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Presumably the house to the west and the blue land is (still) all on one title? Have you got a copy of that one? If not then download one for £3ish from the real land registry site (more from the fakes). You can get it by email in 20mins. May need to register. I would expect there to be a restrictive covenant in that title added in 2008 because all Restrictive Covenants created since 13 October 2003 must be registered at the Land Registry. Hopefully there will be one in there that will preclude them building on the blue land, preserve your right of access over it and share costs etc.

I only discovered recently that there can be more info about this sort of thing in the "Land Charges Register" and/or a "Local Land Charges Register". Your solicitor may/should already have obtained info from there but might not have shared the results with you? I wasn't very impressed with our solicitor. They seem to assume that if there were any problems they would have come up in the past. That might be true for an existing house but they didn't seem concerned about the different issues that can come up when buying a building plot. Things like ransom strips. The covenant may deal with the access issue but do you also need to run services/utilities over that patch of land in blue or can they come via another route?

The one you turned back on.. was that the same stat (eg the far bathroom stat) or a different one? Eg it it just one particular stat that turns everything on incorrectly or more than one? Are the stats wireless or networked in some way? Could it be some sort of pairing issue? Eg they all reset to the same address after a power cut?

@Oz07 Thanks for the offer but in the scheme of things the gun rental isn't going to break the bank and I'm not sure exactly when I'm going to get to do the job yet.

So I'm thinking of hiring one of these.. https://www.hss.com/hire/p/power-fastening-timber-nailer And using these 51mm galvanised ring shank nails.. https://www.screwfix.com/p/paslode-galvanised-plus-im350-collated-nails-2-8-x-51mm-1100-pack/32740 I guess I'd better not order nails until I check which model of gun they have? Or are most Paslode nails compatible with all Paslode guns?

I'll soon have to replace a feather board fence constructed from individual boards so lots of nailing. Due to proximity of plants it will be a lot easier to use a nail gun rather than a hammer. Can anyone recommend a nail gun that will fire suitable nails to fix 22mm feather edge boards to cant rails?

The aluminium is just one form of oxygen barrier but it may also help locate pipes later if you need to drill holes.

Welcome. The material the pipe is made of can differ. Some use PEX and others I think use polybutylene (spelling?). In the USA the later has/had a bad reputation but seems ok here. Any pipe used should have an oxygen barrier and be pressure tested before you pour the floor screed. Make sure to put enough insulation under it. In a new house I would go for at least 100mm of PIR and others put 200mm of EPS.

Remember you can reclaim VAT on plants shown on a landscaping plan. In our case they only wanted us to plant a hedge and a few trees along one boundary. We just added it to a copy of the site plan renamed "Landscaping Plan" and wrote a half page "Landscape and maintenance plan". This just said something like.... "Hedge A on Landscaping Plan to be a mix of native hedge plants similar to (list of plants) planted in two staggered rows 0.5m apart. Rabbit protection: plastic spirals. Five trees shown to be "standards", two oak and three chestnut (think I put the Latin names from some web site). Any plants that die in first two years to be replaced. Sent it in with a request to have that and other conditions discharged.

I've been back over the OP and some of the follow up posts. Its clear there is some sort of flow issue but it could be in one of two places: 1) Around the floor loops: I think this has been disproven by the fact that the red loop flow rate indicators show adequate flow. 2) Between Boiler and manifold through the mixer. In the OP you said.. That sounds like the boiler is shutting itself off because the flow temperature is getting too high. If you can catch it doing this check the temperature of the flow and return pipes near the down stairs manifold. There can be two causes.. a) There is flow but its all bypassing the manifold due to an issue with the mixer. This could be proved/disproved by the temperature of the boiler flow/return pipe near the manifold. eg If both are boiling hot the issue is with the mixer (Which I note you had replaced shortly before the problem started). b) There is no flow. In this case the boiler flow and return near the manifold would be cooler. This could be due to an issue the pump that circulates water from the boiler to the manifolds or the signals that control it. If the pump wasn't working then you might still get flow to the upstairs manifold due to thermosyphon (aka heat rises). Check if this pump runs when the downstairs manifold calls for heat.

Slightly odd installation. I notice the screed isn't going under the kitchen units. So will their work tops feel a bit low after this is done?

That black stuff is a layer of plastic. My understanding is that it's intended to control water loss from the screed and/or prevent liquid screed getting under the insulation causing the whole lot to float. The grey stuff looks like perimeter insulation. To stop heat loss into walls and allow for some expansion of the screed without pushing the walls out.

Google found a drawing that shows outer walls but internal walls can be done same way.. https://www.premierguarantee.com/media/1212/technical_manual_v11_-_chapter_6compressed.pdf

Typically the beams in a B&B floor rest on/in internal walls/stub walls to reduce the span. So the situation is similar to external walls. You put in two DPC. One under the beams and one at the normal height. The DPM goes on top of the B&B before the insulation and connects with upper DPC.

My oil boiler is a 13 year old Grant Vortex feeding UFH via a thermal store. I've no intention of replacing it any time soon. I see no reason why it won't do another 10 easily.

You need to decide if this is going to be a proper extension or just a shed. Proper extension would have a door between it and house, proper foundations, insulated floor walls, roof, double glazed windows, heating and electric. You might me able to build this as a timber frame but how close to the boundary is it?

@IndustrialWizarding Welcome to the forum. Looks pretty normal/typical for the period to me as well.

Sorry if Im being slow but.. All the pressure regulator/reduction valves I've ever had were two port (eg in and out) . Can you tell us where each of the pipes on yours goes?

I think Building control will ask you for a u-value at least.

That's good data to have. If your oil boiler is 90% efficient it means your house needs about 20*90/100 = 18kWh per year for heating and HW. https://nottenergy.com/resources/energy-cost-comparison/ Oil/kerosene is about 4.6p/kWH. Find out how much you would pay per unit of electricity. That site uses a figure of 19p/kWH. At that rate you would need the COP of the ASHP to average over 19/4.6 = 4 all year to break even. Do your own figures. When you get quotes for an ASHP they should work out your heat loss to correctly size the ASHP. I have some concerns some installers are under estimating heat loss and selling units that are too small. If you end up with a unit that's too small the COP can fall below 2 or lower in winter making it expensive to run or unable to heat the house in cold weather. I would compare thst figure of 18kWh with what the installer calculates the house needs as a sanity check that the sizing is correct. Be aware that if you dont resize the rads the ASHP will need to deliver high flow temperatures and that can reduce the COP.

If you have a PRV the pressure must have been too high at some point in the past. I find PRV need adjusting every say 5 years. Over time the flow rate reduces until I get fed up and turn it up. There is usually a screw on the end, sometimes hidden under a lable.

Indeed. Our neighbours and some absentee land owners did a deal with a wind farm company that wanted to put up seven 120m turbines. Was a crazy scheme right between two conservation areas. In the end even one of the land owners wrote to object. He promptly had to withdraw his objection when the wind co pointed out he'd agreed not to. The things the developer got upto during the planning process beggars belief. We learnt a lot about the planning process.

If they originally created the drawings for building control approval they may not be accurate enough to use for construction. For example Building Control may want to know the total area of glazing for heat loss calculations but they don't need the drawings to show the exact position of a window. So the position on the BC drawing may not be a multiple of a half brick as you might on a construction drawing. Perhaps that's not the best example. It is never good practice to scale from a drawing. You should always use the dimensions on the drawing and if any are missing ask for them to be added. This would apply to a .pdf or .dwg.

My guess is that's the width of the wall so the bearing will actually be 150x100 onto a padstone.

They may also have to pay CGT as it counts as a sale at market value. +1 and tell the person valuing why you need a valuation. Estate Agents always value on the high side because they think you are more likely to use them to sell it. You want a value for CGT/IHT purposes which should be at the lower end of the market range. There are special rules for gifts of land that are different to gifts of money, cars etc. Best get some professional advice. Some of the issues are raised here.. https://www.birketts.co.uk/insights/legal-updates/agricultural-brief-the-gift-of-giving-gifts-of "The basic rule (since 1925) is that land can only be transferred, including by gift, by a deed, drafted as such, and signed by the giver (the donor), with a witness". Continues,