Redbeard

2 scaff towers if you have access to some. Depends how much time you want to spend on it. You could make perfectly adequate and safe supports out of constructional timber which you may already have on site for later use. A few joists and offcuts and 12mm bolts and the job's a good'un, but slower than a scaff tower!

Hello and welcome! Lots of experience on here re retrofit as well as new-build.

Planning Portal: "Development is permitted only if the air source heat pump installation complies with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme Planning Standards (MCS 020) or equivalent standards. Read more about the scheme." It's going to depend, I guess, on how you can prove 'equivalence'

They are definitely concrete, and they aren't apparently aerated (v lightweight), but it is a matter of opinion as to whether those are 'dense'. They are denser than the less dense ones(!) but not as dense, I think, as a foundation block. Think you need to ask SE what they want to see.

How much over 2 years has it been from approval? Double-check and then you know for certain how much time you have to play with. A site down the road from me 'locked in' their Planning permission by dint of slapping a bit of concrete in the foundation trench. I very much doubt that the concrete is deep enough, and I would not be keen on a foundation made of 2 entirely separate layers, but Planning seem to have accepted it. It is now an undeveloped overgrown eyesore (and also, due to site constraints, I am not at all sure how they will build it, but that's all 'irrelevant'!). Do you have full construction drawings? Have you applied for Building Control approval, or are you proposing to use a Building Notice (alternative B Regs application type - fine if you are 100% sure of what you are doing; less so if not)? Have you had a structural engineer to design the foundations? If not, get that now, or a.s.a.p., apply for Building Regs, get the foundations dug and poured and then, from a Planning point of view, I think you can breathe...

XPS would fix via pilot holes to column, BTW.

+1. Even the 100 PIR on the B & B does not sound that exciting, but 20mm with a delta T much higher than typical air-outside transference is - how shall I put it - a little (*) sub-optimal. (*)By which I mean a lot, lot, lot.

Perhaps forget the blocks and use XPS? Much warmer. (I would normally say graphite EPS but XPS will give you a bit more impact resistance 'just in case'). Thin-coat reinforced render on top, of course.

I took him to mean that the garage alone (without the rooms on top) which is 61m2 (and BTW is oak-framed) would require B.Regs anyway.

But it's twice that.

I wonder if the company could choose to define the plumber (a business-person) as 'not a domestic customer'...

But I think that is under the Marmox Block. I am talking about the heat-loss path if you draw a line diagonally downwards to the right from above the screed in the room on the left, through the sole plate, past the 'plinth stretcher blue special shaped brick' to outside. All you hit is plasterboard, wood, brick. No insulation.

From the Section dwg: Yes the sole plate is isolated by the Marmox block from the cold ground but there appears to be no mitigation in terms of the horizontal plane. Seems to me cold comes from outside in, and voa the screed, with no insulation in the way. Have I misread that? OK; could be wrong. There appears to be, un-'tagged', 25??mm of Kooltherm or equiv as an upstand at the edge of the screed. It's not much, though, and still seems not to do anything re transfer diagonally upwards from outside. Have I missed something?

Welcome, and I am so sorry to hear of (and see) your problems. Can we have some pictures of the meeting (or not?) of the gutter and the roof, taken from your dormer window, and also of the joints with the gutters each side? What are the gutters made of? Since your gutters appear to meet the neighbouring gutters on either side it makes the possibility of the gutter being in the wrong place rather unlikely. One alternative is that the roof is 'in the wrong place' - i.e. the slates/tiles have been stopped too short. That seems unlikely too, as surely the roofer would simply have followed the line of the neighbouring slates/tiles... What happens when it rains really hard? The water doesn't shoot over the front of the gutter, does it? How about contacting Trading Standards?

Indeed I did! Thanks ST.

Welcome. A library near me has kept the original ducting from the gas-fired warm-air system and is now running it with an air-to-air HP. I understand it is performing really well. Of course ASHP does not do domestic HW but I think the standard Johnson and Starley WA boilers require a separate water-heating appliance anyway, don't they? You can get 'heat pump cylinders' with an integral exhaust air HP.

Hi. Are you envisaging that the draught-proofing and insulation will be the main 'driver' for reducing heating costs? I don't have a HP myself but the (anecdotal) experience of some people I have worked with has been that (all other things - insulation status etc - being equal) they may not spend *more* on heating with a HP, but they do not necessarily spend less than with the previous fuel. I realise tariffs and 'running style' will be big variables as, of course, will be the CoP.

Re garage/habitable space I cannot remember whether there is different treatment for a sheltered (unheated but not external) transition such as this. If it's treated as external then you probably want 0.3W/m2K. Can't answer that one, but can note that 100mm PIR in a vaulted ceiling is unlikely to meet the 0.16W/m2K target. (Was this approved after June(?) 2022? Could be 0.18 if before that date. 100mm won't meet either of those targets. BCOs can offer leeway, but as I understand it they do not have to. If you have not negotiated a waiver before now you may not be in a strong negotiating position. On the other hand they might take the view that you're pretty close and let you leave it as is. Do you really want to take tiles off? Why not cut out say 300mm sq of ceiling (bevel the cuts so you can glue it back) then just take out a core of the insulation big enough for BCO to get their tape measure in. Keep the core to glue back and foam-fill before taping as VCL.

Unless the 2022 revision changed it, and I don't think it did, insulating from the top, above an existing room-in-the-roof (R-in-R) is deemed to comply despite a higher (lesser) U value than the Part L target (this came in as part of the 2010 Regs). The thinking is that if you only have the rafter depth to deal with then rafter depth minus vent gap must equal insulation depth. Until 2022 ('21?) when the BEIS Best Practice Guidance docs came out this led to a typical set-up of 25mm vent gap plus 50 PIR (estimated U value approx 0.45ish). Now (as the BP doc requires 50mm vent gap) you'd only get 25mm PIR. An interesting quirk is that if you subsequently take the ceilings down in the R-in-R you now have to install a total of 150 PIR and achieve a U value of 0.16! And how do you tell if the 'from above' installation was done well? When you take the ceilings down, if all the insulation is on the floor, it wasn't! (Been there; seen that!)

Can we have a plan or a sketch? From what you have said I *could* envisage that the current width of your gate is the maximum width of entrance you could possibly have, in which case - since you already foresee them - I think you may have problems. But I don't *know*. You say 'may have to drive over my neighbour's land'. Does your neighbour know that yet? If you think there is any possibility whatsoever of trucks etc putting one little bit of a tyre on the neighbour's land you surely need to sort this first with an agreement (preferably 'for the duration of works, not a fixed term), not try to calm troubled waters later. Show us what it looks like and we'll think.

It would be good if they'd talk to you, but if they won't it sounds like a CLOPUD (Certificate of the Lawfulness of a Proposed Use or Development) might be needed. It's an application (cannot remember the price - I think it was half that of a Planning App when I applied last) to confirm that your proposals constitute Permitted Development. Alternatively a Pre-Planning Enquiry (Chargeable) might work, but if they are already refusing to talk to you it might not.

I am, perhaps, biased, but I have never seen the sense in using, in wet areas, boards which turn into weetabix if moisture gets in. I get it that (theoretically) the laminates are waterproof and so is the glue, but all the 'gone-wrong' examples I have seen suggest that things can 'go wrong. Even waterproof chipboard is only as waterproof as the glue and real-life examples show that water can get in and does 'blow' the board. My vote goes for something joiner-made from 'proper' (even if only soft-) wood. My kitchen is an example. The chipboard became unusable so we had softwood frames made, used the original softwood doors and found an oak tree for the worktops (OK, that was not cheap).

Splendid! And so simple!

Good job you showed us the box. The S7 and S8 I know would have had a right job getting up the stairs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbeam_S7_and_S8#:~:text=The Sunbeam S7 and S8,to that of a car.

https://shop.smithsofthedean.co.uk/recycled-1520-litre--330-gallon-water-tank-751-p.asp See dimensions - you'll have 15mm to keep the right side of the regs!! (But yo do have to 'pass' a percolation test)