Mr Punter

It would be better and safer to make the hallway and stair protected. I would not fancy jumping out of a first floor window over 4.0m to the ground in the event of a fire breaking out on the ground floor. Have you considered over height or even storey height internal doors on the ground floor? They may look quite impressive with little additional cost. Big double doors opening into the hall would resolve the fire protected stair and also give the option of dividing the space / providing privacy so that your delivery person does not get to see the whole living area.

I thought IR heating was restricted to outdoor smoking areas, manned warehousing etc.

A floor plan with a North point and some dimensions would be helpful. Also target budget. The big slope up to the rear garden is a pain if you want to increase floor space in the main house. If you do not have plans and cannot do them yourself, get an architectural technician to draw some. Shop around, it should not cost much.

The suggestion by @DevilDamo seems the simplest and best. You would need a gallery landing to join the hall outside bed 4 to the bottom of the 1st to 2nd floor stair. Have the same landing / void arrangement as the first floor. There would be future potential to make this floor a master suite / teenagers / au pair accommodation and would be of value when selling. The sections you have do not seem correct.

You could also use stainless staples to attach some cheap dpc to the faces.

It would be best to leave til after August to save destroying nesting birds.

Does it smell like @pocster's bondage den?

Other than "Don't do it!" I would suggest you get someone experienced to give you an inclusive price to include loading out, cutting out sockets, joint stick and their surface finish.

@tonyshouse would approve!

Hello @karenw and welcome. I had a look at the plans and a few comments: I cannot work out how the stairs are shown. Cannot see any on the first floor and the ground floor need correcting. I am not sure if the porch adds much. You could hand the front door the other way so you do not have to walk round it. The ground floor layout looks a bit of a rabbit warren but I can see that you are stuck with some existing walls. Some of the bathrooms look too small to work and it is worth spending time resolving these. There are a number of areas where doors clash with walls etc. It may be that several of these issues are limitations on the software, but it is better to have everything worked out in full on plan than it is to decide as you go along. Maybe an architectural technician produce a set of drawings for building regs?

Would there be any mileage in leaving the existing 40A and having a small consumer unit for the new circuits? A proper sparky like @ProDave will hopefully comment soon...

I am not sure how much there is but my preferred solution would be to remove, strip, clean and prepare, hot dip galvanise, powder coat and reinstall. No more maintenance required.

Just do not tell NHBC. The soil will have done all the heave it needed to over the wet winter.

If it was that cheap and easy the screed companies would all include it and we would happily pay. In fact it is a PITA that is left to "others".

I assume the EWI people could not point you in the right direction? Because your cladding is 200mm from the wall and the wall is soft block you may need to have an independent framework built off the ground retained to the wall with some long fixings. Will be expensive.

I assume the EWI people could not point you in the right direction? Because your cladding is 200mm from the wall and the wall is soft block you may need to have an independent framework built off the ground retained with some long fixings.

You need to take action against NHBC. Their tolerances for floors are poor and there is a fair bit of allowable deflection. If they are acknowledging it as defective, the remedy will be very disruptive or impossible depending on the ground floor walls / first floor joist layouts. Explain that you are unwilling to accept a cash settlement. You need to go in hard with them and keep going. Come back to us as many times as you like until you get it resolved to your complete satisfaction.

You could provide some ventilation through the centre walls with some perforated semi engineering bricks.

If you were a non discerning horse.

Is that before or after in the pic? Still looks a mess. Have a proper tidy up.

The EA had it as a 1 in 30 year event. There have been some improvements since but climate change effects are an unknown. The site flooded in 2000.

The issue with the tile is that it may look a bit odd - like the floor is trying to climb the wall - and also it would not be as deep as current and I think there may be a few gaps where the 10mm floor tiles are not finished tight to the walls. They are 200mm high so I will not rule them out. You are agreeing with @Oz07 just to bully me. OK OK. 3 out of 3. I will have a measure up. Our sockets are 1100mm from ffl. I think it could flood to a metre, but hopefully not too frequently.

I have a ground floor that should be flood resilient but currently has 150mm x 18mm MDF skirting. I am thinking of changing this so if we get flooded it is one less thing to stress about. The walls are painted render and the floors are wood effect porcelain. I don't want to spend a fortune. Any ideas would be welcome!

If it is a Schwing type lorry pump they have a fair bit of wash out waste as well. If you want to do the concrete base you will need to get rid of the topsoil first. I have found that washout / leftover readymix seems to set very well.