torre

I'd pick your favourite couple of options and make up a larger panel in the bond you'll be laying, and your preferred pointing. 4 if pushed but it's super personal. The high contrast white will work best with a very regular brick and very clean/recessed pointing, otherwise I think you'll have some prominent but wavy looking lines of mortar. Definitely buckets not shovels if you want consistency

No dust as the rig had water suppression/lubrication. Our Isover 32 cored quite neatly. I think a product like the Knauf equivalent (which has a nicer feel, more like a wool) would probably pull and tangle a lot more (If I built again though I'd probably choose blown insulation as it's a bit of a battle getting brickies to do a really good job of installing insulation batts, particularly around anything awkward - cutting angles around trays etc)

I don't think it's worth trying to 'build in' any sort of hole - you'll get a better result from core drilling with the right diameter in the right place later. I think it only cost us a couple of hundred quid to get a specialist core drilling company in with a decent rig who drilled all the MVHR, soil and waste penetrations for us - really neat, zero dust, consistent slight downward angle to avoid bridging the cavity.

I'd worry that two layers of breather membrane, especially when one has had its performance degraded somewhat, won't behave the same as one, and lean towards replacing. Pessimistic I know but a lot cheat got than remedial work down the line

Is that plasterboard dabbed on behind? You could remove it to get yourself another 25mm

I agree that's a danger. Looks like section 153 of the highways act 1980 is what you should quote when contacting the highways department.

I think what you propose would work okay, I'd expect the first charger to see the house load and the second to see the load of the house plus the first charger. So only the second chargers output is likely to be limited.

Our last kitchen came with a fix down bracket for the island and adhesive. If you've a lot of pan drawers on one side and a narrowish island then I'd say definitely. Less important if it's wide and cupboards below

Was there anything at all in the appeal decision that might help you next time? (Although I think the overall picture is pretty clear!) Anything that countered the council's points? I'd lose the garage, so you can make the house itself a bit wider but with the front door side subservient to the double height bay. You could go into the pre app with two versions having the same footprint, one modern the other traditional. Then point out how much you've listened and reduced the bulk and give the planners a decision to make about the design

This is going to be very expensive to build to turn a smallish bedroom into a bigger one and add a porch - if you ignore how much you've already spent, are you 100% this is the best way to improve your house and meet your needs? Sunk cost is painful but not a good reason to keep spending more money. I appreciate I'm not in your shoes but I struggle to see this being worth the cost and disruption

Have you also covered your roof light?

Is there room to put the toilet under the stairs with a new door opening into the hall? That would keep the impact on any future other changes to a minimum. I'd think about whether what you can do now for that 10-15k will compromise any larger renovation in future

I'd have thought there's a structural adhesive that could cope with bonding brackets, rails to fix the panels to. +1, especially if you're looking at flexible panels for a curved roof?

I agree if you fit something below agreed spec or just badly, but if TT co already taken an average velux into account when quoting target, then it's not the fenestration that's caused the shortfall in performance

Are you sure? A couple of 150mm diameter holes open when testing?

I'd be interested if you do get clarification on the difference. Space between floors is about a 10% difference, so 0.64-> 0.7+ Personally I'd be happy enough but if the TF quoted knowing your window spec etc to meet 0.6 and the real figure looks like heading over 0.75 maybe there's a conversation to be had with the TF along the lines that you'd be happy with them chipping in 1K towards your resulting higher bills to save them 2K towards aero barrier, maybe not worth the goodwill cost though

You'll be underinsured, no insurer will accept a 1M+ property can be rebuilt for anything close to 400K If there's a claim in the future, say 100K corrective work, you won't get anything like that much paid out. Instead you'll get a proportion, relative to their own assessment of realistic reinstatement cost (close to your own market valuation). So probably around 400K/1.2M as a percentage, meaning they'll pay out maybe 30K of your 100K bill for collective work and you'll be left with the rest. Same applies to any future buyer, their and any mortgage solicitors will flag the warranty isn't worth much. It's probably cheaper to get realistic warranty cover now than retrospectively, but your call if you want to take on the informed risk

On sound brickwork we've had good results using brick acid. Soaking the wall first with water to minimise penetration into the bricks, brushing on the acid, leave for 30 seconds or so, give it a scrub with a scrubbing brush not wire brush and thoroughly rinse off. You can try it diluted first and on a small area. Always wear eye protection and you should, if diluting, add acid to water not the other way around! I'd be more wary of doing this on stonework, a stone mason who worked on our build suggested it's okay if the stone is saturated first and the acid not left on for long but I'd definitely want to try it on an off cut or something first, as the acid will react with the stone much faster than brickwork.

Something like this would be shallow enough and affordable, can't vouch for the quality though. https://vodaland.co.uk/products/easy-low-plastic-channel-drain-with-plastic-grate You do get clips to retain the edge of tiles on pedestals but they won't give much additional support to the overhang.

+1 to using pedestals, we'll probably finish our exposed patio edges with vertical tiles that fix to the pedestal with clips example, which hopefully avoids the risk of vermine getting below

Fair enough on the neighbourly point then, sorry. Moving or losing 400mm may still be simplest though.

As @Conor says, moving it just 400mm will be simpler and maybe a bit more neighbourly too? It's going to be a substantial not very attractive building that it sounds like you might cut corners on and you don't want close to your own house - they probably don't either!

We're only just into G99 but my impression from our installer was that the DNO set an export limit rather than just saying no.

Pop up plug with wireless charging maybe? I'm not personally a fan of pop up plugs, but neither do I like expensive phones easily sliding / being knocked off hard surfaces in a working space. I do like @Conor's charging drawer idea!

One thing to check is whether they are SBD or PAS24 approved, required for a new build. I'm sure the Rationel will be but the Cortizo may not be - the 4600 isn't their most common model. We bumped into a situation where they have a PAS24 certified configuration of their Cor Vision, but not their Cor Vision Plus. BCO wouldn't allow the Plus. Cortizo is rebranded a lot so might be a bit less consistent. If you can, it's nice to be hands on with these big sliders to get a feel for their quality