Redbeard

I like wood-fibre a lot, and have used it a lot, so it gets my vote. Unless you use the flexi stuff it is heavy, though - 140 - 180kg/m3. You could use an (expensive!) 'Intelligent' VCL like Pro Clima's 'Intello'. Used a lot of that, too. I am not plugging for Pro Clima. I imagine other manuf's make intelligent membranes but I do not know any - yet. Yes - did a quick search. There appear to be others. Search 'intelligent VCL'.

Agree with @ProDave re the vents, and as for the bay I think you ought perhaps to write to the developer explaining that they have effectively 'left your bay in the road' and ask them (with a suggested timescale) to install stout bollards (preferably ones which do not look awful) so that the vehicles hit the bollards instead of your bay. Is that a car-park at the top of the pic? Should trucks be going past your bay?

I would alter the slates/tiles and do the flat roof and cheeks externally, so that the insulation is outboard of the structural frame.

Cannot tell without a picture. Could you post one up, please? Is this a brand-new build?

Without a dwg of the structure it is difficult to be certain whether or not it is required, but if the option is there I would take it. If you are using WF why not screw it to the ply and lime-plaster it? How are the adjacent walls finished? I assume the surrounding walls do not have the finish boards on yet. With plasterboard it's easy: Use a plastic bead and simply skim the pl'bd up to the bead's 'nose' (or 'notional nose' - users of WF may know what I mean) with gypsum then 'all change' for the reveals and plaster in lime with a thin-coat reinforced basecoat and smooth lime finish. The lime plaster (at around 8-10mm) could be your airtightness layer here.

I supervised an EWI job for a client and, because they preferred not to extend the roof-line, we specified an 'EWI gutter', which was/is a double-depth (front-back, not top-bottom) alu gutter which forms a 'roof-ette' to the EWI and projects as far over the new wall surface as the gutter did over the original wall-line. It looks fine but since it is made of 2 lengths I worry about the joint in the long term. The contractor just said 'it's good stuff; it'll last forever' which may be slightly optimistic. I'd have the same worries with your set-up, and more, since 'un-building' the EWI gutter would not involve stripping off some of the roof. I think yours might.

Ok, I see what you mean that it's not damp, but that is not necessarily what the breathability thing is about. If you were using a modern non-breathable insulant which effectively closes off the breathability on the inside, you would want a breathability path to the outside so that if any water vapour *does* get through (via a faulty vapour control layer, for example), it can find a way out to the outside. Get it modelled in WUFI. I am not advertising them but a wood-fibre supply firm with a name rather like how you'd describe your position if you were sitting against a mud bank will do a WUFI assessment for you for free. Basically if you are assured that the insulant (wood-fibre or cork) is OK to let the wall breathe to inside then it may not be so critical if the exterior is less breathable. Better to have a moisture model tell you that than me, though.

I was searching back in Feb for a company which would supply windows using the 'standard' REHAU section, but with a 44mm unit. I had been in touch with REHAU a year and more ago and they sent me a sample of the small bead required to accommodate the 44mm unit. However I could find no supplier in my neck of the woods who would sell me the frames with a 44mm 3G unit. They would do a 36mm unit, but *would not* do 44mm. I have now found a firm in Worcestershire who will supply with a 44mm unit. They said they did not usually do more than 36, but were happy to do so. I know nothing of them but the bloke I spoke to was v helpful. They will apparently ship nationwide.

I agree with this, though how 'lead-free' the water is depends to some extent on mineral deposition within the pipe and how much disturbance there has been. If, for example, a lead pipe with limestone deposits in springs a leak it may well be scraped out to form a 'bell' for a sweated joint, leaving the water in contact with lead as it has not been (given the 'stone lining') for years up to then. It should not be your problem but I am sure you could get one of the companies which tests bore-hole water quality to test a sample from your taps. It won't be free but in the absence of action from SW it may be pragmatic.

Wood-fibre or cork on a lime 'parge-coat' (air-tightness layer) or a cork-enhanced plaster such as Diathonite. I do not think you can be certain that the external render and dash is breathable so I would suggest that you try to get the house modelled in a dynamic condensation risk assessment model such as WUFI which should give you a better idea of the 'safety' of your proposals. I am a great fan of wood-fibre and have used it a great deal. I have not used Diathonite but see some of Green Building Store's Retrofit case studies for details.

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.