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Its 1% on land over £150k but if it's a garden plot I think it's 1% over £125k and a 3% surcharge?

Humm... He may not need planning permission to build a car port or roof over part of his garden but he DOES definitely need permission if he wants to build a raised deck/balcony to sit up there. The problem is proving what it's for.

Possibly but they could also remove Permitted Development Rights when granting such a new permission.

Is it currently agricultural land over 5 hectares? If so you don't need planning to put an agricultural building on the land but it has to be for agricultural use and more than 25m from a road. In a few years you could then apply to convert part of it. In 10 years it might well qualify for Permitted Development Rights to convert it to a new dwelling.

There is a concept of a particular use being abandoned. In the context of a derelict house it has to be pretty far gone before that happens but near us there is an old farmhouse thats derelict but still exists, still has most of its roof. The planners have previously said that if the owner wanted to bring it back into use then planning permission would be required because they considered use as a dwelling had been abandoned. They made no comment on the likelihood of it being granted.

Yes it's crazy. I believe if the garage was attached to the house it would count as an extension needing planning permission (page 7 & 16) yet if its detached its considered an outbuilding and doesn't ( page 7 & 42). I think there once had to be a 1m gap for it to count as detached? Not sure if that's still the case.

See page 7 and 42 in here.. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/830643/190910_Tech_Guide_for_publishing.pdf Page 7 says.. Page 42 say planning permission is needed if.. So assuming the front of the house is the principle elevation. Then the garage would not need planning permission if built now. It might be in front of a side elevation that faces a road but it's not in front of the principle elevation and that's what matters. However in the past I think a house could have more than one principle elevation. So it might have needed planning permission back then.

If your council has implemented the CIL.... You might already know that self builders are exempt BUT only if they claim the exemption before work starts on site and follow other petty rules. See the procedure listed at the top of the exmption form. Get it wrong and you can loose the exemption with no option but to pay it.

Rain cap on the chimney pot.

Some time in the past I was told that if you have a wood floor on joists the wood floor needs to be 18mm thick to meet Building Regulations. However I don't know if it varies with joist spacing. If not too late I would investigate this because 18-21mm engineered wood is going to be better for the UFH than 18mm ply + 15mm engineered wood.

Look at old maps/photos. Find out if the highway drainage is a "Piped Ditch". Its possible that years ago there was an open ditch that your land drained into. This was is common in the countryside. When the road was made up or widened they frequently put pipes in the ditch and tarmac over the top. Soakaways don't work on our plot so we proposed a rainwater recycling tank with overflow into the piped ditch under they highway verge. That was accepted even though its only used for garden watering and it's just a big collecting tank not a storm surge attenuation tank. I believe you can now get rainwater recycling tanks that provide some storm surge attenuation as well so they don't immediately overflow if it rains when they are full. If percolation test shows soakaways would need to be very big.. it might be possible to build what you can on site and then use the gravel surrounding your foul sewer as a kind of long thin extra soakaway that just happens to run off site and down the road. You would need to chuck in an extra perforated pipe after they have inspected your sewer connection and gone away as I don't think it's allowed.

+1 Unlikely to be anything to do with the air flush pipe. As @Nickfromwales said it could be one of three things.. 1) Float adjusted too high so water goes down the overflow. Unlikely to be this if you can hear it opening every 10 mins. 2) Fill valve leaking so float is underwater and water goes down the overflow. Unlikely to be this if you can hear it opening every 10 mins. 3) Flush valve leaking so so it's letting water past into the pan. Could be dirt in there, try flushing it if not done already. Some are designed to be serviced through the flush plate, others with remote flush buttons you have to provide an access panel.

If you keep quiet its only likely to be an issue if a future buyer spots that the door is new. It's been awhile since I sold a house but there might be a standard question from the solicitor asking if any notifiable work has been done without a warrant. It's not always a show stopper. In England you can buy insurance that covers the buyer just in case Building Control visit and ask for remedial work to be done.

If I was the neighbour I drop a few posts rather than build a wall.

I used onduline on a chicken house. Works ok. How about lapped timber like this sort of thing..

As I recall the regs changed some years ago so that domestic fire doors don't need to be self closing. No idea why. Your loft makes it a three storey house so fire doors are needed on all doors leading off the escape route from the loft. This is to stop fire in a ground or first floor room cutting off your escape from the loft. As least that's my understanding. Some people doing a loft conversion are surprised to find they need to change doors on the ground floor. If the ground floor is open plan to the stairs they may even have to wall off the stairs.

@Nick1c I aven't checked these very carefully but they look right size.. https://www.bigbathroomshop.co.uk/milano-lithic-low-profile-rectangular-shower-tray-1600mm-x-800mm-73873 https://www.bellabathrooms.co.uk/cassellie-rectangular-shower-tray-1600-x-800mm.html https://www.bellabathrooms.co.uk/1600-x-800-shower-tray-rectangular-low-profile-by-pearlstone.html

@Nick1c Is that 100mm from the centre of the pipe and what diameter pipe? Perhaps look at the McAlpine ST90xx10-70 traps that have centre line of pipe just 35-40mm below the bottom of the tray. They have a 34l/min flow rate. Tech drawing down here.. https://mcalpineplumbing.com/traps/shower-traps-accessories/st90cp10-70c-90mm-shallow-shower-trap I would recommend that the top of the tray is 5mm above the finished floor so door seal doesn't scrape on the floor. That gives you about 65mm for the tray. Should be quite a few that fit unless I'm missing something. Just been through this exercise myself.

Unless you look after it decking can get pretty darn slippery. There is a reason sailors are always scrubbing the deck in old pirate movies.

Filament plug... Having run out of filament recently while printing PPE I went looking for some new sources of reasonable price reasonable quality filament. Came across this stuff... Colorfabb "Economy" White/Black.. vhttps://www.idig3dprinting.co.uk/shop/3d-printer-filament/pla-filament/colorfabb-pla-filament/colorfabb-economy-white-pla-2-2kg/ £37.80 for a large 2.2Kg reel which works out at about £17/kg. OK so here might be cheaper filaments out there but prices seem to have gone up recently so I reckon its not bad. Its not a glossy filament more a matt/silk finish but that's OK for me. The headbands I've been printing are produced in stacks of 8 which have to be split apart. With three other brands I've had problems with stringing and getting the fan speed right. Too fast/cold and the prints curl up or even delaminate, too slow/hot and they all bond together and you rip bits out of them trying to separate them. With this colorfabb filament they are are separating OK but not delaminating so I'm more than happy. I have used normal (as opposed to economy) colorfabb filament once before and think that was also ok.

Looks like some of those frames need at least 170mm but check the waste pipe run fits as well..

On mine it's not the cistern that determines how far the boxing is from the wall... The 110mm pipe runs left-right from the pan to the stack below the cistern. So there is at least 110mm plus the geberit frame which I think is about 25-30mm making 135-145mm between external wall and back of plasterboard boxing. Need to check. It may also depend how far the stack is from the outside wall (eg so the connection at the pan is exactly 90 degrees). The 90 degree Geberit waste connector might also increase the depth required by moving the 110mm pipe back or the frame forward but I'd have to check the drawings.

Oil prices and oil stock rose earlier this week. I was quoted 19.6p delivered about 5 days ago but 22.9 today. Decided not to wait and have actually ordered 1500 L for delivery by 21st May by which time it might just fit in the tank.

The wall between our living room and kitchen is two feet thick (actually its two separate walls 18" apart) and contains the chimney. We have two narrow doors on the ends of the wall to turn the spaces either side of the chimney into cupboards. One houses Sat box, PVD and DVD player, network hub etc. The other is ideal for ironing board and hoover. I fitted a back box without a back so I can mount HDMI socket etc in the living room and get access to the back inside the "TV cupboard".

In addition to the need for Planning Permission the Planning Portal says... https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/11/decking/2 That will mean he needs railings to stop people falling off and proper stairs or an access door from the house.