Mr Punter

If you are able to do an insulated reinforced raft, there is a saving on the slab and insulation. With piles and ringbeam or deep trenchfill you will probably need to have a beam and block floor. Make a load of calls for muckaway quotes. There may be a landfill site needing capping or a farmer with a field depression he wants to raise.

Since you are outside a conservation area and no TPOs you can (and should) remove any unwanted tress without any consents. Do this BEFORE you apply for consent for the housing. Don't concern yourself with whether the planners will "like" this or not. You have done nothing wrong. If you apply for consent BEFORE removing the unwanted trees they may include a planning condition or TPOs, which could interfere with your scheme.

@Dan Feist other topc:

Leave it til summer when the warm will make the gutter more pliable, then send a teenager up to do it.

Can I hear wedding bells? Or will it be a ménage à trois with @zoothorn, @Onoff and @pocster?

In the 90s in Brighton they did a budget self build community scheme. https://www.selfbuild-central.co.uk/first-ideas/examples/hedgehog-co-op/ Perhaps there is a Community Land Trust near you where you can get together with like minded others.

The wall could take lots more. The cantilever is not very big, and neither are the loads. It would be good to see some more fixings on the bracket lugs, especially at the top.

I would do as @Russell griffiths suggests. If the frames are dark with the ali flashing to match it won't stand out. Btw you may want to lose the tiny triangular window in the corner of bed 3.

I have had wind posts specified quite often. Used to support and strengthen masonry. The ones I have had just bolt down to the foundation with expansion bolts, so not really a £250 each job! I have fitted 13 of these on my own in less than a day.

You often get a locating plate or sole plate at the bottom of the panels and a head binder plate around the top.

Is it stuck down with mastic or Gripfil? If you are not going to use it again I suggest smack with a lump hammer. Wear goggles.

I have a similar roof buildup. I joists installed flat, chipboard decking, firrings, OSB, VCL (polythene), insulation, OSB, waterproofing, tiles on adjustable pedestals. Tapered insulation is expensive. Unvented voids are not an issue. That is what you have in joist zones of upper floors.

You can get an architectural technologist to do your planning and building regs fairly cheaply. With your budget and time constraints you would do well to go for a simple rectangle 2 storey house. 10m x 8m footprint would give you an internal area of about 135m2. You could design it so that it can be easily extended later. Timber frame with brick or rendered block with pitched tiled roof is fairly low risk construction and cost wise.

Maybe you could use one of the band seal connectors but I am not sure if they can be used on an external stack. I have used them below ground.

Put the tape measure away. You will see how it fits together when the frame is erected, which will only take a day or two.

I know it is a trade off with aesthetics and decent daylighting but designing out the problem glass would be my first priority where site conditions permit. Wall is far cheaper and more energy efficient than glazing. I often see self build and high end new build detached houses with loads of glazing, suffering from glare and overheating. With some of the brise soleil you can't even see out of the windows and it just seems like a load of expense for an affectation.

Hi and welcome Retiring at 60 is rare nowadays. Will you do any sort of work? Now you have project management and organisational skills in addition to your construction industry experience I would have thought you would be pretty useful.

The team doing the erection will have the drawings. The panel heights will be about the same as the room heights. The widths can vary.

Get a pry bar / claw bar thing like this https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-claw-bar-10/4777c Really useful bit of kit and you can even get at nails driven below the surface. It does not mind if it is used aggressively either.

There is a fair bulk of screed there too. If you can chuck it down for the base of a road and track it in it may be better than muckaway. Is the blue stuff another layer of insulation?

I have used some of the industrial aluminium stuff where they use a machine to zip the panels together onto halters fixed to the roof deck. This was supply and fix.

Hello @Thorfun. An acre is a good size plot. There a quite a few members in Sussex. I am a developer rather than self builder. @sussexlogs has a blog of his build here. He is more hands on than most.

I have used the Airflow Icon fans in this situation as they can be switched individually and have different controllers (delay start, humidity, pull cord etc) depending on requirements. They have an iris that closes when the fan stops so you don't get air from the other fan on the same duct run.

We have triple glazing and either toughened or laminated inner and outer panes. We are in town and mid terrace. You could break in with a decent size excavator though!

I hate alarms. Maybe a good idea on a not-so-secure building site but there should be no straightforward way of breaking in to a new house. Almost always false alarms, caused by user error or alarm fault. Car alarms are even worse and it is often low value cars that seem the worst culprits.