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What sort of cable? How many houses does it serve? If its a big fat cable serving many houses best not get involved. Leave everything to the contractor and their insurance. If its just a cable to your house it wouldn't be £thousands to repair. There might also be options to put another BT cable in the trench if it gets damaged. Depends where it goes. If it goes to a BT pole near the end of the road you are digging up you could run a new cable to the bottom of the pole and pay BT to connect it up. Leave enough wire coiled up to reach the top with several meters spare. You might also consider putting a duct in the road with your new BT cables and a draw rope to make installing fibre easier. The main thing would be to fix it before you back fill the trench as digging it up again would be the main cost. For info.. Underground phone cable is around £1 a meter. Duct about £1.50 to £3 a meter. So a whole new duct and cable over a 100m run might be £500 plus a £ few hundred to get BT to connect up each end. A simple repair to a broken cable would be cheaper.

Discuss with the contractor how near to their buildings they feel is safe. Eg agree a limit as to how close they can dig. Then tell the neighbours you plan to dig down the middle but that may change to avoid damaging services. Tell them you ave agreed with the contractors they won't dig closer than x meters.

I wonder if it would be easy to stain just the mortar or would it bleed into the bricks?

Lets see how big... Let's say your house needs an average of just 1kW to maintain temperature over the four winter months Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb.... That would mean you need it to store energy of.. 4 x 30 x 24 x 60 x 60 x 1000 = approx 10^9 Joules To be useful the store probably needs to have a minimum temperature of say 20C (unless a heat pump is used) and the max temperature would need to be just below boiling say 90C? So a swing of about dt = 70C. E = mass x dt x shc Mass = E/(dt x shc) = 10^9/(70*4182) = 34,000 kg So 34 cubic meters per kW not taking into account losses from the store.

Didn't really notice much camber once the blocks were fitted. If there was any it was taken up in the screed/insulation.

That might actually be correct but it depends on the span and the depth (150mm) and width of the new taller joists (eg the one on the left). Ideally when those were installed they should be raised up slightly so there is a small gap between the bottom of the joist and the plasterboard below. They might have left a gap but the photo is a bit out of focus so hard to tell. This gap is so when the floor is loaded and the joists bend they don't bend the plasterboard. This reduces the possibility of plaster cracks appearing in the room below. For the same reason the new joists are not fixed to the old ones (except perhaps at the ends or where they are both supported on the same wall).

I recommend you get input from an SE. The normal issue is the way the roof is triangulated. Without a dormer the rafters and floor joists form a triangle that stops the weight of the roof pushing the walls out. If you omit/cut a load of rafters for the dormer this removes the triangulation. One solution is to replace the ridge board with a stronger ridge beam. This beam typically transfers the load to the gable walls or is supported another way. There are other possible solutions. Whatever you do it needs to be designed and Building Control will probably want to see the design justufication/calculations. Other typical issues include: Are the floor joists strong enough to convert the loft? Will there be enough headroom if you have to fit a ridge beam and insulation in the roof? And strengthen the floor?

We have b&b with UFH on both floors. Can't comment on the cost as it was all hidden in builders quote. I know some changes to ground floor walls were required - had to go for denser blocks where windows concentrated loads into narrow piers. Upstairs it made tiling the bathroom a breeze. No issues with having to reinforce wood floors for tiling bathroom or levels. In some rooms, instead of screed we fitted battens with ufh between and 21mm engineered oak on top. (Aside: Note that wood flooring must be 18mm+. Don't buy 14mm and then have to put another layer under it as that would affect UFH performance). Was first time our builder had done a b&b first floor. Said he liked it.

a. Yes you can reclaim the 5% on labor or supply and fit. b. Yes you can reclaim the 20% on materials The end result is the same as for a new build. Both conversions and new builds get all the VAT back, it's just the route getting there that is slightly different. See VAT431C and the notes with it.

Needs proper tanking as you would for a basement in my opinion.

If the hot and cold are reversed the cartridge that is meant to regulate the temperature actually makes things worse... If the flow is a bit too hot, instead of reducing hot and increasing the cold it does the reverse, it increases the hot making it even hotter. In no time at all it's at maximum hot.

I suspect not. Hot is usually on the left on some mixer it can be changed. Not sure if this link is working.. https://youtu.be/2HbNaj2D_-8

+1 The guide here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/permitted-development-rights-for-householders-technical-guidance tells you what you can build without needing planning permission. If you want to build something that doesn't meet the above you need to apply for planning permission.

I'm not sure they actually need a certificate. Thought it was only needed when building for charities or nursing homes. There are example certificates in section 18.. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buildings-and-construction-vat-notice-708#the-certificates If your builder insisted on a certificate then basically it's just a letter addressed to the stating that you certify their work is being carried out on a dwelling that qualifies for reduced rating for VAT (5%) under paragraph 8 of VAT Notice 708, having been unoccupied for the x years before renovation work started. It needs to include your contact details, the site details and an planning reference number plus a copy of any planning grant. If you have evidence its been empty for the required period perhaps add a copy of that as well.

If you can, consider two lots of studs one for each side of plasterboard with insulation loose fitted between. Sometimes floors done this way. Not really to scale..

https://engx.theiet.org/f/wiring-and-regulations/28736/dealing-with-a-dno-as-a-self-builder Dealing with a DNO as a Self Builder

Unfortunately the Party Wall Act doesnt apply to fences, only walls. Confusingly it calls them Party Fence Walls.

It looks like Last Mile Electricity are an IDNO which means they are the DNO for a number of new housing developments. Unfortunately you may not have any choice but to deal with them. Surprisingly for a DNO they have a lot of contact info on their web site... https://lastmile-uk.com/contact/ Although that doesn't help much if they don't respond.

We have a lot of external oak. If you want to retain the honey colour (rather than letting it go black then silver) I would avoid oil finish. We originally used Dainish Oil but that needs redoing every 6 months and some areas will go black anyway. We switched to Osmo UV Protection Oil and that's a lot better. Some areas last 4 years but others need redoing every 2 years. Osmo UV Protection Oil on new oak is also a bit too white so you may need a stain coat first. On our oak front door (below) we used Sadolin Classic to colour then two/three thin coats of Sadolin Extra Satin Clear. I've just recoated it for the second time after 15 years so it seems to last upto 7 years between coats. You have to apply thin coats brushed out well or it looks a but muddy. Think the initial colour coat was a mix of natural and light oak. Experiment.

Go around every rad yourself. Have a good feel all around the pipes and valves checking for any dampness. It's easy for small leaks at rads to run down the pipe and dissappear.

Just to check.. There is "Last Mile Asset Management " who are a nationwide connection company and "Last Mile Electricity" who are an IDNO in one area of the country. Are you in the area covered by the latter or are you dealing with the former?

We have 110mm pipe coming up through the floor under the sink. Think a rubber adaptor seals the 40mm sink and dishwasher waste pipe to the 110mm. Never had a problem.

Great site for all things paving and drainage. https://www.pavingexpert.com/blocks04 "Unacceptable construction"... See the accompanying text if you want to argue with a contractor.

Ah I didn't spot this was a garden wall. Is it a retaining wall?

I would expect it to have appeared earlier if normal efflorescence. I think there is a chance something may have changed 2 -4 years ago. Check for blocked or overflowing gutters? Any pipes in the area? New paving? Anything that could make the wall a bit wetter than it was before.