torre

We visited their showrooms a while back, they have loads of kitchens on display and (as a bonus) offer free hot and soft drinks. Their online planner is better than most too. Howdens had no problem with us opening an account as self builders, Magnet let us open a trade account too

I'd echo this, decisions made in haste often turn into ones you regret later. Sometimes you have to start a bit slower to be better prepared and be able to go faster later. I don't think you're losing that much with delaying now. We made an autumn start 1/ to avoid our PP lapsing and 2/ to finally make the project 'real' and with hindsight, once we had the foundations poured last winter should probably have parked things - building brick & block we spent so many days making right and wrong calls on whether to work due to weather, and it being pretty cold and miserable even on 'good' days. I'd anticipated something like when they work on the roof in Shawshank Redemption - cold beer in the sun - but the reality was scraping snow off a scaffold and running around with tarpaulins in sudden storms.

A good point that we sometimes lose track of. Heat loss calcs etc are great for working out the 'need', but the 'want' is just as important, so for us (wet) upstairs ufh is both about avoiding cold floors and avoiding any rad/fan coil fixtures on the walls

I think it's good to have something between the screw and the pan that will break or deform before the porcelain will crack and also to spread the stress over a bigger area than the screw edge touching the pan. Pan fixing kits may have a plastic washer with a cap but a rubber washer with a blob of silicone would do

I think you're right this is a red flag, you need to be absolutely clear with the architect that you haven't engaged them and they don't have your authority to engage with anyone else. It's just way too early for this and possibly unnecessary. If the architect is acting without your authority now then I'd see it as a sign they may be hard to work with later when you need to collaborate on design and work within your budget. There are plenty of good architects out there and I'd want to hire someone who made a better first impression.

Not sure it helps you much but we have warm pendants for ambience over the island and cool/cold ceiling and cupboard downlights for working. Somewhere there's a control to switch the warmth of cupboard lighting but we've never used it.

If your insulation is already stuck and you can't change course then maybe an insulated fixing but with the built in washer cut off and replaced with something thin and galvanised to plaster over like this? You'd need the insulated fixing's pin to have a bit of a head on it, which not all do (I've used EJOT before and some of theirs do). It's also worth asking fixing manufacturers technical support for suggestions. If you can put up with the thermal bridging then those galvanised flat washers with any kind metal hammer fixing would be effective too

At what stage are you planning to market the build? I'm wondering if there's any scenario where you might sell off plan and let the buyer choose the heating and internals? You'd also get some validation of the likely sale value. Or any other scenario that would let you build both side by side as there must be economies to be made. Ideally you'd keep both builds as similar as possible but only your own will qualify for a grant which does complicate things. What do estate agents say about ashp versus gas boiler?

I'm not a renderer but this sounds likely to me, having seen a scraped coat done on a neighbour's extension - they put on a thick layer then next day when it's set but not fully hard they scrape a couple of mm off to leave that flat but grained finish. I don't think it's been patched this afternoon, it wouldn't have hardened enough to finish.

You might want to ask the builders merchants for a price on the Keylite equivalent, probably quite a bit cheaper and still good quality.

With something similar using masonry our SE specified expamet fixed to the top of the horizontal steel and wall starter ties fixed into the sides of the vertical (we used self tapping screws) Maybe it's just unclear from the photo but is your steel at the far end sat on blockwork rather than a padstone!?

With the caveat that everyone's 'acceptable' varies, I've done similar in the past by clamping the tail in a workmate, so the whole edge is held securely against something with a small radius, then using a sheet of ply to apply an even force to the rest of the aluminium, ideally limiting how far the bottom of that ply can move away from the aluminium. Main thing is to be clamping the smaller side and working the larger side. I agree this is no substitute for paying for fabrication of course and you need to be sure you're not going to do more expensive damage than you might be saving

Plastic lintel soffit cladding might be another option, it'll cost more but need less maintenance (probably easier to install before the windows though, sorry)

I'd echo what @ProDave said about PPE. Definitely a full face respirator mask. We did a similar job but from above when replacing floorboards and used Thermafleece (wool) which is way nicer to handle but pricey and hard to cut. Of the rockwools Knauf products like Frametherm do seem the nicest to handle and shed less fibres. Instead of netting, use a breather membrane (and tape it to the wall edges all round, you may need to PVA walls before taping) as that will cut down hugely on draughts. The whole job will be difficult and time consuming but the results are transformative for comfort. Are you sure you have access to all the crawlspace? Our joists were supported at half span by a low wall.

Scaffold debris netting is really cheap and it's easy to fix multiple layers over your Heras to trade off letting wind through versus total privacy. If you want more wind protection then diagonally brace using a scaffold pole fixed to the Heras with a swivel coupler onto another pole fixed into the ground.

This is definitely not permitted development, not just for the reasons you've mentioned but because you're changing a relatively low profile hipped roof at the rear into a much more prominent gable end. What's at the bottom of your garden? If there's no neighbour then you probably stand a good chance of getting planning permission but if there is then you may need to compromise a fair bit (lose the gable end or at least the window in it for example.

Agree your shadow gap isn't going to happen except at great cost - you've already got a taste of the effort. What's going on with your hinge plates showing? That door is closed isn't it, is it just something temporary?

Do you mean safety once installed rather than handling? Taking Velfac as an example (as we'll be having them) They bridge the cavity below the window with 3mm or 5mm steel plates at the load points and the fixings are into the centre of inner leaf block work. Not ideal from a bridging perspective but at those weights hard to avoid

Not a professional tiler but an amateur who would be unhappy if my own tiling looked like that, even though the lighting is probably amplifying faults a bit. Bad tiling, but do you have a few leftover tiles so you can prove to your original tiler that the tiles themselves are pretty flat? Plus ideally a picture of the wall before it was tiled onto. If you pointed out the lippage was that to your original tiler or the guy on site? They had the chance to get the tiles and adhesive off before it was fully set and it's a shame they didn't take it. I'd suggest to the original tiler that they need to come off - that you'll bear the cost of replacement tiles as needed but they need to redo the work at no extra charge. Hopefully you've not paid him and he's not paid the guy he subbed out the job to.

Yes exactly

Biggest difference I see is the magic elves (well, the big fan anyway) tirelessly directing their sealant into the worst leaks in any hard to reach spaces you've missed and can't easaily get back to. I hope not to need the product but I'll probably have a pre-plasterboard blower test and then assess. If I'd known this I might have gone straight to them and saved doing a parge coat!

If building under permitted development you'll still need to apply for tree works permission if protected trees may be affected

Obviously there's positive internal pressure when installing the magic gunk, but do they do any final test with negative pressure? Would love to see pics, for larger holes I can see the stuff will gradually build up, but it's not clear to me that the seal would necessarily be as effective when the pressure is reversed. I assume they charge more according to how long and how much they blow, so sensible airtight measures are still worthwhile first

I agree, but if you thought 19 objections last time was a lot, this will probably stir up more and open up other possible grounds for refusal (not in keeping with the area)

On the face if it, no - "tucked away around the corner of a quiet cul de sac" sounds more appropriate, but if your street is the main walking route used by people to visit the park or whatever at the top of your aerial view then yes it would be prominent and a large house there might seem overbearing.