MikeSharp01

Welcome to the forum. You perhaps need to look at local custom and practice, has anybody done the swap, garage for dwelling elsewhere - I think this should be possible. Round here, Sevenoaks, I am confident it would be because if they are counting it as part of house then logically it must be equivalent. Which taken to extremes would mean you could knock down both and build new against the same area. The only thing that worries / interests me is the 117% would they accept only to 100% overall or could you get up to, for instance, 110%? Again what is the local plan saying, not sure these apply any more anyway, and what has been the practice. Are there any places in the area where a complete 'knock down and start again' has been given permission for more area than the sum of the previous parts? Finally have a look at what is coming down the track in terms of planning changes that may allow it in the medium term.

Welcome to the forum. If the ceiling is a fire barrier you can bring them down through intumescent cable transits EG these: https://www.beele.com/application/cable-transits/ but this is probably overkill for most domestic applications unless there are special circumstances.

We purchased a load of agricultural black plastic and sheeted it up tp keep it dry.

Need to be sure that none of your equipment needs InfraRed (IR) remote control as IR struggles to get through much other than air.

Our curtain does not go to the ceiling or the floor - never noticed any uneven temperature, but hey its your shower so you must do what you think is right for you and yours.

Cripes that's an expensive loo roll holder! We use a standard shower curtain across the shower portion of our wet room, the one here is less than 2m square and the loo roll is out in the open but never gets wet. You could buy around 10 show curtains for the cost of that holder, you can mix up the aesthetic with them as well and it allows a wheel chair user to get in there without the problems of maneuvering round a glass screen. The new place will take the same basic approach.

Welcome to THE forum for people like us. Your right it is daunting but you can start from the outside in! As in, think about the sort if location you are looking for and then think generally about the style of house you want that might suit the location. This latter choice can be worked out before the location but it seems to me that the house should follow the place. That does not stop you thinking about things like wether it will be a passive house and for location how far you want to be from civilisation / broadband / water / electricity / .... Great to dream though.

If they said equivalent then it should be equivalent, get your money back and find one that meets your (the UK standard) spec.

Many thanks for that - I found that out of the box I could get them connected but those I had tried would not work - so now I have the on-off-on-off-on-off-on sequence I can probably get them back to slow flashing as out of the box.

Matter has a curious edge in its last objective: "Open: The Project’s design and technical processes should be open and transparent to the general public, including to non-members wherever possible." (Source: https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip#readme) The whole nature of it hinges, for me, on those last 5-6 words although I appreciate the sentiment in which it is meant by accepting the fact that some aspects of the system will be propriety components. My worry is that it will be in these places we, those of us not intending to be members, will loose control of the data this system could generate / expose.

There are loads of open source "standards" out there. The big issue is data capture. All those companies listed above want to be sure they gather their share of the data about how we live our lives. I suspect the problem with my connection to these bulbs, see thread here: is to do with the fact that I have them on a private network so although I can see them they cannot see the cloud so won't talk to me. I will play some more tomorrow but if they must speak to a cloud to work then they are going back. I am happy to dial into my own cloud service and then talk back to the house but I don't want my data shared by anyone unless on a shared / open basis. I swither about developing my own system but to make future proof without me would be problematic.

Got a load of these https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Manufacturers/LEDlite/Smart_WiFi_Bulbs/index.html for new house and have been experimenting - not having the success I thought I would have. Anybody know anything about these devices, and the app they come with, other than what it says on the TLC website which is frankly, to say the least, unhelpful. I have struggled all afternoon to get a bulb configured WiFi and Bluetooth - no joy. Any thoughts, other than take them all back, anyone?

Welcome to THE forum for people like us. Sounds like an interesting project.

If only it had a walk on glazed floor it would be sublime (for @pocster).

If the wires overfly the new house you can ask for them to be re-routed, which I think is at the Lecy companies expense. In our case they went through the new build, the company did all the work at no expense to us of burying the cables and reconnecting the two poles between which the overhead wire was strung. We did have to pay to have the new connection to the house made however.

My guess is that weather compensation will be done by an AI that uses history and other factors to work out what and by how much to compensate. This is already working in some large commercial businesses.

Sounds like a bargain, I guess the materials are somewhat open ended but it still feels good - where are you?

Welcome to THE forum for people like us. Someone will be along shorty who can answer IIRC you need to get your CIL exemption sorted before you start.

Hmmmmm - you definitely need to find a solution for this otherwise any damp will rise into the walls. You may be able to inject a DPM chemical into the blocks this is done on older houses where no DPM is present. Have a look at what is out there that might be DIYable.

Is the tank steel or plastic? If there are signs of woodworm you need to get the whole roof checked unless you have evidence that it has already been treated. 18mm will spread the load across 400mm without deflection even for a plastic tank and 150mm joists is deep for loft joists but 37mm is quite narrow. Can you lift the tank? If so you could put some cross members under the ply to spread the load across more rafters but given it is supported now and as long as there is no evidence of bulging in the room below replacing the boards with ply should work OK.

Welcome to THE forum for people like us. Although we live in Kent we know Stirling well - and were there in May wandering about old haunts, hope you can find a plot that suits you.

Welcome to THE forum for people like us. 18 years of renovation sounds like a real passion, I did one over the last year with / for our daughter and that was enough for me! New build is another matter though as there is very little going backwards (Stripping off plaster, tiles, chasing out to move cables.....)

Yes but maybe be think / count to 10 before posting here until you are over the worst of it - you may live to regret the pictures! EG NEWSFLASH (Pardon the pun) "Pocster 20 million followers / voyeurs!"

A passive stack is probably going to be a good thing as it will allow cooling of the whole house. What does the cross section look like? If the loft area is not subject to the MVHR system then the door undercuts will do little to help cooling as the hot air will all gather at the top of the space. You can get automatic louvres which could work with the window in hot periods to let the air out above the doors and the opening rooflight will help the whole house cool down even more if you are able to open windows low down in the house when needed.

But make sure the architect understands your thermal aspirations as it is dead easy to design a building that won't match them - IE Window sizes and orientation, form factors etc.