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Are the trees self seeded or were they planted in rows?

I agree you need proper advice... If the woods are counted as part of the curtilage of your house that might increase SDLT but I guess it might also make it easier to build on from a planning perspective. You could try asking the Planning Department if they consider the woods to be within the curtilage of the house and using that to challenge the SDLT paid to the HMRC. I think you also need to check out the rules on Capital Gains tax. The exemption on your Principle Private Residence has a gotcha that catches you if it's over 1.2 acres. https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-home

I've had set of these for quite awhile and used them to drill holes in farm gate hinges (galvanised steel). Found them ok. Makita P-51873 HSS Titanium-Plated Drill Bit Set 16Pcs £25 https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-p-51873-hss-titanium-plated-drill-bit-set-16pcs/94051 Yesterday I found them on Amazon for just £15 and have reordered. Should be here Monday. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007RCCPC0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Government allows 1million more non-portable smart meters to be installed... Why not just delay the project two months? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/bills-and-utilities/gas-electric/another-million-substandard-smart-meters-will-put-homes/

Do you have to run MVHR pipes horizontally in the floor? Could you run the pipes vertically in a corner? They are likely to have to go vertically as well anyway.

Is the COP really only 7.7/4.5 = 1.7 ? Does it improve at say half power?

I'm not 100% up on the latest rules but I would go for a CU that has separate RCBO in each power slot/circuit. Indoor lighting circuits can share an RCD if you want to save money. External circuits such as feeds to a freestanding garage/shed typically use an MCB and SWA cable to the garage/shed. In there they fit a "garage CU" with RCD. To some extents it depends if it's an integral or separate garage and how the earthing is done. Think about how you group rooms together on one circuit. The most likely rooms to cause trips are the Kitchen (eg Toaster) and Utility room (washing machine/dryer) and outside circuits (lighting, power to shed etc). I would arrange these to be on separate circuits to your TV/PVR or computers. This way if the toaster or heating element in the oven or dishwasher fails it doesn't trip out your PC or TV/Recorder. Outside lighting can also be prone to failure/water ingress problems. So I would have circuits and radials something like.. Sockets (Kitchen & Utility) Sockets (Living room, home office, dining room) Sockets (Bedrooms) Sockets (Bedrooms if needed) Lighting (Up) Lighting (Down) Outside lights (eg lights on PIR sensors) ASHP, UFH, Stats SUNAMP MVHR Interlinked Smoke Alarms Electric shower? Outside socket/car charger? Garage/shed ? MVHR don't draw much power so it's possible to have a separate circuit or run it from a FSU/Spur off one of the Socket rings.

Strange isn't it. It's a "store only" product but few places have more than 1 or 2 packs. Nearest I could find on their web site were: EDMONTON EXTRA 8 packs DARTFORD 5 packs

Pretty sure you need a level entry and more... My reading of the amended Part M is that the three categories are progressively more suitable for disabled people but all have level entry requirements and more.. M4(1) Category 1: Visitable dwellings (least suitable) M4(2) Category 2: Accessible and adaptable dwellings M4(3) Category 3: Wheelchair user dwellings (most suitable) Planners can decide how many of each they need in their area and can impose planning conditions requiring some to be M4(2) or M4(3). My reading is that Cat 1 represents the situation before the 2015/16 amendments. (eg Even Cat 1 Dwellings need level access and WC on entry level etc.) Only M4(3) are required to be "entirely wheelchair accessible". I assume these need to have bedrooms on the entry level as well. This is consistent with what your council has said... "not all dwellings need to be entirely wheelchair accessible" = Not all need to be Cat 3. Note that Part M requires "level access". Many people interpret that to mean a ramp because floor levels are traditionally set above ground level. I haven't checked but I don't think there is anything stopping you putting the floor level at ground level. This would eliminate any need for a ramp and also give you a level transition from living room to patio. There would be design issues with the DPC and preventing rainwater running under doors but I don't think these are unsurmountable problems. I'd like to see the NHBC issue a construction detail drawing showing how this can be done, if they haven't already. Edit: Indeed I had forgotten about basements! You can have the floor level meters below ground level if you wanted. The regs only require the DPC to be 150mm above ground level on the outer leaf. They don't require the floor to be 150mm above ground level.

Perhaps things have changed but it was to mine. I was one of the first houses after part E was introduced to have a concrete first floor. The first BCO I had wanted me to provide Robust Design Detail drawings for a concrete floor with UFH to show it met E2b. They didn't exist at the time as apparently nobody had done the necessary tests. Eventually I found a beam and block company that had done their own test and provided me with a copy of their certificate. I was able to convince the BCO that adding UFH on top could only improve things. They also gave me grief over the sound and fire rating of my downlights.

That can work well. For example if you have steps down off the flat area as well as the ramp, the steps have to be 90cm wide anyway. I appreciate we have a lot more space than most but this is what we were allowed. Ignore the wood, I have been fixing loose slabs. The bit on the left is (was going to be) reinforced grass but never got around to laying grass on it.

I would put more than 50mm of PIR in the cavity if building again . At least 75mm, ideally 100mm. I also have concerns that builders don't always butt together the sheets of insulation very well. If I could figure out how to do it I'd prefer two layers with staggered joints or some sort of filled cavity.

Definitely. However the ramp doesn't always have to be very obvious. It's possible to hide it in a long path that winds around steps or similar. Sometimes the BCO wants a level and suitably finished access from the pavement to the front door. Other times he just wants it from the car parking space to the front door. If the house will be multi level indoors then the WC must be on same level as the door with the ramp. If your WC will be narrow with door and WC pan on opposite sides watch out for the need to get a wheelchair past the basin to the pan. I had to hunt down a narrow basin as we got it slightly wrong.

Is it going to be brick and block or timber frame? Is that enough for a brick and block house? How much do you need to allow for the void in the cavity these days?

In the end I ordered a "46W" 600*600 panel off ebay and it arrived today. Listing says it's dimmable, packaging says non-dimmable. Have contacted seller but it doesn't bother me as I got it to take it apart. In case anyone is interested.. Inside there are two strips of about 96 LEDs each making 192 LED in total. The power supply is a 1A constant current at 50V max so they must be arranged in 16 strings of 12 LED or something like that (12*3.3V = 39.6V). The diffuser comprises three layers: Lower translucent white sheet 2.5mm Transparent sheet with textured surface (edge lit by the LEDs) Opaque white backing Behind that there is a 2-3mm thick foam layer which seems to be only used to fill a void. So the whole thing could be even thinner than it is. The whole lot is retained by a thin sheet of aluminium and about 24 self tapping screws. If I ever need some think aluminium for one of my model planes this might be a source. Not a lot of insulation between the LED strings and the metal frame. Power supply has Pout:44W marked on it (not 46W). 27-42V 50V Max Constant current 1050mA Short circuit Protection So I could reduce the number of LEDs to str if I decide to cut it up to make a smaller back light.

We have a wall mounted basin in our WC. I think this one is discontinued and perhaps too shallow front to back for an ensuite anyway. It's bolted to a block wall but would be ok on a suitably reinforced stud wall. Deeper basins are available with brackets to provide additional support.

Neat work Peter.

Which side of the house are the air vents? I would check if air is going in or out of the wall vents with a joss stick.

Colour isn't too bad. I would leave it and see if it fades. Paint it light next time. On sawn timber I prefer wood stains (Ronseal etc) which I spray with a cheap hoselock pump up garden sprayer. It ruins the sprayer but the small ones aren't much more expensive than several good brushes.

Our stats have been off all summer but this weekend we decided to turn on the bathroom and living room stats they could call for heat if needed. They both came on first thing today so it must have been below 18C in the living room overnight.

We typically nudge it down to say 16-17C when going out. We have stats in each room and they are all set different. Even if there is someone home the default is more like 18-19C in the daytime rising to 21-22 in the early evening and weekend. Depends how active we/you are when home.

We have about 50mm PIR+30mm EPS. Also wish we had more.

I have a 10 year old Visonic system that uses wireless PIR sensors only. I've found them to be very good. If you disable the LED on them the battery lasts more than a year. Visonic normally only support professional installations but you can buy the bits and DIY which is what I did. I'm not up to date on their latest products so don't know if their phone support has changed/improved. I think you can arm/disarm it using your phone but we normally use their wireless key fobs like you have for a car. If you do use a phone you interact with the alarm via the keypad on the phone not an app. That may have changed though.

Yes. Lot depends how well insulated your house is. If your house is badly insulated then it makes more sense to turn off or up and down when there is nobody home or at night. If it's very well insulated then it's not costing you much to leave it on 21C all the time. Our house was built about 11 years ago to slightly better than building regs standards. We program our UFH to drop the temperature at night by about 3 degrees (aka "set back"). This means that most nights the heating is off unless it gets very cold outside. However it can take 90mins to get back to "normal" temperature. So when we are getting up at 6am the heating is programmed to start rewarming the house at perhaps 4.30am. With rads 5.30 would probably have been ok. Most days there is someone at home but if we both leave at say 7.30am the heat we have put into the floor slab dissipates over the next few hours when there is nobody there. As I said it's not quite so bad for us because there is someone at home most days.

We also have MVHR and our house isn't perfectly air tight. Not least because we have two wood burning stoves. They have glass doors but aren't totally room sealed types, they burn room air. So we probably loose some benefit of the MVHR heat recovery but the constant ventilation provided is great. Clothes dry faster on racks, air feels fresher. Wouldn't be without it now.