have tried their best to resolve matters prior to Court proceedings. So be on best behaviour and maintain a log of interactions. There is a convoluted section of boundary property law that involves a concept called "adverse possession". This usually involves fences or hedges that get moved and after many years the effective working boundary is deemed to have become the adjusted legal boundary. I don't think invasion of air space by a gutter is a route to claiming adverse possession in your favour.

I am only familiar with two cases and doubt I can add value above what your planning consultant is advising. In one case the self builder represented himself at committee and won. The pro planner from the council department could not present a rational case for the initial refusal and was subtly admonished for wasting the committee's time. The self builder was mostly peeved about the additional £1500 cost of printing an info folio for each committee member to refer to. The second case of two properties about 50 metres apart. The one inside the conservation area was subject to fine grain conditions about finishing materials to created a heritage look and the other effectively in the same village just outside the CA boundary is a leading edge passiv house with a green roof, acres of glazing and PV. Planners just seem to have segmented minds and either try to apply rules or they roll a dice.

I know, why did you edit out my "when playing fair" prefix?

Your need to do your research because my understanding of planning committee hearings that you will be timeboxed to a few minutes to present your case. You don't want to be blindsided when the committee chair refers to the pro planner who says something like "May I remind the committee of section (f) in the 2016 revisions introduced to curtail the random distribution of new upmarket mansions in the upper Xxxx valley".

You deserve a direct conversation with them, their objection might be ridge height or the position of the garage. Who knows. Since buying my plot I have had extensive (literally hours in total) free face to face and telephone conversations with my local district planning department, all for the price of one £230 NMA. There is no parity of access to planners across the country judging by many accounts here. How long ago did your neighbour obtain planning? I ask because when playing fair planners try to stick to their rule book and the most recent incarnation of published planning policy. The local planning policy will be revised over time.

Parish Councils are a lower tier of government than Borough and District. Your equivalent in Scotland is a Community Council but these seem more junior to even a Parish Council. Do they still exist with any powers? Anyhow your reference to Borough and District councilors refers to a higher level of Government than a Parish therefore you post does not clarify the role or influence of a Parish Council in planning matters.

Received wisdom on this forum is that Parish Councils have very little influence on planning decisions, the usual context of such discussions is an objection from the PC. By implication their support does not count for much. Your design is rather large, it looks over 3000 sq ft of internal floor space. When you made a comparison with your existing bungalow was that based on ground foot print or livable internal floor space?

I don't think this line of reasoning will impress the local planning department. Presumably the neighbour's original extension right up to the boundary was deemed reasonable when your plot was open ground. It might be worth looking at the historical planning approval to see if they built 1m beyond what was approved.

Are you a reincarnation of your former self Dave? Now you tell me. I was hoping to get 3 panels fixed on the roof and electrically terminated in the loft before taking the scaffolding down. Then 6 months later finish off the install adding the inverter and 240v feed into the main CU. Is there a safe way to achieve that? Thinking aloud, could I terminate the raw PV in the attic with a hefty double poll master rotary switch, then 6 months later install everything else before connecting up to the attic double poll switch? Then the final commissioning event would be to throw the master switch in the attic, hence no external roof access is required.

I thought we all tried to avoid such vapour tight products in the loft?

Are you sure you have 250mm of PIR? That would perform way in excess of 300mm of EPS and 300mm of EPS is enough for the most demanding passiv house insulated slabbers.