Temp

PS Those steps in B-B and C-C are to stop water being blown in. PPS If you arrange for the top of the slab to be 100mm above ground level you may need small ramp at main entrance.

How practical are you? It only took me an hour to learn how to abuse a mini digger. I'm thinking something like.... 1) Prepare an area about 0.5 to 1m bigger all around. 2) Excavate out say 250mm 3) Use Wacker plate to compact the ground. 4) Spread out the rough hardcore you have. Perhaps omitting any massive lumps or breaking them first. 5) Compact it. 6) Add clean hardcore. 7) Compact it again. ? Spread 25mm sand blind to prevent punctures to membrane in 11). Compact again. 9) Construct shuttering from 175mm wide boards on edge. Drawings say 150mm minimum thickness of concrete even below steps in sections B-B and C-C. I would use enough hardcore in step 6 to arrange for the top edge of the shuttering/concrete to be say 100mm above surrounding ground level. Hammer in rebar pegs to stop the wet concrete bending/pushing out the shuttering. 10) Double check dimensions because section A-A suggests walls must sit in right place so the drip bead hangs over the edge of the finished concrete all around. 11) Lay membrane to stop water in concrete draining out before it sets. I'm not 100% sure how best to form the notches/steps shown in sections B-B and C-C. Perhaps prepare blocks of wood to be pressed/vibrated into the wet concrete and fixed to the shuttering while it sets? Plan ahead for how this will be done! Thin boards may warp when wetted by the concrete? Sheets of WBP or wrap timber in plastic might work? 12) Calculate volume of concrete required and add a bit just in case. Order concrete with reinforcing fibres. 13) If readymix lorry won't be able to reverse right up to the shuttering consider hiring a dumper for transporting the concrete across site. 14) bribe at least four friends to be there to help spread out and level the concrete using spades, rakes and long boards across the top of the shuttering. Important it's level in step 9. 15) Crack open beer. If ground really wet dig French drains around outside?

PS I suspect if you welcome the engineers on site with tea and biscuits when they come to lay the cable they might even drop in a length of conduit across their trench at the right depth for you to use later.

They are concerned that you might damage their cable. If they really won't budge ask if you can add.. "..without their permission, which will not be unreasonably withheld". The alternative is to make sure you are there when they bury the cable so you know _exactly_ how deep it is and just get on with it. I very carefully dug a pad foundation for the oak post of an outbuilding right over an 11kv line.

+1 With UFH you have loops of pipe going from manifold(s) to each room. By fitting valves to the manifold ports you can control the temperature of each room using a thermostat in each room. If the thermostats are programmable you can also have different temperatures at different times or have some rooms off (eg guest room). The key to maintaining flexibility is to specify one floor loop per room, no loops shared between rooms. Later you can decide if you want a thermostat stat in each room or one in the hall controlling multiple rooms. Personally I like the fact that we can control the temperature of each room individually. It allows us to warm up the bathroom floor without heating the bedrooms for example. Your open plan ground floor may need more than one loop. That's no problem, you just need enough ports on the manifold. One thermostat can control more than one loop.

PS There are quite a few flat panel LED lights available now. I've not used them yet but would seriously consider them in a kitchen if building again.

We fitted GU10 LED downlights. Personally I prefer bulbs with a wide angle (eg 90-160 degrees) as you get more even lighting and fewer hard shadows but for some reason narrow angle bulbs (30-50 degrees) seem to be more common. As for brightness... There are two types of halogen bulbs that people compare LEDs with... 230V GU10 and 12V MR16. In general MR16 halogen are brighter than GU10 halogen so GU10 halogen are usually spaced closer together than MR16. When installing GU10 LED in a kitchen I recommend you pick LED bulbs with a light output of around 400 Lumens and install them at the spacing normally used for GU10 halogen or perhaps slightly closer together. If you do that they will be at least as bright as GU10 halogen and possibly brighter. I think most places recommend rows 90-100cm apart but with the outer rows closer to the walls, say 75cm away. You can also choose between warm and cool/cold white LED. Personally I prefer warm white.

If the soil is permeable a soakaway under the parking area would be the best option. You should also read.. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/45/paving_your_front_garden In short you need planning permission to tarmac, concrete or pave a front garden unless you deal with rainwater run off on site. That usually means drains to collect rainwater and a soakaway but if the area of hard surface is small and the soil is very free draining you might get away with sloping the ground towards flower beds. The thing to avoid is rainwater running down the driveway onto the road.

What's under the sheets? Looks like you have weed suppression sheets down. If you want to level and pave or tarmac the front you should probably put a soakaway under it first. These days if you don't deal with rainwater run off on site you will need to make a planning application.

That looks ok to me. A key point is that it's only for the supply of materials. If he had invoiced for labour only, or materials and labour on the same invoice, then then it should be zero rated to you.

https://www.railwaysleepers.com/blog/tips-advice/how-to-build-a-retaining-wall-with-railway-sleepers

Some info here.. https://www.thwlegal.co.uk/about-us/news/public-highways-and-access Looks like PP isn't required but you probably need Highway Authority approval.

Even before Covid our council planning department was a problem. People shared with other councils and some only part time. Some roles only one part time person so if they are off sick nothing gets done. We lost perhaps 8 weeks when the conservation officer quit at short notice. They had to poach someone from another council where they had to work out their notice. I can't imagine how to predict it at the moment.

Try pushing at the bottom and pulling at the top (at the same time) to tip it forwards and lift the leg/wheel out of the hole its made? If it will tip forward like that perhaps you can push a 3mm metal plate under the machine for the rear leg to slide run on? Lots of hands needed.

What sort of garage? Is this a regular domestic garage in someones garden or a commercial car repair shop or petrol station? My understanding is that what matters is its current use before any new development that it has planning for. So if its domestic garage it would be the residential rate. If it is a petrol station its non-residential even though it already has PP for a house. However if work had already begun on the house it would be residential. Probably should seek professional advice.

I think the problem is its not a private track but an old public road. If it was private there probably wouldn't be an issue. We have a similar road near us that's an old drovers route. Some ruts are so deep they come up to your waist and the brambles cross in the middle. When 4*4 drivers started using 4 years ago the council said its was still officially a highway but they must have changed its status soon after that because they put a proper barrier across it.

I don't know unclassified roads were numbered but Google tells me some council's numbered them. Perhaps try the open gov database which Google says has data on unclassified roads in Dorset for example. https://data.gov.uk/dataset/10040590-b054-40a7-a13e-e0068129821c/unclassified-roads

Forget the width of the mortar perps. The lintel is the real problem. You might consider replacing the window with a wider one at same time as replacing the lintel. Have any other windows got lintel problems?

There are several variations on this theme.. Glue a "block" of wood to the front side of the panel next to the upright. When dry pull on the block to pull the panel to the upright. Then screw or bolt through the block to the upright. Cut off any excess block. You can also put glue between the panel and upright before pulling on the block. Or.. Drill holes in the panel. Tie a rope to the middle of a bolt to make a T shape. Push bolt through hole and jiggle it until you can't pull it back through. Use rope to pull panel to the support while glue dries. When dry use narrow nose pliers or similar to turn bolt so it can be withdrawn through hole or just cut rope and let bolt drop behind panel. Fill hole with plug. Or Drill holes either side of upright. Pass semi rigid wire or cable tie through one hole and guide it to the other. Grab with pliers and pull it through so both ends now on your side. Glue as above. Pull wire and tighten around support.

Access for maintenance might be an issue for timber frame. I think blocks usually have to be rendered to make them frost proof as well? What say others? Bricks can be done "overhand" but bricklayers don't like it.

We have a beam and block ground and first floor. Think our SE recommended 14N blocks in certain areas. It's less a problem for the ground floor because sleeper walls carry some of the load and reduce the span.

If you want the culvert to be some sort of water feature you might consider hiring a landscape or pond designer to come up with some ideas. Typically pond construction uses a membrane over a sand blind and might be terraced to allow water plants to be planted in pots in the shallows at the sides. Typically paving or natural stone is used to cover a the edges of the membrane but there are any number of materials used including stainless steel.

Did the planning department impose any conditions in your Planning grant that refers to the ditch? I think I'd want something like a French drain across the back of your house diagonally to collect any water and divert it around the house to whichever side works best. How steep is the slope? It looks steep enough that there may only be a significant depth of water in it immediately after rainfall? Eg not much of a water feature? I guess the alternative might be to create a line of ponds to trap water with waterfalls between them? Perhaps also a pump to keep them going when it's dry?

If you decide to make one.. A 100m reel of 2.5mm^2 flex is about £80 in black and £90+ in orange. Rubber 13A plug and socket £7. Hose reel/cart perhaps £20-40. That would probably be ok for a (typical 500-750W) hedge trimmer but for a 2kw electric chainsaw you need 4mm^2 which adds another £70-90.

Some discussion here on this old thread about cable size needed. How about using a hose reel? https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?threads/100m-mains-extension-lead.284474/ If you decide to ignore the voltsge drop becareful what you plug in. Something like a pressure washer can behave a bit like a constant power device drawing more current if the voltage drops. Can actually burn out.