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https://www.bromley.gov.uk/leaflet/122659/4/675/d Quotes Trading Standards Institute Advice...

See also Approved Document R... https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200128/building_control/124/part_r_-_electronic_communications

We also ran a duct and wire from the BT pole to a cupboard in the house where we have a power point for the modem and a wired router. From there we have network cable to most other rooms. In two of these rooms we have WiFi access points (one upstairs and one down). This certainly seems to improve our WiFi speeds and reliability.

The potential problem with inverters is the life time of the capacitors they use(d). https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/capacitors-play-a-key-role-in-renewable-energy The life time of some capacitors is perhaps 10 thousand hours at a Max temperature of 105C. That's only 1 year. However it doubles for every 10C below that rated temperature. So if they use 105C rated capacitors operated at say 60C that's about four doublings or 16 years. If at 50C that's 32 years.

Planning permission wouldn't normally be needed to change a garden room to a bedroom. The only exceptions I can think of would be if it was going to become a new separate dwelling or or use as a bedroom was precluded by a planning condition (not sure such a condition would be lawful). If it says garden room on the plans it's likely building control approval was granted on that basis, or possibly not required at all or not obtained. I see a similarity to a loft conversion. The regs that apply are those in force at the time the loft is converted to a habitable room.

See also this thread. There are some scammers out there. Check if your 25 year warranty requires regular inspections or servicing. I'm a retired electronics engineer and question if some/many inverters will last 25 years.

I can only think they don't want the job for some reason unless it's silly money.

Not sure what caused that. Looks like quite a wide crack. What's the floor make up?

Traditional screed with fibres is normally fine with ufh and tiles or stone. However some care is required where two areas of screed meet at a doorway. You should form an expansion gap at this point and not tile over it.

In a rush but... Some liquid screeds can be hard to tile. The screed forms a weak powdery layer that has to be mechanically removed. Latiance I think it's called.

Plastic bags would be a nightmare in our village - so many foxes and free range dogs rubbish would be everywhere.

Haven't used sketchup for awhile but I found it was difficult to get it to produce 2D scale drawings of a 3D object (eg your elevation drawings) or do much with text. Has any of that changed?

If you are currently in a house... Perhaps request some extra bins and transport them to the new site. See what happens when you put them out :-)

Yes, and the VAT on the kitchen package which you might have got cheaper elsewhere without "free" appliances.

+1 A pure wireless extender has the same problem connecting to a distant router as a phone/tablet. So I always recommend either.. A WiFi Access Point connected to the distant router by a network cable Or A WiFi Access point connected to the distant router over the mains. If you really must use Wi-fi then you might need special aerials to set up a point to point link between AP and router.

Sorry if I've missed it but.. What's the construction of the workshop and will the foundations be ok?

The only way you can "claim" for appliances is if they are "free" with your kitchen package.

Quite possibly, it was all I could find as well. As i understand it you are meant to be in compliance with Building Regs at all times, not just when you are being inspected by the BCO during/following construction work. Just as your car must have legal tyres all the time not just for the MOT test! (Although unlike a car, changes to the building regs are rarely if ever retrospective). When the room was "converted" to a habitable room a breach may have occured (for example because there wasn't enough insulation). From that point the BCO had 12 months to issue a section 36 notice requiring you to carry out work to make it comply. After that the BCO could go to court and get an injunction requiring you to carry out the work but in practice the high cost of this precludes them doing so except in cases where a building is obviously very dangerous. A more likely possibility is that a new owner might want to build a new extension or some other work needing approval and the BCO might spot the non-compliance and insist on additional work being done before he signs off the new work. If you advertise it as a two bed and the sellers solicitor discovers the non-compliance they have a duty to the buyer to point out the risk that the BCO might take enforcement action and the costs this might incur. They might not care, they might want you to take out an insurance policy, or at worse they may expect you to reduce the price to reflect it's value as a one bedroom house with garden room. Either way they can argue you priced it as a two bed house with no risks and there is a risk so the price no longer reflects it's true value. If you advertise it as a one bedroom with garden room there is no building regs issue so no scope to argue it's price doesn't reflect it's true value. I guess it's up to you which way you go.

Harry, I would just apply for what you want. They shouldn't be concerned about what you want to put up there, just on the external appearance. They might be worried that you could build both the remaining bit of the existing pp and the new loft conversion, unless the new one physically precludes this. If it doesn't it might be worth heading off that concern at the outset?

This issue frequently comes up when people convert lofts without getting Building control approval. It's normal for estate agents to refuse to list it as a bedroom.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/9/change_of_use/3 "The building regulations may apply to certain changes of use of an existing building even though you may think that the work involved in the project will not amount to 'building work'."

As I recall habitable rooms, like Bedrooms, must meet building regulations but other rooms, such as store rooms and possibly some "garden rooms" don't necessarily have to meet building regulations. Edit: That would be the building regs at time of construction.

We have India stone stuck down with mortar on some steps and 10 years down the line we have had some come off. Our steps have rough cut edges rather than bull nose not that it makes any difference.

I think that would be difficult. Many lenders won't lend at all for development projects, they prefer completed houses they can easily sell if it all goes pear shaped. Personally I would keep around £25k (10% of your total budget?) as contingency cash and try and borrow the rest at the outset. Two reasons... 1) It's much easier to dip into cash reserves if needed than it is to go back to the bank for more money. In the intervening 12 months the banks policy may have changed or interest rates may have gone up and they might be more reluctant to lend. Your own employment situation might have changed. If you have money left at the end you can always consider repaying some of the mortgage. 2) Your lender may only release funds in stages that may not match your expenditure. Perhaps you need to press ahead with one part of the project that doesn't help you achieve a milestone for financing. You might need to buy materials for the next phase before they have made the stage payment for the previous one. Having a cash float can help with that sort of thing.

Most buyers like plots to be independently developable. What I mean is buyers don't want to have to rely on the seller providing access to services or anything else once they have purchased the plot. It's not unknown for sellers to disappear before the promised shared road or drain has been installed and the plot owner might not be able to legally provide these themselves if they don't own the land over which they have to be laid. So if anything like this applies to any of your plots it would be worth sorting out those issues before sale. However if the plots each have their own boundary with the highway where services are located then I probably wouldnt bother, I'd let the buyers sort it out. It also depends on the difficulty of connecting to services. For example if a new transformer is required then definitely better for you to sort that out.