Temp

If you don't like the ideal of a timber wall plate, could you build a dwarf wall inside and put dpc on top to protect the joist ends?

Not sure I follow. Are these floor joists below a bifold door? or ceiling joists above a bifold door? I'm guessing its the former? As I recall there should be a minimum number of brick/block courses above a joist hanger so no you can't just rest them on top of the blocks.

CC45.. I think you are spot on with your spacing. I would suggest you go for lights that produce at least 400 lumens each. I would also put them over the work tops to avoid working in your own shadow as @ProDavementions. Regarding the beam angle... You can get LEDs with beam angles from <30 to >130 degrees. The narrow angle types have less glare but produce more shadows. The wide angle types produce more glare but fewer shadows as each one fills in the shadow from another. Personally I prefer wider beam angles and avoid thd 30 degree bulbs. Not sure where the happy balance is but its probably 60-90 degrees.

Just for info.. there are ways to avoid inheritance tax if you plan in advance. As far as I can tell all involve giving up some control over your money. These days they say that for safety you should not draw more than 4% in income if you don't want to deplete your capital. So let's say you want an income of £20-40k per year. That means ideally you need to keep £500k to £1m under your control not locked away in some avoidance scheme. So in practice anyone with less than say £1million will struggle to find an attractive way to avoid inheritance tax. However anyone with say £10m can afford to give £8-9m to their children or put into trust and still have money to live on. They can also afford the advice and admin fees that these inheritance tax schemes cost.

Here is how we did our tray on a beam and block floor with insulation and screed with UFH... Where the shower tray was going we omitted the insulation and screed, replacing this with a timber frame and WBP. Top of WBP was the height we wanted the bottom of the tray. In our case this was the finished floor level but it could have been lower. A clearance hole was cut in the WBP where the drain hole was in the tray. The hole was about 0.5 inches bigger than the body of the trap. We used a top access trap and plumbed the waste so that the base part of the trap was centered in the hole and flush with the top of the WPB. The plumbing was done so that the trap could move sideway slightly if necessary. Mortar/adhesive was spread on the WBP and the tray lowered into place and checked for level. The top part of the trap was passed through the hole in the tray and screwed into the base part of the trap. Later this was undone and sealer put around the hole before screwing it back down again. Finally the innards of the trap and the mushroom cap were added through the top. Then the walls were tiled down to the tray. The pipe run to the stack was done in the insulation.

A starting point might be someone's VAT reclaim spreadsheet.

We couldnt keep up with our builder and in the end told him we would do one of the bathrooms ourselves after completion.

You must appeal within 6 months of the date on which the determination was due. I believe that means the Date the planning application was validated + 8 weeks + 6 months. I would not leave it to the last moment in case there is some issue with getting the appeal paperwork validated. Edit: if your house is over 1000sqm they have 13 weeks instead of 8.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;url=https://gateleyplc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Beware-red-line-boundaries-1.pdf&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjU6qi0htjiAhVhqnEKHS41AMkQFjAQegQICBAB&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Mjbtjs6A3v5zwudKsepBf&amp;cshid=1559934616390 "Roads and rivers There is also a legal presumption in relation to roads. Plans will often show that the boundary runs up to the edge of the road. In fact, there is a presumption that the boundary runs down the middle of the road. If the road is a public highway, then the Highways Authority owns the surface and the necessary amount of airspace above it, but the adjoining landowner still owns the land underneath, up to the middle of the road."

Under some circumstances you may own the land to the middle of the highway... Hope this link to a pdf works.. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;url=http://www.britfordparishcouncil.co.uk/app/download/18560551/Presumption%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bcase%2Bof%2Ba%2BHighway%2B-%2BDitches.pdf&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjU6qi0htjiAhVhqnEKHS41AMkQFjAKegQIAxAB&amp;usg=AOvVaw1qzWi9B5BMLR7EF6-EvX-Q

There are diagrams of constructional hearth in the Approved Documents. If you want to do it differently I would discuss with your BCO.

An Appeal for non-determination (written representation) can take 27 weeks or more. If you want a hearing it's longer. I would give the planning officer more time but make sure you know the time limits for appealing because if you miss that the planners can drag it out for ages.

The rule is always put this sort of thing in writing but verbal contracts are legally binding if you can prove one exists. £10,000 to find an £80,000 plot sounds a lot to me. I think an estate agent would a normal charge a seller 1-2%? Obviously if you had paid to get planning permission or otherwise helped to develop the plot you should get more.

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?