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The simplest but most expensive option would be to employ an aborculturalist (tree surgeon) to do the work. Many councils will have a list of those they are familiar with although they may not recommended someone specifically. The aborculturalist can handle the Application to do the work on the trees including any "method statements" or specifications the tree officer may require. You can do it all yourself but an aborculturalist knows the language to use to keep the tree officer happy. Make sure the aborculturalist knows you have planning permission as I think the wording of that may mean permission isn't needed.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction/vat-notice-708-buildings-and-construction See para 2.1 for first time connections. Should be zero rated to you, (you cannot reclaim vat charged to you in error). Ask for requote pointing out this is a first connection for a new dwelling and quote VAT notice 708. I

Just for info, the notes on the reclaim form lists blinds under "Goods that you cannot claim for" .... "unless they are integral, that is, blinds inside sealed double glazed window units". However the list of what you can and cannot reclaim for is not intended to be definitive.

As I recall if the CU is more than 3m from the meter (tails longer than 3m) you must have a isolation switch/fuse in the meter cabinet. Have heard there are practical issues and issues of responsibility over who is responsible for installing that? Make sure your electrician is present when they come to install the meter so your man can install or move the switch/fuse if the meter installer is a "jobs worth" type.

Planners work in mysterious ways. Its quite possible they are/were personally happy with you building a three bedroom house of that size but needed to be able to claim that overall the department was/is meeting local demand for two bed houses. As others have said.. you don't need planning permission to divide a room in two or rename a home office into a bedroom later unless there is a specific planning condition attached to the grant that precludes this. Such conditions are rare. It's quite possible that by counting your build as a 2 bed rather that a 3 bed then the planning officer might have an easier time justifying a 4 bed up the road to the committee. Who knows. A lot of nonsense goes on and as long as you can build what you need it shouldn't matter. Just remember that dividing or renaming a room may have building control implications so they may need to be involved/informed even if the planners don't.

Just want to echo what others have said. Get the main surveyed for pressure and flow rate (these are different things) near the main as possible and at the house. Only with that data can you start thinking about solutions. If the static pressure is good but flow rate is poor then the an accumulator/bladder tank might be an option but don't rush that decision without data.

Pretty sure that will be fine.

When we had a main diverted it was included in the original bill/quote. As I remember the test involved putting chlorine in the pipe, waiting a few days, sampling the water, and sending it off for tests. If OK then they have to come back and turn on the water within a certain time period. The problem happens if they don't do all this within the prescribed timescale.. they have to start over. That's exactly what happened to us.

I suppose they might if you have paid for "pre-application advice". I suspect you will have to make an appointment to go see the paper planning file.

The CGT rules are pretty complicated. You will be aware there would be no CGT liability on any gain made while it's your Principle Private Residence. After that it gets tricky and you have options... For two years you can elect which house is your PPR even if you don't live in it. However you do need to make a formal election or the HMRC will decide which one based on where you actually live in. The other house (the one not elected as PPR) could potentially be liable for CGT on gains made during those two years. However it might not pay to elect the old house as PPR. That's because there is another rule that says something like.. As long as it's been lived in the last 18 months of your ownership it also counts as your PPR. If I've understood correctly it might pay to elect the new house as PPR and use this 18 month period for the old one. That way gains on both are exempt for 18 months? You should also investigate a capital gains tax break called Lettings Relief. This gives the owner of a rental property another allowance of up to £40,000 if the property being let has at some point been your PPR - which it has. Don't forget that the tax treatment of second homes can change (cgt, council tax and income tax could all change). It might change dramatically if Labor get in. You might want a clause in your contract with the new owners that allows you to bail on the deal. You wouldn't want to find yourself liable for greatly increased taxes and unable to increase the rent or sell up to get out of the situation.

I went with a 300L store. If building again I would go for bigger but we had issues fitting it through doorways. Specify extra insulation if you can.

Could you offer to collect the doors or is it a problem getting them to meet English standards?

The plumber might tell you that rads and UFH need different temperature water (rads hotter than UFH). That would be the case in a badly insulated house needing high output but with luck your rads will be sufficient operating at the lower temperature of the UFH. If in doubt perhaps make the rads bigger than they would normally be so they work fine at the UFH flow temperature. The plumber might suggest running the rads off the boiler rather than the TS. I don't think I would do that but perhaps have him do the layout so you could switch the rads from the TS to the boiler if things really didn't work out and you needed to boost the output from them.

A correctly set up TS will stop short cycling. When a room stat calls for heat the system draws that heat from the TS without firing up the boiler. After some time this cools the TS and the stat on the TS fires up the boiler topping it up with heat again. The two sides operate independently. The room stats can come on and off many times before the TS cools far enough to trigger the boiler. Once triggered the boiler runs in one long burn until the store is hot again. This way the TS stops the boiler doing a lot of short burns. This is more important for an oil boiler than a gas boiler. Gas boilers can turn down ("modulate") the size of the flame to reduce the output power. The vast majority of oil boilers can't do that, they can only turn the flame on and off (cycle). We're glad we opted for individual room stats as it allows us to switch off/down spare rooms and have better control over the temperature (some rooms have more or less solar gain than others). Some rooms we have warmer at different times of the day etc. We even put separate stats in the bathrooms (Heatmiser with remote sensor). Great having the floor warm first thing. Remember that for each stat you need an additional zone (separate floor loop and actuator on the manifold). This might add to the cost but it depends on the size of the house. If you are building a big house then you may need lots of floor loops anyway. Normally each loop is limited to 100m of pipe including the run to the manifold. Really big rooms sometimes have two floor loops controlled by one room stat.

My local garden centre sells several different types. Some can be installed fully submerged. Some say they should be fitted to the side of the tank with the top inch or so of the heater above the water line and the rest below. However even this latter type are pretty well sealed for safety reasons. There are also pond heaters that are designed to float - these aren't intended to heat the whole pond just keep a hole open in any ice that forms. Some lower power heaters might survive drying out (eg water knocked over). The higher power ones probably not. Use an RCD.

To be safe he should also wrap the cables if using expanding foam as most of that is polyurethane based... http://www.generalcable.co.nz/getattachment/0ebda90b-b4f8-43ae-b622-c9280295116b/PVC-Cables-in-Contact-with-Polystyrene-or-Bitumen.aspx

Never used them but Google found a possible.. http://www.stoneandtimber.co.uk/ranges/external-doors-r28/ See "ECO or Passive Door Range U-Value 0.6 88mm thick

I was a small scale buy to let landlord for 20 years. I would steer well clear of that deal. A chunk of the rent you receive "goes" on tax, agents/management fees & VAT (even if it's only your own time - are you working for free?), insurance, maintenance, wear and tear and compensates you for loss of interest on the capital that you would otherwise get investing elsewhere. None of that should come off the purchase price. It's like they are asking for an interest free loan and some. Consider what happens if interest rates have to rise and that causes a drop in house prices? Potentially you loose two ways. There would be a greater lost interest and a lower eventual purchase price. If this was just a house I would strongly recommend sticking to a standard Assured Shorthold Tenancy even if they want a longer contract. However because they want to run a B&B you will need someone with relevant experience (solicitor or letting agent?) to draw up a different sort of contract. Either way I would stick to a standard terms that courts have previously deemed fair and reasonable and which gives you strong powers to evict if necessary. I would want to know if the house was being rented by them personally or by their B&B business and does this make it harder/easier to evict and get your money if it all goes pear shaped? Suppose you had to evict them in a years time and found there was a little old lady in room 27. Would you legally be able to evict her as well or could she have acquired some legal protection? Your contract would need to cover the terms under which they let rooms to said little old ladies. We had to evict two tenants and one of those was having his rent paid by his employer. They paid the rent regularly but the tenant caused too many problems with the neighbours and the police had to be called several times. Fortunately we never had to go through the courts but that can be expensive. The fact that you already own the house shouldn't affect the investment decision. If you walked into an IFA and said you had a few hundred thousand to invest I doubt they would recommend you to put it all into property on those terms. They are much more likely to recommend a balanced portfolio of stocks and other investments. Especially as you already have money invested in your own house.

"Nickel" covers a range of finishes from real nickel plate to a "nickel effect". We used nickel plated taps and fittings in a WC after seeing some at a show. Not sure if I would do so again. They look fantastic and have a warmer/richer look to them than chrome but they can/do tarnish and there are other issues... It's quite hard getting everything in Nickel and a mixture looks odd. For example you start noticing the loo seat hinges are chrome. There aren't many sources for things like a real nickel plated WC flush pipe and they are expensive by comparison to chrome.

Our carpenter insisted I buy handles that had a good return spring in them so they don't rely on the spring in the latch mechanism to raise the handle. I thought all handles had a spring but apparently not.

I've used small aquarium heaters to keep duck and chicken water from freezing. That type are supplied prewired to a plug. You just plug them in and stick it to the side of the tank. I imagine similar plug and go heaters are available for larger systems but this probably isn't the best forum to ask. Not quite sure what you mean but I would be inclined to keep the water in the two systems totally separate so that any problem/bugs/PH issues in one don't spread to the other. Use separate cleaning tools for each tank, wash hands between working on each etc etc

Yes I didn't really look for one device because it made sense for me to put the timer in the garage and obviously the light sensor has to be outside. One thing I've noticed is that the light sensor gets quite warm. I'm using one like this.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dusk-to-dawn-sensor-photocell-auto-light-NEMA-socket-outdoor-day-night-detector-/272308765621 I've not measured the power consumption but I would guess it could be 1-2W. If it turned out to be 3-5W then it might be cheaper just to leave the LED light on all the time!

I have an outside lamp set up to do this. I connected a separate programmable timer and light sensor in series. Programmed correctly the light goes... On at dusk. Off at midnight (programmable by the timer) On at say 6am (programmable by the timer and if still dark) Off at daybreak In short the light only comes on when both the timer and daylight sensor agree it should be ON. The connections are basically... FSU -> Timer Power FSU -> Light sensor -> Timer relay contacts -> Lamp The timer I used also has automatic daylight saving time so I don't have to put it forward/back an hour twice a year. I haven't incorporated a PIR (eg to make it come ON at 2am if someone arrives late) but I don't think that would be impossible to do.

Do you want the trees to survive? Deep trenching close to trees can kill them. Not always immediately but slowly over several years. Looks like we might loose one or two. I was told that piling can work out cheaper if your trenches would need to be more than 3m deep.

In a word, Yes. PVC reacts with EPS and Polyurethane. That's why mains cables are frequently wrapped in plastic bags before they are put into the EPS packaging.