Mr Punter

It is not a good plan to render over and bridge the DPC as water can track via the render.

Lots of modern appliances are fitted with Aquastop to prevent flooding. Is the idea with these drains that all the floors are laid to falls? In my experience the worst damage can be caused by water slowly escaping and creeping under (the unfortunately named) floating floors.

If this is worse than the current arrangement Building Control may be able to object. If all 3 doors lead to habitable rooms you may want to hing the door so that the majority are served without blocking the hallway. Also, can you allow the door to swing 180 degrees?

A formal contract may be a bit of a sledgehammer and may require formal appointments as Contract Administrator, Principal Contractor, Principle Designer etc as well as documentation - Payment Notices, Early Warnings, Confirmation of verbal instructions, and take into account prolongations, specification changes etc. On larger jobs a good deal of time is spent by the parties trying to improve their own financial outcomes under the contract terms. Working with agreed plans, a priced specification and a payment schedule should cover most of the potential issues for you. Whatever, if there is not good faith on both sides you are screwed.

I wonder if the death of the person qualifying for exemption has been tested or was anticipated in the legislation?

Hello Claire and welcome. It sounds like a fairly complex question and is probably best put to an expert in these matters. 400m2 is a very large house!

CT1 is really difficult to finish nicely and is prone to discolouring.

Tend to be plastic with push fit elbow and copper for the last 300mm or so.

I have an IM350. They are only good for fixing to timber, not steel or blockwork. They may work on a soft aerated block. I thought cavity closers were mostly plastic and either built in as you go or friction fitted into existing openings.

The arrangement is normal. Worth making sure that all the subbies have insurances if you are worried on that score.

4.0m is what we have and it works fine.

Yes, floor first but I also like to tile the whole floor before fitting the units so that appliances can be moved out and if there is a leak it will be visible sooner. Also if you rearrange the kitchen the floor will be complete.

Along the High Street are these on the Freemason's Hall

Looking at you spirit level, does the screed ramp up toward the threshold? If it does maybe you could grind it down or reduce the adhesive for the lat 100mm. What goes in the gap?

If you plan to change it and there is no stopcock outside you may be better using a squeeze off tool as in my limited experience freezing the pipe is normally hopeless. The good news is that at least you can run a tap to see if the squeeze off has worked, rather than having the loose plug of ice exploding from the end of the pipe.

If you have the money, your option C looks good. Increase the roof overhangs and fill the walls and roof with Celotex. Cembrit and James Hardie do cladding similar to Marley. It will be a bit fiddly as you have window reveals raking cuts and you need special blades to cut it. Weather looks nice where you are.

Where we are they fit water meters externally at the property boundary, so it is easy to isolate there with the stop valve next to the meter.

Hi @SeanBirt and welcome Why not get a timber frame company to price this for you? If they do the work they will also supply all the required structural drawings and calcs for building control and advise on the most suitable blocks / bricks for the base courses. I often see 140mm blocks for 140mm cls walls. They may be able to supply the kit cheaper than you can buy the materials and make it yourself and it will all be done to correct spec.

You can run pipes and wires under and behind kitchen units. For the island these will need to run under the floor then come up. You could create a channel in the floor or you could create a small tunnel for the pipes to sit in with 30mm insulation above and 30mm supporting either side. You really need to minimise what goes under the floor and keep any joins and fittings to as few as possible. 60mm is fairly poor for insulation and UFH. Why not have more insulation and lose the screed and have an overboard system? You can still have a tiled finish.

Nope. You can sell off plots in your garden without tax. If you decided to build them you would probably be liable. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-3420863/We-thinking-building-house-garden-pay-CGT-sold-it.html

No. As long as the plots were part of the garden and sold off before the house, no tax payable.

If you post the figures or PM me I and others can have a look. As a novice you may well have overlooked things. Which will pale into insignificance compared to the construction and resales. I think you would maximise your position with minimum risk if you were to sell the plots with the proviso that the work is completed within a fixed time. You could use some of the cash to make any required improvements to your house to ready it for sale. You could then sell your own house after the new houses are completed. No tax payable on anything and no risk.

As a minimum, get a valuation of the site as is, the GDV and a build cost estimate and put these on a spreadsheet. Depending on where you are located, try build costs of between £1,500 and £2,000 and see how this impacts on profit / loss. Don't forget to factor in plenty for professional fees and contingency. Your main risks if you go ahead are Health and Safety / CDM, poor budgeting, escalating build costs, unexpected / unknown fees, contract management, quality management, achieving GDV estimates and achieving timely sales. As you are a novice you may do better to sell the land, taking the uplift in value from your PP, or otherwise risk losing your shirt and your sanity.

Would you suggest poly beads or fluff?

Part M does not apply as this is an extension. They can only kick off if you make it worse.