Iceverge

We used a concrete precast tank. Hole dug, base levelled with gravel, tank dropped in and connected, backfilled with earth.

The cavity wall EPS bead installers have not closed the cavity properly before pumping it. Under the corner of that pile you'll find a hole into the cavity. EPS beads can degrade the plasticiser in electrical cables so check to see if any are buried underneath. This may be more of a theoretical problem than a real one. Assuming there's not any in contact if just take a rake or stick and level them out over the attic insulation. Every bit of insulation helps.

Sorry, I'm being too oblique with my point. A government body worried about the colour of a door ( which isn't even distasteful IMO) whilst ignoring (at best) the horrible inefficiency during an energy crunch in a heating planet is perverse.

It depends on what you consider "that bad" It's 12 times worse than our house's wall. Its like me swapping my 55mpg Skoda Octavia for a 4.6mpg family car, if such a thing even exists. Even a 1600hp Bugatti Chiron manages double that.

Most trucks will be the same width 2.55m, small or large. The bend may prove an obstacle but I wouldn't write it off. I'd give your concrete supplier a call and see if they can solve the problem for you. You'll be buying a good amount over all from them. It's in their interest to find a solution.

I mixed 8m3 for our garage floor in a 300l tractor mixer. I was loading the gravel with a digger mind you, but it was still total suffering. It allowed me to move my premade floor shutter and do one "square" per day but the difference in mixes and joints are apparent. I wouldn't consider it for your purpose. It's impossible to achieve the consistency of delivered concrete self mixing and the price I paid for cement alone was more than the cost of delivered readymix. Something like the below would work. Is there any point more than 5.5m away from where the truck could reverse to?

Back of the envelope cals suggest this 3m2 door alone loses more heat than all 200m2 of our roof and floor combined. People have no idea how wasteful old houses are. Talk about fiddling whilst Rome burns.

Just stop mowing it. Mind you, you'll need nerves of steel just to "let it grow", blinds will be twitching, and parish councils will be tutting. We did this and the number of flowers that came through was remarkable. Nothing spectacular, just clovers, buttercups, dandelions, daisys, trifoils etc. Despite the non exotic mix the bees and the butterflies were very much appreciative. For some added child fun you could lawnmower a series of paths through it.

You could of paint it?

If you taxed household fuel like petrol you could scrap the SAP thing instantly. People would get wise quickly if electricity was 70p/kWh.

I had a look earlier. There's not enough space. Same 2 problems. Wheelspin or a blocked living room window.

"The rounded sump plug" Of course, if you are willing to take move the bike shed the car could be put over there making the whole thing more aesthetically pleasant.

Now on to the 3D views. I'm doing my best guesses re some of the dimentions but it should give an impression. The Origional The parking space with bike/bin ramp and bump stop. Passengers would be in danger of stepping off the ledge and a drive may accidentally get a wheel on the bike ramp. The same as above but with the steps removed and replaced with a retaining wall and some greenery. This wall would probably need to be poured concrete to be strong enough to take the bump of car tyres. The logical solution. You'll need to lug the bins up the steps but it'll be easy to park and egress the car without falling to your death. Finally, my favourite. "The Oil Change". Uninhibited access to your wife's sump plug. ( No giggling at the back @pocster) Bins and bike access A-OK. Safe getting in and out of your car. Added greenery for a nicer house front.

Right ho, here we go. This is your current situation. 1:5.33 slope. Very steep. Assuming a 750mm windowsill in the house a 24 deg view from the horizon of the sky and a view of the car bonnet. Here's what it would look like level. A 35 deg cut of the sky and a view of the car underside. not ideal. I tried various other styles and compound slopes etc but here's the one I settled on. It's 1:12 which is the max recommended for wheelchairs AFAIK. By shoving the car towards the road a little more ( tesla model Y is 725mm longer than your wife's Fiesta) I was able to keep a 26 deg view of the sky. You'll still be looking at the number plate but compromises need to be made somewhere.

You'll need a new car. 😂 Can you post a dimensioned plan of the drive please and I'll play with drawing something if you like. If you're going to do any sort of change I'd be tempted to make it level but to make it visually acceptable might need some work. On the plus side what I have in mind will give your Mrs somewhere very handy to change the engine oil on her fiesta.

Listed buildings and conservation areas are for the most part like forcing someone to drive a classic car. Terribly inefficient and unsuited to modern life. They look lovely but that's not much use the occupants who often unable to rise to 19th century living standards not to mind 21st.

In all my horsing around with cars I've only managed to break one handbrake cable. It was on a 15 year old Opel Vectra. I was 17, you can use your imagination as to the level of delicacy employed.

@btm3055 I've had a look back at your previous posts. It's daunting but you'll need to have a look at this objectively. At the moment your house has rotten cladding, insufficient structure. No DPC. No insulation, needs rewiring, needs plumbing. Needs windows, needs decorating. There's nothing left! Unless you value your time you will be committed to make poor choices. I did. The work you have done is tidy but can you say objectively how long it's taken you?

A mate used open cell Isothane in his pitched roof. He was pleased with it AFAIK. Good for airtightness and ease of install. Safe for use with timber as it's breathable. Lots of trimming and wastage however, not terribly good for decrement delay and not cheap. @Gone West did his previous house entirely in it I think. Blown cellulose would be by my choice. But would require an airtight membrane installed beforehand. Re: closed cell in the cavity it was 4 times the price of EPS beads and with our wide cavity of 250mm I was concerned of structural damage due to shrinkage.

Insulation boards in a cavity wall are bad news. The theoretical perform is almost impossible to achieve. Mortar droppings will get on the joints of the boards. Wall ties will not line up properly the boards will not sit flat against the inner leaf due to the nature of blockwork. All these gaps mean that on a windy day the wind will blow freely through the gaps. Your insulation is then doing little more than it would if it was thrown in the garden. Thermal bypass/thermal looping are some names for it. The only realistic procedure I can see for board in a wall is to build the inner leaf first. Use properly aged boards that won't shrink. Foam and fix boards individually to the inner leaf as per an EWI job. Ensuring all the gaps around wall ties and between boards are filled with a good age proof expanding foam trim back the excess and tape with foil backed tape to cover every gap. You'll need to tape the edges of the board's too if you're using foil faced boards like PIR or pheonlic (kingspan) to prevent gas migration or the performance of the board will decrease with time. Your bricklayer will hit you on the head with a breeze block of you ask him to do all this. Insulation manufacturers are shysters and snake oil salesmen. Before you buy the kooltherm consider that it is 3 times the price (pre install) of EPS beads for the same U value installed and will perform worse in real life. The last few 0.01 W/m2K of a wall U value makes almost no difference anyway compared to airtightness and ventilation losses. EPS beads/mineral wool batts, real world U value of 0.21 and forget the boards is my advice. Medium density blocks internally, wet plaster and you'll have a very cheap and high performing wall.

Interesting. Did you do actual scientific measurements?

If you have structural issues foil won't save you. I'd avoid it in any case, most of the performance numbers they claim comes from the unventilated airspaces created within a wall, much like double glazing. Any kind of air circulation would ruin the theoretical performance and it's a renovation so you'll have some air movement. Mineral wool, cellulose/hemp is a better way to stop the air moving. Fire will love those air gaps too if it gets in there. PIR between studs is fine if you like suffering, don't care about summer overheating, of fire risk, or materials wastage! Do you have any pictures of the building as it stands, inside and out? Im guessing that you don't have a tremendous budget so it's important to save as much cash as possible. I think you don't need to remove the tounge and groove boards outside if they are in good condition, just lap, staple and tape a good breather membrane over the top, then some 38mm or 22mm battens for ventilation and some more cladding. Internally you could take down the T&G and put hemp batts between the 6x2 studs. Then cut 45deg tracks in the studs and push in some T L or C profiles to provide cross bracing screwing them into the studs. Then cover and really diligently tape with a good vapour membrane, fix 47mm cross battens for a service cavity insulated with 50mm hemp batts and then reuse the tounge and groove cladding. It could be done piece by piece, fairly cheaply and would be windtight, airtight, have little thermal bridging, good phase shift, breathable, good sound protection, low embodied carbon, good fire performance, low materials wastage.

Please don't. EPS beads or mineral wool batts everytime. Use normal medium density blocks and widen the cavity for better U values. If you can play with the numbers yourself you can see how useless lightweights blocks are as insulation. The difference between 0.15-0.16w/m2k is almost imperceptible and anyway it's unrealistic. Above 0.18 was the best I could make from your above materials.

Piles have worked for 70 years on your soil. It might be a good place to start re footings?

Is this a demolish and rebuild scenario? There is too many moisture barriers. One "barrier" ( think plastic sheet) max in any buildup. Everything needs to be breathable ( think goretex jacket). Otherwise the wall will not be able to dry and stay damp and rot. No moisture barriers normally on internal walls typically. The ply Vs OSB has its protractors/detractors arguements. Good quality OSB for me every time. I like Smartyply. One factor I would be cautious of is using lightweight insulations like glasswool and foam considering you have no masonry externally leaf. It would be similar to a caravan in the summer regards overheating due to poor decrement delay/phase shift. This is the the time it takes for the initially daily blast of external summer heat to soak though the wall/roof. Two buildings will perform drastically differently in summer even if they have the same U values. The caravan and stone outhouse are the dramatic examples. The stone building remains comfortable but the caravan overheats in summer although in winter they take the same amount of energy to keep warm. Have a play with Ubakus.com. it's great for this.